Bo's Cafe by John Lynch, Bill Thrall, and Bruce McNicol (Book Review)

Title: Bo's Cafe
Authors: John Lynch, Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol
Publisher: Windblown Media

About the book: High-powered exec Steven Kerner has no idea his tightly wound American dream is about to come crashing down. His high-profile, high-octane life has always provided everything he's wanted.

Or so he thought.

When his unresolved anger threatens his marriage, and his attempts to fix it only drive the one he loves farther away, he is pushed to the brink. An invitation from mystery man Andy Monroe may be the greatest hope Steven's ever been handed. (back cover)

My thoughts: I really enjoyed reading this book. It made me realize how alike everyone really is, and how we should watch for those opportunities to really connect with other people around us. That it doesn't take a fancy degree or tons of money - all it really takes is willingness and time. Bo's Cafe was a place where these kind of people seemed to gather. Here is a passage from one of those times at Bo's Cafe:

"Safe is a place where you can get out the worst about you and they don't run you off, talk you down, or head for the hills. It's having someone to stand with when you start to face the shameful stuff, man. It's where you can be a jerk and still have a place at the table the next day. . . where you don't have to hide or fake or pretend or bluff. Safe is being loved more for revealing your crap, not less. Safe is not having to 'man up' or be coerced to 'get real' or none of that nonsense."

This would be a great book for anyone to read who is struggling with something in their life and they don't really know which way to turn. It was full of warmth, common sense, family. The main character has an anger issue and tends to blame everyone else for his anger - it is never his fault. I have someone very close to me who mirrors this completely. Unfortunately, I don't think they are mature enough to actually "get" this book if they were to read it - but don't worry, it won't stop me from trying! There is just one more quote that I would like to share:

"But listen to this: repentance isn't doing something about your failure. Repentance is admitting you can't do anything about your failure. It's not just agreeing you've done something wrong; it's admitting you can't do what needs to be done to make it right. God waits and years for that moment with everything in Him."

If you want to find out more about the book - all you have to do is visit Bo's Cafe.
You can also read the first chapter here.

Bo's Cafe
Publisher/Publication Date: Windblown Media, Sept 2009
ISBN: 978-1-935170-04-4
256 pages

~This book was provided for review by First Wild Card Tours.~

First Wild Card Tour: Bo's Cafe

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

Today's Wild Card author is:

Bruce McNicol, Bill Thrall, and John Lynch

and the book:

Bo's Café

Windblown Media; 1 edition (September 25, 2009)

***Special thanks to Miriam Parker of Hachette Book Group for sending me a review copy.***

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Bruce McNicol is president of Leadership Catalyst, Inc. and an international speaker and consultant. He holds a master's in theology and a doctorate in organizational and leadership development. Previously he served for ten years as president of the international church planting organization Interest Associates.



Bill Thrall serves as vice-chair of Leadership Catalyst, mentor, and coauthor of the bestselling TrueFaced resources (www.truefaced.com), The Ascent of a Leader, andBeyond Your Best.



John Lynch is a national conference speaker and writer for LCI, holds a master's of theoology from Talbot Seminary, and has twenty years' experience as a teaching pastor of Open Door Fellowship. He's also cofounder and playwright of a theater troupe in Phoenix.



Visit the authors' website.

Product Details:

List Price: $13.99
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Windblown Media; 1 edition (September 25, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 193517004X
ISBN-13: 978-1935170044

AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:

At the time of this pre-post I hadn't completed the review yet - it should be up later today though!

In My Mailbox/Mailbox Monday 11-9-2009

Mailbox Monday is hosted at The Printed Page or In Your Mailbox at The Story Siren. Please stop by those posts and take a look at what packages everybody else got this week!

I won this DVD from The Mommy Files - thanks Shannon!

Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!: Wubbzy Goes Boo

Wubbzy and his friends are back in an all-new DVD collection just in time for the fall season! Watch as Wubbzy, Widget and Walden clean up a crazy mess with Moo Moo's magic wand, pick the perfect pumpkin and create the spookiest Halloween costume of all. There's singing, dancing, trick or treating and kickity-kick ball too, plus plenty of positive values like creativity, patience and responsibility. It's all here in the Emmy winning Nick Jr./Noggin hit that's so much fun it's scary! (Amazon)

The rest of these books are ARCs that I received from various sources.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters
by Jane Austen and Ben H. Winters

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters expands the original text of the beloved Jane Austen novel with all-new scenes of giant lobsters, rampaging octopi, two-headed sea serpents, and other biological monstrosities. As our story opens, the Dashwood sisters are evicted from their childhood home and sent to live on a mysterious island full of savage creatures and dark secrets. While sensible Elinor falls in love with Edward Ferrars, her romantic sister Marianne is courted by both the handsome Willoughby and the hideous man-monster Colonel Brandon. Can the Dashwood sisters triumph over meddlesome matriarchs and unscrupulous rogues to find true love? Or will they fall prey to the tentacles that are forever snapping at their heels? This masterful portrait of Regency England blends Jane Austen's biting social commentary with ultraviolent depictions of sea monsters biting. It's survival of the fittest - and only the swiftest swimmers will find true love! (back cover)



Double Take: A Memoir by Kevin Michael Connolly


Kevin Michael Connolly is a twenty-three-year-old who has seen the world in a way most of us never will. Whether swarmed by Japanese tourists at Epcot Center as a child or holding court as the X Games on his mono-ski as a teenager, Kevin has been an object of curiosity since the day he was born without legs. Growing up in rural Montana, he was raised like any other kid (except, that is, for his father's MacGyver-like contraptions such as the "butt boot"). As a college student, Kevin traveled to seventeen countries on his skateboard and, in an attempt to capture the stares of others, he took more than 30,000 photographs of people staring at him. In this dazzling memoir, Connolly casts the lens inward to explore how we view ourselves and what it is to truly see another person. We also get to know his quirky and unflappable parents and his spunky girlfriend. From the home of his family in Helena, Montana, to the streets of Tokyo and Kuala Lumpur, Connolly's remarkable journey will change the way you look at others, and the way you see yourself. (back cover)



The Cost of Dreams by Gary Stelzer

Set against the vivid backdrop of a Central American country in turmoil and a desolate Mexican wilderness, The Cost of Dreams introduces a masterful new writer of fiction. Gary Stelzer, a retired Midwest physician, draws upon an ordeal of one of his most memorable patients for a novel that's both a powerful, compelling page-turner and a poignant illumination of a woman's - and a people's - struggle to survive.

"Years ago," recalls Stelzer, "a foreign-born woman appeared at the ER of my small city hospital dreadfully injured by her drug-dealing brother-in-law. She had been shot at her family's home in the southwester U.S. and her husband had driven her and their two small children to this northern Midwest locale. There I cared for her and directed her protracted rehab. Then the husband abandoned them all.

"She drifted away in the years following. But I always recalled how badly I felt for her and her children. Then one day in southwestern New Mexico, I watched as dozens of freight trains passed by and I began asking myself, 'what if?"'

Thus the indomitable Flora Enriquez came to life.

Flora, a Mayan teenager, has escaped Talapa, her civil war-torn Central American village where her parents have been slain - and where even being seen in native wear could result in summary execution. Following her dream with nearly superhuman determination, she makes her way to San Diego, and against all odds, becomes a wife, mother and teacher. By hard work and shrewdness, she even obtains legal U.S. status.

But her life takes a horrific turn when she's shot by her drug-dealing brother in-law. As she lays unconscious and bleeding in front of her house, Mexican immigrants traveling on a freight train kidnap and claim her as their daughter, caring for her on a long, grueling cross-country flight.

Nearly a year later, still gravely wounded and disfigured, a freed Flora arrives at the Lake Michigan home of Kate Bowman, an American aide worker who had previously befriended Flora in Talapa. Kate's nephew had vanished on that mission, leaving Kate devastated and overwhelmed with guilt for permitting him to remain in a civil war ravaged Central America while she returned home.

Now Flora, eager to heal her injuries and desperate to restore what remains of her family, reignites in Kate a fire to learn the fate of her long lost nephew. The two women embark on a harrowing journey that takes them to the ancient caves of northwestern Mexico in the Barrancas del Cobre, an exceedingly vast abyss of canyons, in search of a storied Indian healer. The cost of healing borders on the unendurable.

With breathtaking suspense, pulse-pounding action and authentic Indian culture,
THE COST OF DREAMS is peopled by fully realized characters facing overwhelming obstacles and moral dilemmas. In short, it's a riveting and believable first-rate thriller. (publicity letter from Carol Fass Publicitiy)

Run For Your Life by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge

A killer passes judgment on New York. A calculating murderer who calls himself the Teacher is taking on New York City, slaying the powerful and the arrogant. His message to them is clear: Remember your manners or suffer the consequences! For some, it seems that the rich are finally getting what they deserve. For Gotham's elite, it is a call to terror.

One man struggles to save a city. There is only one man in the NYPD who can tackle this high-profile case: Detective Michael Bennett. For anyone else, the pressure would be overwhelming, but Mike is ready to step up - taking care of his ten children has prepared him for the job! With his hands already full, as his kids all come down with a virulent flu at once, he must now also face the challenge of tracking down the killer. As a secret pattern emerges in the Teacher's lessons, Detective Bennett has just a few precious hours to save New York from the greatest disaster in its history. (back cover)




Treasured: Knowing God by the Things He Keeps
by Leigh McLeroy

Every treasure tells a story. And this story has your name on every line.

Cigar boxes. Refrigerator doors. Scrapbooks and sock drawers and top shelves. These are the places we store our treasures - the keepsakes that tell the story of whom and what we've loved, how we've lived, and what matters most to us.


God is a collector, too, whose treasures are tucked securely into the pages of His book: a golden bell here, an olive leaf there, a scarlet thread, a blood-stained cloth, a few grains of barley. Each of these saved artifacts reveals a facet of His heart and tells the story of a Father whose most precious possession is. . .us.

In Treasured, Leigh McLeroy considers tangible reminders of God's active presence and guides us in discovering evidence in our own lives of His attentive love. (back cover)



Bo's Cafe by John Lynch, Bill Thrall, Bruce McNicol

High-powered exec Steven Kerner has no idea his tightly wound American dream is about to come crashing down. His high-profile, high-octane life has always provided everything he's wanted.

Or so he thought.

When his unresolved anger threatens his marriage, and his attempts to fix it only drive the one he loves farther away, he is pushed to the brink. An invitation from mystery man Andy Monroe may be the greatest hope Steven's ever been handed. (back cover)



God Gave Us Love
by Lisa Tawn Bergren and illustrated by Laura J. Bryant

As Little Cub and Grampa Bear's fishing adventure is interrupted by mischievous otters, the young polar bear begins to question why we must love others. . .even the seemingly unlovable.

In answering her questions, Grampa Bear gives tender explanations that teach Little Cub about the different kinds of love that is shared between families, friends, and mamas and papas. Grampa explains that all these kinds of love come from God and that it is important to love others because. . .

"Any time we show love, Little Cub, we're sharing a bit of his love."

This sweet tale will warm the hearts of young children as they learn about all the different sorts of love they can share with others. (back cover)




God Gave Us Christmas
by Lisa Tawn Bergren and illustrated by David Hohn

As Little Cub and her family prepare to celebrate the most special day of the year, the curious young polar bear begins to wonder. . . "Who invented Christmas?"

Mama's answer only leads to more questions like "Is God more important than Santa?" So she and Little Cub head off on a polar expedition to find God and to see how he gave them Christmas. Along the way, they find signs that God is at work all around them. Through Mama's gentle guidance, Little Cub learns about the very first Christmas and discovers that. . . "Jesus is the best present of all."

This enchanting tale provides the perfect opportunity to help young children celebrate the true meaning of Christmas and to discover how very much God loves them. (back cover)

Fall to Pieces:
A Memoir of Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll, and Mental Illness
By Mary Forsberg Weiland

In March 2007, twenty-four hours after Mary Weiland dragged her husband Scott's pricey rockstar wardrobe onto their driveway and torched it, she was locked up in a mental hospital. Watching all this were her frightened extended family, a conflicted husband wrestling with demons of his own and a tabloid industry gone gleeful at the "Bonfire in Toluca Lake!"

To the outside world, Weiland had led whatt seemed to be an enviable life. A successful international world model in the nineties, she married her longtime sweetheart - famed lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots and, later, Velvet Revolver, Scott Weiland - in 2000. Mary was the sane one, went the story - it was the tempestuous, unpredictable Scott who was crazy.

In her gripping memoir Fall to Pieces, Mary Weiland reveals that the truth is somewhere in between. From her earliest days in San Diego, Weiland displayed signs of trouble: a black depression that sometimes left her immobile for days, a temper that sent her into wild rages she didn't understand, an overdose. But her fierce determination to "have more" led to early success as a model.

At sixteen, she fell in love at first sight with Scott Weiland, then an aspiring musician who was hired to drive her to and from modeling gigs. Slowly, her casual relationship with beer and pot grew into an affair with cocaine and heroin that rivaled her love for Scott, who was addicted as well. From rehab to rehab, from breakup to reconciliation to eventual marriage, the couple fought their way back, welcomed the babies they'd dreamed of, and hoped their struggles were behind them. Then came the bonfire breakdown and the full onset of Mary's bipolar disorder, a widely misunderstood and misdiagnosed mental illness that affects more than five million Americans and had been, in fact, stalking Mary Weiland since her teens.

With refreshing candor, innate comic timing, and earned wisdom, Weiland recounts the extreme highs and lows of her life, including an unforgettable love affair with the man she always knew she'd marry, the careers and rock tours that took them around the world, and her fight to finally come to grips with the addictions that could have killed her. In her journey to understand and manage her bipolar disorder, she takes the reader on a wild ride into the dark and back into the light. (book jacket)