Tom L
The narrators were excellent, and the story incredibly engaging. This is an incredibly funny book that has a pretty deep, dark storyline. We really get to understand why the targets need to be deleted, and have our own dislike for each of them.
This book changed the way I look at small groups and the definition of spiritual growth. Our church is focused on working people down a path where they deepen their faith in God through attending more intimate community relationships, from public gatherings through community events and into personal small group relationships. [author: Joe Myers] has me thinking completely differently about that.
Joe describes the four levels of space people move through in different settings. He describes in detail and with examples each of the spaces (Public, Social, Personal and Intimate).
He comes up with a calculation where, for every 1 intimate friend you have, you'll have two personal friends, four social friends and 8 public friends. While this can't be a hard and true calculation, it helps define the number of people involved at different levels and shows that we shouldn't be trying to force people into personal friendships or intimate relationships with each-other, or even God.
The stories in between the descriptions are good and engaging. I did find it distracting to read the different quotes in the middle of text, sometimes breaking apart a thought that I'm trying to understand. It was especially distracting since these quotes are on about every other page in the book.
Overall this was a great book. Our youth leadership consultant also referenced this book in his youth leadership training for our church. If you have any responsibility in defining community or the path people take in their spiritual growth, it's a must-read.
The audio movie nature was great, and I'm sure this is perfect for someone into anime or mecha, but it felt incredibly shallow, and every personality was two dimensional and obvious how the story would go from their initial introduction.
Great if you're looking for a Comic Book for your ears.
This book has been great at getting me to rethink how to prepare talks and add stories to the mix. I wish there had been some more practical examples based on specific bible passages or examples which can be used within a specific talk.
That being said, the book has really gotten me to rethink the bible stories and figure out how to make them feel real to people. How to get a group of teens or adults to experience that they are a part of the story.
The example that continues to stay on my mind is bringing teens together to re-enact the Jesus story by blindfolding everyone for an entire evening until they find a Jesus character who saves them.
Contrived to follow all the same characters, and come close to closing the storylines. Like all the books, every book ends in a cliffhanger for each character with no closure for any of them.
The biggest difference in this story is that three were far fewer ‘he knew his life was at an end, and just before the killing blow X jumped in and saved him' moments.
Almost a group of many short stories blending together into a wider narrative. The characters are flawed, but I found myself loving each on them (with one exception of a 2 dimensional character).
I loved the story and dense world building creating a universe mixing gods and humans where magic is secondary. I started thinking this was a fantasy set during a Renaissance period, and surprised a bit when trains and guns loosely came into play.
The entire book is engrossing, and I'm impatiently waiting for the sequel.
There was so much focus on messed up relationships, and no discussion on how the characters were redeemed or forgiven. Just felt like it was a book about nothing so much as how awful adult men are.
This book was very well written and an easy, quick read. The focus is on people relatively new to faith who are trying to create good journaling habits. While it may work well for some people, I can't say that it changed anything in my faith life.
Much more interesting than expected, especially around some ideas on how to relate with others who seem to be different.
I've read through many different study bibles in my work as a youth minister. I haven't found any to be easier to understand or have more useful information than the Life Application Study Bibles. The NIV version works well as it tracks with the Episcopal denomination, to which I belong. In general the commentary does a great job giving very useful information right on the page regarding the historical activities going on during the time of the verse being referenced.
I bought this book thinking I would reference it often to get an understanding about the practical realities going on during certain passages of the bible. I've found that I rarely use the concordances and haven't found any of them indispensable.
I purchased this book for as I looked around trying to find a good study bible which teens would enjoy reading. I had thought this would be perfect, but most of the additional information is either too short or not very interesting. In the end it never ended up on the shelves of our youth group room.
I loved the book, though wish the ending wasn't left on a cliffhanger. But the ideas of renewable power and a world used to handling outages together and forming families of friendship bonds is great.
Overall an incredibly hopeful book, with some mystery involved.
Really enjoyed the story. The back had me thinking this would be some history with primarily a current time line, but it's the opposite. I definitely still questioned the mystery up to the end, and Loved the resolution arc.
Another book in the series that is incredibly short and ends without any real closure. But still a great read and the characters are incredibly engaging.
Incredibly engaging book. I especially appreciated the linear storytelling that helped me keep straight all of the characters and places. I was originally nervous when it mentioned maps and names as a separate pdf, but none of it was needed. The storytelling is just incredible.
I can't wait for the next book.
I purchased this book with the hope that it could give me some ideas and illustrations for talks during our youth group meetings.
The book is full of great stories, some long and others short. I'm reminded of [book: Chicken Soup for the Soul] in a lot of cases. It even includes sections with each story to flag when I used it so that I don't go retelling the same story over and over.
Unfortunately I've found that I do better with examples and stories from my own life, the life of people hearing the talk or stories from the news in the past two weeks. While having these stories may work for some people, I had a hard time using them and feeling that they made a real impact on the listener.
Another great, fast edition to the series. These really could have been one longer. Tome, singe you can't read any of them independently.
Great having 4 separate stories going along, with berry different characters and classes.
Great start to a series, while still feeling self contained. The solution to the primary issue is far more out of the box than I could come up with.
This went all over my emotional spectrum, and I'm still not positive how I feel about the protagonist. But it got me thinking, and really moved me emotionally. I can't recommend the book enough.
This was a fun beginning to a cozy mystery series. It's pretty clear where things were going, though I was certainly surprised by the final antagonists and how some people were involved in the overall scheme.
I'll definitely get the second book in the series, though probably through Hoopla, the same way I got the first book.
Great, upbeat read. I wasn't in the mood for another romance, but really was ready for something happy. Home From Home showed up, and I was immediately drawn in. There are quite a few different characters, all of whom have a rich back story and are provided in absorbing bits.