The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns

The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns
Published by Thomas Nelson

From the publisher:

WHAT DOES GOD EXPECT OF US? 

Is our faith just about going to church, studying the Bible and avoiding the most serious sins—or does God expect more?

Have we embraced the whole gospel or a gospel with a hole in it?

Ten years ago, Rich Stearns came face-to-face with that question as he sat in a mud hut in Rakai, Uganda, listening to the heartbreaking story of an orphaned child. Stearns’ journey there took much more than a long flight to Africa. It took answering God’s call on his life, a call that tore him out of his corner office at one of America’s most prestigious corporations—to walk with the poorest of the poor in our world.

The Hole in Our Gospel is the compelling true story of a corporate CEO who setaside worldly success for something far more significant, and discovered the full power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to change his own life. He uses his journey to demonstrate how the gospel—the whole gospel—was always meant  to be a world changing social revolution, a revolution that begins with us.

My grandmother asked me to read this book a few years ago when it was first released, because the writer, Richard Stearns, is good friends with the head pastor of her church (Bill Hybels, of the famed Willow Creek Community Church) and she actually purchased a copy for me and pressed it into my hands. Three years later, I’m finally getting around to the book.

The Hole in Our Gospel definitely gave me a LOT to think about. I think that, for the most part, Stearns is right about the fact that there is a huge gap between what God asks of us as Christians and how we as Christians live out our faith in day to day life. Most of us do not give financially more than the standard 10%, most of us do not travel to other parts of the world where people struggle just for basic needs, most of us do not think about the war, famine, and disease that is a daily reality for much of the world’s population.

I don’t feel that I can really “review” this book, because it is focused on an uncomfortable truth that most Christians (including myself) don’t want to face up to – that we enjoy a life of privilege, and don’t do near enough with our privilege to help the rest of the world. Stearns is completely right about this, though, and while reading this book I was forced to confront myself with the possibility that I could personally do more to help those in need – to be more of the person that God wants me to be. I particularly enjoyed how Stearns gives his entire history in this book, because he spent many years as a corporate CEO, making tons of money and not sharing it with those in need, before he became head of World Vision and changed his outlook completely. It shows how views can change, people can grow, and God is constantly working on our characters and our hearts.

But it’s not easy to read this book and take an honest look at oneself. Personally I know I’m not doing enough and The Hole in Our Gospel made that fact crystal clear. If you’re looking to be challenged in your faith journey, I highly recommend this book.

Time of My Life by Allison Winn Scotch

Time of My Life by Allison Winn Scotch
Published by Three Rivers Press, an imprint of Random House

Jillian has the perfect life, the life every woman dreams of – gorgeous investment banker husband, beautiful home in the suburbs, and the perfect child in her one-year-old daughter, Katie. But for some reason, Jillian can’t stop thinking about the life she could have had, would have had, if she had stayed with her ex, Jackson, instead of marrying Henry. One morning she wakes up in her old Manhattan apartment instead of her huge bedroom in her house in suburbia, no baby in sight, and instead of Henry she’s living with, it’s Jackson who shares her bed. Her fantasies about what her life could have been are coming true before her eyes – but now Jillian is faced with the unique opportunity to ask herself what will truly make her happy, which life is the one she would choose if she could do it all over again.

From the moment I picked up Time of My Life, I sympathized with Jillian. It’s almost impossible not to – who of us has not wondered what life could have been had different choices been made? I know I have certainly had moments in my life when I thought that a different choice at a critical moment would have created a completely different result from what I have today – not necessarily for better or worse, just different. So I definitely understood where Jillian was coming from. In her case, it’s clear that she made lots of choices based on what other people wanted, not what she wanted, but that’s besides the point. I got her, and I truly hoped for some character growth throughout the novel as she worked through her past to understand her present and future.

It’s important when reading Time of My Life not to question the fact that she goes back in time – it’s a must, in fact, to just accept this and move on. Because there is no explanation for why this happens to Jillian, and if you spend too much time dwelling on this little bit of magic, the book will be ruined for you. Instead the reader must relax and enjoy the journey that Winn Scotch takes us on, as it’s a fun, sometimes hilarious, but definitely heartfelt journey through Jillian’s past, and what could be her future. I loved the experience of reading this book – throughout the entire thing, I was cheering Jillian on and rooting for her to do what was right for her, to make the choices that would bring her true happiness instead of the choices that other people pushed on her.

If I have a complaint about Time of My Life, it would have to be its predictability. The novel ended exactly as I expected it to, but to be honest it ended exactly how I hoped it would as well. So that’s a good thing, actually, but yes, very predictable. I’m totally OK with that personally but I can see how others might find that to be a weakness of the novel. But guys, this is my second Allison Winn Scotch and I think she’s just great. Her books make me smile, simple as that.

I definitely recommend Time of My Life. I was in a little bit of a reading funk when I picked it up, and it was the perfect novel to shake me out of the slump. It’s lighthearted and fun, funny at times, but ultimately it’s the story of one woman’s heartfelt journey into what she truly wants out of life. I loved it!

Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver

Pandemonium by Lauren Oliver
Published by HarperCollins

*This review may contain spoilers for Delirium, the first book in this series.

Lena’s love, Alex, has been killed and it’s up to Lena to figure out how to make a life for herself as an Invalid in the Wilds. She meets a group of Invalids who take her in and soon she belongs with them, to the point where she begins to feel like she has a family again. But life in the Wilds is never rosy, and soon Lena joins the resistance – to fight for what she believes in. As part of her assignment, she attends a huge pro-cure rally – and that is where things in her life get even crazier than she ever imagined.

Pandemonium starts off with a bang and the reader is pulled into the action immediately, so if you are fuzzy on the details of Delirium, you may have a difficult time catching up. I did myself the favor of rereading Delirium right before picking up this book, and I’m so glad I did – otherwise I would have been SO lost. I was a little nervous about not loving this book as much as I did its predecessor, but I shouldn’t have been worried about that because Lauren Oliver really delivered everything I was hoping she would with Pandemonium.

Lena as a character is everything I loved about her in the first book, plus quite a bit more spunk and courage. Alex’s death has hardened her, has made her unafraid of what life can throw her way, and it’s also made her realize that she’s stronger, emotionally and physically, than she thought she was. This puts her in the unique position to be able to risk almost everything for the cause she believes passionately in, and it creates this incredibly interesting dynamic in the novel. For most of the book I thought the side of her that was so affected by her mother’s death and falling in love with Alex was extinguished, but events that happen towards the end of the novel brought the softer side of Lena back to light. I loved the balance of tough and soft with her character, and I’m really hoping that continues throughout the last book of this trilogy.

Pandemonium is told in alternating chapters set in two different time periods: then – the time right after Lena crossed over to the Wilds, and now – the time after she’s joined the resistance and lives in disguise in New York. I thought writing the story in this way was absolutely genius because it gives the reader ample opportunity to understand how Lena got into the resistance without spending too much time on potentially boring details. It worked perfectly for me.

I am not sure how else to say that I loved Pandemonium and I think Oliver stepped up her game even more with this novel than with its predecessor. This is an exciting, thought-provoking, unique dystopian series and I highly recommend you give it a try.

Delirium by Lauren Oliver (reread)

In anticipation of Pandemonium being released, I decided to reread Delirium – the first in this series – right before reading Pandemonium for the first time. I’m glad I read the book one more time because turns out I forgot a LOT of what happened. The general plot I still had outlined in my mind, but rereading the book made me realize just how many important details had escaped from my brain since I read the novel the first time.

If you recall, I LOVED Delirium when I first read it. I’m happy to report that it definitely stood up to my reread – that is to say, I loved it just as much the second time around. I can definitely tell how much I raced through the book when I originally read it, because so many of the details felt completely new to me. Obviously I read them the first time, but I was reading so fast to keep up with the plot that I didn’t recall a LOT of little things. However, the big stuff stuck with me from the first time and it was a much different experience reading the novel with the general knowledge of what was going to happen. I was able to relax, enjoy the characters more, and savor Oliver’s writing, as opposed to racing through the book to find out what happens next.

I have to be honest and say that I don’t love the new cover… I much prefer the original one, but I suppose you can’t have everything.

If you are a fan of this book and plan to read Pandemonium, I would highly recommend a reread of Delirium. Pandemonium starts off with a huge bang and if you are fuzzy on the details of the first book, you might find yourself lost in Lena’s new life. Just a suggestion – it definitely was the right choice for me.

Check back tomorrow because I’ll be reviewing Pandemonium, the second book in this exciting trilogy by the fabulously talented Lauren Oliver.

The Art of Saying Goodbye by Ellyn Bache

The Art of Saying Goodbye by Ellyn Bache
Published by William Morrow Paperbacks, an imprint of HarperCollins
Review copy provided by the publisher via LibraryThing Early Reviewers

Brightwood Trace, a neighborhood in suburbia similar to many others of its kind all over the country, is home to a diverse group of women who remain friends despite the fact that they are five very different people. But when Paisley, the life of the party and the glue that holds all five of them together, falls ill with terminal cancer, each of the women must find the strength to stick with Paisley through the worst of the worst. And in the process, each one of these women begins to look at her life in a whole new light.

I hate that I have to write this review in the honest way that I write all reviews. Because I wanted to like this book, I desperately did. I love novels that revolve around a group of female friends. I love novels about the every day aspects of life – the daily mundane stuff and the not-so-fun stuff like when the best person in the book gets cancer and it’s terminal. Everything about The Art of Saying Goodbye told me I would love it. But I didn’t. And here is where I will attempt to pinpoint why.

What it boils down to is the characters. I didn’t connect with any of them in a real way. I even had trouble for the first half of the book telling them each apart! Which is not a good thing. Once I figured out each of their personalities and began to separate each one from the rest, I realized that I didn’t really like them as people. They each seemed so selfish to me, in different ways and to different degrees, but they were each selfish for sure. And not selfish in the endearing, flawed character that you love anyway kind of way. They were just plain not supportive of their friend who was going through the most difficult thing a person can imagine. I didn’t understand how they (with the exception of one of them, Andrea) could call themselves Paisley’s good friends.

The other thing I wasn’t a huge fan of is that I felt that the summary provided by the publisher isn’t quite accurate. To me, it didn’t feel like any of these women made any significant transformative changes in their thinking or behaviors based on Paisley’s cancer. Sure, there were small changes, but certainly nothing earth-shattering. I guess I was just expecting more bombshells dropped or huge life events to take place and the whole novel felt sort of anti-climactic. I’m not sure how else to explain it.

I did not hate this book. I finished it, which is certainly telling – I enjoyed it enough to keep reading despite my misgivings. However, I have read many other books that revolve around a group of women and their friendships that I enjoyed quite a bit more than this one. So while it’s not the worst book ever, The Art of Saying Goodbye was not one I much enjoyed.

A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard

A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard
Published by Simon and Schuster

We all know the story of Jaycee Dugard – when she was eleven years old, she was kidnapped at her school bus stop in Lake Tahoe, California and held captive for eighteen years at the home of Phillip and Nancy Garrido, during which time she gave birth to two girls, both fathered by her captor and abuser Phillip. In August of 2009, Phillip brought Jaycee and her two daughters to a meeting with his parole officer, and their strange behavior made the police suspect something weird was going on with this family – leading to the release of Jaycee and her two girls. A Stolen Life is Jaycee’s memoir of those eighteen years.

This memoir is one of the best I’ve read at truly showing what it means to be courageous and resilient. If Jaycee Dugard can survive what she did and come out of it with a positive attitude towards life, you or I can survive just about anything. She is the picture of someone who has been through the worst that we can imagine but has made major strides in the direction of getting the life she wants, not the life someone else has taught her she should have. All I can say is that her story is amazing.

This was not an easy book – what the Garridos did to Jaycee is unthinkable, unforgivable even. Jaycee’s experiences are shocking and extremely disturbing. I almost burst into tears several times throughout this book. But it’s the hope that she ends up with that is the inspiring, amazing piece of her story.

I listened to the audio of this one, and Jaycee narrates herself, which was an interesting and I think good choice. She has a very young quality to her voice, which was weird to me at first, but once I got used to it I think having her narrate made me feel closer to her, I felt that I got to know not just her story but also her personality through listening to her read her memoir. I definitely recommend this one and especially the audio version.

The Iguana Tree by Michel Stone

The Iguana Tree by Michel Stone
Published by Hub City Press
Review copy provided by the publisher in conjunction with TLC Book Tours

Hector and Lilia are married and have a beautiful one-year-old daughter they adore. Unfortunately, life in Mexico is incredibly difficult for them, and in order to provide a better opportunity for his wife and daughter, Hector decides to illegally cross the border into the United States. When Hector arrives in South Carolina after a harrowing journey, he finds the job and opportunity he prayed for, and he lets Lilia know that soon he will save enough money to bring her and their daughter to the US. Lilia, however, has other plans, and the decisions she makes will change their lives and their family in shocking, irreparable ways.

What a gem of a novel The Iguana Tree is. From the moment I picked up this book, I fell in love with the beautiful writing, these desperate, headstrong, determined characters, and the picture that Stone painted of how difficult and complicated the issue of illegal immigration truly is. When I say from the moment I picked up the book, I mean that literally in the way that I fell in love with this family from the first page, as the book starts off with them both still in their home in Mexico, at a time when Hector and Lilia were as in love as possible and they had a beautiful but incredibly difficult life with their daughter and Lilia’s aunt. When Hector leaves, he carries so much hope with him throughout his journey it was almost as if I could reach into the pages and feel that hope with him – that is how well Stone captured his emotions and translated them to me as the reader. I loved Hector immediately and hoped so hard that things would work out and he would be reunited with his family in a short amount of time.

Some of Lilia’s actions and decisions were incredibly frustrating for me, but Stone also painted the picture of extreme desperation in Lilia. The choices she made were the choices that nobody would ever dream of making, and would only do the things she did out of the belief that there was truly no other viable option. One thing I loved about The Iguana Tree was how deeply it caused me to think about the tough subject of illegal immigration. Through Hector and Lilia’s story, Michel Stone shows the reader that there are no easy answers to this ongoing issue. The fact that people do go through what Hector and Lilia went through every single day, and many don’t live to tell the tale, is distressing and difficult for me to swallow. It breaks my heart that we still have not figured out as a country the answer to this debate, and as a result, human beings like Hector and Lilia pay the price for our inability to get this thing right. It is painfully sad and very sobering but The Iguana Tree brings the issue to light in a very real way.

Even though this is a novel about a difficult subject and as a result is very sad, I loved this book so much and ultimately Stone managed to convey a message of hope even through the end, when it seems that all might be lost. I embraced this novel with my whole heart and I highly recommend you read it too.

Emerald City by Alicia K. Leppert

Emerald City by Alicia K. Leppert
Published by Cedar Fort
Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley

Olivia is the kind of person who prefers to live in solitude. She doesn’t have friends, lives alone, and spends her days going to work and back at the small coffee shop where she makes a living. One night, her depression overtakes her and her suicide attempt very well would have been successful if not for the neighbor who saved her and called the ambulance in time. Although Olivia doesn’t like to be around other people as a rule, she is curious enough about the man who rescued her to seek him out and get some answers about why he would go out of his way for a complete stranger. What she finds with this stranger is not at all what she anticipated, and her life begins to change in unexpected ways.

Emerald City was an interesting read for me. It almost felt like two separate books, as the first half is completely different from the second half. Basically what happens (as spoiler-free as possible) is that Olivia falls for her savior, Jude. They have this incredibly intense but platonic friendship, in which Olivia is in love with Jude and it seems like he feels the same way but nothing really comes of it. But at about two-thirds of the way through the book, Jude reveals that he is not who he appears to be. He is otherworldly, and Olivia must choose to accept that about him and love him anyway, or move on with her life. Jude also must make a huge decision in regards to their relationship.

Had I known this book was a paranormal romance, I’m not sure I would have picked it up; however, I did enjoy the book quite a bit so for that I’m glad I read it. I was completely invested in Olivia’s story from the first page – her suicide attempt is what Leppert begins the book with, so I was sucked into the pages immediately. While the romance between Olivia and Jude is not a real romance by any means, and completely chaste, I was still addicted to finding out if something would actually happen between the two of them, so that kept me compulsively turning the pages.

The ending of the novel definitely felt rushed to me, and I’m not sure I can say the writing was anything special. However, those are minor complaints because honestly I had a difficult time putting this book down. Emerald City is the kind of book I like to call “brain candy” but sometimes that’s exactly the type of read I’m looking for. I definitely enjoyed this novel and would recommend it, even if you don’t typically read paranormal romance. It might surprise you.

Irises by Francisco X. Stork

Irises by Francisco X. Stork
Published by Arthur A. Levine Books, an imprint of Scholastic

Sisters Kate and Mary, ages eighteen and sixteen, were raised in a very strict household by their ultra-conservative pastor father. When their father suddenly passes away, the two of them must figure out a way to make it on their own, while taking care of their mother who is in a persistent vegetative state due to a car accident several years back. Kate, the elder of the two, knows this responsibility falls mainly on her shoulders, and while her boyfriend Simon has offered to marry her and provide a good life for herself and Mary, what Kate really wants is to go to Stanford and study medicine, which has always been her dream. Mary just wants to stay home with her paint and canvas and care for their mother for the rest of her life, but she needs to convince Kate to go along with that plan. And while Kate and Mary are trying to get this figured out, the new pastor at their father’s church, Andy, becomes somewhat involved with the situation and throws a wrench in any plans they could possibly come up with. These teenagers are forced to grow up much more quickly than they should, but will they make the right choices for themselves and what’s left of their family?

I’ve been meaning to read this book forever, since before it was released even. The reason being is that I LOVED Marcelo in the Real World and couldn’t wait to find out what Stork put out next. While I can’t say I feel as passionate about Irises as I did about my first experience with Stork’s work, I liked this novel quite a bit and Sork’s talent continues to shine in my eyes.

I love the unique premise of this novel and I think that Stork took it places that were both predictable and not so much. I definitely knew that the moral issue of what to do with the girls’ mother would come up, and I feel that Stork handled the issue with compassion, grace, and truthfulness. The way that Mary and Kate dealt with this question rang true to me and although the deciding process did feel a little rushed, I felt that their answers were authentic to what teenagers forced to grow up too fast might come up with.

I felt intense compassion for Kate, much more so than her sister Mary. Kate reminded me so much of myself when I was in high school. I wasn’t sheltered like she was, but like Kate, I had bigger dreams for myself than the expectations of my parents. I planned on attending college ever since elementary school, even though I knew my parents had no means to pay for such a huge expense, and I made sure throughout high school to work towards that goal (and of course, I did graduate college as I told myself I would). Kate also has big dreams – dreams her father wouldn’t ever have let her pursue. His death was both terribly sad to Kate but also strangely freeing, as it allowed her to make her own decisions for the first time in her life.

Mary was a more difficult character for me to understand and empathize with. Being the younger of the two siblings, she was even more protected from the harsh realities of this world, even more sheltered, even less understanding of what it meant for the two of them to have to make adult decisions. However, by the end of the novel she really came into her own and I definitely appreciated her personal growth throughout the book.

I really did like Irises even though it’s not my favorite Stork novel. The story is relatively unique, the characters will creep into your heart, and the resolution is the perfect mix of bitter and sweet. I can absolutely recommend the novel.

The Replacement Wife by Eileen Goudge

The Replacement Wife by Eileen Goudge
Published by Open Road Media
Review copy provided by the publisher via NetGalley

Camille Hart enjoys great success as owner of Manhattan’s premier matchmaking agency. Her matchmaking skills are sought after by many, as she has proven time and time again that she is uniquely adept at bringing people together in just the right couplings. She is in her forties and loving life with her husband Edward and their two children when she learns that the cancer that was once in remission is back, and this time it’s terminal. Camille decides to put her matchmaking skills to use in the most important job of her career – finding the perfect person for her husband to be with after she is gone. Unfortunately, this scenario doesn’t work as well as she anticipated and she finds herself in a terrible place emotionally with her husband in what could be the final months and weeks of her life.

I chose to read The Replacement Wife because I enjoyed one of Goudge’s previous novels, Once in a Blue Moon, and I thought the premise of this book sounded interesting – something I hadn’t seen before in fiction. Generally speaking, the plot of the novel kept me engaged and interested enough to continue reading. I definitely wanted to find out how things would turn out for Camille, Edward, and whatever woman Edward ended up “replacing” his wife with.

I liked a few of the characters of the book – most notably Angie, who admittedly was more of a secondary character and whose story was less of a priority than Camille and Edward’s. I felt that she was the most real character, honestly, and definitely had the most depth of all of them. I liked that she was incredibly flawed but still a good person at heart and I could understand why she made some of the mistakes that she did. Camille was a mixed bag for me – I was alternately empathetic towards her and frustrated with her at different points throughout the book. On the one hand, I understood why she felt that Edward would need to find someone to take care of himself and the children once she was gone, but at the same time I didn’t understand why she didn’t believe in Edward’s ability to find that woman for himself. Also, it was clear from the onset that Edward wasn’t happy with Camille’s grand scheme, so it didn’t make sense to me why she wouldn’t just drop it and spend her final days enjoying her husband instead of fighting with him.

Edward was the character I had the most difficulty with. I felt that perhaps he should have put his foot down when Camille insisted on embarking on this project but unfortunately his choices had drastic consequences for their marriage and his life. I mean, I sort of got where he was coming from, but a lot of what he said and did bothered me.

My one real complaint about The Replacement Wife is the length of the novel. I thought it was much too long for the story it contained. In my opinion, Goudge could have cut out at least 50 pages, possibly closer to 100, without sacrificing the integrity of the novel one bit. It definitely dragged in the middle for me and I would have been happier with a slightly shorter version of The Replacement Wife.

While I don’t want to give away any important plot points, especially the ending, I will say that it did not end the way I was expecting, which usually is a good thing. In this case, I’m still not sure how I feel about how Goudge chose to wrap up the novel. It seemed to be conveying the message of “be careful what you wish for…” while at the same time left major heaviness in my heart. It also caused me to have conflicting emotions, because I was happy for some of the characters but truly sad for some others. It was interesting, to say the least.

Overall, The Replacement Wife was a worthwhile read for me, even though there were aspects of the novel I didn’t love. It is quite a unique premise, but if you can suspend your disbelief about the concept of the novel, the characters are engaging and the story (mostly) moves along quite nicely. This was my second time reading Goudge’s work, and it won’t be the last.