Review: Night of the Living Dead Christian +giveaway

Publication Date: October 2011
by: Tyndale House Publishers
Genre: Christian Urban Fantasy
Source: review copy from publisher

What does a transformed life actually look like? In his follow-up to the critically acclaimed Imaginary Jesus, Matt Mikalatos tackles this question in an entertaining and thought-provoking way: with monsters! As Christians, we claim to experience Christ’s resurrection power, but we sometimes act like werewolves who can’t control our base desires. Or zombies—90 percent shambling death and 10 percent life. Yet through it all, we are longing to become fully human, the way Christ intended . . . we just can’t seem to figure out how. Night of the Living Dead Christian is the story of Luther, a werewolf on the run, desperate to find someone who can help him conquer his inner beast before it’s too late. By turns hilarious and heartbreaking, this spiritual allegory boldly explores the monstrous underpinnings of our nature and our quest for Christlikeness.

I'm not sure that this book knows quite what it wants to be. At times it was a fun, light romp, and then it would turn super preachy. I guess I would say the flow just wasn't very good.

For the most part, I enjoyed the story. The zombie parts were probably my favorite. The author got pretty creative with his zombies, and it was just fun. I think if he had just let the monsters be a metaphor, and not got quite as heavy-handed, the book would have been better. But then, that's just my personal preference, and of course everyone likes different things about books.

If you're looking for a Christian fiction story where the religion is subtle, this is definitely not the book for you. I felt like I was jarred right out of the story and was reading a different book, like a non-fiction Christian book, at times.

Overall, though, the story was quite fun and very silly, and if you don't mind some preaching in your stories, you'd probably like it a lot.
Grade: C+ 

watch on tyndale.com

Would you like to read Night of the Living Dead Christian?  I have a certificate for a free copy of the book for one lucky winner.  To enter, just leave a comment on this post.  The giveaway will end on December 31st, and I will draw a winner on the 1/1/12.
 

Review: Inside Threat

After taking two football seasons off, Riley Covington is attempting to make a comeback in the league while trying to forget Khadi Faroughi, now on security detail for a prominent senator.
But a new attack turns both of their lives upside down yet again. During a state funeral, terrorists overrun the National Cathedral and take senators, congressmen, and their entourages hostage, including Khadi. This new generation of The Cause is made up of homegrown terrorists—an inside threat to the security of the nation. They release most of the hostages, but Khadi and several others are kept behind as significant bargaining chips.
The Cause pledges to behead one member of Congress each day throughout the month of Ramadan as a punishment for their own country’s rejection of Islam. Despite the protests of Counter-Terrorism Division director Scott Ross, Riley races to CTD armed with a plan and a fierce determination to rescue Khadi at all costs.

This isn't my normal genre, and I don't often read books of this type, but I liked this one pretty well.  This is part of a series (Book four, I believe), and I hadn't read any of the previous books.  I don't think it's necessary to have read them, except for maybe having a better feel of the characters.  I wasn't as emotionally invested in these characters as I might have been had I read the other books.

The cover says "A Riley Covington Thriller", but I wouldn't say he was necessarily the main character.  He was a main character, but there were others who got equal time, which is a good thing because for most of the book I didn't care for Riley.  He seemed hot-headed, a bit self-centered, and just overall not very likable.  Maybe my view on him would have been different if I had more background on him.  Or if I had read the other books and connected with him as a character I would have been more likely to excuse his faults.  That said, he did turn out okay in the end.

We really didn't dig too dip into the minds of any of the characters, and mostly it was the plot that drove the story.  And it was a pretty good plot--fast moving, and it kept me turning pages.  I think this would definitely be a good one for men to read, as well as women who are into thriller-type books.  This was Christian fiction, and there is religion sprinkled throughout, and it may have even gotten a little heavy handed at times, but it wasn't bothersome, to me.  I give this one a B.

This book was provided for me to review by Tyndale publishers, and I was not compensated in any way for the review.  

Fame by Karen Kingsbury

The first novel in Karen Kingsbury's Firstborn series stars two world-class actors. After his shocking discovery in Kingsbury's Redemption series, Dayne Matthews returns to Hollywood. Meanwhile, young thespian Katy Hart receives the opportunity of a lifetime: a lead part opposite Dayne in a major motion picture.

  

Karen Kingsbury is really good at what she does, which is cheesy Christian fiction with a little bit of romance thrown in. It's very "sweet", and at times a little too much. I'm sure there are people out there like these characters, but I don't know any.

But the writing flows smoothly, and is a style that is easy to read. I liked the book, and was left wanting to read the next in the series at the end. I would definitely read the Redemption series before this one, though, because this book constantly refers to things that happened there, and I think you'd feel a little lost and wouldn't be able to connect with or care about most of the characters.

 Book Details

Title: Fame (Firstborn Series-Baxter 2, Book 1)

Author: Karen Kingsbury

Genre: Christian Fiction

Page Count: 354

Publishing Info: May 2005 by Tyndale

Why I Read It: trying to clear off my shelves

Grade: B- (liked it, a little annoyed by the cheese-factor)

Cover Thoughts: My cover was different than the one shown above.  The one above is okay, but on my copy the "man" looked like a sixteen year old boy instead of a Hollywood actor who is in his 30's.  It was silly.

Divanomics

Book Details:
Genre: non-fiction/self help
Page Count: 247
Publication Date: April 1, 2010
Why I read it: review copy from Tyndale
Grade: C

The plot:
Once upon a time, Michelle McKinney Hammond’s lifestyle centered around the finer things in life—designer clothes, five-star restaurants, and bag after bag of high-end nonessentials. Then one day, like many people, Michelle awoke to find herself on the losing end of a most unwelcome and unexpected financial downturn. In response, she quickly went from “spoiled” to “fabulously frugal,” and with courage and a sense of humor, she made the necessary adjustments in her life.
Now, Hammond, a self-proclaimed DIVA (Divine Inspiration for Victorious Attitude), shares what she learned about her own spending, desires, and needs and how she adjusted to life during an unpredictable economy. Divanomics is filled with money-saving tips on fashion, beauty, home decor, entertaining, diet, housing, and more.

My review:
I'm not sure that I'm really the target audience for this book. Yes, I'd like to budget better and get tips for spending less money, but this book seemed to be more for people who had expensive tastes (something I've never had) and it seemed to be geared more towards single woman. Since I'm a married mother of three, my life looks a lot different than the authors.

I think if you're looking for a good book on budgeting and financing, check out something by Dave Ramsey. In fact, the author even suggests his books in Divanomics, so I think she's aware that she's not an expert on finance. What this book reads more like is sitting down for a cup of coffee with a girlfriend who found herself in financial trouble, figured out how to help herself, and wants to give you her advice and experiences.

I think what I liked best about the book were the little snippets at the end of each chapter called "What's a diva to do". These were basically a summary of the chapter, but in the form of a list of things you could try. Since I'm all about lists, these were good for me. This is a fun book about spending less, but a lot of the time I felt like she was too focused on getting stuff--like what she could get out of other people for free. There were times that it wasn't in a bad way, like trading clothes with your friends, but there were other times where it seemed like she was giving pointers for getting men (or others) to buy you things or give you things. It rubbed me the wrong way a little bit.

All in all, this was a quick read (when I actually picked it up and read it), but definitely not the best if you're looking to get your finances in order. If you're looking for something lighthearted about finances, though, this may be a good option. You can visit the product page for this book at Tyndale here.

Favorites: Mark of the Lion Trilogy

I haven't blogged about some older favorites for awhile, so I thought it was time to do one. If you're a fan of historical fiction, my absolute favorite is The Mark of the Lion trilogy.

The first book in the series is A Voice in the Wind, and it was my favorite of the three. For a book description and some other goodies, visit the author's website here.

And for a little preview, here's a quote from the book:
"We bear the consequences for what we have done to ourselves, and for the sin that rules this world. Jesus forgave the thief, but he didn't take him down off the cross."

Obviously from the quote, you can see that there is some Christianity in this book. It is set in the time just after Christ, and the main character is one of the early Christians. I was deeply inspired by this book, and it just really resonated with me. If you read and enjoy A Voice in the Wind, continue on to An Echo in the Darkness, followed by As Sure as the Dawn. All very wonderful books that I highly recommend.