Book Recommendation

I have been reading as much as I can the last few months and I have written a few book reviews here. Up until now though I haven't felt the need to urge anyone to read something.

Recently I have been reading some good Christan fiction. I started with a series recommended to me by my sister-in-law, Kristin. I read all three of the Baxter series of books (14 in all) by Karen Kingsbury. They were good and her inclusion of scripture into the daily lives of her characters was comforting and a challenge to get back to the basics of memorizing scripture. It also got me thinking and listening for God's voice, not just at church or while I pray but everywhere.

Then I was talking to a co-worker about the Baxter series and she jumped to tell me about Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. In Redeeming Love, Rivers takes the story of Gomer from the book of Hosea in the Old Testament and rewrites it (taking some pretty big leaps for the sake of the story) in the 1850's California. It was good and I definitely recommend it. It was hard though to see the underlying message of God's redemption of Israel through the story.

Last night though I finished the last book of the Lineage of Grace series by Francine Rivers. And I would urge you to read them. I read them inorder, but you don't have to. They are: Unveiled: Tamar
Unashamed: Rahab
Unshaken: Ruth
Unspoken: Bathsheba
Unafraid: Mary
They are all similar in that they take the story of the women in Jesus' lineage and tell a complete story. Rivers takes their accounts in the bible and fictionalizes what the conversations and emotions might have been. Their faith, their lives came alive to me. At the end of each book there is a short bible study into their life and what scripture says about them specifically. My favorite of the series was Unashamed about Rahab. Her faith in the God of the Hebrews was amazing even though she didn't even know His name. These books were not just a great way to get lost in a story, they are based on real women and their relationship with the God who is as real today to me and He was to them a thousand years ago.