The Final Summit-Andy Andrews

I had trouble categorizing The Final Summit.  It's not non-fiction, because the events contained in the book are obviously not true.  However, it contains many figures from history who were real and true.  It has a small and incomplex plot, but no real conflict.  It has a protagonist, but it doesn't focus much on him.  Some of these may sound like critiques, and they in some ways are-however, they are mostly just my attempts to categorize it.  Which I've decided you can't.  At least, not an any of my usual reading categories.

They story, I said, was simple.  Rather than giving a plot description found on the back cover or online somewhere, I'll just summarize-as you'll find much more about the actual plot from a summary than you will from a description.

To paraphrase the main question the book puts to you, "Find the one principle that will save humanity from the doom it is headed towards and put it back on the path to success."  Vaguely, that is the question that it presented at this 'Summit' of past historical, meaningful, characters that have come together to discuss and decide on said principle.  All these figures have died, except for one.  The leader of the summit who is actually still alive at the present time-David Ponder.  They have an hourglass set to them and they must find this principle in the contained time or suffer the doom of mankind.

I had many problems with the book.  None of which hindered me from enjoying the book, however.  On the purely techincal side of the spectrum, the author made frequent use of italics.  I'm not a fan of italics.  They serve their purpose on rare occasion, but typically it just shows the authors inability to convey emphasis properly and so they resort to a cheaper route.  That was true here, the author using italics nearly every page when it should hardly be once each chapter. But the author one-uped his strange fondess of italics.  Mr. Andrews would place the italics opposite where the italics should be placed.  I found it quite peculair.

Also, the historical characters were all hinted at to be in heaven.  No problem, right?  The problem came when the characters were revealed to be figures that were leaders of historically non-Christian society.  Then, tell me, Mr. Andrews, how is it that Cleopatra was a Christian or a Jew or any kind of follower of the True God?  I'm baffled too.  Nothing wrong with Cleopatra-she was a great leader of her people, but Egypt was a secular society and I don't believe that to be historically or biblically accurate at all.

Now to leave that there, I would be inclined to give this book a two, but as I said earlier, these aren't problems which hinder the reader from actually enjoying the book-however, some, it may hinder them from gaining anything beneficial from the book.

On the front of the book there is a quote from Dave Ramsey that says "Andy Andrews is a life whisperer."  While I'm not completely certain what Mr. Ramsey intends to mean by 'life whisperer' I can honestly say that there are some definite themes in this book.  The Summit goes through several tries to obtain the principle to save humanity, each resulting in great other principles that taken alone, and taken seriously, could make a huge difference in someones life.

It's apparent that the author has done his research on the many characters in this Summit, and there is even a character involved heavily in World War II whose importance in the war was stressed thoroghly.  However, I've never heard of him, and I would venture to guess most others would not recognize him either-however, if you look at the authors note in the back, the author is very clear in that this character does exist.  Phenomenal research went on to bring this character to life from the ashes of history that hardly tells his tale.

Overall, it's personal preference.  If the first things I've mentioned are things that will keep you from enjoying the book, then by no means do not buy the book.  However, if you can get past those issues then you're in for a lovely book.  I give it 4 stars.

Spearhead Books and General News

Things have been crazy lately.  I've been volunteering up at my local YMCA pool, but slightly more importantly, have tons of books to review.  Among those being books such as The Bone House (Advance Review Copy-review publishing time undecided), The Wolf of Tebron, The Final Summit, and Precisely Terminated(Advance Review Copy-review publishing time also undecided).  I'm really excited to bring my readers some reviews which you likely won't find in much other places.  While they're a while down the road, I also have The House of Dark Shadows, Sword int he Stars, By Darkness Hid, The Book of Names and it's sequel, and a few other books I haven't gotten to read yet that I own myself.  So those will be reviewed at some point in time, unless I die, which I'm kinda hoping won't happen too soon, cause it'd be kinda a bummer, but also kinda not... Anyway!  In other news... (that means scroll down, like, one click-or click the read more button)

The Making of the Review (Part Two)

If you have not already done so, read the post The Making of the Review (Part One), it'll give you some context for the rest of this post.

This is the second part of a two-part series in which I'm going to try to explain to you guys how to start out a book blog.  Where I get the books you get books to review, what you should consider when reviewing, and in general, what happens to become a book review blogger.  Today I'm gonna focus on how you define your style.


There's many ways you can review a book, mostly based on your style, but if I could at least give one definitive tip, DON'T write a book report, or a recap.  You can make your own description to put at the beginning of the review, you can take one off the back cover, but make sure your post is a book review, not a book report.  We want to hear what you thought of the book, not a longer or shorter version of what we can find on any bookseller website or the back cover.


The rest mostly depends on your personal style.  When I write a review I focus on a few main parts of the book.  I focus on the plot, characters/character development, settings, themes, and the author's level of ability in writing.  There may be other parts of a book that you notice more often, and want to point them out in a book.  That's part of your style.  You have to develop your own style.  If your reviews are bland then no one's going to care too much for them.  They can get a bland review anywhere.  You gotta stand out.



I'll be back next time with my process of reading and writing a review.

Candid Room Tag

So this is actually a tag I was wanting to do a long time ago but never got around to it.  Everyone who follows Chris's blog was tagged, so well here it is.  I actually had to track down that post, being that he changed sites and I didn't actually know the new one.  I eventually found it after some Googling and scrolling and more Googling.
Since my room is so tight I took multiple pictures.

My bed/desk area.  You can barely make out the Curse of the Spider King poster I won from the ARG a while back at the very left area.

A portion of my bookshelf.  Below that there's about one more full shelf.  Above the shelf is a poster of the capitol which actually looks quite cool.  I picked it up in D.C..  To the right is a Dawn Treader poster and below that is a bunch of papers that I should probably look at again some day.

Here's a closer up picture of my desk.  Got an extra monitor hooked up to my laptop and next to that all of my to-read books minus one.  I'm not sure if anyone will guess that background image on the laptop.  We'll see ;).  In the back is a drawing of a Slade-a weapon from a book I was writing a while back.  To the right of that is a family tree.  To the right of those are two drawings, one of a castle and one of a landscape.  Neither one very good haha.

And so that's my room.  My work area as well.  And I tag everyone that reads this/dare everyone that reads this to post an image of your room/work/reading area.  Then link back from here!

Max on Life-Max Lucado

We have questions. Child-like inquiries. And deep, heavy ones.
In more than twenty-five years of writing and ministry, Max Lucado has been the receiving line for thousands of such questions. The questions come in letters, e-mails, even on Dunkin Donuts napkins. In Max on Life he offers thoughtful answers to more than 150 of the most pressing questions on topics ranging from hope to hurt, from home to the hereafter.

The Making of the Review (Part One)

This is the beginning of a two-part series in which I'm going to try to explain to you guys how to start out a book blog.  Where I get the books you get books to review, what you should consider when reviewing, and in general, what happens to become a book review blogger.  Today I'm gonna focus on how you guys can get books to review, should you want to.

Song of the Ovulum-Bryan Davis

Song of the Ovulum is the first book in Bryan Davis' new series, Children of the Bard, which builds upon two past series, Dragons in our Midst, and Eye of the Oracle.  While it is helpful to read the other two series to get the maximum enjoyment out of this, I believe anyone can enjoy it nonetheless.

Description:

Song of the Ovulum follows two main sub-plots that work together to the conclusion.  Matt and Lauren are two sixteen-year-olds who begin to realize they have abilities that are unlike those of the normal human as they both find themselves in a strange prison that holds mysterious prisoners.  The second plot follows the story of Joran and Selah,  the children of Methuselah and grandchildren of Enoch as they travel through fascinating and dangerous lands in hopes to sometime escape the expansive prison they live in.

iShine Bible Review

This is my first time reviewing a Bible, so bear with me ;).  There are two versions, a girls version, and a guy's version (pictured below).   I'll be reviewing the special parts of the book, the cover, and general feel of the both editions.  With that in mind, here goes nothing...

Not actual cover

Cover and Quality:

The Bible itself is a lower quality leather that uses varying shades of blue and yellow for the guys and pink and white for the girls to create an appeal that attracts their target audience, pre-teens.  The size of the Bible is nice, it allows for you to throw it in a bag and bring it with you but also allows you to have a decent sized Bible for regular reading.  For a portable Bible it's nice, but personally I prefer a bigger sized Bible for my regular reading.  However, it feels nice and it could be just the thing some people would want.

Masters and Slayers-Bryan Davis

Bryan Davis is currently writing/releasing two separate yet closely intertwined series that relate to each other, yet have their own individual storyline's.  Masters and Slayers begins the storyline of the adult series while Starlighter begins the storyline for the young adult series.  So far I believe he has pulled off this stunt magnificently.

The Chasm-Randy Alcorn

If you're looking for a quick read that you can finish in an hour to two hours and still get as much from it as possible, The Chasm is for you.  Randy Alcorn paints a vivid allegory to various aspects of the Christian faith while still staying focused on one plotline of the story.
Many will compare this book to Pilgrim's Progress.  I would agree, except I got much more from this then I ever got from Pilgrim's Progress.