-
Communities
Stuck in the Middle by Virginia Smith
This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Stuck in the Middle (Revell, February 1, 2008) by Virginia Smith
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Virginia Smith left her job as a corporate director to become a full time writer and speaker with the release of her first novel Just As I Am.
Since then she has contracted eight novels and published numerous articles and short stories. She writes contemporary humorous novels for the Christian market, including Murder by Mushroom (Steeple Hill, August 2007) and her newest release, Stuck in the Middle (Revell, February 2008), book 1 in the Sister-to-Sister Series.
Her short fiction has been anthologized, and her articles have been published in a variety of Christian magazines. An energetic speaker, she loves to exemplify God’s truth by comparing real-life situations to well-known works of fiction, such as her popular talk, “Biblical Truths in Star Trek.”
Virginia is a speaker, and an avid Scuba diver. She and her husband Ted, divide their times between Kentucky and Utah, and escape as often as they can for diving trips to the Caribbean!
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Joan Sanderson’s life is stuck. Her older sister, Allie, is starting a family and her younger sister, Tori, has a budding career. Meanwhile, Joan is living at home with Mom and looking after her aging grandmother. Not exactly a recipe for excitement-or romance.
That is, until a hunky young doctor moves in next door. Suddenly Joan has a goal–to catch his eye and get a date. But it won’t be easy. Pretty Tori flirts relentlessly with him and Joan is sure that she can’t compete. But with a little help from God, Allie, and an enormous mutt with bad manners, maybe Joan can find her way out of this rut and into the life she’s been hiding from.
Book 1 of the Sister-to-Sister series, Stuck in the Middle combines budding romance, spiritual searching, and a healthy dose of sibling rivalry that is sure to make you smile.
“A gentle story of one young woman’s season of growth, deftly blending the tangle of family relationships with gifts of whimsey and revelation. A joy to read.
~SHARON HINCK, author of Renovating Becky Miller and Symphony of Secrets~
“Virginia Smith has created a charming and humerous novel that celebrates small-town life, generations of women caring for each other, and the value of finding a deeper, more active faith.”
~SHARON DUNN, author of the Bargain Hunters mysteries~
You can check your local library for a copy, or you can buy it here.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Review: It’s All Too Much by Peter Walsh
I really struggle with controlling the clutter in my home. After watching an episode of Oprah featuring Peter Walsh, the organizing guru from Clean Sweep, I picked up this book. I wasn’t disappointed.
About the Author:
Peter Walsh is the organization expert on TLC’s Clean Sweep. He has been featured on Oprah, The Greg Behrendt Show, and The Early Show. In addition to It’s All Too Much, Peter has written How to Organize Just About Everything and Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat?. Find out more about Peter at his website, Peter Walsh Design.
About the Book:
It’s All Too Much is divided into two sections. The first part is all about the clutter problem. Peter tackles the various excuses people have for not gaining control of their clutter and tells us why there really is no excuse for having a clutter problem in your home. He goes over reasons why we tend to accumulate clutter. Then he challenges us to imagine the life we want to live without the clutter.
Part two is a practical guide to getting rid of clutter. Peter instructs us how to get the family on board, where to start, how to make a plan, and how to break the seemingly insurmountable task of getting rid of clutter into manageable steps. Then he takes us room by room, showing us how to manage and respect our space. After he shows us how to get the clutter out of the house, he provides a year long guide on maintaining our new, clutter-free homes.
My Opinion:
I love this book! Let me say it again. I LOVE this book! I have been fighting with clutter in my home since the day I moved into my own apartment at age 18. We won’t talk about how long that’s been. I have read many, many books on organization and clutter control, and this one is by far the best.
I love Peter’s practical, down-to-earth style. He’s tough, and adamant about getting rid of clutter, but at the same time he’s encouraging and makes the reader feel like she can accomplish a clutter free lifestyle.
I like the step by step directions. Rather than focusing only on getting rid of the clutter, Peter goes through the reasons we collect clutter. Then he has us make a plan for each room. Only after that do we tackle the clutter. This is important, because by having a plan and knowing the reasons we collect clutter, we can tackle the root issue. By only dealing with the stuff, it’s easy to fall back into old habits. By dealing with the root issues, we can move on and leave the clutter behind for good.
I also love that he devotes a chapter to dealing with kids and clutter, as that’s a huge problem in my house. Now I feel like after I get my own clutter under control, I can effectively help the kids tackle theirs.
If you have any trouble at all with clutter in your home, I highly, highly recommend It’s All Too Much! Now I just have to read Peter’s latest book, Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat?, and maybe I’ll get my weight under control, too!
Make sure you also stop by to read my interview with Peter Walsh at Being Frugal.net today!
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
The Winner of Healing Stones
I am pleased to announce the winner of the book Healing Stones by Nancy Rue and Stephen Arterburn is commenter #2. That’s LJ from Mommy Gets Paid, who said,
Sounds like a great book! I would love to win!
Take Care
LJ
Congratulations, LJ!
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Review: ADAM by Ted Dekker
I’ve always liked a good suspense novel. In the past I’ve struggled with finding great suspense without horrid language, because Christian authors just didn’t write great suspense. My wait for the perfect, clean suspense novel is now over.
ADAM is the first novel I’ve read by author Ted Dekker. It won’t be my last. It took me about two chapters to get so wrapped up in the book that I couldn’t put it down.
The Plot:
FBI behavioral psychologist, Daniel Clark, is in pursuit of a serial killer by the name of Eve. While on the case, Daniel is killed….but is resuscitated twenty minutes later. Convinced that the key to finding Eve is hidden in those twenty minutes he was dead, Daniel tries with everything he has to regain his memory during that time.
My Opinion:
ADAM kept me on the edge of my seat from the moment I picked it up until the moment I was finished. Dekker brilliantly weaved the plot in between short snippets of “news articles” about a very disturbed young man.
This is not a book to read when you’re home alone. The plot takes several twists and turns that you don’t see coming. It’s suspenseful and realistic, but not to the point of becoming macabre.
If you want a book that is suspenseful, scary, and unpredictable, ADAM is the book for you!
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
ADAM by Ted Dekker
This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing ADAM (Thomas Nelson April 1, 2008) by Ted Dekker
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Ted is the son of missionaries John and Helen Dekker, whose incredible story of life among headhunters in Indonesia has been told in several books. Surrounded by the vivid colors of the jungle and a myriad of cultures, each steeped in their own interpretation of life and faith, Dekker received a first-class education on human nature and behavior. This, he believes, is the foundation of his writing.
After graduating from a multi-cultural high school, he took up permanent residence in the United States to study Religion and Philosophy. After earning his Bachelor’s Degree, Dekker entered the corporate world in management for a large healthcare company in California. Dekker was quickly recognized as a talent in the field of marketing and was soon promoted to Director of Marketing. This experience gave him a background which enabled him to eventually form his own company and steadily climb the corporate ladder.
Since 1997, Dekker has written full-time. He states that each time he writes, he finds his understanding of life and love just a little clearer and his expression of that understanding a little more vivid. Dekker’s body of work encompassing seven mysteries, three thrillers and ten fantasies includes Heaven’s Wager, When Heaven Weeps, Thunder of Heaven, Blessed Child, A Man Called Blessed, Blink, Thr3e, The Circle Trilogy (Black, Red, White), and Obsessed, with two more…Renegade, and Chaos to be released later this year.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
He died once to stop the killer…now he’s dying again to save his wife.
FBI behavioral psychologist Daniel Clark has become famous for his well-articulated arguments that religion is one of society’s greatest antagonists. What Daniel doesn’t know is that his obsessive pursuit of a serial killer known only as “Eve” is about to end abruptly with an unexpected death-his own.
Twenty minutes later Daniel is resuscitated, only to be haunted by the loss of memory of the events immediately preceding his death.
Daniel becomes convinced that the only way to stop Eve is to recover those missing minutes during which he alone saw the killer’s face. And the only way to access them is to trigger his brain’s memory dump that occurs at the time of death by simulating his death again…and again. So begins a carefully researched psychological thriller which delves deep into the haunting realities of near-death experiences, demon possession, and the human psche.
“As always with a Ted Dekker thriller, the details of ADAM are stunning, pointing to meticulous research in a raft of areas: police and FBI methods, forensic medicine, psychological profiling-in short, all that accompanies a Federal hunt for a serial killer. But Dekker fully reveals his magic in the latter part of the book, when he subtly introduces his darker and more frightening theme. It’s all too creepily convincing. We have to keep telling ourselves that this is fiction. At the same time, we can’t help thinking that not only could it happen, but that it will happen if we’re not careful.”
New York Times best-selling author Ted Dekker unleashes his most riveting novel yet…an elusive serial killer whose victims die of unknown causes and the psychologist obsessed with catching him.
Stay tuned for my complete review of ADAM tomorrow!
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
-
Subscribe!
-
Promoting Christian Literature
