Books, Movies, and Chinese Food

My Friend Amy , who brought us Book Blogger Appreciation Week has a new carnival in the works, the Faith 'n Fiction Saturday . Each week she will post a blogging prompt, which participating bloggers will answer on their own blogs. Then they head back to the original post and sign Mister Linky! This way we can all come to know each other more closely. Today's Question: You have a good friend who is a devoted Christian and voracious reader. He or she, however, tried to read a Christian fiction book in the past and found it to be too preachy and unrealistic. Your friend wants to try it again and has asked you for a recommendation. Their favorite genre of book is what is considered literary fiction What book would you recommend to them? You also have a friend who is not a Christian but wants to read fiction that is considered clean without being too Christian. They have asked you if there are Christian fiction books that might meet their reading needs. They are interested in romanc...

This book will change the way you view life While Hannah was living out her dream on the California coast and away from her small town home life, her sister Dilly was serving time in prison. While Hannah ran away from her past, Dilly had to stay and remember day after day of the crime she had committed. When Dilly is set free from prison, Hannah returns to take care of her sister and intends make up for not being there all those years. However Dilly has changed and is intent on righting her wrongs, while Hannah doesn't agree with what she's doing. Will Dilly stand up to her sister or will Hannah be forced to give in? While I was reading this story, all I could keep thinking in my head was "Wow." This is a story you would normally not think of when you think about Christian fiction. This is not your happily ever after, everyone's all lovey-dovey, everything always works out Christian fiction. This book is ripped from the headlines, make yourself really think, ...

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Gatekeepers (Dreamhouse Kings #3) Thomas Nelson (January 6, 2009) by Robert Liparulo ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Robert is an award-winning author of over a thousand published articles and short stories. He is currently a contributing editor for New Man magazine. His work has appeared in Reader's Digest, Travel & Leisure, Modern Bride, Consumers Digest, Chief Executive, and The Arizona Daily Star, among other publications. In addition, he previously worked as a celebrity journalist, interviewing Stephen King, Tom Clancy, Charlton Heston, and others for magazines such as Rocky Road, Preview, and L.A. Weekly. Robert is an avid scuba diver, swimmer, reader, traveler, and a law enforcement and military enthusiast. He lives in Colorado with his wife and four children. Robert's first novel painted a scenario so frighteningly real that six Hollywood producers were bidding on movie rights before the novel was completed. His acclai...

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book! You never know when I might play a wild card on you! Today's Wild Card author is: Stacy Hawkins Adams and the book: The Someday List Revell (January 1, 2009) The Someday List Blog Tour Giveaway Tell Us One Item on Your Someday List. Leave your answer in the comment section. Participants will be entered into a drawing for The Someday List Blog Giveaway . View the prize package below: * $50 American Express Gift Card *Autographed Copies of all of Stacy’s books: Speak to My Heart, Nothing But the Right Thing, and Waterc...

The Resource Guide to Getting Published For 24 years running, the Christian Writers’ Market Guide has remained the most comprehensive, complete, essential, and highly-recommended resource for beginning and veteran Christian writers, agents, editors, publishers, publicists, and those teaching writing classes. This year’s Guide is even handier with a CD-Rom included that features the full text of the book for easy searches of topics, publishers, and markets, as well as 100 pages of exclusive content including indexes and writing resource listings. This is the resource you need to get noti ced—and published. Completely updated and revised to feature the latest on… more than 1,200 markets for the written word 416 book publishers (32 new) 654 periodicals (52 new) 96 literary agents 100 new listings in Resources for Writers 226 poetry markets 316 photography markets 25 African-American markets and 166 contests (29 new) This perennia...

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing The Red Siren Barbour Publishing, Inc (January 2009) by M.L. Tyndall ABOUT THE AUTHOR: M. L. (MARYLU) TYNDALL grew up on the beaches of South Florida loving the sea and the warm tropics. But despite the beauty around her, she always felt an ache in her soul--a longing for something more. After college, she married and moved to California where she had two children and settled into a job at a local computer company. Although she had done everything the world expected, she was still miserable. She hated her job and her marriage was falling apart. Still searching for purpose, adventure and true love, she spent her late twenties and early thirties doing all the things the world told her would make her happy, and after years, her children suffered, her second marriage suffered, and she was still miserable. One day, she picked up her old Bible, dusted it off, and began to read. Somewhere in the middle, God opened her hardened hear...

I usually forget to post on here about this but since I am half Chinese... Enjoy a traditional Chinese Lion Dance!

*Although the books I review on my blog are almost always Christian fiction, there will be a few spotlighted regular fiction titles I will review from time to time.* Sam Sharpe, Cammie Sheppard and Anna Percy were the most glamorous faces of Young Hollywood. But times change, people move on, and Hollywood is fickle. Yesterday's star is today's extra, and it's a whole new year at Beverly Hills High--and there's a fresh cast of A-Listers ready to become the toast of Tinseltown. A-List: Hollywood Royalty is the newest guilty pleasure in the witty and risqué series that takes readers behind the scenes of the Hollywood glitterati. The A-List and its New York Times bestselling sequels are full of unforgettable stories about the fast times of Beverly Hills' most beautiful and glamorous people. Welcome to the new generation of A-List class. This is another book that continues that latest trend in YA fiction these days. Take a popular series, write 10-12 books in that serie...

My Friend Amy , who brought us Book Blogger Appreciation Week has a new carnival in the works, the Faith 'n Fiction Saturday . Each week she will post a blogging prompt, which participating bloggers will answer on their own blogs. Then they head back to the original post and sign Mister Linky! This way we can all come to know each other more closely. One thing we share in common is a love of books. I know there are participants of Faith 'n Fiction Saturdays that read over 200 books a year! But while we may read a lot of books, only a few books in our lifetimes are special enough that we would never part with them, always recommend them, and maybe even reread them. So...what fiction books with faith elements are on your keeper shelf? Please keep your answers to no more than 5 books! Oh please....this is like asking someone how many people are in the world? Pretty much every book I get is a keeper. Unless I get a duplicate or a book/author I don't like or read, I keep it. Th...

Hot British Guy + Beach Vacation = Happy Tiffany has recently lost her mother to cancer. She decides that she and her father need to get away, to relax and cope together. A beach vacation out in San Diego seems to be just the thing to help them out. Meanwhile Jeremy's girlfriend Eve has decided she's going to be spending her vacation out at the beach as well. He decides to go visit her and finds out that due to a mix up, Eve and Tiffany are sharing the beach house. What ends up happening after that is a tale of comedy, romance, mixed in with a little surf and sand. Seeing as how it's winter and 20 degrees outside right now, I wish that I could escape inside the setting of this book. A week at a beach house by the ocean would be a relaxing vacation right now. And that is what reading this book was like. I could picture myself walking on the sand, listening to the waves, sitting out on the deck, watching the sunset, eating fresh seafood. Trish Perry paints a marvelous ...

Do You Really Practice What You Preach? Lucia Coffey does not like herself. She's overweight, has a husband who's overcome a drug addiction and she's the sister of a famous televangelist who believes that belief in the healing power of God will solve everything. She's on task though to change her life to better herself. However that plan comes to a halt when a fiery accident badly injures her sister Sophia, and Lucia steps in to take care of her full time. Now is the time when Sophia is put to the test of her faith and the results are not what she had expected. Lucia is torn between being true to herself and helping out her sister. Enter psychologist Sullivan Crisp who arrives to help Lucia find out who she truly is and how she needs to reshape and heal her life. Like the first book in the Sullivan Crisp series, reading this book was not like reading your normal Christian fiction book. If you're expecting safe, happy endings, everyone gets along in your ficti...

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing The Centurion's Wife Bethany House Publishers (January 1, 2009) by Davis Bunn and Janette Oke ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Davis Bunn is an internationally acclaimed author who has sold more than six million books in fifteen languages. His audiences span reading genres from high drama and action thrillers to heartwarming relationship stories, in both contemporary and historical settings. Honored with three Christy Awards for excellence in historical and suspense fiction, his bestsellers include My Soul To Keep, and Full Circle. A sought-after lecturer in the art of writing, Bunn was named Novelist in Residence at Regent's Park College, Oxford University. He and his wife, Isabella, make their home in Florida for some of each year, and spend the rest near Oxford, England, where they each teach and write. Her first novel, a prairie love story titled Love Comes Softly, was published by Bethany House in 1979. This book was follo...

In Your Face Fiction With one flash of a camera, Demi's private life becomes public news. She doesn't know it yet, but her healing has just begun . Christian college professor Demitria Costanas had vowed to end her affair with a colleague. But she gives into temptation one last time...and a lurking photographer captures her weakness for all to see. Quite literally, she's the woman caught in adultery. And almost everyone--herself included--has a stone to throw. Enter Sullivan Crisp, a decidedly unorthodox psychologist with his own baggage. He's well-known for his quirky sense of humor and incorporation of "game show" theology into his counseling sessions. And yet there's something more he offers...hope for a fresh start. Reluctantly the two of them begin an uplifting, uneven journey filled with healing and grace. By turns funny and touching, this story explores the ways humans hurt each other and deceive themselves. And it shows the endlessly creative means...

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Stand-In Groom Barbour Publishing, Inc (January 2009) by Kaye Dacus ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kaye Dacus is an author and editor who has been writing fiction for more than twenty years. A former Vice President of American Christian Fiction Writers, Kaye enjoys being an active ACFW member and the fellowship and community of hundreds of other writers from across the country and around the world that she finds there. She currently serves as President of Middle Tennessee Christian Writers, which she co-founded in 2003 with three other writers. Each month, she teaches a two-hour workshop on an aspect of the craft of writing at the MTCW monthly meeting. But her greatest joy comes from mentoring new writers through her website and seeing them experience those “aha” moments when a tricky concept becomes clear. ABOUT THE BOOK When wedding planner Anne Hawthorne meets George Laurence, she thinks she's found the man of her dreams. But whe...

I've Found My Prince Ren Young is still getting over her divorce. While happy for her friend Kara who has found the guy of her dreams, Ren is still wary about getting back into the dating scene. She wants to adopt a little boy from her class whose mother is in jail. Overcome by the stress of trying to get the adoption straightened out, she succumbs to exhaustion and faints in Walmart. Then she has the fantasy of every woman by waking up in the arms of a handsome medical guy. Tru Sayers is everything Ren needs, wants, and more. But her past and emotions keep her from being able to fully reach out to him. Will she let this almost perfect guy slip through her fingers? I was glad to be reunited with the characters from The Guy I'm Not Dating. This group of friends is one that I wish I could hang out with. They're older than me but they seem like a really cool, down to earth group of people. I really like Ren, she is a character you really feel for and that you want goo...

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book! You never know when I might play a wild card on you! Today's Wild Card author is: J.P. Moreland and the book: The God Question Harvest House Publishers (January 1, 2009) ABOUT THE AUTHOR: J.P. Moreland is distinguished professor of philosophy at Talbot School of Theology. His many writings include Kingdom Triangle. Dr. Moreland served ten years with Campus Crusade for Christ, planted two churches, and has spoken on more than 200 college campuses and in hundreds of churches. Visit the author's website . AND NOW......