Book Review: The Shack by William P. Young

The Shack
William P. Young
Windblown Media
256 pages
2007

The Shack was recommended to me by many people. I read reviews on book blogs that I follow. My friends and family on Facebook recommended it. Some said it was the best book they have ever read. When I checked it out of the library, the librarian told me to have tissues handy. So I was really looking forward to reading it. Now that I have finished it, I have mixed feelings about it.

First, about the book. From the back of the book:

Mackenzie Allen Philips' youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend.

Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he finds there will change Mack's world forever.

In a world where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant "The Shack" wrestles with the timeless question, "Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain?" The answers Mack gets will astound you and perhaps transform you as much as it did him. You'll want everyone you know to read this book!

This book seemed to me to be two different stories. The first story is about Mack and what happens to his family and how they deal with it. The second story is about what Mack experiences in the shack.

The first story reads like any other story of tragedy. How it effects people and how the people involved deal with it. And on that level, it is a good story.

The second part reads more like a dream. It's style reminds me of The Pilgrim's Progress. When Mack meets God in the shack, he meets God in all three persons. He calls God the Father, "Papa", even though God is personified as a woman. He is taken aback by Jesus' appearance. He is expecting Him to look like we see Him portrayed in the movies. Instead, He looks like an average looking Jewish man. The Holy Spirit is personified as a woman named Sarayu who is hard to focus your eyes on. She is colorful, translucent and rarely still. Papa, Jesus and Sarayu help Mack find his way past the pain to forgiveness and love.

The more I think about this part of the story, the more I don't care for it. God is portrayed as human-like and flawed. He marginalizes institutions like church, seminaries and even marriage. According to this book, all God cares about is relationships. If we love Him, then that is good enough for Him. It suggests that people can come to God on any path.

I feel like I cannot recommend this book. To me, this is not an accurate depiction of how the Bible describes God. I know that many people will disagree with me, but this is how I feel.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

Book Review: The Great Eight by Scott Hamilton

The Great Eight
Scott Hamilton with Ken Baker
Thomas Nelson Publishers
224 pages
2009

I was very excited to receive a copy of The Great Eight to review from Thomas Nelson. I have been a fan of Scott Hamilton's figure skating for a long time. I was intrigued by the subtitle: The Great Eight: How to Be Happy (even when you have every reason to be miserable). He has certainly had reasons to be miserable.

From the back cover:

From Gold Medalist to cancer and brain tumor survivor, Scott Hamilton has experienced the heights of accomplishment to the depths of disease. But through his successes, struggles, and setbacks, Hamilton has never lost his trademark humor and honesty. But more important, he has never lost his faith and optimism. Hoe does he keep smiling?

In The Great Eight, Scott uses stories from his international career and personal life to describe the eight secrets that - through commitment and repetition - have helped him "clear the ice," get back up, and "smile like Kristi Yamaguchi".

Most of Scott's eight secrets are common sense, but very few people try to do all eight of these things. We know that when we fall (or fail), that we need to get up and keep going. Reading about Scott's approach to each of these secrets makes it a little easier to see how to apply them to my own life.

Number four on the list, keeping the ice clear, is a difficult one for me. He says that trying to please others all the time is a recipe for unhappiness. He had to learn how to have open and honest communication about what he felt and needed. Many times in my life I have felt unhappy because I didn't communicate what I needed and was left out.

Another good one is learn a new routine. Don't fight the changes that life brings. Use change as an opportunity to grow.

This book is filled with stories from Scott's life that illustrate the point that he is trying to make. The only thing that bothered me was that the life stories kept going back and forth and some were repeated several times. But then again this is not an autobiography.

It is a good book to remind us of options that we have to live happier lives.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

What is on my Nightstand - February

It is time once again for What's On Your Nightstand hosted by 5 Minutes for Books.

Last month, I read 6 books:

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Ninth Witness by Bodie Thoene

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney

The Centurion’s Wife by Davis Bunn & Janette Oke

Every Now & Then by Karen Kingsbury

This Side of Heaven by Karen Kingsbury

I hope to read the following books in March:

Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (for the Classics Book Club on 5 Minutes for Books).

The Prayer Chest by August Gold & Joel Fotinos

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

The Great Eight by Scott Hamilton

Weekend Makeover by Don Aslett

What is on my Nightstand - January

It is time once again for What's On Your Nightstand hosted by 5 Minutes for Books. With all the bad weather outside and the various illnesses inside, I managed to read 9 books this month.

• House of Dark Shadows by Robert Liparulo (My Review)
  


• Warriors: Into the Wild by Erin Hunter
  


• Eighth Shephard by Bodie Thoene
  


• Kiss by Ted Dekker (My Review)
  


• High Calling by Evelyn Husband with Donna Vanliere
  


• Can't Wait to Get to Heaven by Fannie Flagg
  


• A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg
  


• Miss Fortune by Sara Mills
  


• Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
  

I hope to have more reviews up soon.

The following books are on my nightstand for February:

• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
  


• Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
  


• Ninth Witness by Bodie Thoene
  


• Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules by Jeff Kinney
  


• The Centurion’s Wife by Davis Bunn & Janette Oke
  


• The 39 Clues Books 1 and 2 by Gordon Korman
  


• Peculiar Treasures by Robin Jones Gunn
  


• Every Now & Then by Karen Kingsbury
  


• This Side of Heaven by Karen Kingsbury
  

I hope to read Why the Caged Bird Sings and Les Miserables for the Classics Book Club on 5 Minutes for Books.

Book Review: Kiss by Ted Dekker & Erin Healy

Kiss
By Ted Dekker & Erin Healy
336 pages
Suspense/Mystery
Published by Thomas Nelson 2009

Kiss is the latest book by Ted Dekker. He co-wrote it with Erin Healy. Unlike Dekker’s collaboration with Frank Peretti in House. I was not able to easily identify who wrote what. The writing was much more seamless.

From the Thomas Nelson Product Page:

Sometimes dying with the truth is better than living with a lie.

After a car accident puts Shauna McAllister in a coma and wipes out six months of her memory, she returns to her childhood home to recover, but her arrival is fraught with confusion. Her estranged father, a senator bidding on the White House, and her abusive stepmother blame Shauna for the tragedy, which has left her beloved brother severely brain damaged.

Leaning on Wayne Spade, a forgotten but hopeful lover who stays by her side, Shauna tries to sort out what happened that night by jarring her memory to life. Instead, she acquires a mysterious mental ability that will either lead her to truth or get her killed by the people trying to hide it. In this blind game of cat and mouse that stares even the darkest memories in the face, Shauna is sure of only one thing: if she remembers, she dies.

There is a good mystery surrounding Shauna. Why she can’t remember is just as important as what she can’t remember. Can she trust the man who says he loves her? What about the reporter that has gone into hiding? Will she ever gain the approval of her father? As she seeks the answers to these questions, she finds that she has developed a special kiss. She uses this ability to find out what happened. She doesn’t always use it wisely either.

I only had one problem with the story. I think it would have been better to have her father run for governor or senator instead of president of the USA. The security and media attention surrounding a presidential candidate and his family are intense. I think that many of the things that Shauna found out would have been discovered by the media or opposing party before her father would have gotten the nomination.

I think that this is Ted Dekker’s best stand-alone story. It reminds me of Blink which is on my all-time favorite list. I look forward to Dekker and Healy’s next book, Burn, which is due out in January 2010.

If you would like to read the first two chapters of this book, you can visit the official books site: http://www.thelostkiss.com/.

Rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars

Book Review: House of Dark Shadows

House of Dark Shadows
By Robert Liparulo
304 pages
Young Adult Suspense
Published by Thomas Nelson 2008



House of Dark Shadows is the first book in the Dreamhouse Kings Series. It was sent to me by Thomas Nelson Publishers to review.

The story starts out 30 years ago with a woman screaming. An unknown giant of a man is carrying her down the hallway of the house. Her young children and her husband try to rescue her but are overpowered by the strong man. He takes her through a mysterious door in the attic and they are gone.

Talk about starting out with a bang. I was out of breath (I must have been holding my breath), tense and ready to read more and that was just the Prologue.

Fast Forward to the present day. Xander is a 15 year old boy who is not very happy. His father has taken a new job. Xander, along with his 12 year old brother David and 9 year old sister Toria, have to move from the big city of Pasadena to a small town in Northern California. They move into an old Victorian fixer-upper.

But all is not as it seems in this house. They go into a linen closet and come out in a locker at the school. They find giant footprints in the dust. Xander and David find a secret passageway that leads to a hidden attic. In this attic, there is a hallway with a number of doors. Each door opens to reveal a small room with another door in the back. Each room has a theme. In one room, there is beach stuff. Another has snow gear.

This book then races forward with the boys discovering the secret of the rooms and find that their dad has his own secret about the house. Near the end of the book, the giant man comes back and leaves us with a cliffhanger ending.

I think this would be a good book for any young person 12 and up. There is plenty of action and suspense.

I was a little disappointed that there was no mention of God in this story. No one prays when in peril. No one seeks God’s direction or help. I would have expected a book published by Thomas Nelson to have a bit of spiritual content.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I look forward to reading the sequel, Watcher in the Woods.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!! It has been almost 3 weeks since I have been on here. The holidays were filled with family and fun. I even managed to find time to read. Now it is time to blog about the books that I read. I will also be blogging about other reading-related subjects. I want to explore how to buy books for less. I will be writing about authors, publishers and magazines.

One of my personal goals for this year is to get rid of the clutter in my life and in my house. Like many of you, I have books piled up all over my house. I want to collect them all into one area and decide what to do with them all. I must decide what to do with the ones I do not need to keep. So we will explore the many avenues for selling and donating books.

I am calling this my Book Clutter Challenge. My first goal is to gather the books and count them. Feel free to join in the challenge.