Tuesday, February 28, 2012

My Imaginary Jesus by Matt Mikalatos

This book is surprising in many ways. I think the quote on the cover of the book (my version of the book anyway) "Think Monty Python meets C.S. Lewis" (Relevant Magazine) is quite accurate. There were many times I was laughing hysterically in the book and other times I had tears coming down my face. I also don't think I have seen the name "Jesus" written so many times in one book.

Those are my initial reactions to the book but the heart of the book is fantastic. I think Mr. Mikalatos gets his point across in a humorous yet powerful way. The ridiculousness of all the different Jesuses really made a point to me and I can see how most of us create our own image of who He is in some way or another. It definitely made me think about how we view Jesus and our life circumstances can change our viewpoint of who He is. Yet He is the unchanging one, we are the one who changes who we think He is based on our circumstances. I really enjoyed this book but you have to be able to handle humor and satire. If you can't, I could see how this may be an annoying book that you wouldn't get.

There is also a reading guide in the back and I thoroughly enjoyed the author's notes that go along with some of the questions. This is completely worth the read. I highly recommend this book.

I recieved this book free from Tyndale Publishers in exchange for my review.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Not this Time by Vicki Hinze

Not This Time is book number 3 in the Crossroads Crisis series. I haven't read the first 2 books in this series so there were events and characters that I was slightly confused on but the author does a good job of giving just enough information on those characters. I thought this book was well done. The plot and character development was great. I was engaged in the story the whole time. The only negative I would say is there are so many characters its hard to keep track of them all but that would probably be eliminated if I would have started with book 1. I enjoyed the developing emotion between Beth and Joe and all in all I thought this was a great read.
I received this book free from waterbrook Multnomah in exchange for my review.