Marilyn Meberg, trained in psychology, presents a positive view of our inner cravings. She says they are normal but can be out-of-control. For example, we crave excitement and variety that may push us into extreme pursuits. She explains the deeper source of over a dozen cravings and the importance of understanding their true purpose.

The craving for romance is a two-step process. When first stage highs wind down people may rush into a different relationship, not realizing they could enter stage two, the lasting love they actually desire.

We crave more from marriage because we long for the cradle when someone met all our needs. We may slowly realize other humans are not capable of meeting every yearning we have. This craving is also a desire for God, who can and wants to meet all our needs.

We long for contentment, happiness, friendships, more time and more meaning in our lives. Meberg’s approach to these and other cravings is encouraging and informative.

She points out one negative craving, the desire for revenge and offers help to deal rightly with that issue.

Meberg is a much-published writer and a speaker at Women of Faith conferences. In Constantly Craving, she often shares personal anecdotes and writes profound ideas worth remembering.

Thomas Nelson Publishers Inc. Where to find this book.

Constantly Craving by Marilyn Meberg

 Do you like stories about people? (Actually who doesn’t?) This book contains short true-life stories, most of which will make you smile. For some, have tissues handy because you’ll need to wipe away tears. A few relate difficult moments that discouraged someone or turned their life toward evil.

 The author especially writes about how an unplanned minute or two can change the life of a child. The book will convince you that no matter who you are or how old or young, you can do many small things to make the world (and other people) better. You can do things that the folks you interact with will never forget. You may forget those little things you did, but you’ll have impacted lives in major ways.

 Staffordpoints out how important children are to Jesus and how angry God is when someone harms a child. God loves every child in a special way.

 The author, a Caucasian, grew up in a small African village and has spent his adult life rescuing hurting, poverty-stricken children. He travels worldwide, speaking, promoting his several books and his work with Compassion, International.

 Don’t let the title turn you off because this book is full of comfort and encouragement for beginning or older followers of Jesus Christ. Basing his writing on results of a Barna survey Todd Hunter discusses common sins faced by Christians (and non-believers, too.) He especially deals with anxiety, procrastination, over-eating, media addictions and laziness.

He shows that our innermost desires lead us into temptation if they are not given to God for control. The long-term result of giving in to temptation is disaster.

 Hunter, an Anglican bishop, gives us beautiful, powerful prayers from ancient liturgies as one remedy for dealing with our disordered desires. He also discusses baptism, communion (he calls it Eucharist), Bible study, prayer and Christian fellowship. He suggests these disciplines as a means toward eventual victory over our desires that mess up our lives in ways we really don’t want.

 Clearly written and applicable, Our Favorite Sins could become your favorite book. The volume makes a helpful gift, too.

     Sadly, this important and mostly truthful theme drowns in poor writing. The author sounds passionate about his theme, but the writing will limit the audience a great deal.
     If I’d not promised to write a review, I’d have given up on the book after a chapter or two. I did struggle through to the half way point.

     A dictionary would have provided the correct meaning for dozens of words. Learning to write fiction-type dialogue prevents nearly every spoken sentence sounding like the same character with different names. Stereotypical characters, such as the main character and his mistress, don’t impress readers.

       Good writers tell a story that keeps readers interested and changes lives. A series of lectures disguised as story turns readers off.

     Editors say over and over, ‘Show, don’t tell’. Too much narrative is not ‘show’. ‘Show’ keeps readers involved in a book, the reason editors seek this technique.

     A few times I found good descriptions and a few good metaphors. This suggests this author could learn to be a good writer and send out a successful message.

      But ‘purple’ descriptions and metaphors….sigh! An example: when the main character experienced the cold weather like ‘a surgeon’s knife slicing skin’. Cold winds draw blood and cause open wounds? An insult to surgeons?

      The second poorly written book I’ve read recently from West Bow, I’ll avoid this publisher’s products in the future.

A Sound Like Fire

Constitution of the United States of America (Photo credit: The U.S. National Archives)

• THE FOUNDERS’ KEY
• The Divine and Natural Connection Between the
• Declaration ofIndependenceand the Constitution and
• What We Risk by Losing it.
• Larry P. Arnn © 2012
• Thomas Nelson Publishers
• ISBN 978-1-59555-472-7
• With Notes, Appendices and Suggested FurtherReading

 Dr. Arnn discusses why the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution do not contradict each other as progressives, academics and journalists claim.

 Our system of checks and balances by the three branches of our government, were designed to prevent the abuses of power that fostered the Revolutionary War. However, our government now has a fourth branch, the Administrative branch. Some present day leaders want to change the Constitution because this Administrative branch is not authorized under our Constitutional system.

 This huge Administrative bureaucracy is a source of our nation’s out-of-control spending, loss of freedoms and loss of control by we the people. Consequences will increase if we the people do not regain the representative government our founders created.

 The author reminds us that we the people were intended to control the government as well as the government control certain human behaviors. At present we have no real control over the fourth branch, the Administrative system. This branch makes laws (regulations), supplanting the role of Congress. This branch administers penalties (fines) the function of the judicial branch.

 Our Declaration and Constitution are unique in world history. Larry Arnn’s arguments for not changing these documents are well reasoned, fully researched and corroborated by our Founders writings.

 The last half of this book contains copies of the Declaration, Constitution and various Federalists papers documenting the truths Dr. Arnn presents.

 Dr. Arnn, the President of Hillsdale College, teaches history, the Constitution and other classes. He has been published multiple times.

 HillsdaleCollegeregularly supports educational lectures and seminars on national and world problems, and refuses government funding.

The Founders' Key by Larry Arnn

 Thomas Nelson Publishers Where to buy this book

 With her father’s help, Moishe Rosen’s daughter Ruth wrote an honest book about an outstanding, but human person—a man not perfect.

              Various contradictions young Rosen had noticed fostered his desire for truth. He wanted to be a good Jew and avoided Christianity for years after marrying Ceil, also Jewish. Friends shared Christian ideals with the Rosen’s, stopped when asked to, but always prayed for the couple.

             Eventually Ceil secretly bought and read a Bible. After Ceil found Jesus her changed life fueled Moishe’s search for more truth.

             Rejected by family and friends, the Rosen’s found strength as they learned Christian principles. Moishe never feared controversy when he knew what God wanted. He studied and searched for truths to guide his life and never deviated from them, even when he upset fellow workers. His desire to mentor other leaders influenced thousands of lives.

             Rosen spent years working for Christian missions groups, feeling called to help Jewish people find their Messiah. How he fulfilled that calling, never flinching from opposition, is fascinating reading.

             Ruth Rosen details more of her father’s faults than we may need to know, but her father approved. He never felt that he was exceptional. Few who knew him or read this account would agree.

         The book will challenge readers to evaluate their own lives.

 Rev. Delaney Adair, following God’s leading, moves with his daughter, Shannon from Virginia to the gold-rush city of Grand Coeur, Idaho. Shannon resents leaving the South and believes her father mistakenly heard from God.

 To clear his thinking, Rev. Adair occasionally talks to his late wife. A good man berated for doubting the South would win the Civil War, he admits he’s spoiled strong-willed and stubborn Shannon.

 Shannon nursed wounded soldiers inVirginia. In Grand Coeur she nurses a young Yankee widow with cancer, Alice Jackson. Shannon cannot imagine friendship with Yankees because Yankee soldiers killed her fiancé, Benjamin.

 Alice Jackson’s brother, Matthew Dubois, transfers from his job as a Wells Fargo stagecoach driver to support Alice and her son Todd, although he’s never stayed in one place more than a few weeks. He’s slowly attracted toShannon.

  Joe Burkette, a Southern gentleman, also pursues Shannon. Which man will win and why? And will dangerous actions between Northern and Southern patriots kill romance?

 Romance readers enjoy the genre pattern–boy meets girl, one of them doesn’t like the other, they gradually change, then something drastic hinders their relationship. Robin Lee Hatcher captures readers with characters and situations true to the genre.

 Hatcher includes Christian principles engagingly while bringing alive the setting and times of 1864 Idaho. Readers wonder if Rev. Adair’s prayers will be answered. And will Shannon change? The characters decisions challenge readers to grow, also.

 Thomas Nelson Publishers  Where to buy this book.

Heart of Gold by Robin Lee Hatcher

 David Weems book reveals the heart of a 16th century man worth following even today. Although little is known about Tyndale’s home and daily life, Weems gives a clear picture of the man’s character from his publications and letters.

The author also portrays this godly man from the writings of those who often confiscated Tyndale’s works, burned them and labeled him a heretic they longed to burn. However, several church authorities communicated with Tyndale, trying to refute what this translator believed.

Tyndale knew eight languages and was careful to seek exact words in his translations. He regularly revised his versions when he discovered clearer words. He wrote for the common people and to this day the poetry of his writing influences many of our Bibles and religious concepts.

Sir Thomas More especially hated this highly intelligent and educated man who added hundreds of words to the English language, many that we still use. Sadly, Thomas More eventually earned the wrath of authorities.

Tyndale’s life sounds similar to Jesus’ days on earth, although this humble Englishman probably wouldn’t agree. He had his Judas and we wonder how he was so naïve to befriend this particular man.

The history and times of an unusual and important man, Tyndal’s biography by David Weems is like a well-seasoned meal, full of beauty and flavor.

             Godin calls traditional marketing advertising ‘clutter’, an attempt to grab attention. He rightly says this expensive method seldom works. Instead, his plan has marketers receiving potential buyers permission to contact them with information about products. To gain that permission, benefits must be offered that gain the necessary permission.

            Godin explains the strategies of this type of marketing, as well as the advantages and difficulties. He relates successful permission marketing by magazines and companies such as Starbucks and various restaurants and grocery stores with their ‘members cards’.

            This type of marketing requires personal attention to individual buyers, but the internet and multiple-response soft-ware makes the process possible.

            Some of Seth Godin’s book seem like rewrites of common information, but this one does give an interesting view of better marketing methods.

These authors have written about the Civil War from the viewpoint of educated citizens and military and political leaders, instead of from ordinary people’s experiences like E.L. Doctorow’s portrayed in his novel “The March”.

Sherman truly was ruthless in his Civil War march through Georgia and South Carolina. This biography examines possible reasons for the general’s behavior, finding likely clues in his childhood, his education and his secular jobs.

Often controlling and demanding, Sherman could be charming and likeable. However, in addition to historical realities that hindered his successes, his general attitudes fostered his failures at banking and teaching.

This general always felt his only opportunity for fame lay in army life. He was promoted to military leadership under President Abraham Lincoln and because of his influential father-in-law whom he despised. But he wanted to succeed on his own, not from patronage by others.

Von Hassel and Breslin say General Sherman apparently was an early proponent of destroying everything in a countryside during the Civil War, whether necessary or not. The authors credit Sherman’s introduction of this type of warfare to its use in later conflicts around the world.

Comparing E.L. Doctorow’s novel “The March” with Sherman the Ruthless Victor confirms much of what Von Hassel and Breslin wrote about those four years in US history. Even a hundred and forty-six years later, Sherman is hated in the Southern USA.