Eat This and Live! by Don Colbert

Nutrition these days is something of a war zone. Finding nutrition in foods can be both easier and more difficult than we think. But with flashy advertizements, tempting aromas, and foods under the guise of being healthy are everywhere. Combined with the seemingly high cost of healthy food, it's hard  to know what healthy really is.

Eat This and Live! is a guide to just that. Pointing out how normally foods can be unhealthy, explaining processes and chemicals that go into things like white flours, artificial sweeteners, and trans fat. And at the same time, providing a guide to what actually is healthy, and how we can incorporate it into our daily diet.

In this age, a lot of Americans are realizing that we need to care about our nutrition. You can't just eat whatever you want and somehow expect to be healthy. But there is so much conflicting information about what healthy food is, it's difficult to find what is actually true.

After reading countless online health journals, and a handful of health books, Eat This and Live! stands out. It is a go-to guide that explains some of those gray areas, explaining things like refined, bleached flour, hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils, artificial sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose, MSG, and pesticides and herbicides. This book actually explains in depth what these things are, how they are produced, and the health effects. It also explains the nutrients and enzymes in healthy food, good sources, and their health effects. Confused on all the information on saturated fats, omega-3 and ALAs, and poly and monounsaturated  fats? It is all about to make sense.

Also included is a guide to eating out healthy, and how to prepare healthy foods in the best way. I highly recommend this book to those trying to eat healthier.

Stuff Christians Like by Jonathan Acuff

Sometimes Christianity can be funny- all of our little habits and ways of speaking. This book is filled with the humor found in faith- including topics such as the culinary magic of the crock-pot, finding typos in worship music, secretly Christian bands, and holding hands.

Need some help in your spiritual walk? Jonathan Acuff has got you covered. There are go-to lists for which meals to pray before, which position to go for in a prayer circle, and the likely story behind how you came to own 14 copies of the Bible.

As a first note, I would only recommend this book to those who have been Christians for several years. It's basically about the little habits we can pick up over the years.

This book is flat-out hilarious. I was laughing out loud during a good quantity of the book. I showed the book to a few of my friends, and they were laughing out loud too. The humor is simply excellent.

A lot of the sections were great because I found out how many other people do the same things I do. It is a peculiar language we speak, and this book translates it. On a more serious note it pointed out some of the things we as as Christians need to change.

I will, however, say that a few of the essays seemed a bit over-the-top. The humor is sarcasm, but I think a couple of the things went a bit too far. Though, as I previously stated, this is as much of an eye-opener of what we need to stop doing as it is to get some laughs.

Warrior by Bryan Davis

The prince of dragons has hatched from the black egg. Jason and Koren flee to the Northlands in search for aid. But who is this white dragon who dwells there? Elyssa and Wallace are hot on their trails.

In Darkspere, Randall and the crazed Tibalt are accompanied by dragons as they try to prepare the planet for the arrival of the Lost Ones.

As I mentioned in my review of Starlighter, it was a good book but seemed very much an introduction to the series, it didn't dive into the heart of the story, per se. So I was really hoping that Warrior would blow me away. And I am happy to report that it did just that. The story was very suspenseful, intriguing, and layered. The story goes between several scenes and each one is so intense and full that you almost forget the other plots entirely until read of them again.

Even on the spiritual elements this book hit head-on. It raised excellent questions and had something of the theme, "How much are you willing to sacrifice?" Very hard to put down; I am very much looking forward to read the remaining novels in the Dragons of Starlight and Tales of Starlight series.

Starlighter by Bryan Davis

Rumors of a world where humans are enslaved by dragons have been circulating in the world of Jason Masters (younger brother of Adrian Masters).

The legend of a world of humans and no dragons now seems impossible to Koren. At the same time, Koren discovers that she has a gift that holds a power she didn't know possible.

Jason and Koren will have to work together to link the two worlds with a portal.

Starlighter is very similar to Masters & Slayers in many ways. Basically, they tell the same story, but two different sides. They even include many of the same events and scenes. It is slightly irritating to read something basically twice. Overall, though, it was cool to see multiple sides and thoughts on events in the books. What questions I had in Masters & Slayers were answered in Starlighter. So even though you can to choose only read either Dragons of Starlight or Tales of Starlight, I recommend reading both to get the full picture.

As for the book itself, it was excellent. The characters were well defined, the flow was good, and the story was very intriguing.

Masters & Slayers by Bryan Davis

Forbidden legends of dragons from another world linger. But when a portal believed to link the two worlds is found, everything changes- or does it? Adrian Masters and Marcelle find a freakishly-mirrored world where dragon-enslaved humans scoff at the idea of a human planet without dragons. Adrian and Marcelle find themselves in the awkward and dangerous position of rescuing the Lost Ones, only, they don't know that they're lost.

I would like to start off noting how beautiful the cover for this book is. Honestly, it is what drew me to read this book in the first place. And, I am quite glad it did. Masters & Slayers turned out to be two beautiful fantasy worlds, bridged by a few secret portals, and categorized by the infamous mythical creature- the dragon. I am no expert on dragon books- I have only read a select few. But this book had an excellent lore that strayed slightly from the typical medieval kingdoms and dragons tales.

All of that said, this book did start somewhat slow. In the note at the beginning of the book, which gives the recommended reading order, it recommends starting with Starlighter (Dragons of Starlight). I think the missing backdrop in this book might have been filled in if I read Starlighter first. Still, Bryan Davis says the order for the two is interchangeable. Overall, the characters are well done, but slightly too perfect. I am hoping that with this book having been such a beginning, the next books in the companion series will be intense and suspenseful.

Shadow in Serenity by Terri Blackstock

Logan Brisco has all the traits of an expert con artist, and then some. He is handsome, with a charming smile, likeable personality, and the ability to smoothly convince others to hand over their money. But even with all his experience and training, one obstacle stands in the way of his biggest con yet: Carny.

Carny Sullivan was raised by cons. How else would you end up with a name like Carny? But even after turning her life around, she can smell a conman a mile away, and Logan is on the radar. She will do anything to expose Logan's lies and save the town she has come to love- as long as she doesn't fall first.

This book is a Christian revision of the last book Terri released back when she wrote for the secular market. That said, her genre has shifted from romance to suspense. And this being based off one of her old stories, Shadow in Serenity does not contain the heart-pounding suspense consistent in most of her books. However, this does not mean this is not a great book. It was an excellent book! The characters are extremely well done, and you instantly bind with them, making the story all the more interesting. You travel with them through past and present on an amazing in-depth journey that gets you thinking. Amazing novel, and of course I cannot wait for Terri's next novel, Downfall, set to release in February 2012.

The Books of Mortals Covers

Well here they are. The covers for all three books in The Books of Mortals trilogy. What are my thoughts? Some sort of combination beautiful, epic, and captivating.

When I first saw the cover for Forbidden, I thought it seemed a bit plain, but it's sort of grown on me. And when combing with the covers for Mortal  and Sovereign, it creates a collection that I would rate as my all time favorite covers. They hint at a complex fantasy, while being both simple and complex- very intriguing.

And with that thought, I would like to state a few thoughts of mine on covers. We all know the saying, "Don't judge a book by it's cover." And while this is absolutely true, covers do not necessarily reflect the content of a book, we all tend to do it. Our eyes are naturally drawn to certain images. We want to have books that look appealing, and we might be more hesitant to buy books that look plain or cheesy.

Do you agree with my theory on covers? What are you thoughts on these covers? And this also my first post that is not a book review that I have posted on here. Should I do more posts like this in the  future? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.