Faith, Community, and Book Reviews
What happens when a happy Muslim upbringing meets western culture and Christian friendship? Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus is the story of an American born Muslim who loves his family and faith but, through seeking to defend his religion to others, dares to question.
Continue reading “Book Review: Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus”
How well do we know the people around us? What lies beneath the surface? How much is real and how much is the mask that we present the world? How much “mask” is okay–even necessary?
*List updated with links to reviews for books read. Last updated 5/18/18
Christmas has past and the New Year is almost upon us. This week is a popular time for reflection, goal setting, and resolution making. Are you a New Year’s Resolution person? I’m not. However, one of my favorite bloggers has been talking a lot about her process of evaluating the past year and planning for the coming year. (The conversation about planning has been on Instagram story, not her blog.) Her process and enthusiasm for it inspired me to at least spend some time planning for 2018 in the hopes of being more productive in certain areas (like reading and, therefore, blogging). My goal? Read at least two books a month. How to achieve that goal? Make a book list of bloggable books to make it easier to pick.Â
Four years ago, I contacted my small circle of authors friends to see if they wanted to discount their books for Black Friday and join forces to spread the word. It was supposed to be a one-time thing. This is our third year with a dedicated website for the one-week sale, our circle of authors keeps growing, we’re drawing close to having 1,000 unique visitors check out the sale, and since it’s become way to much work for little old me, Kendra E. Ardnek has joined me as a second coordinator. It’s safe to say, Indie Christian Books has a lot to be grateful for.
Deadliest maritime disaster in recorded history. Any guesses? The first to come to most minds would probably be the Titanic. My second guess would be the Lusitania, an ocean liner sunk during WWI. Neither maritime disasters were the deadliest in recorded history. When a German u-boat torpedoed the Lusitania, 1,198 passengers perished. After the “unsinkable” Titanic struck an iceberg, approximately 1,500 passengers died. The well-known and often spoken of Titanic disaster is dwarfed by an unheard of tragedy during WWII–the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustlov.
Published in February of 2016, the novel Salt to the Sea is dedicated to telling the story of the Wilhelm Gustlov, a German ocean liner that took approximately 9,000 lives with it when it was sunk during WWII.
Do you know the story of the Miracle of Dunkirk? I first heard of it when researching for a post-WWII novel I wrote for a competition. Soundly routed by the German army, the British Expeditionary Force was pushed out of Belgium and Northern France. The ended up pinned down on the Beach of Dunkirk. Only the English Channel separated them from home but it seemed an insurmountable barrier. The effort to get the soldiers back to British soil is known known as the largest evacuation in military history, and it was largely made possible by the mobilization of civilian boats, many of them manned by their civilian owners.
Reading Exiles jumped to the forefront of my priorities list as soon as I got the advanced reader’s copy from Jaye. Other books might get lost in my work schedule, buried under tasks I need to do for church, or lay temporarily forgotten while I visit friends … but not when that book contains characters as beloved and missed of Kyrin, Jace, and the others.
Remember the good old-fashioned book reviews this blog was built on? It’s been a lot of fun branching out with devotional posts that delve into the themes of various books, but sometimes it’s good to go back to the basics and just share some thoughts on the book itself. Right? (Do you guys want more book reviews or do you like the theme based posts better?)
Continue reading “Book Review & Giveaway: Goth by Kimberly Koch”
Leah E. Good 