A Billion Reasons Why by Kristin Billerbeck

My Thoughts:

I adored this book. It may be because I see a lot of myself in the main character or it may just be because the main character is so real and believable that I find myself wishing we were best friends. I think it is a great testament to Kristin Billerbeck that I have fallen so in love with her characters, only a great writer can draw you into the story so thoroughly that you feel like you really know these people. This was certainly the case with A Billion Reasons Why. I would highly recommend this to any woman looking for an engaging book to read! 

Practically Perfect

Can God’s best include passion and security?

Katie McKenna had resolved to live a quiet life, marry a practical Christian man, and leave all her “worldly” desires behind.  Since moving to California, she’d made it her goal to live life logically and for the Lord.  She has the perfect life—a fulfilling job, a cute apartment, and a wedding to plan with her soon-to-be fiancé, Dexter. 

But then in walks Luc DeForges, the handsome ex-boyfriend who’d broken her heart.  After graduating college and rejecting Katie, Luc cornered the organic food market and became one of the most eligible multi-millionaire bachelors.  But now he’s back and asking her to go home to New Orleans to sing at his brother’s wedding.  She hasn’t fallen victim to her emotions since leaving New Orleans, and she’s invested too much to give into them now. 

When Luc was in his element, there was nothing like it.  His excitement was contagious and spread like a classroom virus, infecting those around him with a false sense of security.  Katie inhales deeply and reminds herself that the man sold inspiration by the pound.  His power over her was universal.  It did not make her special. 

Katie’s boyfriend, Dexter, is a practical man.  As Katie’s roommate Eileen offers, “Katie, no matter how many entries you put in that book, Dexter is not going to be a romantic.  I mean, fine, you’re going to marry him.  He’s a good man.  I just don’t want you to be disappointed.  No matter how many junior high school hearts you draw next to his name, Dexter is going to order you what the Internet says is the proper gift for each anniversary.  He’ll probably have a program created that does it for him.”  But Dexter is safe.  He’ll be a good dad.  He’s very intellectual.  He’s punctual.  He’s everything she needs in a husband.

And Dexter will propose as soon as she gets her grandmother’s ring from her mom.  And Luc will provide her with a free trip home for just that purpose.  Plus, she needs to go home to New Orleans.  It’s her last chance to find out why Luc tossed her from his life like a banana peel off the back of her father’s pickup.  Love is a decision.  A choice.  All the leading experts said so, and she’d decided she would love Dexter in a way that honored and respected him.  The way she’d loved Luc left her worn out and depleted, like an empty air mattress.  Then what use was she?  She’d get her ring and closure as well.  Then nothing would stand in the way of her life with Dexter.

But what if God has more in store for her?  What if God’s desire for her is a heart full of life?  Can the passions she had as a young woman, which led to many of her past mistakes, still have a place in her life? 

Kristin Billerbeck is a successful novelist from northern California.  She has authored more than 30 novels, including the Ashley Stockingdale series and the Spa Girls series.  She is a leader in the Chick Lit movement, a Christy Award finalist, and a two-time winner of the American Christian Fiction Writers Book of the Year Award.  She has appeared on The Today Show and has been featured in the New York Times. 

A Billion Reasons Why by Kristin Billerbeck

Thomas Nelson/February 2011/ISBN: 978-1-59554-791-0/320 pages/softcover/$14.99

www.thomasnelson.com ~ www.kristinbillerbeck.com

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The Steels

This band has partnered with International China Concern and filmed their latest video there at the children's homes that I visited to in October '10. Let me know what you think!

Voices of the Faithful - Beth Moore

My Thoughts:

This a wonderful devotional style book with an entry for every day of the year, written by a different missionary from all over the world. I enjoyed this book a great deal. It is interesting and engages the reader in a purposeful devotion that has been created and compiled to draw our focus toward God’s bigger purpose throughout the year. Beth Moore did a wonderful job of putting this all together and included a short prayer for each day written by her. I would definitely recommend this book for a daily devotional book for personal use or as a group devotional. It could spark some good conversation for sure!
I think to do this book justice it needs to be read day by day and savoured and allowed to sink in to your soul. That being said even reading it through in a regular fashion it is both inspiring and uplifting.
  

Voices of the FaithfulInspiring Stories of Courage from Christians Serving Around the World

By Beth Moore, International Mission Board
Published by Thomas Nelson

Book Description

A 366-day devotional with inspiring stories from the front lines of faith.

"A willingness to go is all they have in common," says Beth Moore, speaking of her friends on the front lines who are spreading the gospel around the world and with whom she collaborated to create this book. This brilliant, 366-day devotional features incredible stories of God's faithfulness in the face of uncertainty and danger, written by hundreds of missionaries worldwide.

With a foreword by International Mission Board president Jerry Rankin and an introduction by Beth, this volume also includes advice on how to hear God's voice, pray for missionaries, and understand the church's and individual's role in missions.

An Interview with Missy Buchanan

I have not read her books but I liked what she had to say in her interview  below so I am posting it hoping that it may speak to others who are going through this and point you in the direction of further understanding and help. 

Q&A with Missy Buchanan

Even when age creeps up on the body and mind, and life changes from what it once was, is it still possible to have a purpose in life?  When it is no longer possible to venture out and do the things you once loved, can you still find a reason to look forward to each day?  Missy Buchanan, a leading expert and advocate for senior adults, believes that you can.  Buchanan wants to encourage older adults to find their purpose, share their stories, and make an impact on those around them.

Q: What made you decide to start ministering to and writing books for older adults?

Well, as a middle-aged adult, I never had any intention of becoming an author of books for older adults.  But because of the journey that my own aging parents were on, I realized how they had become disconnected from their church as their lives changed.  They started off as active older adults and then that circle got smaller as they had more needs and physical limitations.  As I would visit them at their retirement community, I would also see so many others that were just like them.  They needed spiritual encouragement.  And so that’s why I got started.  The first book began as a project just for my own parents.  I wrote devotions and kept them in a loose-leaf notebook.   But others started asking for them and things just spiraled from there.

Q: What do you think children need to know about their aging parents?

What I realized personally was that I had been so caught up in my parents’ physical needs that I had neglected their spiritual needs.  They were no longer connected to their church, at least in regular worship attendance, and that had been such a huge part of their lives.  I almost made that mistake of just totally missing that, and that was the point where I began to write.  I looked and there were other books written about older adults but not very many that were written to them and for them.  So the first thing I would tell their children is to pay attention not only to their physical needs but also to their spiritual needs.

Q: What is your opinion about role reversal with children and their aging parents?

I hear the whole idea of role reversal where the older parent becomes a child and the grown children become the parent, and I understand what they are talking about because my own parents became more dependent on me.  But I think that when we refer to it as a role reversal, and we begin to think of our aging parents as children, we strip away their dignity.  We rob them of respect and we overlook the fact that they are not children.  They have had a lifetime of experiences that a child has not had.  And I think that is an important difference that grown children need to think about and pay attention to.  It’s more of a role shift in responsibilities and not a role reversal.  I know how much it hurts an aging parent to feel like they are being treated like a baby or like a child. 

Q: Other than aging adults, who else has benefited from your writing?

A friend of mine in an assisted living facility asked me to bring some books for one of her tablemates.  Her tablemate explained that these books were for her adult children.  “They don’t understand what it feels like to grow old, and I can’t seem to make them understand, but your books say it better than I ever could.”  My books are all written in the first person as if an older adult is speaking directly to God.  There are a lot of adult children that are buying them for themselves and older adults buying them for their grown children. 

And I’ve heard of different youth groups that have been reading my books in order to better understand what it’s like to grow old.  Instead of just mocking their older peers, they are learning that they share a lot of the same feelings—feelings of insecurity, feelings of fear.  As a result of reading the books, one youth group in Tennessee has even adopted the residents of the senior living center across from their church. 

Q: How can faith change our idea of growing older?

So many see aging as a punishment, and they dread it so much.  But even though it is difficult to be limited by an aging body, they need to look at it as a gift that God has given them.  They still have so much to give.  They have great wisdom to share and stories to share.  I always tell my older friends that their story is not yet over.

Missy Buchanan is the author of Talking with God in Old Age: Meditations and Psalms and

Living with Purpose in a Worn-Out Body: Spiritual Encouragement for Older Adults (Upper Room Books).

Click here to watch Missy Buchanan’s recent interview with

Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts and Roberts’ 86-year-old mother.

Visit Missy Buchanan’s website, www.missybuchanan.com, and blog,http://missybu.wordpress.com/.

Become a friend on Facebook (Aging and Faith) and follow on Twitter (MissyBuchanan).

 Talking with God in Old Age: Meditations and Psalms

In Talking with God in Old Age, Missy Buchanan sensitively address the worries, fears, and frustrations of older adults and extends hope, encouraging them to maintain an open dialogue with God. Each reading features:

·         A candid conversation with God

·         A related passage from Psalms

·         Easy-to-read print

Seniors grappling with the aging process will readily identify with these reflections and will find reassurance of God’s Presence. Caregivers, family members, and others seeking to understand aging loved ones will gain insight into the thoughts and emotions of the elderly frail.

Living with Purpose in a Worn-Out Body: Spiritual Encouragement for Older Adults

Birthed out of real-life experience, Living with Purpose in a Worn-out Body is a big does of authentic spiritual encouragement for frail elderly who struggle to find purpose a the end of their lives. These devotionals addressed to God raise in prayer the many concerns of the frail elderly and provide opportunities to reminisce and reflect on their blessings.

Each devotional offers the following:

·         Easy-to-read print

·         Reader-friendly format

·         Comfortable, nonacademic language

·         A first-person address to God

·         Brief supporting scriptures from the New and Old Testaments

The Girl In The Gatehouse - by Julie Klassen

My Thoughts: Have you ever read a book that consumes you... you can't seem to put it down and when you absolutely have to, then it's all you can think about? The Girl in the Gatehouse was that kind of book for me! 
The characters were well developed and the story was so believable that it drew me in and kept me fully engaged. It was not only the main characters that were so cleverly sculpted and interesting but all of the supporting characters were just as plausible. Well it seems I can not say enough good stuff about this book but I will say one more thing. I was so very impressed that Klassen chose to confront big topics that fit brilliantly into the time period of the book but still are relevant in lives of women today. This will be a book that I will highly recommend for a long time to come and to a wide variety of people 

Mariah Aubrey lives in seclusion with her secrets. 
Will an ambitious captain uncover her identity... and her hidden past?

Banished from the only home she's ever known, Mariah Aubrey hides herself away in an abandoned gatehouse on a distant relative's estate. There she supports herself and her loyal servant the only way she knows how—by writing novels in secret.

When Captain Matthew Bryant leases the estate, he is intrigued by the beautiful girl in the gatehouse. But there are many things he doesn't know about this beguiling outcast. Will he risk his plans—and his heart—for a woman shadowed by scandal?

Intriguing, mysterious, and romantic, The Girl in the Gatehousetakes readers inside the life of a secret authoress at a time when novel-writing was considered improper for ladies and the smallest hint of impropriety could change a woman's life forever.

Endorsements

"Klassen expertly infuses her Regency-set inspirational tale with a gothic atmosphere, resulting in a sweetly intriguing romance worthy of Victoria Holt."
—Booklist, about The Silent Governess

"The author takes the reader back in time effortlessly. If you enjoy Jane Austen or the Regency period, you will love this book."
—Romantic Times, about The Silent Governess

Reviews

"Christy and RITA nominee Klassen creates a wonderful cast of engaging characters while neatly stirring in a generous dash of mystery and danger into the plot of her latest, charmingly romantic inspirational romance." --John Charles, Booklist

Julie Klassen is a fiction editor with a background in advertising. She has worked in Christian publishing for more than twelve years, in both marketing and editorial capacities. Julie is a graduate of the University of Illinois. She enjoys travel, research, books, BBC period dramas, long hikes, short naps, and coffee with friends.Julie and her husband have two sons and live in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota. For more information, visit www.julieklassen.com


"Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.
Available at your favourite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group"

Have A New You By Friday - by Dr. Kevin Leman

My Thoughts:

As far as self help books go, this one was pretty good. It helps you see the problem areas and gives you practical steps to changing them.
Never having read any of Dr. Leman's books before I was properly impressed with this one. The author is a great storyteller and the book overall is very engaging and interesting. I would recommend this book to those looking to make a change in their life.



You can change your life--in just 5 days!
How many times have you tried to change your own habits, only to find that changing yourself is even harder than trying to change someone else?
Now, what the bestselling Have a New Kid by Friday has done for families and Have a New Husband by Friday has done for couples,Have a New You by Friday will do for you. With his signature wit and commonsense psychology, Dr. Kevin Leman walks you through your own personal five-day action plan. You will come to

• Accept the truth about yourself
• Boost your confidence by identifying the lies you're telling yourself . . . and putting them to rest for good
• Change your life by concentrating on becoming who you really want to be

Dr. Kevin Leman is an internationally known psychologist, radio and television personality, and speaker who has taught and entertained audiences worldwide with his wit and commonsense psychology. He has made house calls for hundreds of radio and television programs, including The View,Today, Oprah, CBS's The Early Show, CNN'sAmerican Morning, and LIFE Today with James Robison. He has also served as a contributing family psychologist to Good Morning America.

A bestselling and award-winning author, Dr. Leman has written more than 30 books about marriage and family issues, including The Birth Order Book, Sheet Music, Making Children Mind without Losing Yours, and Have a New Kid by Friday. He is coauthor, with his son Kevin Leman II, of a series of illustrated children's books for each child in the family. He is also featured on 6 video series on marriage, parenting, blended families, and single parenting.

Dr. Leman and his wife, Sande, live in Tucson, Arizona. They have 5 children and 2 grandchildren.

City of Tranquil Light by Bo Caldwell

My Thoughts:

This was a fantastic book! I admit that right now in my life, as I look to the future and moving into a new position at work of leading teams of people to China for short term mission trips, I may be a little biased toward all things having to do with China. That possibility aside, the book was well written and it was a wonderful story that chronicled the lives of some extraordinary people and the sacrifices they made in order to do what God had called them to do! Inspiring! I must admit that I am glad that I did not live back in those times and had to go through the hardships that they endured. But I can say that I hope that I will have the courage to live my life as faithfully as these people did.
Thanks to Bo Caldwell for sharing such a tremendously wonderful story!

City of Tranquil Light

Author Bo Caldwell shares an inspired story of a young couple

whose marriage and faith are put to the test in Revolutionary China

Bo Caldwell’s 2001 debut novel, The Distant Land of My Father, set in historic China and based on the story of her uncle, was a critical and commercial success—a national bestseller that was loved by critics, booksellers, and readers in equal measure. In 2002 Caldwell turned to the story of her maternal grandparents who were missionaries in China in the early 1900s. For years her mother had urged her to write about them and when she dove into the research she found their lives full of conflict, danger, and heartbreak, as well as joy and fulfillment. But life, in the form of a cancer diagnosis, kept her from her writing desk until 2006. When she returned, she completed City of Tranquil Light (Henry Holt and Company), a searing love story of a man and a woman, their God, and the country they jointly loved and a deeply researched and page-turning portrait of a country in utter turmoil.

At the center of the novel are Will and Katherine, two Mennonite missionaries from the heartland who have come to China because they feel called by God to serve the poor and spread the Good News. But this is more than a missionary story; it is really the portrait of a marriage set against the backdrop of a radically shifting nation that is plunging into revolution.

A novel based on her grandparents wasn’t Caldwell’s idea. “I’m embarrassed to say that before I had dismissed my grandparents’ lives as too dull and simplistic. But as I reread my grandfather’s memoir and began to ask my mom about my grandparents, I learned how wrong I’d been.” As she began to see her grandparents as her mother had seen them, and to read the biographies and autobiographies of other American missionaries in China, Caldwell found similar stories. “I saw a pattern emerge in the later lives of many of these men and women. Most eventually returned to the United States, usually to be near their children (now grown) and grandchildren, but also because of illness or frailty. I was moved by the contrast between their lives in China and their later lives in the U.S. After enduring decades of war, famine, illness, personal danger, and great hostility toward their work, these people settled safely in the suburbs where they walked in rose gardens and played with their grandchildren and lived out their days. I was struck by the sacrifice that must have been involved in leaving the people and work that had been at the center of their lives, even with the reward of the comforts of modern life. I also began to feel that missionaries often get a bad rap in fiction. While there were certainly those who exploited the people they had come to serve, there were also many who poured out their lives for strangers and for their faith. And I wanted to tell their story.”

That story is one of marriage, of leaving one home and finding another, and of faith. “When I began the novel, I tried to understand my grandfather’s faith and to present it accurately,” says Caldwell. “I tried to see the world through his eyes.” Then life intervened, including a battle to quit drinking followed shortly after with a diagnosis of breast cancer. Once Caldwell returned to writing two years later, she returned as a different person. The combination of sobriety and a serious illness had affected her faith deeply, and she was no longer writing about her grandparents’ faith. She was writing about her own.

City of Tranquil Light by Bo Caldwell

Henry Holt and Company - September 28, 2010

ISBN: 978-0-8050-9228-8 – hardcover - $25.00

http://us.macmillan.com/cityoftranquillight