Seeing Through Heaven’s Eyes – Leif Hetland

Publisher:  Destiny Image

Pages:  240

Source:  Review copy from author

Genre: Adult, Religion

You can’t work your way into Heaven and you can’t buy your way into Heaven.  However, Love IS the answer.  God’s love for us when he gave his son to die for our sins and  demonstration of God’s love through us is what is required.  As I read this book it made me think back to a job interview.  I’m a teacher and the principal was interviewing me for a position at his school.  He asked  me how I handled those kids that are not real lovable and easy to get along with.  I never hesitated in my answer because it is what I do each day.  My prayer each morning is, “Dear Lord, please help me love the unlovable.  Today the unlovables seem to be….”  My sister and I were having some problems earlier in our life.  She told me it would be so much easier for her to deal with me if I would just hate her.  When I told her I couldn’t hate her, she was my sister and I loved her, she hung up on me.  No matter what evil thing she did to me I still loved her.  This is not easy to do, but it is required by God.  God does everything through love and that is what this book shows us.  We must live this way daily to transform our lives.

I will gladly place this book into the hands of my pastor.  He recommends books to our congregation all the time and I believe this is one  that should be in our church bookstore.

The Long Night: William L. Shirer and the Rise and Fall of the Third Reich – Steve Wick

Publisher:  Palgrave MacMillan

Pages:  288

Source:  Received a copy from the publisher

Genre:  Memoirs

William L. Shirer was journalist who took chances many others wouldn’t to get the truth out.  Most of this story took place in Berlin at the height of Hitler’s reign.  I can’t imagine what it would have been like to not know who to trust, not know if you were going to get your information out or not.  The stress alone knowing that you could be booted out of the country and denied access to what was really going on around you while fighting to stay alive from the bombings had to have been horrible.   Even though most of his work was censored he tried to warn people about what Hitler and his men were really up to.  He attended Nazi Party Rally’s and got a first hand look at what was coming.  While reading about Shirer’s experiences I felt as if I had been transported back to a time long before I was even a thought and was living in Berlin watching event unfold.  I admire people like Shirer who are willing to risk everything to get to the truth.  It is by hearing watered down versions of the truth in the media today that we continue to make the same mistakes.  Anyone who loves this time period or history in general will love this book.  It is not an easy read but it is well worth it.

Fourteen - C.M. Smith

Publisher:  The Writer’s Coffee Shop

Pages:  174

Source:  Won a copy from LibraryThing in exchange for a review

Genre:  YA/Adult Romance

Summary

Arianna Weller has never fit in with the other kids at her high school. The daughter of the only lawyer in town, she's overweight compared to everyone else. Being picked on and put down by her peers has become normal—expected.

When she has a bad run-in with Evan, the boy she's had a crush on for 4 years, she decides to bide her time until she’s out of high school and off to college where she can start over.

Evan Drake has never had to worry about not being popular. He's on the football team, has more friends than he knows what to do with, and he doesn't care about anyone that's not in his "circle." So when he is forced to work with Arianna for a science fair project, he decides that dealing with her is just an unfortunate circumstance… until he sees what he's done to her.

The road to forgiveness and acceptance is not smooth. Overcoming peer pressure, jealousy, miscommunications, and social prejudices is never easy—especially in high school. Evan and Arianna have to learn things the hard way and answer one important question. Is it worth it? 

My Thoughts

This was an awesome book.  Bullying comes in all forms.  Anna has been the butt of everyone’s jokes for as long as she could remember.  The thing is she has done nothing to warrant it except being larger than they think she should be.  Instead of retaliating she built a wall around herself.  I like to say that the wall protected her from hurt but it is obvious it didn’t.  As she and Evan become an item I was often exasperated with her responses to him.  Then it hit me that she really had no reason to trust anyone.  This is an inspiring book.  It showed how people can change if they truly want to.  It also showed how difficult change could be.  I absolutely love the way the book ended.  I really didn’t expect it, yet it seemed like that was the way it should have ended.  The characters in this book were spot on.  I was not a fan of the “f-bomb” being dropped throughout the book.  This was a personal point for me. It was not so terrible that it made the book a bad read.  I just didn’t feel it was a necessary addition to the work.  I would not hesitate to read more by this author.  It was very authentic.  I would definitely recommend this book.