Book winner!

Before I announce the winner of The Charlatan’s Boy by Jonathan Rogers, I want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone who voted for my review in WaterBrook Multnomah’s review contest during December.  Because of your help, I won the contest!!  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

If you let me know you voted for my review, I entered your name in (what else?) an Excel spreadsheet and with the help of a very handy random generator formula, I can pick the winner of the book.  So without further ado, the winner of Jonathan Rogers’ book The Charlatan’s Boy is (insert drumroll)….

Josh and Julie Munson Cox

Josh and Julie, I’ll be sending you a note shortly to get your mailing address.  I hope you enjoy the book and thanks again for your vote.

Thanks again everyone!

Book Review – The Charlatan’s Boy

“See a genuine he-feechie alive and in the flesh!  Amazing! Astonishing!  You’ve never seen anyone like him!”

The life of a traveling huckster was the only life Grady could remember.  He had played the part of “The Wild Man of Feechiefen Swamp” for so long, he believed he WAS a feechie.  But ever since people stopped believing in feechies, Grady and “Perfesser” Floyd were having a harder time coming up with new ideas to trick people out their hard-earned money.  To top it off, the “perfesser” shocked Grady by telling him that Grady WASN’T a feechie at all.  Now, with every new change in venue, Grady wonders more and more where he fits in and whether he could ever have a family or even a friend who would truly like him, let alone LOVE him.  When Floyd hits on the idea of reviving the feechie business, the results are often hilarious and the final outcome completely unexpected.

In The Charlatan’s Boy, Jonathan Rogers weaves a spellbinding tale that will have you keeping late nights just to read one more page.  The characters are believable and the word-pictures Rogers creates stir up the imagination.  But the star of the book is Grady, who narrates the story in the first person, telling of the hijinks and hoaxes he and Floyd perpetrate.  Although he travels with Floyd helping him make his living by tricking others, it is more out of a sense of belonging and duty that he does so. Grady knows what he is doing is dishonest, but tries to justify the lies by telling himself that it’s for a good cause, even if that cause was making Floyd rich.  But even here, Grady’s conscious is pulling him one way while his sense of duty goes another.  “I’m think I’m an honest feller.  I want to do what’s right, but I ain’t had a lot of practice at it.  Being in Floyd’s employ, a feller don’t get a lot of opportunity to exercise his honesty muscle.”

The theme woven throughout the book is Grady’s down-to-earth musings about life, especially a life characterized by knowing (or the lack of knowing) who a person is. (“A man who makes a habit of telling the truth assumes that other folks is in the same habit.”)  Unlike many other books of this genre targeting Christian young adults, the tone is never preachy or moralizing.  It’s simply the story of one boy trying to find where he belongs in the world.  Grady, when faced with his new future and finally realizing Floyd’s meanness, perfectly summarizes in one sentence the truth we come to see in his story:

“It was true that I was a charlatan’s boy, but there was things about me that was a whole lot truer.”

I would highly recommend this book.

Thanks to Waterbook Multnomah for sending me a complementary review copy of this book.

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Hi, thanks for reading my review of The Charlatan’s Boy by Jonathan Rogers.  I need your help with something. I reviewed this book as part of WaterBrook Multnomah’s Blogging for Books program. (A great program by the way.  If you are interested in reviewing books check out the link to the side. —>)  This month (December) they are having a contest to give away an e-reader (either a Sony, Kindle or Nook).

In order to win, a person has to post a book review during the month of December and have others rate the review. The reviewer with the highest rated review wins. That’s where I need your help. Would you mind going to this link and rating the review that I posted above? If you do so, leave a comment below and you’ll be entered in a drawing to win this book from me.

Thanks in advance!

Book Giveaway – Devoted

Congratulations to Nancy , winner of last week’s book giveaway for Voddie Baucham’s Family Driven Faith.

This week, I’m giving away a copy of Devoted: The Story of a Father’s Love for His Son, by Dick Hoyt.  You may have seen the incredibly stirring video of Team Hoyt, set to the song “My Redeemer Lives” or “I Can Only Imagine.”  If you’re unfamiliar with their story, watch the 10-minute video below.  Born with cerebral palsy, Rick was written off by doctors who encouraged his parents to do the same.  One day, Rick asked Dick to participate in a charity run for a fellow student – except Rick wanted to run too.  Dick raced pushing Rick in his wheelchair.  Afterward, Rick, through his computer, said “Dad, when I’m running, I don’t feel like I’m disabled anymore.”  “Now, over one thousand races later, including numerous marathons and triathlons [including the Iron Man competition], Dick Hoyt continues to push Rick’s wheelchair….continuing to inspire millions and embodying their trademark motto of ‘Yes, you can.’” (from the book cover)  Devoted: The Story of a Father’s Love for His Son is their story.

To enter the drawing, you can do one or more of the following:

1. Leave a comment below.
2. Post a link to the drawing on your blog
3. On Twitter, retweet the following: @Eskypades: Book Giveaway!  Enter to win Team Hoyt’s “Devoted” at http://wp.me/pzfPF-et

You can earn up to three entries for the drawing, one for each option above.  I’ll randomly select the winner sometime Friday afternoon, July 23, 2010 and post another book giveaway.  (Giveaway is open to US residents only.)

Book Giveaway – Family Driven Faith

First, congrats to Michelle, winner of last week’s giveaway of Woody Holton’s Abigail Adams.  Enjoy the book, Michelle – it’s a great read.

Up for grabs this week is Family Driven Faith by Voddie Baucham Jr.  Here’s a blurb from the cover:

Family Driven Faith equips Christian parents with the tools they need to raise children biblically in a post-Christian, anti-family soceity.  Voddie Baucham…shows that God has not left us alone in raising godly children.  He has given us timeless precepts and principles for multi-generational faithfulness, especially in Deuteronomy 6.  God’s simple command to Moses to teach the Word diligently to the children of Israel serves as the foundation of Family Driven Faith.  This bold new book is an urgent call to parents–and the church–to return to biblical discipleship in and through the home.

For an in-depth review of this book, check out my earlier blog posting (in which I gave the book 3 out of 5 stars).

To enter the drawing for Family Driven Faith, you can do one or more of the following options:

1. Leave a comment below.
2. Post a link to the drawing on your blog
3. On Twitter, retweet the following: @Eskypades: Book Giveaway!  Enter to win Family Driven Faith at http://wp.me/pzfPF-eg

You can earn up to three entries for the drawing, one for each option above.  I’ll randomly select the winner sometime Friday afternoon, July 16, 2010 and post another book giveaway.  (Giveaway is open to US residents only.)

Thanks to Amy at Crossway for providing this copy of Family Driven Faith.

Free books!

Here are several opportunities to get some great free books during the month of July.

Christianaudio.com gives away a free audio book each month and this month’s book is A.W. Tozer’s classic The Pursuit of God.  Summary of the book from christianaudio: “During a train trip from Chicago to Texas in the late 1940′s, A.W. Tozer began to write The Pursuit Of God. He wrote all night, the words coming to him as fast as he could put them down. When the train pulled into McAllen, the rough draft was done. Although written in such a remarkably short period of time, Tozer’s passionate classic offers not only a deeper understanding of Biblical Truth, but a personal encounter with the very Source of that Truth.”  Enter coupon code JUL2010 when checking out.

Next up, Crossway (who is in my opinion one of the best Christian book publishers) is giving away the Kindle version of Greg Gilbert’s What is the Gospel? In his review, James MacDonald says “Greg Gilbert contends that the current evangelical understanding of the gospel is lost in a fog of confusion. He burns away that fog by shining fresh light on an old subject. Gilbert writes in a clear, concise, and colloquial style that will especially appeal to young adults. What Is the Gospel? will sharpen your thinking about the gospel, etching it more deeply on your heart so you can share the good news of Jesus Christ with boldness. It will leave you pondering the extent to which the gospel has impacted your own life. It will cause you to cry out with thankfulness to God for what Christ has accomplished.”   If you don’t have a Kindle, not to worry.  Amazon has the free Kindle for PC application that is just as good (although not quite as portable).

Finally, don’t forget that each Friday during the month of July, I’ll be giving away a new book.  There’s still time to enter the drawing for this week’s book, Woody Holton’s biography Abigail Adams.  Check out the link for more details.

Happy reading!

Book giveaway – Abigail Adams: A Life

This weekend we’ll be celebrating July 4th, Independence Day.  And while there is abundant emphasis (and rightly so) on the founding fathers of our nation, we should also remember those women who contributed mightily to the fight for independence.  In Abigail Adams, Woody Holton introduces us to the complex woman who helped shaped America more than perhaps any other of the “founding mothers” through her influence on her husband.  Holton does an excellent job of highlighting Adams’ strengths as well as her weaknesses, giving us a well-rounded, quite readable biography of this great woman. He certainly does Adams justice in examining her life as a woman and not simply as the wife of a founding father.

To enter the drawing for Abigail Adams, you can do one or more of the following options:

1. Leave a comment below.
2. Post a link to the drawing on your blog
3. On Twitter, retweet the following: @Eskypades: Book Giveaway!  Enter to win Woody Holton’s Abigail Adams at http://wp.me/pzfPF-e2

You can earn up to three entries for the drawing, one for each option above.  I’ll randomly select the winner sometime Friday afternoon, July 9, 2010 and post another book giveaway.  (Giveaway is open to US residents only.)

July is book giveaway month!

Every Friday during the month of July, I’ll be giving away a brand new book.   To enter the drawing, you can do one or more of the following:

1. Leave a comment below
2. Post a link to that particular day’s giveaway on your own blog
3. On Twitter, retweet something like “Check out Eskypades to win [blank] book by [blank].”  I’ll include a link in each week’s post.

Since you get one entry for each one of the above options, you can get up to three entries for the drawing.  I’ll announce the winner of each week’s drawing the following Friday.  Because I’m cheap and don’t want to send mail internationally, this giveaway is only open to U.S. residents.

Stay tuned for the first book giveaway tomorrow!

Blog Tour & Book Giveaway – Start Here

In their first book Do Hard Things, Alex & Brett Harris challenged young people to break out of the stereotypical teenage mold of low expectations and do something noteworthy. They challenged their readers “to do hard things for the glory of God and, in the process, turn the world’s idea of what teens are capable of upside down.” (p.1) In their follow up book, Start Here, they seek to provide some guidance and suggestions for just exactly where to start doing hard things.

One of the most difficult parts of doing something challenging is knowing where and how to start. Through the Harrises’ first book, many young people were challenged to do something hard but perhaps didn’t know what to do. In Start Here, the Harrises give very sound, practical advice and tips for getting thing started by offering such questions for consideration as:

• “What do I like to do? – Doing hard things is challenging, but…it often involves something we enjoy.” (p.12)
• “What can I learn from others?”
• “What is my goal?”
• “How can I get my friends involved?”
• “What should I do when I’m done with a hard thing?”

Along the way, they give many concrete examples of young people who have faced challenges with their “hard thing” and how they worked through those obstacles. They also deal with the issue of pride and how to handle attention – both positive and negative – that may come by attempting out of the ordinary things. At the end of the book is a very helpful list of 100 “real-life examples” that other young people have done and includes things like “memorized a whole book of the Bible,” “learned Spanish,” “wrote an encouraging letter to my youth pastor,” “donated blood to the Red Cross,” and “apologized.” This list is a great tool to help the reader start thinking about what kinds of things he or she can do.

There were several things that I especially appreciated about this book. First was the emphasis that hard things should be done for the glory of God. This theme is prevalent throughout and is a constant reminder that as Christians, everything we do is for the praise and glory of God. Second, was the excellent emphasis on learning from others, but especially from the wisdom that comes from parents. It’s very easy to write off parents as out of touch or worse, but the Harrises recognize the truth of Scripture in children honoring their parents, even when they might be opposed to the hard thing the young person wants to do. In their own words, “Honoring your parents is commanded in Scripture. Odds are that your specific project is not. When in doubt, side with what God makes clear in his word.” (pp.34-35)

Start Here is a great book for young people to read for help in how to move beyond the have-fun-while-you’re-still-young mindset and start really building the “muscles of responsibility.” Every young person should read this book.

(This book was provided for review by the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group.)

BOOK GIVEAWAY

Next Friday, March 26 2010, I’ll be giving away a copy of Alex & Brett Harris’ book, Start Here. The deadline for entering the drawing is Thursday night by midnight, March 25, 2010. To be entered in the drawing to win Start Here, you can do one or more of the following. For each method you use, you’ll receive one entry into the drawing (3 entries possible).

1. Post a comment below.
2. Link to this post from your blog.
3. On Twitter, RT “@Eskypades: Book Giveaway! Enter to win “Start Here” at http://wp.me/pzfPF-bZ”

I’ll randomly select the winner sometime Friday afternoon, March 26, 2010. (Giveaway is open to US residents only.)

Book Review & Giveaway- Hear No Evil

There is something strangely fascinating about reading other people’s stories who have similar backgrounds to you.  Perhaps it’s reading of experiences you can relate to.  Perhaps it’s chuckling at the idiosyncrasies of people who sound JUST LIKE somebody you once knew.  Or perhaps it’s simply knowing that someone else besides you actually DID experience the same things you did and they turned out okay, too.

In Hear No Evil: My Story of Innocence, Music and the Holy Ghost, Matthew Paul Turner tells of his childhood and religious upbringing that sounds eerily similar to mine.  Not everything was the same, of course, but enough for me to make connections with my background.  Even my alma mater gets a not-so-subtle mention.  I found myself laughing at his accounts of people’s reactions to “worldly” music.  I especially laughed at his retelling of the time he & his sister encountered a Michael Jackson song:

“The beat was syncopated, and for a young Independent Fundamental Baptist, few things existed that were more frightful than a syncopated beat.  And for good reason too.  Whenever my church deemed a beat ‘syncopated,’ it meant it was the kind of beat to which Baptist missionaries had witnessed evil spirits conjured among naked African tribes.  That was why we covered our ears—just in case some of them tried to shimmy their way inside our heads.  Demons were scary enough, but nude demons gyrating their hips inside our brains—that would require a prescription.  And Baptists who required antidepressants often turned into atheists or, sometimes, Methodists. ” (p.58)

Turner is very good at telling stories.  They are readable and captivating.  He tells of his earliest forays into the musical world, his discovery of Amy Grant, his desire (“Holy Ghost” driven) to be the Christian Michael Jackson, his experiences in college and with the music industry.

When I finished the book, however, I found myself wondering what the point of the book was.  As a friend of mine noted, sometimes it is enough to know others have come through similar experiences.  That is true.  Perhaps it is my own fault, but my expectations of the book were to find out how Turner came out of the IFB mentality, especially in regards to music.  He doesn’t go into the why and how or his exodus, just the fact that he did.  Nor are we even told what his beliefs are concerning music.   But again, maybe this isn’t the point of the book.

Hear No Evil is a fun book to read, as long as you aren’t expecting much resolution of any kind.  If nothing else, maybe others of a similar background can find comfort and laugh a little (or a lot) at shared memories.  Recommended: Yes

(This book was provided for review by the Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing Group.)

BOOK GIVEAWAY

Next Friday, March 5 2010, I’ll be giving away a copy of Turner’s book, Hear No Evil.  The deadline for entering the drawing is Thursday night by midnight, March 4, 2010.  To be entered in the drawing to win Hear No Evil, you can do one or more of the following.  For each method you use, you’ll receive one entry into the drawing (3 entries possible).

1. Post a comment below.
2. Link to this post from your blog.
3. On Twitter, RT “@Eskypades: Book Giveaway! Enter to win Matthew Paul Turner’s “Hear No Evil” at http://wp.me/pzfPF-bC”

I’ll randomly select the winner sometime Friday afternoon, March 5, 2010.  (Giveaway is open to US residents only.)

Crossway: John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace

Another great offering from Crossway:

This week’s Trackback Thursday features John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace by Jonathan Aitkin.

Most Christians know John Newton as a man who once captained a slave ship, was dramatically converted to Christ on the high seas, and later penned one of the greatest hymns of the faith, “Amazing Grace.” But he also had a huge impact on his times as an icon of the evangelical movement, as a great preacher and theologian, and as a seminal influence on abolitionist William Wilberforce. Here is a fascinating and historically significant portrait of slave-trader-turned-Christ-follower.

A reminder of how Trackback Thursday works: Simply link to the blog post from your blog, leave a comment on Crossway’s Facebook Page, or re-tweet Trackback Thursday on Twitter @Crosswaybooks. Winners are picked on Friday morning.

The Kindle edition of John Newton can also be downloaded for free during the month of February 2010.