Living Rich for Less

Living Rich for Less is an easy-to-grasp handbook of suggestions and proven ways for developing a lifestyle that you desire. In energetic fashion that jumps from the pages, author Ellie Kay relates the motivation she had to work on ridding her family of debt. She uses her personal experience of being a military wife and raising 7 children to persuade the reader that anyone can live a debt-free life.

The chapters are interspersed with websites of various organizations that can be consulted for places to give (time, materials, money), ideas for business, tools for financial calculations, and online sites for comparison shopping. I was impressed with her detailed explanation of the FICO score and how it’s figured and the practices of credit agencies.

Ellie Kay espouses the 10/10/80 rule: give 10 percent, save 10 percent, and be smart in how to spend the other 80 percent. She starts early on with developing an attitude of giving in all areas. She reminds us that the goal is to be out of debt and living contently in order to give more.

Her key principle to remember: R.I.C.H.

• Redemption: Claim financial redemption and admit you have a problem
• Instruction: Submit yourself to wise instruction
• Commitment: Absolutely commit to put any unexpected income toward debt repayment
• Hope: Befriend a companion named Hope

As a Dave Ramsey fan, I was curious as to how Living Rich for Less would compare with his publications. Most of the same principles are presented but in a slightly different fashion. Where he presents a detailed, steady, step by step process for getting out of debt, Ellie Kay gives mostly helpful tips and suggestions.

This is a good primer for someone who may never have looked at practical ways of spending less. Ellie Kay said she had the mindset that saving, spending less, and being out of debt in order to give more away was her “business.” That’s a key principle to making Living Rich for Less work for you.

Ellie Kay is a featured family finance expert in numerous magazines and newspapers.
Published by WaterBrook Press.
I have two copies available to give away if you are interested. Just drop me a note.

It can also be purchased from the following sites:
www.Amazon.com, www.ChristianBook.com, www.FamilyChristian.com

When the Soul Mends

Hannah has been living in an Englischer town, under the care of her aunt Zabeth who previously left the Old Order Amish community years before. She is working toward a degree in the medical field, something she would not have been allowed to do in her community. Close emotionally to Martin, a man raised by her aunt, she is helping him to raise his niece and nephew.

In the opening chapter, we find Hannah driving into Owl’s Perch in the midst of a funeral service for her good friend Matthew’s brother who tragically died in a shop fire. She is unsure of her reception after fleeing home under cloudy circumstances two years before, ostracized by her community. Her sister Sarah’s strange phone call begging her to come concerns her enough to cause her to make the bold trip.

Cindy Woodsmall’s new novel, When the Soul Mends, details Hannah’s struggles for finding help for her sister’s mental illness that will be allowed by the leaders of the community, acceptance, reconnection, and dealing with her conflicting feelings towards Paul, the young man she had been courting two years before. Woodsmall does a great job intertwining the various family and friend relationships. Envisioning Hannah’s assessments of Old Order Amish and Englischer customs, the reader can empathize with her wavering between the two.

Salvation, forgiveness, concern, understanding, love: all these and more are found in When the Soul Mends.

Published by WaterBrook Press, this is the third novel in the "Sisters of the Quilt" series by Cindy Woodsmall.

If you are interested in a very enjoyable book, I have two copies to give away.

My Mother's Wish

Ellee sets out to distinguish herself from everyone else in her small town. She does not want to settle for the proper life her mother envisions for her. She rebels in small ways: the backwards direction she writes in her diary, the way she writes across the lines, and shortening her name to Ellee from Eleanor. All of it fits the best word she knows, “contrariwise.”

In My Mother’s Wish her father accepts her the way she is yet her mother is disappointed in Ellee’s constant need to be different. Strife ensues and we find Ellee taking off for parts unknown. I felt like there were pages missing because in one chapter she is leaving Missouri in July and in the next we find her at a truck stop diner in Nebraska just before Christmas. She misses home. A waitress shows concern, a truck driver offers her a ride which she readily accepts, and lo and behold, drops her off at her home without her revealing any details about herself. She returns to find her mother accepts her at last, as demonstrated by the fact that she has written Ellee instead of Eleanor on the Christmas list tagged to the refrigerator, and her mother’s lone wish is to have her back.

A very quick read, I found this little book too cute. There was no meat to it. Assuming the author is using this short narrative to get across the idea of unconditional love that God gives to each of us, this does not cut it for me. Give me the real Christmas story any day.

Published by WaterBrook Press and written by Jerry Camery-Hoggatt.
If you are curious, I have three books to give away.

Books can also be purchased from:

www.Amazon.com
www.ChristianBook.com
www.FamilyChristian.com

Me, Myself, & I AM

Ever think about what your life was like before Christ? Ever wonder about your current focus? Ever think about where you are headed in the future? Want to understand your relationship with God in a deeper way? Me, Myself, & I AM is a tool you could use to help you as you sort through these questions and myriad others. It’s like a ready made journal, asking pointed questions to get you started thinking and giving you a place to log a concrete record of your journey in life.

Some of the questions assume a cultural literacy on the part of the reader, such as:

If your life before you became a Christian were a movie, its title would be:

Animal House

As Good As It Gets

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

It’s a Wonderful Life

The reader is encouraged to be transparent and answer questions honestly; not as you think they should be answered but your own current assessment of you.

You can go in order or skip around to whatever interests you at the particular time you choose to examine your thoughts and actions. Fun, serious, or thought-provoking, Me, Myself, & I AM can be a springboard for either your own spiritual walk or group discussions.

Co-authored by Matthew Peters and Elisa Stanford.
Published by Multnomah.
Available for purchase at www.Amazon.com, www.ChristianBook.com, or www.FamilyChristian.com.

I have two extra copies if you are interested.

How Would Jesus Vote?

Jerry Newcombe and the late D. James Kennedy of Coral Ridge Ministries examine political issues that voters face not only now, in the 2008 presidential race, but those that are ongoing.

The authors drawn attention to the fact that voters with a traditional Christian worldview see issues and their solutions differently than other voters. At least, the authors believe we should, since our beliefs should be based on what the Bible says.

Some issues addressed are abortion, the death penalty, war, education, and economics, to name a few. Kennedy and Newcombe challenge the reader to vote from an informed view by applying faith and obedience in the ballot box.

Published by WaterBrook Press, you can purchase it here.

Bon Appétit

Lexi leaves her Seattle area home to pursue her dream of becoming a pastry chef. She switches places with the daughter in the Delacroix family, owners of not only the bakery where she worked in Seattle but also two bakeries in France. She settles into spending her working hours supervised by members of the Delacroix family at each of their bakeries, creating delicious pastries as directed.

Her education at L’École du Pâtisserie, sponsored by the family, begins just a few weeks after she arrives. She will have 16 weeks to prove herself and earn her diploma. In order to do so, she must end up in the top ten percent of her class. Will she pass the final exhibition of her baking skills?

Lexi cautiously makes friends, develops a devotional time where she is not only feeding her body but also her soul, and looks to God for help in sorting out what direction she should take. Good food, new friendships, a little romance…will she stay in France or decide to return to America? Authored by Sandra Byrd, the novel delightfully portrays Lexi’s struggles as she tries to find her way. There are even a few recipes included!

New from WaterBrook Press, this is the second book in Sandra Byrd's French Twist series.
I have two copies to give away to an interested party.

The Shape of Mercy

Any Susan Meissner fans out there? If so, you will like her new novel, The Shape of Mercy.

Raised in an atmosphere of affluence, Lauren sets out to disprove her family’s expectations. In her opening monologue she states: “This is the treasure the impoverished forget they have: the ability to choose a new road. They may struggle all their lives to on it, but at least they chose it for themselves. This is why I went looking for a job to earn a paycheck I didn’t need. Not because I wanted to prove I could earn my own money, but because no one expected me to do it. When you only do what is expected of you, you never learn what you would’ve done had you chosen for yourself.” (page 5)

A sophomore English major, Lauren is hired to transcribe a journal that has been handed down through the family of an elderly woman. Mercy Hayworth details the frenzy surrounding the colony where she lives during the time of the Salem witch trials. Mercy seeks God for answers and demonstrates abundant forgiveness. As she slowly peels back not only the layers of Mercy’s life but that of her employer, Lauren begins to realize her own perceptions of people are sometimes misguided and not based on truth. She finds and faces her own self-imposed perception of “not measuring up” and is released into a new freedom.

This was beautifully written and difficult to put down. A little intrigue, a little romance, some self-examination, much forgiveness, abundant mercy: all are wrapped together in Meissner’s The Shape of Mercy.

If you are interested, I have two extra copies.
New from WaterBrook Press. It can be purchased here.
You can find more about the author here.

For Young Men Only

This new book by Jeff Feldhahn* and Eric Rice* sets out to give helpful answers to young men in their quest to understanding young women. Taking basic questions, they surveyed up to 1,000 young women and catalogued their answers. Their wives, Shaunti Feldhahn+ and Lisa Rice^, consulted groups of high school girls in settings where they felt free to speak candidly about those qualities in their male peers that meant the most to them. The girls were a mixture of Christians and non-Christians. Random surveys were also conducted at malls.

I’ll admit it. I was curious. Having raised three young men of my own, I wondered what this book would tell my sons about young women that they didn’t know. After all, they had a mom and a sister who could definitely clue them in on the female mind. At least we thought so. After reading For Young Men Only I asked myself, “Have things changed since I was a young woman?” Apparently not. My daughter read it and came to the same conclusion. We don’t understand why they don’t get us. Still.

While the answers were no surprise to us females, they were to the authors. Here are two examples: Chapter 2: “Why ordinary guys have a real chance with great girls. A: A girl is most attracted to a guy’s hidden qualities.”

Chapter 6: “How to talk and listen to a girl without looking like an idiot. A: A girl wants a guy to talk to her. But to really make an impression with her, a guy just needs to listen.”

Each chapter is devoted to a survey question and answer, and then gives explanations, practical tips, and ideas for better relating to young women. For Young Men Only, written in a light-hearted and engaging way, is simple and easy to read. If you know a young man who is having a hard time understanding how to relate to young women, this book might be a good start.

I have two copies to give away.

Published by Multnomah, you can find more information at the following sites:

www.foryoungmenonly.com
www.Amazon.com
www.ChristianBook.com
www.FamilyChristian.com

*also authored For Men Only
+authored For Women Only
+^co-authored For Young Women Only

The Encore Effect

“Encore!” the audience shouts. “Encore!” They are on their feet, clapping, sometimes hooting, sometimes whistling. The performance was so moving, so deeply felt, they want more. I think the term has lost its edge over the years and become almost commonplace. When I was growing up, it happened when the performance was over-the-top extraordinary. Lately, when I have attended plays or concerts, the immediate reaction at the end of the performance is for the whole audience to jump to their feet and begin the “routine” for more. It’s almost become expected by the cast or performer. And, oftentimes, while I think the performance may have been solid or well-done, I don’t think it should be in the category of extraordinary.

So, it was with this background that I read The Encore Effect by Mark Sanborn. The purpose of the book is to cause you to think about your “performance” in whatever you do. Are you “just” doing your job? Or, are you doing the best you can, working with excellence, known with distinction? If people want more from you, and demand more, then you have achieved the Encore Effect.

Sanborn encourages us to prepare and practice for our roles, whatever we do. As Christians, we should aspire to be remarkable performers so that we may glorify God. The author lists nine reasons he believes Christians should strive for remarkable performance. Each chapter has an “intersection” where the author poses a challenge to apply our faith in our daily life. My favorite quote: “Perhaps the biggest danger you face is believing that your navel is the center of the universe….All the pitfalls discussed in this chapter fall under the umbrella of self-absorption. So what is the antidote? We must unseat self and put God at the center of our lives.” (pg.121)

The Encore Effect is a good motivational book. If you feel as though you are losing your edge, or are just coasting along in your work, this may give you the needed boost to get up and get back on track, with purpose.

New from WaterBrook Press.

Author Bio: Mark Sanborn is the best-selling author of The Fred Factor and You Don’t Need a Title to Be a Leader. An internationally acclaimed motivational speaker, Sanborn is president of Sanborn & Associates, Inc., an idea studio for leadership development. Having served as president of two national organizations, he regularly keynotes meetings in the United States and abroad—speaking on leadership, team building, customer service, and mastering change. He and his family live near Denver , Colorado .

The Road of Lost Innocence

Have you seen or heard news reports about child prostitution? Do you find it hard to believe it exists in this day and age? Reading The Road of Lost Innocence should make a believer out of you.

The author, Somaly Mam, uses this emotionally moving book to recount the story of her life. Page after page details what she remembers of her early years, the sadness and fear when sold into prostitution by her “grandfather” at the age of 12, the atrocities committed, the suffering during the time she was abused in brothels, and her eventual rescue.

She discusses the cultural mores and attitudes that allow child prostitution in Cambodia and bordering countries. She recounts the early beginnings and continuing efforts to rescue girls from their lives of slavery and restore their dignity while preparing them for jobs they can use to support themselves. The discouragement and difficulties in finding honest policemen and government officials who were not willing to look the other way are noted. She details her search for funding and the establishment of AFESIP (Acting for Women in Distressing Situations) based in Cambodia.

Through sheer survival and strength of will, the author began and continues her humanitarian efforts. This was a tough book to read and must have been a tough book to write, as it harshly details a situation that continues even as you read this review. I hope it brings her healing, but I wish she and those she rescues could know the complete Healer.

Published by Spiegel and Grau, this book can be purchased here.
A portion of the proceeds from sales will be donated to the Somaly Mam Foundation.

If you are moved to help in the fight against human trafficking, check out www.somaly.org

Saturdays with Stella

Hot off the press is a fun new book from Multnomah, Saturdays with Stella. Anybody who has ever had a dog, especially a puppy, will be able to relate. For those who have not had the pleasure, the author, Allison Pittman, creates great word pictures of her trials and tribulations as Stella becomes a part of the family.

The solution for energetic, wild, puppyhood, thought Allison, would be a 6 week obedience class. To her surprise, she gained a spiritual benefit as she learned more about her relationship with God through the weeks of training her puppy. Each chapter relates a new week in training and a new insight to God’s grace, mercy, and love.

Moments of defeat and moments of triumph. All are contained in this delightful, heart-warming book, Saturdays with Stella.

New from Multnomah, you can purchase it here.
You can learn more about the author here.
Giveaway copies are spoken for.

Wild Goose Chase

Wow! That's my reaction after reading Wild Goose Chase. I felt excited even before I started and I wasn't sure why. Mark Batterson's energy and passion for pusuing God just leaps off the pages!

The title is somewhat misleading if you think about it. My Random House dictionary defines a wild goose chase as "a wild or absurd search for something nonexistent or unobtainable". Do you ever feel that pertains to your walk as a Christian? However, the title Wild Goose Chase is chosen from a Celtic Christian name for the Holy Spirit, An Geadh-Glas, meaning "the Wild Goose." Through personal anecdotes and scriptural references, the author challenges the reader to come out of his Christian "cage" (i.e. the safety of the church) and live out the adventure of following Christ.

Some tidbits, pages 8-9:
"...many, if not most, Christians are bored with their faith...
...too many of us end up settling for spiritual mediocrity instead of spiritual maturity...coming out of the cage means giving up the very thing in which we find our security and identity outside of Christ."

Batterson outlines six "cages" in which Christians find themselves: Responsibility, Routine, Assumptions, Guilt, Failure, and Fear. He challenges us to be courageous, come out of our cages, and live a life of spiritual adventure.

Uncertain about where you are going? Are you looking for something more? Read Wild Goose Chase. It might just shake that cage door open.


Mark Batterson is the lead pastor of Washington, D.C.'s National Community Church.

New from Multnomah, the book is available for purchase here.
I have one copy to give away.
For more info, also see: www.chasethegoose.com

A Trio of Children's Books

Three delightful new children’s books are due out this month from WaterBrook Press.

Dandi Daley Mackall penned When God Created My Toes and God Loves Me More Than That. Large, colorful illustrations drawn by David Hohm accompany the rhyming lines in each book.

When God Created My Toes*
features a little girl wondering about God’s reaction when he created her toes, knees, hands, etc. Each question is asked in a light-hearted, rhyming form, such as “When God created my eyes, could I see him too, playing peek-a-boo?”
I liked the way each query featured a penciled drawing on “lined school paper” accompanied by a lavishly detailed colorful illustration on accompanying pages.

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A little boy wonders how high, deep, wide, loud, soft, etc. is God’s love for him in God Loves Me More Than That.* Colorful, whimsical illustrations fill the pages.


“How much love does God have for me?
More than the letters between A and Z.
More than the bumbles in a bumble bee.
God loves me more than that!”

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Lisa Tawn Bergren brings us another special offering in God Gave Us Heaven.** In this precious book, a little polar bear cub spends a day fishing with her daddy and asks him, “Papa, what’s heav’n?” There follows a litany of more questions and well-thought out answers as to how wonderful heaven will be.

“Can we take our stuff to heaven?”
“No, we won’t need our stuff there….
“Sometimes we think we need stuff, but it’s just more weight for us to carry.
Our best stuff doesn’t weigh anything at all---stuff like love, family, friends, and faith.
That’s where our real blessings are.”

Also tucked inside this book is a simple presentation of the gospel message of Jesus being the bridge between us and God. Illustrations are beautifully done by Laura J. Bryant.

*tested by my 2 1/2 year old granddaughter. She liked the first one I think because she knows what her toes, knees, etc. are. The second has broader concepts which may not have meaning yet for her, though she did like the pictures.

**my granddaughter enjoys these pictures, but the story/questions are for a slightly older child.

New from WaterBrook Press. All three are hardcover.
I currently have one set to give away.
They can also be purchased here.

Love as a Way of Life

In a previous book, author Gary Chapman focused on five “love languages”, laying out the concept that people respond to others relationally based on five primary ways love is given and received: affirming words, quality time, gifts, acts of service, and physical touch. If we learn to “speak” the other person’s love language, and vice versa, things may go great. However, if we do not, then the relationship may not go well at all.

Chapman assumed that if people understood and learned how to speak the correct language to those around them, they would do so all the time. However, what he found was that people were not necessarily eager to speak the correct language because it might be contrary to their natural tendencies.

Before penning Love as a Way of Life, the author spent time studying and surveying, and realized that oftentimes people fail to love others properly because there is no foundation of real love.

“Love is not an emotion that comes over us or an elusive goal dependent on the actions of others. Authentic love is something within our capabilities, originating in our attitudes and culminating in our actions. If we think of love as a feeling, we shall be frustrated when we can’t always work up that feeling. When we realize love is primarily an action, we are ready to use the tools we have to love better.” (pg. 6)

Chapman identifies seven traits of a loving person and proceeds to devote a chapter to each of them. The “quiz” for personal assessment at the beginning of each chapter, definitions, and the down-to-earth examples throughout the book lead the reader to introspective reading. Recognizing self-centered love and turning from that to habitually loving others unselfishly is the goal.

This new hardback from WaterBrook Press, Love as a Way of Life, can be purchased here.
I also have two* copies to give away.

*now one

skid

Hank takes a job as an undercover investigator for an airline to assess their on-board service in their competitive quest for passengers. Always polite and positive due to his Christian background and personal faith, he both puzzles and annoys not only the crew but also the passengers he interacts with who are having an extraordinarily rough day.

Flight 1945 is no ordinary flight. Hank’s seatmate, Lucy, is trying to get over her split with her boyfriend and discovers him to be traveling on the same flight with a new love interest. One passenger “dies” enroute. Anna Sue, who the crew believes is emotionally challenged, has traveling with her her companion animal, a pot-bellied pig. Somehow Chucky gets loose and has the passengers and crew scrambling to catch him. A jewel thief attached to an FBI agent is being extradited to Amsterdam and believes there is someone on board who wants to kill him. Topping off this scenario we have a man sitting nearby who is carrying hidden diamonds to a grandmother he’s never met, a fake federal aircraft inspector and finally, a pilot-less cockpit.

Bordering on funny (lots of comedic misunderstandings) and just plain dumb, Skid, by Rene Gutteridge, is an easy, fast read that requires little thought. The gospel and comments regarding faith are scattered here and there for good measure, but there is no enduring lesson to ponder. It was not my cup of tea, but if you need something very light and simple, you might enjoy it.

New from WaterBrook Press, I have 3 (now 2) copies to give away.

Also available for purchase here.

Healing Promises

Where do you go and to whom do you turn when your world is falling apart?

Those are some of the questions the characters in Amy Wallace’s new novel, Healing Promises, find themselves asking. Healing Promises is a well-written, compelling book which kept me turning the pages to see what the next chapter would bring. It was a difficult read only because of the emotional subject matter.

Sara is an oncologist whose Christianity leads her to pray with her patients and connect with them during ongoing treatments. Her faith is shaken to the core when her husband, an FBI agent, is brought to the hospital for treatment for a gunshot wound. The doctors treating him find more than just a wound; extensive tests lead them to discover he has cancer. All these years she’s been espousing God’s healing promises. Does she really believe what she’s told her patients?

Emotionally painful also is the job her husband, Clint, has with the FBI Crimes Against Children Unit. He is in the midst of tracking down a serial kidnapper of young boys when he receives his cancer diagnosis. The powerlessness he feels as he undergoes chemotherapy and his inability to effectively help his partners also challenges his beliefs.

There are some other characters’ underlying stories woven through the book. All are dealing in one way or another with their faith in God. Hope, trust, anger, pain, wrestling with God; all these emotions are portrayed. Wallace’s characters are fictional but the struggles are real. Again and again they are pointed to the source of truth.

Read Healing Promises. You may find some for yourself.

This is book two in Amy Wallace’s “Defenders of Hope” series.
New from Multnomah, it can be purchased here.

If you are interested, I have two copies to give away.

A Mending at the Edge

A Mending at the Edge is the third and final novel in Jane Kirkpatrick’s Change and Cherish series of historical novels. The books are based on the life of Emma Wagner Giesy, a German-American woman raised in a religious communal society. The author weaves the myriad details gleaned from extensive research with a fruitful imagination and presents the readers with a captivating tale of life in the 1850’s.

For background: as a young woman Emma questions, rather than accepts, the Bethel colony’s communal life; the intent that everything done is for the sake of the colony as a whole, not the inhabitants as individuals. Emma is not one to listen quietly but instead speaks her mind. She wants others to recognize and value that women can think, too. She is skeptical as to motives behind actions that others seem to accept like obedient sheep. She tires of the refrain “for the good of the colony.”

When her husband becomes the trusted leader of a scouting party to begin a new settlement in the western territories that will become Oregon and Washington, Emma convinces the community leader to let her go too. Wilhelm is hesitant yet determines it might be a chance for her to know “all that a woman’s lot entails,” perhaps settling for once and for all her issue with conformity.

Throughout the series, we feel Emma’s struggles as she wrestles with the yearning for independence and recognition. The pinnacle of this wrestling comes to a head in A Mending at the Edge when tragedy strikes. Emma is devastated and angry with God. Even more reluctant to yield to any community help, she makes poor decisions. As a last resort, she finds herself fleeing to the new western settlement and becoming once again a part of the communal society she tried so hard to flee.

Emma’s husband and other community members always attributed circumstances to God’s goodness and direction, whereas Emma was so blinded by an independent spirit and pride she could not or was not willing to do the same. She wanted purpose, but did not seek God’s direction. She exemplified Phil 2:21 rather than Matt 6:33. At the conclusion of A Mending at the Edge we find Emma content in her relationships in the community. Did she reach that same relationship with God? I hope so.

New Release from WaterBrook Press