The books reviewed and author interviews included on this blog come from the general market, so I will include a rating similar to movie ratings.
Please make comments at the bottom of the review.
Reviews of Christian books can be found at https://jorjaadavisthewriterreads.blogspot.com/
To suggest other titles that you would like to see reviewed email me:jorja.davis@gmail.com
Zia, Mohsin Mian. Victim of Shame: Why Me, God? Smashwords. November 2, 2010. Paperback
ISBN: 145-3-8659-50 EAN-13:978-1-45386595-8. 180 pages.List price: $15.00 DigitalASIN: B004A8ZVRU. 367 KB.
$6.00
Review
Title: One Heartbeat - One Humanity -
One Dream: A World of Peace
Genre: Suspense, Thriller
Ryan, a victim. Ryan, ashamed. Ryan, an impotent misogynist. Ryan shamed. Ryan, an accidental pornographer. Ryan mortified. Ryan, a champion of women’s
rights. Ryan chagrined. Ryan, an
intentional journalist. Why me, God? Why
me?
Sarah, an orphan. Sarah, fiancé
to a self-centered Muslim. Sarah dishonored. Sarah, a victim. Sarah degraded. Sarah,
a psychotic break. Sarah ruined. Why me, God? Why me?
Maria, a Christian widow raising an Islamic son.
Maria weakened. Maria’s Islamic son, killed in a terrorist attack. Maria broken.
Maria, a convert to real Islam. Maria healed. Maria, a healer. Try me, God! Try me!
“No matter which religion, nation, society,
race, or ethnicity we belong to, we all have one thing in common. At some point
in each of our lives,we all ask the
question ‘Why me, God?’”
Zia’s Kafka-esque third novel is a plea for all humanity
to live in peace and integrity. Though
written in English, it carries within the rhythm of all the languages of
Pakistan: Urdu, Punjabi, Pashto, Sindhi, and Blochi. The book is a flash back
written from a first person point of view and is somewhat didactic. The plot
meets Zia’s goal of trying to “unmask and unveil the frailties in every
society.”
Saffrin, Bob. Psalms, the Sunrise of
Hope. Village Media / CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform 9/19/12 ISBN-10:1479282316 ISBN-13:978-1479282319 ASIN:B0097WVXUS 220pp List Price: paperback
$12.95, e-book $3.99
Psalms,
the Sunrise of Hope looks at ten psalms with a common theme of finding hope in
the midst of difficulty. The author defines Christian hope as conviction that
God is in one’s life now and forever, and nothing can remove one from God’s
love.
True
hope, then, is resting in an unending care of one’s creator, expecting Him to move
on one’s behalf. “Hope is a soldier that fights for us as we wait for the
goodness of God to accomplish His will in and for us.”
Bob
Saffrin describes the psalms as Hebrew poems meant to be set to music. They
were and are used for worship, prayer and expressing emotions. Saffrin’s purpose
is to change one’s attention away from problems; to move one’s attention toward
God.
In
Saffrin’s meditations, he includes the back stories of
the psalms. He draws experiences that focus one’s attention from the Historical
and Prophetic Books of the Bible, the New Testament. Saffrin speaks from his
own experiences, and the experiences of others.
Rather
than asking “Where is God?” One should ask “Who is God?” For each psalm,
Saffrin includes a Life Lesson. He lifts portions of the psalm contrasting the
world’s view with God’s perspective and includes questions to consider and
discuss.
In all
of these lessons and meditations, Saffrin encourages discovering
God’s presence in the middle of one’s situation. If you recognize the presence
of God, you go through distress, but distress does not go through you.”
For
Psalm 3 he also includes a Bible exercise for the application of the psalm. It
is a masterly example that one could use to create exercises for the other
psalms.
The ten
Psalms included in this book are Psalm 3 (Hope for the Sleepless), Psalm 8
(Hope for the Insignificant), Psalm 13 (Hope for the Hopeless), Psalm 23 (Hope
for Lost Lambs), Psalm 40 (Hope for the Shattered), Psalm 42-43 (Hope for the
Depressed), Psalm 84 (Hope for the Homeless), Psalm 91 (Hope for the
Vulnerable), Psalm 107 (Hope for the Unloved), and Psalm 139 (Hope for the Poor
in Spirit).
Other
books by Bob Saffrin:
Moses, Steps to a Life of Faith
Elijah, Steps to a life of Power
*Psalm 23, Help for Lost Lambs
*How to Sleep Like a Baby, a Meditation
on Psalm 3
*These are
updated and included in this text as bonus content.
I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author for my unbiased review.
Krauss,
Tracy. Wind over Marshdale. Astraea Press (http://www.astraeapress.com/). June 11, 2012. ISBN: 978-1-62135-041-5 ASIN: B008ARYQPA 556KB List Price:
$2.99 Christian
Romance, Suspense. Jorja’s Rating: PG-occult theme, mild sex scenes.
Rachel
Bosworth arrives to teach kindergarten in the small town of Marshdale,
Saskatchewan. Thomas Lone Wolf and Con McKinley both begin to court her. Her
landlady, Mrs. Beatry, the town gossip and quickly fills Rachel in on all she knows
about the two and everyone else in town.
Thomas Lone
Wolf came to Marshdale to pave the way for the cultural interpretation center. The
center will house the archaeological finds from Old Man Lake nearby. Thomas is
the great-grandson of the last powerful Cree medicine man who enters Thomas’s
dreams of buffalo stampedes. He set aside his Cree spiritual legacy to live as
a Christian. Even so, this widower and his children experience discrimination
and resentment at every turn.
Con suddenly finds
himself struggling with his own beliefs and values. He becomes Thomas’s advocate
and only friend, not knowing that Rachel is dating them both. He falls deeper
and deeper in love with Rachel, but part of him knows he cannot marry her until
she embraces Christ as her Lord and Savior
Evil seems to
be in the wind. The biggest opponent to the cultural center is the extreme fundamentalist
zealot whose twin sister is a witch who, for her own reasons, is stirring up
the demons in Thomas Lone Wolf’s history; and capitalizing on the darkness resident
among the townspeople. It seems everyone in town, even the pastor at one of the
churches, is fighting evil in one form or another.
Rachel finds herself
“caught in the crossfire” and terribly confused. She is in love with two men. She
does not understand Con’s beliefs or Thomas’s fears. Her landlady seems to know
something unwholesome about everyone.
Krauss has
written a twisted web of deceit and romantic suspense, a great beach-read or an
avenue of escape during the upcoming holidays. The wind over Marshdale blows
both hot and cold. This is Krauss’s fourth novel. She has also written several
stage plays. Until she has the flexibility to write full-time, she is a high
school teacher of art, drama and English.
I received a
complimentary Kindle copy of this book from the author for my unbiased opinion.
Mohktar, Hatef. The
Red Wrath: A Journey Between Two Destinies. Houston, Texas: Strategic Book
Publishing and Rights 07/31/2012.ISBN-10: 1618974599; ISBN-13:
978-1618974594. 474 (pp); $24.50
Asif lives in Oslo maintaining a
flat subsidized by the government and working hard at unskilled labor every
day. He meets, by chance, his old friend Akram from his village at home in
Afghanistan. Being with Akram and his family, Asif remembers and writes.
Before the Communist coup, in
1979, that brought in thousands of Soviet troops; the village of Shir Abad was
a place where Uzbeks, Pushtoons, Hazaras, and Tajiks lived as neighbors in
Muslim peace and mutual support. Asif and his friends and neighbors, both boys
and girls, attended school. Then, on Saturdays, they studied the Quran with the
Imaam. Children grew and played and learned and lived in families that honored
one another.
“In the pre-Soviet War era,
the society was unaware of the word ‘discrimination,’ Everyone no matter from
which caste, tribe, creed, race, color or gender was always welcomed with open
arms. People found support everywhere they went. But war and politics the two
carcinogenic ailments, had diseased the modern society.” Asif’s family lived
not only by the Muslim Quran, but also by the ancient Pashtoon law passed orally
from father to son.
He experienced his first
separations at the age of 13 when the Noor (light) of his heart, his
hummingbird, was married to a man old enough to be her grandfather. Her stepmother,
a divorcee from another village, created this handiwork. Latifa’s purity of
heart, soul, and body brought a high bride price from this rich man Qalandar.
Asif knew it was something Latifa’s own mother, who was like his aunt, would
never have allowed. Latifa, the child scholar, moved out of his life overnight
to another village where she was stepmother to children older than she.
Then Asif’s father, Zulfikar
Khan, stood in the mosque and spoke against the new regime saying “This is the
beginning of the end of Afghanistan as we know it.” His father moves his family
in the night to another village. Then came the tanks. Zulfikar taken away and
never seen again. The village bombed.
Men with machine guns killed men, women, and children indiscriminately.
Suddenly
Asif was responsible for the safety and welfare of his family. Separated from
his father; he now became separated from his village and friends as he took his
mother and younger brother and sister across the mountains to the refugee camps
in Pakistan. He struggles to earn enough to provide shelter, food, and
education for his brother.
“Born in Afghanistan,
Hatef Mokhtar, grew up in a refugee camp in Pakistan and is now … the Editor in
Chief of the Oslo Times.” More intense than either The Kite Runner or A Thousand
Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini Mokhtar’s historical novel
carries not only the history of the last thirty years of Afghanistan, but the
cost to its people.
The rhythm of the words, phrases, and sentences carries the
languages of the people into English. “I believe separation is the beginning of a long metaphysical chain of
events that binds one spirit to another, connecting every corner of the world
and reaching places we cannot see because they are beyond the reach of the
living. We can only reach them when our imagination has taken over from where
our breath has left us.”
This is a book that is
written with tears and hope and the reader will read it the same way. This is
not casual reading material. The reader will be researching for the whole
story, but will actually get it all here, deeper than the facts. The use of
passive voice is inconvenient at first, but becomes necessary to maintain
emotional distance from Asif’s pain and anguish.
The following sites will
provide support and statistics for Mohktar’s emotional and intellectual analysis
of the cost of thirty years of war and separation written as historical
fiction.
I received a .pdf copy of this book from Readers Favorite for my unbiased review.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Wisler, Alice J. Still Life in Shadows. Chicago: River North Fiction, 7/24/2012. 298
(pp) ISBN-10: 0802406262 ISBN-13: 978-0802406262
$14.99 AISN:
B00836T3AG $9.99
Fifteen years ago Gideon left his
Amish roots and people just outside Carlisle, Pennsylvania, even before his
“rumspringa,” to make his way in the “Englischer” world. Gideon settles in the
small town of Twin Branches near the mountains in North Carolina. His hands
will never again be clean as they bear the permanent oil stains around his
fingernails from repairing automobiles.
Since he left home, he has become the
“Getaway Savior” for other boys and young men seeking to escape the “ordnung” - the order, discipline and rules - of the
Amish. Gideon, though able to help others achieve a more fulfilling life,
carries within himself the hatred and anger that he wears every bit as ritually
as the suspenders and straw hat he left behind.
When Kiki, a teen with autism, comes
into his automotive shop wanting work repairing bicycles, Gideon struggles to
accept her. Even though he goes to the tea shop every day to find himself in
the warmth of hot green tea and the warm brown eyes of Kiki’s sister Mari.
It is
not until his younger brother, Moriah, crashes into his home and life, that
Gideon comes face to face with himself, with his anger, and with God. Only now
does he realize how deeply he needs to forgive - to forgive his father, God,
and most especially himself.
All of us strive to one degree or
another with the past. In some ways, we all see ourselves as “different” and
needing to be something other than what we are in order to belong. Most of us
wrangle with the ability to help everyone, except those closest to us.
Alice J. Wisler was born
in Osaka, Japan. Her parents were career Presbyterian missionaries. Alice
went to Eastern Mennonite University after graduating from the Canadian
Academy, an international high school in Kobe, Japan.
With warmth, and even humor, Wisler holds up a
mirror where one sees not only the scars, and shortcomings, but the need for
God and one another, the need to find a place where one belongs. Without a
wasted word or emotion, Wisler captures our humanity.
La Salle, Eriq. Laws of Depravity (Martyr Maker
Series). Create Space: 2012. ISBN: 1-4775-8211-8 (p) $15.00 ISBN-13:
9781477582114 (e) $3.99
Father O’Conner, found flayed in
his office by the janitor, brings Detectives Quincy Cavanaugh and Tavares “Phee”
Freeman to the scene of the brutal slaying. They follow the corpse to the city
morgue. There they discover FBI Agent Janet Maclin who hopes to relate this
murder to The Martyr Maker. This serial killer is Maclin’s only open case.
Over
a period of thirty years, thirty-six priests and preachers have been murdered
in ways reminiscent of the martyrdom of Jesus and twelve of the major and minor
apostles, twelve murders every ten years.
Dr. Kravitz, New York City’s chief
coroner, following Maclin’s direction, finds a plastic capsule in O’Conner’s stomach
containing a rolled up piece of paper with a passage of scripture written on it,
confirming the perpetrator’s MO. Maclin, Quincy and Phee now work together in
this police
procedural trying to get ahead of a killer that is now threatening
the clergy of New York City.
Coming from diverse backgrounds
each individual peopling this book is flawed and complex. Each character deals
with the evil in his or her background, as well as its cost on the present, in
different ways. The depth of the story and its expected and unexpected twists
and turns, makes for a highly enjoyable read.
La Salle spent two years at the Juilliard
School’s Drama Division. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from New York
University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Best-known as Dr. Benton in the
television drama ER, La Salle has acted
on and off Broadway and in films. He has produced, directed and written screenplays.
Laws of Depravity is his first novel.
Drawing on his years of experience
in storytelling on the stage, television, and movies, this novel is highly visual
and visceral. This is a “modern
day parable cleverly masquerading as a crime novel:” a study of atonement,
confession, revenge, and evil. Its characters are multi-layered bringing depth
and vivid reality to this police procedural.
Each must confront not only with
the depravity of a twisted mind, but also the defeated or suppressed depravities
that have shaped their own lives and families, that have made them who they
are. The reader is in for a page-turning experience that leaves supper dishes
undone and creates bleary-eyed days at the office.
Rating: 4.5 stars
