maidmarian read and liked Elisa's review of The Shack:

" In case you can't read it, the tagline on this is "Where tragedy confronts eternity."

This is the story of Mack, a man whose 6-year-old daughter was abducted and brutally murdered during a family camping trip. The serial killer,...more In case you can't read it, the tagline on this is "Where tragedy confronts eternity."

This is the story of Mack, a man whose 6-year-old daughter was abducted and brutally murdered during a family camping trip. The serial killer, a man who leaves a ladybug pin everytime he kills a child, was never captured, and the only clue to Missy's abduction was an undeniable, bloodstained red sundress on the floor of an abandoned shack high up in the middle of nowhere. Now, four years after Missy's murder, her father receives a letter in his mailbox -- from God -- inviting him back to the scene of the crime, a return to The Shack where the trail of evidence ended.

Mack, who has been living under what he quietly calls The Great Sadness for the past four years, is enraged. What kind of sick prank is this? The letter is either from Missy's killer, who could be luring Mack away from his remaining four children so he can strike again, or it is really... from God. Fearing to be thought crazed with unresolved grief, Mack packs his Jeep with a gun and his daughter's picture, and heads back up to The Shack: where tragedy confronts eternity.

God is waiting for Mack. But it's not the God of Mack's parents or even the God of his church. This is a God who delights in nothing so much as standing conventions and preconceived notions on their heads and messing with his children's hearts. This is a God who stands in the kitchen stirring cake batter and telling Mack, "The problem is that many folks try to grasp some sense of who I am by taking the best version of themselves, projecting that to the nth degree, factoring in all the goodness they can preceive, which often isn't much, and then call that God. And while it may seem like a noble effort, the truth is that it falls pitifully short of who I really am. I'm not merely the best version of you that you can think of. I am far more than that, above and beyond all that you can ask or think."

And that weekend, right there at The Shack, God and Mackenzie Phillips wrestle with the problem of pain, of suffering, of free will and judgment and heartache and the very nature of godhood in a way that is entirely authentic and deep.

Now because I would not be a good book reviewer if I failed to address the nuts and bolts of this book, I'll do my job now: William P. Young, this book's author, is a virutal unknown. The book was published by Windblown Media, also an unknown. The language in the book is coarse, not in the sense that it is foul, but in the sense that an inexperienced author is trying to emulate the colloquialsms of African-American dialect and at times utterly forgets that he is supposed to be doing this, falling back easily into Standard American English. Because of this, the book lacks a certain cohesion. There are also misplaced modifiers that an experienced editor would have caught and fixed before sending the manuscript to the printer. One can only hope that future printings of this will see these minor errors accounted for and fixed...

And now here is the hope: when my best friend from high school first gave me a copy of this book and begged me to read it, I groaned inwardly. It was printed on 50# bright white offset (a very cheap paper). It was run cross-grain, making it very difficult to open (a very cheap way to print). And it was published by a virtually unknown publishing house. Because of these strikes, it sat on the floor of my closet for quite sometime. Eventually, feeling I owed it to Laura to read the book, I picked it up and began... and rather than bringing my copy of the book to Borders, I would merely pick up a new copy and begin reading where I'd left off, whenever I happened to be near a bookstore. I got so caught up in the story that it took me some time to notice a change in The Shack. No more was it printed on cheap paper. No more was it difficult to pry open. It was now featured as a 6x9 book (this means it is running correct-grain, which is a much more expensive way to print a book) on 50# Cougar Natural Vellum (a much more expensive paper). Additionally, the tagline of "Where tragedy confronts eternity" was replaced with this: #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List. Wow. That's quite a change in 2 months.

To sum up my review: This book has the power to make all human artifice utterly fall away... to make the traffic out the window, the people in conversation next to you, the very coffee mug you hold in your hand, all seem infinitely unreal, while leaving you alone in the very presence of God.
Posted by Nom de plume at 9:12 AM
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maidmarian read and liked Emily's review of Jesus Land: A Memoir:

"(Alex Awards, non-fiction)

What an interesting book! This story focuses on Julia, a white girl, and her adopted brother, David, who is black. Her parents are “Jesus freaks” and frequently beat their adopted black children. Julia loves...more (Alex Awards, non-fiction)

What an interesting book! This story focuses on Julia, a white girl, and her adopted brother, David, who is black. Her parents are “Jesus freaks” and frequently beat their adopted black children. Julia loves David, but has difficultly showing it. Her brothers are the only black people in their small, rural Indiana town and are the subject of racial slurs and attacks. David is a good kid, but he acts out once and is sent to “Escuela Caribe” in the Dominican Republic. Their parents claim is a Christian Reform school, but it is, in essence, a jail. Julia is soon sent there as well. Julia is incredibly honest in this book, describing the horrible acts of her older adopted brother, Jerome, and how she regularly renounced David to avoid being bullied at school.

Teens might not have had the exact same experiences as Julia, but different parts of her story will ring true to them. She was sexually abused by her older brother, but could not report it because her younger brother would have been punished as well. Her struggle to love David unconditionally while dealing with the prejudices of small-town America and the horrors of their time in “jail” would be eye opening for many teens. They will see that every person can have a bad home life and bad experiences, but they can overcome these obstacles and succeed.

I think most teens would enjoy reading this book. Julia’s descriptions of Escuela Caribe are frank and unapologetic and I think would appeal to teens. Reading excerpts from their time in this jail would be enough to pull in any reader.

4Q, 4P, J/S, A/YA
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