Resurrection Year by Sheridan Voysey

This book, subtitled “Turning Broken Dreams Into New Beginnings”, describes the journey of the author and his wife through heartbreaking infertility, deciding to turn a corner, and establishing a new life, including new jobs and a move to Great Britain. Particularly insightful is the narrative about the author’s heart processes as he makes these major transitions. Of great value is reading about the honest relationship between the spouses and God; rarely is such a glimpse into someone else’s mind, heart and soul given as this book does. The author’s faith has deep biblical roots, which is reflected in how and what he thinks and how he processes his experiences. The book was extremely interesting, challenging and inspiring, as you can’t help but put yourself in his shoes and wonder what might help you in times of such great heartache. It is well written, and I would recommend it to others. I received this book for free in exchange for my unbiased review through the Thomas Nelson BookSneeze Program.

Unglued Devotional by Lysa TerKeurst

This book of 60 devotionals aims to help you change by having you analyze yourself. The author intends that you spend a lot of time—aided by her many stories—evaluating your behavior, thoughts, and feelings with a goal toward improving your attitude, perspective and relationships. Each devotional has a verse, a Thought for the Day, and a narrative about what difference walking with God can make in every area of life. Most ask questions that encourage to reflect about yourself deeply. Each ends with a short, honest prayer. This book will be helpful to those who want to examine themselves in light of God’s Word, wanting to make changes to become more like Christ. I received this book for free in exchange for my unbiased review through the Thomas Nelson BookSneeze Program.

The Anger Workbook by Les Carter and Frank Minirth This excellent book helps one identify anger in its many forms, trace its needs, motivating emotions and take steps to reduce and conquer it. It is accessible, using checklists to analyze and numbered blanks to delineate personal examples. The four parts of this book are Identifying Your Anger, Anger Thrives on Unmet Needs, How Other Emotions Create Anger, and Applying New Insights about Anger Reduction. This book was interesting, challenging and enlightening. It was thought provoking and insightful. The material was presented simply and cohesively, conveying biblical truth accurately. I would recommend this book to everyone. Unless we have faced our anger head on, we likely do not realize how much it permeates our lives. The Anger Workbook is extremely well written, with tremendous instruction and insight. I received this book for free in exchange for my unbiased review through the Thomas Nelson BookSneeze Program.

Simple Secrets to a Happy Life by Luci Swindoll

Each of the 50 “secrets” has three pages devoted to it. Most of the author’s topics are common sense, such as be on time, keep your word, value the things you have, think before you say it, and live an attitude of gratitude. A few are biblical, such as honoring your parents, taking Jesus with you everywhere, read your Bible every day. This is not a book most would read to learn but rather to be reminded. Its message is simple and straightforward. It is not one of Luci Swindoll’s best works as there is little here that is new, but if you wonder to yourself, “How am I doing?”, this book might well help you answer that question. I received this book for free in exchange for my unbiased review through the Thomas Nelson BookSneeze Program.

constantly craving by Marilyn Meberg

Marilyn Meberg says people have craved more since the Garden of Eden. We want more from romance, marriage, and friendship; we want more happiness, time, meaning and purpose. The answer to our craving, says Marilyn, is God—His purposes and His ways.

This book did an adequate job of presenting God as the answer to life’s desires and pursuits. The author presented biblical truth well. The message, however, did not seem fresh or different from other books written by Marilyn Meberg or from numerous other authors, which was disappointing.

I would recommend this to someone new to walking with God, as it was pretty basic stuff. If that description does not fit you, I would skip this particular book. It’s not as good as some of Marilyn’s other works.

I received this book for free in exchange for my unbiased review through the Thomas Nelson BookSneeze Program.

Healing is a Choice by Stephen Arterburn

The book’s subtitle, “Ten Decisions That Will Transform Your Life & Ten Lies That Can Prevent You From Making Them,” sum up the book nicely. Each of the ten chapters includes a choice that will move your life forward and a lie that will fight against that choice. The choices involve healing, feeling, investigating, helping, embracing, and risking your life, and the lies concern things such as independence, denial, lack of forgiveness, and hopelessness.

This book was overly long, at 454 pages. For example, the first chapter was 48 pages, and its workbook section, misnomered "Workbook Questions," was 20. Reading the workbook sections after each chapter left me with the feeling I was going in circles, as the workbook sections contained narrative that was extremely repetitious of the chapters. If the sections called “Workbook Questions” were simply that, the book would have been greatly improved.

For the most part, biblical truth was portrayed accurately. The one section where I concluded it was not was in the chapter, “The Choice to Serve,” where the author states: “Romans 12 is one place we learn about the spiritual gifts that I call secret powers.” First, never does the Bible even imply that spiritual gifts to be secret. I Corinthians indicates these are given to serve the Body, and some of those gifts are very public, such as pastor, evangelist, administration. Even helps and mercy are not exercised in private. Second, Arterburn goes on in the next section on service to talk about talents, strengths, interests, personality traits, and desires, which the Bible does not overlap with spiritual gifts. This section was muddy and could be very confusing to an unbeliever or a new believer.

I would not recommend this book because of its length and muddiness. There are other books which convey the same truths without wearing the reader out and without watering down the teaching of Scripture on spiritual gifts until they are described as “secret powers.”

I received this book for free in exchange for my unbiased review through the Thomas Nelson BookSneeze Program.

The Grace of God by Andy Stanley

This is the first book I’ve read by Andy Stanley, who is a masterful writer. When he turned his sights to the topic of the grace of God, the result is an in-depth look involving a refreshing perspective, an engaging style, and challenging applications. The author gives everyone something meaty to ponder.

Clearly outlined is man’s need for God’s grace, as well as God’s desire to extend grace to everyone at all times. Scripture is used extensively and well, and some familiar Bible stories, such as the story of Joseph and the parable of the prodigal son, are retold in a fresh way. The author explores many facets of grace in chapters entitled, among others, Surprised by Grace, Ruled by Grace, Sustained by Grace, Puzzled by Grace, and Commissioned for Grace.

This book was interesting, enlightening and thought provoking. I would recommend this book to everyone, especially to those who are new in their faith.
I received this book for free in exchange for my unbiased review through the Thomas Nelson BookSneeze Program.