A truly inspirational read! A beautiful story, of how a hideous tragedy was turned around by the Grace of God. A very compelling book!

This is one of the best books I have ever read. I pick it up and re-read it often. The Smith family has such amazing faith. This book will minister to you. It is also an exciting page turner. You really start to feel that you know this family. I would highly recommend it!

At times while reading Dawn's book, I found myself thinking that I was reading a novel about a popular horror movie. (Actually, the tragedy was cast as a made-for-TV movie.)Horrific indeed is Dawn's family's story, and I sat on the edge of the couch in tears as I reminded myself every other chapter that her story was real, actual--a story that hits home. It could have happened to anybody. What is more amazing, as the title states, is the grace Dawn learned through this tragedy and the powerful testimony her story tells about the strength He provides.

Tre explains almost exactly how I feel about this book. Except for one subject, when Tre says that you should worry about your problems I think that in this situation you should help your friend out first. Because the two of them had been best friends since youth.

The Chip Hilton series is a series of sports books. In the early books in the series a young man named Chip Hilton is in High School. Later in the series he is in college. Chip is an extremely bright young man who is also a star in baseball, basketball, and football. Chip is a leader on and off the court. These books teach children about morals and ethics.
In the previous book, called Tournament Crisis, State wins the Holiday Invitational Tournament. However, during the last few minutes of the championship game Chip hurts his knee.
This book, called Hardcourt Upset, begins where the last book left off. Chip is still injured from the tournament. He is sidelined for the first two games after the winter break. Because Chip is such a great athlete and mental leader and cant play, the team loses both these games.
Basketball however, is not his only problem. In Chip's college town of University, there have been several convenience store robberies. His best friend "Soapy" Smith is being accused of committing these crimes. Soapy is taken into custody of the police and detectives to see if the convenience store employees recognize him as the robber. Eventually Soapy gets a chance to explain that he is innocent because he was changing a tire at the time of the robberies. Chip decides to help find the people who helped Soapy change his tire.
At the next basketball game against Tech, Soapy recognizes the people who helped him. The Tech team players tell the detectives they were the ones who helped Soapy change the tire. Now the detectives must look further to find the robbers.
Chip and his pals from college agreed to watch the local convenience stores every night. One night when it was Chip's turn, he saw a man with two flat tires. When he asked the man if he needed help, he responded with a gasp as he heard some police sirens. Then he said in a deep nervous voice, "no, I'll just drive home with the two flats."
Chip thought this was very suspicious and jumped into the trunk of the car. When the driver parked the car in the garage, he jumped out and looked around. He saw a bag full of something he could not make out and got out of there. He called the detectives and they were there with Soapy in ten minutes.
When they rang the doorbell, an old man answered the door. Chip knew immediately that this wasn't the man had been driving the car. He asked, "Do you have a son?" "No, but there is a teenager who lives here." So they woke up the teenager and then asked him a few questions. After a few questions it was clear. This was the thief. He had a red wig and a mask in the garage. They also found all the money stolen from the stores.
Hardcourt Upset was an awesome book. It shows that if you think you can you will succeed in your goals. It also shows that even a small school can be a big school in some things.

This book was awesome!!! It is a very good book if you like sports books. However, it does not only have to do with sports. It shows how much Chip Hilton cares about his friend Soapy Smith. I deafinitly reccoment this book!!!

I HAVE A STRONG BELIEF IN A HIGHER POWER BUT I WOULDN'T CONSIDER MYSELF TO BE REAL "RELIGIOUS". I PURCHASED THE BOOK SHORTLY AFTER THE PASSING OF MY FOUR YEAR OLD'S FATHER. THE PICTURES ARE BEAUTIFUL AND COLORFUL BUT THE CONSTANT REFERAL TO THE BIBLE MAKES IT DIFFICULT TO SHARE WITH MY SON. INSTEAD WE MAKE UP OUR OWN STORY. THIS IS A GREAT BOOK IF YOU STRONGLY BELIEVE IN JESUS, BUT IF YOU DON'T YOU WILL NOT BENEFIT FROM THIS BOOK.

When my daughter was small, this was her most requested bedtime story. Written in tender, simple syntax, Let's Talk About Heaven helps to bring the abstract concepts of the spiritual into commonplace terms. The illustrations are delightful, and best of all, Anderson doesn't try to fill in all the gaps. She leaves room for a child's imagination to ponder and propose. Even for the not-so-religious, this book offers a loving response to a question that every child will eventually ask..."What's heaven like?"

I'm 14 years old, but when I read this book I had so many questions answered. Even at my age, this book can answer my questions. I think that's cool. I recommend this book to ANYONE who has ever wondered about Heaven.

...What would you do if someone left a baby boy on your doorstep? Would you keep them? Send them up for adoption? Try to find their parents? Well, a family from England kept him, and named him Spider for the way he walks. They found some interesting facts about him. He can mimic animal's calls perfectly; one of his only phrases is "Good un!", he walks weirdly, and can't learn any thing.
His friends make fun of him for the way he walks, how he can't learn, and how he does not go to school. His parents also worry about how he acts. The people on the farm make fun of him behind his back, but none of this matters to him because he does not understand any of it. His parents try to make him act normally but they notice that he is happy, so it does not matter.
This great fiction book is set in World War II! This book is terrific for anyone, especially because it teaches you about a boy who is different then most kids. This book is interesting because you can learn a lot about kids who have disabilities like Spider does. This book is a page turner. I highly recommend it to anyone.

This book is so subtle but somehow kept me gripped. The imagery is superb and I felt I really knew Spider as I neared the end. The ending was beautiful- everytime I read it I am left in tears of sadness. I'd reccomend it to anyone as you can read it over and over again.

A simple, beautiful story, Spider Sparrow will definitely leaveyou in tears (the good kind). I highly recommend this book - all ofthe characters are real and likable, and Outoverdown Farm is somewhere I would love to live, as Spider did. And "simple" Spider has many things to teach us...wonderful book!

Once again, Smith has created as a hero, an inarticulate Mormon young man. This time he's a missionary, leaving the typically atypical mom and dad for his two year mission in Tennessee. Those he encounters are universally physical and mental oddities without a normal human thrown to stabilize the too-thin plot and teen-age dialogue. This should set back missionary work in the Volunteer State by fifty years, if Tennesseeans make the connection.
And I am further left to wonder if the red Kool-aid sect behind the Wasatch Front really believes that the rest of the country is populated by this type of characature.

i thought that this book was a fun look at a small town and the missionary experience

If you ever want to sit down and laugh, you need to read this trilogy. They are sooooo FUNNY!! The author has a wonderful way of making small town life seem not so small. The characters are people you know, people that you can relate to. These books are great!

I listened to a audio book of this. I don't think I would have had the patience to read the dialect but the readers (there were several involved - men and women) did a great job of speaking and singing more or less as the people in the book would have. It was a little long and repetitious but there are some great sequences.

This book is, along with P. F. Kluge's novel "Eddie and the Cruisers," possibly the best novel about what music means and where it comes from that I've read. The sense of time and place is unerringly evoked, the characters are simultaneously archetypal and idiosynchratic, and the overlap of both generations and musical styles makes a rich, rewarding experience. Really, really top-notch stuff.

What a wonderful book. Quite often, a book is real good until the ending, and then I'm let down, But this has a really good ending too. This tale is really excellent: a verbal piece of art. I liked all the lineage and interconnections in this large musical family. I learned what it's like to have mucic within you -- to write as well as perform. I liked the character developments -- no one all good or all bad, but all very interesting. I recommend this book highly. One learns about US history, country music, human nature, and it's entertaining to boot!

This book was very well researched, showing that there is indeed a divide between the white evangelical church and black congregations. It includes a good deal of statistical data as well as numerous interviews from individuals about the subject. The feeling I got from the book however, is that the tone was very dismissive towards the opinions of white Christians, and put a higher amount of weight on the opinions of black Christians. The author implied that the racial issue can be solved by policies of reconciliation, and that it is not an individual issue. However, for most of us that is all we have at our disposal. If we are not personally affected by racism we have no personal stake to push for social justice. After highlighting the fact that although there is racial inequality in America, to which most people can agree, the author admits that he can offer no solution to solve the problem. In addition, racisim doesn't simply exist between blacks and whites, people of all cultures face it as well, but the views of those smaller people groups are largely ignored. This book does more to fuel the fire of the differences that lead to racism than solve the problem. Anyone can complain, few can be constructive.

Michael Emerson and Christian Smith argue in their book Divided By Faith that the values and beliefs that are central to evangelical religion - freewill individualism, relationalism, and antistructuralism - actually help to increase the racial divide in America, even though they are the biggest supporters of racial reconciliation. The book is based a deep probing of evangelical Americans' feelings of race issues through an extensive nationwide survey of over 2000 people. The authors give rock-solid proof for their argument which is presented in a very concise and logical manner. The effective use of statistics and quotes from interviews help solidify the argument. In addition, they describe how the structure of American religious organizations is continually pushed towards internal similarity, leading to racially separate congregations. After reading the book, one will find it difficult to respect the views of evangelicals and their attitudes on race issues.

The book begins with a close look at just how racialized our society really is, citing mostly examples of economic disparity between whites and blacks. The problem also exists in the lack of interracial marriages, segregated communities, and in religious affiliation choices. Next the authors give a historical overview of how Christians, particularly evangelicals, have thought of race in the past, and what sorts of actions they have taken to address racial issues.

Racial reconciliation was started by blacks in the 1960s as a theology for reconciling the division between races. Its primary tenet is that individuals of different races must develop primary relationships with each other and recognizing social structures of inequality. Evangelicals have since popularized the idea and made it one of their top priorities for bringing and end to racial division. The original message was lost in the translation however, for evangelicals stress individual reconciliation as opposed to challenging social systems of injustice and inequality.

Evangelicals see the race problem of one of three types: prejudiced individuals, other groups trying to make race problems a group issue when it is only individual problems, and a fabrication of the self-interested. Emerson and Smith use the idea of a cultural tool kit - ideas and practices that shape one's perception of reality - to explain these views. They explain how accountable freewill individualism, relationalism, and antistructuralism are the racially important cultural tools for white evangelicals and how most do not think America is racialized because of their tools; in addition, most are racially isolated. White evangelicals see no race problem other than bad interpersonal relationships. These tools lead them to "minimize the race problem and racial inequality, and thus propose limited solutions." This strong evidence supports the claim that evangelicals perpetuate a racialized society without any intention to do so.

The authors asked people in the survey for their explanations on the reasons for blacks having worse jobs, income, and housing than whites. White evangelicals were significantly more likely to cite individual reasons than structural reasons; most felt that it was due to lack of motivation or will-power on the part of blacks. However, when black evangelicals were asked for their explanations, they overwhelmingly cited less individualistic and more structural reasons; most felt that it was due to discrimination. This shows that evangelical religion "intensifies the different values and experiences of each racial group, sharpening and increasing the divide between black and white Americans." Emerson and Smith also give anecdotal evidence that by not seeing how societal structures impact individual initiative, the racialization problem will continue.

The survey also asked people about how to solve the race problem. The results again show that evangelicals overwhelmingly felt that people should "try to get to know people of another race" and that almost none felt that racially integrated residential neighborhoods could solve the problem. What's more, white evangelicals were much more likely to respond this way than non-evangelical whites, further evidence of the cultural tool kit explanation.

The authors also give an in-depth examination of the structure of American religious organizations and the view that America has become a "religious marketplace." They explain why congregations are internally similar with the idea that "internally homogeneous congregations more often provide what draws people to religious groups for a lower cost than do internally diverse congregations" in addition to social psychological reasons. The book concludes with a look at how these internally similar congregations produce and maintain racialization.

This book is rock-solid evidence for the idea that evangelical religious teachings - although candidly supportive of racial reconciliation - actually do more to perpetuate a racialized society than they do to terminate it. Although the authors provide almost no suggestions for exactly how to end this racialized society, they definitely present a shocking argument along with rigorous proof of the contradiction that exists in American evangelical religion.

This is a powerful book that illuminates the reasons for the continued racial divide between black and white Christians. In engaging and accesible chapters,the authors meticulously show how white evangelicals look at the world, and how that makes it difficult for them to see racial injustice. The great hope of this book--winner of the 2001 Distinguished Book Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion--is that by showing us what has been and what is, it provides the needed knowledge to spur our society to change. The review that follows assumes that the authors have left God out, but this is wrong. As a leader in a multi-ethnic congregation, I know that this book is critical for understanding how God views injustice and how this understanding is key to living in the kind of just and united relationships that God calls us to. This book is a must read for all thinking Christians.

If anyone really wants to know about the "myths of mormonism", why not just ask a Mormon? I have found that they are very open and honest about their faith. I have yet to meet one, in fact, that is the caniving, secretive, tragically misinformed and misled fanatical cultists that books such as these portray. On the contrary, they are remarkably well-versed, well-educated, and very knowledgable people. And even more interesting to me... I have yet to notice a Mormon publication that picks apart or bashes another faith. It is a shame that there are so many making a profit off of such slander.

Ethan Smith does a credibly principled job of pointing out many clearly glaring inconsistencies and contradictions between (a) Mormon doctrines and the Bible, and (b) present official Mormon doctrines and past official Mormon doctrines. He does this fairly, honestly and logically.

But note: 1. A clearer and crisper job at the same task is done by Sharon Armstrong in her book, For Any Latter-day Saint: One Investigator's Unanswered Questions. 2. Though Smith is a valiant LDS contradiction illuminator, he does not in fairness point his light at any of dozens of equally glaring inconsistencies and contradictions in (a) the Bible itself, and (b) between the Bible and many accepted current non-Mormon Christian teachings. So his principled argument against contradictions is inconsistently applied and, therefore to that extent, ironically unprincipled. A much better job than Smith's at applying facts and principle consistently is done by Burke (a professor of ancient Christian history) in Who Wrote the New Testament?

All that said, Smith's book is still a valuable introduction to the depth of contradiction in Mormonism.

This book is a wowser. The perfect best that is much better than those books by Dr. Quinn, such as the one on fairy tales and mormonism, which I believe. An asset to any libray opn Moronism.

We can be grateful that Chuck Smith Jr. has given us a well-written, easily digestible, and profoundly insightful analysis of "The End of the World As We Know It." His depiction of the cultural changes underway in postmodern times is one of the best in print. However, the overall strategy he urges Christians to employ amidst these changes is marred by its lack of consistency with what the New Testament contemplates. You would be hard-pressed to find the Apostle Paul "re-visioning" the church in many of the ways Smith suggests. While his program may be helpful in rooting out the peculiar cultural and "modernist" errors of American fundamentalism, he seems to replace them with another set of peculiarities. (Post-modernist ones...) ______________________

The bottom line: We applaud his acknowledged personal efforts to learn from the failures of his "fundamentalist" past. However, we think his "road map" for the future fails to sufficiently root out the same kinds of errors. Like so many other books in this genre, its moments of true brilliance are undermined - ultimately - by an underlying accommodation to postmodern culture.

It is time for something truly revolutionary to meet the challenge of these revolutionary times. Unfortunately The End of the World As We Know It does not meet the criteria sufficiently.

Chuck Smith Jr. has provided us with a terrific resource in understanding the challenges of postmodernity and ways in which the church can enagage it. He's very easy to read and best of all, this is a book which can bridge the gap best for churches who would call themselves very conservative. It's worth the read.

Chuck Smith Jr is a deep thinker. And while he's solid on the basic grounds of Christianity, he delightfully and gracefully rejects things of an emotional nature, and instead steers his church towards rational Christianity.

I attend Chuck Smith Jr's church in Capistrano Beach, CA. It's called the black sheep Calvary, apparently because it doesn't hold the party line that all the other Calvary Chapel's are standardized on, which of course all stems from Chuck Smith Sr.

Chuck Smith Sr had a deep impact on the United States in the 70's (or was it the 60's), resulting in a huge network of Christ-centered Calvary Chapel churches that bridged cultural boundaries of the day (esp. Hippie culture). That was then. Chuck Sr is old now, and wastes time chiding the youth about their body piercings and unkemptness. Those that grew old with him love him dearly.

Chuck Smith Jr is following in the footsteps of his dad, bringing Christianity to today's culture, while shedding some generational baggage along the way, which unavoidably means thinking a little differently than dad. All pastor's sons must be black sheep in some sense.

If you value your brain and use it regularly, and are a Christian because it is more appealing to your intellect than the alternatives, then I think you will benefit from reading anything written by Chuck Smith Jr, or Rick Warren for that matter. And if you ever find yourself in the Dana Point/Capistrano Beach area and get to listen to Chuck Jr personally - well that'd just be icing on the cake.

I received this book several days ago and read through it with great zeal after all the excellent reviews it received. This book generally seems to be intended for 2 audiences: the young contemplating marriage; and the slightly older contemplating re-marriage. Well, I fall somewhere in the middle, in territory that either wasn't touched on or was barely glazed over. I've lived with my boyfriend for several years and am at the point that I'd like to get married (he's indifferent to the idea), and was hoping that there would be something in this book to help me navigate the waters that I now find myself in. In true "good Christian" form this author doesn't even touch the subject of couples living together without benefit of matrimony. It's obvious that my boyfriend and I both have commitment issues, which this author dedicates a whole chapter to, but there's nowhere to go from there. He advocates keeping a positive attitude and keeping marriage a goal in your life, if you truly decide that it's what you want, whether you're actually with the person you're going to walk down the aisle with or not. He also suggests praying for the significant other rather than shove bridal magazines under his nose. Both of those points are excellent advice in my opinion. When it all comes down to it, the only person you can do anything about is you. The author, a seemingly devout singleton, is rather indifferent towards marriage, he gives encouragement for both sides (marrieds/singles) both from personal counseling experience and Biblical references. As I said before, this is an ok book, but life isn't always as cut and dried as this book makes it sound, especially for those of us who became Christians later in life than others and are still dealing with choices they made pre-Christian.

When I was having difficulty deciding if my now-husband was the "right" person for me, I searched for answers from family, friends, and prayer. I believe that prayer and my persistence led me to M. Blaine Smith's books. Even though his "Yes Anxiety" title covers making wise decisions in several different areas, his insight into relationships is remarkable. I read "Should I get married?" after it. During courtship and engagement, I held onto these two titles and referred to them constantly. I learned so much about myself and what love and long-lasting marriage should be! I had been ambivalent and at times unsure as to what I should do about the prospect of marriage, even after I became engaged, and I spent many hours pouring over these two books. The most important thing that I learned is that NO ONE can be absolutely sure about any decision they make - with the help of family, friends, and reliance on God and belief that He wants the very best for you, you can make a decision and stick to it. I was able to make one of the most important decisions in my life because of the important lessons I learned from Smith's knowledge. As some people have mentioned in their reviews, yes, these books are written from a CHRISTIAN perspective, and the author is clear about that. If you are not a Christian, you may not find much here unless you open your mind to the many truths stated. For Christian singles - please read the two books that I've mentioned in this review. I truly believe that they will be of as much benefit to you as they have been to me. Thank you, Mr. Smith, for helping a very confused young lady make a change in her life - marriage to a man who is not only her husband, but her very, very best friend!

I've just finished reading the book "Should I Get Married" by M. Blaine Smith. It's by far the best book I've ever read on the subject of serious dating relationships. With an approach appealing to both character and commonsense, Smith walks you through question after question, fear after fear, and helps put things in their proper perspective.

Contemplating marriage but unable to make a final decision? Sick of the on-again, off-again syndrome? Wondering why you just can't seem to make relationships stick? Think you'll never ever find Miss or Mr. Right? Or want to help someone suffering in any of these situations? Then don't delay; grab a copy of this powerful book today!