Surviving Your Serengeti

What caught my eye for this book was the subtitle: 7 Skills to Master business and Life. After all, who doesn’t want to have more skills in life and especially in being more of a success in business. I’d like to have more success in business, yes I would. What is my business, you ask? Well…….I sew. And I sew about anything. But to market something I sew and to make money at it, well, that is another story. So I eagerly started reading this book with success in mind because now I was going to learn skills to help me. Course I completely missed the main title of the book starting with ‘SURVIVING…..’!!!!

So I start reading and this book has my immediate attention. It has an engaging story and is wrapped around the reality of living, I mean surviving the Serengeti Plains of East Africa as an animal. I will not go into the example of each animal mentioned because that is for you to read about. But let me say that by the time I got to the 4th animal, my focus changed. Because instead of seeing how these animal characteristics related to my business skills, I also started to relay them to my church and how we could use these examples there. Because a church that is surviving is a subject that every ministry involved person is interested in.

So I changed my purpose for reading the book, concentrating on how it would relate to church effectiveness and I read, “You must constantly be on the lookout for ‘inefficiency’ in the project and perhaps most important, you must adopt a proactive attitude by taking the following actions: Avoid multitasking, and learn to say no.” WHOA!!! Is that even allowed in church ministry? THEN it said to “Delegate tasks to others where appropriate. Look for ways to improve systems and processes.” Now please do not take this out of context. You really need to read the whole book and apply it to your own situation, whether business or some aspect of your life. In conclusion the book challenges you to identify which animal you are. Do it. You may be surprised at what you find out!!


I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers for an advance reading as part of their Booksneeze bloggers program . I was not required to write a positive review and therefore, the book review is 100% my own opinion.

The Inconvenient Marriage of Charlotte Beck

I do enjoy a good fiction book every now and then. But it has to keep my interest or I will soon throw it aside. While this book started out keeping my interest, it soon faded and the only reason I finished it was to compose a fair review on it.

The first page starts off with 'What Charlotte Beck wanted, Charlotte Beck generally got.' And I got caught up in her getting ready for this gayla event and I enjoyed the quotes at the beginning of each chapter from Miss Pence on how a lady should act. And when Charlotte fell into the arms of Alex Hambly instead of his twin, Martin Hambly, I thought of all the possible avenues this book could take off in. Add to it Alex's charm and Charlotte's head strong ways mixed in with their knowledge of astronomy and education and I really thought this book would go somewhere.

But unfortunately it just continued with Alex's charm and Charlotte's head strong ways and I soon got tired of her getting her own way. If the last chapter had happened in the middle and then continued with Alex's business venture with Charlotte's family, possibly mixed in with some twin brother controversy/jealousy? Now that could make for some good reading. But that didn't happen. So it got kind of boring.

And what was up with Buffalo Bill and his Wild West show??? That whole scenario I still can't figure out. It seemed totally out of place. Sorry, just can't give this book a thumbs up.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Jesus, My Father, the CIA and Me

I enjoyed the beginning chapters of this book. The author's father was involved in the CIA so it was a real page turner for me. But then that story ended after a few chapters and the author talked of his struggles growing up. The amusing descriptions of his experiences sprinkled throughout the book were unexpected and I loved that. His story of partaking of 'The Host' and stealing it is stinkin' hilarious! He also shared some of his daredevil shenanigans. And he drank alot. And it looked like he was well on the way to becoming like his alcoholic Dad. So I wanted to stop reading cause I don't like 'Drunk and out of control Dad' stories. But I didn't. And I am so glad I didn't!!

Because what really kept my interest was his mom. And Ian Cron described her so beautifully......in person and in spirit. I admired her commitment to her alcoholic husband and her drive to do the best she could in her life for her children. I loved the fact that after her husband died, she kept living! I am quoting the author, "Our parents are mysteries to us. No matter how close we think we are to them, we cannot know the content of their hearts. We don't know the disappointments, or the scars and regrets that wake them in the night, or the moments for which they wish they could get a do-over." In my simple mind, THIS is wise insight. And it touches my heart.

Ian did find life after drinking through a wise Christian counselor. Ian was able to be a Dad for his children that his own Dad was not able to be for him. Life is not easy but Jesus WILL make a difference. And in Ian's life, Jesus DID!!

This book was provided for me by Book Sneeze for an honest review.