old school reformation turned new school?

Can't say that I like to make a habit out of reading books that challenge me. I lean more towards the light and fluffy - the simple mind type, really. Religion is not simple, it is not light or fluffy, so why did I start reading James R. Payton Jr.'s Getting the Reformation Wrong? I have no idea - but I'm not mad about it.

First off, our friend Payton is not trying to tell us that the Reformation was wrong, he would just like to take this opportunity to clear up a few things. The Reformation was pretty messy - it was pretty sweet too, but the Reformers disagreed a lot, so it was more messy than sweet at the time. Payton wants to clear up some misunderstandings of the time period, and show us how the Reformation can positively affect our churches today - if used correctly of course.

This topic would easily bore me to tears, but Payton doesn't. It's all about perspective, and Payton gave me a bit of a different view.

plane prayers.

I recently traveled to Europe this summer. By recently, I mean I returned about a week ago, so very recently. It was my first time on an international flight. I do not typically get nervous on planes, because I travel by air so often, but being on a plane for over eight hours at a time is rather nerve-wracking.

Okay, I can't lie to you and say I was actually nervous, because I wasn't. Not about the plane ride anyway. They had me all hooked up with TV/Movie on demand. But for those of you who DO get nervous traveling by plane, or traveling in general, I highly recommend Traveling Graces to ease your troubled minds.

Agnes Cunningham created a handy little book of prayers. There is a prayer for the take-off, one for the flight attendants and the cock pit. This book will make a lovely gift if you know someone who is traveling for the first time, there is a prayer specifically for them. If you get freaked out easily, or even if you handle planes rides perfectly fine, saying a little prayer will only make you and those around you, more relaxed.

So sit back and enjoy your flight.

your body is a wonderland.

We like women who are real. We like hearing the good, bad and ugly of their lives. Even better than that? A Christian woman who is real. Insert Margot Starbuck, author of the hilarious paperback, Unsqueezed. A book about accepting the body and the beauty that God gave you and letting go of society's (and your) obsession to be perfect.

I do believe that Christian women have a real difficulty with perfection. They want to be good influences on others, and they assume this means that they're lives and bodies need to appear to be perfect. Wrong. Non-Christians can relate in more ways to a woman who seems real; with relationships and a body that is realistic, rather than a woman who appears to have everything in place.

Margot's book revolves around our body issues. What are bodies for? They were not designed by God to be on the covers of magazines. She reiterates that our bodies were create to love and be loved, by a Heavenly Father who adored us enough to take on a human form - in all its glory and unglory. Think about it.

**To win a copy of this book e-mail your name, address and this book title to: jenileerose@yahoo.com!

out of this world.

Schemes. They are the basis for many novels. The scheming- the schemed - those who are trying to catch the schemers. In Tim Downs' latest novel, Wonders Never Cease the scheme comes in the form of main character Kemp McAvoy.

Kemp is a night nurse to a once happening celeberty named Olivia Hayden. The beautiful actress was in a car accident and is now in a drug induced coma. Kemp's scheme - or as he would call it, brilliant plan? To go to Olivia as an angel giving her messages, while little by little waking her from her comotuse slumber. Her agent is in on it as well. They want her to wake up not only believing that angels are real, but that they spoke to her. Her story will become a bestseller, and Kemp will make millions.

Meanwhile, Kemp's girlfriend Natalie (who is also a night nurse at the hospital) is dealing with her daughter Leah's crazy claims that she's been seeing angels. Odd right? Odd enough to make you pick up a copy of this book? That's what Downs' is counting on. It gets even more odd when the "angel messages" Olivia tells begin to differ from Kemp's script.

not your typical christian fiction.

No one has a perfect past. Everyone has skeletons in their closets, some scarier than others, but they're still there, haunting us. Our heroine, Jasmine Bush, in the novel Sins of the Mother, is a stripper turned preachers wife. Making your past look pretty innocent, hm? You may already know Jasmine's story, author Victoria Christopher Murray has written four other novels about her life. There are many facets of this character - but in a lot of ways she is relate able. It's her temptations that bring her down, we all have a few of those hanging around.

In this story Jasmine has appeared to really have her act together. She hasn't done anything terrible or slutty in a long time. She is married to Rev. Hosea Bush, pastor of one of the largest churches in NYC. Things are looking up for our girl Jasmine, right? Think again. Her daughter Jacqueline is kidnapped on Black Friday and the search goes on for weeks. Jasmine starts to wonder why? Why? Because, getting your life together does not take you off the tragedy list.

Murray definitely leaves you questioning Jasmine throughout the book. It's a really good story - filled with just enough drama to keep you interested until the last page.

romantic, thrilling, & fast paced.

Boy meets girl, boy marries girl, girl dies and her look-a-like returns to boy three years later. It may sound kind of crazy, but if this doesn't spark your interest, then you are simply uninteresting.

Forget Me Not, by Vicki Hinze is a suspenseful Christan fiction novel that will not disappoint. The boy is Benjamin Brandt, the girl - Susan, his wife who died three years ago. The look-a-like? She awakes in the woods, beaten from a car jacking with no memory. After she is found and taken to Crossroads Crisis Center she notices a picture of the founder, a woman, named Susan Brandt. I am assuming you know why I call her look-a-like; it's because she looks exactly like Susan - enough alike that she actually thinks that she actually IS Susan. But that's impossible, because Susan was murdered.

Who is this mysterious woman? What will Benjamin think when he meets her? You will devour these pages, and be left extremely satisfied. Promise.

teenage christian fiction.

Daisy Crispin is a pretty typical seventeen-year-old girl. She goes to a Christian high school, is quite the perfectionist, and more than anything, she wants the boy she likes to ask her to prom. She is typical until you see her homemade clothes, designed by her old fashioned mother and meet her over protective father dressed in his pirate costume.

Let me explain, Daisy's parents are hardcore Jesus freaks. They do not believe in dating, (which they call courting - pretty 1900 if you ask me) until you are at marrying age, which they do not believe Daisy is, of course. The pirate costume is the result of her dad's job as an entertainer. The kid's birthday party type of entertainer - nothing about Daisy's life is cool.

Daisy wants so badly to go to prom. She has made a list of the boys she would like to be asked by. Number one on her list is Chase, who she has known since kindergarten. Throughout the story from the beginning of the school year until prom, Daisy makes some major changes in her status at school, and her relationship with her parents. Some good, some bad, okay...mostly bad. You cannot help but be entertained by Daisy's sarcastic narrating, and her crazy best friend Claire.

Perfectly Dateless, by Kristen Billerbeck (one of my favorite authors), is a great book for you soon-to-be seniors in high school who are desperately trying to fit in.