Memorable Monday # 7

Happy Monday! The point of Memorable Monday is to showcase a book that you read in the past and share why/how the book has stuck with you.

Since Halloween is Thursday I thought I'd feature This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti.

I read this book in the fall of 1990 with our Sunday School class. It was a completely different book than I anticipated reading. It deals with spiritual warfare and in such a real way that it has stayed with me all these years. As a believer I am clearly aware that both angels and demons exist. Christ talks about it several times in the gospels and satan is a fallen angel allowing his pride to get the better of him. Within the 376 pages of this book Frank Peretti creates a world where demons are attempting to take over this little town and the people of the town are not using the power that God gave them to defeat the evil. You see, God gave us this weapon called prayer and when we engage it the demons flee and the angels take over. It's literally a battle waged in the heavenly realm. It may sound really far fetched but believe me we have angels all around us doing or waiting to do battle on our behalf. 

Since reading this book I have never looked at prayer the same way again. I know that when I pray for someone I am unleashing God's mighty angel's onto the scene. I can still picture the angel on the top of a car in one of the scenes in this book. 

About the book:

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places."
Ephesians 6:12

Ashton is just a typical small town. But when a skeptical reporter and a prayerful, hardworking pastor begin to investigate mysterious events, they suddenly find themselves caught up in a hideous New Age plot to enslave the townspeople, and eventually the entire human race. The physical world meets the spiritual realm as the battle rages between forces of good and evil.

This Present Darkness is a gripping story that brings keen insight into spiritual warfare and the necessity of prayer. 

About Frank Peretti: 

With more than 12 million novels in print, Frank Peretti is nothing short of a publishing phenomenon and has been called “America’s hottest Christian novelist.”

Peretti is a natural storyteller who, as a youngster in Seattle, regularly gathered the neighborhood children for animated storytelling sessions. After graduating from high school, he began playing banjo with a local bluegrass group. He and his wife were married in 1972, and Peretti soon moved from touring with a pop band to launching a modest Christian music ministry. Peretti later spent time studying English, screen writing and film at UCLA and then assisted his father in pastoring a small Assembly of God church. In 1983, he gave up his pastoring position and began taking construction jobs to make ends meet. While working at a local ski factory, he began writing This Present Darkness, the book that would catapult him into the public eye. After numerous rejections from publishers and a slow start in sales, word-of-mouth enthusiasm finally lifted This Present Darkness onto a tidal wave of interest in spiritual warfare. The book appeared on Bookstore Journal’s bestseller list every month for more than eight years. Peretti’s two spiritual warfare novels, This Present Darkness (1998) and Piercing the Darkness (1989), captivated readers, together selling more than 3.5 million copies. The Oath was awarded the 1996 Gold Medallion Award for best fiction.

For kids, Peretti wrote The Cooper Kids Adventure Series (Crossways and Tommy Nelson), which remains a best-selling series for children with sales exceeding 1 million copies. In August 2000, Peretti released the hilarious children’s audiocassette series titled Wild and Wacky Totally True Bible Stories, reprising his role as Mr. Henry, the offbeat substitute Sunday School teacher found in two Visual Bible for Kids videos.

Peretti released his first-ever non-fiction book, The Wounded Spirit in 2000, which quickly became a best-seller. The book addresses the pain of “wounded spirits” and was written as a result of painful childhood experiences.

Frank Peretti and his wife, Barbara Jean, live in the Western U.S. In spite of sudden fame and notoriety, Frank still lives a simple, well-rounded life that includes carpentry, banjo making, sculpturing, bicycling and hiking. He is also an avid pilot.

Visit his author's page at his publisher's HERE. 

Mr. Peretti seems to be one of the few people that is free from the chains of the internet because I was not able to find a website, Facebook, or Twitter. At least active ones. 


Now, it's your turn . . .

What book is most memorable to you? Let me know in the comments. 

Memorable Monday #5

Happy Monday! The point of Memorable Monday is to showcase a book that you read in the past and share why/how the book has stuck with you.

This week I am featuring A Passion Most Pure by Julie Lessman. If you've followed my blog for any length of time you know that this book has a special place in my heart. It was Ms. Lessman's debut and I think it was one of the first debut's I read as a new blogger. When I read this book I was in the beginning stages of my divorce and this book rocked me to my core. While it's not a book about divorce it is a book about both romantic passion and a passion for God. 

I had conjured this notion in my head that since my husband had committed adultery and broke our wedding vows and even though we weren't legally divorced I was free to do whatever I wanted romantically speaking. He was the one that wronged me, right?! 

Well, God had different plans! He used this book to show me that I wasn't, and that my vows meant something to Him and were important to Him. And whether I remarried or not He called me to stay pure PERIOD! 

She's found the love of her life. Unfortunately, he loves her sister ...

As World War I rages across the Atlantic in 1916, a smaller war is brewing in Boston. Faith O’Connor finds herself drawn to an Irish rogue who is anything but right for her. Collin McGuire is brash, cocky, and from the wrong side of the tracks, not to mention forbidden by her father. And then there’s the small matter that he is secretly courting her younger sister. But when Collin’s affections suddenly shift her way, it threatens to tear Faith's proper Boston family apart.

Refusing to settle for anything less than a romantic relationship that pleases God, Faith O'Connor steels her heart against her desire for the roguish Collin McGuire. Collin is trying to win her sister Charity's hand, and Faith isn't sure she can handle the jealousy she feels. Full of passion, romance, rivalry, and betrayal, A Passion Most Pure is Book 1 of the Daughters of Boston series.

                                                      About Julie Lessman:

Julie Lessman is an award-winning author whose tagline of “Passion With a Purpose” underscores her intense passion for both God and romance. Winner of the 2009 ACFW Debut Author of the Year and Holt Medallion Awards of Merit for Best First Book and Long Inspirational, Julie is also the recipient of 14 Romance Writers of America awards and was voted by readers as “Borders Best of 2009 So Far: Your Favorite Fiction.”

Chosen as the #1 Romance Fiction Author of the Year in the Family Fiction magazine 2012 and 2011 Readers Choice Awards, Julie was also awarded #1 Historical Fiction Author of the Year in that same poll and #3 Author of the Year, #4 Novel of the Year and #3 Series of the year. She resides in Missouri with her husband, daughter, son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter and is the author of “The Daughters of Boston” series—A Passion Most Pure, A Passion Redeemed, and A Passion Denied. Book 1 in her “Winds of Change” series A Hope Undaunted ranked #5 on Booklist’s Top 10 Inspirational Fiction for 2010.

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NOW, IT'S YOUR TURN . . .

  What book is memorable to you? Let me know in the comments!

Memorable Monday #4

Happy Monday! The point of Memorable Monday is to showcase a book that you read in the past and share why/how the book has stuck with you.


There are so many books that have touched me over the years that it's really hard to choose one each week. I honestly haven't thought about this book in years! I read it in 1999 when it was released. My copy was in tatters and had loads of tear stains throughout the book. I was a mom of girls and my oldest had just turned twelve. The entire time I read this book I kept thinking about my girls and what I'd do if I was the mom going through this situation. The one thing that Jodi Picoult is great at is making you feel what the character is feeling. Character driven stories are my favorite kind and this one is a great one of Ms. Picoult's to start with if you haven't read it.

For eighteen years the Hartes and the Golds have lived next door to each other, sharing everything from Chinese food to chicken pox to carpool duty-- they've grown so close it seems they have always been a part of each other's lives. Parents and children alike have been best friends, so it's no surprise that in high school Chris and Emily's friendship blossoms into something more. They've been soul mates since they were born.
So when midnight calls from the hospital come in, no one is ready for the appalling truth: Emily is dead at seventeen from a gunshot wound to the head. There's a single unspent bullet in the gun that Chris took from his father's cabinet-- a bullet that Chris tells police he intended for himself. But a local detective has doubts about the suicide pact that Chris has described.

About Jodi Picoult:

Jodi Picoult is the author of twenty-four novels, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers Small Great Things, Leaving Time, The Storyteller, Lone Wolf, Between the Lines, Sing You Home, House Rules, Handle with Care, Change of Heart, Nineteen Minutes, and My Sister’s Keeper. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and three children.

You can check out Jodi Picoult at her website. 

Now it's your turn . . . what's your most memorable book? Let me know in the comments.

Memorable Monday # 3

Happy Monday. The point of Memorable Monday is to showcase a book that you read in the past and share why/how the book has stuck with you.


Today, I am featuring 

In 1942, with the Nazis occupying Holland, a thirteen-year-old Jewish girl and her family fled their home in Amsterdam and went into hiding. For the next two years, until their whereabouts were betrayed to the Gestapo, the Franks and another family lived cloistered in the “Secret Annexe” of an old office building. Cut off from the outside world, they faced hunger, boredom, the constant cruelties of living in confined quarters, and the ever-present threat of discovery and death. In her diary Anne Frank recorded vivid impressions of her experiences during this period. By turns thoughtful, moving, and surprisingly humorous, her account offers a fascinating commentary on human courage and frailty and a compelling self-portrait of a sensitive and spirited young woman whose promise was tragically cut short.

Discovered in the attic in which she spent the last years of her life, Anne Frank’s remarkable diary has become a world classic—a powerful reminder of the horrors of war and an eloquent testament to the human spirit.

I was around ten years old when my Dad brought home a copy of Anne Frank's book The Diary of a Young Girl. I am sure I had studied WWII, the Nazi's, and Holocaust in school but this book brought that time period to life in a real way. I remember crying myself to sleep and having nightmare's. I believe this book is what gave me not only my love of history but historical fiction.


Now, it's your turn. What book is memorable to you? Let me know in the comments!

Memorable Monday # 2 - Featuring The Memoir of Johnny Devine

I'm once again joining my friend Becca of The Becca Files  for Memorable Monday. This week I'm featuring The Memoir of Johnny Devine by Camille Eide.

A historical romance with a Hollywood screen actor twist? Yes, please! I grew up watching old movies with my mom and so this book was like a Hollywood movie come to life. I felt like I was a little girl sitting on our couch in my pajamas watching a movie on a Saturday afternoon, one of my favorite memories.


ABOUT THE BOOK: 

Love can’t rewrite the pages of one’s past, but it can cover a multitude of sins---one page at a time.

A WW2 widow hired to write an exclusive memoir lands on McCarthy’s hit list and must clear her name while trying not to fall in love with the born-again, ex-Hollywood heartthrob whose scandalous past keeps him too busy to notice her. Or does it?

In 1953, desperation forces young war widow Eliza Saunderson to take a job writing the memoir of ex-Hollywood heartthrob Johnny Devine. Rumor has it Johnny can seduce anything in a skirt quicker than he can hail a cab. But now the notorious womanizer claims he’s been born again. Eliza soon finds herself falling for the humble, grace-filled man John has become—a man who shows no sign of returning her feelings. No sign, that is, until she discovers something John never meant for her to see.


When Eliza’s articles on minority oppression land her on McCarthy’s Communist hit list, John and Eliza become entangled in an investigation that threatens both his book and her future. To clear her name, Eliza must solve a family mystery. Plus, she needs to convince John that real love—not the Hollywood illusion—can forgive a sordid past. Just when the hope of love becomes reality, a troubling discovery confirms Eliza’s worst fears. Like the happy façade many Americans cling to, had it all been empty lies? Is there a love she can truly believe in?

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NOW IT'S YOUR TURN. . . What book is memorable to you? Tell me in the comments!

Memorable Monday # 1

I am joining my friend Becca of The Becca Files for Memorable Mondays, which is a weekly meme featuring a book that you read in the past and share why/how it stuck with you. 

For my first week I am featuring. . .

If you've followed my blog for any length of time you know that I am not a fan of self help/non-fiction books. However, when I read this book the first time in 2009, I was a hot mess both emotionally and physically. I did the study for this book with other singles whose marriages had just ended and were also emotionally drained. In reading this book I found that boundaries are important. So important this book should be read when we exit the womb. I had never learned how to place boundaries with those that I love and love me, nor did I know what a healthy boundary was. Learning those things taught me how to manage my relationships with my children, parents and other relatives. As well as those with my friends. I also learned what a toxic relationship looked like and what to do with toxic people.
This book with it's biblical background was a middle-aged life changer. I can't recommend it enough.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

Having clear boundaries is essential to a healthy, balanced lifestyle. A boundary is a personal property line that marks those things for which we are responsible. In other words, boundaries define who we are and who we are not. Boundaries impact all areas of our lives: Physical boundaries help us determine who may touch us and under what circumstances -- Mental boundaries give us the freedom to have our own thoughts and opinions -- Emotional boundaries help us to deal with our own emotions and disengage from the harmful, manipulative emotions of others -- Spiritual boundaries help us to distinguish God's will from our own and give us renewed awe for our Creator -- Often, Christians focus so much on being loving and unselfish that they forget their own limits and limitations. When confronted with their lack of boundaries, they ask: - Can I set limits and still be a loving person? - What are legitimate boundaries? - What if someone is upset or hurt by my boundaries? - How do I answer someone who wants my time, love, energy, or money? - Aren't boundaries selfish? - Why do I feel guilty or afraid when I consider setting boundaries? Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend offer biblically-based answers to these and other tough questions, showing us how to set healthy boundaries with our parents, spouses, children, friends, co-workers, and even ourselves. 

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN . . . What book is memorable to you?