One of Reacher's best

Personal: A Jack Reacher Novel
by Lee Child
Random House Publishing Group - Bantam Dell

The Reacher series is the best out there for readers who enjoy contemporary, realistic suspense fiction.  This book may be the best in the series. And this review will fail to communicate just how good a read it is.

What's different about this book
If the reader isn't familiar with the Jack Reacher persona, this story (19th in the series) will be a great introduction.  If the reader has read all of the Reacher novels (or only some), this will be a great follow-up.  The story line and character development extend our understanding of who Reacher is and how he rolls.  It makes for such a great, fun read!  By the end of the book, we are more aware than ever of just how smart he is, how strategically he understands situations and people, and how fun it is to read this series.  There are many series where, by #19, we are left wanting more.

What I'll do now that I've read it
For libraries where I influence purchases, and for my friends who savor an engaging read, copies will be made available.  I am excited to be able to share this with my friends and patrons, both those who already know Reacher and Lee Childs, and those who have yet to experience the pleasure.  

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The Bible's Yes to Same-Sex Marriage
by Mark Achtemeier
Publisher Westminster John Knox Press
June 2014

I share the author's concern about broad-spread hostility towards others.  As he articulates, we all bear the fallenness of sin.  We do so first because we are sinful and then because we live sinfully.  I hoped for a true Biblical response that would provide fresh avenues of grace for us to live in shalom. 

Instead, the author presents personal stories of hostility and bias in the lives of practicing homosexuals.  He demonstrates significant empathy and compassion for those individuals.  The author also presents the classic Biblical injunctions against homosexuality but avoids Biblical exposition that would argue against the traditional stance.  Ultimately, for the author, the book's argument holds human reason as superior to Biblical truth.

What's different about this book
All sinners face the problem of their individuality being conflated with the evil of their sin.  The author writes with clear compassion shown for those affected by judgment and hostility against the sinner, when our focus should be on the sin -- in a spirit of love for the individual.

What I'll do now that I've read it
I remind myself that the appearance of words such as evangelical and Bible and heart do not themselves signify a powerful or Godly message:  It is still the content in the message that counts.  And once again, we readers are told that our own logic and reasoning should be the authority by which we seek to offset generations and centuries of hostility confusing the sinner with the sin.  Unfortunately, nothing new here.

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