Radiant Lit

Review: ADAM by Ted Dekker

Non-Believers Beware. ADAM may cause your spirit to embrace what your own reasoning rejects. Ted Dekker has a way of enlarging the traditional scope of the common believer. He takes unpopular subjects like demon possession and illustrates each scene with a detailed precision that engages the readers’ senses causing a bone-chilling encounter.

One of the underlying stories of ADAM is the danger of a doctrine or philosophy that rejects supernaturalism and stresses one’s own dignity and worth and capacity for self-realization through reason. Reasoning can be detrimental, allowing the mind, body and soul to be subjective regarding holiness. Though we have all been given the freedom of choice, however, not choosing is still choosing. Dekker reveals hard truths in this novel but the reader will carry the ending results far beyond the moment the last page is read.

ADAM leaves a lingering impression on the psyche that compels the reader to ponder the sincerity of one’s own intentions regarding that of a higher power. When reasoning out weigh faith the results are inevitable. It plays out to be a valuable lesson to one of the characters in this novel, a lesson to die for, or so it goes.

Alex, the main character in ADAM, is bound to his past. A prisoner of his childhood. The pain from yesteryears proves to be more than what Alex can handle. As a result, he conjures up the spirit Eve, a familiar spirit of his past, causing a murderous cycle that Alex won’t soon forget, and neither will the reader.

Reviewed by:
Takiela Bynum

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Review: Stuck in the Middle by Virginia Smith

Meet Joan. The young manger of a furniture rental store in a small town, she stayed at home to help take care of her aging grandmother while her sisters were busy getting on with their lives. She’s dependable to a fault and has no idea how to restart her life when she discovers that she is one of the only members of her graduating high school class to stay in town. Allie, her older sister, is getting ready to have a baby, while Tori, her younger sister is still having fun sowing her wild oats. Even her greasy ex-fiancé who dumped her for a whirlwind romance with an office mate that ultimately made it down the aisle is moving on to better things and a bigger town. Joan feels Stuck in the Middle. While she’s the only sister in her family who is still going to church, she isn’t exactly feeling moved by the Spirit. Life is one big rut and she’s right in the middle of it.

Until her new neighbor moves in that is. The young Dr. Ken Fletcher, whom her ailing grandmother mistakenly assumes is a drug dealer, might be just what she needs to get her life back on track. Unfortunately, Tori the man-eater is set on digging her little claws into him too. The sibling rivalry is about ready to begin and Allie is set on giving Joan some much needed flirting lessons. What follows is a charming introduction to the Sanderson sisters and Virginia Smith’s Sister-to-Sister series.

Joan is a likable heroine. She’s reliable, smart, but perhaps a tad bit too organized for her own good. She’s pretty without being vain and is one of those people you would love to have as a best friend, just because she’s so genuine. Joan is also the girl who was a bit of a wall-flower, the girl next door who was taken for granted because she hadn’t found her voice or self-confidence.

A series of events causes Joan to discover the self-confidence she’s been lacking and patch up relationships she didn’t even know needed help. Readers are brought alongside Joan’s personal journey, cheering her on every step of the way as she becomes closer to God and those around her.

By the end of the book, the reader will be left wishing that perhaps they had discovered the book just a little bit later in the year. Not because there’s anything wrong with the book but rather, that it will be all that much sooner to the debut of the next novel in the series.

Review By;
Caitlin Muir
domesticbootcamp.wordpress.com

Popularity: 1% [?]

Review: Death of a Six-Foot Teddy Bear by Sharon Dunn

Quirky and hilarious – those are the words I’d use to describe Sharon Dunn’s newest release, Death of a Six-Foot Teddy Bear. The title alone made me chuckle and the book doesn’t disappoint.

The Bargain Hunter’s Network (BHN) is a group of women that shop together and, naturally, seek out sales and bargain prices. BHN consists of four women: cat loving Ginger, Kindra the college student, Suzanne the mother of four, and Arleta, the senior citizen of the group.

In Death of a Six-Foot Teddy Bear, the second book in the Bargain Hunters Mystery series, the group travels to Calamity, Nevada, the site of an invention convention in which Ginger’s husband wants to take part.

The group arrives in Calamity and from there things go steadily downhill. A mystery ensues and the HBN ends up right in the middle of the action. The result is a hilarious novel that, while at times silly, entertains and gives a nice break from reality which is something I can always use.

Review By:
Jill Hart
CWAHM

Popularity: 1% [?]

Review: A Matter of Wife and Death, by Ginger Kolbaba and Christy Scannell

A Matter of Wife and Death, the sequel to Desperate Pastors’ Wives, intertwines the lives of four PWs, each with her own chaos to share: Mimi struggles with a month-old baby who refuses to sleep more than a few hours at a time, a police officer who has the nerve to give her a ticket, and an attractive principle; Jennifer has been waiting for ten years to have a baby, and she’s finally come to the end of her rope – is invetro fertilization her only option? Lisa’s fourteen year old daughter and the church her husband pastors choose the same time to rebel against authority, while Felicia balances between work and family; but with both her job and her family’s peace on the line, it looks as if her perfectly ordered life might be falling away from her.
A Matter of Wife and Death is made great by its personal and real representation of modern Christian women and the struggles that they face. Its characters face the trials and tests that many wives and mothers deal with, as well as more unique dilemmas – like the suspicious death of a fellow PW.

Review By:
Jane Muir

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FEATURED AUTHOR: Shelley Bates

Shelley has a B.A. in Creative Writing from the University of California at Santa Cruz and an M.A. in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University in Pennsylvania. She sold her master’s thesis to a major commercial publisher after she graduated in 2002, and it subsequently became a double finalist in the 2004 National Readers Choice Awards. Grounds to Believe, her debut novel from Steeple Hill Books and the first book in her Elect Trilogy, won the 2005 RITA Award for Best Inspirational Novel of the Year from the Romance Writers of America. The second book in the trilogy, Pocketful of Pearls, became a RITA Award finalist the following year. Between books, Shelley enjoys playing the piano and Celtic harp, making historical costumes, and spoiling her flock of rescue chickens rotten.
Read the rest…

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How to Protect Hardcover Book Corners

From Wikihow.com:

Do you have an old tattered book that you just hate the thought of having to throw out because you love the story? Perhaps you have an old college textbook that you still use as reference, that needs some TLC to keep from falling apart? Mending your books yourself can potentially save you money, not to mention it fixes your books and can prevent further damage. Here’s how to mend and/or protect the spine ends and corners of your book cover.

Visit wikihow to read step-by-step instructions!

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FEATURED AUTHOR: Jane Kirkpatrick

Author Jane Kirkpatrick is a clinical social worker who spent years directing a mental health clinic, then more years working on an Indian reservation with families of children with special needs. She says, “When I was old enough to know better, my husband and I moved to 160 acres of rattlesnake and rock in eastern Oregon to try our hand at ‘homesteading.’”

Her writing achievements include winning an award for the Outstanding Western Novel of 1996 (an award won by Barbara Kingslover and James Michener among others); having that same book, A Sweetness to the Soul be named to Oregon’s Literary 100: 1800-2000 identifying the 100 best books published about Oregon in the past 200 years. Other books have received awards such as BookSense 76 National Bestseller Pick and Best Novel of the West from Western Writers of America. Also, Literary Guild, Doubleday, Book of the Month and Crossings Book Club selections.
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Review: A Garden to Keep by Jamie Langston Turner

Elizabeth Landis is Aware. Well, that is what she will tell you. She has people figured out. Either a person is Aware or they are Unaware. This is what she has firmly believed her whole life…until one day when God intervenes. In a single moment Elizabeth’s life is shaken to the core, changed forever. Clinging to her new found faith, Elizabeth reviews her life, an ill-kept garden in her hands. Hoping to discover the root of what caused her husband to seek the love of another woman, she examines her “garden”, weeds and all. Could she have foreseen and somehow avoided what had happened? What led to this betrayal? Is God’s grace sufficient to mend this broken relationship?

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Popularity: 36% [?]

Sisters, Ink by Rebeca Seitz

This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
Sister’s Ink
Broadman & Holman Books (February 1, 2008)
by
Rebeca Seitz

Popularity: 1% [?]

What could be better – 60% off!

For the entire month of February TedDekker.com will be offering select items 60% off.

I’ve read most of Dekker’s books. I especially love the Black, Red and White triology. I’d love to hear your thoughts on his writing! Post a comment below and let us know your thoughts.

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