February Book Club Selection

February's selection was recommended by Christy Bledsoe of Swift Church. We will be reading A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers which is the first book in the Mark of the Lion Series. This is a favorite author among the book club so I'm sure we will have no trouble with this one. The book is 515 pages and here is a brief description:


“The city was silently bloating in the hot sun, rotting like the thousands of bodies that lay where they had fallen in street battles.” With this opening sentence, A Voice in the Wind transports readers back to Jerusalem during the first Jewish-Roman War, some seventy years after the death of Christ. Following the prides and passions of a group of Jews, Romans and Barbarians living at the time of the siege, the narrative is centered on an ill-fated romance between a steadfast slave girl, Hadassah, and Marcus, the brother of her owner and a handsome aristocrat. After surviving the massacre of her family and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, Hadassah is captured and sold to a well-to-do merchant’s family. Brought to Rome, she is pressed into service as a personal slave to hedonistic Julia Valerian. Hadassah struggles to walk in the footsteps of Jesus and to treat her masters in a manner in keeping with His teachings, but she is forced to keep her religious identity a secret in order to survive. Confused and alone, she has only her faith to cling to as she tries to subtly bring God into the lives of her captors. Reckless, impulsive, and villainous, Julia tries to undermine Hadassah at every turn. But Julia’s brother, Marcus, is a different sort altogether. Is it possible for a love between Hadassah and Marcus to flourish considering not only their differing stations in life, but also the gap between Hadassah’s unrelenting faith and Marcus’ lack of belief in anything? Simultaneously, Atretes, a captured soldier from Germania, is forced to become a gladiator. This is the time of Rome's decline and the decadence of a civilization on the verge of self-destruction serves as a powerful backdrop to the Barbarian’s struggle for survival in the arena. (end quote)


I'm really excited as I have heard many great reviews on this book and it's series.An e-mail will be sent with ordering information but I do know that copies are available in the Public Library. The book suggestions have been slow going.... To make this year's book club work I need YOU to e-mail me your favorite books that you think our group will enjoy. Please Please Please, e-mail me your ideas, whether you are a regular attendee or you just read along with us and don't attend the meetings, it doesn't matter!!! I need you to keep this year going. I barely have time to read other than a textbook so I can't do near the research as usual right now. Please call or e-mail me with any questions, suggestions or comments.


February Meeting will be on 2/25!


Happy Reading!

January 2012 Selection

Happy New Year! It's time to begin another year of Book Club. We are on our 4th year! Can you believe it? As many of you know, I am currently enrolled more than full time in school and work and have difficulty finding time to read anything other than a textbook much less try to pre-screen books. It is with this concern that this years book club selections will be selected by YOU or others in the church who would like to share their favorite selections. Each month the selection will be a featured favorite, still in the category of Christan or Inspirational.

This month's selection is one passed along from Samford Turner, Executive Presbyter of the Presbytery of South Alabama. We will be reading The Noticer by Andy Andrews. This does happen to be one that I have read and had been thinking about doing for book club for quite some time. It is inspirational fiction (although you will recognize a lot of truth in it too) set in Orange Beach, AL. The book is 176 pages and here is a brief description:

Orange Beach, Alabama is a simple town filled with simple people. But like all humans on the planet, the good folks of Orange Beach have their share of problems - marriages teetering on the brink of divorce, young adults giving up on life, business people on the verge of bankruptcy, as well as the many other obstacles that life seems to dish out to the masses. Fortunately, when things look the darkest - a mysterious man named Jones has a miraculous way of showing up. An elderly man with white hair, of indiscriminate age and race, wearing blue jeans, a white T-shirt and leather flip flops carrying a battered old suitcase, Jones is a unique soul. Communicating what he calls "a little perspective," Jones explains that he has been given a gift of noticing things that others miss. "Your time on this earth is a gift to be used wisely," he says. "Don't squander your words or your thoughts. Consider even the simplest action you take, for your lives matter beyond measure…and they matter forever." Jones speaks to that part in everyone that is yearning to understand why things happen and what we can do about it. (end quote from Amazon.com)

I'm really excited about this book to start off the New Year, maybe it will make us all notice things a little more often throughout the year. An e-mail will be sent with ordering information but I do know that copies are available in our Church Library and the Public Library.

The Chick-Fil-A meeting was a nice change and we are going to meet there again this January 28th at 830 AM and will meet until 10AM. Invite your friends and family, the more the merrier. If you would prefer us keep meetings at the church, let me know. Your opinion counts, no feelings hurt here!

Now one last thing I need from you. To make this year's book club work I need YOU to e-mail me your favorite books that you think our group will enjoy. Please Please Please, e-mail me your ideas, whether you are a regular attendee or you just read along with us and don't attend the meetings, it doesn't matter!!! I need you to keep this year going. I have provided a list of books we have already read at the bottom of the email so you can see what has already been done.

Happy Reading!

Past Book Selections

2011
January – The Help by Kathryn Stockett
February – The practice of the presence of God by Brother Lawrence
March – Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza
April – Have a little faith by Mitch Albom
May – Heaven is for real by Todd Burpo
June – Under the overpass by Mike Yankoski
July – Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
August – What different do it make? by Ron Hall & Denver Moore
September – The Book of Ruth (The Bible)

2010
January – The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall
February – The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer
March – God’s Smuggler by Brother Andrew
April – A Lineage of Grace by Francine Rivers
May – Candle in the Darkness by Lynn Austin
June – The Measure of a Lady by Deanne Gist
July – A shepherd looks at the 23rd Psalm by Phillip Keller
August – Redemption by Karen Kingsbury
September – For One More Day by Mitch Albom

2009
January – Traveling Light by Max Lucado
February – Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
March – Same kind of different as me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore
April – The Shack by William P. Young
May – Having a Mary heart in a Martha world by Joanna Weaver
June – The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
July – The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom
August – The Five people you meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
September – One Tuesday Morning by Karen Kingsbury

Holiday Break!

Our book club is on holiday break until January 2012. We finished up our Book Club year this month with a meeting at Chickfila! Jody Beth led a great mini study of The Book of Ruth. THANK YOU JODY BETH!!! We had 6 people in attendance. It was a good meeting and it was nice to have the new atmosphere. Please be sure to give me feedback on what you thought of the meeting at Chickfila, Like or Dislike?

I hope you have enjoyed reading along this year. Here is a list of all our book selections for 2011 just in case you missed one and would like to catch up:

January – The Help by Kathryn Stockett
February – The practice of the presence of God by Brother Lawrence
March – Left to Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza
April – Have a little faith by Mitch Albom
May – Heaven is for real by Todd Burpo
June – Under the overpass by Mike Yankoski
July – Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
August – What different do it make? by Ron Hall & Denver Moore
September – The Book of Ruth (The Bible)

As many of you know I am in school full time right now and I am extremely busy with school work and that absorbs most all my "extra" reading time right now. Please be sure to share with me good books that you have read or read during this time of break from the club. I'm trying to listen to books on CD to get in my non-school related reading. I will probably need a lot of help and suggestions to really get 2012 off to a great start!

I pray that each one of you has found something good and unexpected from our readings this year and have been blessed in some way by being a part of this club. I pray that each of you have a peaceful and wonderful holiday season. Thank you for your participation, attendance, opinions, suggestions and words of encouragement. I truly appreciate each and every one.

Happy Reading!

With Love,
Amber

September Book Selection

Our September selection will be something we have never done before.... We are going to read the Book of Ruth from the Bible. And luckily no need for a book order or much introduction unless you need help finding a Bible! :)

With every one's crazy busy schedules (especially mine) and as I had difficulty for September, Jody Beth felt God leading her to lead a mini review/Bible Study on Ruth for our Book Club. We touched on reading about the Book of Ruth back in Lineage of Grace by Francine Rivers you can click on the title to refer back to the Blog to refresh your memory.

And one more surprise.... At our last meeting of the year on Saturday September 17 at 8:30 AM we are going to meet at ChickFila in Foley. We will have our discussion, led by Jody Beth and you can have some coffee or breakfast as well if you so desire. :)

NOTE: We are not meeting on the last Saturday of September because this is Cursillo weekend. And since we don't have to wait on getting The Book of Ruth, our readers shouldn't have any problem meeting a week earlier. :)

Thanks so much for your participation!!! Remember I LOVE book suggestions and am here if you have any questions or need some other book ideas to read when you finish the monthly book. You can also check out the blog and see what other books I read and review as I try to find books for the club and for my own enjoyment. Happy Reading!

Mere Christianity

July has passed and we did not have a meeting with everyone having such a busy summer schedule. I haven't heard much feedback on who did or didn't read the book. I know of a couple who couldn't get into it but then others who remarked that they had read the book previously and it has always been a favorite. I wish that when I had first read the book, I wasn't listening to a library copy and could have gone through and marked it up with a highlighter or pencil. There were so many interesting things that Lewis said and the manor of the way he explained things are so simple and real. From an intellectual standpoint, he really opens the door for those who have problems wrapping their minds around Christianity and makes it easier to grasp and understand.

I did have one favorite quote that I remember that I would like to share with you here:

God made us; invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on gasoline, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God Designed the Human Machine to run on himself. He himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from himself because it is not there. There is no such thing. (end quote)

I love this statement and I love the truth of it and the way that Lewis makes it so simple when others try to sometimes make it more complicated. My reading time is becoming increasingly "booked" as I attend classes through Troy University but I do hope to one day go back and read this again now that I have my own copy. I still urge you to read it sometime if you haven't. I also would pray you check out some of Lewis's other writings. Happy Reading!!

When Crickets Cry

I finished up the book, When Crickets Cry by Charles Martin. This is a Christian Fiction book and is 352 pages. Here is a description of the book from online:

A man with a painful past. A child with a doubtful future. And a shared journey toward healing for both their hearts. It begins on the shaded town square in a sleepy Southern town. A spirited seven-year-old has a brisk business at her lemonade stand. Her latest customer, a bearded stranger, drains his cup and heads to his car, his mind on a boat he's restoring at a nearby lake. But the little girl's pretty yellow dress can't quite hide the ugly scar on her chest. The stranger understands more about it than he wants to admit. And the beat-up bread truck careening around the corner with its radio blaring is about to change the trajectory of both their lives. Before it's over, they'll both know there are painful reasons why crickets cry...and that miracles lurk around unexpected corners. (end quote)

This book was a slow read but a good one. I know that doesn't sound quite right but I really did enjoy the story and the characters. The author went to great care to be extremely descriptive and make sure the reader knew everything necessary about Heart Transplants which is a huge part of the book. I think one of my favorite things was the outlook of the little girl Annie. She is amazingly brave in the face of having to receive a new heart by transplant and her faith is unshakable. She tells one of the other main characters not to worry because, "Whether or not I wake up...I'll have a new heart." Annie knew what was at stake and trusted God to bring her through it all on this side of heaven or not. I love the eternal optimist.

There are also some other themes to help in forgiveness, healing from the loss of a loved one and how much family matters. While this book will not be a book club selection I do hope that if you choose to read it you enjoy the book and keep going. Just because it's a little slow doesn't mean it's not worth your while. I look forward to maybe reading some other books by this author at some point. Happy reading!

Under the Overpass Recap

Better late than never. I want to write a bit about this book from where I have marked sections that I found interesting. There are three particular ones that I want to bring attention to that God really spoke to me about and helped widen my thinking about the lost and homeless and how we treat them. So many wonderful learning experiences but these are just a few that jumped out at me to write to you about.

1) In Denver, pages 36-39. "If we are the body of Christ-and Christ came not for the healthy but the sick-we need to be fully present in the places where people are most broken." I think that is one of the biggest reminders that many Christian's and non-Christians constantly need to hear. You don't have to wait until your "better" to be good enough to come to Christ. He came to save the sick and the sinners. A page over Mike describes the speakers who come to preach to the homeless. And in a lengthy description he wonders, "Why the speakers so often focused on the "hell, fire and damnation" theme and so little on hope, joy, love, peace, or really anything positive." Mike ponders over why the speakers think that this type of sermon is what is going to help these people who are so down and broken. He uses this example: "Telling someone who is suffering deeply that he's going to suffer more is probably a waste of breath. It's like warning someone who is already starving that they're about to get really hungry. But tell him of the restaurant that serves heaping meals to all who come no matter where they're from or what they look like, and he's more than likely to listen." I have always wondered about those who do preach this theme and if it ever actually works and "scares" people into coming to Christ. I felt like Mike really showed me how wrong that thinking can be and that we could be more effective by loving people to Christ. I know which option I would choose if I didn't already know the Lord...I would be much more willing to listen to the hope than the hell.

2) Now in Portland, pages 96-97. "Sitting there with Sugar man, I felt my carefully established definitions of a Christian crack and expand. Here was an admitted addict and user openly proclaiming Christ in his community and asking how he could serve us." This is the part where Mike is trying to determine what do you do with your definition of a Christian when you encounter someone like this, you end up having to expand your comfort level. He says, "Why do we reject the loving, self-sacrificing, giving, encouraging, Jesus-pursuing drug addict but recruit the clean, self-interested, gossiping, loveless churchgoer? Which one do you suppose Jesus would rather share a burrito with under a bridge?" I don't know about you but that really made me think about the way I judge and treat others.

3)Lastly in San Francisco, pages 134-136. Sam and Mike have just received some left over pizza from a man and are extremely grateful for the leftovers. They discuss how the prayer of thanking God for our food has a whole knew meaning when you are out on the streets. Mike brings up the idea about how we pray for provision but then don't make the effort to get it when God provides it. He made the observation, "What do you think would have happened if the Israelites hadn't gone out and picked up the manna God sent?" "We'd be a lot more hungry if we hadn't asked for that pizza. God answered our prayers for provision, but we still had to ask these guys for it. We still had to 'pick up the manna.'" Then as the conversation continues he said, "It's like asking God to Bless your day, then when He puts a needy, smelly person in front of you that you could really help, you wonder what you did to deserve such rotten luck." It was an interesting conversation about how we ask for things and sometimes God provides just not in the way we anticipated and we still have to receive it... we can't just sit around and do nothing.


At our meeting we talked about so many other wonderful things we learned and the interesting experiences of these men as they lived on the street. If you haven't already, I encourage you to read the book and I pray you are blessed by it and find something unexpected and good! Happy Reading!