New Books for a New Year

I just added a few new books to my Amazon.com widget full of recommended titles.  Many of the new titles represent books that I have not yet read or am in the proces of reading.  I love finding books vicariously ie by having someone else tell me about it and I think books have the ability to connect people in powerful ways.  So enjoy my list of new reads...

I am currently reading this as part of my quiet time.  I'm not terribly far into it but I appreciate the author's perspective on our need to slow down and seek God.  I also appreciate one of the prayers offered early in the book.  "God, What am I missing?"  This simple prayer is amazingly complex.  It reflects a desire to see God in the big picture, for Him to reveal what His best plan is for your life especially when you feel like some of the big pieces in your life are not aligning in a way that makes sense.  And it reflects a desire to see God in the minutia of life, to slow down and catch the God in the everday moments we take for granted.






I am over half done with this read.  It's a title I found via a happened upon blog.  It's a book that I'm not sure I'm 100% in line with but one that I appreciate because it challenges my thinking.  And one that I appreciate because I think the church does not necessarily do a great job of preparing young women to be wives.  It covers a lot of basic concepts on compromise and submitting, on serving and compassion.









I just finished this novel and am so glad I didn't return it to the library as I was planning.  I've actually had it since before the holiday break but hadn't made time to read it.   When I checked it out, I only briefly perusued the dust jacket to see if it appealed to me.  (I had two kids with me...which should explain the words "briefly perusued.") I knew it was historical fiction but was pleasantly surprised to find that the book begins in the 1770's in Haiti, details the slave revolt which made Haiti the world's first black democracy, and ends in New Orleans.  It does have some adult content which is less than desirable.





This one is actually not on my bookshelf.  It's one I'd love to own and am hoping that I will sometime get the chance to read it.  The subtitle says it all:  A Call to Faithful Living in An Affluent Society. 











This is actually our small group's selection for the year.  We rarely make our small group because we lack a babysitter/atttending means being out until 9:30 or 10:00 on a weeknight.  But we've been in the same group for 7 years and consider them important in our lives.  So we do try to get there occasionally.  Since we're not at small group, I often read this on my own.  I have loved what I've read.  Randy Alcorn establishes a connection between relativism (the lack of a belief in abolute truths, specifically that good and evil exist) and the frustration we have with a God who allows horrific things to happen.  He also devotes time to the way our frustration with God often comes back to what we believe about God's character, namely the specific belief that God is good..