Mary-Kathryn - Wonders in the Deep - REVIEWED

My Thoughts:

And I see You where I am

And I know You are with me

I don’t have to fear

No, I don’t have to fear

You’re with me  - - - You’re With Me – chorus

Mary-Kathryn’s Wonders in the Deep, is an exotic blend of acoustic melodies, electronic undertones and haunting melodies.  Her voice is strong and compelling and can weave a melody around your heart like few others I’ve ever listened to.  She uses phrases of Scripture in many songs on this album, and that, to me, makes it even more powerful and compelling.  You actually worship to Scripture – are bathed in its truth while you listen.

This is a worship album like none I’ve ever experienced.  It is unique and beautiful.  It’s different…not a cookie-cutter praise and worship album that mirrors popular song on the local Christian radio stations.  If you want something powerful and unique, pick up or download your copy of Mary-Kathryn’s Wonders in the Deep!  You are in for quite a treat!

From the Publicist:

On her fifth album, Wonders in the Deep, Mary-Kathryn blends elements of soft pop, New Age and folk with world music influences as diverse as the continents to create a spiritual amalgam that transcends musical boundaries. Delving deep into the world music realm, Mary-Kathryn paints word pictures on an aural canvas with exotic instrumentation, adroit production, and lyrics that stir the spirit and excite the imagination. But as one Billboard Magazine reviewer so aptly put it, “the most affecting instrument…is Mary-Kathryn’s lovely voice.”

The Spendor of Ordinary Days by Jeff High - REVIEWED

About The Book: (from the publisher)

Readers of Jan Karon’s Mitford series and Patrick Taylor’s Irish Country series will fall in love with Jeff High’s funny, heartfelt Watervalley series.

The pastoral charm of small-town Watervalley, Tennesse, can be deceptive, as young Dr. Luke Bradford discovers when he’s caught in the fallout of a decades-old conflict…

After a rocky start as Watervalley’s only doctor, Luke Bradford has decided to stay in town, honoring the three-year commitment he made to pay off his medical school debts. But even as his friendships with the quirky townsfolk deepen, and he pursues a romance with lovely schoolteacher Christine Chambers, several military veterans’ emotional wounds trigger anger and unrest in Watervalley.

At the center of the clash is the curmudgeonly publisher of the local newspaper, Luther Whitmore. Luther grew up in Watervalley, but he returned from combat in Vietnam a changed man. He fenced in beautiful Moon Lake, posting “Keep Out” notices at the beloved spot, and provokes the townspeople with his incendiary newspaper.  
 
As Luke struggles to understand Luther’s past, and restore harmony in Watervalley, an unforeseen crisis shatters a relationship he values dearly. Suddenly Luke must answer life’s toughest questions about service, courage, love, and sacrifice.

CONVERSATION GUIDE INCLUDED

My Thoughts:

“…and as the years pass, we lose sight of the splendor of ordinary day.”  (p.121)

When Leyland speaks these words to Luke Bradford, I like to think it was a bit prophetic, because Luke’s thoughts were jumbled about a lot of things at that point in the story.  He gained some much needed perspective from this older but wiser man of Watervalley.  Luke returned to his town and their people with a renewed sense of transparency and purpose.  What he learns in the aftermath of this realization changes his life in profound ways.

Well, I’ve been introduced to another set of eclectic characters that I’ve fallen in love with!  Watervalley is filled with interesting people like the reclusive but peaceful Leyland and curmudgeons like the editor of the town’s paper, Luther. There is conflict and mystery between Watervalley and the neighboring Mennonite community.  There is a tender romance blossoming between Luke and Christine.  This is a town that you can feel at home in, and a place that welcomes you like a comfortable blanket.

This novel is my introduction to Jeff High’s writing, and I am a fan!!  Granted, Leyland’s language leaves a lot to be desired, but the source of his vitriolic personality is something that has changed the landscape of several lives.  He is a very realistic picture of what bitterness does to change someone’s life.  In short, all of Jeff High’s characters are very easy to know and recognize – and love.  He paints beautiful word pictures and his story touches your heart over and over again.

I’ll be revisiting this series – and catching up with the other books of Watervalley very soon!

About the Author:

After growing up on a farm in rural Tennessee, Jeff High attained degrees in literature and nursing. He is the three-time winner, in fiction and poetry, of an annual writing contest held by Vanderbilt Medical Center. He lived in Nashville for many years, and throughout the country as a travel nurse, before returning to his original hometown, near where he now works as an operating room RN in open-heart surgery. He is the author of the Watervalley novels, including More Things in Heaven and Earth and Each Shining Hour.

David Britton Christmas - REVEIWED

World class baritone and Shadowlands Music recording artist David Britton has been busy prepping for the brick & mortar release of his holiday themed full-length CD, Christmas, which released October 9, 2015. The project, which is distributed through New Day Distribution, follows on the heels of Britton's impressive patriotic EP, American Glory. 

Christmas, which released digitally last year, showcases the unique ability of the classically trained Britton, who has performed at Carnegie Hall and with opera companies around the world, to effortlessly merge his diverse influences. He wraps his incredibly rich pop-classical sound (with a twist of anthemic rock) into and around these timeless holiday classics. The result is a poignant collection of cozy favorites and a blend of powerful yet intimate moments, custom made for the Christmas season.

The project launches with a creative new arrangement of the classic carol, "Joy to the World," which features heady rock 'n' roll undergirding classical piano and the added bonus of a gospel choir. Fans of Trans-Siberian Orchestra will love it! Britton pulls back for a reverent rendition of the more melancholy contemporary Christmas hymn, "Mary, Did You Know." He draws on the classic crooners like Bing Crosby for inspiration on the old school classic, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," then presents a breathtaking, intimate rendition of the beloved carol, "O Holy Night," one of the signature songs from his live shows.

"Angels We Have Heard On High" gets an updated treatment, as Britton is once again backed by a gospel choir, giving listeners the idea that they may indeed be listening to angels from on high, extolling the birth of the Savior. Angels continue to take center stage on "Whispers," an original Christmas hymn co-written by Britton and producer Billy Smiley describing the miraculous events of the first Christmas morning from the perspective of the mighty warrior angels who heralded the Messiah's birth.

"The First Noel" starts on a low and tranquil note before building to a soul stirring crescendo. Britton displays his jazz chops on a happy version of "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," then mellows out for the richly orchestrated holiday favorite, "I'll Be Home For Christmas." The 12th century hymn, "The Wexford Carol," merges ancient melodies with contemporary instruments to create an audience favorite, while "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" allows the fresh arrangement to underscore the mystery of the Christmas story.

Britton encourages listeners to get cozy with his warm and inviting rendition of "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting)," before closing the project with another original, "Sing Noel," written by Billy Smiley and CCM legend Scott Wesley Brown. On this lovely Christmas hymn, Britton shares the microphone with Christine Dente from Out of the Grey.

"In a world that is full of so much turmoil and pain, it is my goal to use music to shed a glimmer of light; to bring comfort to those that grieve, peace to those at war, hope to those that fail, encouragement to those that feel alone, joy to those in despair," says Britton. "I am grateful for the opportunity to create music that does not fit within any specific genre, that allows me to leverage the unorthodox musical influences of my life, that people of all generations and tastes may find something that speaks to them. Above all else, it is my desire that those who listen may see past me to the One who created all things."

For more information about Britton and Christmas, visit davidbritton.com.

My Thoughts:

If you enjoy Christmas music, you REALLY want a copy of this beautiful project!!  David Britton's voice is clear,pure and passionate.  You will be swept away with traditional carols and modern songs familiar from your childhood. This project captures the rich quality of a trained vocalist, but also the tender intimacy of the relationship that was gifted to us through the birth and death of Christ.

I've been a long time fan of Christmas music, and I must say, this is a special and beautiful addition to any collection.  I am happy to recommend this to everyone!  It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!! 

About David Britton: 

Growing up in a missionary family afforded David Britton the unique opportunity to experience a broad range of cultures, to gain language skills in English, Italian, French and German, and to sing in churches around the world. The experience fostered a love for classical music and spurred him to study classical voice at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. This led to Britton receiving his Master's Degree in Vocal Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.  
 
Britton has performed with Opera San Jose, Opera Santa Barbara, Festival Opera, Intermountain Opera, Livermore Valley Opera, and the North Bay Opera. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in New York as Townsend Harris in The Dawn of Japan by Toroku Takagi with the Orchestra of St. Luke's.

Lightning by Bonnie S. Calhoun - REVIEWED

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing

About The Book:

Selah's past and her future are about to collide . . . and time is running out.

Selah Rishon thought that finding her real father would solve her problems. Instead it has created a host of new ones. She is feeling strange, destructive flashes of power within her body. The family she left behind is being sequestered in the Mountain. And if her father and his team cannot find the key to the West and make contact with the Third Protocol of Landers, Selah will fracture.

Selah is trying to accept this new world, but none of the facts she's learned about novarium or Landers are adding up. Determined to find answers, she launches a new rescue effort to the Mountain. But will the prison that holds her family become Selah's grave?

My Thoughts:

“Then what does novarium mean?”

“It means you are the new one.  The one who holds the keys to the kingdom.”  (p. 48)

When Glade speaks these words to Selah early in the book, she becomes frustrated and angry.  She couldn’t begin to understand the gravity of her place in this post-apocalyptic world.  Once again, Bonnie Calhoun has written an action-packed novel filled with twists and turns that have all of the main characters in the cross-hairs of deadly force time and time again.  Some survive….others aren’t so fortunate.  The journey that begins in this novel is one that sets Selah on a countdown toward her own, unavoidable demise.  The indicators of this become more and more apparent throughout the novel, adding another layer of urgency to every action taken by each character.

More than action, Lightning is a novel filled with satisfying relationships.  Some secrets that have been hidden for year come to light, and the consequences are never clean, but rather complicated and messy.  Whether historical, modern-day or, in this case, futuristic, human relationships are timeless in the way challenges force change upon us.  Sometimes these changes are necessary, but the journey through is uncomfortable and calls for sacrifice.  Deception abounds, and that only adds another layer of complexity to this action-packed novel.

Young adults will totally engage with this novel!  There are many realistic life lessons to be learned as the characters race to forge a path to the West.  This is a rich, vibrant and multi-layered story that offers much to readers of all ages!  I am happy to recommend this to readers!

About The Author:

Bonnie S. Calhoun is the author of Thunderand Lightning, the first two books in the Stone Braide Chronicles. She loves to write, but it doesn't make her happy unless there are the three Bs: body count, blood, and blowing things up. She also has mad skills at coding HTML and website design. Bonnie lives in a log cabin in the woods with fifteen acres and a pond full of bass. But she'd rather buy fish, ready to eat and under plastic, at the grocery store. She shares her domain with a husband, a dog, and two cats, all of whom think she is waitstaff. Learn more at www.bonniescalhoun.com.

The Poet's Secret by Keneth Zak - a debut novel

About the Book:

In The Poet’s Secret, young lit student Elia Aloundra sets off to a remote Caribbean island in search of the reclusive poet Cameron Beck, longing to know the man whose words move her so. What she doesn’t know is that as her quest begins, Beck is perched atop a cliff on his exotic island hideaway and about to attempt suicide. Elia soon finds herself swept up in the mystery surrounding his muse, but what she cannot fathom is that Beck’s secret will change both their lives forever.

An island tale filled with mystical sea turtles and sunken treasure, The Poet’s Secret was conceived in a mountaintop village on the Greek isle of Crete while the author was on a three­-year sabbatical. For every copy of The Poet’s Secret sold, $1 will also be donated to The Surfrider Foundation, an organization dedicated to preserving the earth’s oceans, waves and beaches.

The Poet’s Secret will appeal to fans of both Michael Ondaatje’s The English Patient and the Cusslers’ Dirk Pitt series. 

About the Author:

Born in Parma, Ohio, Kenneth Zak is an aquatic nomad of Bohemian-Polish ancestry. As a lad, he dove into Lake Erie in search of a silver coin. Decades later, he surfaced off the island of Crete with a tale filled with mystical sea turtles, sunken treasure and a young woman’s search for a reclusive poet, his muse and the myth of eternal love.

A summa cum laude graduate of The Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Science in Business and special interest in Art History, Zak went on to receive his Juris Doctor and follow the waves to California. He eventually shut down a successful law practice in quest of a deeper purpose, freeing his creative self in a mountaintop village in Crete where he began his debut novel, The Poet’s Secret, continuing work on the manuscript and his poetry in Bali, Costa Rica, Thailand, Cambodia and South America.

 An avid surfer and free diver, Ken’s passions also include reading, music, ocean swimming, the Tibetan Rites and yoga. He currently serves as General Counsel for a large private brokerage company and resides in San Diego, California. Learn more at www.kennethzak.com.

The Methuselah Project by Rick Barry - REVIEWED

About the Book: 
Nazi scientists started many experiments. One never ended. 

Roger Greene is a war hero. Raised in an orphanage, the only birthright he knows is the feeling that he was born to fly. Flying against the Axis Powers in World War II is everything he always dreamed--until the day he's shot down and lands in the hands of the enemy. 

When Allied bombs destroy both his prison and the mad genius experimenting on POWs, Roger survives. Within hours, his wounds miraculously heal, thanks to those experiments. The Methuselah Project is a success--but this ace is still not free. Seventy years later, Roger hasn't aged a day, but he has nearly gone insane. This isn't Captain America--just a lousy existence only made passable by a newfound faith. The Bible provides the only reliable anchor for Roger's sanity and his soul. When he finally escapes, there's no angelic promise or personal prophecy of deliverance, just confusion. It's 2015--and the world has become an unrecognizable place. 

Katherine Mueller--crack shot, genius, and real Southern Belle--offers to help him find his way home. Can he convince her of the truth of his crazy story? Can he continue to trust her when he finds out she works for the very organization he's trying to flee? 

My Thoughts:

From the fight between American and German pilots in WWII to the modern day world of the 21^st century, Rick Warren has written a novel rich in details and great characters.  I would encourage readers of all ages to suspend their disbelief for a while and enjoy this intriguing novel!  Warren develops believable friendships, faith and conflict within the pages of his novel, and the plot line maintains a comfortable but intensifying pace that keeps the pages turning.

I think a lot of the science presented are ideas that are as old as time itself.  Man has always strived to achieve eternal life in the natural and eternal life separate from the gospel.  That unbelief touches faith in a realistic way in this novel, and that thread of faith is what lends believably to the characters.  There is no rational explanation, only faith,  that can describe Roger Greene’s survival through this story.

This is a novel that requires disbelief to some extent, but the writing is fabulous, the characters are realistic, and as a whole, this is just a really well told story that will keep you entertained.  I am happy to recommend this novel to everyone!

About the Author:
Rick Barry is the author of Gunner's Run, another World War II novel, Kiriath's Quest, and over 200 articles and fiction stories. In addition to being a World War II buff, he is the director of church planting ministries at BIEM, a Christian ministry operating in Eastern Europe. He holds a degree in foreign languages, speaks Russian, and has visited Europe more than fifty times. Rick and his wife Pam live in Indianapolis, Indiana. Visit him at facebook.com/AuthorRickBarry, or on Twitter (@WriterRickBarry).

Waking Up - How I Found My Faith By Losing It by Ted Dekker - REVIEWED

About the Book:
Waking up is a vulnerable 38-page expose of the personal journey the author and most who call themselves Christian find themselves on in this life. A journey full of inconsistencies that are unsustainable and eventually lead to a fractured worldview. And yet that same journey can lead to a radical rediscovery of love, peace and identity in a world blurred by confusion, unworthiness and anxiety. 

"If there is one elephant in the room among most of us who call ourselves Christian, it is that what we think and say we believe and what we actually experience are all too often two, radically different realities," the author writes. "Ironically, we ourselves are often the last to see this disparity." 

We claim to be saved in the next life, but can we find peace in the storms that rise up against us in this life? The answer is an unequivocal yes. But that yes means looking at ourselves and the world around us differently which leads to a new way of being in the world. So take a look. See what millions of Christians are now seeing. 

My Thoughts:

“What matters isn’t our stated belief and doctrine by how we live and what we experience in the story of our lives, as Jesus, John, James and Paul all make so abundantly clear.  It’s our actual experience and expression of life that shows us and the world what we truly believe and to what extend we truly love, not what we say we believe or who we say we love.  If we say we have faith, but the workings of our life don’t reflect that faith, that faith is either asleep or dead.” 

I have read Ted Dekker for many years.  I’ve met him and interviewed him and have traveled to distant book stores to hear him speak and garner and autograph.  When I read Waking Up my heart rejoiced, because I am one who has been awakened in the way Ted describes in this brief expose of faith.  I just want to shout and rejoice to know that this man and his brilliant talent are couched in the truth of God’s great love, and that he is sharing that love with the world through novels like A.D 30 and A.D. 33! 

I challenge you to read Ted’s declaration of faith within the story of his own life experiences.  Your heart will be challenged – and changed!  I have much respect for Ted and his work, and I praise GOD that he has shared his heart with all of us!  This has made my own heart rejoice!

About the Author:

TED DEKKER is a New York Times bestselling thriller author. Heralded as a "master of suspense" by Library Journal, Dekker has sold millions worldwide, establishing himself as one of the most widely recognized author brands.

He began his career writing fantasy novels that explored spirituality (Black, Red and White) and has since become a major force in the mainstream fiction arena with his recent thrillers, "Adam," "Thr3e," "Skin," "Obsessed," "BoneMan's Daughters," which landed in the #10 on the New York Times hardcover bestseller list in 2009, and "The Bride Collector". Dekker has been honored with a Christy Award as well as a Gold Medallion Award for Best Fiction. "Thr3e" and his novel "House" became feature films. 

Dekker was born to missionaries and grew up among cannibals of Indonesia, and his peculiar upbringing gives him a unique perspective outside the cultural bubble, allowing him the freedom to share provocative insights in his fiction. After leaving Indonesia, Dekker graduated from a multi-cultural high school and took up permanent residence in the United States, earning his B.A. in philosophy and religion, and then went into business. 

In the early nineties, Dekker decided to pursue his desire to write fiction, selling his company, moving his family to the mountains of western Colorado, and writing full-time. Two years and three books later his first novel, a supernatural thriller called Heaven's Wager, was published. Dekker proceeded to write 6 more supernatural thrillers, rising to the top of many bestsellers lists and earning himself critical acclaim and legions of fans. "Thr3e" heralded his launch into mainstream fiction and was followed by "Obsessed," "Skin," "Adam," and "BoneMan's Daughters," all of which hit the New York Times bestseller list. 

Ted Dekker's fans are comprised of readers of all ages, backgrounds, and belief systems who love his compulsively readable stories, authentic characters, and universal and relatable themes that he explores from a unique point of view. 

He resides in Austin, Texas with his wife and children. You can find him at Teddekker.com and Facebook.com/teddekker.