Pages & Paws

Writing, Reading, and Rural Life With a Border Collie

Category Archives: Book Reviews – Non-Fiction


by Leave a comment

Medical Memoir Majors in Merriment: ‘Playing Doctor, Part One’

  1. PLAYING DOCTOR - Part One: Medical School: Stumbling through with amnesia Kindle Edition

Playing Doctor – Part One

Medical School: Stumbling through with amnesia

(Books Go Social, August 2020)

By John Lawrence

Biographies & Memoirs/Humor

Medical school joke: “What do you call the person who graduates last in their medical school class?”

Answer: “Doctor.”

The line is right-on-the-stethoscope and sets the tone early in this nimble, entertaining medical school memoir. Told in the first person with tongue firmly planted in cheek, Playing Doctor includes twenty-one chapters and an Epilogue covering the author’s four years at the University of Utah School of Medicine.

Continue reading →


by Leave a comment

A Story That Strengthens – ‘Becoming Elisabeth Elliot’

Becoming Elisabeth Elliot (B&H Publishing, September 2020)

By Ellen Vaughn

Biography/Non-fiction

 

“Is this true? If so, what do I need to do about it to obey God?”

These are the foundational questions that book-ended the life of one of the most influential Christian women of the century. They also undergird Ellen Vaughn’s eloquent and articulate biography, Becoming Elisabeth Elliot.

Continue reading →


by Leave a comment

Now Go, Cat, Go!

Remember that rockin’ Carl Perkins tune about shoes famously belted out by Elvis?

Well, it’s one for the money

Two for the show

Three to get ready

Now go, cat, go!

We’re giving you the Kimber and Mom Blue Suede Special on three+ recently read books. The first book is a modern retelling of the biblical story of Abraham and Sarah. The other is historical fiction set in the Russia of Peter the Great. Another is a gripping memoir of love, loss and hope. And because we’re so generous and all, we’re throwing in a fourth at no extra charge, set in 1789 France and England. There’s also a fifth set in …. la la land.

So. Without further ado, on with the reviews. Or as Kimber would say, Go cat, go!

Continue reading →


by Leave a comment

‘A Pilgrim at 60’ Flies High!

A Pilgrim Looks at 60: Life in the Middle of the Christian Bell Curve

Elm Hill, a division of Harper Collins Christian Publishing, 2019.

By James Annable

What happens when a “truth grenade” goes off in your face? How do you deal with it? Who do you tell, and why?

These questions and more saturate this entertaining, engaging, and insightful read by James Annable.

As noted in the Introduction, the author undertakes his “reflective pilgrimage” to explore who he is and how he came to be that way, explaining same to his five children. He discovers something universal along the way. Something worth sharing.

Continue reading →


by Leave a comment

Move Over, Erma: There’s a New Queen on the Scene

Stand All the Way Up: Stories of Staying in it When You Want to Burn it All Down (B&H Publishing, 2020)

By Sophie Hudson

Christian Life/Self-Confidence/Faith/Humor

Move over, Erma Bombeck. There’s a new queen on the humor scene. Her name is Sophie Hudson. And although she may not be new to you, she was to me. Ditto her hilarious, excruciatingly insightful Stand All the Way Up: Stories of Staying in it When you Want to Burn it All Down.

Talk about a breath of fresh air.

Hooked

Anyone who opens a book with monkeys invading an open air lodge in Kenya and stealing Cajun-flavored Pistachios has me hooked. Ditto an author who candidly admits she’s “having issues” with birthdays where a “nine” rolls over into a zero, and her “stand-offish relationship” with fifty.

I hear ya, sista.

Continue reading →


by Leave a comment

ATTN AUTHORS: Kimber’s 8 Book Review Rules

Shhh! Mom’s snoozing. So it’s just us, okay?

Can we talk? Like, about book reviews? Cuz Mom and I are getting flooded with requests for book reviews. We love it! But we also want to be efficient. So we decided to set and clarify some basic ground rules for our book reviews. Here they are:

Continue reading →


by 5 Comments

‘Petitions From My Heart’: Little Book, Big Message

Petitions From My Heart: A Scriptural Guide for Effective Prayers by [Carol E. Hind]

By Carol E. Hind

Petitions From My Heart is a little gem of a book for serious Christian intercessors.

Indeed, if you’re looking for a few “quickie” prayer ideas to zip through on the run or a “shotgun approach” to praying, this isn’t it. PFMH is for serious prayer warriors who are committed to “raising the roof” from their knees.

Continue reading →


by 2 Comments

“Walks With Sam” Wades Into Grace, Dives Deep

Walks with Sam: A Man

Walks with Sam: A Man, a Dog, and a Season of Awakening (Roundfire Books, August 2020)

 

By David W. Berner

 

He had me at “dog” and “walk.” But the rest of this book is so absorbing and delightful, it’s like wading into eddies of grace and riding ‘em into deep water.

Continue reading →


by Leave a comment

Ever Feel Alone? Why You Should Give New Lucado Book a Look

You Are Never Alone: Trust in the Miracle of God's Presence and Power

You Are Never Alone: Trust in the Miracle of God’s Presence and Power

(Thomas Nelson, September 2020)

By Max Lucado

 

 

Ever feel like no one’s listening? No one cares? Ever feel stuck? Like no one can help you, hear you, or heed your call? Then this book is for you.

Packed with parables of hope, grace, and healing, You Are Never Alone takes readers on a rousing ride through gospel of John. A fresh coat of joy, perspective, and personal polish is applied to Jesus’ miracles, from Cana to Capernaum. A storm in Galilee. A crowd listening to their tummies growl. A paralytic. A blind man. Two cemeteries. And an empty tomb.

The Heartbeat

The heartbeat of this book is this:

Continue reading →


by Leave a comment

Why “Waking Up” is a Snoozer

e-book_Cover.jpg

Waking Up on the Appalachian Trail: A Story of War, Brotherhood, and the Pursuit of Truth (BooksGoSocial, 2020)

By N.B. Hankes

Got insomnia? Forget Sominex. This snoozefest will put you to sleep in a foot fall.

Waking Up supposedly chronicles an Army vet’s hike with his brother along the Appalachian Trail as the author looks for “time in the wilderness” to help provide “answers and clarity” regarding his time in Iraq, or… something. (I’m deliberately not linking to it. You’re welcome.)

But this isn’t a hiking book or a trail tome. It’s not even much of a “memoir.” Most of Waking Up is just a convenient springboard for a slow roll into a slathering left-wing socio-economic harangue of Springer Mountain proportions. Indeed, a sizeable slice of the book is spent alternately blasting society for its alleged greed and corruption and blaming everyone else on planet earth for the author’s own lack of preparation, planning, and poor choices.

Continue reading →