Tenacious by Jeremy and Jennifer Williams with Rob Suggs

I couldn't quite fit the entire title and author line on my blog post title:  Tenacious: How God Used a Terminal Diagnosis to Turn a Family and a Football Team Into Champions by Jeremy and Jennifer Williams with Rob Suggs.  But despite the length of the title, it is apt and appropriate. 

The book opens with the story of the Williams family's experience with the TV reality show Extreme Makeover:  Home Edition and then backtracks and tells the tale of how they got to the point where they were shouting "MOVE THAT BUS!" with their friends, family and neighbors tearfully watching.  Not being much of a TV watcher or sports fanatic, I had not heard of the Williams family but I was fascinated by their story.

They are ordinary people who have chosen to follow Christ and make that part of their every day lives, whether that is coaching high school football, dealing with a child with special needs or receiving a devastating diagnosis of ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) at a fairly young age.  The theme of the book is a tenacious faith in God and a tenacious approach to living life like you mean it.

I enjoyed the story quite a bit, but then I always love memoirs.  I did find the writing style at times to be a bit "preachy" but from what I gleaned from the book every bit of "preaching" comes from genuine faith so it is hard to fault that much.  I thought the book was a very uplifting and positive story, despite the difficult challenges that the authors face.  I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a feel-good encouraging story about facing tough times with a good attitude.

A Walk Through the Dark: How My Husband's 90 Minutes in Heaven Deepened My Faith for a Lifetime by Eva Piper

With one of the longest subtitles ever, A Walk Through the Dark:  How My Husband's 90 Minutes in Heaven Deepened My Faith for a Lifetime by Eva Piper gives us the other side of the story to the popular book 90 Minutes in Heaven by her husband, Don Piper.

Told by Eva with the help of Cecil Murphey (who also co-wrote Don Piper's book), this book chronicles Eva's experience of hearing about Don's terrible car accident, his recovery process and eventually the story of how he died and went to heaven and was "prayed back" to earth.  It tells of her personal struggles, what she felt and how she responded to having a husband who was severely injured and underwent a lengthy and painful recovery.

I enjoyed the first part of the book, where it tells of how Eva found out about the car accident and her experiences watching Don struggle.  I found it to be a good look into what spouses and caregivers of those severely injured go through and I haven't found that to be a popular perspective in memoirs.  Typically memoirs are about the injured person, not those who have to watch and support the recovery without actually having any control. 

However, I thought that Eva did a bit too much defending of her choices and decisions.  The second half of the book felt a bit defensive at times and a bit preachy too.  I come from a church background so the vernacular was familiar to me, but at times it seemed a bit too Christian cliché for my taste.  However, I have never undergone a similar situation and I am not faulting her responses or emotions at all, just the style in which the book was written.  She is brave to tell her story and I have to give her that.  It just wasn't my favorite style of memoir writing.

All in all, this book was a good companion book to 90 Minutes in Heaven and I think would be a good read for anyone who has been a caregiver for someone with a life-threatening and lengthy illness.

Jesus, My Father, the CIA, and Me: A Memoir...Of Sorts by Ian Morgan Cron

After reading Chasing Francis by Cron, I was interested in picking up his memoir, Jesus, My Father, the CIA and Me: A Memoir...Of Sorts.  I wanted to learn more about the man who came up with the story behind Chasing Francis and of course, I'm always a sucker for memoirs.

I found this book to be easy to read as it chronicled Cron's childhood growing up with an alcoholic father.  The majority of the book covered Cron's school years and the significant life events and interactions that shaped him, particularly those with his father and how they affected him as he grew up.  Cron writes with a sense of humor, and I often found myself chuckling out loud.  The humor wove its way around the painful incidents of his childhood and helped the memoir from being overly sad or dark.

My only criticism was that there was a part of the book that didn't seem to flow chronologically.  At the end of one chapter, Cron is floundering a bit as a college student.  In the next chapter, his dad dies, he finishes college and gets married.  I had to flip back through to see if I had missed something.  Maybe the author intended to use it to get across the abruptness and chaos that his father's death brought to his life or maybe it just needed a little more in the way of details to make it flow better.  It also seemed to jump whole periods of his life towards the end of the book, as if he was trying to finish it in a certain number of pages, after spending a lot of time and detail on his childhood.  And even though the title has CIA in it, the CIA was really just a very small part of the book.

Other than that, I really enjoyed the book and also the way he explained his search for his father's love as being integral to almost everything else in his life.  I liked his writing style and would definitely recommend the book.

Chasing Francis: A Pilgrim's Tale by Ian Morgan Cron

Chasing Francis: A Pilgrim's Tale by Ian Morgan Cron is part fiction, part non-fiction, a genre called wisdom literature according to the author's notes.  The story follows the crisis of faith of a contemporary pastor and his discovery of a new way of living a spiritual life focused more on Christ than religion. 

The author provides a lot of historical information and deeper thoughts about the life of St. Francis in the context of Pastor Chase Falson's search for true faith.  This nonfiction information is nicely balanced by the fictional character development and plot.  A book more about thoughts and feelings than actions, the reader is drawn to think more about what it means to be a Christian in the postmodern world and what the church should look like.  The example of St. Francis's life is used to introduce themes about faith, art, embracing culture, service and love in the context of the contemporary church.  There is also a lengthy section in the back of the book with more information and lots of discussion questions, should you want to read the book with others.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit.  I didn't know anything about St. Francis before reading and I found him to be an intriguing historical figure.  I would never have picked up a nonfiction book about him or about the subjects/ideas introduced in this book so this was a good chance to learn and be prodded to think, yet have the framework of a fictional character's pilgrimage to hold up the ideas and demonstrate them.  I think many of the questions brought up in this book about faith and church in the postmodern world will continue to be hot topics of discussion in the years to come and this book does a great job of introducing them.

Joni & Ken: An Untold Love Story by Ken & Joni Eareckson Tada with Larry Libby

I was excited when I saw the author of this book as I have always admired and respected her.  Joni & Ken: An Untold Love Story by Ken & Joni Eareckson Tada with Larry Libby is my favorite kind of book - a memoir about relationship.

Reading at times like a journal and others as if you are a fly on the wall, this book gives both the broad scope of this couple's story as well as details that make you feel like you are just sitting at the kitchen table over coffee discussing life.  There isn't much on their early lives, the story mostly begins when they meet with flashbacks to key events in their childhood and early years. 

I enjoyed this story and was encouraged by the commitment this couple has shown to each other, to their ministry and to Christ.  Living with quadriplegia, persistent pain and breast cancer and all of the care-taking duties that go along with that cannot be easy and they readily admit that but they also admit that they have learned that in their weaknesses they are strong because of their shared faith. 

However, I would have liked more.  More details on how they fell in love and their courtship.  More insight into their decisions and how that affected their relationship.  Maybe more about their families.  The book was a quick read and fine as is, but I think it needed more for me to be able to call it an amazing book.

A Matter of Trust by Lis Wiehl with April Henry

I was looking for an entertaining book and A Matter of Trust by Lis Wiehl with April Henry certainly fit the bill.  The main character, Mia Quinn is a Seattle prosecutor and is talking with a colleague on the phone one evening only to be horrified to hear a shot ring out and hear no response from her friend.  Mia is then given her colleague's murder case to solve, along with the help of a police detective with whom she has an unpleasant history.

The book is fast-paced and fairly well written.  I found the plot line a little confusing at times but maybe that is just because it is a murder mystery and the author wants the reader to be in the dark a little.  I enjoyed the inevitable twist at the end.

I felt that a few of the minor story lines were not well developed and either should have been given more time or else left out entirely as they were a distraction.  However, I note that this is the first book of the series so perhaps some of those story lines will be teased out in later books.  I also didn't think that the main character was always believable or even as well developed as she could have been. 

I thought this book was pretty good and I read through it quickly so if you are looking for a beach read for the summer, I would recommend it.  If you are looking for something with more character development or something to really think about, I would keep looking.

Every Perfect Gift by Dorothy Love

A little bit of mystery, a little bit of history and a love story.  That is how to describe Every Perfect Gift by Dorothy Love. 

The reader is drawn in by the strong main character, Sophie, who is a woman with a past who comes back to the town she grew up in to bring the newspaper back to life.  Set towards the end of the 19th century, the book is a little look into life in a small town and all of the customs and beliefs of the times.  Sophie was raised in the orphanage in town and decides to return to follow her dream of running her own newspaper.  In the midst of struggles to achieve her dream, she meets and falls in love with a man who has a troubled past of his own.  Throughout the book, numerous incidents leave you wondering exactly what the secrets are and how they will be uncovered.

I found the characters likable, the writing fairly well done and the setting believable but there was something about this book that was a bit predictable.  I suppose most romances are that way but it was pretty obvious as soon as we met the characters what the ending was going to be.  However, even knowing that, the book was written well enough that I kept reading just to go along on the adventure to the inevitable outcome.

If you want something light and easy to read, then this is the book for you.  If you are looking for something with a little more depth or ambiguity, then keep looking.