My Buddy Max

I love Max Lucado, and jumped at the chance to get one of his books, Outlive Your Life, via Thomas Nelson’s BookSneeze program.  And my buddy Max did not disappoint!  His book is based on a series of sermons on the book of Acts.  His message?  Outlive your life through your words and actions.  Do not only contribute to make your life better, but to make the world better.  Live beyond your personal ambition that will die when you do for something greater, live your faith in ways the world can see.

Through his normal conversational style and questions for reflection located in the back of the book, Lucado challenges us all to pray, think, and act with greater compassion.  To become aware of and attempt to met the needs of others.  To become the hands and feet of Jesus to this world.  And you can not read his writings, any of them, and not be changed.  You do not read Lucado to be entertained, you read his writings to be changed.

I highly recommend How to outlive Your Life: You Were Made to Make a Difference, or any Max Lucado book, to anyone who wants to grow in their faith, to be encouraged, to be transformed.  And then, live your faith out loud.

The Butterfly Effect

I had the chance to read The Butterfly Effect by Andy Andrews through BookSneeze.com.  It was an incredibly moving book about how the decisions you make can impact the world.  The illustrations were wonderful, eye catching with a nice layout.  The book was an ebook format, but I loved it.

The story is based on the principle of the Butterfly Effect- a butterfly flapping its wings can cause a hurricane on the other side of the world.  We can have the same effect as that butterfly with our every action and reaction.  The book was well written, tracing the actions and decisions of one person back to the influences that helped shape him, going back several generations.  One person made a small decision that ended up several generations later impacting the world.

This book and the theory it represents was a wonderful inspiration to me as a Christian woman and homeschooling mom.  The things I do today, the choices I make about how I will spend my time, the words I use, the attitude I have, leave ripples in time that can not be measured.  It helped to encourage me to continue to do the right things in my life, and challenged me to live my life worthy of such influence.  I highly recommend this book, and the children’s version- The Boy Who Changed the World.

The Boy Who Changed the World

I love being a member of BookSneeze.com.  I love the great books that I can get for myself and my children.  The Boy Who Changed the World is one of those great books I am glad I got a chance to review.  Like the adult centered book, The Butterfly Effect, this book by Andy Andrews chases the ripples through time of the seemingly small actions of several people, tracing the way they are linked together and help form the decisions each other makes until the world is changed.  It encourages children to do the right thing so that their ripples are a positive influence on others in future generations.  Without some of the more difficult to understand situations outlined in the book geared to an adult crowd, the same story is traced through time.  The story was easy to follow and inspiring.
The illustrations were wonderful, and my children loved looking for the butterflies throughout the book.� From the corn fields of Iowa, to the offices in Washington, to the lab of George Washington Carver, the illustrations are beautiful and adorned with butterflies.  I highly recommend this book.  It’s positive and encouraging message touches the hearts of children and inspires them to greatness.

Check out the Butterfly Effect as well, and my blog post about it.

Another Awesome Book, Brought to You by BookSneeze!

The heavens Proclaim His Glory: A Spectacular View of Creation Through the Lens of the Hubble Telescope is the newest book I received from Thomas Nelson Publishing through Book Sneeze.  It was complied by Lisa Stilwell.  I had read a description of the book and thought it looked interesting for school.  Wow, was I ever impressed!  There are awesome pictures paired up with quotes, poems, and Scripture proclaiming the glory of God.  The pictures were awe inspiring, the text fitting.  Several times I was moved to tears! I felt in awe of the majesty of our Creator!  The book fosters a tone of worship while being informative.

I passed the book on to the kids, the real test!  They loved the pictures.  Angel kept remarking about the clarity of the photos.  She also liked how well the text was included in the book.  Just to show how much she liked it, to type this blog I had to sneak it from her- she fell asleep reading it.

Everything about this book from cover to cover can be highly recommended.  I fell in love with the book as soon as I saw the cover and was not disappointed through the last page.  If you are interested in outer space or are teaching astronomy in your home school, you should have this book.

Love on a Dime: A BookSneeze Review

I recently had the chance to review Love on a Dime by Cara Lynn James for Thomas Nelson Publishing through BookSneeze.com.  Love on a Dime is a historical romance that centers around the relationship of Lily Westbrook and Jackson Grail.  The story begins with their broken relationship, and follows them as the characters grow in their faith and come back together.  Lily is a dime novelist in a time when it is a very unbecoming profession.  She feels called by God to write stories the reflect His love in relationships.  Lily writes under a Nome De Plume, and hides her writing from everyone she knows.  She uses the proceeds from her writing to fund a womens’ shelter.  She faces a momentous decision when she has to decide to tell the truth about her writing to her family and giving up her calling.

The book was sweet and cute, with likable characters.  The characters could have been developed in more depth, and the book seemed a little long for the plot.  Without being forceful about her faith, the author conveys messages of true love and building your life on the foundation of God and His Word.  It was a good read if you are interested in historical romance.  It would be a good book for a younger reader as well.

I have found less and less interest reading romances, so I found the book to be slightly tedious.  It did a good job of showing Godly relationships, but I have lost my taste because I feel that most romances leave the story just as it is beginning.  The characters finally end up together, the end, happily ever after.  Even Christian romances that focus on God tend to leave you there as if marriage solved everything and now everyone is happily ever after.  I suppose that after being married for a while I want to see what happens next.  The challenge was not finding your true love, but living a Godly life together as a witness to those around you.  That’s the hard part!

Gods Promises For Boys

I became a member of Booksneeze.com, where I get a free book to preview and write a review about.  My first book is God’s Promises For Boys by Jack Countryman and Amy Parker.  The book is broken down into seven sections of promises that are close to the hearts of little boys.  Each of these sections is further broken down into two page topics that have a title, a catchy couplet, and three verses.  Some of the topics my son got the most excited about were God Wants You To Wear Your Armor and God Wants You To Stay Strong.  The front of the book has a gift page so you can mark giving the book to the special little boy in your life.  The promise verses are all taken from the International Chiildren’s Bible, so they are easy for children to understand.  That differs a bit from what we use in school, so the verses Isaac has memorized were different, but he really liked reading them in this version.  The couplets are cute and easy for children to remember as well.  I have been hearing the one about putting on your armor a lot around here!

All in all, we really liked the book as a quick topical Scripture guide.  We loved the illustrations, and David really like finding the dog on every page.  My only problem with the whole beginning of the Blogger Review experience was that my book was folded in half during transit, and it is a hard back.  We have been trying to flatten out the cover by stacking heavy books on top, but it still is warped.  The girls are wanting the girl version because Isaac has been enjoying this one so much!