Warrior Prayers by Brooke McGlothlin was an excellent read. As a new parent (of a boy) there are so many things to worry about. As a Christian (who would like to impart my faith on my son) there are ever more things that make me worry.
I found this book to be an great source of comfort and direction on how I can pray for my son. The biggest thing I took away from this book is that I am not in control. There is nothing I can do to force my son (or anyone) to be who I want them to be, except pray. This is something I already believe, but it was a good reminder nonetheless.
The book provides many prayers that are based on scripture to pray over your boys. I think the prayers are applicable to anyone and I have found peace in these prayers. Brooke also writes the blog, the MOB Society (mother of boys). She uses her site to encourage mothers of boys in their path to raising their children. I gave this book 5/5 stars on Goodreads.
You Lost Me is the follow up to the book, unChristian. Both are by David Kinnaman. While unChristian took a look at how nonChristians, or the unchurched view the church (based on surveys conducted by the Barna Group), You Lost Me takes a look at why so many young people who were raised in the church are leaving the church and/or walking away from religion completely.
I am slightly outside of the age group that this book is talking about, but I have certainly had similar feelings or experiences about the church. I also identified with a lot of the concerns in the book unChristian as well. I thought both books were fascinating and I think it is important for believers to take a hard look at why young people don't want to be connected with the church.
I recently read a blog post (And Then the Conference Uninvited Me to Speak by Jen Hatmaker) that I think sums up how young Christians are feeling about religion today. I gave this book 5/5 stars on Goodreads.
Yellow Star is the account of Syvia Perlmutter's experience as a child growing up in the Lodz ghetto during the Holocaust. It is written by Syvia's niece Jennifer Roy.
Since middle school I have had a fascination with stories of Holocaust survivors. When I was young I would read these books and weep. While I did not cry during this book, I am glad that I took the time to read about this family's survival as told from the perspective of a young girl.
230,000 Jews were sent to live in the ghetto in Lodz, Poland. Of that original number, only 800 survived. Twelve were children. Syvia and her sister, mother and father were four of the survivors.
I read a few reviews complaining about the style of writing this book uses. I enjoyed the style and appreciated the perspective of the story from Syvia as a child. Stories from the Holocaust always amaze me and this one was no different. It is hard to believe that such atrocities happened then and sadder still to know that genocide continues to happen around the world today. I gave this book 5/5 stars on Goodreads.
I am continuing to read The Story and have enjoyed reading the Bible in this format. If you are expecting an exact replication of the Bible, you won't like this book, but if you are interested in reading the Bible as a collective story, then this is an excellent read.
I have heard people say that the movie, The Bible, on the History Channel has been pretty violent and moves quickly (perhaps too quickly). My take is that if you actually read the Old Testament, it is pretty violent stuff. As for the pace of the tv series or this particular book, there are certainly some things that get left out – probably due to the restraints of the format. At any rate, I have read up through the story of Ruth and have appreciated rereading these stories.
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