Tuesday, July 25, 2006


READ THE LATEST FROM TRICIA GOYER!



I just finished the latest novel by author and friend Tricia Goyer. As I’ve said in the past, Tricia is one of the best when it comes to compelling historical fiction. Like her previous titles, Arms of Deliverance takes place during WWII and involves characters that you will care about from page one.

Weaving in the chilling issue of Nazis racial cleansing, Arms of Deliverance Follows Katrine, a Jewish woman desperate to pass as Aryan, Hendrick, the Nazis who lures her into his embrace in order to produce one more “perfect” offspring, and the fate of their unborn baby. On the other side of the Atlantic, reporters Mary and Lee prepare to cover the war for the New York Tribune. When Mary’s coverage of a bombing raid over Germany leads to plane wreck, Lee risks everything to rescue her. Suddenly they too are caught in whirlwind of war, their lives altered forever by a wounded American navigator, a brave nun, a sadistic Nazi, and a mysterious infant.

This is the fourth and final book in her WWII series. Since all of the novels involve different characters, there is no need to read her previous books before picking up Arms of Deliverance. However, I highly recommend all of them.

For more on Tricia Goyer and her books, visit
http://www.triciagoyer.com/ and http://www.triciagoyer.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

My First Trip to ICRS

July 9-12, I had an exciting, last-minute opportunity to attend, for the first time, CBA’s International Christian Retail Show (known as ICRS), in Denver, CO. The convention center was basically taken over by book publishers, and vendors of every kind of Christian jewelry, greeting cards, art, CDs, and toys. This is a place where big names like Max Lucado, Jerry B. Jenkins, and Beth Moore go to sign and promote their latest books.

In addition to having breakfast with Focus on the Family, seeing friends from groups like American Christian Fiction Writing, the Writer’s View, and Christian Author’s Network, I sang karaoke for the first time (we somehow found ourselves in a Mexican karaoke bar in a very scary part of town, but boy was it fun), saw a couple of up-and-coming recording artists, and collected an armload of books.

ICRS is where the latest titles are promoted—some of which haven’t even hit the shelves yet. Between attending book signing, and having friends hand me copies of their books during meals and late-night chats in our hotel room, I brought home quite a collection of both fiction and non-fiction. I already have plans to post reviews on several of these in the near future. Until then, maybe you’ll want to check some of these out for yourself and tell me what you think.

Fiction:

Arms of Deliverance by Tricia Goyer (next up for a Rave Review, which will include an author interview and book give-away, so don’t miss out),

Dr Oma by Ethel Herr (for girls aged 8-12—another that will be featured here very soon),

The Secret Life of Becky Miller by Sharon Hink

Dying to Decorate by Cyndy Salzmann (can’t wait to reread this one—I kind of rushed through the first time)

Allah’s Fire by Gayle Roper

The Redemption by M.L. Tyndall

The Groovy Chicks’ Road Trip to Love by Dena Dryer and Laurie Barker Copeland


Non-fiction:

Making Your Home a Haven by Cyndy Salzmann (could I ever use that),

Simple Life: Devotional Thoughts from Amish Country by Wanda E. Brunstetter,

The Truth in the Mirror: A Guide to Healthy Self-Image by Karla Downing,

My Prayer Buddy Journal by Janet Holm McHenry

PrayerStreaming by Janet Holm McHenry

The Faith of America’s First Ladies by Jane Hampton Cook


Run to your local bookstore and pick up a copy of one of these great new titles!