Review: Eliza - A Story of Overcoming Limitations

Even taking into account the fact that it is obviously aimed at a younger (and less discerning) audience, I found this book rather disappointing. The first obvious problem was a lack of proper editing – grammar mistakes, and one point where the narrator, Eliza, is speaking about Eric and suddenly slips from the third person to the first person, as if Eric were speaking. At another point she speaks about Eric wearing scrubs – physiotherapists do not wear scrubs, they are only for the operating theater.
Having been married to a paraplegic for twenty years, I know that most of the author’s research into the technical side of quadraplegia is accurate, but whilst she manages to convey some of the internal struggle, I felt her solutions were too quick and too glib.

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Quench

Compiled by Australian Christian Writers Fellowship (Hunter)

Publisher Ink Books

Quench is a collection of short devotionals and poems “to refresh your spirit with living waters” (quote from front cover.) This book was compiled by the Hunter branch of Australian Christian Writers Fellowship, of which, at the time of publication, my dear friend Kathlyn Fauchon was president. That in itself made it a difficult book for me to review. It was also rather poignant for me, as one of the contributors was another dear and long-standing friend, Kerry Jones, who died recently after a brief battle with a particularly aggressive cancer.

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Review: Dreaming With God by Bill Johnson

Author: Bill Johnson

Publisher: Destiny Image Publishers

Before I begin this review, I feel I should make a disclosure: I love Bill Johnson’s ministry. The first time I heard him speak, he was saying things that I had been saying for 30 years. I feel we share a heartbeat in God. Dreaming With God was no different – it spoke to areas that were already on my heart, and as such it was inevitable that I would love it.
The basic premise of Dreaming With God is that God wants His people to be active participants in His work in the world, not just spectators.
After laying a foundation, the author looks at the place of wisdom and creativity (in the broader sense) in building the Kingdom, and then at the value of mystery. Countering our human tendency to always want to analyse everything and to have all the answers, he says, “An intellectual gospel is always in danger of creating a God that looks a lot like us; one that is our size.” (Page 55) He points out the need to hold some apparently contradictory truths in tension in order to embrace the full truth of the Word of God, and cites Calvinism and Arminianism as an example.

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Review: Life Above the Negativity by Trevor H. Lund

Following a friend’s prophetic vision of a wave of criticism coming against the Church, the author found himself thinking in terms of a “fast from negativity.” Horrified that his research revealed that the only ones writing about such a concept were “business gurus and New Age practitioners selling dubious products”, he decided that there was a definite need for something written from a Christian perspective. The result was this book.

Originally published as “40 Days from Negativity – an appetizer for life”, Life Above the Negativity walks the reader through a 40 day “negativity fast”, with new concepts introduced each day.

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Review: Worship is a Bowl of Noodles by Dennis Prince

As the compiler, for over 25 years, of the popular Resource Song Book series, Dennis Prince should know a thing or two about worship. In Worship is a Bowl of Noodles he looks at the kind of songs we sing in church, comparing them to the contents of a noodle bowl: some, he says, are veges – very good for us – but there are not many of them in the bowl. Others are meat – they need more chewing, but are essential for our strength and growth. There are even less of them. Most are noodles – they make us feel good, but really contribute little to our spiritual health. A few are gristle, of no value at all and should be pushed to the side of the plate. Finally, some are the satay sauce that adds flavour and makes the whole experience delightful.

Read more here. 

I am excited to have re-launched my Christian Book Review site. For some time now my book reviews have lived on my main site, lynnbfowler.com, but now they have left home and gone to live on their own site at I Review Christian Books.

I will be using this blog to keep you informed of new posts.