Transformed by the Messiah, book #4

 

Wow but wow!  This book took me a while to get through, even at only 223 pages, but each page was filled with amazing new revelations and things you probably didn't realize!  I can't even begin to describe it, but suffice it to say, I practically highlighted the entire book!

I first heard about this book listening to my good buddy Lisa Harper's podcast here and here when she had Rabbi Jason on her show.  Now, for a good little Southern Baptist girl, listening to a Jewish Rabbi made me a bit leary.  But I completely trust my buddy Lisa and figure she wouldn't have someone on her show that was not 100% real and in tune with Jesus.  I highly recommend listening to those podcasts!

Discover the Jesus who has been pursuing you since before time! Join an unforgettable journey through the birth, ministry, and death of the Messiah as found in the Old and New Testaments, and have your own life transforming experience.

When reading the Bible we often miss essential details that add richness and significance, and therefore don't grasp the bigger picture. New York Times bestselling author Rabbi Jason Sobel, in his unique and engaging way, helps readers see God's story in high definition, enabling them to better understand the cultural and historical background of Scripture, God's intention for every detail, and how it applies to our lives.

Revealing hidden gems of prophecy and promises, Transformed by the Messiah helps answer questions such as:

Is there any significance to the fact that Jesus was born in Bethlehem?

How does the Messiah's baptism set an example for us to emulate and what did it undo?

Did the Messiah have to die on a cross and why did he not rise until the third day?

Who are the shepherds and why was it important that the baby be found wrapped in swaddling cloth and laid in a manger?

How can we embrace a supernatural perspective—living with a sense of possibility--and not be limited by a strictly natural perspective?

Why does Genesis 3 talk about the "seed of a woman?"

Why were the disciples so willing to immediately drop their nets, leave their families, and follow Jesus?

You'll also learn how to respond with faith, not fear; trust God's plan, purpose, and provision; and move forward in the power of the Spirit.

If you need hope, or simply a better understanding of God's plan of redemption for all mankind and your part in it, Transformed by the Messiah will open your heart and mind to be able to live in the supernatural power of God's Spirit as you follow Jesus and His command to make disciples. And whether you are Jewish or not, to help you read and study in a way that connects His story in the Old and New Testaments. (picture and description at Amazon)

Now back to our latest book in the Christian Fiction Reading Challenge!

Keep reading!

O:)

Melissa

Uneasy Street, book #3 ~ January Christian Fiction Reading Challenge

 

So this starts our journey in the 2026 Christian Fiction Reading Challenge!  There are 12 books to read (one each month!) that features many of our favorite authors, including our beloved Tamara Alexander!  I believe all of the books are the most recent books the author has written, so sometimes they will be in a series, and not necessarily the first one.  But they can all be read as stand alones, according to the website.  I'm really excited about doing this for many reasons.  

First of all, we are choosing these books for our Book Club book, so no one has to rack their brain trying to decide what to pick.  Secondly, although we have read several of the authors, there are some new ones on here as well.  Finally, once a month the authors are doing a ZOOM with whoever wants to hop on and she will talk about the book, and perhaps we can join in?  (I've never been on a ZOOM with 500 people, so I'm not sure what that will look like! 🤣)  

If you want more information about the Reading Challenge and want to join, click on the link above.  

Once upon a time Max Cirillo and Sloane Madison were close friends and business partners. But when their business relationship imploded, so did the friendship. Now, four years later, Max is a rich CEO. Sloane’s a not-so-rich etiquette expert who returns to Maine to serve as her niece’s temporary guardian and help the girl search for her birth father. Sloane and her niece move into a darling garage apartment but Sloane’s joy in their accommodations soon turns to horror when she realizes their apartment belongs to Max. Thanks to an unbreakable lease, she’s stuck living right next door to him.  Max pulled strings to bring Sloane into his orbit because he needs closure on what went wrong between them. Quickly, though, his scheming comes back to bite him. The world might view him as a cold-hearted rake, but this one woman has dangerous power over his emotions.  They’ll have no choice but to confront their history—and the undeniable spark between them—while living side by side on uneasy street. (picture and description at Amazon)

Now on to a nonfiction book!

Keep Reading ...

Melissa

Project Hail Mary, book #2

 

SOME SPOILERS INCLUDED!

My initial review of this book was going to be:

Dumbest book I ever read.  The end.

But then I sat with it a while.  I chewed on it.  I discussed with some people.  And I slightly changed my mind.  

While I was ready for some meat in a book after all the fluff I read over Christmas, this was like going from marshmallows to burnt steak.  There is a lot of sciency words that the author seems to think I understand.  There was no romance, no whodunit mystery, nothing,  Just some guy stuck in space and at first he had no idea who he was or what he was doing or where he even was.  Not exactly something that grabs my attention.  

Time goes by.  I keep reading.  I get encouragement from Rebecca who suggests skipping over the sciency part.  More pages go by.  I get about 60% done and I am literally ready to quit.  And I am not a book quitter.  I will read to the end to see what hope lives for the characters, but I was getting close to chukking it.  

But I kept reading.  And one night I find myself up for 3 hours reading.  I find myself saying, "Just go with the absurdity."  Then all of a sudden I have one or two chapters left.  And I'm still not sure how it will end.  I'm still not really  enjoying it, but I'm intriqued how it will end.  I'm also afraid its going to be a generic ending like:

As he saw Earth in the distance, knowing he made it.  That he was still alive, that he had the answer to fix all the problems; he realized how lucky he was.  The end.   

If that was how it ended I informed Katie and Roger that I would throw the book across the room, pick it up, take it outside, rub it in the mud, rip it in 1000 pieces and put it down the disposal.  

But surprise, surprise.  That is not how the book ended.  In fact, in my "just go with it" attitude I almost like the ending.  It's still pretty unbelievable, but I guess considering the options it was pretty good.  

I would not consider this science fiction as such, because to me SciFi is like Star Trek or Star Wars, where aliens talk in English ;)  That is way more believable to me.  

If you consider this more a book about friendship than saving humanity and other living beings, then maybe I might put it on my "It Wasn't So Bad" list.   

My big pet peeve in the whole book that made it the most unbelievable was the fact that Rocky had no eyes and all his information gathering was done solely with sonar, his ears as such.  I cannot in any stretch of my imagination believe one's hearing could be so good that you can comprehend a whole solar system and the mass, air quality, etc of planets gagillions miles away.  

All in all, read at your risk.  I"ll be curious to know how the others in Book Club felt about it.  

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.  Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.  All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.  His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.  And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.  Or does he?  (picture and description from Amazon)

I'm very excited about my next book reading project!

:)

Melissa

  

Mountain Laurel, book 1

 

And finishing out the Christmas books for 2025, we have Mountain Laurel.  It was certainly different, but a bit cheesy none the less.

I'd give this a "C" ~ it was not like the others in this series, but still A LOT happened in the 155 pages.  And there were many things that were odd to me:

It was written in third person, but when the person was speaking to themselves, the author would use quotation marks around the comments.  

Aunt Rose was introduced, she had a side story that didn't make sense AT ALL until the end of the book.

How can that many bad things happen to one person/family in a year or less?

In the epilogue, one family is discussed, but they were just a side side side character that seemed to not even exist in the book  ...

I'm going to have to have serious thoughts about finishing the other books in this series.

When tragedy strikes, Laurel is left alone to raise her son. She wonders if the Lord she’s trusted all her life will help her as she raises her feisty boy.  Jon, who has loved her for as long as she can remember, is good with her son and steadies her through each crisis that comes along. He’s a close friend, but will she ever be able to love again? (picture and description from Lesley McDaniel's website)

On to a book with hopefully some meat in it!

Bring on 2026!

Melissa

Deck the Halls, My True Love Gave to Me, and The Wonder of Christmas, books 49-51 PLUS my Year End Wrap-Up!

 

Ok, I don't know how to get these all aligned pretty like I like them, but these are three of the last I read to nearly round out my Christmas reading for 2025.  (I'm finishing my for real last one now 😉)  These are three of the eight books in the series I bought for my Paperwhite.  I'll finish the fourth one in the next few days, then but the other four on hold for November.

The Wonder of Christmas

Actress Cheyenne West heads north to join her family for Christmas, with no idea that a storm will strand her in the small town of Misty Cove on the Oregon coast. But when she bumps—quite literally—into the handsome former Marine, Grady Darnell, and learns about a family in need, she realizes God sent her to Misty Cove for a bigger reason than meeting a handsome man. But with the way her pulse kicks up in Grady’s presence, maybe God has a dual purpose in mind. (picture and description at Amazon)

My True Love Gave Me

Christmas is the best time of year, but Cassidy Turner is too distracted to get in the spirit.  Cassidy loves her life. She has a job in a vintage housewares store, a cute bungalow in Seattle’s Green Lake neighborhood, good friends, and a dog who adores her. But at age twenty-eight, being single is getting old. So, when an invitation to an exclusive Christmas party gives her an excuse to find a plus-one, her best friend convinces her to explore her options in the singles group at church. There are, after all, a couple of intriguing candidates. What could go wrong?  One of Sean Garrett’s favorite things about his job as a delivery driver is getting to know the people on his route, but he doesn’t expect that to amount to anything significant. So, when the pretty woman at the vintage housewares store turns his head, he tells himself it’s no big deal. From the conversations he’s overheard between her and her friend, she has plenty of interested suitors already. She wouldn’t be interested in adding him to her dance card. Would she…? (picture and description at Amazon)

Deck the Halls

When a messy relationship falls apart, Luce Edwards is stuck sleeping on her aunt’s couch and away from her four-year-old daughter. According to her ex, Nicola is happy living with him and his new girlfriend.  Luce wants her daughter back.  With a low-paying thrift store job and no home, it seems impossible—until she’s invited to compete in a Christmas decorating show, Great Design’s Deck the Halls. The prize, a tiny cottage, is exactly what she needs. Bridge-building architect, Jordon, is mourning the loss of his parents. When he returns to his parent’s house after an evening with his sister’s family, he finds the front porch decorated for fall—with his mother’s décor he donated to the thrift store. However nice it looks, it doesn’t make grieving easier. (picture and description at Amazon)

I would say out of these three, I liked Deck the Halls best.  It was actually first one I read.  The other two (and Once Upon a Christmas Carol, which I read in between the other two) all seemed the same with different names and locations, but I could not tell you which one was which because they all had girl stranded in snow, cute guy rescues her & takes her to his family home, they all go to a dance/event, they fall in love .... This last one I'm reading now seems a little diffrerent, so I hope I'm not disappointed.

FINAL TALLY FOR 2025!!!

Let's remember I not only read all these fiction books, but I also read the Bible 1.5 times and read a Bible Handbook as well.  

Total books: 51

Total pages: 16,559

Wonder if I can top that in 2026?  

Looking forward to exciting adventures in my books this year! 

Melissa

Once Upon a Christmas Carol, book #48

 

Cute fun book I snuck in in-between reading all the Hometown Christmas Dreams Series, which apparently has vanished from Amazon.  Good thing it is downloaded on my Paperwhite!  

Anyhow, Hometown Christmas Dreams actually has EIGHT books in it, and I am afraid I will not get all the way through before I need to start on my January books!  I knew I needed to read this one for book club for sure before Christmastide got away from me, so after I finished two books in the HCD books, I went ahead and read this one.  Since it is a short novella I literally read it in one day.  I enjoyed it, but I kept getting it mixed up with the second story I had just finished in HCD! 

Carol Langstrom hates Christmas. Growing up in a dysfunctional home, with a birthday on December 25 and too many dashed childhood expectations, she would rather avoid the holiday season. And working in the design industry where she manages seasonal decor for wealthy, entitled clients certainly hasn't helped!   So, this year her goal is to flee to the Bahamas--by herself--bah humbug! But bad weather and God's radically different plan redirect her flight to blustery Michigan, where she gets stuck on her aunt's farm and discovers a different kind of Christmas--one wrapped in love, family, and holiday spirit. (picture and description at Amazon)

I am not sure how many more stories I will get through in HCD before I need to start on my January books, and I have a list started already!  When I finish my Christmas books I'll let you know our new plan for Book Club this year!  I'm excited!

Stay cozy!

Melissa

My NIV Bible, Halley's Bible Handbook, The Inspirational Study Bible, books 45-46 + 1/2

 

As my faithful followers know, I have been reading the Bible through for the past several years.  At last count, I think I have read it through 6-8 times in all my 50+ years, but there is always new stuff to learn!  I *may* be taking a break next year and doing something else, but that remains to be seen 😉

Last year our church read through the CSB Chronological BIble  and then each Sunday our pastor would preach on the chapters we had just read.  It was quite a year for me, and it seemed the passages we read weekly were exactly where I was in my life.  God was SOOO good in that!  This year, those who wanted to read through the Bible were given the suggestion of the M'Cheyne Reading Plan.  I really enjoyed this, as it is one that jumps back and forth between the old testament and new testament.  I love reading the Bible that way, reminding myself that the God who split the Red Sea is the same one who healed the woman with the blood issue who came to John in Revelation and told him all about what was coming.  

I wanted to try a Bible Marking System this year and I also wanted to dig a little deeper, rather than just reading the passages.  So I decided to use this old Halley's Bible Handbook while reading.  It was a leftover from my wonderful days at the TSC Church Library.  It was published in 1965, but God's truths are still true in 2025.  The language did get a little heady at times, but I did learn many new things with it.  I decided to use my NIV Thinline Bible Roger gave me for Christmas in 2002 as the main Bible, since it had very little marked up in it.  This Bible is now a beautiful rainbow of colors!

In the reading plan, you actually read through Psalms and the New Testament twice, so I decided to use a different version for the second time I went through.  For that one, I used the Inspirational Study Bible by Max Lucado, which I got from my father-in-law's house when they moved it.  He taught Sunday School for many, many years with it.  Now that he is in heaven with Jesus, it is a treasure I will keep!  I really liked the way that Bible is set up, as there was a little devotion/thought with most chapters for books that either Max Lucado or other amazing men and women wrote.  It was amazing to me how they were able to pull it together like that! Since I only read Psalms and the New Testament in that, I counted it as a half book! :)

I have a few days left to finish some Christmas books I am reading, so by the weekend I should have my wrap up ready! 

Merry Christmastide!

Melissa