Book Review: The MeToo Reckoning

The #MeToo Reckoning
Facing the Church’s Complicity in Sexual Abuse and Misconduct

by Ruth Everhart

InterVarsity Press

IVP Books

Christian

Pub Date 14 Jan 2020

I am reviewing a copy of The #MeToo Reckoning through Intervarsity Press and Netgalley:

In this book we are reminded that victims of sexual assault are crying out for justice. And that their voices have been amplified by the #Metoo movement, which is passing through the culture like a freight train.

The phrase #Metoo as relating to the movement was coined in 2006 but it truly gained momentum in 2017 when allegations against prominent film producer Harvey Weinstein roared through the media prompting others to share their stories.

This book prompts the question where is the Church in all of this? And reminds us the #Metoo movement is not a women’s issue, but it is a human issue.

The author reminds us that it is important we not blame the victims of sexual assault, that they not, and that when someone is assaulted in the Church it needs to be taken seriously not swept under the rug.

We are reminded in this book that the concept of justice is a complex one.

I give The #Metoo Awakening five out of five stars.

Book Review: Hope’s Highest Mountain

Hope’s Highest Mountain
by Misty M. Beller

Revell

Christian

Pub Date 01 Oct 2019

I am reviewing a copy of Hopes Highest Mountain through Revell and Netgalley:

Ingrid Chastain is happy to go along with her Father who is a doctor to deliver Small Pox Vaccines to a small mining town in the Montana territory, she could not have anticipated the terrible accident that would take her Father and all others on the trip, and would nearly kill her.

Micah Bradley left doctoring after he had been unable to save his beloved wife and daughter from the Small Pox outbreak in another area years back, but when he comes across the gruesome accident scene that left everyone but Ingrid dead, he knew he had to do what he could to help her, she suffered from a broken leg, damaged ribs and a head injury, so he carries her back to his shelter where he does his best to help her, upon her assistance he goes back to the accident scene, and the wagon to get the vials of vaccines he was carrying, and together with him baring the weight they take the dangerous journey into town.

Along the way they stop at a cabin where a wife, her child, and her fatally injured husbands live, Micah is unable to save the man it is not safe to leave the boy and his Mother alone so the pair becomes four, but even then they aren’t without danger, will they survive the trip, in order to get the vials to the town, and save lives, or will they did in the trying?

I give Hopes Highest Mountain five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review:A Distance Too Grand

A Distance Too Grand
by Regina Scott
Revell
Christian
Pub Date 01 Oct 2019

I am reviewing a copy of A Distance Too Grand through Revell and Netgalley:

Get ready to take a trip back to the Arizona territory in the years following the Civil War.

Meg Pero has been her Father’s assistant since she was only eight and was able to carry the photographers equipment so after he dies she is determined to take over his profession she starts by fulfilling the contract he signed to serve as a photographer on the Army Survey of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in 1871. What she didn’t know until she was face to face with him was that the head of this expedition was none other than the man she once married.

Captain Ben Coleridge would love to leave for the expedition without the women who broke his heart, but he needs a photographer and unfortunately she is the only one who is available. Whether he likes it or not Ben knows he needs Meg in order to complete this survey. But this Survey is actually a screen for another more personal, more important mission, so delaying it even a day is not an option. He has to find his missing Father.

There are dangers coming from all sides including the survey party, Meg and Ben must work together in order to stay alive , fulfill their doings, but in doing so can they rekindle the flames they once felt for one another?

If you are looking for a good trip back into the past, filled with Adventure, and perhaps even love, I recommend A Distance Too Grand.

I give this book five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: Once Upon A Dickens Christmas

Once Upon a Dickens Christmas
3 Charming Christmas Tales Set in Victorian England

by Michelle Griep
Barbour Publishing, Inc.
Shiloh Run Press

Christian , Romance

Pub Date 01 Sep 2019

I am reviewing a copy of Once Upon a Dickens Christmas though Barbour Publishing Inc/Shiloh Run Press and Netgalley:

In the first tale 12 Days at Bleakly Manor Clara and Ben are brought together under mysterious circumstances where they learn what they have were striving for was not what truly mattered, but that in fact Christmas is about love.

The second story in Once Upon A Dickens Christmas is A Tale of Two Hearts, William Barlow is a pleasure seeker who needs a wife immediately if he has any hope in inheriting his Uncle’s estate, otherwise his Cousin Percy is likely to inherit it, and Percy will stop at nothing because he’s put himself in debt. This is where Mina Scott comes in, she’s just the person to make William look respectable at first she turns him down, but can he convince her to go along with the plan, and will something real come out of this?

In the final story The Old Lace Shop Bella White has been recently widowed which has finally given her freedom from the abuse she endured. But once she enters into a business with the handsome Edmund Archer, she begins to think that maybe marriage might be worth another chance.

I found that Once Upon A Dickens Christmas is worthy of five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: A Body in the Bookshop

A Body in the Bookshop
Kitt Hartley Yorkshire Mysteries 2
by Helen Cox
Quercus Books
Quercus
Mystery & Thrillers
Pub Date 31 Oct 2019

I am reviewing a copy of A Body In the Bookshop through Quercus Books and Netgalley:

It’s almost Christmas in York but it is as if the Christmas goodwill has not touched anyone yet.

After DS Charolette Banks is suspended from the Police Force after being accused of assaulting a suspect of the burglary of a local bookshop. Librarian Kitt Harley and her friend Evie Bowes know she is not guilty, but why is someone trying to get her in trouble?

Charolette’s boss DI Malcolm Halloran is not in a position to help so Evie Bowes takes it upon herself to help Charolette regain her good name and get her career back. It takes some convincing but she is able to convince Kitt to help as well.
They go from the tight knit community of York’s bestsellers, to the most gossipy bus route in the county. Kitt and Evie are not going to leave anything to chance.

The discovery of a body makes the stakes even higher. For Evie and Kitt the case is as personal as they come. Can they catch the murderer in order to make a bright and Merry Christmas or will they become the killers next victims?

I give A Body in the Bookshop five out of five stars…

Book Review: A Prayer for Orion

A Prayer for Orion

A Son’s Addiction and a Mother’s Love

by Katherine James

InterVarsity Press

IVP Books

Christian , Religion & Spirituality

Pub Date 28 Jan 2020

I am reviewing a copy of A Prayer for Orion through Intervarsity Press and Netgalley:

She always thought it would be someone else’s kids, not their’s until Katherine James and her husband found out that their son was using heroin.

This is such an important book for anyone who has been affected by the Opioid Crisis in anyway. Their responses ran from anger to guilt, disbelief and helplessness.

As Katherine and her husband struggled to come to grips with their son’s addiction and decide how best to help their son, their home became a refuge for an unlikely assortment of their son’s friends, each with a story of their own, drawn by the simple love and acceptance they found there—”the Lost Boys,” James calls them.

I give this memoir that is both sensitive and vulnerable while still being hopeful, five out of five stars.

Happy Reading!

Book Review: Echoes Among the Stones

Echoes among the Stones
by Jaime Jo Wright
Bethany House
Bethany House Publishers
Christian
Pub Date 03 Dec 2019

I am reviewing a copy of Echoes among the Stones through Bethany House Publishers and Netgalley:

Aggie Dunkirk’s career was unceremoniously ended by mistakes she made. So she decides to travel to Wisconsin where her Grandmother Mumsie lives alone in her own rambling home. She did not know how eccentric Mumsie had become , obsessing over an old, unsolved crime scene–even going so far as to re-create it in the dollhouse.

When she finds work as a secretary helping to restore the flooded historical part of the Cemetery, Mystery seems to follow her. She ends up having to work with the cemetery’s puzzling but attractive archaeologist and she ends up exhuming secrets from the past and accidentally ends up uncovering a crime that some will stop at nothing to keep hidden, even if it means silencing Aggie for good.

In 1946 Imogene Flannigan works in a local factory and dreams of one day only her own beauty salon. coming home to discover her younger sister’s body in the attic changes everything. Unfamiliar with the newly burgeoning world of criminal forensics and not particularly welcomed as a woman, Imogene is nonetheless determined to stay involved.

Even as her sisters case grows cold, Imogene is determined to stay involved in the case, but at what cost?

I give Echoes among the Stones five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

Book Review: Separated by the Border

Separated by the Border
A Birth Mother, a Foster Mother, and a Migrant Child’s 3,000-Mile Journey

by Gena Thomas
InterVarsity Press
IVP Books

Christian , Religion & Spirituality
Pub Date 29 Oct 2019

I am reviewing a copy of Separated by the Border through Intervarsity Press and Netgalley:

In 2017 five year old Guadalupe traveled from Honduras to America with her Mother. The harrowing journey took her from Mexico in the cargo section of a tractor trailer. She was then separated from her Mother. she had been held hostage by Smugglers who exploited her Mother physically and financially. At the U.S Border Julia came through the processing center as an unaccompanied minor after being separated from her stepdad who had been deported. Gena Thomas tells the story of how Julia came to the United States, what she experienced in the system, and what it took to reunite her with her family.

Gena A Spanish-speaking former missionary, became Julia’s foster mother and witnessed the ways migrant children experience trauma firsthand. Piecing together the stories of birth mother and foster mother, this book shows the human face of the immigrant and refugee, the challenges of the immigration and foster care systems, and the tenacious power of motherly love.

I found the arguments, and the facts to back up those arguments to be well argued and well researched and therefore I find this book to be worthy of five out of five stars.

Happy Reading!

Book Review: Deadly Deceit

Deadly Deceit
by Natalie Walters
Revell
Christian
Pub Date 05 Nov 2019

I am reviewing a copy of Deadly Deceit through Revell and Netgalley:

Journalist Vivian DeMarco is a tenacious and independent journalist, she is back in Walton, Georgia for one reason only that is to do her job and get out.

After her boss unexpectedly dies under suspicious circumstances, Vivian’s only hope for getting to the truth and to the next big story is Deputy Ryan Frost, the Small Town law enforcements lanky poster boy.

As they dig deeper the truth becomes more and more twisted, and Vivian finds herself fighting for not only answers but aphorism her life as well. A series of False leads, incriminating emails, and someone called The Watcher force Vivian to confront the secret of her past and decide: How much is she willing to risk for the sake of a headline?

I give Deadly Deceit five out of five stars…

Happy Reading!

Book Review: Platinum Faith

Platinum Faith
Live Brilliant, Be Resilient, & Know Your Worth

by Michelle Medlock Adams, Bethany Jett

Abingdon Press

Christian , Religion & Spirituality

Pub Date 01 Oct 2019

I am reviewing a copy of The Platinum Faith through Abingdon Press and Netgalley:

In this book we are encouraged to strive for Platinum Faith and in order to do that we build up our Spirit with God’s word and getting to know him not just knowing about Him but really getting to know Who He is.

Platinum Faith reminds us too that we are useful. We are reminded too that God has a plan for our life all that we have to do is to take the time to be in his prescience and listen to him.

We are encouraged too to live brilliant and to pray protection over ourselves and our loved ones.

We are reminded too that we are precious, and that we are priceless, that we are valuable .

The authors go on to point out that growing our Faith does not happen accidentally.

I would recommend Platinum Faith to anyone who has ever felt they were not enough, it would also work great for a Women’s Bible Study Group. I find this book to be worthy of five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!