Book Review: An Amish Wedding

An Amish Wedding by Kelly Long, Kathleen Fuller, and Beth Wiseman is a book put together of three novellas telling three wedding stories of different people in an Amish community. The three stories are about the stresses of courtship, engagement, and planning a wedding. The three authors did a great job using the same characters and timeline in each.

Overall I loved this book. I am a sucker for books about Amish and weddings...so from the start I had high expectations. These books did not disappoint. The characters were real with worries and flaws. I love how their faith was so well depicted in each character.

I am always fascinated how the Amish have removed all of the distractions modern society gives us so that they can truly focus on God and family. This book did not depict them as perfect, as some do. They were real people with flaws and struggles. Even the story of Zeke’s parent in a loveless marriage, only together because divorce was not allowed, made the people seem that much more real.

I would recommend this book to anyone who loves Amish stories.

Note: I did receive a copy of this book free from www.booksneeze.com for review. The opinions expressed above are my own and I was not compensated for a positive review.

Book review: The Grace Effect

The Grace Effect: How the Power of One Life Can Reverse the Corruption of Unbelief by Larry Alex Taunton is a story about the Taunton family's struggles through an Ukrainian adoption. After a mission trip to the Ukraine, Larry Taunton's family was lead to adopt a girl from a Ukrainian orphanage who had special needs and an amazing personality.

The author uses this story of up and down and many obstacles to show the reader what the world would be like if Christianity did not exist anymore. Essentially it would look like Communism where everyone was self serving and compassion, grace, and mercy did not exist.

He also shows how the mercy on one small child who was adopted effected so many people around them.. even his friend and famous Atheist.

Larry Taunton does a great job explaining and demonstrating the key difference between Christianity and all other religions.... grace. With out grace Christianity is worthless and just a set of guidelines to live ones life. It is the grace from God that makes us different. There is no to do list for salvation.. just grace.

I really enjoyed this book. If came to me at a great time as my church is discussing adoption. This book shows how the smallest gesture (a few dollars to someone on the side of the road) or a big gesture (adoption) can make an effect in peoples lives and become a light to the rest of the world.

Note: I was given a copy of this book to read for free from www.booksneeze.com. The opinions above are my own and I was not compensated for a positive review.