Wednesday, July 24, 2013

A-post-a-day #3. In which I had to resort to a book review.


                                                  http://www.flickriver.com/photos/lkenyon66/1386117801/


Hello again! First and most importantly, let me thank God for temps that start with 7s and 8s. Those numbers are so very my favorites right now. Not to say that I am not looking forward with bated breath to 5s and 6s, but I know we have August and September before us, so let me just be very happy where we are.

During the making of last evening's post, I did break my toe. I was moving pictures and things to different areas of the house, didn't see the leg of Ben's drum stool, of course I was barefoot, and BAM, shreik, move on...but this morning...ow ow ow, purple, swollen. Be careful out there people. Blogging should only be attempted by the pros.


Feeling like I am getting run down again. Sore throat, tired.

A very quick book review. I just picked up a book I have had around for years and haven't read in at least eighteen. It is called Deadline, by Randy Alcorn. He is also a co writer of the book Courageous that was made into a film.

Deadline is definitely Christian fiction with lots of clear Evangelical theology throughout. (Randy Alcorn is a prolific writer and pastor). I know that starting out, but wanted to see what I thought about it, having swum the Tiber ten years ago.

Most of it was pretty predictable, though the bones of the story were good. But there were two things that stood out.

1. He treated Catholicism with respect, even quoting St. Francis Xavier (though stripping him of his title), in his "My God I love Thee" prayer. It was in modernized English; the setting was in heaven, with St. Francis reading his prayer aloud in praise. So even if he didn't afford St. Francis Xavier his title in words, he acknowledged his Sainthood by his presence in heaven.

2. This book came out in 1994. All the many societal issues we are talking about to this very day: abortion, Planned Parenthood, gay issues, fetal tissue, organ donation; all these and many more are taken on in this story. Alcorn cites tons of facts and statistics throughout. In that respect, it could have been written yesterday.

I would give the book three and a half stars, if I had any stars around to give, and could figure out how to break one in half.

On the positive side, it had good twists, the plot was decent, and sometimes it is good to know one is reading something coming from a Christian perspective, and won't deliver anything unsavory.

The down side was that it spelled everything out. If it was a part in the plot about abortion, there would be a character that went on and on giving the Christian standpoint complete with stats, sometimes for a page or two. I don't mind the topic, but I would rather the plot contained the information without sermonizing. Let us pick it up rather than have it fed to us by the shovelful.

Anybody having a good recommendation for something to read? I know I can go over to Manny's blog for a plethora of titles. He is kind of a Professional Reader. So, I thought I would cast out my request to the rest of us amateurs. Meghann usually keeps me going with titles too :) Some of my favorites!


See you tomorrow!

2 comments:

  1. Hahaha! You surprised me there at the end. Professional reader! Great title thank you. That does sound like an interesting book, though probably not enough to make me rush out and get it. Three and a half stars out of five I assume?

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    1. Yes, out of five. Most of the credit goes in the morality and identifying societal ills column. As far as being good in a literary sense, though my opinion is humble at best, it falls short.

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