Nikole Hahn

Nikole Hahn rated a book 5 of 5 stars

Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work
by Chip Heath

read in May, 2013

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Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work by Chip Heath and Dan Heath breaks down our decision-making patterns and helps to identity the problems of our narrow points of view. It’s a business book, but it can be read to help someone with...more Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work by Chip Heath and Dan Heath breaks down our decision-making patterns and helps to identity the problems of our narrow points of view. It’s a business book, but it can be read to help someone with their personal life.

Chapter One begins with the title, “The Four Villains of Decision Making,” which includes making decisions based on tradition and political infighting:

“This was the moment of clarity. From the perspective of an outsider, someone not encumbered by the historical legacy and the political infighting, shutting down the memory business was the obvious thing to do (page 14).” The authors explained how Intel’s CEO, Gordon Moore and Andy Grove fought on what direction they should take Intel. At the time, they were deep into the memory business, but microprocessors were where the profit was even though Intel had a legacy in memory. Because of asking themselves, what would a brand new CEO do in this situation who didn’t have the history of the company ingrained in their psyche, Moore and Grove saved Intel.

Decisive breaks the book down in four parts, outlining their business theory: WRAP (Widen your options, Reality-test your assumptions, Attain distance before deciding, and Prepare to be wrong).

Many times we don’t widen our options by expanding the spotlight beyond what people want us to focus on. We need to look at the bigger picture and widening your options does this.

Reality-test your assumptions uses the example of Ooching. Someone in one of the chapters chose to test a product before deciding to invest in it. In this section, Decisive even suggested that people applying for a specific job interview people in that field to determine if the job is the right fit for you and if it met your expectations.

Attain distance before deciding talks about stepping away or sleeping on a decision before agreeing to the job. It used an example of someone who had to decide between a great job and a greater job. The emotional high after the interview impeded her judgement and ultimately she chose to stay with her job because it gave her balance in her life. She had time for all the things she wanted to do in life, but the better paying job would have increased her work hours exponentially.

Prepare to be wrong is preparing for the worst-case scenario. Decisive talked about setting trip wires. Trip wires are like early warning systems.

“All this worrying about traps and contingencies may make tripwires sound overly cautious–the bicycle helmet of decision making. But actually we want to argue the opposite, that tripwires encourage risk taking by letting us carve out a “safe space” for experimentation” (Pg. 240).

Decisive’s chapters bear a summary and repetition style of writing which makes keeping this new knowledge easier. I enjoyed reading this book and gave it five stars.

*Book given by publisher to review.(less)

Nikole Hahn rated a book 1 of 5 stars

Lucretia and the Kroons
by Victor LaValle

read in May, 2013

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I'm not writing a review of this novel. It's great writing, but awful as I am wondering what the point is with these chapters. I am choosing to not finish it at this point as I have had this book for a while on my kindle. I never agreed I would revie...more

Nikole Hahn rated a book 5 of 5 stars

Broken Wings
by Shannon Dittemore (Goodreads Author)

read in May, 2013

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Broken Wings by Shannon Dittemore is Book Two in the Angel Eyes Trilogy. It continues Jake and Brielle’s story and is the only novel series I love that leaves us hanging at the end, forcing us to buy the next book in the series to find out what happe...more Broken Wings by Shannon Dittemore is Book Two in the Angel Eyes Trilogy. It continues Jake and Brielle’s story and is the only novel series I love that leaves us hanging at the end, forcing us to buy the next book in the series to find out what happened.

Brielle still wears the Halo Jake gave her in Book One. Marco is with them. Canaan is still Jake’s Shield. But now Brielle’s father is in trouble. He’s met a young woman named Olivia. In the beginning chapters, Brielle can’t identity if what she is feeling is directly related to having to share her father with someone else or if the warning in the Halo should be heeded and what it means. Brielle is also having nightmares. The nightmares get stronger with each chapter.

Her father is drinking again. Olivia has encouraged it. Brielle grows more helpless as her father becomes more alcoholic than father. The demon, Damian, has also returned. The Prince of Darkness has plans to war over Stratus, Oregon and wants Brielle and Jake. Damian isn’t an active character until the later half of the novel as Jake discovers things about his past which connect him to Brielle’s father and deceased mother. Meanwhile, heaven and hell prepare for a celestial war over Stratus and Jake and Brielle are in the middle.

Dittemore successfully writes another novel, chronicling Brielle and Jake’s love story with her beautiful, earthy, and intense story telling of show more than tell. Broken Wings ends on a question mark which will force you to buy her next novel in the series, Dark Halo (August, 2013) to find the end of the story. The story in Broken Wings stops at the edge of the action. It’s the only novel where I don’t mind this technique. Normally, I hate it when novels have a beginning and middle, but the end is not in the book you are reading. Thankfully, Dittemore puts out these novels in quick succession so you don’t have to wait too long before continuing the saga. I gave this novel five stars.

*Book given by publisher to review.(less)

Nikole Hahn rated a book 5 of 5 stars

Gods not dead
by Rice Brooks

read in May, 2013

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“God must necessarily exist in order for atheists not to believe in Him. There is no other explanation for the capacity to reason (even poorly). Atheism and naturalism can’t account for reason. To say that reason came into being for no reason is unre...more

“God must necessarily exist in order for atheists not to believe in Him. There is no other explanation for the capacity to reason (even poorly). Atheism and naturalism can’t account for reason. To say that reason came into being for no reason is unreasonable. The logical processes of reason and deduction in the scientific method must be assumed in order for scientific inquiry to take place; therefore, science can’t verify itself in the strict sense.” - Pg. 36, God’s Not Dead: Evidence For God in an Age of Uncertainty; Thomas Nelson

Unbelievers consider faith and science different as if faith takes an instant dislike to science. God’s Not Dead: Evidence for God in an Age of Uncertainty by Rice Broocks reads like a history and science book combined as Rice shows how both science and faith are connected.

Rice has spent thirty years focusing on university campuses around the world. He is the co-founder of Every Nation family of churches. He is the senior minister to Bethel World Outreach Church in Nashville, Tennessee and has a master’s degree from Reformed Theological Seminary with a doctorate from Fuller Theological Seminary. Rice writes directly to the atheist and humanist. Perhaps because he hated church? “The notion of being religious was repulsive. Church was just a place to have weddings and funerals.” Rice says.

“Skeptics (and atheists),” Rice writes, “Use ridicule and mockery to label people of faith as anti-intellectual or irrational. Set up a false dichotomy between science and faith, telling people to choose one or the other. Keep the debate one-sided by not allowing a dissenting opinion in the public arena, making sure the only places where expressions of faith are allowed are in strictly religious settings.”

So this book is written for them. It is also written for the believer. Rice believes every believer can and should engage the non-believer in constructive discussion. People who don’t educate themselves in what they believe are exercising blind faith. Blind faith, Rice says, is wrong. Rice dissects the arguments of Dawkins and Hawkings, referring to debates and examining the details.

There are lots of scientific details as he goes into Darwinism and other theories. Rice should be considered a formidable foe when considering a debate with him. I would love to have him on my team if debate were a competition between believers and atheists or humanists. He demonstrates a thorough knowledge of atheism and humanists, of science and history.

I especially love reading how our belief in God is so confirmed in science and history. Rice goes into the historicity of Jesus and how non-Christian artifacts confirm, not just that Jesus existed, but third-century historian Julius Africanus cited the first-century historian Thallus, who witnessed the darkness which occurred on the day of crucifixion.

Rice quotes Africanus as saying, “On the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down. This darkness Thallus, in the 263 book of his History, calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun. For the Hebrews celebrate the passover on the 14th day according to the moon, and the passion of our Savior fails on the day before the passover (see Phlegon); but an eclipse of the sun takes place only when the moon comes under the sun. And it cannot happen at any other time but in the interval between the first day of the new moon and the last of the old, that is at their junction: how then should an eclipse be supposed to happen when the moon is almost diametrically opposite of the sun?”

God’s Not Dead runs through archeological, reliable manuscripts, prophetic, and extraordinary impact as the book sets out to prove the evidence of God through science and historical evidence. Overall, I enjoyed this book. It really affirmed my faith, helped me to learn more about it, and I agree with Rice Broocks that Christians need to learn about their faith rather than walk blindly. I gave this book five stars.

*Book given by the publisher to review.(less)

Nikole Hahn is on page 90 of 386 of 1776

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by David McCullough

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Nikole Hahn rated a book 5 of 5 stars

The Widow of Saunders Creek by Tracey Bateman

The Widow of Saunders Creek: A Novel
by Tracey Bateman

read in April, 2013

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The Widow of Saunders Creek by Tracey Bateman is a mixed bag of romance and ghost story; a story of loss and love; of demons and witches.

Corrie married dynamic Jarrod Saunders. He joined the military and went off to Iraq. Corrie and Jarrod were child...more

Nikole Hahn rated a book 3 of 5 stars

What Every Woman Should Know
by Jori Sams (Goodreads Author)

read in April, 2013

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Note to Reader: I am not reviewing this book based on biblical or historical accuracy as I am not schooled in theology nor do I have Bible Study experience to consider myself an expert. If there is anything obviously in error, I will point it out, bu...more Note to Reader: I am not reviewing this book based on biblical or historical accuracy as I am not schooled in theology nor do I have Bible Study experience to consider myself an expert. If there is anything obviously in error, I will point it out, but otherwise I leave that discernment to you. Jori Sams is the author of Revelation in Seven Weeks and There Will Come No More Tears. A copy of the book was given to me by the author to review as part of her blog tour. Her website is located here.

What Every Woman Should Know by Jori Sams uniquely explores gender equality in which she sets out to prove that every woman needs to know their place in God’s heart. This book is a historical and biblical expository with numerous technical errors.

First, What Every Woman Should Know is well-researched. Research demands many hours and the gift of organizing that surplus of information into readable chapters, and this deserves recognition. I felt this book explored well how women ranked in biblical history and scripture. The book begins with the patriarchal society and delves into Mosaic Law, moving us through history to present time. What gives me doubt on its accuracy has more to do with how badly edited and poorly cited this manuscript was in comparison with similar genres.

All this beautiful work deserves the time it takes for re-writes and a professional editor who can cut unnecessary words. This phrase on location 36-37 says,“Then, in a blink of an eye, she was gone as life as I know it passed from her.” Blink of an eye is a cliche. I would have said, “In the time it takes to exhale, she was gone. Life as I knew it changed.“

An editor would have caught this misspelling here, ¹“The result = less people speaking about it,” and fixed it to read, “The result equals less people speaking about it.” An editor would have pointed out the necessary places to add a footnote or an end notes with proper citing techniques as demonstrated above. The bibliography needed better organizing, perhaps putting the many references by chapter with the numbers referring to the exact place and context where the information was used to make it easier for a reader to delve deeper into a point. The spelling, punctuation, grammar, missing words, extraordinarily long paragraphs, and sentence structure problems were too numerous to refer to in one book review.

²At one place, I winced as the book became crude in its terminology when it read, “As the women were doing the bulk of the work, men were merely hunting or planting their seed in women.” I thought that was unnecessary (unless it was a typo). The author also had a foreword and an introduction. Either include one or the other, but not both. Chapter One didn’t begin in the first two paragraphs, but where the book read, “In reality, so much…” Of course, I would have changed it to read, “So much over the course of history has…”

The first two paragraphs in Chapter One had too many “I’s” in it, and peppered throughout the book were too many references to her frequent worldwide travels and years of experience. What bothered me towards the end of the book were the frequent put-downs of church.

We get enough of that online and through other social media where Christians put down houses of worship whether, as Frank Viola in Pagan Christianity said, the church building is unbiblical, or from the hurt I hear in people’s words. Either way, the rhetoric is getting old. While I agree with her on several points, I think repeating the same arguments causes more harm to the Christian belief. House churches and places of worship can work in tandem.

Otherwise, What Women Should Know comes off as strong and confident. This book has a great teaching style so the reader can retain more information. The author shares some insight into her testimony and shows a lot of knowledge. The Bible Study at the end of the book is a nice touch. Other technical issues existed in the book, but I chose to highlight what was important. Overall, I gave this book three stars. The editing errors disrupted what would have otherwise been a pleasant reading experience for me.

———————————

¹Location 2877

²Location 336(less)

Nikole Hahn rated a book 4 of 5 stars

Gods at War: Defeating the Idols That Battle for Your Heart
by Kyle Idleman

read in April, 2013

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Gods at War: Defeating the Idols that Battle for Your Heart by Kyle Idleman remind and humble me of the power of the cross and how, God, in His infinite mercies, does not give us what we deserve. It makes the 1st and 2nd commandments all the more rea...more Gods at War: Defeating the Idols that Battle for Your Heart by Kyle Idleman remind and humble me of the power of the cross and how, God, in His infinite mercies, does not give us what we deserve. It makes the 1st and 2nd commandments all the more real by defining idols (and gods) as more than old gods from Rome and Greece.

Filled with humor and insight, Gods at War goes in-depth into the things and people in our life that steal our love and devotion from God.

Gods at War begin with defining idols and speaking about biblical stories that talk about how we define idols. It’s cultural. Gifts God has given us can become idols because we put those gifts higher than God whether it is the love of our children to the love of a football game. Loving that thing or being that person isn’t the issue, but elevating that gift above our love of God becomes an idol in our heart. Gods at War teaches us we need to love the thing or person in context with our love of God. God needs to be higher and seated on the throne of our heart.

The only passage that caused me to feel defensive, even offended, was on page 229:

This last Christmas we had opened presents at my in-laws’ house. I was putting together one of the kids’ toys on the family room floor and my father-in-law was sitting in his recliner watching the hunting channel—the channel that sends the message, “My son-in-law will never be a real man because he doesn’t shoot things or build things.”

While it seemed harmless enough, I couldn’t help but get hung up on that statement. What did his father-in-law think of that statement? Is Idleman anti-gun or anti-hunting? I realize in our politicized world a statement like this is open season for all kinds of assumptions. An asterisk near it mentioned that the editors wanted Idleman to finish that story, but Idleman didn’t want to. Asterisks exist throughout the book and add to the book because of Idleman’s humor. It’s infectious.

In several places, Idleman had me laughing. The parts that had me laughing had to be read to my husband who sat in the other room. This is the kind of book that will successfully bring you down from arrogant to humble within a few pages. I especially loved the personal touch of stories and how Idleman gave a reference where to finish reading those true-life stories. Because of Gods at War’s hard truths and humor, I gave this book four stars. I docked a fifth star because of the quote on hunting.

It made me ask all sorts of questions, like how is the relationship between him and his father-in-law? What does Idleman think of hunting and the second amendment? What did his father-in-law think when he read that portion of the book? I’m not sure that it added to Gods at War.

*Book given by publisher to review.(less)

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Nikole Hahn rated a book 5 of 5 stars Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work by Chip Heath read in May, 2013	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work by Chip Heath and Dan Heath breaks down our decision-making patterns and helps to identity the problems of our narrow points of view. It’s a business book, but it can be read to help someone with...more
May 09, 2013 07:02am · see review
Nikole Hahn rated a book 1 of 5 stars Lucretia and the Kroons by Victor LaValle read in May, 2013	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I'm not writing a review of this novel. It's great writing, but awful as I am wondering what the point is with these chapters. I am choosing to not finish it at this point as I have had this book for a while on my kindle. I never agreed I would revie...more
May 09, 2013 06:08am · see review
Nikole Hahn rated a book 5 of 5 stars Broken Wings by Shannon Dittemore (Goodreads Author) read in May, 2013	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Broken Wings by Shannon Dittemore is Book Two in the Angel Eyes Trilogy. It continues Jake and Brielle’s story and is the only novel series I love that leaves us hanging at the end, forcing us to buy the next book in the series to find out what happe...more
May 09, 2013 05:39am · see review
Nikole Hahn rated a book 5 of 5 stars Gods not dead by Rice Brooks read in May, 2013	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
“God must necessarily exist in order for atheists not to believe in Him. There is no other explanation for the capacity to reason (even poorly). Atheism and naturalism can’t account for reason. To say that reason came into being for no reason is unre...more
May 07, 2013 01:04pm · see review
Nikole Hahn is on page 90 of 386 of 1776 1776 by David McCullough progress:	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Apr 27, 2013 10:05am · like · see status
Nikole Hahn rated a book 5 of 5 stars The Widow of Saunders Creek: A Novel by Tracey Bateman read in April, 2013	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The Widow of Saunders Creek by Tracey Bateman is a mixed bag of romance and ghost story; a story of loss and love; of demons and witches. Corrie married dynamic Jarrod Saunders. He joined the military and went off to Iraq. Corrie and Jarrod were child...more
Apr 27, 2013 10:04am · see review
Nikole Hahn rated a book 3 of 5 stars What Every Woman Should Know by Jori Sams (Goodreads Author) read in April, 2013	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Note to Reader: I am not reviewing this book based on biblical or historical accuracy as I am not schooled in theology nor do I have Bible Study experience to consider myself an expert. If there is anything obviously in error, I will point it out, bu...more
Apr 20, 2013 05:09am · see review
Nikole Hahn rated a book 4 of 5 stars Gods at War: Defeating the Idols That Battle for Your Heart by Kyle Idleman read in April, 2013	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Gods at War: Defeating the Idols that Battle for Your Heart by Kyle Idleman remind and humble me of the power of the cross and how, God, in His infinite mercies, does not give us what we deserve. It makes the 1st and 2nd commandments all the more rea...more
Apr 14, 2013 08:04pm · see review

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