I finally finished my first book of the twelve I listed for the 2007 TBR Challenge.

I wish I could remember who first recommended Potter Springs to me. Potter Springs is a novel by Britta Coleman, and honestly, even though the main characters are in the ministry, I am not sure I'd categorize this as a particularly "Christian" book. It might be better classified as women's fiction or even literary fiction with Christian main characters and the theme of redemption.

This was an excellent novel, but not an easy read. It deals with many difficult issues, such as sin in the ministry, fornication and adultery, miscarriage, postnatal depression, marital separation, sexual temptation, and sanctimonious attitudes within church leadership.

Don't let that list deter you from reading the book, however. I found it to be a wonderful novel. While there are some hypocritical Christians among the cast of characters, there are also loving, serving, ministering Christians in the mix as well. They redeemed the novel for me.

Above all, it's a love story, not only between Mark and Amanda, but with God and His servants.

I found another book swapping site, and this one is international!

It's called Book Mooch (www.bookmooch.com). I just joined last night, so I don't have any experience with it yet. Credits are earned by listing and sending books, just as with Paperback Swap (www.paperbackswap.com).

I'll let you know how it goes!

I write reviews for a website called Armchair Interviews. It's been a very fun adventure thus far! You can see all the reviews I've written by clicking here.

I can't really repost my Armchair Interviews review of this book--they own the copyright, after all--but I will provide a link to the review I wrote for them when it's posted. You'll also be able to see it on Amazon.com under the Armchair Interviews name.

I'm Not Julia Roberts by Laura Ruby was also reviewed last week in People Magazine. Reviewer Joanne Kaufman had this to say: "Ruby makes hilariously, heart-wrenchingly clear that breaking up is hard to do" and gave the book three out of four stars.

I agree.

Here is an excerpt from my review in which I give the book four out of five stars for Amazon.com:
_____________

I’m Not Julia Roberts is a collection of interwoven stories chronicling the blended family.

The title alludes to Julia Roberts’ character in the movie Stepmom. She is the unseen foil to Lu Klein, one of the stepmothers in this collection. Lu, along with her husband’s ex-wife Beatrix, and Beatrix’s husband’s ex-wife, Roxie, are just a few of the women we meet in this oddly interconnected world.

One of the strengths of the book is that each story has a different point of view. By the end of the book, we’ve seen not only the main characters’ own points of view, we’ve also seen these characters’ views of each other. This adds a touch of reality because we get to see everyone’s side of the story—wives, husbands, and children.

____________

I recommend the book. Check it out!

One of my very best friends in the whole world gave me a very nice book for my birthday a couple months ago.

No One Cares What You Had for Lunch: 100 Ideas for Your Blog is a small but powerful book by Margaret Mason. Her blog can be found at Mighty Girl.com.

It is truly amazing what response will come out of one of these prompts. I chose to do one about a month ago (prompt #23), where I not only posted a sample of my handwriting but also a recording of my voice. I got more responses from readers out of that one blog entry than I had for the previous six months, AND I had several new subscribers sign up to my blog.

I highly recommend this book of prompts if you'd like to shake things up on your blog.

The Anglophile is written by Laurie Gwen Shapiro, and I chose it because I'd read her book The Matzo Ball Heiress and liked her style.

This novel, also from Red Dress Ink, was an interesting read. Chick-lit, definitely, but also an intelligent story with several fun, quirky characters.

I enjoy some, but not all, Red Dress Ink books. It truly depends on the writer. Some of the writers for RDI have a lot of language and sexual situations, whereas others do not. This one was probably in the middle in terms of profanity and bedroom scenes.