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Friday, April 1, 2022

Maxine Justice

About the Book

Book: Maxine Justice: Galactic Attorney

Author: Daniel Schwabauer

Genre: Science Fiction

Release date: March 29, 2022

Maxine_RevisedCan Justice Save the Earth from Extinction? 

Maxine Justice is an ambulance-chasing lawyer desperate for relevance and cash when aliens hire her to represent them before the United Nations. An off-planet consortium wants to heal humanity of every natural disease in exchange for 30% of Earth’s gold reserves.

The deal launches Max to legal stardom and makes her an international target for assassins. New Pharma, Sky Cross, MediCorp—the big medical companies all have good reasons to want Max out of the way. Worse, she discovers her alien clients may be planning something more sinister than anyone has imagined.

Can a lawyer who failed the bar exam three times find some way to save the world from global and interstellar conspiracies? Or will humankind’s future end in a galactic courtroom?

 

Click here to get your copy!

 

About the Author

Author-Dan-web-08Daniel Schwabauer, M.A., is a lifelong reader of speculative fiction. He studied the genre under science fiction great James Gunn before graduating with honors from Kansas University’s Masters program in Creative Writing. Winner of the Eric Hoffer and Ben Franklin awards for his middle grade fantasy series, The Legends of Tira-Nor, Daniel enjoys riding his motorcycle on country roads and pondering other worlds. He lives in Kansas City with his wife and dog.

 

More from Daniel

What in the World is a Galactic Attorney?

 

Maxine Justice: Galactic Attorney started as a short story concept I began twenty-five years ago but never finished. Back then I thought it would be interesting to write about a hostile takeover of the planet by aliens. But instead of using advanced weaponry and space ships, my aliens would conquer Earth the way modern corporations subsume smaller competitors—through the law.

 

The main problem with my original story idea was the lack of a suitable hero. It wasn’t until 2018 that an off-handed remark from my daughter provided the inspiration I needed to rethink the entire storyline, and an irrepressible, snarky young lawyer named Maxine strode into my imagination and began a hostile takeover of her own.

 

Yes, this story was going to have aliens in it, but the aliens were not humanity’s real problem. Our real problem was the medical industry. And the insurance industry. And the Department of Justice. And the whole legal profession. Our real problem was ourselves. (Maxine’s problem was that she had no money and no clients, though she did have an axe to grind and a very good reason to give it a fine edge.)

 

What if Maxine’s search for real solutions to our most corrupt systems led her to realize that Earth’s  doom may not come through the cleverness of intergalactic adversaries, but via the corruption of its apex predator?

 

Could Justice save Earth from extinction then?

MY REVIEW 

I love reading different genres that get me out of my comfort zone. This  book is definitely different but in a really good way. The creativity the author shows is great as he delivers a story that takes us to a  far away world in the universe. Oh how I loved the descriptions that made me feel like I was on a space station. The author then throws in a lawyer that is like no one we have ever met.

 Maxine Justice is gritty, a little gullible, somewhat wanting to do the right thing kind of character that you cheer for. Struggling in her business, a client comes to her with a case that seems too good to be true. The decision to take on the client unleashes a whirlwind of danger, lies and most of all greed. Maxine’s instincts are good but she ignores them at times. I think she wanted to believe that everyone was on the up and up so she would not feel guilty when things started falling apart. 

I loved the distinguished Singh who was a robot that is programmed to give wisdom. His quotes from the Bible were placed perfectly in the story. He was more than a robot to Maxine. She thought of him as a friend who watched out for her and tried to lead her to make the right decisions. The character reminded me of our conscience. We know right from wrong, but will we always follow good? 

The story turns to greed as lies are exposed. I kept thinking that Maxine didn’t read the fine print on the contract she signed and that was going to be costly for her. Many questions popped into my head as I read the story. If there was a cure for all medical issues would the pharmaceutical companies support it? At what point do we give complete control to a company that says they have our best interest at heart? Maxine faces off against a group that is deceitful and greedy. I loved following her as she makes decisions that could either save the world or destroy it. 

I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.

Blog Stops

Book Reviews From an Avid Reader, March 31

Through the Fire Blogs, April 1

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, April 1

Texas Book-aholic, April 2

Inklings and notions, April 3

For Him and My Family, April 4

deb’s Book Review, April 5

Locks, Hooks and Books, April 6

Wishful Endings, April 7

Ashley’s Clean Book Reviews, April 8

Because I said so — and other adventures in Parenting, April 9

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, April 10

Christina’s Corner, April 10

Artistic Nobody, April 11 (Author Interview)

Blogging With Carol, April 12

Inside the Wong Mind, April 13

Giveaway

To celebrate his tour, Daniel is giving away the grand prize package of a $50 Amazon card, a signed copy of the hardcover!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/1c56e/maxine-justice-galactic-attorney-celebration-tour-giveaway 

 

Anything But Simple

About the Book

Book: Anything But Simple

Author: Lucinda J. Miller (Last name now Kinsinger)

Genre: Memoir

Release date: July 25, 2017

AnythingButSimple for webPlain? Yes. Simple? Well…

If you live in a conservative Mennonite community, edges are sewn shut and questions have answers. So if you’ve got a saucy tongue and a roving curiosity about the world, you’ve got a story to tell.

As a schoolteacher in a small Mennonite school in rural Wisconsin, Lucinda J. Miller wears long dresses and a prayer covering. But she uses a cell phone and posts status updates on Facebook. So why would a young woman with access to all these technologies remain in a sheltered community like the Plain Mennonites? How can someone with an eye for beauty and a sometimes sardonic wit stay within a tradition that values discipline and submission and uniformity?

Anything But Simple is the stirring memoir of a young woman’s rich church tradition, lively family life, and longing for a meaningful future within her Mennonite faith.

 

Click here to get your copy!

 

About the Author

Lucinda J Miller Kinsinger has always viewed herself as a shy little Mennonite girl, but refuses to let that stop her from pursuing what she loves—whether that’s writing with honesty and vulnerability or traveling to a remote village in China. In 2019, she married Ivan, the love of her life, and moved from the flat, tree-lined fields of her childhood home in Wisconsin to the rolling hills of Garrett County, Maryland. The couple has a baby daughter, Annalise. Since the publication of Anything but Simple, Lucinda has published a second memoir, Turtle Heart: Unlikely Friends with a Life-Changing Bond. She is columnist for Anabaptist World and blogs at lucindajkinsinger.com.

 

More from Lucinda

Me, and The People Who Shaped Me

 

My dad used to say that every person in your life is placed there by God for a reason. Even the ones you don’t like are there to teach you something.

Learn.

If you don’t, God may send someone else to teach you the same lesson you couldn’t learn the first time around.

Anything But Simple is my story, the story of a shy little Mennonite girl growing up to be a writer and asking questions along the way. It is also the story of the many people who enriched my life.

My dad, with his black hair and handsome face and stories from his past.

My mom, with her smooth sweaters and her sure and solid love.

My bishop with his mouth that turned down like a turtle’s.

My creative writing professor who loved words in a way I had never seen in anyone but myself.

Charlene.

Mara.

Deqo.

Jake.

From these people and alongside these people I arose, breathing, questioning, earnest.

Our journey, like the journey of all the squiggly and intricate humans that wander the face of the earth, is anything but simple.

MY REVIEW 

It is well known that many of us are curious about Mennonites. We have this perception that they are very strict in their beliefs, dress very plain and live close to each other in communities. An interesting topic I didn’t know about the Mennonite was that they don’t agree with the Amish about  shunning. The Amish are very strict in shunning whether  it be against modern technology or someone who has sinned against their standards.  Mennonite people don’t practice shunning and I was stunned to learn this.  I thought I knew enough about them that I considered them different and not very friendly. As I read this book, I wanted to have an open mind and see where I have misjudged them and what I could learn from the author. 

The first few pages of the book took me by surprise. I couldn’t believe what her father had stood in front of the congregation and shared. I never picture Mennonite people disobeying or even doing violence. Then I saw inside this man the pain of fighting against two worlds. I liked how he talked about respecting the church leaders even if we don’t agree with them. Oh what a lesson we can all learn from that statement. It is okay to disagree with our spiritual leaders, but God wants us to honor them. After all He placed them as authority over us. 

The author allows us a peek inside her life growing up and shares details that I was intrigued by. Her parents story about marrying and starting their lives together are interesting  to read about. They shaped their children in a home filled with love for others and God. The Mennonite choose their bishop in a way that makes sense but still seems different for me. 

I enjoyed reading the book and becoming more acquainted with someone who may live a life different than me but still have big dreams . Her desire to be an author was a hard journey at times but I appreciate her honesty and willingness to share her thoughts with us. 

I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.

Blog Stops

Texas Book-aholic, April 2

A Reader’s Brain, April 3

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, April 3

Inklings and notions, April 4

Abba’s Prayer Warrior Princess, April 5

All-of-a-kind Mom, April 5

She Lives To Read, April 6

deb’s Book Review, April 7

A Melodious Sonnet, April 7

Locks, Hooks and Books, April 8

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, April 9

Tell Tale Book Reviews, April 10

Because I said so — and other adventures in Parenting, April 10

The Avid Reader, April 11

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, April 11

Rebecca Tews, April 12

Ashley’s Clean Book Reviews, April 12

Sodbuster Living, April 13

Boondock Ramblings, April 13

Vicky Sluiter, April 14

For Him and My Family, April 14

Spoken from the Heart, April 15

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Lucinda is giving away the grand prize package of a $25 Amazon gift card and a copy of the book!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/1c574/anything-but-simple-celebration-tour-giveaway

Thursday, March 31, 2022

 

At Home in Your Heart

About the Book

Book: At Home in Your Heart

Author: Carol McLeod

Genre: Religion/Christian Living/Devotional

Release date: March 29, 2022

9781641238038Where do you live—truly live? You may have a street address. You may think of your childhood home. But your real home, this side of heaven, is your heart.
Your heart is home to your soul and your emotions as well as your thought life. Your attitudes, habits, and dreams are found there.

At Home in Your Heart: Inviting Christ into Every Room is written for women of all ages, backgrounds, and stages of life. Each day in this sixty-day devotional by Carol McLeod includes an essay on the thought for the day, a heart inspection, prayer, and words from Scripture. Topics include: Is Anybody Home?; Blessed by the Begats; A Song at Midnight; Wear God Out; and many more, all offered with Carol’s characteristic humor, love, and affection.

If you are a Christian, Jesus lives in your heart with you, no matter what condition it’s in. If there are problems, however, He wants to clean until His hands bleed. Carol invites you to walk through the rooms of your heart to identify the issues that Christ is shining His light on.

“Jesus wants to paint your heart the color of white snow,” she says. “He will gently move around priorities, set things out for the trash man, and replace every outdated attitude with His unconditional love and inexpressible joy. He can take a home that has been literally demolished by the storms of life and rebuild it into a palace fit for a king.

 

Click here to get your copy!

 

About the Author

CarolMcLeodThe president and CEO of Carol McLeod Ministries, Carol McLeod is a popular speaker at women’s conferences and retreats. She is the author of a dozen books, including Rooms of a Mother’s Heart: A Sacred Call and an Eternal PurposeVibrant: Developing a Deep and Abiding Joy for All SeasonsSignificant: Becoming a Woman of Unique Purpose, True Identity, and Irrepressible HopeStormProof: Weathering Life’s Tough Times; and Guide Your Mind, Guard Your Heart, Grace Your Tongue.

Carol hosts a twice weekly podcast, A Jolt of Joy! on the Charisma Podcast Network, and a weekly podcast, Significant. Her weekly blog, Joy for the Journey, has been named in the Top 50 Faith Blogs for Women. Carol also writes a weekly column in Ministry Today.

She has written several devotionals for YouVersion, including “21 Days to Beat Depression,” which has touched the lives of nearly one million people around the world. Her teaching DVD The Rooms of a Woman’s Heart won the prestigious Telly Award for excellence in religious programming.

Carol was also the first women’s chaplain at Oral Roberts University and served as chaplain on the university’s Alumni Board of Directors for many years.

Carol has been married to her college sweetheart, Craig, for more than forty years and is the mother of five children in heaven and five children on earth. Carol and Craig also happily answer to “Marmee and Pa” for their captivating grandchildren.

 

More from Whitaker House

By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it
is established; and by knowledge the rooms are filled with
all precious and pleasant riches.
—Proverbs 24:3–4

You might suppose that your home is 83 East Academy Street…or 6555 Alleghany Road…or 16 Willow Lane. But it’s not. You can frantically inspect every printed map and strategically pore over every listing in an address book, but you will never discover your actual home at a zip code, on a street, or in a city.

You may presume that your particular home consists of three bedrooms and a bathroom…or a massive family room…or a farmhouse kitchen. But again, your actual home has nothing to do with the floor plan that lies under the roof of the home in which you live.

Perhaps when you think of home, you remember the childhood house in which you hung stockings along the mantle on Christmas Eve, blew out candles on eighteen birthday cakes, and colored Easter eggs every spring! But even that home, where you began your journey and where you were shaped as an individual, is not your true home either. The home of your earliest memories will never be the home of your adult realities.

Your real home—this side of heaven, of course—is your heart. Your heart is where you live day in and day out. Your heart is the hidden but obvious home in which you live.

Your heart is where you collect clutter, but it is also where you receive company, fill up trash cans, and then remodel. The wonderful, miraculous part of you that is vibrantly alive lives within the canyons of your heart.

Your heart is home to your soul, which is the birthplace of your emotions. It is also where your thought life is framed. Many people are deceived into believing that their thought life begins in their minds, but this is not the case. Your thoughts and attitudes make themselves at home in your heart.

What about your habits? Where do they live? It is easy to discern that both good habits and bad habits, which efficiently determine the exact floor plan of your life, can easily be found residing in your heart. Even your dreams, which are often beyond your wildest imagination, can be found hanging out unassumingly in your heart.

Your heart is the part of you that sometimes longs to escape from its earthly address. Your heart feels constrained by the white picket fence that you so lovingly built around the parameters of your life. Your heart is the part of you that is never content with who you are or what you are becoming.

Your heart is your real home. It is the place where the “you” that vitally matters lives and breathes. This “you,” who no one else knows, lives life with reckless abandon, glorious intensity, and holy intention in your heart.

Your heart is the most sacred part of your life because it is there that Christ has lovingly taken up residence. If you have invited Him in, He lives in your heart, and you should honor His presence day after day after day.

But perhaps an important question for you and me to answer is, “What else is living in my heart with Christ?” 

Have you allowed attitudes, habits, and dreams that should not be a part of your life to live side by side with Christ? Maybe some of our hearts need a deep and detailed housecleaning due to the clutter that has accumulated, the trash that has yet to be taken out, and the out-of-date décor that we foolishly insist doesn’t look all that bad!

Jesus will live in your heart no matter what condition it is in. However, once Jesus takes residence in one’s heart and shares that personal address, He wants to clean until His hands bleed.

Jesus wants to paint your heart the color of freshly fallen snow.

Jesus longs to redecorate the house that you call home into a sanctuary of hope and peace.

He will gently move around priorities, set out the trash, and replace every outdated attitude with His unconditional love and inexpressible joy.

Jesus can take a dilapidated shack that has been built with rotten wood and miraculously turn it into a glorious temple! He can transform an unstable and cracked foundation into one that is steady and secure. He can take a home that has been literally demolished by the storms of life and rebuild it into a palace fit only for a King.

My friend, not only will He be more at home in your sparkling, restored, and renewed heart, but the greatest miracle of all is that so will you! You will love what He does with your heart and you will gulp in the splendid atmosphere that only His dear presence provides. His goal, as the Divine Builder, is to fashion your heart into His home.

As you walk through the front door of your heart, holding His hand, you will find the place where you were always meant to belong and the place that wondrously calls your name. At last—you are home with Him!

You will find contentment in the heart that you call home when He holds the keys. As you examine the masterpiece that He has created, you will be amazed by the wonder and wisdom that His lordship has brought. Most of all, you will find that His presence has filled your home with joy!

I’d love to invite you to come with me on this restorative journey that will transform your heart into a home of comfort, stability, and peace. We will discover nooks and crannies in your heart that have been wonderfully designed for learning and growing. We will dispose of every outdated appliance and replace each one with eternal truth; we will repurpose every dream into a masterpiece of prayer. As we allow the Lord to be the Architect, the Builder, and our sure Foundation, our hearts will become a place of divine residence. And we will each utter with a whisper of worship, “Welcome home, Jesus. Welcome home!”

MY REVIEW 

This is a lovely book that brought  wisdom and peace to me. I love how the author talks about your heart is where  your home is. I never really thought about what all we place in our heart before reading this book. All those emotions, worries, heartaches and hopes are stored in our heart. The good news is that Jesus lives in our heart when we I give Him in. We need to realize that with Him in our heart some things need to go. I can think of a lot of things like anger, bitterness, loneliness or even unforgiveness. 

Each chapter in the book is filled with topics that help us clear out our heart and begin to unclutter what is not of God. The first chapter was really good. Everyone knows we have to have a solid foundation in order to overcome things that are not Godly. I love the questions at the end of each chapter and also the scripture reading and prayer. 

One of my favorite chapters is about the crack in the foundation. If you have ever experienced a crack in the foundation in your home, then you understand the devastation it can cause. What if that happens to your heart? When there is a crack it  is from a lack of trust. I never thought of that but it makes perfect sense. If I’m afraid then I’m saying that I don’t trust God. When I become overwhelmed with anxiety, the crack is open to my heart where doubt is invited. I love the scripture that says, “trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on our own understanding.” Proverbs 3:5. 

This would be an excellent book to use as a Bible study or as a gift to someone. It is an encouraging book with biblical examples as well as personal stories. Grab a copy for yourself and get a clearer picture of a pure heart. 

I received a copy of this book from Celebrate Lit. The review is my own opinion.

Blog Stops

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, March 30

Texas Book-aholic, March 31

She Lives To Read, April 1

Inklings and notions, April 2

Book Reviews From an Avid Reader, April 3

Locks, Hooks and Books, April 4

For Him and My Family, April 5

deb’s Book Review, April 6

Ashley’s Clean Book Reviews, April 7

Because I said so — and other adventures in Parenting, April 8

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, April 9

Christina’s Corner, April 10

Splashes of Joy, April 11

Cats in the Cradle Blog, April 12

Mary Hake, April 12

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, April 13

Giveaway

To celebrate their tour, Whitaker House is giving away the grand prize package ofa $20 Starbuck’s gift card and a copy of the book!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/1c56d/at-home-in-your-heart-celebration-tour-giveaway