Joel Osteen: It's Your Time

I am not a huge fan of the feel good Christianity. While it is nice to here that “God loves you and he wants you to be happy” or “God wants you to have financial success” things like that are not biblically based. Now, I am not a fire and brimstone sermon-loving girl, but I do like my teachings to come directly from the bible. That being said, it is nice to hear the God is on my side and rooting for me, theme that Joel Osteen commonly preaches.

He is one of the most well-known and popular preachers in the United States, selling out stadiums across the county, and has made the New York Times Best Sellers list often with his novels. This review is about his work, It’s Your Time.

In the tradition of Joel Osteen, it quotes very little of the actual Bible, but does have a good message about seizing the day and making your life better. The focus of the book is on you, the individual reader. If it was just put in the self-help section, I think it would be better. It feels as if Joel uses God to push his agenda.

Many of the stories in it, while inspiring, felt very Chicken Soup to me as well. Again, nothing wrong with that, as I love those books, but posing it as a God book kind of bummed me out. I would give it a two and a half star rating.

The Stellow Project: Review

It was suppose to be a fun weekend at the cabin with her sister and best friend, but on the drive up Lilah realizes something is wrong. The wind is getting worse, hail the size of soccer balls begins to fall, and cell service is out. The three girls continue to drive up the mountain to the cabin, knowing that there is a landline and that Lilah’s father is on his way. Only he isn’t.

Calls home are spotty at best, and the girls discover that not only has New York City practically been leveled (along with much of the country), but Lilah’s dad is being blamed.

Mr. Swellows is a well know environmentalist, but the past years have turned him from scientific authority into a crazed end on times environmental terrorist. He is the one who disabled weather satellites, making sure that no one knew of the catastrophic events heading for the cities. It’s is fault that thousands of people are dead, and as it turns out it is his fault that Lilah is sick.

Ever since Lilah can remember, she has trouble breathing. Pills and surgeries have plagued her life, at seventeen she has never been allowed to stay home alone in case she stops breathing and has to be resuscitated and taken to the hospital. Her father has kept her inside their houses, in climate controlled and pressurized rooms. He made her sick, she was his control group for medicines, theories and environmental tests.

After Lilah’s best friend deserts her and informs on her to the FBI, Lilah and her sister are taken in by a group of scientists who know more about her and her family then Lilah knows about herself. Befriending the lead scientists son, Lilah begins to investigate. Files on her and her mother are found behind locked cabinets. Pills in different dosages and animal testing are being done behind doors. Experiments are running rampant and Lilah doesn’t know what to do, or what any of it means. Lilah has to decide if some mistakes and experiments are worth it in the search for the greater good of humanity and the planet. But how much can she tolerate? And what are her father and the secretive scientists going to allow her to see before the Lilah experiment is killed off for the greater good of the research?

The book was okay. I think that the premise is good, but I didn’t like the main character. She was whiney and I felt no real connection to her. It also felt like it ended rather abruptly, almost like the author wrote 300 pages and then decided that was enough so she quickly finished the novel. At the moment there doesn’t appear to be a sequel, but the way the book ended leaves it open to have one in the future.

GoodReads Challenge 2015 and My Favorite Books of 2014

2014 was a good year for reading. On New Years Eve I finished my 115^th book! My goal for the last three years has been to read at least 100, and I am glad that I was able to fly past my goal again this year! I plan on setting my goal on Goodreads at 100 once again, with every intention of trying to blow past it.

While I read some books that were awful, many I read were absolutely amazing. Here are my Top 4 books that I read in 2014 (not counting books I reread)

·      The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

o   My best friend gave me this book for Christmas last  year and asked me not to read the back of it, but just   to trust her. She was right  and it was amazing! I went into the novel with no expectations and powered through all four books in about three and a half days.   It centers around a thief who the Magnus believes can lead the king   to power and magics, but at a cost. The Thief has his own agenda, and trying to keep   everyone from turning on each other becomes increasingly difficult.

·       Death Sworn by Leah Cyress

o   I cannot wait for the next book in this series. When I picked it up I was for some off reason under the impression that it was a stand alone novel, but I am so glad it isn’t and that I will have more books in this magical world. A review is below. http://bookscreatebetterworlds.blogspot.com/2014/04/death-sworn-review-by-leah-cypress.html

·      Earth Awakens by Orson Scott Card

o   This is the conclusion to the trilogy the predates Ender Wiggin’s epic battle. This series tells of the first formic invasion, and gives an awesome new view at which to look at Ender’s Game.

·       Undivided by Neal Shusterman

o   This was by far my favorite book. This is one of the best series I have every read, hands down. Read it, trust me. That’s all I am going to say.

I cannot wait to see the amazing books that are published this year, and what crazy and magical worlds I get lost in. Feel free to add me on Goodreads!

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5679489-cate-neuhauser