Review: Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An interesting book. Was not sure about it but have found it to be interesting. It is a little bit fantasy, science fiction, time travel and coming of age. I borrowed the ebook from my public library.

The characters are an interesting group of people. An old man who sees monsters no one else can see, his grandson who he shows a lot of weird pictures to and tells strange stories about, and an off the wall psychiatrist who should be not allowed to practice law. You ask what all this has to do with peculiar children? If I told you that then their would be spoilers. When Miss Peregrine and the children join the story we are well into it.

Writing is tight, and the story seems to wander a little bit, but every bit of it is necessary for later in the story.

My only complaint, the story while it finishes, does end on a cliffhanger to set it up for the next in the series.

I recommend this to all who want a light hatred story .

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Review: The Temporal

The Temporal by C.J. Martin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Excellent book. While there is a fairly good size cast of characters and it seems to take a while for you to figure out how they all tie together, they do, and if you can stay with the story long enough you can see where it all comes together.

The basic idea behind the story, there are people who exists that can listen to events, some from the past, some from the future. They can also cause time to freeze in a way for short periods of time. The hero of our story at one point says to his mentor, 'does that make us superheros?' and that is a good question. The people in our story are really superheroes and villains, they just work behind the scenes. The good guys are the temporals, and they exist as freaks of nature, that seem to happen during earthquakes.

While there is some violence it is mostly like you would see in comic books. There is no sexual innuendo, but the hero and his new lady friend seem to it off in a nice way. In other words, this book would be safe for all to read.

I would recommend this to people who like an action book with a touch of sci-fi to it.

I received a review copy from the author and have given my honest review of the book.

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Review: Heaven on Earth: God's Call to Community in the Book of Revelation

Heaven on Earth: God's Call to Community in the Book of Revelation by Michael Battle
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received a copy of this book from Westminster John Knox Press and Netgalley.com. What follows is an honest review.

I wanted to read this because the title interested me. I have to say I was disappointed. To start with, my beliefs in how God works are totally different than the authors. I would not let theology get in the way of a review of any book, so that was not the problem. I can learn from anyone.

Most of the book has little to do with Revelation, the chapters each begin with some scripture from Revelation and there is a chapter or two that focuses on the book, For the most part, this book becomes a effort by the author to tell me that my beliefs, that not all are going to heaven at the end of the world, are wrong, and I need to adjust my way of thinking to his, everyone goes, maybe even Satan himself. Each chapter is focused on telling the reader that a personal salvation is not what Jesus came for, that we can only be complete if we are in community and the only way we can have that is if all go to heaven.

First, his arguments are straw men. He basically says that personal salvation means that I do not care if anyone else makes it there. That is a false statement. I do care. I want to have everyone go to heaven with me. However, if they choose not to accept the gift given to them, then I and God will not force them to accept it.

Next, he does with the scriptures what he accuses the other side of doing. He cherry picks the scriptures to meet what he wants them to say. At one point he uses Jesus story of the sheep and the lambs. Jesus said when you feed the hungry, take care of the poor, clothe the naked, that we are doing it for Him and that brings heaven to earth. I can agree with that. However, a few verses later it talks about those who do not do these things will be sent to an eternal hell saved for the devil and his angels. So use a scripture to support and ignore the ones that disagree with you, even though they are in the same story.

Lastly, he hits us over the head with this, over and over. I could understand that this in one or two chapters but it seems to be the focus on each chapter. To set the record straight, if I was reading something that said his point of view was wrong and they said it over and over again, then I would most likely say the same thing. Pounding a point of view over and over again is just not a good idea. I thought this book was to be a study of Revelations, I was sadly disappointed.

I really cannot recommend this book to anyone.

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