Book Talk

   My favourite book so far this year! Granted the year is still young, but I anticipate recommending this incredible story all year long.  Breaking Cover is the stranger than fiction account of Michele Rigby Assad, a former undercover officer in the National Clandestine Service of the US Central Intelligence Agency.  She served for 10 years in this demanding and thankless role together with her Egyptian born husband Joseph, also an agent.  She and her husband were assigned to some of the most dangerous and unpleasant countries on the face of the earth.    I was intrigued by her ability to emotionally disarm her contacts. Petite, easy on the eyes, friendly ...all qualities she used with great success.  She never compromised her faith in Christ but was still able to detect and defuse, strategize and analyze to the benefit of her country. She had to overcome the "stigma" of being a woman in countries where females are denigrated and denied basic rights. She w

   "A probing tale that reminds us that mercy can shape even the most broken among us into an imperfect yet stunning masterpiece."    I finished this book in two days. I'm pretty sure that's the fastest I have ever read a book. When I found out Francine Rivers was coming out with a new book, I immediately put one on order for myself and impatiently waited to devour it. Each book of hers that I've read is best described as a vortex: I get sucked in, and I don't come out until I'm done reading. I didn't do anything for two days but read her book and get swept away by another incredible story.     The Masterpiece follows Roman Velasco; a tortured artist who appears to have everything. Money, fame, and women. Only Grace Moore, his newly hired (and sort of reluctant) personal assistant knows how little he truly has. The demons that haunt Roman echo throughout his mansion, and to deal with them he disguises himself and becomes the Bird - a graffiti t

   Though this book may have been recommended highly by Rob Bell, author of Love Wins and What is the Bible? - "A great book about the Book" - that is not why I'm here. This is another notoriously controversial topic and, as I have come to know, it is therefore a point of interest for me. I may detest debate and conflict, but I love reading about controversial topics and hearing perspectives that seem to get shut down before they even have the chance to make it off the ground.    Peter Enns wrote The Bible Tells Me So to explore "why defending Scripture has made us unable to read it". He is a highly intelligent man who has taught courses at several post-secondary institutions, including Harvard University, Fuller Theological Seminary, and Princeton Theological Seminary, but he writes in an easy conversational way, not bogged down by complicated terms and strings of words that quickly make a sentence meaningless to those of us who do not teach university-lev