Books, Movies, and Chinese Food

----------------Contest Closed--------------- I'm giving away 5 brand new copies of today's book! Leave a comment with your email address so I can contact you if you win. I'll pick a name and announce the winners on Thursday April 2 . US and Canada addresses only (No PO Boxes). Good luck! No drinking. No smoking. No cursing. No dancing. No R-rated movies . Kevin Roose wasn't used to rules like these. As a sophomore at Brown University, he spent his days drinking fair-trade coffee, singing in an a cappella group, and fitting right in with Brown's free-spirited, ultra-liberal student body. But when Roose leaves his Ivy League confines to spend a semester at Liberty University, a conservative Baptist school in Lynchburg, Virginia, obedience is no longer optional. Liberty is the late Reverend Jerry Falwell's "Bible Boot Camp" for young evangelicals, his training ground for the next generation of America's Religious Right. Liberty's ten thousand un...

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: Claudia Mair Burney and the book: Deadly Charm (Amanda Bell Brown Mystery Series, Book 3) Howard Books (March 24, 2009) ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Claudia Mair Burney is the author of numerous novels and the popular Ragamuffin Diva blog. She lives with her husband and their seven children in Michigan. Visit the author's website and blog . AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER: Rocky showed up at my apartment door with an offer that, in his wor...

Congrats to Fmartin816, loves3cats, Lisa, Anna, and Janet for winning Angry Conversations With God!

--------------------Contest Closed---------------- I'm gi ving away a brand new copy of today's book! Leave a comment with your email address so I can contact you if you win. I'll pick a name and announce the winner on Wednesday April 1 . US addresses only . Good luck! Childhood sweethearts Kinna and Jimmy Henley had simple dreams–marriage, children, a house by the sea…everything they needed for happily ever after. What they didn’t plan on was years of infertility, stealing those dreams, crushing their hopes. Now, all that’s left is the memory of young love, and the desperate need for a child to erase the pain. Until… Kinna rescues an elderly woman from the sea, and the threads of the past, present, and future weave together to reveal the wonder of one final hope. One final chance to follow not their dreams, but God’s plan. Can they embrace the redemptive power of love before it’s too late? Or will their love be washed away like the castles they once built upon the sand? ...

6 Different girls + 1 house = TROUBLE! When her mom died, DJ had to move in with her grandmother, internationally famous ’60s fashion model Katherine Carter. Now Mrs. Carter’s opened a boarding home for young ladies, and DJ—who would rather wear her basketball team uniform than haute couture—is just sure they’ll all be unbearable fashion snobs. One by one, the girls arrive and begin to figure out how to fit into this new family, getting to know each other and forming friendships. Sure, there’s an aspiring diva or two, but before long, the Carter House girls are dating, fighting, laughing, shopping, sharing clothes, purses, shoes … and their deepest secrets. DJ may not turn into the perfect little lady her grandmother has in mind, but one thing’s for certain—with all these new “sisters,” her life will never be the same! If you are looking for a clean alternative to secular YA fiction, like Gossip Girl and The Clique, then this is the series for you. I adore Melody Carlson's books. ...

In The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived , Scott guides readers in a step-by-step application of the life-changing principles, skills, and methods that Jesus used throughout his earthly life. Although believers may spend a lifetime learning from Jesus’ teachings, it’s easy to overlook the powerful lessons demonstrated in His life . But when these incomparable lessons are learned and put to use, they enable ordinary people to achieve extraordinary success and happiness. From Jesus’ earthly life readers will learn: How to break through the barriers that prevent them from achieving extraordinary success at work and relational success at home. How to experience a level of happiness and fulfillment that nothing the world offers can duplicate. How to use adversity and opposition as a springboard for greater success. How to love others in a way that increases their love as well. No matter what a person’s area of expertise and in what setting a person influen...

One of the hardest books I've ever read Hannah Lapp has grown up in the Old Order Amish ways but has decided she wants to break free. She finds this opportunity when her Mennonite boyfriend proposes to her and she accepts. But before she can rejoice in the prospect of a new life, an unthinkable incident happens to her. To make matters worse, her whole family has seemed to turn against her, offering her no help in her tragic situation. Worse yet, she is not able to contact her fiance to tell her what happened, causing him to think she wants to end the relationship. Just when Hannah thinks nothing could go worse, another event takes place that makes her young life become even more painful than it should be. This was probably one of the most difficult books I've ever had to read. Normally it'll take me a couple days to a week to finish a book. However this book took me a month and a half to finish. I usually devour Amish fiction like there's no tomorrow. It's o...

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing A Cousin's Promise Barbour Books (March 1, 2009) by Wanda Brunstetter ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Wanda enjoys writing about the Amish because they live a peaceful, simple life─something she says we all need in this day and age. Using the knowledge her Amish friends have shared with her, Wanda has also produced several children’s titles in the Rachel Yoder─Always Trouble Somewhere series, an Amish cookbook, and a devotional collection entitled The Simpler Life, which was released in July 2008 and celebrates the virtues of the Amish lifestyle. Wanda and her husband are members of the fellowship of Christian Magicians. Wanda is also a member of the North American Association of ventriloquists, American Christian Fiction Writers, and the Northwest Christian Writers Association. She lives in Washington State, where her husband pastors, but takes every opportunity to visit Amish settlements across the country. Other books by Wanda are...

Like the elephant in the room, I thought I'd finally point out that, yes I do have a new blog design! I'd been contemplating a new one for a while especially since I needed a new one that would finally upgrade me to the new Blogger template. Yes I had been using the old blogger template that made me have to enter EVERYTHING by HTML code on my own. Do you know how much easier the new blogger is? (I'm assuming you already have) Any who, I have to give MAJOR props to my blog designer Judi from Doodlebug Designs. I decided to go to her after seeing the fabulous job she did with Rel's Relz Reviews , CeeCee's Book Splurge and Jen's So Many Books So Little Time blogs. She did a fabulous job with my design. She was really patient with all the questions I had, even when I didn't understand what certain things meant. She was more than willing to answer all my questions and helped me pick out the perfect fit for my blog. We had some trouble with the pictures and co...

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 While books and bookstores in general are suffering, Christian bookstores are suffering even more in this economy. Do you have a Christian bookstore that you shop at? Why don't you tell us about your local Christian bookstore and the benefits that if offers. If you don't shop at a Christian bookstore, then please tell us where you get your books, music, and other Christian gift items. Since moving up to the Northern Virginia area, I've only found one Christian book store, Family Christian, in Dulles, VA but I've only been there once and I haven't bought anything. I do go sometimes to the Family...

FINISHED!!!!!!!! Well it's that time of the year again! Katrina at Callapidder Days is issuing out the command to get our reading lists out and done! I started these twice-yearly challenges because I thought it would be fun to share my love of reading with other bloggers and to push myself to read some books I might not otherwise read, or to finish some books I had started and then abandoned & stashed under my bed. I thought there were probably others out there who would appreciate the accountability and encouragement that a challenge can provide. And along the way, I discovered there were lots of people who — whether they needed the extra push or not — loved to share what they planned or hoped to read during the upcoming months. So that’s the point of the Spring Reading Thing : sharing some reading goals with all the other participants and doing it in a way that works for you. If you want to push yourself, go for it! Or if you just want to share what you’re hoping to get aro...

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: Ginger Kolbaba and Christy Scannell and the book: Katt’s in the Cradle: A Secrets from Lulu's Cafe Novel Howard Books (February 3, 2009) ABOUT THE AUTHORs: Ginger Kolbaba is editor of the award-winning Marriage Partnership magazine. An experienced columnist and public speaker, she lives in Chicago with her husband. Visit the author's website . Christy Scannell is a college instructor, freelance editor and accomplished writer who...

The true story of how a father and his teen daughter connected through an ice axe and well-worn running shoes. One day after reading a book about a wilderness adventurer, David Pierce’s fifteen-year-old daughter Chera announced that she wanted to climb a mountain. What David heard behind that wish was a bold declaration: “I’m growing up, Dad–what are you going to do about it?” A few weeks later they bought matching backpacks. Over a three-year period they climbed five mountains and ran in two marathons. Together they suffered sore muscles, bitter cold, sprung knees, shin splints, and broken spirits. But they also reveled in blazing sunsets, glissaded on a glacier, and celebrated numerous victories great and small. And in the process, they built an unshakable father-daughter bond that will withstand the tests of time. As you read this wise, warmhearted, and often hilarious story of a daughter’s (and a father’s) coming of age, you’ll discover ways you too can create strong, loving rela...

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: Laura Hayden and the book: Red, White, and Blue Tyndale House Publishers (February 5, 2009) ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Laura Hayden began her reading career at the age of four. By the time she was ten, she’d exhausted the children’s section in the local library and switched to adult mysteries. Although she always loved to write, she became sidetracked in college where differential equations outweighed dang...