I Am a Promise, by Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce

I admit I am a sucker for inspiring running stories.  Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce tells her story in
I Am a Promise, a children's book colorfully illustrated by Rachel Moss.  Shelly loved to run as a little girl.  As her love of running grew, she began to realize that she could run faster than other people.  One day her grandmother told her, "You are a promise."  Later, coaches and other encourages would tell her, "You have great promise."

She continually wondered what that meant, to be a promise, but it came together when she competed at the Olympics.  Her coach told her, "You represent the promise of our country."  She ran, and continued to run, as an Olympic champion and world champion.  She is a personification of what it means to represent one's country, family, faith, and oneself on the world stage.  Her story of rising from poverty in a relatively small, poor country to world dominance in her sport will inspire kids to dream and pursue the promise they have.


Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

No Less Days, by Amanda G. Stevens

Amanda G. Stevens's novel No Less Days asks the question, what would you do if you could never die?  Bookseller David Galloway hasn't lived forever, but he has lived well over a century.  After a frontier doctor in the 19th century treats him with a mysterious serum, he has survived.  He thought he was alone, but now he has met up with a small group of "longevites" whose resistance to death stems from treatment by that same doctor.

If you want to explore the science and biology of longevity, you will be disappointed.  But Stevens's story explores the human side of apparent immortality.  David, as a lone soul, lived several lifetimes as someone who never ages, without knowledge of other immortals.  In his new circle, he finds fellowship with a community that has been in relationship for a century of mutual support.  What would relationships look like if you could not die?  How would you relate, if at all, with mortals?

Some of the characters are Christians, but even they struggle with questions of church involvement and God's purposes for their immortality.  The questions become even more profound when a mortal human who seems to be onto their secret turns up dead.  How do immortal humans bring to justice one of their own?  There are no easy answers.

Stevens's style is deeply personal and readable.  Her pacing is pretty mellow, with some surprises but not a lot of cliff-hanging.  She does a great job of exploring a speculative idea--immortality, or something close to it--from the perspective of a Christian.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Loving Your Community, by Stephen Viars

I love to see churches that impact their communities.  Stephen Viars, pastor of Faith Church in LaFayette, Indiana, calls churches to demonstrate love and service in their communities in Loving Your Community: Proven Practices for Community-Based Outreach Ministry.  As often as churches get caught up in denominational politics, theological nit-picking, and cultural commentary, they (ok, we) miss their purpose of sharing the love of God with their community.

Viars's basic rule for churches is: "We ought to be guided by the principle "Say yes unless you have to say no."  He writes that "wise churches look for every opportunity to share love and resources with those around them." He offers very practical ideas from his church's experiences.

I was surprised by his first recommendation.  "One of the first ministries I would lead the church family to start would be a community-based biblical counseling ministry because of the wonderful opportunity it affords to love your community." I wouldn't have guessed this would be first priority, but it makes sense, in that it opens doors for relationships, personal ministry, and impacting individuals' lives.

In the bigger picture, Viars touts the idea of churches as community centers.  Rather than a building that sits dark six and a half days a week, our churches should be hives of activity for people from the community.  I love this idea.  We might be too tied to our buildings being used for "holy" purposes, but what is more holy than bringing people in and creating opportunities to love and serve them.

Throughout the book, I kept thinking, Wow, these ideas will take a ton of time, personnel, and money to implement.  That's partly true, but he offers some help there, too.  And once a church catches this vision, it will snowball and grow.

While Viars's vision may seem out of reach to many in traditional churches, his presentation will force you to stop and think about the purpose of the church and the potential your church has for reaching your community.  What higher calling is there?


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Return to the Reich, by Eric Lichtblau

It's one thing to have a great story, but it's a whole next level to tell the story well.  Eric Lichtblau tells the unbelievably great story of Fred Mayer in a compelling, highly readable, and well-told narrative.  Fred Mayer's story has been told before but perhaps not as thoroughly and engagingly as Lichtblau's Return to the Reich: A Holocaust Refugee's Secret Mission to Defeat the Nazis. 

After fleeing Germany to the US with his Jewish family, Mayer tried to sign up to fight against the Nazis.  Once he told the military recruiter he was born in Germany, they sent him home to Brooklyn.  After the US entered the war, the military was a bit more desperate for recruits and Mayer joined the Navy.  He native German tongue and familiarity with his home country got him a look by a new group, the Office of Strategic Services, a precursor to the CIA.  After a lot of training and waiting around, Mayer returned to Europe, parachuting behind enemy lines on a mission to infiltrate the Nazi's stronghold in Austria.

Mayer's heroism was matched by his unflappable nature.  He was willing to pose as a German prisoner in a POW camp, impersonate a Nazi officer in Nazi territory, and endure torturous interrogation without breaking.  Return to the Reich is a great reminder that while mass troop movements and massive efforts like D-Day were obviously crucial, small moves by small groups of people like Mayer and his team also had the capacity to turn the course of the war.

It's also a reminder of how personal World War 2 was for many.  Mayer disavowed Germany as a result of the treatment he and his family and Jews throughout the Reich received.  About Mayer's return, Lichtblau writes, "He could still remember the pain in his father's face that day aboard the SS Manhattan seven years earlier, as they were fleeing Germany, when they learned that Hitler had taken over Austria.  Now here he was, dropping into that very place to try to help free it from the Nazis."  This is a great read about a great hero.



Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Blue Moon, by Lee Child

Fans of Jack Reacher, rejoice!  Lee Child's newest Reacher book, Blue Moon, is classic, hard-core Reacher.  Like most Reacher books, this one stands alone and can't really be placed in a Reacher timeline.  (OK, maybe more observant readers than I will be able to.)  Reacher arrives in town by bus, to an unnamed, medium-sized city.  He comes to the aid of a fellow passenger who gets mugged.  One good deed leads to another and soon Reacher gets caught in the middle of a war between rival Ukrainian and Albanian gangs. 

Actually, he's not caught in the middle.  He instigates the whole thing.  Then he exacerbates it by killing some of the gang members.  Then he kills some more.  In fact--spoiler alert--he kills pretty much all of them.  And it's glorious.  Child spices up the plot with a few contemporary issues like fake news and human trafficking.  Needless to say, Reacher is opposed to both, with fatal consequences.

Reacher's vigilante justice, his heart for the downtrodden, and his absolute contempt for those who prey on the weak all drive him to stick around and keep fighting.  If you've never read a Reacher book, there's nothing wrong with starting with this one.  If you've read all the Reacher books, you will love Blue Moon.

Space Drifters: The Iron Gauntlet, by Paul Regnier

Captain Glint Starcrost and his crew are back for more adventures in Space Drifters: The Iron Gauntlet.  The bulk of the story involves Starcrost's competition in a reality show where he his life is on the line for the Iron Gauntlet and a huge prize.  He's assisted by the Emerald Enigma, which, readers of the first Space Drifters book will remember, is a necklace that gives the wearer some extraordinary abilities.  He quickly finds that he is a pawn in a larger game that is playing out as the reality show competition is playing out.

The Iron Gauntlet retains the character--and characters--of the first book.  We learn a little more about the backgrounds of Starcrost's motley crew.  Regnier even includes a few chapters told from their perspectives.  In the first book, The Emerald Enigma, Regnier worked in a few theological questions and the characters dealt with the Christian faith.  The Iron Gauntlet scales that down quite a bit, with very little mention of faith in passing.  Also, lizard guy Blix's gift/curse of things coming into reality from his imagination is strangely absent.

Regnier's story is great fun to read.  It has the feel of YA fiction with its action-packed, dialogue-heavy pace and light-hearted tone.  Don't expect hard science fiction when you pick up the Space Drifters series, but look forward to a wild, imaginative ride.

The Bastard Brigade, by Sam Kean

In the long years and global reach of World War 2, there seems to be no limit to great stories and brave exploits.  Sam Kean's new book tells the story of a loosely assembled team of spies and scientists whose goal was to prevent Hitler's Germany from developing a nuclear bomb.  Kean's account includes the personal stories and the developing plot that involved famous Americans such as baseball player Mo Berg and Joseph Kennedy, Jr., as well as Nobel-winning scientists on both sides of the conflict. 

Kean brings the events alive, placing the events into the larger picture of what's going on in the war.  For obvious reasons, these exploits were little known during the war, and, in some cases, for many years after.  I found his accounts of the relationships among the scientists to be particularly interesting.  In the close-knit community of physics, all of these scientists knew each other.  As the field transformed from an eccentric specialty to playing a central role in a global war, their relationships with each other and with their research interests were strained.

Reading about the espionage element, including raids, sabotage, theft, and general sneaking around, I was reminded that these people are merely human, and Murphy's Law rules.  There were so many close calls, bungled projects, and miscommunications, that it's a wonder the Allies came out on top.  That also tells me the Axis powers were probably subject to a similar level of chaos.

Kean is one of those writers of history who finds great stories, thoroughly digs into the stories, and puts the stories together in a captivating, readable format.  Who says history is boring?  Kean shows quite the opposite.


Thanks to NetGalley for the complimentary electronic review copy!