Posted February 4, 2015 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments
Seeker by
Arwen Elys Dayton Series: Seeker #1 Publisher: Random House (2015)
eARC (448 pages)
Via: NetGalley Rating: Reading Challenges: 2015 Alphabet Soup,
Read 2015 Synopsis
Quin Kincaid has been put through years of brutal training for what she thinks is the noble purpose of becoming a revered ‘Seeker’.
Only when it’s too late does she discover she will be using her new-found knowledge and training to become an assassin. Quin’s new role will take her around the globe, from a remote estate in Scotland to a bustling, futuristic Hong Kong where the past she thought she had escaped will finally catch up with her.
Find the book: Goodreads
Read More
Tagged as 3 star, Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge, NetGalley, Read 2015, You Read How Many Books Challenge
Posted January 29, 2015 in Faith, Reading, Review / 0 Comments
My Sisters the Saints by
Colleen Carroll Campbell Publisher: Image (2012)
eARC (224 pages)
Via: NetGalley Rating: Reading Challenges: 2015 Alphabet Soup,
2015 What's In A Name?,
Read 2015 Synopsis
In My Sisters the Saints, author Colleen Carroll Campbell blends her personal narrative of spiritual seeking, trials, stumbles, and breakthroughs with the stories of six women saints who profoundly changed her life: Teresa of Avila, Therese of Lisieux, Faustina of Poland, Edith Stein of Germany, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and Mary of Nazareth. Drawing upon the rich writings and examples of these extraordinary women, the author reveals Christianity's liberating power for women and the relevance of the saints to the lives of contemporary Christians.
Find the book: Goodreads, Amazon, Book Depository
Read More
Tagged as 5 star, All Time Favorites, Catholic, Catholic Book, NetGalley, Read 2015
Posted January 22, 2015 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments
Ancient Christian Worship by
Andrew B McGowan Publisher: Baker Academic (2014)
eARC (320 pages)
Via: NetGalley Rating: Reading Challenges: 2015 Alphabet Soup,
Read 2015 Synopsis
This introduction to the origins of Christian worship illuminates the importance of ancient Christian worship practices for contemporary Christianity. Andrew McGowan, a leading scholar of early Christian liturgy, takes a fresh approach to understanding how Christians came to worship in the distinctive forms still familiar today. Deftly and expertly processing the bewildering complexity of the ancient sources into lucid, fluent exposition, he sets aside common misperceptions to explore the roots of Christian ritual practices–including the Eucharist, baptism, communal prayer, preaching, Scripture reading, and music–in their earliest recoverable settings. Students of Christian worship and theology as well as pastors and church leaders will value this work.
Find the book: Goodreads, Amazon, Book Depository
Read More
Tagged as 4 star, Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge, NetGalley, Read 2015, You Read How Many Books Challenge
Posted January 21, 2015 in Faith, Reading, Review / 0 Comments
A Book of Uncommon Prayer by
Brian Doyle Publisher: Ave Maria Press (2014)
eARC (128 pages)
Via: NetGalley Rating: Reading Challenges: 2015 Alphabet Soup,
Read 2015 Synopsis
Acclaimed, award-winning essayist and novelist Brian Doyle—whose writing, in the words of Mary Oliver, is “a gift to us all”—presents one hundred new prayers that evoke his deep Catholic belief in the mystery and miracle of the ordinary (and the whimsical) in human life.
In Brian Doyle’s newest work, A Book of Uncommon Prayer: 100 Celebrations of the Miracle & Muddle of the Ordinary, his readers will find a series of prayers unlike any of the beautiful, formal, orthodox prayers of the Catholic tradition or the warm, extemporized prayers heard from pulpits and dinner tables. Doyle’s often-dazzling, always-poignant prayers include eye-opening hymns to shoes and faith and family. In Doyle’s words, “the world is crammed with miracles, so crammed and tumultuous that if we stop, see, savor, we are agog,” and the pages of his newest book give voice and body to this credo. By focusing on experiences that may seem the most unprayerful (one prayer is titled “Prayer on Seeing Yet Another Egregious Parade of Muddy Paw Prints on the Floor”), he gives permission to discover the joys and treasures in what he often calls the muddle of everyday life.
Find the book: Goodreads, Amazon, Book Depository
Read More
Tagged as 5 star, Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge, Catholic, Catholic Book, NetGalley, Read 2015, You Read How Many Books Challenge
Posted January 16, 2015 in Reading, Review / 2 Comments
The Web by
Megan Chance Series: The Fianna Trilogy #2 Publisher: Skyscape (2015)
eARC (384 pages)
Via: NetGalley Rating: Reading Challenges: 2015 Alphabet Soup,
2015 Mythology,
Read 2015 Synopsis
The Fianna, legendary Irish warriors, have been magically called from their undying sleep to aid Ireland in its rebellion against Britain. But the Fianna have awakened in New York alongside their bitter enemies, the Fomori. A prophecy demands that a Druid priestess—a veleda—must choose between these two sides. Grace is this veleda.
But being the veleda means she must sacrifice her power—and her life—to her choice. On one side are her fiancé, Patrick Devlin, and the Fomori. On the other are the Fianna—and the warrior Diarmid Ua Duibhne, with whom Grace shares an undeniable connection. Patrick has promised to find a way to save her life. In three months, at the ancient ritual, Diarmid must wield the knife that kills her.
Grace doesn’t know whom to trust. As dark forces converge on the city, she struggles to discover the truth about her power. Can she change her own destiny? Can she escape the shadows of the past and reach for a future she could never have imagined?
Find the book: Goodreads, Amazon, Book Depository
Read More
Tagged as 5 star, Alphabet Soup Reading Challenge, Mythology Reading Challenge, NetGalley, Read 2015, You Read How Many Books Challenge
