Review: Sex and Money: Pleasures That Leave You Empty and Grace That Satisfies

Sex and Money: Pleasures That Leave You Empty and Grace That Satisfies by Paul David Tripp
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I really did want to like this book. I wanted so bad to like this book. But it just was not there for me. For the record, for the average Christian who does not think that they need this book, this could be an eye opener to their lifestyle that they are not aware of. That is, if they could get past the title that they would skip over because they do not think that it would apply to them.

So what was my problem with this? In an unofficial capacity I have a ministry to men with addictions. The title screams that this would help me help them, especially those with sexual addictions. Mr. Trip tells us over and over that we should turn away from out problems (rarely does he call them addictions) and put Jesus back on the throne as we move ourselves off of it. Now, this is good advice, I have no problem with that. The problem is a person with addictions needs to hear this but also needs to be given steps in the natural to overcome their problems. Mr. Trip does not offer anything like this at all. One without the other is not a real solid teaching in my estimation.

Except for a few chapters it is mostly about sexual problems in life. Change the statistics and put in other addictions and this book could have been about any pair of addictions that you want them to be. The book is really that generic. Basic quote from the book to sum it all up:

“The dynamic of addiction is that if you look to something that God created, to give you what it wasn’t intended to give you, either you get discouraged quickly, and wisely abandon those hopes, or you go back again and again, and in so doing, you begin to travel down addiction’s road."

In other words, you take the creation and replace the creator with it.

I think that the only chapter I liked really well was chapter 4 that talks about 'The highest pleasure'. He tells us why we are wired for pleasure and how to get Godly pleasure.

For the average user this book will most likely be OK. I really can not recommend it for anyone who is working in ministry to people like this or to the families of people with addictions. They will repeat the things to the addict thinking they are helping and the addict needs help, not just words.

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Review: Into Dust

Into Dust by Amy Quick Parrish
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received this book for free and voluntarily reviewed.

I have not read a lot of YA fiction, mostly because I am a much older person and the idea was kind of strange to me. A web site I visited offered some e-books for reviews so I scanned what was there and this one seemed interesting to me. When gifted the book I found out it was a YA book. I am thinking that I may have to start reading more because like another one I read the quality is quite good. On top of that, the age range indicates there will be a low of non-existent amount of sex. However, romance is still up for grabs in general it seems.

I have been a comic book fan for years and that is what interested me in the description. Janey, the lead character in the story, is a young girl from the Mexican side of the Texas border who loves her dad and comic books. She notices a resemblance to her dad, a masked vigilante (she does not know about this), and the comics she loves. Eventually, events lead to her father's death as he is fighting the drug cartels, and that is when the powers he had transfers to her. Eventually she moves to the Texas side of the border where her mom is from, and has to learn, with help from a tutor, about the powers she has.

It is funny in many ways because that part of comic book heroes is rarely looked at. The training she must go through to become the hero she needs to be. The fish out of water type experiences are quite well written, as are the times that she seems to doubt herself and her newfound abilities and the person who is training her as well.

The use of two different points of view in this story, both her and the person training her, is a little jarring at first but at least it is introduced early on in the story so that it is well established by the middle of the book.

My only complaint may be because of the medium that I was reading it in. Because one of the powers she had in pushing/receiving the thoughts of others the thoughts are often in italics. I have no problem with that but there were several times in my copy where words were in italics but not thoughts, and other times that thoughts (though they were from either person's narrative, not their thought dialogue) that they were not that way. By the middle of the book, it seemed to be standardized. I am thinking that it may be just the nature of the e-book and as I was able to read around it I did not see it as that much of a problem.

All in all, quite good. recommend it anyone who would be looking for a good story of comic book heroes and supernatural. May even want to take a look at the second in the series.

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