A Matter Of Trust by Lis Wiehl

        

         Another entry in the mystery genre. Wiehl is starting a new series of mysteries. Her main character in this series is going to be a female prosecutor who is a widow and parent of two children, a teenage son and a four year old  daughter.

          This story starts fast. Maybe it is because of the short blasts of action we have come to expect from our television programs. No build up Just boom. You are in the middle of the action.

          A friend gets killed while making a phone call. From there our main character, Mia Quinn, whom this series is going to be built around, starts to move into action.

          Mia is a prosecutor and also a mother. She is also a widow trying to hold her family together. Her teenage son is hard to handle and is influenced by the bad element at school. He seems to be looking for peer approval. Her daughter is having nightmares.

          To pursue the case she joins up with a detective who in the past has disappointed her. There is tension as they work the case.

          This book covers FaceBook stalking and peer pressure. Also the issue of trust.

          Tension mounts as the home life of Quinn and the case she is working on start to intersect with each other.

          Wiehl has good characterization. This could be a good series in the making.

          She has done, in the past, The Triple Threat Series and the East Salem Trilogy.

          I have receive this book free from the BookSneeze  book reviewer program to review and the views expressed are those of the reviewer and not the publisher. I was not required to give a positive review.                  

  Another entry in the mystery genre. Wiehl is starting a new series of mysteries. Her main character in this series is going to be a female prosecutor who is a widow and parent of two children, a teenage son and a four year old  daughter.

Another entry in the mystery genre. Wiehl is starting a new series of mysteries. Her main character in this series is going to be a female prosecutor who is a widow and parent of two children, a teenage son and a four year old  daughter.

          This story starts fast. Maybe it is because of the short blasts of action we have come to expect from our television programs. No build up Just boom. You are in the middle of the action.

          A friend gets killed while making a phone call. From there our main character, Mia Quinn, whom this series is going to be built around, starts to move into action.

          Mia is a prosecutor and also a mother. She is also a widow trying to hold her family together. Her teenage son is hard to handle and is influenced by the bad element at school. He seems to be looking for peer approval. Her daughter is having nightmares.

          To pursue the case she joins up with a detective who in the past has disappointed her. There is tension as they work the case.

          This book covers FaceBook stalking and peer pressure. Also the issue of trust.

          Tension mounts as the home life of Quinn and the case she is working on start to intersect with each other.

          Wiehl has good characterization. This could be a good series in the making.

          She has done, in the past, The Triple Threat Series and the East Salem Trilogy.

          I have receive this book free from the BookSneeze  book reviewer program to review and the views expressed are those of the reviewer and not the publisher. I was not required to give a positive review.                  

          This story starts fast. Maybe it is because of the short blasts of action we have come to expect from our television programs. No build up Just boom. You are in the middle of the action.

          A friend gets killed while making a phone call. From there our main character, Mia Quinn, whom this series is going to be built around, starts to move into action.

          Mia is a prosecutor and also a mother. She is also a widow trying to hold her family together. Her teenage son is hard to handle and is influenced by the bad element at school. He seems to be looking for peer approval. Her daughter is having nightmares.

          To pursue the case she joins up with a detective who in the past has disappointed her. There is tension as they work the case.

          This book covers FaceBook stalking and peer pressure. Also the issue of trust.

          Tension mounts as the home life of Quinn and the case she is working on start to intersect with each other.

          Wiehl has good characterization. This could be a good series in the making.

          She has done, in the past, The Triple Threat Series and the East Salem Trilogy.

          I have receive this book free from the BookSneeze  book reviewer program to review and the views expressed are those of the reviewer and not the publisher. I was not required to give a positive review
                

The Customer Rules by Lee Cockerell

          This business book of rules has 39 rules that are simple to follow and are essential to remember.

            There have been many book of rules that have been written and no doubt there will be many more penned ,for as Solomon, the wisest man, has said “of the writing of books there is no end..”

            What makes this collection so good is that it is so evident but rarely realized. If we were to keep these rules in mind we could give better service and have more customers than we can handle. As he points out you can win a customer one at a time or lose them in the  thousands. It only takes one person tweeting or posting on FaceBook to make or break your company.

            What we need to realize is that true customer service is not a department but a personal responsibility. In fact, these rules can be applied to the church  leadership also. The people in the congregation and visitors are the customers there.

            Cockerell  uses personal stories to illustrate his recorded rules. That is putting flesh to abstracts. 

            I would recommend it for all who are giving customer service as well as ministers within the church.

            I was sent this book free from WaterBrook Multinomah Publishing Group for this review. I was not required to give a positive review. The views expressed are those of the reviewer and not the publisher.

           

As Silver Refined by Kay Arthur

          In this book we have presented God as a refiner and us as a piece of silver that is being worked upon. Only unlike the silver we can  choose how the fire is refining us.. The silver is refined by being put in the fire. We on the same hand are refined by the fire of disappointment.

Part of the refining fire Arthur seems to say is a form of  warfare with Satan. She spends fifteen chapters in her style of presenting truth informing us that the sovereignty of God acts as an umbrella over the refining activity.

We have a choice when it comes to responding. We can act in disappointment and allow Satan to draw us away from God or we can allow the disappointment to be interpreted as God’s appointment to refine us into His image..

Arthur is a teacher who strives to plant her readers on the .foundation of the Bible. What does it say? What does it mean in my life? 

I find her style of presenting biblical themes and topics easy to digest. She informs and prods.

The information is presented in a cohesive appealing manner. It is presented in a tone that soothes and draws you to God. She even makes an appeal to the reader who isn’t in relationship with God to start up a journey with Him..

I would recommend this for small groups to study.

            I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multinomah Publishing for this review. I was not required to give a positive review. The opinions expressed are those of the reviewer and not of the publisher.

Full Disclosure by Dee Henderson

The story starts out as a mystery and gradually becomes a story of attraction between two law officers. He from the FBI and her as a homicide investigator. As the story goes on we discover she is also a writer of true crime fiction based on the friends around her.

            She also has secrets. She has nightmares based on her present book she is working on.

            Two plots are going on. Plot one is a case centered around of the lady killer who sends tapes of contracts to murder done in the past..

            This book can’t be placed completely in the genre of mystery even though there is a murderer out there called the lady shooter. She sends letters to Paul offering tapes that are of old murders. She only killed people whom she was contracted to kill. The tapes would expose who issued the contracts, It seems there is government involvement.

            The second plot has to do with romance. And the process of attraction. Paul is falling in love with Ann who is the other main character in the story. She is the homicide investigator who has big secrets.

            It intensifies as the John Doe case is opened and the former VP of the United States pulls both Paul and Ann in to close the case. This case is linked to the lady shooter case.

            The story is multi-view point. It is mostly from Paul’s point of view.

            This book will hold the interest of romantics. The mystery is secondary to the romance.

            The author is not afraid to bring her faith into the mix. Both main characters are Christian. This adds another dimension to the story.

            This is recommended highly by a person who is not into romance. Give me a good mystery over romance any day.

           

Heaven's Lessons by Steve Sjogren

This small  160 page soft cover book put out by Thomas Nelson Publishers has as its theme ‘knowing God.’ The subtitle of this book is ten things I learned about God when I died.

            I wasn’t comfortable  reviewing a book that purports to be an after death experience. But this is not the jest of the book. I allowed this book to be sent to me as a complimentary copy  as part of the  BookSneeze book reviews program. I was not required to give a positive review.

            The premise Sjogren gives to the book is that he learned a few things about God when he suffered a near death experience. There are some things that are beyond our understanding as fallen creatures, and one of them is a so called near death experience. So I won’t comment on that aspect of the book.

            It is a hard book to pin down. He spends time on his experience and at the same time attempts to teach spiritual truths.

How did he do?

            The information conveyed was  interesting but not earth shaking.. I was interested but not inspired.. It did not cause me to think deeper thoughts about God.

            I would  not recommend this book to others if they are looking to know more about God. It seemed to be another attempt to justify experience over truth.

            As I said above I received this book complimentary from BookSneeze to review on my blog and I was not required to give it a positive review. The views expressed are those of the book reviewer and not those of the publisher.

Reviewing Books

 This being a book review blog you may be eager to learn how to review books.  You may want to know how do you go about getting books to review.
   After all, I didn't just wake up one day and say, wow, I know howm to review books. I had to review books for my Englkish class so I know all about it.
   No, there are steps.
  Let me introduce a book you may want to use if you are at all interested in doing book reviews.
   It doesn't matter if you review books for pay or for the pure joy of having your name in print as a book reviewer.
  Getting paid is best if you can swing it. You won't get rich if this is what you want to do. But you will be able to hold your head up and say you are a writter.
        you will also need a good printer as you will want to have copies to show your firends.  You need a portfolio.
   So you can either go to office max or go on line at their web site officemax.com.
   What ever you do be sure to take a good look at what I am offering you in this blog.

Wonder by R.J. Palacio

              Every year around February the city of Santa Monica has what is known as a city wide read. What this means is that the city library host city wide discussion groups centered around a book chosen by a committee. Each year the book chosen is centered on a major issue, it seems.

                This year the city of Santa Monica is reading and discussing Wonder. It is a young adult book and the issue is acceptance.

                The main character is a ten year old, August, who has been born with a cleft palate. Now he is going to enter fifth grade and is being sent to a school with other children. Formerly he has been home schooled.

                His daily struggle to accept himself and have others accept him is the main story.

                “My name is August, by the way. I won’t describe what I look like. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s probably worse.” is how he starts it out.

                Structure wise it is in eight parts and seven voices. All are in first person. The one year is the time period covered.

                Palacio handles the characters well. They are believable.

                I recommend it be read by all. It is not just for young adults.