Heaven is For Real

Heaven is For Real is another audio book that I received from Oasis Audio Books. I enjoyed this book immensely. It was interesting, moving, and challenged my faith, and I don't mean that in a trite way. The book chronicles the story of the Burpo family and the amazing events that surrounded their son's bout with appendicitis. Through a series of medical misdiagnoses, their son Colton nearly died from a ruptured appendix, and then miraculously recovered. Not long after the events, he started talking about his visit to heaven and the things he experienced there. This book challenged me on my beliefs about heaven, and I felt renewed and encouraged after listening to it.

Todd Burpo, Colton's father,  reads the book that he, along with his family,  wrote about the events. It was incredibly touching to  hear a father recount the story of nearly losing his son, and then the amazing world that was opened up to him after Colton recovered. It made the book extremely personal to be able to hear the story read by someone who experienced the events. The chapters are not overly long, and the book is engaging and draws you in.

I highly, highly recommend this book. Read, or purchase it on audio and listen to it. It's one of the best books I've read in a while. :-)

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this audiobook free from Oasis Audio as part of their Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

On Our Bookshelf: Created to Be His Help Meet

Another one of the books that I've found really helpful in marriage is this book Created to Be His Help Meet. It's written by Debi Pearl who, with her husband, founded No Greater Joy ministries. This is definitely one of those books that you need to take with a grain of salt. I don't agree with everything that Mrs. Pearl says in this book, but there is a lot of wisdom in it.



My biggest takeaway from this book is that being a wife, a loving, dedicated wife, is a good thing. There is an attitude today that by getting married, a woman is selling herself short. That she is somehow giving up any potential she may have of being someone by choosing to get married. I'm not going to get into my entire opinion on this subject, but let me just say that since getting married I have started my own business, quit my boring day job and have more friends than I know what to do with. Anyways, this book explores the many ways that being a wife is blessing.

One of the other really helpful things I found in this book was Mrs. Pearl's breakdown on the three types of men. There are leaders, visionaries, and steady committed men. Some husbands fall into one category only. Some, like mine, are a blend of all three. She delves into the characteristics of each type of man, and gives good advice on how to be the best wife you can be to your husband, however he is.

Mrs Pearl also really advocates that a wife, and a wife that stays home, become the mistress of her castle. She talks about learning to do simple things like repair something the is broken, keeping up with the yard, taking out the garbage, etc. These are little things that are, culturally, a man's domain, but when the wife does them, the final product means that they have more time together. This has been really helpful for me in our relationship.

One note of caution. As I said, this book needs to be read with an open and critical mind. Mrs. Pearl gives a few extreme examples that, taken out of context, could be used to say that she advocates staying in an abusive relationship, or allowing your husband to treat you like garbage. I don't believe that she was saying that, but I think it could definitely be taken that way, if you read the book without wisdom.

So there's another book that I've really enjoyed and learned a lot from. If you've read it, I'd love to hear what you thought of the book.

Buy this book on Amazon. :-)

P.S. I recently changed my commenting system to Disqus, so that you are automatically sent an email when I reply to your comment. You need to register the first time you comment now (even if you've commented before - sorry!) and the form comes up in a pop-up window, so you may need to disable a popup blocker. I'm hoping this works out so that we can be more connected, so any inconvenience will be worth it! :-)

Pearl Buck in China

I recently signed up for a review program for audio books, and the first one I received was Pearl Buck in China. I have to say, I really enjoyed listening to this biography of an early 20th century missionary daughter who became a famous fiction writer later on in life. Although I came to understand that Pearl Buck's life is quite famous, I had never heard of her, nor had I read any of her books.  So I really enjoyed the opportunity to learn about her life, and the events that shaped her vision of life and ultimately led to her writing some of the most influential books about China of the early 20th century, including The Good Earth.

I think that one of the reasons I enjoyed this book was because I too grew up on the mission field, although not in Asia! I found Pearl's life very interesting, as she dealt with the strangeness of being American in China, and being not quite American in America. She struggled all her life with fitting in, with only a brief period in her teen years where she was popular and content. Later in life, once her books made her famous, she was in high demand, but always struggled with relating to the society she was writing for.  She experienced so much sadness and loss in her life, but all of these things shaped her into the writer she was destined to become, and her books have touched people for decades.

The audio book itself is very well done. It is broken into chapters, each averaging about an hour to and hour and a half. The author, Hilary Spurling, does an excellent job reading the book, speaking in a very clear, unhurried manner that makes it easy to understand. At times her British accent is a bit distracting, as the pronunciation of a few words is so completely different from American pronunciations, but overall I had no trouble understanding her. The biography is well written and well researched, and was a very interesting "read!"

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this audiobook free from Oasis Audio as part of their Review Program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.