Christian Goodreaders discussion

No, Megan, that wasn't too long!

Patricia, here's the link to my review of The Chosen: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... . So far, I haven't reviewed My Antonia, though. Since joining Goodreads in Feb. 2008, I've tried to make time to review at least one book every week, and if I don't have a newly-read one to be reviewed, I try to do a "retrospective" one from my "read" shelf. But that shelf has over 860 books, so it'll take awhile to review all of the worthwhile ones!

After a long hiatus in which I didn't have time to read regularly (Whew! I'm glad that's over!) I've just started reading The Knights of the Dawn King, by our own Scott Stabler. Being a fan of well-written fantasy, I'm expecting to find it right up my alley!

I'm adding that to my currently reading list also. I've had it around for a while... of course I still have several library books out. Most of them are audios for now so I'll try to listen to them when i can't sit and read.

The Knights of the Dawn King

Is Knight of the Dawn King available as an ebook?

Thanks,

Jon

I don't know. I saw something about downloading it, but I don't think Amazon has it for Kindle. Sorry I can't help.

Jon, Goodreads doesn't list any editions other than the trade paperback, but you might want to message Scott directly and ask. He'd definitely be the one who would know!

Earlier this weekend, I started reading Feckless, a collection of mostly supernatural/speculative fiction by nine contemporary Christian authors, all of whom I believe are part of the Treasure Line Publishing circle (and some of whom, I think, are members of our group). So far, I'm very pleased with what I'm reading!

I will finish reading Cheryl Strayed's book "Wild" today and begin the "Political Thrillers Series" by Joel C. Rosenberg.

As of today, I've started on Pro Luce Habere (To Have Before the Light) Volume 2, the second volume of the prequel to Krisi Keley's On the Soul of a Vampire. This series totally enthralls me; I think it's the best and theologically deepest treatment of the vampire mythos by a Christian writer that I've ever encountered!

Stephen Lawhead is an evangelical writer of both speculative and historical fiction that I've mentioned on this thread before. One of my Goodreads friends and I recently started a buddy read of his The Skin Map, the first book of his Bright Empires trilogy; we're planning to go ahead and read all three back-to-back.

Werner a few of us are going to read this in December over at the Lawhead group.

I read that recently and it's pretty good (though not what I expected from the synopsis). Haven't gone on with the rest of the series yet.

Banner, thanks for the tip. Actually, I knew about the poll that's currently running in the Lawhead group to gauge interest in a group read of this in December; I'm the one who posted the poll. :-) (It had three "yes" votes and no negative ones the last time I checked it.) I'll be finished reading it by then, but it'll be fresh enough in my mind that I should be able to contribute something to the discussion!

Your welcome Werner, sorry I didn't make the connection. Looking forward to the read and discussion.

My friend Jackie and I finished The Skin Map recently (we both liked it). As planned, we're going on to read the next two books of the trilogy together, so I've now moved on to the middle volume, The Bone House.

Still need to get to it...too many commitments. :)

Has anyone read Lis Wiehl's books? I had not picked them up. I did recently and found they are actually pretty open in their Christian leanings. The second series being more of the supernatural bent and the first mere mystery (though I've only read one of those).

I think I'll follow them up (though I'm not really a mystery fan per se. (As always with fiction come here for the story not to learn your theology by the way. Nothing that drove me away but still fictional adjustments especially in the newer series where there is a "supernatural" type battle involved).

Continuing the buddy read of The Bright Empires series by Stephen Lawhead that I'm currently doing with my friend Jackie, I've just started the third book, The Spirit Well. That's the last one currently in print, but the author projects two more volumes; we'll read those later, as they come out!

Right now, I'm reading Life in the Iron Mills and Other Stories, by a 19th-century American author who's not well known today, Rebecca Harding Davis. Davis was clearly a Christian; both the title story and the one I just finished, "The Wife's Story" (there are only three stories in the book) have religious content that's both explicit and central to the story.

I just finished listening to Dark Night of the Soul as one of the suggested readings for the Kansas City Public Library's Winter 2013 Adult Reading Program. I found myself nodding off (literally) at times because the theological exposition overshadowed the poem. I guess I'm going to have to find a printed copy of this so I can indulge in the poem for the poem's sake.

Has anyone else read this?

I am currently reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's the Cost of Discipleship. A great read that is packed with content, I am finding myself needing to re-read most every paragraph to make sure I do not miss the message of this very though-provoking book.

No offense to modern writers at all, I seem to easily be able to read their opening paragraph of each chapter followed by simply skimming the 1-2 opening sentences of the following paragraphs to capture their intent for their book. For Bonhoeffer, he makes me pause and think while I am reading.

I am amazed how his writing from the early 20th century STILL resonates with applicable spiritual insight today. Definitely a great read!

I can agree. Have you read Torrance or C.S.Lewis (other than his Narnia books of course)?

Not yet, Lewis is in my upcoming to-be-read list. :)

He's written some of my favorite reads.

Yes, C.S. Lewis definitely has some great books.

I'm reading the Count of Monte Cristo right now and so far, it's great! I also just finished Anthem by Ayn Rand and really enjoyed it, though it has an interesting worldview :)

I thought Anthem felt unfinished, but that may be just me.

I can definitely see how you would think that, though I think it fit the overall tone/style of the book.

When I started the book I just finished, Skinwalker, the first volume in Faith Hunter's Jane Yellowrock urban fantasy series, I didn't mention it here, because I didn't think it would be of interest to this group as such. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the book in several ways, including that one. Series heroine Jane was reared in a Christian orphanage after early years spent as an apparently feral child; and while she's no plaster saint, she's a professing and practicing Christian. And rather than distancing herself, as many modern authors in this genre do, from the Christian symbolism inherent in the traditional vampire mythos (for instance, the vampire's fear of Christian symbols like the cross), Hunter embraces it and invests it with a bit of mystery that will clearly be an underlying theme in the series.

Hunter herself was raised as a Christian, and in an online interview mentions being bullied as a child at school because of her faith. I don't know whether or not she's a Christian now. But she's certainly a Christian-influenced writer, and it shows in this book.

Thanks for sharing Werner. I'm enjoying the Dresden Files series, just finished White Night. I have not really gotten into urban fantasy until this series. Skinwalker looks like another avenue down that road.

I haven't read much urban fantasy myself, either. I'm hoping to read the first Dresden Files book later this year.

.....you haven't read Dresden???? In a way I envy you as you have them all to look forward to. Don't know if you'll like them as much as I do. The first two are good, but I must say that Butcher hits his stride in about vol. 3 or 4.

Mike wrote: "...you haven't read Dresden????" I know, I'm not nearly as well-read as I ought to be! (But I'm working on correcting my delinquencies. :-) )

I am currently reading

1 Satan You Can't Have My Promises by Iris Delgado
2 The Fall of Lucifer by Wendy Alec
3 Change Your Words Change Your Life by Joyce Meyer
4 Alaska Did this to Me By Brookelyn Bellinger

I am reading:



Kill Luther(By Mario Escobar)
Think(By John Piper)

and some other books :) Hope to review them soon!

Currently reading "God's Love - Spiritual Liberation through the Emancipation of Virtue" by Calvert Tynes.
I am in love with this story. It's a gripping tale of a man who had lost all hope and a vision for his future, but through God finds a love for life again and has restored hope in himself.

I've never been a big fan of poetry but this tale has me hooked from the first line - A promise to himself that its not time to give up on life yet and he keeps that promise. I feel like I can see myself in this book and anyone, no matter what trials can take something valuable away from this book. Definitely a must read.

I've just finished doing some beta reading of a new novel in progress by Krisi Keley, and have just started Fire Storm by Mackenzie Dare. Both ladies are members of our group, and I'm privileged to have both as Goodreads friends.

Since I'm taking part in the common read our group is doing of C. S. Lewis' The Great Divorce this month, I've just started it today. This is a reread for me, but it's been about 20 years since I've read it.

One of my favorite reads, I've read it several times.

Change Your Perspective by J. Poet – Book Review
By Susan McMichael
4 out of 5 stars

Different perspectives, interesting times and reliance …
As a long time singer of Church music, both hymns and songs, and as a poet, I was looking forward to this book. Christian poetry’s framework and structures have changed over the past thirty years, in much the same way as secular poetry has: using much more free verse. Following in this heritage this is a book of free verse. I appreciated Change your Perspective's hopeful tone of getting the reader to enjoy their life, to see how God and Christ could make a difference to people's lives. In the poetry in Change Your Perspective: A Collection Of Inspirational Poetry, the reader is asked to take a journey from the physical reality of imperfection to the spiritual view of change for the better through Christ. Despite this emphasis on the spiritual this is not a book of ‘grandiose’ events, but rather of the very ordinary. Following along these lines Poet uses the common, vernacular speech to bring God into these poems: “When your chips are down... you say you want / To be married / You say this will / Make your life / Whole” (Ladies – Give God A Chance).

The book is a series of small recipes for getting your life back together, for changing your ideas. It is divided into three main sections: Broken, The Almighty God and Emerge. It delves into the everyday, including those feelings and actions that we like to deny.


http://goo.gl/X5SMcL (Change Your Perspective - Book ed.)
http://goo.gl/Ucv71F (Change your Perspective - Kindle ed.)


For the full review please click:

http://raymondmathiesenbookreviews.bl...

Raymond wrote: "Change Your Perspective by J. Poet – Book Review
By Susan McMichael
4 out of 5 stars

Different perspectives, interesting times and reliance …
As a long time singer of Church music, both hymns and ..."

This post looks more like an advertisement for your book. If so, then please delete it and repost it in the appropriate "GoodReads Author" section.

Thanks, Jon

Jon write: This post looks more like an advertisement for your book. If so, then please delete it and repost it in the appropriate "GoodReads Author" section.

No Jon I didn't write the book. (If only!!!) I only reviewed it.

Amongst a plethora of other books I'm currently reading Our Unmet Needs: God Has an Answer For...by Charles Stanley. I enjoyed the first half of the book, which focussed on unmet emotional needs. But I'm about two thirds through now and have become bogged down in the topic of "why hasn't God given me...?". It's not quite what I'm needing so I'm hoping he returns to a focus on emotional needs.

AS a children's librarian, I read several hundred children's books each year. But I also take time to read books for adults as well. Currently, I have just started reading Darwin's Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design.

J. R. R. Tolkien was, as we've noted elsewhere, a devout Roman Catholic writer, and once declared that his Lord of the Rings trilogy is "a Catholic work." In the trilogy itself, though, the Christian elements are subtle and mostly not explicit. In the voluminous notes he developed over the decades containing his invented back-story for the First Age of Middle Earth, however, they're much more explicit. This is the material his son Christopher collected and edited into The Silmarillion; another of my groups is doing that book as a common read this month, and I started reading it yesterday.

The reviews where Prof. Tolkien mentioned the Christian tie ins aren't common. I "was told" by a friend that he read a review where he mentioned that Galadriel was Mary (I assume I should say "to him" here). I find what I've been able to find on the other Inklings very interesting.

I am currently reading "Kingdom Woman" Tony Evans, "Power of a Praying Wife" Stormie Omartian and "Crazy Love" (audiobook) Francis Chan. All very fascinating books!

A friend of mine suggested that during Lent we only read Spiritual or religious based books. Not a bad idea, I don't think I can give up my regular fiction reads, but it's a great suggestion. Anyone else doing anything different during Lent with your reading habits?

I'm giving up haggis...

That sounds like a good thing to give up. Lol

Although I beta read all but three of the stories in our own Andrew M. Seddon's newest collection, Saints Alive! New Stories of Old Saints: Volume II Celtic Paths (as I did the ones in the preceding volume, Saints Alive! New Stories of Old Saints: Saints of Empire), it had been awhile, so I thought a reread would be in order before writing my review; I finished it yesterday. Both books are highly recommended for members of this group!