A Light So Lovely by Sarah Arthur, 2018

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Bestselling and beloved author Madeleine L'Engle, Newbery winner for A Wrinkle in Time, was known the world round for her imaginative spirit and stories. She was also known to spark controversy - too Christian for some, too unorthodox for others. Somewhere in the middle was a complex woman whose embrace of paradox has much to say to a new generation of readers today.

A Light So Lovely paints a vivid portrait of this enigmatic icon's spiritual legacy, starting with her inner world and expanding into fresh reflections of her writing for readers today. Listen in on intimate interviews with L'Engle's literary contemporaries such as Philip Yancey and Luci Shaw, L'Engle's granddaughter Charlotte Jones Voiklis, and influential fans such as Makoto Fujimura, Nikki Grimes, and Sarah Bessey, as they reveal new layers to the woman behind the stories we know and love. A vibrant, imaginative read, this book pulls back the curtain to illuminate L'Engle's creative journey, her persevering faith, and the inspiring, often unexpected ways these two forces converged.

For anyone earnestly searching the space between sacred and secular, miracle and science, faith and art, comeand find a kindred spirit and trusted guide in Madeleine - the Mrs Whatsit to our Meg Murry - as she sparks our imagination anew.

(224 pages)

When I was young and tearing through every children's book I could find in the house, I stumbled across my mother's childhood copies of Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quintet. I picked up A Wrinkle in Time with absolutely no preconceived ideaas about it . . . and I absolutely loved it.

There's something so grabbing about the way those books take reality and flip it inside out, challenging our ideas of how the universe works. It's been many, many years since I last reread any of the books, but there are so many things I still remember so vividly from them.

One thing I do not vividly remember? Any references to God or Christianity, or any indication that L'Engle was a Christian. I mean, it seems obvious reading A Light So Lovely, but as a little girl reading the books I just found them to be interesting and exciting with no more religious subtext than any of the other books I was reading at the time (though I also didn't notice the symbolism in the Chronicles of Narnia until someone pointed out to me that Aslan is Jesus, so take this with a certain grain of salt). It doesn't surprise me at all that some Christians denounced the series as being too new-agey, and in fact my mom was just as surprised as I was that L'Engle was some big Christian writer. She thought the books were just science fiction.

Anyway, all this buildup is to say that I found the discussion of L'Engle's life and faith in A Light So Lovely very interesting. I suppose it adds something to the series, though I admit I was just as happy when the books were just fun adventures without all this subtext. A Light So Lovely makes a lot of interesting points about L'Engle's faith and life, though I have to say that it's fairly disjointed and feels almost disorganized at times. It's organized into topical chapters like "Truth and Story" and "Religion and Art," each of which bring in lots of quotes from different people. But they often jump around in the timeline, so it's quite confusing. And I honestly don't really care that much about Madeleine L'Engle herself, so reading a bunch of quotes and conversations with other people I've never even heard of talking about her was not exactly exhilarating.

Above all, I think I would have much rather read a straight-up biography of her life than this slightly meandering discussion of her perspectives on religion and her habit of basically only seeing/remembering things in a way that fit her narrative. My mom tried to read it and stopped halfway through, similarly stating that she'd rather have just read a biography.

The book does include so many great quotes from L'Engle herself, though, so I'm going to end this review with a couple of my favorites:

"If it's bad art, it's bad religion, no matter how pious the subject."

Like it or not, we either add to the darkness of indifference and out-and-out evil which surround us or we light a candle to see by." 

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

I Don't Wait Anymore by Grace Thornton, 2016

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In I Don’t Wait Anymore , Grace Thornton challenges readers to find their calling and purpose from God and go after it with completely committed hearts. Have you been waiting for life to turn out the way you expected?
You’re not alone.
There are lots of us out there who feel that way. Grace Thornton is one. She had dreams, plans, and ideas for what life should look like. For one, she thought she’d be married. She thought she’d have kids. She thought God would bring her the life she’d been waiting for because she knew He was good and she tried to be obedient.
But that’s not what happened. Not at all.
So she found herself wrestling with God. Who is He if He doesn’t bring along the life, husband, and 2.5 kids she thought He was supposed to? And where should she go from there?
When she got brutally honest with herself and asked the hard question, “Why do I think the world has more to offer than God does?” the answer was stunning. Her honesty led to the path God had for her. One that would write a story for her life that was even better than the one she had dreamed for herself.
This positive and encouraging book offers inspiration to anyone who wants to live a fulfilling life right now. Grace decided to let go of her expectations of the way life “should be” and grasp God’s hand for the adventure He had for her.
You can too.

(224 pages)

I had credit to get another book from the BookLook Bloggers program, but there weren't any books that I was dying to read. I decided to give I Don't Wait Anymore a go, to see what sort of peace Grace Thornton offers for people who don't wind up with spouses. I haven't exactly been waiting for a husband (I'm only seventeen!), but I've been facing a lot of crossroads when it comes to moving forward with my adult life and I was curious to think about what my life could be like if I never get married.

It turns out I Don't Wait Anymore is actually a devotional, so each chapter offers a specific Christian lesson and then has room for you to answer a specific question about your own relationship with God. I don't usually use devos (I always forget to do them), so it took me a little while to get through this one. I wound up doing it in spurts over the course of a few weeks: some days I did three, and others I did none. If you did one chapter a day, though, it would take about two weeks. There's a very pretty light-brown ribbon you can use to hold your place, and the paper itself is thick and smooth - very luxurious, and great for writing on. The pages are all white where the text is, and then a very pretty shade of light green underneath it.

So yeah, physically the book is great as a devo. What about the text itself? Well, I have to say that it's truly wonderful to see how God has blessed and shaped Grace Thornton's life. Her insights on what it means to follow God (to bring Him out of your pocket into every area of your life, and to focus on pursuing Him instead of on what you get out of Him) are convicting and thought-provoking. It's wonderful to see all of the amazing opportunities Grace has gotten (including moving to England for two years!) - opportunities she wouldn't have had if she'd been married. She also has a lot of God-loving friends (none of whom I could ever keep straight) to cheer her on, which is really great.

No book is perfect, though, and I do have a few small troubles with I Don't Wait Anymore: for one thing, every couple of pages a line or two is offset into its own paragraph, put into a slightly larger font, and made green instead of regular old black. This is done to emphasize particularly meaningful or impactful statements/thoughts, the way they do it in magazines, and it looks very pretty when you flip through the book. Here's the problem, though: you know how in magazines the lines that are made big are ones that are also still in the articles? Well, here they took lines from the devo and highlighted them right where they were. To read what Grace is trying to say, you have to read the highlighted text in context along with all of the normal-sized text surrounding it. I kept accidentally skipping over the ornamented text, though, and then I'd have to go "wait, that's not just ornamental!" and go back and read it. That got kind of annoying after a while, but it certainly wasn't a deal-breaker.

Anyway, I'm no devo expert - I've done a grand total of two in my life - but I really enjoyed this one. If you're a Christian (female or male) who struggles with finding God's plan for your life, then I highly recommend this book. It definitely made me look at my future in a whole new light.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book through the BookLook Bloggers program in exchange for an honest review.

The Pug List by Alison Hodgson, 2016

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In the fire’s aftermath of insurance battles royal, rebuilding plans, parenting in the face of life’s hard questions and a scorching case of post-traumatic stress, now is absolutely theworst possible time to adopt a dog. But to Alison’s seven-year-old daughter, Eden, it’s the perfect time—and The Relentless Campaign begins.
Until one day Alison peeks inside Eden’s diary—dubbed “The Pug List”—and realizes in one fell swoop that her girl’s heart is on the line, and resistance is futile (“The pugs make me happy FOREVER.”).
Enter “Outrageous” Oliver, and the hilarity, healing, and irresistible hope that follows.

(208 pages)

My mom read this and thought it was boring. I can kind of see where she's coming from - the description of their search for a pug definitely could have been more compact - but I still disagree.

I mean, can you imagine how horrible it would be to have your house burn to the ground? You say "yeah, that would be horrible," but in the back of your head you think that it's a pretty small disaster in the grand scheme of things - at least no one in Hodgson's family died, right?

But think about it. Every CD you own, every book, every photo and purse and item of clothing and piece of furniture. All of it is gone, and you'll never get it back. Ever.

I'm going to go off to college next year. In many ways, as a homeschooler, I'll be at a disadvantage when it comes to adjusting to college life. In another very real way, however, I'll have an advantage. Why? Because I've moved house seven times in my short life. My identity, my home, isn't any one set of four walls, and I won't be one of those kids who go through the shock of moving for the very first time. No, I'll have my books and my quilt and my dresser knick-knacks and my Taylor Swift collage - and I'll be home. It takes very little to make me feel at home, because my physical sense of belonging is tied to objects instead of to a building.

All that to say, I can't imagine how horrible it would be to me if our house burned down. I would move into a different residence, of course - but then I wouldn't have my belongings to make me feel at home, and I would be miserable. That's why, while I was reading The Pug List, my heart constricted. I can't imagine the horror of losing every single thing I ever owned. I don't think I could take it as well as the Hodgons did; I'd become obsessed with replacing every single item I'd lost, and then I'd be tortured about the things I would never be able to get back, and I'd cry myself to sleep over all of the memories tied to the things lost in the fire. I'm not even joking, I would literally break down over just the thought of, say, that random keychain my grandfather gave me ten years ago which shows up underfoot every six months. I'd think about how I could never see that little heart keychain again, and I - well, I just wouldn't be able to handle it.

So I guess you can see why I was so fascinated with watching the Hodgsons dealing with and moving past the fire. If the very thought of losing my stuff is so upsetting to me, how did they do it? How did they get through the trauma of watching their life disappear? That's the question that will lure readers in and keep them. It's certainly what hooked me, and I think I learned the answer: you push through because there's nothing else you can do. You have no choice but to roll with the punches.

I just hope I'll never have to roll with a punch as big as losing everything I own.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers program in exchange for an honest review.

That's Not Hay in my Hair by Juliette Turner, 2016

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New York City life had crammed sidewalks, gasoline-filled puddles, and angry taxi drivers, but Juliette enjoyed the towering sky-scrapers, the half-block walk to school, and the restaurant smells wafting into her bedroom. She had never cared for a horse, let alone a long-horn, when her mother announced their imminent move to a 300 acre ranch in Texas, where they would be caring for three horses, five dogs, twenty-five longhorns, and a cat … all by themselves.
Juliette couldn’t help feeling excited, even though she’d have to climb a hill to get a bar of cell-phone service. Soon she was running from bats and snakes, rescuing a calf from a twenty-foot ditch, medicating ponies, and having adventures so crazy it’s hard to believe they’re for real—but it all happened exactly how it’s written.
Get ready for side-splitting laughs, heart-wrenching tears, and surprising life lessons learned down on the farm and shared by fourteen-year-old Juliette Turner.

(240 pages)

When I found out that this was written by a seventeen-year-old, I got it just on principle - as a seventeen-year-old girl who used to dream of writing novels, I thought it would be great to read one by a girl my own age.

Now that I have, I can honestly say that I can understand the advantage in waiting to write a novel until you're an adult. At the very least, I would say that a book by any underaged author really needs to get a lot of extra editing attention from the publisher - something that, I would guess, did not happen here. The diction throughout the novel is rather clunky (though it's truly atrocious at the beginning - if you do decide to read this book, know that it stops reading like something you'd read on Wattpad after the first two chapters!). With the rest of the book the issues mainly revolve around plot - or, actually, around the lack thereof. We get a lot of scenes, a lot of characters, thrown in that never show up again and don't really seem to lead anywhere. Yeah, I get that this is more of a memoir than a straight novel; I get that in real life sometimes random people pop in and out of our lives. But if Juliette had found a way to add more consistency in characters and a more substantial plot, the book as a whole could have been so much greater.

I mean, she's working with a lot of quality material. Who doesn't like a story about a city girl adjusting to farm life, or about the day-to-day struggles of life on a ranch? I went into the book expecting great things, and I still think that Juliette - who shows signs of being a good writer - could have tapped more into the charm of the basic scenario than she did. Plus, the ending literally had me in tears. I can't talk about it without spoiling it for you, but . . . well, let's just say that I would never make it on a ranch. I'd melt in a big sad drippy puddle the first time something like that happened.

I'll be honest: I truly didn't hate this book. At first I thought I would, especially when I was ploughing through those first two chapters. I very seriously even considered quitting the novel altogether and writing a DNF review, but I decided to push through and wound up enjoying the rest. There were still times when the prose was a little clunky, or the characters (like the spoiled rich girl at school, and Juliette's very uptight and anxious grandmother) seemed a little one-dimensional, but it wasn't so overwhelming that I couldn't enjoy the stories Juliette had to tell. And sure, on one page she's a clueless city slicker and on the next she's a tried-and-true rancher. Maybe there are a few too many random unimportant details (like the names of every single one of their twenty-six longhorns!), and maybe Juliette spends a little too much time driving home what a wonderful, kind, innocent person she is. But those are all things I can deal with, and mistakes that I probably only recognize so clearly because they remind me of ones I've made them myself. I'm sure they'll go away, though, as she continues to polish her skills by writing more books. And honestly, I applaud her for putting in all the time and effort to write, polish, and publish a book at just my age - while also being an honor student, a dancer, a singer, and rancher. I truly envy her stamina!

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers program.

NKJV, The Chronological Study Bible from Zondervan, 2016

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The Chronological Study Bible presents the text of the New King James Version in chronological order - the order in which the events actually happened - with notes, articles, and full-color graphics that connect the reader to the history and culture of Bible times. It is the only NKJV study Bible arranged in chronological order.
Features include:
The entire NKJV text with translators’ notes, arranged in chronological order, provides absorbing and effective Bible study
Full-color illustrations of places, artifacts, and cultural phenomena give the reader a dramatic, “you are there” experience
Fascinating articles connect the Bible text to world history and culture
Daily Life Notes explain how people lived in Bible times
Time Panels and Charts show the flow of Bible history
In-text and full-page color maps of the biblical world assist study

(1728 pages)

I've been fascinated by the idea of reading the Bible chronologically for . . . maybe two years now? One day the idea just popped into my head: it would be so cool to read the Bible in the order that it was actually written. I talked my brother into joining me on a "read the Bible in two years" challenge, with a document I'd printed off of the internet that listed daily readings in chronological order. But you know how it is - life happened, I got busy, and soon I fell so far behind I felt guilty even looking at the reading schedule. It's been so long since I worked on it that when I went to find the sheet to figure out where to start reading in this Bible, I couldn't even find it. I guess my only consolation is that my brother stopped remembering to do it before I did!

Anyway, when I saw that BookLook Bloggers had some chronological Bibles available for review, I immediately shifted my review schedule so I could clear up a credit on the site to request one when it came out. I even seriously considered requesting two Bibles, one in each of the colors, because I'md developing quite the Bible-collecting fetish and because maybe my brother would be motivated to start reading with me again if I gave him a cool new chronological Bible. I decided it would be wrong to take two Bibles when I only needed one to write this review (considering they're identical in all but the cover), so I just stuck with this one. And what a joy it is!

I mean, honestly, this Bible is everything I could have hoped for. It has a beautiful soft-bound faux leather cover in calm shades of brown (which are lighter than the ones in the picture, BTW), and a pretty light brown ribbon I can use to mark my place. Right there it's already leaps and bounds ahead aesthetically when compared to the two Bibles I've gotten the chance to review in the past - both of those were hard-bound, with no ribbons, and had frankly ugly covers. This is a dignified Bible that actually looks like people would use it in a Bible study, whereas the others looked like Bibles they'd hand out to church newcomers or something.

Once you actually crack the spine, there's a plethora of details that put the biblical events in a historical context. Rather than being divided into the traditional "books of the Bible," because it's a chronological Bible it's organized into nine epochs that literally cover every time period from creation to the end times. Each epoch begins with a page or two of explanations that describe what we know about the time periods covered by that epoch. Scattered throughout the text are further details and explanations in areas like art, beliefs, science, etc., as well as boxes that answer questions raised by the text. If you're looking for a particular verse or word, there's a large concordance and a passage index that can help you find whatever you're looking for; there are also plans for a one-year and a two-year reading plan (which I definitely think I'll give another go), and a few pages for writing notes if you're a note-writing sort of Bible reader (I am not).

Honestly, the only real trouble I have with this Bible is the translation itself. Now don't be me wrong, I haven't got anything against the NKJV. The trouble, though, is that the translators had to add a few words to the text to make many of the sentences actually make sense. And when they did, they didn't just say "this is a translation, so we had to add some words here or there to make it readable." No, they said "we'll add all these words, but we'll put them in italics so you know that they're not original." And that's fine for people who care about which words are original and which ones the translators added, but it does make for some choppy reading when every few lines I come across some really funky italics in the middle of some otherwise ordinary sentence about, like, heads of sheep or something. Because they're not "heads of sheep," they're "heads of sheep." I can get used to it, but I do wish that the italics weren't there.

Anyway, if you have any questions about this Bible that I didn't answer feel free to leave them in the comments section below. And if you've ever tried to read the Bible chronologically, let me know how it went or if you have any tips!

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this Bible from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers program.

Unstuffed by Ruth Soukup, 2016

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STUFF. It's everywhere. Lurking in corners and closets, spilling onto counters and coffee tables, creating havoc everywhere we look. And it's not just the physical clutter that weighs us down. Oh no, it is the stress of overbooked schedules, and the weight of life that sometimes feels oppressive and totally out of whack.
New York Times bestselling author Ruth Soukup feels your pain--she has been there too. Through personal stories, Biblical truth, and practical action plans, she will inspire and empower each of us to finally declutter not just our home, but our mind and soul as well. Unstuffed is real, honest, and gets right down to the question we are all facing--how can we take back our lives from the stuff that is weighing us down?

(224 pages)

This book reminds me of another self-help guide I read lately, Gretchen Ruben's habit-formation guidebook Better Than Before. With all due respect to what was a pretty good book, I have to say that I like this one a lot more.

And it's not even that the tips are so much better (to be honest, there's actually a certain amount of overlap). No, the biggest draw with this book is that Soukup is just so relatable and nice that I feel like she actually knows what she's talking about. Ruben may have been a huge busy-body sticking her nose into other people's habits, but it was pretty clear she was also a rather self-righteous control freak. To be perfectly honest, there are days - many days - where I fit that description. I don't, however, really enjoy being inside the brain of someone else like that. With Soukup, however, I can see myself in a different way: I see the messy house, the everyday calamities of living with kids, the exasperation of all that junk everywhere.

I mean, I'm not even really the target audience for this book. I'm a seventeen-year-old high school student, not a mom with a house full of junk. My control freak tendencies, however, have driven me toward finding better ways to quell the stream of stuff that's always flowing around my room. Soukup's advice is basically "get rid of everything you haven't used in a while and/or don't care about." While I'm definitely not as ruthless as she is (I see memories where she sees opportunities to cut sludge), and I'm still very much in the "there's got to be a perfect way to organize all of this without throwing stuff away" phase, I can still appreciate her advice's value - though mostly for other people.

The second half of the book actually isn't really about unstuffing your house at all; it's about unstuffing your life. I really loved Soukup's advice in those chapters, even though I was initially caught off-guard by the switch. Her advice about making sure you get more sleep definitely affected me (I immediately downloaded Sleep Cycle, the app that she recommended, and I already love it!), and her admonition to make sure you're not overworking yourself really struck me in my current pre-AP-exam frenzy. In the past six months I've moved across the country, had wrist surgery, struggled with the College Board through the process of getting a computer accommodation, debated whether and then decided to get braces, and struggled through the process of making new friends after the move - not to mention keeping up with my four AP classes and, of course, studying for the exams (that are now in less than two weeks - eep!). Soukup's advice to pace yourself, to allow yourself room to breathe, is exactly what I needed to be reminded of right now. I have to recognize the fact that I'm under a lot of stress right now, and I need to make an effort to carve out space in my schedule to detox from it.

Which I'll definitely do . . . after my AP exams. Summer has never looked so inviting.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher through the BookLook Bloggers program.

Curio by Evangeline Denmark, 2016

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Grey Haward has always detested the Chemists, the magicians-come-scientists who rule her small western town. But she has always followed the rules, taking the potion the Chemists ration out that helps the town’s people survive. A potion that Grey suspects she—like her grandfather and father—may not actually need.
By working at her grandfather’s repair shop, sorting the small gears and dusting the curio cabinet inside, Grey has tried to stay unnoticed—or as unnoticed as a tall, strong girl can in a town of diminutive, underdeveloped citizens. Then her best friend, Whit, is caught by the Chemists’ enforcers after trying to protect Grey one night, and after seeing the extent of his punishment, suddenly taking risks seems the only decision she can make.
But with the risk comes the reality that the Chemists know her family’s secret, and the Chemists soon decide to use her for their own purposes. Panicked, Grey retreats to the only safe place she knows—her grandfather’s shop. There, however, a larger secret confronts her when her touch unlocks the old curio cabinet in the corner and reveals a world where porcelain and clockwork people are real. There, she could find the key that may save Whit’s life and also end the Chemists’ dark rule forever.

(432 pages)

I'm a long-time fan of the author Donita K. Paul. Her DragonKeeper Chronicles are amazing - literally the best Christian fantasy I have ever read - and I've gobbled up tons of her books over the years. When I got a newsletter telling me that her daughter Evangeline had a book coming out, and that it was steampunk dystopian, I was excited. Then I saw the gorgeous cover and I was completely hooked.

It was available on BookLook Bloggers, a review program I'm a part of, but the copies were snapped up so fast that when I went to request it the day it became available, they were already out of hard copies. I hate reading ebooks unless I absolutely have to, so I sent a semi-begging email to Blink. I got a lovely email back letting me know that I would be getting a copy in the mail, asking whether I would like to interview the author, and just all-around being so nice and welcoming to me that it made me feel even more warm and fuzzy about the book than I already did. That was literally the most pleasant interaction I've ever had with a publishing company! Plus, they sent me a gorgeous hard-back copy instead of an ARC or even just a regular paperback. When I pulled that beauty out of the package my heart just about stopped.

The trouble started once I actually cracked open the cover. And I'm absolutely heartbroken to say it, but . . . Curio was really bad. And the terrible thing is that I actually really love the premise - even now, having read the book and kind of hated it, I'm still excited about the premise because I feel like Denmark really had some really awesome material to go on. She came up with a fascinating scenario, with the tocks and the porcies and the entire world full of fully-animated, living dolls. The entire dystopian backstory to everything sounded really cool too, and the writing was quite good - though I kind of lost track of all the myriad side-characters running around - and, with a few rounds of judicious edits, the book could have come out really well.

I'm not talking about editing for grammar or anything like that - Denmark is a competent writer, there's really nothing lacking there, though I wouldn't have minded a few more paragraphs explaining the dystopian setting before diving into the story. But no, what I would really focus on removing are all the lust scenes. Like, seriously. In Grey's community there's some rule (that really doesn't make any sense, to be perfectly honest) that forbids males and females from standing within a few feet of each other. Literally from the first chapter - when a childhood friend picks her up to protect her from a pack of wolves - every single time she touches a man Grey starts obsessing about it. Every. Single. Time. Her heart starts racing, she starts focusing on the touch of his skin, she forgets whatever super-important thing she's in the middle of and just starts thinking about that person's eyes. And I'll be straight with you: it's not just Grey who gets carried away with her lustful instincts. Whit does too, and so does a character who comes into the story later (whom I don't want to name for fear of spoilers). People who barely know each other randomly start passionately kissing, but it's supposed to be okay because we know that the kissing obviously means that they are meant to be a good match for each other - they're soul mates or something, never mind the fact that they have no idea whether they even have anything in common other than some hormonal urges.

But honestly. I don't really like reading a book where I get the feeling that if you left the two main characters alone together in a room for more than ten minutes you'd come back to find them, ahem, getting it on. I legitimately think that the self-control in all of these characters is so low that they could not deny the urge to take it all the way and sleep together if other pressing matters didn't keep them preoccupied most of the time. And that is really not a pleasant impression to have of the protagonists of a story.

Plus, I'll just add, there's some really creepy goings-on amongst the porcies, including a lord who we're told cycles through mistresses and who actually tries to rape Grey at one point. I wasn't such a huge fan of that, either, for obvious reasons.

Basically, if all those pages of racing heartbeats and trembling kisses and creepy hands-on-skirts had been deleted from the book, it would have been a very entertaining read; as it is, though, I struggled to get past all of the troubling parts and through to the meat of the story. I almost DNF'd about halfway through, actually, but I decided I was still interested enough in the core story to see it through to the end. I can't say I'd highly recommend this book to anyone, but I am interested to see what Denmark comes out with in the future; she's definitely inherited that knack for creating fascinating worlds from her mother, and if she would just stop giving her characters so many hormones she could easily write some quality fiction.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

NIV Understand the Faith Bible from Zondervan, 2015

Merry Christmas! It's a complete coincidence that I'm posting a review of a Bible on Christmas - or is it? Who knows, maybe this is God's hand at work. Whatever the case, I hope you have a blessed holiday full of friends, family, presents, and fun. Tell me below what your favorite holiday tradition is!

The NIV Understand the Faith Study Bible provides a deep grounding in Scripture. You will appreciate the way this Bible keeps the joyful, astounding nature of the gospel always in view when addressing doctrine and the pressing questions about faith. Its content will help you understand what you believe and why while inspiring you to live for God.(1504 pages)

Yes, this is a Bible.

Like a real, honest-to-goodness Bible. The Holy book. What am I doing reviewing it? That is an excellent question, and one I'm honestly still asking myself. All I can say is that the BookLook Bloggers program, which I joined for its regular novels, also offers Bibles. And I was stressed out, because I'd just moved, and I had two credits to request whatever I wanted, and the next thing I knew a brand-new Bible was showing up on my doorstep.

It's a hardback, and it kind of look like the sort of Bible you'd find in a church pew or at youth group or something. When you take the red dust jacket off, underneath it's solid black, very traditional (and slightly boring compared to my last two Bibles, which were both pink). When I was flipping through it I found an article I wanted to save, but I couldn't because there was no ribbon. So on the whole I'm really not a huge fan of the physical aspects of the Bible - it's much too ugly and not quite functional enough for my tastes. I'm sure there are people who would like this hard binding and the black cover, though - it's just a matter of taste.

As for the internal stuff, the font is a good size, nice and big so it's very comfortable to read. I have a pocket Bible that my grandparents gave me when I got baptized that I love to pieces, but I practically need a magnifying glass to read a passage. No sight enhancements needed for this Bible! That does mean it's pretty chunky, though - about 1500 pages. Definitely not for the faint of heart, or the weak of wrists - I've had to be very careful not to accidentally pick it up with my bad hand.

The supplementary material, the "study" part of the "study Bible," is actually really awesome. In my previous Bibles I've struggled with the supplementary material because it was so distracting that it tore my attention away from reading the Bible itself (and because sometimes the neatly-packaged answers they offered to some questions were a little too convenient and touchy-feely for my tastes). With this Bible, though, the focus is mainly just on the text itself and then scattered every bunch of pages is a block of text, which falls into one of these categories: Doctrine 101, Everyday Faith, Culture Connections, Living Parables, and Up For Debate. I love that they delineate between truly essential beliefs (such as the fact that Jesus is our Redeemer), and ones that are openly debated between different denominations (such as evolution and predestination), putting issues from the latter category into boxes marked "Up For Debate."

On the whole, this is not a very attractive or portable Bible, so I'm not sure I'll really be taking it with me places. It is, however, very good as what it was made to be: a study Bible. I'm excited to start using it in my personal Bible reading, and to continue exploring the wealth of materials scattered throughout the text!

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this Bible through the BookLook Bloggers program.

The Looney Experiment by Luke Reynolds, 2015

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Atticus Hobart couldn't feel lower. He s in love with a girl who doesn't know he exists, he is the class bully's personal punching bag, and to top it all off, his dad has just left the family. Into this drama steps Mr. Looney, a 77-year-old substitute English teacher with uncanny insight and a most unconventional approach to teaching. But Atticus soon discovers there's more to Mr. Looney's methods than he'd first thought. And as Atticus begins to unlock the truths within his own name, he finds that his hyper-imagination can help him forge his own voice, and maybe just maybe discover that the power to face his problems was inside him all along.

(208 pages)

Hmm. This one looked a lot better in the description.

I mean, it looks good, doesn't it? The synopsis makes it look like a sort of mix between Dork Diaries (or whatever it's called - Diary of a Teenaged something, maybe? I don't read them, in case you couldn't tell) and the Terupt books (which I have read - and loved!). I always like a good coming-of-age story, and books about kids with crazy-but-super-effective teachers are kind of my secret addiction. So I snapped The Looney Experiment up when I saw it available for review - and now I'm wishing I hadn't.

Because for one thing, they swear too much. And fart too much. I get that Atticus and his classmates aren't little kids, but it's still a little excessive that they have to be using the A word all the time. And I can forgive some of the farting because Atticus' little brother is pretty young, but I still don't really enjoy reading about it. There's only so much family bonding over flatulence that I can stomach, okay?

And in a way The Looney Experiment is meaningful - after all, Atticus learns some very valuable lessons from Mr. Looney! - but it also felt pretty fake. I mean, we're basically told (and not shown) that Mr. Looney is this awesome teacher, but all he really does is really nutty antics that shock his students into thinking he could be someone cool. To be perfectly honest, I would probably have behaved more like Danny than like Atticus when they all made a conga line and danced around the classroom.

As for the girl - yikes! I feel bad, because I know that kitschy middle-school romances are part and parcel with reading MG these days, but I just couldn't really handle it. They're, like, twelve. I don't care if she's nice, she's still six years from reaching majority! When I was that age, I wasn't even thinking about romance, let alone crushing on guys or wanting to go out with them. Reading about Atticus' clumsy attachment to Audrey is cute in a way, but the whole thing just isn't handled well enough to keep me invested. I know it's possible for me to enjoy MG romances (just look at the Willow Falls books by Wendy Mass, or The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt - links go to my reviews), but there was nothing doing this time.

I just don't know. I don't know who I would give this to, or why, or when. It's got some great themes and messages, don't get me wrong, but there are so many other books out there that cover all of this same material in a more tasteful way (or at least in a way that's more to my taste). If it looks good to you, go for it - maybe it's more your cup of tea than it is mine. But I won't be recommending The Looney Project in the future, and I'm donating my copy to the local book swap.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book through the BookLook Bloggers program in exchange for an honest review.