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Five more book reviews for your perusal! As usual, please let me know if you’ve read any of these, if so, what you thought, and if not, if you would like to read them in the future!

This is the second book in Ted Dekker’s Outlaw series, and it is definitely also strange and somewhat disturbing, though not nearly as much as most of Dekker’s other books.

This one was my favorite of the three. I found it incredibly powerful, and the message of freedom through forgiveness and faith sticks with me and brought me to tears. It was much more coherent than the previous book and I would definitely read it again.

This was another book club book — and I absolutely hated it. I do not recommend it at all. I only gave it as much as two stars because the writing itself really was excellent. The writer is very gifted at putting you into places and making you feel what the characters feel. And the idea — two sisters from Ghana separated and their families followed through the centuries, one in Ghana and one in America — was interesting.

But that’s where the good ended for me. There is a good deal of explicit sexual content, some of it quite disturbing. Christians are consistently portrayed extremely negatively. There is very little hope or redemption within the stories — it’s pretty much just one tale of horrible and depressing mistreatment after another. And I understand that the author was seeking to draw attention to historic troubles of African Americans, but I still think you can communicate hope in the midst of that. If I had it to do over, I wouldn’t read this one.

I listened to this one on Audible at my mom’s recommendation, and I was absolutely blown away by it. It pulls you in, keeps your interest, and touches your heart all the way through. It’s a mystery, a survival story, and a drama all rolled up into one. And it builds up to its conclusion artfully and rivetingly.

It does have some somewhat graphic sexual content in a scene or two (I just turned the volume down for those) and it can be upsetting to read about what this girl has to go through and endure to survive. But it’s also inspiring and heartwarming. I heartily gave this one five stars.

I’m not normally the biggest Jennie Allen fan, but I read this one at my mom’s recommendation and because some friends of mine were doing a summer book club on it, and I enjoyed it.

Certain chapters in particular I found very timely when it came to dealing with my anxiety and depression about things going on in the world that I could not control. It’s always refreshing to be reminded that our emotions DO NOT have to control us, and that we CAN take our thoughts captive to Christ. I would recommend this one.

This one was recommended on Facebook by a sweet lady from my church, so I thought I would get a copy because 1) it looked interesting and 2) it was very small and seemed like a good way to boost my reading count!

Both things were true. It’s a simple, short read with very good reminders of the way we need to approach God’s Word — with openness and humility and prayers for wisdom. I now have this book next to my Bible so I can flip through and get reminders when I need them. I recommend this one for sure!

I will be back next week, Lord willing, with five more of my 2020 reads! Have a good weekend, everyone!