Unveiling the Past by Kim Vogel Sawyer

I very much enjoyed this sequel to Bringing Maggie Home. Kim Vogel Sawyer does a great job of writing an exciting mystery, while delving into relevant topics like forgiveness, grace and brokenness. Meghan DeFord is a cold-case detective assigned to get to the bottom of the mysterious disappearance of a banker who left for work and was never seen again. The case stirs up wounds from her own past by her own absent father. Meghan must choose between bitterness and resentment or healing and restoration.

Some favorite characters from the first book return in this one: Meghan's mother, Diane, and her grandmother, Hazel. Both are women with difficult pasts who have found healing and hope in their faith and relationship with Christ. Both are wonderfully warm and funny and add much to the story.

Another relevant topic that Unveiling the Past addresses is marriage. Meghan's husband, Sean, longs to start a family, but Meghan is reluctant and fearful. They both struggle to express their feelings and must learn how to communicate and understand each other.

If you enjoy contemporary Christian fiction and like a good mystery, you will definitely enjoy Unveiling the Past. Although it is a sequel, it does stand alone if you haven't read the first book, Bringing Maggie Home.

Stories That Bind Us by Susie Finkbeiner

I just recently discovered author, Susie Finkbeiner, and she has quickly become a favorite!  I loved her latest book, Stories That Bind Us. Set in the 60's, this historical Christian novel sucks you into the story right away.  At age 40, Betty Sweet unexpectedly becomes a widow and is overcome with grief.  She and her husband never had children and she was a homemaker, so she has no family or career to distract her. 

While struggling with to find her purpose in life, Betty's estranged sister,Clara, and her young son come to  visit and Betty quickly falls in love with her nephew, Hugo.  When Clara spirals into the darkness of depression and is hospitalized, Betty is left to care for Hugo.  Although inexperienced and unsure, she turns out to be a wonderful mother figure for her nephew and delights in telling him wonderful stories that she weaves just for him. 

This oh so charming tale is a joy to read and I enjoyed very page, reluctant for it to end.  Although a sweet story, it also deals with raw topics like depression, suicide, and racism.  If you have not yet discovered master storyteller, Susie Finkbeiner, I urge you to check her out.  I'm quite sure you can't go wrong with any of her books, but this one would be a great place to start!

Blaze of Light: The Inspiring True Story of Green Beret Medic Gary Beikirch, Medal of Honor Recipient by Marcus Brotherton

I've read many books on World War II, some on World War I, but not many at all on the Vietnam War.  Blaze of Light is a fascinating (and sometimes horrifying) memoir of the life of Green Beret Gary Beikirch.  I enjoyed all the details in this book, it started with Gary's childhood and went all the way through present day.  I felt that this really gave a deeper picture of who Gary is and what motivated him to first of all enlist in the army and then to go on to become a Green Beret medic in the US Special Forces.

The depictions of the war in Vietnam were disturbing to be sure.  The blood shed and lives lost were astronomical.  Gary was gravely injured while stationed as a medic in the village of Dak Seang.  He was hospitalized for ten months, recovering from gunshot wounds, and an explosion that filled his body with shrapnel and ripped apart his stomach and intestines.  He nearly bled to death, was paralyzed from the waist down and had an colostomy bag.  He was in excruciating pain and unconscious much of the time, but it was while he was in the hospital that he met Jesus.

Gary's life didn't immediately change.  He was not miraculously healed of his injuries.  He still dealt with PTSD from the war.  He still distrusted people and had anger issues, but the Lord was working in his life.  God used many people, Gary's cousin and her husband, Gary's long-estranged father, a college professor and most of all Gary's wife, Lolly, to help heal his emotional wounds. God also used his own creation, the Appalachian wilderness as a place of spiritual healing for Gary.

If you like true stories of courage, adventure and overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles, you will definitely enjoy this book, as I did. 

Don't Forget to Remember by Ellie Holcomb

Don't Forget to Remember by Ellie Holcomb is such an adorable book!  It is oversized, perfect for reading to the little one in your life.  It's pages are thick, like a board book so it is sturdy and very well made. 

The story line is about how every aspect of creation speaks to us of how much God loves us and will never forget us.  The words are simple, yet beautiful.  I like the rhythm and cadence of the words and so will the children you read it to.

The illustrator, Kayla Harren, has created gorgeous artwork on each and every page. The book is chock full of fun, colorful scenes, ranging from a meadow to a jungle to the ocean.  There are both children and animals on each page. Children of every nationality and animals of every kind. There are many, many things to point out and talk about all throughout the book. 

The only minus I would give this book is that there are no children with any sort of different ability.  I would have loved to see a child with crutches or a wheelchair, a child with glasses or hearing aids, or a child with Down's Syndrome.  Other than that, Don't Forget to Remember is a completely charming book and I would highly recommend it to parents or grandparents.

Isaiah's Legacy: A Novel of Prophets and Kings by Mesu Andrews

I am a big fan of Mesu Andrews!  I love Biblical fiction and I think she is one of the best authors that writes it.  I very much enjoyed her last book, Isaiah's Daughter and had been looking forward to Isaiah's Legacy.  In the end, I did also enjoy Isaiah's Legacy, but I will say I wasn't sure for a while there that I could even finish it.  I completely understand that sexual depravity, idolatry and witchcraft were common practices of the day, but I honestly could hardly bear reading about some of it.  It was very disturbing and difficult to read about.  I wish that the introduction had come with a warning of some of the subject matter.

So, if you are able to set that aside and not be too bothered by it, you will love this book.  It is a wonderful story of redemption and the power of our God who never gives up on his lost children. I recently finished reading through the Bible and I must say that Isaiah's Legacy really brought fresh, new insights to Kings and Chronicles.

The life of Manasseh, who the Bible says did much evil in the sight of the Lord (2 Kings), is indeed fascinating, albeit horrifying. Manasseh reigned as king of the nation of Judah for 55 years and led his people to participate in idol worship, child sacrifice and many other abominable practices. If you haven't read about him, I will not spoil the ending for you but you can be assured that his life (and this book) are exciting indeed.

I've Seen the End of You: A Neurosurgeon's Look at Faith, Doubt, and the Things We Think We Know by W. Lee Warren, MD

I've Seen the End of You is a fascinating look into the life and faith of a neurosurgeon, US Army veteran, writer, husband and father.  Obviously he is a brilliant man, but like most of us ordinary folk, has had struggles and trials in both his work and his personal life. This book tells not only his story, but the stories of several of his patients, all diagnosed with brain cancer or other brain trauma.

In the Prologue, Dr. Warren summarizes the book so well: "I used to look at my patients' brain scans, see the glioblastoma [a fatal form of cancer] I knew would ravage their minds and destroy their lives in the coming months, and say to myself, I've seen the end of you. But in the aftermath of war, divorce, rebuilding, and then unimaginable loss in my personal life, I realized I was standing at the deathbed of my shattered faith.

I'd seen the end of me too.

So I faced the greatest surgical challenge of my life: stitching together fatal cancers, dying children, and Christian cliches to heal the faith I'd lost and hoped to resurrect in some unforeseen new form.

What happens when our messy lives mess with what we think we believe?"

What happens when our messy lives mess with what we think we believe is that we have a choice to make.  We can either turn away from God or turn toward him.  Dr. Warren chooses the latter and finds a renewed faith.  As he says near the end of the book, "Faith, my friend, is being able to look for hope even when it seems impossible to find.  Faith is hope waiting for tomorrow."  Because God already knows what tomorrow holds and he will be there to hold us in the midst of whatever it brings.
If you too struggle with your faith.  If you too are living with trials or have been through a war of any sort.  If you have experienced loss or brokenness, you will find hope for your own tomorrow in I've Seen the End of You. 

Free to Believe: The Battle over Religious Liberty in America by Luke Goodrich

I was not at all certain that I would like this book, but I must say I really did!  Honestly, Luke Goodrich had me already engrossed in the Introduction.  He began by telling a story and it is my favorite kind of story, a true story.  It is the story of a small Christian school in Michigan (which is my home state so of course that made it even more interesting to me).  The school had a fourth grade teacher who became ill so the school had to hire a replacement for her.  The teacher got better  but the school felt it wasn't right to fire the replacement and asked give the first teacher her job back. She demanded they hire her and threatened to sue.  The school was upset at the teacher's behavior and after failed reconciliation, they fired her.  The teacher did ultimately sue the school and the case ended up going all the way to the Supreme Court. The case stands as crucial standard in religious freedom cases.  Riveting stuff and Free to Believe is full of stories like it.

Author Luke Goodrich is an attorney with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and has tried may Supreme Court cases.  He is a frequent guest on TV shows and in newspapers and magazines where he discusses religious freedom.  Although he is obviously highly educated and intelligent, he is able to make the law relevant and interesting to a casual reader.  He gives many examples of real cases and explains the repercussions of each case.

But more than just telling stories about legal cases, Goodrich details why religious freedom is so important in the United States and why Christians should care about it.  He has great ideas on how Christians can respond to threats to their religious rights and presents solid Biblical arguments for those responses.

If you are interested in the current battles going on in the US over gay rights, abortion rights, Muslim law, or religious discrimination, then you'll certainly be fascinated by this book, as I was.