"A Fair share of "Faith" of a Juan Dela Cruz

Free Book By Brian Tome (Review For BookSneeze)

2010-02-26T02:52:00.000-08:00

“There is no freedom this world can give like God gives to us his children this beautiful”

Freedom!! Was the last word Mel Gibson shouted before he died in his movie “Braveheart” That was for that era, where freedom can only be afforded by blood. The sad thing is we are still in search of freedom or should we say we are self-proclaimed free. There is no freedom this world can give like God gives to us, his children, this beautiful. If there is fear, guilt or something that holds us from doing God’s will, like bondages or strongholds this book pin-pointed, well, there is no Freedom.

With a coffee-break conversational tone that complements the content or juice of this book. With a dash of healthy humor for the readers to enjoy this great read. One thing that this book puts the reader into is the challenge of breaking through the bondages and strongholds we have, for us to be free in tone to God’s will. With all of the directions, enlightenments and the nuts-and-bolts about freedom, “it’s up to you now whether you will grab the freedom God gave to us”

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

"Learning to Soar" By: Avery T. Willis & Matt R. Willis (Review for Navpress)

2010-02-17T23:36:00.000-08:00

“An analogy that is precise and paralleled on God’s stirrings and purposes for us”

This will be the second book that I have read under the topic of “Handling Tough Times and looking it in a godly perspective” and I guess there are still dozens of book of this type in a different context, level of analogy, some are pragmatic and some are theoretic but in the end all of them end up saying “Trust God”

Like a tree that have branches and sub-branches, if you’re going trace all of those branches and its sub’s, you’ll end up in one big trunk.

Matt R. Willis was just a co-author; yet he can still surf on the waves of wittiness of his grandfather, Avery T. Willis Jr., even though his writings on this book were more on examples of things on his perspective. Examples that happened and he experienced along his way to God.

The analogy about the eagles makes even more sense on how to handle God’s stirring on our lives. An analogy that is precise and paralleled on God’s stirrings and purposes for us. That quality makes this book to stand out among others.

With some trivia to jump start some of the chapters and also the readers. A must read, even though, like what I said, there could be dozens of book of this type, it is still healthy to have different perspective on perceiving tough times.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from NavPress Publishers as part of their Blogger Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commision's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

"Where is God" By Dr. John Townsend (Booksneeze.com)

2010-02-13T23:07:00.000-08:00

“A timely book for this ever increasing crisis in our life nowadays”

From the way the book was presented as a whole, I can see a dedicated group of people who worked hard to bring this amazing book to life.

What makes this book easy to digest was, for it was a reality based book like a mirror where we can see our selves in and the way the author supported his ideas. As a Psychologist, it really helps him to see how a person thinks under life’s tough times. Together with his and other people’s experiences, vivid and on the record experiences that can make a mark on the reader’s mind for to them to have additional references for such life’s tough times. Being supported greatly by some of God’s words through His Bible makes a firm foundation for this book to be rooted and to be credible.

There are some verses from the Bible mentioned by this book for the readers to search, for them to have participation on the process and for them to find face to face the answers.

Let’s put it in this way, the where-is-God question is a frame of a cube; this book fills up every sides of that cube that makes it easier for us to handle and to grasp the reality of it.Based on the pool of our limits and capabilities, we have our own ways of making solutions for our problems, some of us says “I am strong, I can face whatever this world has to give” after reading this book, you can have a deeper sense of solving and perceiving your problems and you can even say “I am much stronger now, with God right by side everything will and always be good”.

Book Review Needled to Death By: Maggie Sefton

2010-02-04T20:19:00.000-08:00

Since Kelly Flynn needs to arrange some more paper works for the death of her Aunt Helen and knowing she’s next to kin to inherit her Aunt Martha’s spread of land together with a barn and a herd of cow, sheep and alpaca, she needs to stay for a while at her small cottage and knit. She joined a group of tourists who wants to see what an alpaca is and learn on how they get fleeces from them. The tour turned out to be a nightmare when they recognize who’s lying on the floor bled to death; it was Vickie, the owner of the alpaca ranch and Kelly’s fellow knitter at Lamnspun. Many speculations prowl among knitters at Lambspun, since a bracelet of Eva Bartok was found in the crime scene, Eva, also a knitter was said to have an affair on Vickie’s husband, Bob Claymore. Jayleen, one of Vickie’s friends ask Kelly to help her out on arranging Vickie’s financial and estate papers. Debbie arrived in no time to know what happened to her mom. But it’s like she arrived to meet her death, at her mother’s ranch, she was found lying on the floor, dead, police said it was her asthma-attack that killed her. Since Kelly was working on Vickie’s paper works, she needs to visit from time to time the office of Vickie for the files she needed. She noticed an icon blinking on the computer screen; it was for an unread message for Debbie’s email account. That message made a huge turning point on solving the death of Vickie and Debbie. It leads to the final confrontation to nail down the suspect.

Almost a huge portion of the story seems to be a prologue on Kelly staying and living on Fort Connor, more on neutral and light narrations that makes this book falls beyond under the category of mystery and suspense, say, a sub-genre. As the series of the “Knitting Mysteries” progresses the characters’ deeper personalities reveals.
You will start basking about the story until you realize your heart was pumping like hell and notice you’re finished reading it. I can say this is the author’s expertise, sudden burst of action and suspense at the first and final confrontation.
Same fast-forward pacing like its predecessor (Knit One, Kill Two)
It’s not for a hardcore action-packed reader but this could be on the top of your list for easy reading with a twist of mystery.

Review for The Bleeder By: John Desjarlais (For Sophia Institute)

2010-01-21T04:47:00.000-08:00

Reed Stubblefield had a hip injury that leads him for asking for a leave from work as a teacher. His brother Dan arranged a cabin for him to stay, cool-down a bit and make a book about Aristotle. When he arrived at the cabin, he noticed a bunch of people coming out of their busses with wheelchairs and canes. Puzzled, he asked the cabin owner why so many guests this season. The owner said they’re here to be healed by the Bleeder, the stigmatic priest named Fr. Ray. The phone ring unexpectedly, “This is father Ray, I heard that you’re working on a book about Aristotle, I have some books that can help you with that”. He rejected the invitation and got mad at Dan for arranging such, he entertain the fact that Dan had more elaborate plans than this, getting Reed healed by this so called Bleeder.

Since Reed had no choice, what’s the harm on having a friend with this priest? Fr. Ray allocate some time for them to meet and talk about books, their friendship bloomed. Dan was coming for a lunch with his brother Reed and Fr. Ray, the unexpected happens, Fr. Ray said that Dan got into a car accident. When they arrived at the site, Dr. Rashidi proclaimed that his brother is already dead, he suddenly noticed Fr. Ray rushing to his dead brother putting his hands on its chest, after a while Dan coughed, a sign of life.

Good Friday, Reed attends a mass to see Fr. Ray heals people. Fr. Ray entered the church with a big cross on his shoulder, stopped at middle isle, dropped the cross and suddenly falls down like a tree. Blood all-over his hands like life is being leaked out of it. The Death of Fr. Ray puts this small town into a sudden shock on why, how and who did this to Fr. Ray. Reed now is being blamed for the death of Fr. Ray, they believe that Fr. Ray bleeds to revive Dan, with all the facts against him, how can he solve this?

Prior to my review, I want to clear one thing about my religion, actually I’m not a Catholic and I don’t believe on such thing as stigmata. Forgive me if you find the totality or a part of my review a bit subjective.

From where I am seated, I can see two different stories of the same person being viewed by one perspective which is by Reed’s. The death of Fr. Ray splits the whole story into two, yet still connected without messing the story-line. A transition from a religious-mystery tone into a crime-scene-mystery tone works well with this book. The first-person-view really helps on making the connection between the book and the reader especially on some religious-thinking of main character, Reed. When you get the hung on reading this book and reached somewhere near the end, you’ll get surprised on how, who and why Fr. Ray died. What a shocking revelation that can push you to say “What the …..” and drop your jaw on the floor.

This book is for those full-pledged Catholics and some mystery-type reader for a new taste of suspense. One thing good about this book is it will leave some questions for the readers to answer through their Faith like “Does stigmatic people exists”, “If they exists, is it true that you can be healed by them?” and “what happen to Reed, is he now a Catholic?”

There are some minor flaws I’ve found on this one, some loose ends that needs to be tied up. Like, what happen to Manny Garcia? Does the Ascension group exist? Or it’s just a way to mislead the reader or maybe, maybe this book is going to have a sequel?

Well crafted book.

Knit One Kill Two By: Maggie Sefton (Book Review)

2010-01-04T21:28:00.000-08:00

Fresh new Author of the “A Knitting Series”, Maggie Sefton

Kelly Flynn a Corporate CPA, needs to return to her hometown, Colorado. It’s not for a family reunion or a corporate business trip but to attend the funeral service of her aunt Helen. The police say that the old lady loans a whopping twenty thousand dollars in cash before she got robbed that night and killed by a mysterious person. In the crime scene something was found, a broken needle together with Helen’s missing knitting’s and the precious “family quilt” which was hung in one of the windows.

Kelly’s instinct says there was something wrong and her gut twisted for the fact that her Aunt Helen loaned that much money. In search for the truth, Kelly uses her instinct alone together with her new friend knitters of Lambspun. She had found out that Helen has a long distance relative somewhere within the vicinity named Martha. She goes there to ask some question regarding Helen’s past and found out that before Helen died Martha remembered Helen saying “Our sins in the past had come to haunt us”. The last thing Kelly remembered doing was poking into somebody’s life in search for information.

It was like a rollercoaster ride of suspense, every plunge put you to a heart pounding tension and anticipation, on your way to the peak is like a cool-down to prepare you for another dip. Until you reach the highest peak that comes with the deepest fall that puts you to a high speed plunge, eventually you feel like the coaster just run-out of rails to hold on and you falls into consciousness and found out the that book you’re reading is done. The characters are well rounded; it’s like looking into swatches of yarns with different color, texture, thickness and softness. Realistic and breathing characters. Nice twist on misleading the readers by adding the love triangle between some of the characters. Maggie was not much of a “details” author, the details were just enough to make it dense and compact for a mini series like this. Fast-forward style of writing, some scenes was omitted without messing the story line.

Knowing Kelly doesn’t have any background on Crime Scene investigation is the ace of this series, she can show you how instinct can be so powerful and reliable on solving crimes together with enough information.

The Noticer by Andy Andrews (Book Review for Thomas Nelson)

2009-12-05T22:21:00.000-08:00

It all happen in an ordinary town filled with ordinary people with ordinary problems, which we all do encounter somewhere in our life. When something extraordinary struck this small town when an old man involuntarily touches everybody’s heart and getting himself involved in solving their unnoticed problems. After hearing their share of stories, he always says “you do lack in PERSPECTIVE” after a couple of explanations and realizations he will leave them enlightened and with their hearts at eased.

I’ll give five for five because the book is so inspiring. As the story progresses the definition of the word “PERSPECTIVE” gets clearer and clearer. I really like the sudden change of mood from being light to the beginning till you reach the last chapter where you get a bit puzzled and crave you to go on the story and end it with a seed of perspective in your heart. To wrap it up! The book is so good.

Additional analysis:
The book was so inspiring, it really helps me a lot especially on making my perspective even wider. The author (Andy Andrews) really made a connection to his readers, concentrating more on problem solving and looking it in a different perspective (who doesn't have any problem/s?). The book has a subliminal message that, all you need is a wide perspective to solve any life problems. The story was well paced, every chapter is well connected to its next's. Though the story is bit shorter than i expected it really made an impact, sometimes all you need is a brief and concise story to make a bigger impression. Every character's problem gives different color and depth to the definition of the word "PERSPECTIVE". All in all it's a must read book to everyone.