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The latest book from multiple best-selling author Catherine Ryan Hyde, Have You Seen Luis Velez?, is one of her best, and I’ve read several.

We meet Raymond, a studious older teen with a soft spot for a stray cat, rushing from his apartment on the day before his best (and only) friend moves across the country. Before he can get out the door an ancient woman calls out to him, “Have you seen Luis Velez?” The woman – Mildred Gutermann – is blind, and Luis Velez had been coming to help her navigate to the bank and grocery, but Luis had inexplicably stopped showing up.

Raymond is the only child of his white mother’s first marriage to a black man, and he now feels out of place in a white family. His step-father’s income is less than that of his biological father, a dentist, but he isn’t allowed to accept expensive things from his dad. His dad’s second wife seems to despise him, so he doesn’t fit in there either.

Raymond determines Mildred needs help, and steps in where Luis disappeared. Raymond encounters extreme danger for his stray cat, and he begins a search for Luis. Do you know how many Luis Velezes live in the city?

Hyde uses a predictable formula. She takes a kid who needs help, adds an animal, and she weaves a story around them. Hyde is also known for including a thread in her books to promote acceptance of an alternate sexual orientation.

The addition of the older woman adds a refreshing element which is key to the success of Have You Seen Luis Velez?. Mildred’s back story incorporates references to the Holocaust, an important topic.

If you are going to choose one of Hyde’s books to read, this would be a good choice. Believe it or not, even with a slow-moving old blind woman there is suspense. Raymond meets some interesting people named Luis Velez in his search for the one who used to help his neighbor. Five stars!

#HaveYouSeenLuisVelez #NetGalley @cryanhyde ‏

There There: A Novel is a social-consciousness raising book that leaves you reeling like a punch in the gut.

The opening remarks cause you to start seeing the world differently. Remember the black and white Indian-head test pattern drawn in 1939 and broadcast until the late 1970s? It was “surrounded by circles that looked like sights through rifle scopes.”

Orange, himself of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes, portrays a contemporary Native American in his fiction. The Native American of There There is Urban and fraught with identity issues; searching for heritage or trying to distance himself from it.

Set in Oakland, California, Orange follows the story line of several Natives as they plan to attend an intertribal Powwow at the Oakland Coliseum. For the Urban Native Americans, the city they once called home wasn’t any more. A quote from Gertrude Stein about Oakland, “There is no there there,” provided the title for Orange’s novel.

The Native peoples of There There have other problems common to urban Blacks, Hispanics, and marginalized groups. We see alcoholism, fetal alcohol syndrome, poverty, suicide, teen sex, and teen pregnancy. Drug use and drug sales fuel violence and death.

Orange, born and raised in Oakland, has deftly woven the heartbreak and hope of the characters in a compelling story.  This book lives up to the hype. So far There There has garnered the PEN/Hemingway award, a prize from the National Book Critics Circle for best new book, and the First Novel Prize from the Center for Fiction.

Thanks to my local library for the loan of the audiobook. The narration by several voice artists is well done!

@AAKnopf

A few of us had great fathers. Some of us had rotten fathers. Too many of us had no father at all. Regardless of what kind of earthly father we had, Louie Giglio’s message is, “God is not the reflection of your earthly father, He is the perfection of your earthly father,”

Giglio, pastor of Passion City Church in Atlanta, has written Not Forsaken, a book about fathers. Giglio writes of our desire, even from childhood, to be noticed by our father. Whether or not we received the attention we craved from our earthly father, our heavenly father is watching over us.

Giglio and his wife had been successfully ministering on the campus of Baylor University in Texas when Giglio’s father had a stroke. The couple wanted to return to Atlanta to help care for Giglio’s dad, but did not feel a release from God to stop what they were doing and move.

After several years of seeking God to return to Atlanta to help care for his dad, Giglio and his wife finally felt they had the green light from God. But just before their move, Giglio’s dad died. That put Giglio in Atlanta with no job, wondering why he was there, and if he had heard God correctly.

Within a couple months Giglio had an idea that eventually grew into Passion Conferences, a gathering of college-age young adults. These annual meetings are well attended, drawing thousands of young people. Passion City Church is an outgrowth of the Passion Conferences.

As God’s plan for Giglio played out, he was able to see that God had not forsaken him. Giglio says our heavenly father will not forsake us, either.

I received a free audio copy of this book, and I choose to give an unbiased review.

@louiegiglio ‏ #Notforsaken #NetGalley @BHpub

Biggers has divided her book into fifty sections of ten verses per section. The section heading often comes in the form of a question such as, “When should you pray?”

However these questions are not answered in the traditional way. Biggers records a short prayer, her own conversation with God, which gives some thoughts on the question.

It is after the prayer that the ten verses are listed, each with its reference. The verses all pertain to the topic heading. All the verses are given in the King James Version of the Bible. If you are a KJV-only Christian this will suit you fine.

I know there are others who prefer more modern translations, which are not to be found here. For this reason I predict this book will have a limited audience.

What I would wish for – thinking futuristically – would be a book similar to this in an eBook format, in which you could select the version of the Bible you wish to read the scriptures, or read each scripture in several versions to get the nuanced meaning.

Nevertheless, it is important to note that these verses are nicely grouped by topic, and if you wish to access them in another version you may – just bring your own Bible. They are useful, as the title suggests, for growing your prayer life. There is power in praying the scriptures!

These groupings would also lend themselves to scripture memory or a topical Bible study.

#TheBiblePromiseBook500ScripturesToGrowYourPrayerLife #NetGalley @BarbourBuzz

The Last Guide: A Story of Fish and Love by Ron Corbett is a nostalgic look at the history and lore of guided fishing in and around Algonquin Provincial Park in north-central Ontario, Canada, and more specifically about Frank Kuiack, the last guide.

Ron Corbett, a reporter following a lead on recent DNA testing of wolves in Algonquin Park indicating they were of the red wolf species instead of the previously assumed timber wolf, was referred to Frank Kuiack. Kuiack was as knowledgeable as anyone about the wolves in the park, Corbett was told, so he set up an interview.

When Corbett arrived at the sixty-something-year-old man’s house, he could tell immediately from the canoes in the yard and the fishing gear in the house that Kuiack had been a guide. Corbett asked him when he had retired and Kuiack surprised him by saying he wasn’t retired; he still guided.

At the end of the wolf interview, Corbett asked to go fishing with the older man. Kuiack said he was booked solid until the end of the season, and he would take him then.

It wasn’t until near the end of this multi-day fishing trip that Corbett learned his would be the last long guided trip. During the course of the trip, Kuiack’s story unfolds and we see why the spry sexagenarian was planning to only take short day trips for fishing from then on. Interspersed with Kuiack’s personal history are the biographies of the famous guides who went before him.

This is an enjoyable read for anyone who likes reading nature stories or biographies of down-on-your-luck but resilient people. Four Stars!         

#BooksGoSocial #TheLastGuide #NetGalley 

100 More Stand-Alone Bible Studies is the second in the series by Penelope Wilcock. She advises that these studies were written with the purpose of being used in a home group setting and will be the most helpful in that way, although they can be used by individuals.

Wilcock also provides guidelines for leading a group Bible study, which boils down to stand back and don’t get in the way. This laissez-faire approach could easily lead to misunderstanding the Bible without the guidance of a qualified teacher. Further, it opens the door for potential disagreements to get out of hand.

The subjects addressed in this study book are not ones that usually promote peace. For example, there is extensive time spent right off the bat on baptism, whether infants should be baptized, what is baptism in the Holy Spirit, does it only relate to salvation or is it something more, and what are the participants’ personal experiences regarding baptism in the Holy Spirit. I have known these very issues to cause disagreement among church members and for some to stop attendance over the matter.

If you are not afraid to ask tough questions and confront every issue, albeit from the author’s point of view, have at it! But frankly, this book scares me. It’s like giving a three-year-old a shovel and telling him to start prying up rocks. On the mountain where I live he’s likely to find a few snakes.

Scripture cautions us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. (Philippians 2:12) I’m afraid the studies in 100 More Stand-Alone Bible Studies uses a much bolder method.

#100morestandalonebiblestudies #NetGalley @LionHudson

Red Light, Green Lion by Candace Ryan is a charming children’s book that teaches more than the colors red and green; it gives a lesson in making the best of the happy and sad surprises that show up in our day.

Ryan prefaces this book with a short quote by the priest and author Henri Nouwen (1932-1996), and she includes a line of dedication which reads, “For Henri Nouwen, who taught me how to look for the hidden gifts in rainy-day red lights.”

With the clear and uncomplicated crayon-like line drawings of illustrator Jennifer Yerkes, Ryan tells the story of a lion waiting at a traffic light. The word “light” is hyphenated to the flip-page where we see “li-“ isn’t light at all, but “lion”. This pattern of page-turning surprises repeats throughout the book, as well as the “li-“ sound to form new words.

Our friendly green lion experiences lightning and a flood of rain with all manner of fanciful things floating past. The expressions on the faces of the animal characters are readable and captivating.  I would read this to children from birth up through 12-years old, and I’m sure I’d get requests for repeated readings from the same audience (of those able to communicate). I expect Red Light, Green Lion to find a treasured place in many a child’s home, and heart as well.

@KidsCanPress @CandaceRyan  #RedLightGreenLion  #NetGalley  #ChildrensFiction