Book Review
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Adult non-fictionThe Amazing Generation: Your guide to fun and freedom in a screen-filled world
by Jonathan Haidt and Catherine Price 2025 / 236 pages Rating: Good/Great/GIFT The old blue rocking chair is the most comfortable chair in our house,…
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Adult non-fictionDarwin’s Sandcastle
Evolution’s Failure in the Light of Scripture and the Scientific Evidence by Gordon Wilson 2023 / 222 pages In the protective bubble of my Christian high…
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Book ReviewsThe Peleg Chronicles
This one sat on my shelf for months because a glance at the back had me dismiss it. The series was touting what it didn’t…
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Articles – BooksDon’t. Just. Read.
Encouraging reading is like encouraging eating, or drinking… or YouTube short-watching. Should our kids shovel in just anything that’s served up in front of them?…
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Book ReviewsPercy Jackson pushes homosexuality now too
My first involved interaction with the Greek myths was in university, as a required classics course. But the professor wasn’t all that interested in the…
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Book ReviewsPrincess Navina visits Malvolia
The most important of topics aren’t always the most interesting. That’s why, instead of writing a textbook on the subject of “how government policy goes…
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Book ReviewsInnocent Heroes: Stories of animals in the First World War
by Sigmund Brouwer 2017 / 186 pages RATING: Gift Animals had a way bigger role in WWI than you probably ever realized. Sigmund Brouwer’s fantastic…
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Book ReviewsThe barber who wanted to pray
by R.C. Sproul 2012 / 33 pages Rating: GREAT R.C. Sproul has written a half dozen picture books to date, all of them great instructional…
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Adult fictionSincerely, Stoneheart
by Emily Wilson Hussem 2025 / 240 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Gift I can’t find my car keys! Can you relate to this panicked searching? If you don’t…
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Adult non-fictionHow an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes
by Peter Schiff and Andrew Schiff 2014 / 304 pages Economics affects everyone but few people care to learn much about it. All the numbers…
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Adult fictionTime will run back
by Henry Hazlitt 368 pages / 1951 Rating: Good/GREAT/Gift As novels go, this is intriguing. As economics textbooks go it is downright amazing. Like 1984……
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Adult fictionEve’s Daughters
by Lynn Austin 1999 / 432 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give This book was recommended to me by a good friend. I was a little skeptical (Christian women’s…
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Book ReviewsJames Herriot’s Treasury for Children
by James Herriot 260 pages / 1992 & 2104 Rating: Good/Great/GIFT James Herriot is best known for a series of semi-autobiographical books he wrote about…
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Book ReviewsBruno the Bear
by W.G. Van de Hulst 47 pages / 1978 & 2014 Rating: Good/GREAT/Give Little Rosie is sick so Mother takes her off to bed. But…
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Adult non-fiction8 Errors Parents Make and How to Avoid Them
by Michael Brock 2024 / 224 pages Climbing the ladder out of the tranquil waters of Middleton beach, my ears were assaulted by an angry…
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Book ReviewsAkimbo and the Lions
by Alexander McCall Smith 1992 / 66 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give Alexander McCall Smith is best known as the author of the The No. 1 Ladies’…
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Book lists50 “Great Books”
What are the “Great Books”? There is no one list, but the term is meant to describe a compilation of classics from Western Literature. Some…
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Adult non-fictionTransgender to Transformed
by Laura Perry 2019 / 192 pages This may not be a book for everyone. It’s a hard-hitting, at times overly graphic, account of one…
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Book ReviewsThe Fallacy Detective
Two young fellows, brothers Nathaniel and Hans Bluedorn wrote this book as a course in logic for the Christian home-schooling adherents. Why? Let them tell…
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Book ReviewsSleuth Family Robinson: fighting evil around the world
by Christopher P.N. Maselli 2025 / 160 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Gift The Robinsons are an undercover spy family working for the UK. When someone hacks the British…
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Adult non-fictionOn comforting suffering Christians
Christians are called to mourn with those who mourn. How can this be done well, when a comforter’s experiences differ vastly in type and degree…
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Articles – BooksKeeper of the Lost Cities takes a turn
For most of its run, Keeper of the Lost Cities has been a lightweight but generally “safe” book series – there’s no language, minimal violence,…
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Adult non-fictionNecessary Endings
Why did my dad’s tomatoes and cucumbers always flourish? I used to think it may have something to do with the tobacco smoke from his…
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Book ReviewsSkip College: Launch your career without debt, distractions, or a degree
edited by Connor Boyack 2019 / 250 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give This is the case against college, but not because any of the 9 contributors here…
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Book listsGet to know John Calvin
How can we get to know this beloved father in faith a little bit better? If you are Reformed you have heard the name of…
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Book listsThe best of TOON Books for young readers (18)
TOON Books don’t have much in common with each other besides their younger target audience. As the story is told, the founding publisher, Françoise Mouly,…
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Book ReviewsMarley’s Ghost
by Charles Dickens adapted by Harvey Kurtzman, Josh O’Neill, and Shannon Wheeler illustrated by Gideon Kendall 2017 / 129 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Gift This is a…
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Book ReviewsThe Great Brain
by John D. Fitzgerald 1972 / 175 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give The Great Brain is the story of Tom Fitzgerald, a ten-year-old boy living in frontier…
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Book listsAmy Krouse Rosenthal: the Ginger Rogers of children’s lit
Amy Krouse Rosenthal (1965-2017) was a prolific children’s picture book author, crafting more than 30 in just a dozen years. Together with illustrator Tom Lichtenheld,…
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Book lists100 books to buy: A family library is a fantastic long-term investment
My parents never made me read. But my mom read to me. And my dad surrounded me with great books, both on his own shelves,…
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Book ReviewsTeam Burger Shed
by Tavin Dillard 2024 / 188 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give Tavin Dillard is of an indeterminate age (he looks mid-30s, but gets around on a bike,…
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Articles – BooksBeware Wings of Fire’s bait and switch
Wings of Fire is an incredibly popular kids’ book series about dragons, but sadly the author has pulled the old bait and switcheroo. She first lured…
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Book ReviewsWhat really happened to the dinosaurs?
by John Morris and Ken Ham 1990 / 32 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give Some children, it seems, are born with a love for all things dinosaurs while…
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Book lists3 great books about dating
Some years back a fellow came out with a decent enough dating book, but years laters people came out complaining that his book had done…
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Book ReviewsThe Farm at the Center of the Universe
by Guillermo Gonzalez and Jonathan Witt 2024 / 167 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give An astrobiologist has written a young adult novel with an Intelligent Design agenda,…
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Adult non-fictionOrdinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland
by Christopher R. Browning 1992 / 384 pages This is a really horrifying book. Ordinary Men tells the World War II story of German Reserve…
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Adult non-fictionHow Should We Then Die?
A Christian Response to Physician-Assisted Death by Ewan C. Goligher 2024 / 145 pages In April 2024, a desperate father in Calgary, Alberta begged a…
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Book ReviewsStealing Home
by J. Torres and David Namisato 2021 / 112 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Gift During World War II, after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Canada rounded up Japanese…
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Adult non-fictionHelp for the anxious and those who struggle with measuring up
Last summer, in an issue of this magazine devoted to the topic of anxiety, I shared my own struggle with burnout and anxiety. I don’t…
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Adult biographiesThe Watchmaker’s Daughter
The true story of World War II heroine Corrie Ten Boom by Larry Loftis 2023 / 384 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give Larry Loftis is an international bestselling…
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Book ReviewsLittle Robot
by Ben Hatke 136 pages / 2015 Rating: Good/GREAT/Gift This is one of those little-girl-meets-little-robot, little-girl-loses-little-robot, little-girl-kicks-some-big-robot-tushy-to-save-little-robot stories. What sets it apart from all the…
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Adult non-fictionThank God: becoming more grateful to the Greatest of Givers
by Reuben Bredenhof 2023 / 133 pages Dr. Reuben Bredenhof’s new book, Thank God is an encouragement and a how-to guide of sorts for giving…
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Adult non-fictionYou are not enough (and that’s okay)
by Allie Beth Stuckey 2020 / 208 pages In today’s culture, women often encounter myths promoting the belief that genuine happiness is attainable through self-love…
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Book listsBest of Caldecott: 151 great picture books!
As a new parent, I sometimes had a hard time finding picture books to read to my girls. There were just so many stunningly boring…
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Book ReviewsI survived the Nazi invasion, 1944 (8 books recommended)
by Lauren Tarshis art by Alvaro Sarraseca 2021 / 158 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Gift Max and Zena are two Polish Jewish children who, at the time…
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Book listsMr Putter & Tabby: 25 sweet stories
by Cynthia Rylant illustrated by Arthur Howard 44 pages / 1994-2016 Rating: Good/Great/GIFT It’s always fun to find a children’s book that is interesting enough…
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Book ReviewsThe Miracle Seed
by Martin Lemelman 2023 / 80 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Gift In 70 AD, after besieging Roman forces destroyed Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple, they went on…
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Book ReviewsThe Hyperinflation Devastation
by Connor Boyack 400 pages / 2019 Rating: GOOD/Great/Give Remember those “Choose Your Own Adventure” books kids loved back in the 1980s? Readers would be brought…
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Book ReviewsGod’s Daring Dozen: A Minor Prophet Series
by John Brown and Brian Wright Illustrated by Lisa Flanagan 2021 / 40 pages each Christian Focus Publications Rating: GOOD/Great/Give I’ve never been a fan of…
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Adult fictionThe Dark Harvest Trilogy
The Dark Faith 368 pages / 2012 by Jeremiah W. Montgomery The Scarlet Bishop 304 pages / 2013 by Jeremiah W. Montgomery The Threefold Cord…
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Book ReviewsDr. Seuss’s “Horton trilogy”
Parents may be familiar with the first two of Dr. Seuss’ Horton books, but the third, only recently republished will be a new delight for…
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Adult fictionShoofly Pie
by Tim Downs 2003 / 371 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give Did you know that insects have been known to help solve murder investigations? One of the…
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Book ReviewsThe Adventures of Lancelot the Great
by Gerald Morris 92 pages / 2008 Rating: Good/GREAT/Give This has all the adventure you’d expect from an Arthurian tale, but way more humor. And…
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Book ReviewsThe Gardener
by Sarah Stewart and David Small 38 pages / 1997 Rating: Good/GREAT/Give Lydia Grace Finch’s family has fallen on hard times. So their little girl…
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Book ReviewsThe Mysterious Benedict Society
by Trenton Lee Stewart 512 pages / 2008 Rating: Good/GREAT/Give Reynie Muldoon is an 11-year-old orphan who knows he is smart – he certainly reads…
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Book listsRecommended books on fear and anxiety
While our website has a growing number of articles on anxiety, space allows an article to say only so much. To help readers dig deeper,…
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Adult non-fictionWorship Matters
by Cornelis Van Dam 2021 / 327 pages The deeper I got into this book, the more I appreciated its simple title, Worship Matters. In this…
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Adult biographiesGospel Patrons: people whose generosity changed the world
by John Rinehart 2013 / 170 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give Are you a giant? Church history is full of such people. William Tyndale translated the Bible…
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Book ReviewsHostage Lands
by Douglas Bond 2006 / 235 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give “When am I ever going to use this?” It’s a question that comes up frequently in…
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Adult fictionWinterflight
by Joseph Bayly 1981 / 216 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give In this dystopian novel, Joseph Bayly takes us to a not-so-distant future in which abortion for…
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Book listsGreat books to give any grad
School is nearly done, and for some young men and women, this is the last classroom work they’ll be doing. But that doesn’t mean they…
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Adult non-fictionCounterfeit Gods
by Timothy Keller 2009 / 240 pages John Calvin once said, “The human heart is an idol factory. ” It makes sense that God’s prohibition of…
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Adult non-fictionHow in the world did we get here?
by Jim Witteveen 2022 / 183 pages Ten years back, anyone who’d said that cultural forces already in play would soon have our public schools…
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Adult non-fictionNotes from the Tilt-a-Whirl
Wide-Eyed Wonder in God’s Spoken World by N. D. Wilson 2009 / 203 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Gift The world is a wild ride, isn’t it? The…
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Book listsRediscovering Gordon Korman
Gordon Korman famously wrote his first book, This Can’t Be Happening at Macdonald Hall!, when he was twelve years old. By the time I was…
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Book ReviewsDaughters of God: Finding our identity in Him
by Christina Feenstra 2022 / 198 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give This workbook of six chapters is “a course to help young women find their value and self-worth…
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Adult fictionThe White Rose Resists: a novel of the German students who defied Hitler
by Amanda Barratt 2020 / 320 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give In Amanda Barratt’s novel The White Rose Resists, a candle is being lit in the midst of…
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Book ReviewsThe Murder of Abraham Lincoln
by Rick Geary 2005 / 80 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Gift Author and illustrator Rick Geary has created a series of graphic novels about Victorian-era murders. While I…
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Book ReviewsUrchin of the Riding Stars
by M.I. McAllister 2021 / 299 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give This was so good I just had to read bits of it out loud to my…
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Book ReviewsThe Always War
by Margaret Peterson Haddix 2011 / 197 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give When my 13-year-old got a gift certificate to the local bookstore, it was an excuse for…
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Adult non-fictionAnglo-Genevan Psalter in Four Part Harmony
compiled by Carl Oosterhoff 2022 / 241 pages Singing songs in harmony is a tradition going back to before the time of the Reformation. The…
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Adult biographiesThe Vow
by Kim and Krickitt Carpenter 2012 / 183 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give This is Exhibit #1 in why you should never judge a book by its movie….
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Adult biographiesThe secret thoughts of an unlikely convert
an english professor’s journey into christian faith by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield 2012 / 150 pages Rating: Good/Great/GIFT 13 words: Post-modern, lesbian activist, university English professor…
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Book ReviewsRisk is Right: Better to lose your life than to waste it
by John Piper 2013 / 51 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give How often do you take risks? If you’re anything like me, it’s not often. I like to…
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Adult non-fictionEconomics in One Lesson
by Henry Hazlitt 1946 / 193 pages Universal basic income, a four-day work week, and government-funded daycare are just a few big-ticket proposals that are…
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Adult fictionFather Brown and the Ten Commandments: Selected Mystery Stories
by G.K. Chesterton 2017 / 249 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give An heiress of a large fortune has fallen to her death, and suicide seems the obvious explanation….
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Adult biographiesA Promise Kept: the Story of an Unforgettable Love
by Robertson McQuilkin 2006 / 90 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give Robertson McQuilkin served as president of Columbia Bible College and Seminary in Columbia, South Carolina (now…
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Book ReviewsDon’t let the Pigeon drive the bus!
by Mo Willems 2003 / 40 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give Pigeon desperately wants to drive the bus. But the bus driver, who has to leave for…
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Book ReviewsHippopotamister
by John Patrick Green 88 pages / 2016 Rating: Good/Great/GIFT Hippopotamister isn’t strictly a comic or a picture book – it is as much the…
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Book ReviewsPoppy & Sam and the mole mystery (3 books)
by Cathon 2019 / 42 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Gift A little girl Poppy and her talking panda friend Sam are either very tiny, or they live in…
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Adult fictionThe Gospel Blimp (And Other Parables)
by Joe Bayly 2013 / 155 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give We all have people in our lives that we should share the Gospel with but we…
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Book listsMo Willems’ “Elephant & Piggie” (25 books)
From about three years old and up, my daughters and I have all loved Elephant and Piggie and their whole 25 book series. When I’d…
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Book ReviewsWho’s on First?
by Bud Abbott and Lou Costello illustrated by John Martz 40 pages / 2013 Rating: GOOD/Great/Give If you’ve ever seen the ol’ Abbott and Costello “Who’s…
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Adult non-fictionStrange New World
How thinkers and activists redefined identity and sparked the Sexual Revolution by Carl R. Trueman 2022 / 187 pages Just how strange is this new…
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Adult fictionSugar Birds
by Cheryl Grey Bostrom2021 / 328 Pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give This page-turner takes place in the Pacific Northwest, a little north of Seattle, and tells the story of two girls…
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Book ReviewsDo Hard Things: A teenage rebellion against low expectations
by Alex and Brett Harris 2008/ 241 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give Did you know that the term “teenager” has been around less than 100 years? It’s…
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Book ReviewsThe Charlatan’s Boy
by Jonathan Rogers 2010/ 305 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give I love love loved Jonathan Rogers’ Wilderking Trilogy, a children’s fantasy series that echoes the story of David…
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Book listsThe RP 52 in 22 challenge
If you’re a reader, there’s a good chance you have a stack of books somewhere that you’ve really been meaning to get to. But, what…
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Book ReviewsSnow Treasure
by Marie McSwigan 1942 / 196 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give In 1940, shortly after the Germans invaded Norway, a Norwegian freighter arrived in the US city of…
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Adult fictionThe Journey
A Spiritual Roadmap for Modern Pilgrims by Peter Kreeft 1996 / 128 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give This is an allegorical journey, reminiscent of John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s…
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Book listsVirginia Lee Burton: Queen of nostalgia
A mom reading Katy and the Big Snow to her daughters might remember her own parents reading the same book to her. Since they first came…
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Adult biographiesPrairie Lion: The Life & Times of Ted Byfield
by Jonathon Van Maren 2022 / 256 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give God works in history through people, some of whom have a particularly significant impact. In Canada,…
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Book ReviewsThe Revolt: a novel in Wycliffe’s England
by Douglas Bond 269 pages / 2016 Rating: Good/GREAT/Give I was never a fan of Church history in school, but I’ve come to realize that…
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Book lists130+ wordless wonders for creative kids, wanna-be readers, and reluctant ones too
If you can remember waaaay back to when you first learned to read, what probably sticks with you is that feeling of triumph. It takes…
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Book ReviewsIn the Hall of the Dragon King
by Stephen Lawhead 1982 / 370 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give This is an old-fashioned fantasy tale, with a loosely Christian underpinning. Quentin is a young man…
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Book ReviewsEncyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective
by Donald J. Sobol 1963 / 88 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give Idaville is a small town with an impressive record – no one, absolutely no one,…
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Adult biographiesGod’s Smuggler
by Brother Andrew Autobiography 1967 / 288 pages Rating: Good/Great/GIFT This is an amazing true story about God’s miraculous interventions to get Bibles to his…
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Adult non-fictionDoes God listen to Rap?
by Curtis Allen 2013 / 99 pages “Why wouldn’t He?” That’s the answer the author gives to his title question. Whether you agree or don’t…
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Adult fictionThe Last Disciple
by Sigmund Brouwer and Hank Hanegraaff 2004 / 428 pages Rating: Good/GREAT/Give It’s the year 65 AD, and Gallus Sergius Vitas is one of the…
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Adult fictionEvening Star
by Sigmund Brouwer 2000 / 317 pages Rating: GOOD/Great/Give Set on the 1870s American frontier, this might at first glance seem to be a Western. But…