| Article Index |
|---|
| Book Club |
| Three Cups of Tea |
| Desire |
| Mosaic |
| True Faced |
| The Shack |
| All Pages |
INFIDEL, by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
This book is such a page turner. You will read the whole thing in a matter of a day or two! If you want to understand the Middle Eastern Culture better, and the struggles of many women around the world, you should read this book! This is a story of Ayaan and her life growing up in a Muslim nation. She discusses everything from female circumcision to arranged marriages.
She escapes from an arranged marriage to the Netherlands where she ends up in the government and later causes a huge stir in the nation for a documentary she and Mr. Van Gough created titled “Submission.”
When the film was released, she has to escape for her life as Van Gough was murdered with a note on an knife stabbed into his chest saying “I am coming for Ayaan Hirsi Ali next!”
The New York Times says, “A Somali by birth and a recently elected member of the Dutch Parliament, Ms. Hirsi Ali had waged a personal crusade to improve the lot of Muslim women. Her warnings about the dangers posed to the Netherlands by unassimilated Muslims made her Public Enemy No. 1 for Muslim extremists, a feminist counterpart to Salman Rushdie.”
—The New York Times
“Holland was trying to be tolerant for the sake of consensus, but the consensus was empty,” she writes. ‘The immigrants’ culture was being preserved at the expense of their women and children and to the detriment of the immigrants’ integration into Holland.’”
—The New York Times
Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace...One School at a TimeReview by Oyin Olutade
Some failures lead to phenomenal successes, and this American nurse's unsuccessful attempt to climb K2, the world's second tallest mountain, is one of them. Dangerously ill when he finished his climb in 1993, Mortenson was sheltered for seven weeks in the small Pakistani village of Korphe; in return, he promised to build the impoverished town's first school, a project that grew into the Central Asia Institute, which has since constructed more than 50 schools across rural Pakistan and..Afghanistan. Coauthor Relin recounts Mortenson's efforts in fascinating detail, presenting compelling portraits of the village elders, con artists, philanthropists, mujahideen, Taliban officials, ambitious school girls and upright Muslims Mortenson met along the way. As the book moves into the post-9/11 world, Mortenson and Relin argue that the United States must fight Islamic extremism in the region through collaborative efforts to alleviate poverty and improve access to education, especially for girls. Captivating and suspenseful, with engrossing accounts of both hostilities and unlikely friendships, this book will win many readers' hearts.
Taken from Amazon.com
The Journey of Desire-Searching for the Life we Only Dreamed Of
By John Eldredge
Reviewed by Johanna Cameron
Having an artistic soul, this poetic portrayal of the human heart has done for me what no other book has ever done. However,this book comes with a warning. Others I know have poured over the words in this book only to gain limited understanding and gaunt looks of puzzlement towards my unyielding praise of its pages. For those with a lyrical spirit, those that ponder daily the mysteries of
the human heart, the sacredness of the soul and the pure bountifulness of the deep, unswerving love of God, the warning is that this book will forever transform your heart.
John Eldridge takes you by the hand into the quest we all share – the place where
we desire more than this life has given us.Disappointments shadow our souls, stealing the joy we know we were destined for, yet cannot achieve. Short-term pleasures are wonderfully momentary and most of us search for the meaning of life within these times, only to be disappointed that our long sought after fulfillment cannot be met in the here and now.
An earlier writing of John Eldredge, this book lays out his view of the heart’s unknown mysteries. The book is not filled with easy answers. Instead, it confronts our all too often pursuit of the simple solutions. He says that one short explanation could never encapsulate one of life’s largest mysteries –
that of desire. A desire we did not ask for, but one that was placed within us before we were conceived.
Blaise Pascal once wrote that “the heart has reasons that reason knows not of.” So open your heart, throw off the intent to rationalize your desires and look deeply, honestly at your soul. Simply peer into the yearnings of life and lift them to Jesus Christ, looking into the realization of His enormous and spectacular plan for your heart. Read “The Journey of Desire,” and meet the life you’ve only dreamed of.
Mosaic-Pieces of My Life so Far
By Amy Grant
Reviewed by Kathy Sanders
“Have you ever had days when you felt like a stuffed rabbit? In a story captured in a children’s novel, The Velveteen Rabbit, we read an unfolding story of a toy rabbit whose quest is to become real through the love of his owner. He finds that ‘real’ isn’t measured by how you are made, but rather is measured by the fact that your owner really and truly loves you. That makes you real.
As I read Amy Grant’s book, Mosaic, not only do I feel real, but I see the transparency of Amy’s life as she shares personal, poignant stories. It is plain to see through each short story that Amy has made the quest to realness by the reality that her Creator really and truly loves her. This is a timeless book, filled with wisdom reaching across the generations.”
“MOSAIC is the first and only authorized book of this much beloved icon. In an autobiography that resonates with her trademark poetic imagery and engaging spirit, Grant presents her musings on everyday life—friendship, marriage, motherhood, loss, forgiveness, and new beginnings—and provides inspiring insights into what it means to live authentically. Whether she is sharing light-hearted reminiscences about her childhood in Nashville, writing about beginning a new life with the country music star Vince Gill, or describing an amusing encounter with a fan of her husband’s, Grant invites readers into her world and into her heart.”
TrueFaceReviewed by Kay Rogers
I have been telling my friends that the book TrueFaced has been like “Volume II” of The Shack to me. After my heart was opened to the beauty and majesty of our Triune God by reading The Shack, I wanted desperately to abide in that sweet place right next to Papa, Jesus, and Sarayu (Holy Spirit).
TrueFaced picked up where The Shack left off—inviting me to live with Him in “The Room of Grace” instead of experiencing frustration and guilt by attempting to live in “The Room of Good Intentions.”
In “The Room of Grace,” God gently and lovingly frees me from unresolved hurt, sin and guilt, and invites me to take off my mask and trust Him and others with who I really am.
Isn’t that what each of us really and truly want—to know that we are loved, accepted, forgiven, set free—right now, in real time, just as we are—living in The Room of Grace.
THE SHACK
By William Young
Reviewed by Diane Fink
“Incredibly creative, keenly profound, powerfully impacting…some of the ways I would describe “The Shack.” For all its depth, it is, at the same time, an “easy read.” Be prepared to have some of your religious mindsets challenged. But if your heart is open, it will grab you and draw you into a place with God you may not have been before. I don’t recall the last time I read a book that gripped my heart like this one…or left me hungering for more of Him.”
“When the imagination of a writer and the passion of a theologian cross-fertilize the result is a novel on the order of The Shack. This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan's Pilgrim’s Progress did for his. It’s that good!!”
—Eugene Peterson, Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Theology, Regent College, Vancouver, B.C.
“The Shack is a one of a kind invitation to journey to the very heart of God. Through my tears and cheers, I have been indeed transformed by the tender mercy with which William Paul Young opened the veil that too often separate me from God and from myself. With every page, the complicated do’s and don’s that distort a relationship into a religion were washed away as I understood Father, Son and Holy Ghost for the first time in my life.”
—Patrick M. Roddy, Emmy Award Winning Producer of ABC News.
To learn more about
The Shack you can go to the book’s official website: