Book reviews from unidiverse

Walk Like You Have Somewhere To Go

by Lucille O&Apos;Neal

In her book, �Walk Like You Have Somewhere to Go,� Lucille O�Neal, mother of Shaquille O�Neal, shares her journey through life. She is very candid in her book sharing not only the good things that happened but also sharing the bad things that happened. Her parents divorced when she was young and as a result Lucille, her father, brother, and sister all moved from Georgia to New Jersey into her paternal grandparents already overcrowded home. She became pregnant when she was seventeen and was a single mother for two years before getting married. Lucille had three more children with her husband who joined the Army as a way to provide for the growing family. The Army allowed their family to travel to Georgia, Germany and Texas, but to make ends meet Lucille also had to work. The draining demands of being an Army wife (which meant shifting into single parent mode when her husband left for training), being a mother of four and having to work left Lucille emotionally and mentally spent. Lucille soon turned to drinking heavily on the weekends as a way to relax. Throughout her story, Lucille shares things that she learned. Instead of blaming her parents for the way that she was raised she says, �My motto is, once you turn thirty-five years old, you need to forgive your parents for everything and let it go.� As her children got older, Lucille yearned to become more than just a wife and mother. She says, �As human beings, I really believe we all have a desire on some level to see what we�re made of. We all have that yearning inside to prove to ourselves that we can get by using just the wits and skills we were born with.� Lucille went to college where she earned a bachelor�s degree and then went on to earn her master�s degree. She says, �I�m a living and breathing testament that life begins and flourishes at whatever age you become comfortable in your own skin and whenever it is that you fall in love with what you see when you look in the mirror each morning. I cannot give this book high enough praise. Lucille�s story is truly inspirational to everyone in all walks of life. Not only did she share her story adding all of the not so pretty details but at the end of the book she also shares forty scriptures from the bible and what she has learned from them. This book was a great read and if she chooses to write more books I will read those too.Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission�s 16 CFR, Part 255 : �Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.�

Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God

by Sheila Walsh

Sheila is very open with her life in this book. She masterfully draws parallels between the lives of biblical characters and her life illustrating that we can do the same and hear a fresh word from God in the process. Her biblical illustrations included stories from the lives of Gideon, Abraham, Samson, Anna, Paul, and others. In each chapter of her book, Sheila writes more of her story and then parallels it to the story of a biblical character and then explains what she learned from that character while at the same time asking the reader a few thought provoking questions to help them glean something from the story as well. At the end of each chapter, she writes a sentence or two to transition into the next chapter. Sheila covers subjects such us �The Beauty of Waiting and Being Present,� in chapter four, �The Beauty of Quiet Trust,� in chapter seven and �The Beauty of Forgiving� in chapter nine. I am torn on how I feel about this book. On the one hand, it has some very good lessons that are worth learning if you want to have a deeper relationship with God. I loved reading her book in one hand while I had my bible in my other hand so that I could freshen my memory of the bible story she was talking about. On the other hand, I felt that by the time I was in the middle of the book the layout of the book was very predictable, which kind of made it boring. I think this book would be good if it was read as a group because the meetings would stay predictable and flow easily throughout each chapter and I wonder if that was her intention because at the end of the book is a bible study. I don�t think it works well as a book read individually.Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission�s 16 CFR, Part 255

Dwelling in His Presence

by Cynthia Heald

In her book, Dwelling in His Presence, Cynthia Heald shares thirty commands from God, found in the bible, in an effort to help you draw closer to God. The thirty commands, one for each day, help you to be in the Word everyday and they give you something to meditate on for the rest of the day. At the end of every chapter, Cynthia provides questions to help you apply each command to your life. There is also a prayer section where she provides ideas of what to talk to God about, a quote that ties into the subject matter as well as a prayer that you could use if words elude you. Cynthia Heald�s book was wonderfully written. The chapters are short enough that the book would work well for even the busiest woman. The subjects that she chose to talk about bring up issues that many of us women have today. She provided real stories about real people that made me feel like I was not alone in how I felt or thought. The stories provided wonderful examples of how God�s Word is alive and can be applied to your life today even though the bible was written long ago. God wants to have daily quality time with us and Cynthia�s book provides everything that you would need to accomplish that.

Buried Alive

by Roy Hallums

Buried Alive, written by Roy Hallums with the help of Audrey Hudson, is a book about Roy�s 311 days in captivity by a group of Iraqi insurgents. Roy was working for the Saudi Arabian Trading and Construction Company in their offices in Baghdad when he was kidnapped. Roy recounts how his captures put a ski mask over is head, bound his hands and feet and ultimately buried him alive in a small-unventilated concrete hole under a small room in a house. Statements from Roy�s family, mainly from his ex-wife and one of his daughters, about what they were going through while he was in captivity are also included throughout the book. Buried Alive is a great story in the making. I say in the making because even though I was captivated while reading it, the story lacked feeling and detail. It was published by Thomas Nelson, so even before I started reading the book I was expecting to hear a little more about how his faith in God gave Roy the hope he needed to survive his ordeal. When he talks about praying for various things it is only in passing and then he is off to another subject. I praise God that Roy was rescued and is able to share his experiences and teach others survival techniques, but I really feel that this book should have been a rough draft not a final copy ready for print.

The Noticer

by Andy Andrews

The Noticer by Andy Andrews is about an old man named Jones, not Mr. Jones, just Jones. Jones calls himself a noticer, somebody who notices things that the ordinary person doesn�t take the time to see. He calls it a gift and uses his gift to help other people gain a little perspective on their current situation. Jones is described as an old man of average height with long white hair and crystal blue eyes. He wears jeans, a white T-shirt and leather flip-flops. Nobody knows where Jones is from but everybody knows him and likes him. He helps a homeless young man get back on his feet, a married couple headed for divorce save their marriage and an old widow realize that her life still has purpose and meaning, just to name a few. The book is packed with advice for all different life situations that help the person gain a little perspective on their own life. While I enjoyed the book because there was really a lot that you could learn from it, it didn�t really excite me. There were some feel good moments when the people that Jones helped actually turned their lives around; however, it was easy to put down because it read more like a bunch of short stories with Jones being the common link that all of the stories shared. I would not recommend this book as one where you could loose yourself in the story. I would however recommend reading it to gain a little perspective on life.