In episode 11, we review Nightfall, a dark YA suspense novel by Jake Halpern & Peter Kujawinski.
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Book Review Podcast Episode 11
Book Review
Book Review Podcast Episode 10
In episode 10, Lena reviews a self-published romance titled One Summer on Mackinac by Alana Robin, and I review middle-grade, speculative-fiction book Disney After Dark by Ridley Pearson.
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Book Review: No Compromise
No Compromise
by Melody Green and David Hazard
My rating: 4.5 / 5
Genre: Biography
Keith Green died a few months after I was born, so though his music wasn’t a huge part of my childhood, I do remember my mom liking his music when I was younger. I don’t generally base my rating of a biography on the content, because what the author chooses to provide about his/her (or in this case, her husband’s) life is really their choice. Based only on the writing and style here, the book is easy to read and gives some really interesting insight into the lives of both Keith and Melody Green before, during, and after their conversion to Christianity. She doesn’t sugarcoat their drug use and time spent following New Age or eastern mysticism practices as they both searched for spiritual truth. Lyrics of various songs written by Keith Green (again, before and after he became a Christian) as well as quite a few snatches of writing directly from his hand in the form of journal entries pepper the pages.
I have to admit that I didn’t agree with a lot of his philosophy or his approach to evangelism, but I appreciate how on-fire he was for God. As his own wife noted, when he became a believer, he didn’t hide away somewhere to learn about God before then presenting himself to the world as an evangelist. Maybe he should have, though, because some of the way he treated his audiences, both believers and nonbelievers, may have been more harmful than helpful. Going to a church, for example, and assuming that everyone there was a lukewarm Christian and needed to be confronted from the stage to repent of hidden sins really shocked me. I suppose if there were people in attendance who truly were right with God, they may not have been guilted by Green to confess unnecessarily, but it seems to me that Green made the assumption that every Christian he encountered (except select people he met in person and looked up to) was either a fake Christian or at least an apathetic one, simply because he could see that those types did legitimately exist in Christian communities.
Overall, I’m glad I read this book. Despite my concerns about both Keith and Melody Green’s understanding of God and the Bible, it was an interesting insight into the mind of someone who sought God before understanding exactly what it was he was seeking. Keith seemed to be working out his belief and understanding through his music, which might be a legitimate way to do so, except that by becoming more and more famous, he wrapped others up in his confusion. I do recommend this book to anyone who’s interested in biographies of famous musicians, especially fans of Keith Green, because I think knowing how he thought and believed might be an important lens through which to view his music.
Find out more about No Compromise
If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!
Book Review: Disney at Dawn
Disney at Dawn
Kingdom Keepers #2
by Ridley Pearson
My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Middle grade fantasy
Spoiler notice: The following review may contain some spoilers for the first book in the series, Disney After Dark.
After the events of the previous book, the DHIs are back online, and the kids they’re patterned after are part of a huge celebration at Magic Kingdom. But Maleficent wasn’t as secure as they’d thought, and now she’s made Animal Kingdoms a wilder place to be. With a new threat of being locked up if they fall asleep and cross over into their holographic forms, the five hosts have to stay awake long enough to free Jez, who has been captured by the Overtakers.
Like its predecessor, this book is not terrible but not great. Again I assume that if I was a major Disney World buff, I would enjoy this book more…or maybe I’d enjoy it less, since some reviews mention incorrect descriptions of the parks. But I have no real ties to Disney, so I wasn’t able to go along for the magical ride as intended. Instead, I had to rely on the story itself. The plot is nothing unexpected and the characters are perhaps even more static and interchangeable than they were in the first book. I have to give this series credit for being inventive in the general premise and fantastical world, but the execution continues to fall short. I will keep reading the series for now, because I can see what it’s trying to be and appreciate that idea. In the meantime, I wouldn’t really recommend this book to anyone, but if it does sound intriguing to you, certainly check out other reviews at the link below, as others have liked it more than I did.
Find out more about Disney at Dawn
If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!
Book Review: The Kaiju Preservation Society
The Kaiju Preservation Society
by John Scalzi
Read by Wil Wheaton
My rating: 3 / 5
Genre: Sci-fi
When Jamie Gray is fired right before COVID lockdowns, he has to resort to food delivery for the very company that fired him. (Note: Yes, Scalzi again here never assigns a pronoun to the MC, but since the narrator I listened to is male and it would be a pain to continue to refer to the MC by the MC’s name rather than use a pronoun, I am going to refer to Jamie Gray as “he” in my review.) Then a delivery to an old acquaintance lands Jamie a better job (because really, anything would be better) with an animal rights organization that turns out to be Jamie’s entrance into his very own sci-fi story.
Overall, this book is a fun, light sci-fi adventure. I did not know the backstory of the name, but I’m sure many others will be aware that kaiju is the general term of movie monsters like Godzilla and Mothra. The story here is that kaiju are from an alternate dimension and occasionally cross over to our dimension, and sightings led to the famous monster movies. The Kaiju Preservation Society is set up in that alternate dimension and basically studies the giant creatures while attempting to keep the two dimensions separate. Jamie is dropped into the middle of this situation and has to learn the ropes basically on the fly. I struggled to understand what the main conflict/plot was for a while, but by the time it really got going, I was mostly enjoying the story. Based only on that, I probably would have rated the book higher.
Unfortunately, Scalzi’s style and political/social leanings detracted heavily from the book for me. When I read Lock In, my first Scalzi, I noted that he tends to write conversations with little in the way of descriptions of what the characters are doing. In that book, it worked for me, at least partly because the main character was just a consciousness within a metal suit. In this book, the lack of descriptions and the overused, super basic dialog tags constantly back and forth (i.e. “I said.” “Kahurangi said.” “I said.” etc.) made the style a little too bland for me. (And by the way, kudos to Wil Wheaton for making it through the many odd names in this book.) Aside from those issues, I actually almost stopped listening to the book when, after the main character leaves behind his two homosexual roommates, he meets a character who is introduced with the “they” pronoun (which, by the way, confused me greatly about how many people were being introduced before I realized what the author was going for). It was a judgment call on my part to keep listening, but I feel that other Christians who read this review should be made aware of the concerns I had that almost led me to stop. There is also quite a bit of language, though I have come to expect that from books like this. I’m overall glad I read the book and tend to think that fans of Scalzi will generally enjoy this book as well. If you are new to his style, though, I don’t know that I’d recommend you start with this one.
Find out more about The Kaiju Preservation Society
If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!
Book Review: The Shingle Weaver’s Picnic
The Shingle Weaver’s Picnic
by P. C. Smith
My rating: 2.5 / 5
Genre: Historical fiction
It’s 1941, and 7-year-old Annie Elizabeth Jordan (known as Cricket) is going to stay with her grandparents for the summer alone for the first time, since her mom is about to give birth. Amidst the uncertainty and confusion of the war that has already cost Cricket dearly, a tragedy rocks her grandparents’ small Pacific-northwest town.
Before I get into the actual review, I feel the need to give some warnings up front. From the synopsis and at least some early parts of the book, I got a kind of To Kill a Mockingbird feel, so I was completely caught off guard by the extreme language and sexual content. Specifically, there are multiple rapes described in varying levels of graphicness, at least one quite graphically. It’s really bizarre, in fact, considering the amount of prayer and references to God in this book. Cricket’s prayers are sweet and could make the story come across as Christian, but it’s not too hard to see that it’s shallow at best.
Now to the story itself—I have to applaud the author for the depth she put into it. The story is told in snippets of Cricket traveling to and then spending the summer with her grandparents, mixed with fairly in-depth backstories of different characters as they’re introduced. Some of these characters are seemingly minor, and at least at the time we read about their lives up until the point that we meet them, we have no idea why they’re important. It is an…interesting pacing choice. Then, as if because Smith understood the possible issues that would arise from this style, she ends a lot of chapters with a reminder that something terrible is coming to keep the suspense up. This might work for some people, but it was just a little strange to me. Especially since the official synopsis tells us what that event is going to be (though not all of the details, of course); it just takes quite a while to get there. I also feel like the title was fairly disconnected from most of the book.
There is a little bit of a twist near the end, which kept it from being as predictable as I thought it might be by the time the actual “event” happened. It was a little underwhelming though. Also, Cricket’s prayers seem childish in nature, but some of the words and things that she seems to understand are too grown-up for her age. I was also a little confused by the “present time” that the book starts with, at which point Cricket would have to be in her 80s, since she was 7-8 in 1941, yet her baby brother, who was born around 1941, says he’s in his 50s. So maybe the “present time” is actually supposed to be the 90s, yet iPods and iPhones are mentioned. It was a minor thing, but it really confused me. On the other hand, for a book that, as far as I can tell, is self-published, it contained barely any typos and mistakes, which is refreshing. In the end, though, it just wasn’t for me. I would say that enough of that was personal preference, though, so if you’re interested in the book, check out the other reviews, which are all positive so far, at the link below.
I received a copy of this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Find out more about The Shingle Weaver’s Picnic
If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!
Book Review Podcast Episode 9
In episode 9, we review Thr3e, a Christian thriller by Ted Dekker.
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Book Review Podcast Episode 8
In episode 8, we review The Oath, a Christian suspense allegory by Frank Peretti.
Also available on Spotify:
February in Review
I read 12 books last month, pretty close to my recent monthly average. The page count was lower than average, though, due to a lot of shorter books last months. That doesn’t surprise me, because I definitely felt like I wasn’t reading as much throughout last month, for no particular reason I can pinpoint.
Here are the books I read in February:
Storm Warning by Linda Sue Park (4 / 5)
Midnight on the Scottish Shore by Sarah Sundin (5 / 5)
Do the Bright Thing by Bill Myers (4 / 5)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (3 / 5)
Storm Warning by Elizabeth Goddard (2.5 / 5)
Al Capone Does My Homework by Gennifer Choldenko (5 / 5)
Claudia and the Phantom Phone Calls by Ann M. Martin (4 / 5)
Christy by Catherine Marshall (5 / 5)
Bittersweet Rendezvous in New England by Diane Green (2 / 5)
Hounded by David Rosenfelt (5 / 5)
Trust No One by Linda Sue Park (4 / 5)
Reclaiming Quiet by Sarah Clarkson (2 / 5)
This list includes 4 ARCs and 2 re-reads. My favorite book from February was Midnight on the Scottish Shore. I started 0 series, continued 6 series, and finished 0 series. My ever-changing short list of to-be-reads, as well as a flag for the book I’m currently reading and an ongoing list of those I’ve read and posted about can be found here.
I’m also keeping my Goodreads page updated with a more extensive list of to-be-reads. Despite my almost too-long TBR list, I’m always looking for more to add. Feel free to offer suggestions of your favorites or just recent reads you enjoyed.
Book Review: Bittersweet Rendezvous in New England
Bittersweet Rendezvous in New England
by Diane Green
My rating: 2 / 5
Genre: Christian historical fiction
When Becky Chalmers and her new fiancé learn about a connection between their families they didn’t know existed, she reconsiders her relationship with the man. In the wake of this decision, Becky’s brother offers to take her to Boston to hopefully allow her to re-connect with man from her past, whom she’d very nearly married once upon a time.
This short read is, unfortunately, a little confusing and not quite what I had anticipated from the synopsis. The story is mostly about Becky’s various relationships during her life, past and present, including friends who have or have had crushes on her. Even though one of these men has a distinctly separate POV (and actually starts off the entire book), he’s no bigger of a character than the other man in Becky’s life at the start of this book. It all makes for some odd pacing and plot choices. There are some other questionable things that happen in the text, and I was left scratching my head a few times.
When I read a self-published book, it is my intention not to let things that a professional editor would help with affect my view too much. I’m not saying that there is no burden of responsibility here, but it’s harder for self-published authors. So while it did not affect my rating, I will at least mention that there are several mistakes throughout the text; for example, there are quite a few missing opening or ending quotation marks. It can detract from the book for some, so let that be a warning. Overall, I think this book could benefit from an editor, both in style and substance. However, taken in the right context, this could be a book that others would enjoy. For example, it appeared to be a romance from the synopsis I was originally sent, but I wouldn’t call it that. It’s more contemplative of Becky’s life and the choices she has before her. If you’re interested in the book, please don’t let my lower rating keep you from giving it a try.
I received a copy of this book for free from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Find out more about Bittersweet Rendezvous in New England
If you’ve read this book, or read it in the future, feel free to let me know what you think!
A Journey of Words 