How We Did It – Nancy B. Kennedy

Before I get to the review, I want to quick go over what I hope to be my blog posting schedule.  The plan is to post something every Monday, Thursday, and Saturday/Sunday.  Monday will be short story day, usually based off a prompt from Chuck Wendig.  Thursday will be a book review and the weekend will be either a book review or something else related to books or the English language in general.  And now to the review:

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When I checked my email one morning and saw that I won this book from the Goodreads First Reads program, I immediately got excited.  As the days went on before I received the book, that excitement turned to dread.  Another diet book, I thought.  Yippee.  I figured I would read it anyway.  After all, I got it for free; I might as well put in a bit of effort and go through the whole thing.  As usual, I scanned the back cover and chapter titles as soon as I pulled it out of the packaging.  A realization jumped at me:

This is not a diet book.

That’s right.  This is not one of those books.  You know the ones – they tell you to eat and do things that sound crazy.  They want you to do something like “Eat only cauliflower and plain chicken for a month and watch the pounds melt away,” or other things that seem impossible for normal people.  I know those kinds of crazy diets work for some people.  I always assume those people have 9-5 jobs and don’t have to cook for other people ever.  Also that they have no taste buds or joy in life.  (Those assumptions are probably blatantly not true, but it’s what I generally think).  Working retail doesn’t always offer regular hours that stay the same week to week, which makes it difficult to stick to one of the schedules usually mandated by the stricter diets.  However, this is not one of those books anyway, so that doesn’t matter right now.

This book is full of weight-loss success stories from normal people.  How We Did It shows over two dozen changed lives and almost as many programs and diets.  Each person tells his or her stories through interviews with the author.  After the success story, each person gets the opportunity to thank those who helped them reach their goals, followed by their own little tips for the reader.  Kennedy then offers a quote from a book or other media related to the program under discussion and a brief analysis.  One of my favorite parts is the checklist at the end of each story: “This plan might work for me because…” with a short list of things the reader is looking for or thinks he can handle that would work well with the program.

The first featured story talks about SparkPeople.  I never heard of this website before reading this book.  I signed up two days ago.  It’s not a specific program; rather, it provides lots of tools and support.  I haven’t explored it very much yet, but it certainly has me intrigued.  It’s a free website (which is one reason I chose to look into it).  I also plan to purchase the book Thin Within based on the description in chapter 6.  It’s a Christian approach to weight loss that looks at weight in light of a relationship with God.

How We Did It features specific diets (Atkins, South Beach, Zone, Nutrisystem, and Jenny Craig), do-it-yourself tools (SparkPeople, calorie-counting, personal trainers), support groups (Weight Watchers, Overeaters Anonymous, Recovery from Food Addiction,  and the Duke Diet &Fitness Center), surgeries, and other programs (the Pritikin Program, First Place 4 Health, 3D, Body-for-Life, Curves, and the Ornish Program).

I cannot recommend this book enough to anyone curious about different weight-loss (and weight-loss-maintenance) methods.  Kennedy does a great job presenting each of the featured options in an equal light, allowing the reader to decide what works best in his individual situation.

Alienation – Jon S. Lewis

Allow me to begin by pointing out that I have yet to read Invasion, the first book in the CHAOS series.  I’m going to assume that, once I read that, this book will make more sense.  That said, I love the fact that the book doesn’t begin with a chapter or two of backstory.  There’s action and character development before Lewis gives even a full paragraph to the events of the previous book.  Memories come up naturally in the main character’s train of thought and observations, not in an awkward info-dump that would bore people familiar with the first book.  I appreciate that Lewis realizes that some readers may be diving into the middle of the story and takes the time to help us get acquainted with his character and unique world without alienating his loyal readers.  (I’m very sorry about that horrible pun there.  Sometimes I just can’t help myself.)

Speaking of Lewis’ unique world – this part confused me.  Unless I’m missing something (which I probably am, since I won’t have a chance to get the first book until Friday), jet packs are a thing in this book’s universe.  They’ve been a thing since World War II.  When I first started reading and realized that it wasn’t supposed to take place in some future world, I did a bit of a double take.  Once I got over my initial surprise, accepting the jet packs, hoverboards, and robots was easy.  It fascinated me.  Sci-fi tech just lights something in my mind.  If hoverboards are, indeed, a possibility, what else could people create?  Could that lead to landspeeders like the ones in Star Wars?  As long as Gungans never make an entrance, that would be awesome!  But I digress.  The advanced technology also explained how anyone in this ‘verse would think that Earth could stand a chance against technologically advanced super-monster aliens.

That’s right – aliens.  Of course there are aliens; it’s right there in the title.  The title has two purposes, the second of which I’ll get to in a moment.  The first, most obvious reason is the aliens.  Apparently, in the first book, aliens invaded.  The Earth suddenly met some of the other inhabitants of the galaxy.  Some are friendly; some are evil.  The evil ones, the Thule, are shape-shifters bent on destroying humanity to make Earth their new home world.  Several other kinds of alien life forms are visiting Earth, as well, but most of the others are actually helping humans.  The science of whether or not aliens would survive on Earth is barely mentioned.  Aliens simply exist in this universe.  Thankfully, Lewis avoids the pitfall that has ruined many good books – too much information.

Here’s what I loved about this book: No info-dumps.  There were no major ones for backstory and none for boring data.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Lewis had everything figured out about the boring bits.  Maybe he even has it written down somewhere in a manuscript.  Or maybe he saw a future of aliens trying to exterminate us and he’s trying to warn us without sounding like a crazy person.  (Oddly enough, I tend to assume that about pretty much every well-written sci-fi/fantasy book I read.  What if…?)

Okay, for the second reason for the title.  Lewis’ main character, Colt McAlister, loses most of the people he loves in the first book (it’s not a spoiler if it’s on the back cover blurb).  By the time Alienation really gets going, he’s built himself a small network of friends and family.  Within a few days, he discovers reasons to distrust most of them and gets in situations that push the rest of them away from him.  He truly is alienated.  He needs to learn who he can trust.  If he chooses the wrong person, he dies.

The stakes are high and the action is fast-paced.  One of the supporting characters is a “real-life” comic book hero.  The world is infused with aliens and futuristic technology.  This is the perfect story for teenagers, especially boys.  I give it 3.5 stars.  I have a feeling that, once I read Invasion, that rating will change to 4.5 stars.  Enjoy.

The Next Target – Nikki Arana

“Love your enemies.”  We hear this phrase all the time.  Many of us even claim to follow the instruction.  It’s easy to use this Bible verse when we’re telling a kid how to deal with the annoying people in their neighborhoods or when giving advice to someone dealing with aggravating co-workers.  Is that all it means, though?  Nikki Arana, in her upcoming novel, illustrates that it is a far bigger and grander love than what we are used to offering.

Austia Donatelli lost the love of her life to the Muslims with whom he was sharing the love of God.  Despite the counsel of many people, she continued his outreach after his tragic death.  She spreads God’s love by simply loving the Muslims in her town of Agua Viva, California.  She even opens a Career Center to help immigrants find jobs and teaches an ESL class for women.  Through the ESL class, she is given an opportunity to share her faith with a young woman.  The young woman’s conversion to Christianity unleashes a series of events that culminates in both a spiritual and physical confrontation that threatens to destroy all those dear to Austia.

The characters in this book are incredible.  While Austia is the main character, there are several other viewpoint characters, each with his or her own story arc.  No character comes to the end of this book unchanged.  Twists and turns abound in this fast-paced suspense story that keeps the reader quickly flipping pages to watch the race between Austia, the FBI, and a terrorist cell intent on unleashing a devastating attack on America.

While the action never stops and we desperately want to know if Austia will make it through the physical confrontation, The Next Target’s true conflict is spiritual.  It is a battle between love and hate, between God and Satan.  The love and respect Austia gives her Muslim neighbors should challenge us all.  Can love survive such attacks?  Can hatred turn to love?  As a Christian, Austia believes the answer to both questions is a resounding “Yes!” We say “Love your enemies,” but when those enemies are different than us, when they are distrusted because of their heritage, how we will respond?  Can we change the way we feel?  Can we, especially Christians, show love and respect to everyone?

This book releases in June.  I encourage you to pick it up as soon as you can.  The message is so pertinent to our world today.  The challenge is clear: Will you put it all on the line to share Christ’s love?