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Book Review: “Radical” by David Platt

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If the chapter titles of David Platt’s Radical were written to describe the contents of said chapters, they might read as follows:
Chapter 1: A challenge to comfortable Christianity
Chapter 2: A radical gospel which requires a radical response
Chapter 3: The American way of self-reliance vs. God’s way of Christ dependence
Chapter 4: God’s purposes in the world aren’t just for YOU, they’re for the WHOLE WORLD
Chapter 5: God’s goal is reproducing disciples, not isolating followers
Chapter 6: Following Christ means selling all we have and giving to the poor
Chapter 7: If we don’t share the gospel with the world, the world is damned.
Chapter 8: As radical followers of Christ, we have a guarantee of risk and a guarantee of reward
Chapter 9: A challenge for believers to become radicals by 1) praying for the entire world, 2) reading through the entire Word, 3) sacrificing money for a specific purpose, 4) spending at least one week in another context, and 5) committing their lives to a multiplying community

All in all, it’s a decent book. It is effective at promoting its main point, that is, to issue a wake up call to comfortable American Christians. It’s highly readable, with lots of stories to make the page-turning even easier.

On the down side, Radical has the potential of de-emphasizing the gospel of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Platt’s emphasis on the radical response of a true believer through actions such as selling possessions and giving to the poor, taking the gospel to the whole world, and taking risks for the sake of Christ may cause some readers to miss that this is only the RESPONSE to the FREE gift of God in Christ Jesus. One is not saved BECAUSE one sells all of his possessions—he sells all his possessions BECAUSE he has been saved freely.

Furthermore, Platt’s emphasis on “exciting” radicality through social justice activism may cause believers to undervalue and therefore ignore the less-exciting but no less radical actions that Christ calls His followers to. Christ has not only called his followers to give to the poor. He has also called them to live lives of radical forgiveness, of radical dependence, of radical trust. These things are just as radical as the showy actions of social justice—perhaps even more radical because they’re silent, they’re unlikely to result in the world’s (or the church’s) acclaim. They’re what Kevin DeYoung might call “faithful plodding.”

Overall, Platt’s Radical is a good book, but believers should be careful to not consider it the be-all, end-all of the radical Christian life. Read this book. Let it issue a challenge to your comfortable Christianity. But then turn your eyes towards the word of God and see what radical acts God might be calling you to through the pages of Scripture.

Rating: 3 stars
Category:Christian Living
Synopsis:Platt issues a challenge to comfortable Christianity–and the illusion that the Christian life equals the American dream.
Recommendation: Worth reading, but ultimately, take your view of what “radical” Christianity looks like from the pages of Scripture rather than simply taking Platt’s angle on it.

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Book Review: “Justice that Restores” by Chuck Colson

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I think most Americans would agree that our American system of justice is less than stellar. We spend massive amounts of money incarcerating criminals—yet we seem unable to avoid the problem of repeat offenses.

Conservatives insist that the answer to this dilemma is harsher sentences from the beginning. Liberals insist that the answer is to work harder to rehabilitate offenders. In Justice that Restores, Chuck Colson argues that neither of those work. He argues that the rehabilitative approach, because it fails to underscore the reality of moral offenses against others, ultimately fails to change behavior. At the same time, he says that the harsh sentence approach serves to enrage criminals without changing their behavior, while simultaneously costing Americans significant amounts of money.

Colson argues instead for a “Restorational” approach to justice. At the center of this approach is the idea that criminals should seek to make right what they have done wrong—becoming aware of the impact that their transgressions have had on others and taking action to correct what they have done. He argues that incarceration should be reserved only for violent criminals who are a risk to others—and that non-custodial forms of punishment should be designed to deal with nonviolent offenses (One shocking statistic Colson shares is that in 1995, 71% of all incarcerated criminals were guilty of nonviolent crimes.)

I found Colson’s book to be a well-written description of today’s justice dilemma—and a well-thought-out suggestion for how to solve today’s justice dilemma.

Colson has a unique viewpoint on justice as a former offender who served seven months in a Federal prison following his conviction as a participant in the Watergate scandal. He came to know Christ during his incarceration and has since founded Prison Fellowship, a ministry to incarcerated prisoners and their families.

Justice that Restores gives plenty of statistical descriptions of the justice problem—but it goes beyond to give personal examples both from Colson’s own incarceration and from his conversations with prisoners over the years.

This is an excellent book for all those interested in seeing justice prevail in the American court system. I feel that this book should have great cross-sectional appeal as this issue affects the political and the apolitical, the friend of offenders and the friend of victims. We are all affected, whether we recognize it or not, by the failings of our justice system—and we ultimately can all play a role in helping to establish a justice that restores.

Rating: 5 stars
Category:Criminal Justice
Synopsis:Using the Christian worldview as a starting place, Colson offers an alternative model to the current American justice system.
Recommendation: This short, easy-to-read volume engages thought regarding and offers innovative solutions to America’s current criminal justice problem.

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Book Review: “Boiling Mad” by Kate Zernike

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You’d have to have been sticking your head in the political sand to have not heard about the American Tea Party.

Furthermore, you’d have to be pretty apolitical to have not developed an opinion regarding said Tea Party.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean that you really have any idea of what the Tea Party is all about.

For my own part, I am a Tea Party participant. I’m not a hard core mover and shaker, but I’m also not merely a passive spectator or silent “supporter”. I silently supported the movement, sorrowed to have missed a Lincoln event, and finally rejoiced to have heard of an event in time to participate. I gathered together a group of friends, bought poster board with which said friends could make posters, and took the group with me to a Fourth of July protest.

My participation had to do with protesting an out-of-control government seeking to federalize, regulate, and tax every element of life. I protested because I wanted (want) a limited government, a government that pays attention to the people it supposedly represents, a government that sticks to its job without sticking its nose in everything else. That’s what the tea party meant to me.

But ask the Tea Party protestor next to me what the Tea Party is all about and you might get a completely different answer. Ask the silent supporter whose only connection to the movement is watching and agreeing with Glenn Beck on FoxNews and you might get still another answer.

The Tea Party movement is diverse ethnically, regionally, and ideologically. It’s not easy to define.

Kate Zernkike does her best to delve into this hard-to-pin-down movement in Boiling Mad: Inside Tea Party America. To a Tea Partier such as myself, Zernike’s inability to empathize with the Tea Party movement is apparent. It’s obvious that she has no love for this movement and cannot comprehend the feelings behind it. Nevertheless, she tries admirably to maintain objectivity.

Boiling Mad describes some of the major organizations involved in the Tea Party movement, shares vignettes about dozens of different Tea Party activists, and details a few of the elections in which Tea Party activism played an essential role. It does a good job of describing the popular-level diversity of the Tea Party movement—and the grassroots organization that made the Tea Party movement effective.

I can’t say that Boiling Mad was my favorite book. Zernike’s forced objectivity quickly became tiresome—and her insistence on speaking of the Tea Party in the past tense was beyond frustrating. Nevertheless, Boiling Mad did a decent job of covering the Tea Party phenomenon without making ideological statements regarding it.

Rating: 2 stars
Category: Current Events
Synopsis:Zernike attempts to describe who the Tea Party is and what makes it tick.
Recommendation: It might be the best book of it’s kind, but only because objective reports of the Tea Party movement are hard to come by. Apart from the author’s frustrating inability to empathize with Tea Partiers and the persistent use of the past tense in referring to the Tea Party movement, this isn’t a bad intro to the Tea Party phenomenon.

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Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “The Narnian” by Alan Jacobs

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I’ve read biographies of soldiers, of statesmen, of starlets. I’ve read biographies of philanderers, philanthropists, and even families. But until The Narnian, I’d never read a biography of a mind.

Unlike the more traditional biography, which seeks to relate the events of an individual’s life first and foremost, The Narnian chooses to focus on how the events of C.S. Lewis’s life shape and are shaped by Lewis’s powerful imagination and thought life.

As a fan of Lewis’s fiction dating from my early elementary years, later turned a lover of his more philosophical works, I took great delight in reading The Narnian. Unlike the misnamed C.S. Lewis: Chronicler of Narnia (My Review), The Narnian is shot throughout with references to Lewis’s imaginative works.

It has now been months (unfortunately) since I read The Narnian, and the fine details of the book have faded from my mind. I cannot remember the specific points that Jacobs makes better than other biographers or the characteristic manner in which he made his points. I cannot give details of his writing style. Such details have been lost in the hubbub of moving.

But one thing has not been lost—my sense of deep gratitude to Jacobs for his fine biography of a mind that has so shaped my own mind through his writings, both fiction and philosophy. Jacobs treats Lewis respectfully as he seeks to describe Lewis’s life and the development of his imagination. Jacobs does not blindly bow before Lewis’s memory as though Lewis were incapable of doing wrong—but he also avoids the trap of pigeonholing Lewis into one or another category, suggesting that he was a master at X (philosophy or apologetics or criticism of Medieval literature) while pooh-poohing the rest of his life and work.

This is truly a wonderful biography of Lewis, presented in an engaging and honest manner. I definitely recommend it.

Janet also read and reviewed The Narnian over at Across the Page. Her review is a bit more in-depth with hints of what can be found within the book. Check it out!

Rating: 4 stars
Category: Biography
Synopsis:A biography of C.S. Lewis that focuses on his inner life–his mind and imagination.
Recommendation: If you’ve read and enjoyed Lewis, be sure to check out this book for a fantastic look at the man behind the books you’ve read.

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Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “The Checklist Manifesto” by Atul Gawande

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I’m quite fond of checklists myself. I use them for practically everything. They save me time, money, and energy–but did you know that checklists can save LIVES too?

And I’m not being facetious.

Atul Gawande’s The Checklist Manifesto tells the story of how simple checklists save lives–in the building of skyscrapers, the flying of planes, and in the running of operation rooms.

Gawande is a surgeon, and the bulk of the book concerns how he and a number of colleagues in the WHO developed and implemented a checklist to reduce surgical complications–with stunningly positive results.

As a dietitian (and sister and roommate of a physician assistant), I was fascinated by Gawande’s stories of operating rooms, emergency rooms, and public health campaigns. But this book isn’t just for people who like medicine. Gawande stretches outside the constraints of medicine to discuss how checklists are used in architecture and aeronautics, in disaster relief (well, by Walmart during Katrina, at least) and in investment.

Gawande makes a compelling case for the necessity of checklists, even among highly trained professionals, to deal with the problem of extreme complexity. He argues that in the world in which we live, there are hundreds (even thousands) of opportunities for something to go wrong. Even the most advanced practitioners need only forget one thing for a fatal error to occur. Checklists can be used to reduce these errors by ensuring that all of the most important considerations are made.

As I read, I found myself thinking of ways I could use checklists in my own work. Maybe checklists for weight loss interventions (I find myself typing the charting shorthand “wt” instead–I think I may be spending too much time charting at work) or for tube feeding initiation. I toss around a half dozen ideas, start compiling mental checklists. Yes, I’m going to be implementing checklists soon.

The Checklist Manifesto isn’t a self-help book or a “how to” manual–but I can almost guarantee it’ll get you thinking about how you can use checklists to make your life and your work better, faster, and more efficient.

I read this book on recommendation from Lisa Notes. Check out her review.

Rating: 4 stars
Category: Medical(?)
Synopsis:A history and defense of the checklist as a life-saving tool for modern days.
Recommendation: Definitely of interest to medical types, probably of interest to quite a few more. A fascinating story told well.

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Categories Book Reviews

Two Views of Nebraska

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It had been a while since I last read something about my native state, so I figured I’d pick up some quick reading from my local library.

As I’ve mentioned before, I use children’s books as a “Cliff’s Notes” to introduce me to a topic before reading about it more in depth. Of course, having grown up in Nebraska and lived here all my life, I probably didn’t need a Cliff’s Notes, but I chose to read some children’s books anyway.

The two books I picked up–Ann Heinrichs’ Nebraska (part of Scholastic’s “America the Beautiful” series”) and Ruth Bjorklund’s Nebraska (part of Benchmark Books’ “Celebrate the States” series)–couldn’t have been more different.

Nebraska by BjorklandI read Bjorkland’s book first. By halfway through the book, I had to figure out who this author was. Surely, she had to be a native Nebraskan, I thought. She described Nebraska so accurately, so fully. The back cover informed me that she was not a Nebraskan.

Nevertheless, she did a fantastic job of laying out Nebraska’s history AND present. The first chapter gives a quick tour of Nebraska’s geography, from the Missouri River Valley to the Panhandle. From there, we take a look at Nebraska history, from ancient days to modern times. Then we learn of the government and economics, the cultural components of Nebraska cities and towns, and famous people from Nebraska. The book comes back to a full circle, ending with the “touristy” components of Nebraska geography. Appendices list the typical state report fare: state bird and motto, flag and major rivers, basic history and brief bios of famous people. Overall, the book provides a comprehensive look at Nebraska for the elementary-school audience.

But it isn’t the main topics that set this book apart. It’s the attention the author pays to details, the journalistic accuracy in portraying real Nebraskans. The book regularly quotes Nebraskans talking about themselves, their state, their history. And it doesn’t just quote “famous” Nebraskans. It quotes everyday people. Rather than just summarizing the same old Department of Tourism schlep, Bjorkland finds out what real Nebraskans think about things. She discusses the divide between the relatively prosperous, densely populated Southeastern corner of the state and the much more rural rest of the state–the tensions over taxation and how many rural Nebraskans feel that too much money is funneled to the Southeast corner, the feeling that some in the Panhandle have that they have more in common with the ranching Colorado or Wyoming than the rest of farming Nebraska. Bjorkland doesn’t dwell on these topics or hype them into a drama that isn’t there, but she honestly addresses issues like these–issues that real Nebraskans are interested in.

Nebraska by HeinrichsHeinrichs’ Nebraska, on the other hand, reads as though it came straight from the Nebraska government website, giving the facts and the nicely sanitized details specifically designed to sell our state rather than accurately portray it. What’s more, unlike Bjorkland’s book, this book patronizes students, talking with the “twaddle” tone Charlotte Mason devotees so abhor.

Furthermore, whenever Heinrichs’ attempts to add some “real Nebraska” flavor to her writing, she gets it wrong. She writes that “when the stadium is at capacity, its population is higher than Nebraska’s second-largest city”, attempting to share one of the factoids Nebraskans love to gloat about. The problem is, there isn’t a single Nebraskan who wouldn’t catch the error here. When the stadium is at capacity (in other words, during every home game), the Husker stadium DOESN’T hold more people than Nebraska’s second largest city (Lincoln). It holds more people than Nebraska’s THIRD largest city. Nebraska’s second largest city, Lincoln, has a population of over 200,000–while the stadium contains something a little less than 100,000. HUGE error.

Then there’s the little blurb about Nebraska’s state hero, former Husker football coach (and current Husker athletic director) Tom Osborne. According to Heinrichs, Tom Osborne “ran for Nebraska governor in 2006, capturing 45 percent of the vote.” Except that he didn’t. He did run for governor, but lost in the primaries, capturing 45% of the vote IN THE REPUBLICAN PRIMARIES. BIG difference.

Heinrichs’ Nebraska is more colorful, more graph-filled, more “teacher-friendly” than Bjorkland’s Nebraska–but it also completely fails as a source of information about Nebraska. If you’re a mother traveling with her children through the 50 states, take my advice and use Bjorkland’s book to introduce your children to the REAL Nebraska–decidedly less flashy, but ultimately much more attractive.

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: Nina Garcia’s Look Book

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Confession: I am not a fashion plate.

Surprised?

Why ever not?

Despite my not-so-fashionable tendencies (inwardly, I’m really a denim jumper and birkenstocks-with-socks wearing Mom, with a patchwork vest thrown over top for good measure), I adore reading books on fashion, “style”, what-have-you.

Books like Nina Garcia’s Look Book.

Garcia’s Look Book tells the reader “what to wear for every occasion”–from when you’re asking for a raise to going on errands around town to Easter dinner to jury duty. Garcia covers it all.

Pick this book up, stick a sticky note in the most often used sections, and hope that you have a REALLY large clothes budget.

Maybe some women have this many clothes, but I certainly don’t. I briefly contemplated making a list of each of the items “called for” in each of Garcia’s “recipes”, but it took me only two or three pages to let go of that notion. It’d take forever.

So it’s not exactly the most practical book.

But it can’t be denied–it is a fun book. It’s fun to revel in the options one has with clothes, to imagine having to decide what to wear to a black-tie dinner, to read little anecdotes about others’ fashion faux pas and brilliant successes. And Garcia does have a good feel, after all, for the “vibe” you want to put off in different scenarios.

No discussion of this book would be complete without a mention of Ruben Toledo’s illustrations: lipstick tubes, fun shoes, and complete do’s. These illustrations are just great.

Yes, this is just the sort of book for a not-so-fashion-forward gal such as myself, who nonetheless likes to sink into a world of glamor through the pages of a book. Glossy illustrations, out-of-my-world scenarios, and just the tiniest touch of celebrity.

It’s the kind of book I love to check out of the library but would never dream of buying for myself.

Take it or leave it according to your preference.

Rating: 2 stars
Category: Fashion Advice
Synopsis:Garcia tells you “what to wear for every occasion.”
Recommendation: Not so useful for what it’s billed as (unless you have an enormous wardrobe), but fun if you like perusing glossy illustrations of glamor.

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Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “Nasty, Brutish & Long” by Ira Rosofsky

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Working in a nursing home isn’t easy. There are cantankerous residents, sleep-deprived coworkers, and governmental forms to be filled out in triplicate. There are hoops to be jumped through to provide care–and hoops to be jumped through that inhibit care. There’s the pecking order of doctors, nurses, therapists, and other care staff. There’s the often contradictory demands of residents, family members, physicians, and government regulations. And then there’s the emotional toll of caring for people who inevitably die.

Living in a nursing home isn’t easy. There are bossy staff who insist that you can’t get out of your wheelchair but must wheel yourself on the long way to the dining room. There are buzzers and beepers and lights going off everywhere at all hours of the day or night. You can’t pick your neighbors–you can’t even pick your roommate. You’re constantly being interrupted by staff who insist on interviewing you about the same old stuff–or who keep asking you if you know your name and where you’re at. Staff insist that you go to “activities”; but the one activity you’d really like to enjoy–spending time with your children and grandchildren–isn’t available. And then there’s how everybody inevitably dies.

Ira Rosofsky’s Nasty, Brutish & Long: Adventures in Eldercare tells just some of the stories of life in a nursing home. Rosofsky, a consultant psychologist for a variety of long term care facilities, writes of life on both sides of the nurse’s station. He sympathetically shares the stories of the elders he’s met (fictionalized, of course, per HIPAA). He tells of the processes and paperwork that come along with working in long term care. And he reveals his own story as a son placing his father in a long term care facility.

As one who has had a lengthy acquaintanceship with long term care (considering my relatively young age), I found Rosofsky’s story to be… true. His writing resonates with the girl who went to assisted living facilities to conduct Sunday afternoon worship services–who gladly sang the old hymns at the top of her lungs and then listened as the residents told her about their parents, their children, and their grandchildren. His writing resonates with the girl who served coffee and wiped tables and fell in love with her elderly residents. It resonates with the girl who still remembers sitting with an elderly woman, reading her Psalm 23, explaining to her the gospel, describing how she can have assurance of salvation. It resonates with the girl who later that week removed that same woman’s tray ticket from the stack before meal service–she wouldn’t need a tray anymore. She was dead. Rosofsky’s story resonates with the girl who grieved as her grandmother moved from a retirement community to assisted living to a nursing home–a girl who felt increasingly helpless as her grandma’s dependence on the nursing staff grew. It resonates with the girl who is now a nursing home dietitian, loving to care for her residents, hating how hard it is to care for her residents.

The tale Rosofsky tells in Nasty, Brutish & Long is a true story–and it’s a story that’s being played out in nursing homes around the nation.

This is a memoir. It describes but doesn’t necessarily explain. It raises questions but doesn’t necessarily give answers. You’re not going to find the solution to the long-term-care crisis within the pages of this book. But you will find a powerful description of the realities that face many of those working or living in long-term-care.

I feel like everyone should read this–but then I wonder if I’m just being selfish. Maybe I just want everyone to read it so they can understand my world. Maybe that’s it. But the truth is that even if this isn’t your world now, long-term-care will likely be your world in the future. Maybe you’ll place a parent in a LTC facility. Maybe you’ll find yourself in one when your recovery from a surgical procedure takes longer than expected. Maybe you’ll find yourself in one long term. Or maybe you just need to be reminded of how vital your visits and prayers are to your church’s elderly. At any rate, I think this book is a valuable tool for understanding the challenges of life in long-term-care.

You should probably read it.

Rating: 4 stars
Category: Memoir
Synopsis:Ira Rosofsky paints a picture of life in long-term-care from the perspective of residents, staff, and family members.
Recommendation: This is a great intro to the challenges and pressures of life in long-term-care. It’s worth reading–if long-term-care doesn’t affect you now, it may very well affect you tomorrow.

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Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma”

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I was thrilled with Trenton Lee Stewart’s The Mysterious Benedict Society (My Review). Not quite as much with The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey (My Review). Both were great stories. I’d highly recommend either. But The Mysterious Benedict Society is not just a great story–it has the additional benefit of being profound.

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma is a great middle betwixt the two–and a great cap to a marvelous series.

“The Prisoner’s Dilemma” refers to a famous test the children are given at the beginning of the book. They’re being given the test as a school exercise–and they manage to find a way out without resolving the tricky ethical questions the exercise was designed to force them to grapple with.

Yet life will insist that they wrestle with the same question yet again.

When Ledropthe Curtain renews his attempts to regain the Whisperer, the children must make difficult decisions. Will each child choose to act in his own interests or in the interest of another–even at a high cost to self?

Stewart artfully weaves the Prisoner’s Dilemma throughout the story, never heavy-handedly insisting on recreating the exact predicament set up in the first scenario–but still managing to test the children multiple times (and to renew the question in the reader’s mind as well.)

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma is a potent love story–not the story of romantic love, but of the love of a father for a daughter, a daughter for a father, a devotee to his idol, a brother for his brother, and four friends for each other.

Rating: 5 stars
Category: Young Adult General Fiction
Synopsis: Four children find themselves in tricky positions as they must repeatedly choose between personal gain or what’s best for their friends and loved ones in this adventure to stop the evil Ledropthe Curtain.
Recommendation: Nothing can quite top the first in the series for a thought-provoking read that’s also a great story–but this third volume comes close. A must read.

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Book Review: “Amorelle” by Grace Livingston Hill

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It’s funny how perspective changes preferences.

I remember reading Grace Livingstone Hill when I was a pre-teen and loving the homemaking ingenuity of her characters. I enjoyed the old-fashioned romance of her once-contemporary novels.

By my late teens, I had definitely developed a bias against Hill. I considered her a writer of pablum, meaningless, bland, run-of-the-mill Christian fiction.

And now I’m reading her again–partly because I’ve read a few bloggers who spoke of their admiration for Hill and partly because she’s at my library and is an easy read.

I hadn’t read Amorelle during my earlier years–so I can’t compare my thoughts on this specific title from then to now–but I can make some observations.

Amorelle goes to stay with her worldly aunt, uncle, and cousin after her pastor father dies, leaving her homeless. Her aunt and cousin quickly consign her to the status of household help. She excels in this role, creating delicious little snacks and doing pretty handwork. Yep, just what I remember from my earlier days–homemaking ingenuity.

Amorelle’s old-fashioned Christianity (with its certain social taboos) contrasts sharply with her cousin’s brash worldliness. Louise is loud and scheming. She calls her mother by her first name and pettishly insists on her own way. Amorelle, on the other hand, is sweet, acquiescent, and courteous.

So is Amorelle meaningless, bland, run-of-the-mill Christian fiction, as I would have said in my late teens?

That’s what I’m not so sure about any more. Certainly, Amorelle is not top-tier fiction. It’s not likely to win any literary awards. But there is a depth to this novel and an almost natural quality with which faith is woven into the storyline.

Amorelle is swept off her feet by a young member of Louise’s set, a handsome business-like fellow who is nevertheless quite taken with Amorelle. Almost without realizing it, Amorelle finds herself engaged to George. But the moment their engagement is announced she starts to wonder whether this decision was wise.

Is George really the right man for her? Do they have that unity of heart and soul that Amorelle’s parents seemed to have? Is Amorelle in love with George? Or is she really just in love with being in love? Amorelle must learn to lean on the Lord’s wisdom to guide her through these difficult questions.

Like I said, Hill isn’t likely to win any literary awards for her writing–but I did find Amorelle to be a nice, comfortable read. It isn’t meaty enough for a main course, but neither is it the meaningless fluff of a dessert. It’s a salad book, a nice, nutritious break from meat and potatoes reading.

Rating: 3 stars
Category: Christian Romance
Synopsis: After the death of her pastor father, Amorelle moves in with her relatives–and shortly finds herself engaged to a dashing young businessman. But is George really the right man for her?
Recommendation: This isn’t spectacular reading, but it’s a nice, medium-weight novel for relaxing on a lazy day.

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