Books, Movies, and Chinese Food

I'll admit it. I was one of those protesters when Daniel Craig was announced as the new James Bond. I had been rooting for Clive Owen. I've seen all 20 Bond movies (twice) and Craig to me looked more like a villain than James Bond. Plus he was blond. So I was planning on just waiting for Casino Royale to come out on DVD before I watched it. But when the reviews came out, they were all mostly positive. And the audience reaction was pretty good too. So I caved in. My family and I went to see the movie Thanksgiving weekend. We were all blown away. Gone is the cheeky humor from the Brosnan films. There is no Q or Moneypenny and neither are really missed. No more silly stunts, gadgets, or ridiculous situations. (invisible car, rampage fire truck anyone?) The first action scene is so exciting that you literally are scrounging in your seat, anxious as to what will happen. You've never seen Bond run this way before. The movie is more violent than the others and there isn't as...

This book is in my TBR pile so I'll have a review up soon in a couple of weeks! Until then here's the CFBA review. Enjoy! Christian parents are finally offered a true Potter alternative...All the adventure of Harry Potter...None of the sorcery! This week the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is doing a blog tour for Landon Snow and The Island of Arcanum by R.K.Mortenson , published by Barbour Publishing (October 2006). About the AUTHOR: R.K.Mortenson is an ordained minister with the Church of the Lutheran Brethren. He has been writing devotional and inspirational articles since 1995. He currently serves as a navy chaplain in Florida and lives with his wife, daughter and son in Jacksonville. This page at Barbour's site provides a few good links, two as recent as last week: http://www.barbourbooks.com/author/detail/r-k-mortenson/ . The top link there goes to a story about Randy's adoption experiences, the second link goes to the Landon Snow short at Clubhouse magazine. Ra...

Green is my second favorite color Lily Chau is the next member in the Garments of Praise team that we get to meet. She's in her late thirties, taking care of her sick mother, trying to get her foot into the fashion industry and trying to figure out her relationship with her boyfriend. She gets invited to compete in a Project Runway-like reality show with the help of a famous designer. Little does she know that the designer is the mysterious stranger that she keeps running into and finding a growing attraction with. Lily has to decide how she will manage her mother, her fashion, her boyfriends, and her life. This is one of the first Christian fiction novels where there is an Asian American female lead character. AND she happens to not be an immigrant or someone living in the 1800s . There aren't many Asian Americans portrayed without any sort of stereotypes in books in general so this was a welcome relief. I felt that Lily's character was very real. I understand...

You don't know what you've got till it's gone Mari seems to having her life finally like she planned. She has great friends, a good job, a better relationship with her parents and .....a boyfriend. Her friend Sadie is about to get married and Mari, Angelica, and Caitlin are excited and nervous about their friend leaving the single life behind. Amid all the wedding plans (including ugly bridesmaids dresses chosen by the bride's sister) Mari starts to question her relationship with Beau. When her father becomes ill, Mari leaves to go back to her hometown. There she meets up again with Marcus, an old friend. Mari has to make the decision of whether she needs to be east or west. I really enjoyed this book. I don't want to give away the ending, but I was really happy with Mari's decision about Beau. He started off great and then became ....typical male. And of course there would be an ex-girlfriend in the picture. Why are guys always clueless in this area, a...

Katie Hart wants you to join Waterfall Books ! From Katie: "You can get the back cover copy at any online seller. You can get the first chapter on Christian Book Previews , email lists, and publisher websites. You can get author interviews on half a dozen blogs. You can get academic reviews in journals and uninformed reviews on Amazon. But nothing beats having a friend who loves to read telling you, "This is good . Here's why . . ." And so Reviewing Christian Novels was born. It'll likely be monthly. It'll include reviews of fantasy and suspense and chick-lit and historical and romance and mystery and more - because if it's a good book, genre doesn't matter to me. It'll launch sometime this fall or winter - January at the latest. And it'll likely include contests and drawings, because everyone loves free books." You can also win prizes from joining. Like these: Influencer Prize Packs Top Influencer will receive: A Bride Most Begruding b...

I don't normally like chick flicks. I can't stand straight romance stories. Give me something like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings or James Bond any day. I like adventure with a tough of romance, not something that's completely full of it. However even someone like me can be a sucker for a really really good love story. The Lake House stars Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock (their first time together since Speed!-as every ad seemed to say) as two people who both live in a glass house on a lake. They communicate by writing letters to each other. The catch- she lives in 2006, he lives in 2004. Yes you can start scratching your head. The two begin a relationship even though they are two years apart. It was nice to see a relationship played out just through the old fashioned way of writing letters. (I wish I got more letters...) What's interesting (and extremely head scratching) is that because the two are writing to each other, they have somehow met in the past..well he...

Happy Thanksgiving!! Murder in Small Town X Rae Gabriella has come to the small town of Justice, Illinois to escape her past as a former FBI agent. She finds a job with her former boyfriend Bruce as a private investigator. Thinking she can finally settle down, Rae begins to relax and discovers she has a sharing interest with both Bruce and the town's sheriff Nathan. Then a dead body is found in the same hotel Rae is staying at. When more deaths are being discovered and cannot be explained, the three end up working together to find out who and what is behind the murders. I thought this book gave an interesting look into the drug industry. The reader learns a lot about how drugs are made, marketed and sold unsuspectingly. One has to be careful about the samples they eat. It was interesting that all the clues and suspects were right there, and no one picks up on it. However, I didn't like how the book ended rather abruptly. While we find out who the killer is, there seems...

Did you know crime scene cleaning can be a six figure job? I knew this book was going to be interesting when I sat down to lunch with the book, opened up the first page, read the first line and promptly had to spit out my lunch. Fragments of skull and grilled chicken do not mix. Gaby St. Clair is a crime scene cleaner. During one of her jobs, she discovers what appears to be the real murder weapon. Since the police don't believe her at first, Gaby tries to find the real killer on her own. Along the way, amid several death attempts, she and her cute neighbor try to unravel whose actually behind all these sinister doings. I knew knew there was such a job as a crime scene cleaner. Well obviously I realized that someone had to clean up the mess, but I didn't think that there could be such a profitable business doing it. I definitely couldn't do that job, my stomach couldn't handle it. This book ended up being a quick read because I couldn't put it down. This book...

From Russia With Love To a few Americans Russia is still unknown territory. Some people still see Russia as our foes from the Cold War, that communist nation. Or others view them as the country that always used to beat the US at every sport in the Olympics (except that wonderful hockey game in 1980..which i wasn't born yet but the movie was great!). I find Russia fascinating country simply because I've never really learned that much of the country itself. Sarai is a missionary doctor. Roman is an FSB agent. 13 years ago they used to be in love. Now Roman is trying to get Sarai out of the country for her safety. Sarai doesn't want to leave because there is a illness that she cannot figure what the source is from. The two have to learn to put up with each other in order to get themselves into safety and away from the dangers that the government has put out against them. This book was just jammed pack with suspense. One thing keeps happening after another. You neve...

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is posting about Calm, Cool, and Adjusted by Kristin Billerbeck ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kristin Billerbeck was born in Redwood City, California. She went to San Jose State University and majored in Advertising, then worked at the Fairmont Hotel in PR, a small ad agency as an account exec, and then, she was thrust into the exciting world of shopping mall marketing. She got married, had four kids, and started writing romance novels until she found her passion: Chick Lit. ABOUT THE BOOK: Calm, Cool, and Adjusted is the third book in the Spa Girls Novels. Billerbeck did a great job with the characterization of Poppy, a quirky Christian chiropractor who is a health nut. I'm talking real NUT. She is so obsessed with health that she forgets about living. When she finally realizes that she is over the edge obsessed, she doesn't know how to stop herself. Best friends since Johnny Depp wore scissors for hands, "The Spa Girls" live ...

sorry for the lack of updates. i'm going through a very tough time right now. as i said in my previous post please continue to pray for me and my grandmother. i'll get back to posting reviews next week. thanks so much! now on to this week's blog tour! This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is posting about Scoop by Rene Gutteridge ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rene Gutteridge is the author of several novels, including Ghost Writer (Bethany House Publishers) The Boo Series (WaterBrook Press) and the Storm Series , (Tyndale House Publishers. She will release three novels in 2006: Storm Surge (Tyndale) My Life as a Doormat (WestBow Press, Women of Faith) Occupational Hazards Book #1: Scoop (WaterBrook Press). She has also been published over thirty times as a playwright, best known for her Christian comedy sketches. She studied screenwriting under a Mass Communications degree, graduating Magna Cum Laude from Oklahoma City University, and earned the "Excellence in M...

If anyone happens to stumble across my blog this afternoon, I would really appreciate your prayers. I can't really say the entire reasons but please keep me in your thoughts today. Also my grandmother in Malaysia is very ill and my mother has to leave to go see her. Please keep them both in your prayers. Thanks so much. -Deborah

Here's a plug for anyone who wanted more books, movies, or CDs at TitleTrader.com . From Dan Abercrombie who runs the site: The site works by users posting what they have to offer, when someone requests one of their items they send it out. In doing so they receive points that can be spent on anything else on the site. The sender pays the shipping, but the favor is returned when they request something. The site is free, with a few added features for a minimal fee. To give you a little more information about the site, it was opened in September of 2004. A couple months earlier my sister came to me with the idea for a new website. She had a lot of books and a small house and thought it would be a good idea to help get rid of some of them. I put it together in a few weeks and have been working on it since. We have over 180,000 items listed, with almost 8000 users, and 90,000 items have been traded. We're the largest such site that has not only books, but CDs, DVDs, VHS, vid...

To Blog or Not to Blog Blogs are a great way to release stress. You can write about anything on your mind. People can read about your emotions, your fears, your love life but still have no idea who the real you is. Jackie is a civilian who works at the US Air Force Academy. She is forced to share her office, now divided by a cubicle, with Joe, a former pilot and new teacher. She lives with her grandmother and writes in her blog her feelings for Joe (with codes names of course) that she would never actually say out loud. When her blog becomes famous, EVERYONE seems to be reading it and trying to guess who the author is, including Joe. Jackie has to struggle with her feelings for him and to keep him from guessing that the blog is really about him. I really liked this book. I really admired Jackie and felt for her. You understand why she acts and feels the way she does. It was refreshing to read a chick lit book where the main character isn't such a girly-girl who shops an...

I'll be posting up my own review on this book tomorrow This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is posting about The Cubicle Next Door by Siri L. Mitchell . If you like blogging...which you must if you are reading this...you will think this book is blogarific. After each chapter, there is a blog entry. The book is written in first person and contains some hilarious blog antics. Imagine that you are an anonymous blogger, one who uses a silly name instead of your own, then imagine blogging about your work. Now imagine blogging about your cubicle mate of the opposite sex and calling him by an anonymous name. I know some who have done just that. But now imagine that your cubicle mate has discovered your blog and begins to read it out loud to you. EVERY MORNING. The Cubicle Next Door is set in a civilian's view of working on a military post. That in itself is funny enough...then add that the main character is a tree hugging, anti-SUV lover, with a thing for Bollywood movies...

The winner of Coldwater Revival by Nancy Jo Jenkins is Erin. Congrats! Look forward to another giveaway in the future. Keep checking!

Don't forget to enter the contest for Coldwater Revival. Click here to enter . I'll pick a name and announce the winner on Wednesday. Wrong Place at the Wrong Time Yet Again You'd think after finding two dead bodies by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, Haley Farrell would have learned her lesson. Nope, she does it again. This time Haley is at the home of a new client ready to start the redecorating process when she hears the nurse yell out that her customer is dead. At first everyone believes that this is due to cancer. However after finding out that the nurse, the two greedy sons, and the doctor all might have "interior motives" Haley along with newly appointed pet detective Bella hunt for the real killer. When Haley begins to suspect her own friend Tedd, she begins to worry that's she's gotten in far more than she bargained for. I once again found this a satisfying read in the Deadly Decor series. Haley has a knack for finding mysteries when sh...

Don't forget to enter the contest for Coldwater Revival. Click here to enter . I'll pick a name and announce the winner on Wednesday. I enjoy watching the biblical and historical blockbusters from the 50s and 60s. The costumes, sets, and even acting are so extensive and elaborate. Movie like Ben Hur and The Ten Commandments evoke the feel that there was a time when Hollywood cared about movie making and wasn't ashamed to portray religious movies in a positive light. "One Night With The King" brings back that past movie making. This is the story of Esther from the Old Testament, and based on the novel "Hadassah: One Night With the King" by Tommy Tenney and Mark Andrew Olsen. I will assume everyone knows the story of Esther (if you don't, find a Bible), but to sum up the plot: King gets rid of old queen, King holds beauty contest, King picks new Queen, Queen is hiding her heritage, Evil advisor wants to kill queen's people, Queen finally tells King...

Don't forget to enter the contest for Coldwater Revival. Click here to enter . I'll pick a name and announce the winner on Wednesday. History comes alive I love historical fiction. For me, it helps me to understand history better. I learn more and it's easier to relate too. It was because of historical fiction that I changed my major to history. I love reading all types, from ancient Greek and Roman history right to stories based during the Cold War. Historical fiction brings the people, places and events to life. "Arms of Deliverance" is Tricia Goyer's fourth novel set during World War II. Mary and Lee are two female reporters each struggling to prove they deserve to have the top story. Katrine is a Jew, living the life of an Aryan, pregnant with a Nazi's child. Their lives become intertwined as Mary and Lee are sent to Europe to report about the war and Katrine learns the risk of keeping her secret. Along the way, the reader learns about the Na...

Don't forget to enter the contest for Coldwater Revival. Click Here to enter . I'll pick a name and announce the winner on Wednesday. Oh Mother! Moms have a way of embarrassing us. They don't mean it of course. They just do it accidentally in public places. And from what I've heard they still do it long after you've moved out and started your own family. But we all still love them. Savannah (from Savannah) is alarmed to hear that her mother has chained herself to the monument of the 10 commandments outside of the courthouse. She can't believe that her beauty queen mother, who always has to look perfect, is willing to sit outside in public in the same clothes for days. Thus Savannah tries to distance herself away from her mother, dealing instead with a homeless lady who keeps asking her for food, a beauty queen killing her boyfriend and a new female reporter who's caught the eye of every guy in town. Eventually, Savannah comes to realize her mother's stan...

BOOK GIVEAWAY!!!! It is November 1st, time for the FIRST Day Blog Tour! (Join our alliance! Click the button!) The FIRST day of every month we will feature an author and their latest book's FIRST chapter! This month's feature author is: Nancy Jo Jenkins This blog is featuring a contest to win a copy of Nancy's new book, Coldwater Revival . Leave a comment with your email address. I'll announce the winner next Wednesday, November 8. Good luck! Just three weeks before her wedding, Emma Grace Falin has returned to her hometown of Coldwater, Texas, consumed by a single, burning desire. She must confront the guilt and shame of a devastating event that has haunted her since childhood. "...What a stunning debut novel." --Wendy Lawton, Literary Agent, author of Impressions in Clay "An astonishing debut! Coldwater Revival is a hauntingly beautiful story made doubly so by Nancy Jo Jenkins stunning, lyrical writing. I was mesmerized from cover to cover." --Deb...