A couple more reads for May

Tame Your Fears: And Transform Them into Faith, Confidence, and Action by Carol Kent

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Though geared mostly towards women, this book is applicable for anyone. There are many fears and anxieties in life and the author takes us through the main ones that women tend to struggle with. The fear of what if?, the fear of if only, the fear of rejection, etc. Uplifting and encouraging book about releasing our fears to God and turning to Him in our fears instead of trying to solve them ourselves.


Perfecting Kate by Tamara Leigh

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

You know in a book when a character has a secret that they haven't told another character? And you sit there reading, wanting to shout "Tell them already!" Cuz it could drastically change things and they need to tell them? But they don't and it gets more complicated. Sigh...

Kate is an artist who is trying to grow in her faith but sometimes she gets it wrong. With a couple different love interests, she learns more about herself and what truly matters when it comes to beauty.

Re-Read: The Life You've Always Wanted

The Life You've Always Wanted by John Ortberg

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
Re-read

Very thought-provoking and inspiring book about spiritual growth.

"Joy is, as Karl Barth put it, a 'defiant nevertheless' set at a full stop against bitterness and resentment."

" 'We take every thought captive to obey Christ.' This means, in part, refusing to allow other people's approval or disapproval to dominate our lives."

"...the purpose of knowing Scripture...is for us to become equipped for good works."

"The goal is not for us to get through the Scriptures. The goal is to get the Scriptures through us."

"Jesus' followers are those who intentionally arrange their lives around the goal of spiritual transformation - the development of a well-ordered heart."

Non-Fiction Kick/Recent Purchases

I've been quite "bad" lately and have been buying quite a few books. More so than I probably should financially. Sometimes the itch just overwhelms me and I succumb. I know from the blogs that I read that I am definitely not alone in this regard. :-)
I've been on a non-fiction kick lately. So, wanna see what I got? They came in the mail this week.


Soul Repair by Jeff VanVonderen, Lies That Go Unchallenged in Popular Culture and Lies That Go Unchallenged in Media & Government by Charles Colson


Pagan Christianity and Reimagining Church by Frank Viola and Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges


Spirituality for the Rest of Us by Larry Osborne (same author that wrote 10 Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe)

I also splurged and pre-ordered some fiction books that will be coming out in September. For those who enjoyed the Circle trilogy by Ted Dekker, guess what? There's a prequel!! Green (Book 0)


I love the Bug Man novels! I haven't read Less Than Dead and it comes out in paperback this fall. Also, his new book Ends of the Earth.
For the Potluck Club series fans, there is a branch-off series-The Potluck Catering Club. I've read the first one Secret's in the Sauce and the 2nd comes out in September - A Taste of Fame. Also the Bowers Files mystery books - first book The Pawn which I already read - great suspense! I'm currently reading the 2nd book The Rook and the 3rd book The Knight was another book I pre-ordered.

Mr. and Mrs.

Jono and I got these t-shirts at our local Christian bookstore.

If you click on it, you can view it in a larger size. Jono's shirt says "I love my wife" and my shirt says "I love my husband".

We also got the Mr. and Mrs. mugs:


Inside:


And the bottom of the inside:


Cute, huh?

Finished 2 Books: a re-read and medical thriller

Living Above The Level Of Mediocrity by Charles R. Swindoll

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars

Re-read for me. Inspiring book on striving for excellence in our life.

"Those who achieve excellence are faithful in the tedious, monotonous details of life. It is there amidst the blahs of boredom that we rise above the level of mediocrity and soar."

"Dreams can easily appear to others as extreme and illogical. If you share your dreams with the crowd, they'll probably laugh at you because you can't make logical sense out of them." - This quote was encouraging for me as sometimes I wonder what God will do with the dreams that I have. I have a dream/desire to visit Croatia someday and maybe even do a short-term missions trip where I work as a camp counselor at a camp for teenage missionary kids (MKs). This dream seems illogical as I'm not an outdoorsy person plus I'm not very good with kids and teenagers. I feel that I can relate to MKs as I am an MK myself, but overall the dream doesn't make sense. Yet the desire is there and I believe it is a God-given desire. Who knows what may someday come of it.




Pestis 18 by Sharon Webb

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars


Awesome, awesome suspense book! Kept me turning pages and I didn't want to put it down. Love books like this, where you just can't wait to find out what happens. Got all mad at my cat Mocha cuz I was only a few pages from the end and she was all wound-up and wanted attention and was getting into mischief trying to get us to play with her. I just wanted to finish my book! LOL!

Terrorists have threatened to release a modified form of plague that is antibiotic-resistant. They have taken hostages on a small island off the coast of Georgia. Page-turning suspense! The writing was great too - descriptive and crisp. It drew me into the story. Highly recommended for suspense fans.

Togetherness

Togetherness
Originally uploaded by twiga92

A rare moment of sibling getting-along. Both cats napping on the top shelf, no hissing going on. At one point I walked in to see Mocha giving Storm a bath. For both of them to share this space is rare.

Deep Freeze by Thom Racina

Deep Freeze by Thom Racina

My review

rating: 4.5 of 5 stars


Ooh, this was a great suspense book! I had a hard time putting it down. Los Angeles and Southern California have been experiencing unusually cold weather and then, they are hit by a blizzard of snow. Completely unprepared for the onslaught, the city plunges into chaos and disaster. The main characters are members of a prominent family, each trying to survive the disaster. A great page-turner!
This was my first read by this author - recommended if you like suspense/thrillers.

Recent Acquisitions

I've got several books on the way via both paperbackswap and bookcloseouts.

Already received:




Coming from paperbackswap:






And from bookcloseouts:










Sometimes I think I like buying or acquiring books more so than actually reading them :-). Does anyone else run into this?

Faith 'n' Fiction Saturday - Recommended Authors

Today's Topic - From My Friend Amy
It doesn't take long hanging around people who read Christian fiction before the usual names come up. Janette Oke. Francine Rivers. Karen Kingsbury. Dee Henderson. Ted Dekker. Frank Peretti. These are the best-sellers...the authors everyone knows. But there are so many authors who get less coverage but have huge amounts of talent. Today, choose either an author you think deserves a wider readership or a book you wish more people had read and share about them on your blog! Because as you all know, we need to add to our TBR (to be read) lists!

My answer:
One of my favorite Christian authors is Mindy Starns Clark. Her Million Dollar Mysteries series was my introduction to her and they were fantastic mysteries! They start off with A Penny for Your Thoughts. I read the series several years ago and would highly recommend them. She has also written the Smart Chick Mystery series starring Jo Tulip, another great series about a household hints expert who also solves mysteries.
There are several other authors and books that I would love to mention, but will stick with just the one for this post.

In the Reading World

Well, as you can see from the last couple of posts, I'm just not doing much reading these days. I've actually been doing a lot of non-fiction reading and re-reading of books. I finished re-reading one of my favorite fiction books of all time last night. You know it's a good book when you stay up too late to finish it and you've read it before and know what happens!!



I'm not sure when I first read this book, but it was in the last 8 years since I remember I lived in my current apartment at the time. I finished re-reading it and it was as good as I remember it being the first time around. The setting is back in 1975 and astronauts are doing further exploration on the moon. Two of the astronauts prepare to return to orbit to meet their spacecraft and return to Earth when their lunar module's engine fails to start, thus stranding them on the moon with limited oxygen remaining. They decide to go exploring while they wait for their oxygen to run out rather than just sitting around waiting to die. And make an incredible discovery!

This is an imaginative and creative book, exploring ideas of what might have been. I don't want to give too much away. :-)

I'm getting some books from paperbackswap that sound good - Deep Freeze by Thom Racina, Brevig Mission Plague by Frank Simon, Ten Dumb Things Smart Christians Believe by Larry Osborne and some others.

Kitty Love

I love my cats! We adopted Mocha and Storm in June of 2004 when they were 6 months old. They have brought much delight, amusement and love into our lives.


One of Mocha's favorite spots on the cat furniture


One of Storm's favorite spots on some luggage

Storm likes to sit on a warm lap. Here I am trying to read and she decides to join me. I'm wearing headphones to block out the TV while I'm reading.

My cats are my babies!