Book Tour: The Judge by Randy Singer

Welcome to the fifth stop on The Judge Book Tour!

Judge Oliver Finney has signed up for a reality show.  This show, Faith on Trial, pits followers of the world's major religions against each other in an attempt for the creator to find that one true religion.  While on the remote island, Finney uncovers a deadly agenda of the creators.  Using his monitored internet access he sends coded messages to his law clerk, Nikki Moreno.  She's not good with cryptology so she requests the aid of a teenage crypto-geek.  Together, they must uncover the clues using an apologetics book written by Finney before the end of taping.

Previously published as The Cross-Examination of Oliver Finney.

Judge Oliver Finney defends his faith on national TV by appearing on a reality show.  I don't feel appearing on such a reality show is as much defending my faith as it is giving them a chance to mock it.  As I read this book I can't help but think of how production would edit film to make a joke of Finney. The book does not state that happens, but it is a thought that constantly ran through my mind.  They already gave Finney a steep hill to climb when it came to public voting.

"Remember", Judge Javitts said, "the results are not based on the total number of votes but on the number of converts, determined by the extent to which the contestants exceed their baseline percentages."
P. 158

Judge Finney's percentage was 75%.  He had to receive 76% of the vote to get credit for just 1%.
There are many things I would do.  Heck, I would do anything to defend Christianity, but appearing on a reality show like this, it doesn't seem like I would be defending my faith.  However, I do give credit to Oliver Finney for willing to do so.  Throughout the novel he does a great job showing how much Christianity means to him.  It's not something he does for show or for this show.  It's real to him.

Engrossed in this book doesn't describe it.  I didn't notice time passing as I read the pages. Each character is unique.  They have their own religion or their own take on religion as well as differing personalities.  With each flip of the page, the mystery and the adventure grew.  Singer wrote a story that feels like it could happen in today's world.

For more information on the author and/or this book visit www.randysinger.net.

I read this as a review request from the Tyndale Blog Network.  All opinions are my own.  I was not compensated for this review in any way.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  Anyone can playing along!  Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• Be careful not to include spoilers! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away!  You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.

She had it all figured out.  He'd offer to watch Caden himself except he wasn't about to enable the date.
P. 87 Surrender Bay by Denise Hunter

Book News: Catching Fire (Hunger Games #2) Casting

This is new meme I've started consisting of recent book news.  I will try to post this every Thursday.

What I will feature?  Any kind of news, except tabloid features, regarding books, authors, publishing companies, anything related to books, and movies based on books that I find particularly engaging.  I hope you do, too! This is new so I'm working out the kinks, but I think I'll pick one big news story to focus on.  We'll see how it goes.

The Hunger Games is one of my favorite series and I thought we'd focus on casting for the second movie, Catching Fire.  If you have not read the book and/or the series and do not want to be spoiled, be careful about reading ahead!

The Hunger Games Movie Facebook Page: Catching Fire Cast

The newest name to be added to the bunch is Sam Claflin as Finnick.

Finnick is the male victor from District 4 to return to the 75th Hunger Games also known as the 3rd Quarter Quell.  He won the 65th games when he was 14 making him 24 in the Quarter Quell.  He's flirtatious but has a heart for only one girl.  Katniss was not fond of him when they first met, but after forming an alliance he gained her trust and I believe friendship.

foreveryoungadult.com

According to imdb.com Sam Claflin was born June 27, 1986 in Ipswich, Suffolk, England, UK making him 26 as of this post's publishing and English which I don't think Finnick particularly was, but no matter.  Works that he's been in that people may be familiar with are Snow White and the Huntsman and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.  He seems to be fairly new to Hollywood.

I'm not really sure how I pictured Finnick: dark hair, sort of skinny, someone who thinks he's a lady man, not unattractive but not terribly attractive.  I think Claflin can pull that off.  I've not seen his work (though I do want to see the 4th installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise) so I can't comment on his acting, but looks alone I think he'll make a good Finnick.  I'm not quite sure he's the guy I would have picked, but I'm okay with casting.

Chosen for the role of Johanna Mason is Jenna Malone.

Johanna Mason is the female victor from District 7.  Which games she came from is never mentioned.   I see her as a girl trying to play tough.  She's hardened by tragedy.  It's hard for Katniss to want to form an alliance with her, but she does, even though there are times when she thinks Johanna is out to get her.  She is left with no one in her life as the Capitol has killed all her loved ones.  Some of their tactics to get to the victors in the Quell don't work on her because of this.  She's good with an ax mostly due to coming from District 7 the lumber district.  She and Finnick were friends prior to the 3rd Quarter Quell.

jenna-malone.com

I remember Jena Malone from the movie Saved.  Other pieces people may know her from are the Hatfield and McCoys miniseries that recently ran on The History Channel,  Into the Wild, Life as a House, and Stepmom. Born in 1984 she's only 1.5-2 years older than Claflin.  Their characters will be around the same age.  Johanna Mason's age was never identified, but she is noted as being one of the youngest in the Quell. I think Malone can pull of the hardness needed for Mason.  In my mind, I see it as a hardness that's easy to crack, sort of like what her character in Stepmom had.  I'm happy with this decision and can't wait to see her in the movie.

Other new actors for the second installment: Alan Ritchson as Gloss, Stephanie Leigh Shilland as Cashmere, Bruno Gunn as Brutus, Meta Golding as Enobaria, Amanda Plummer as Wiress, Philip Seymour Hoffman as Plutarch Heavensbee, Lynn Cohen as Mags, E. Roger Mitchell as Chaff, and Maria Howell as Seeder

Not cast: Beetee, Tribute boy and girl from 5, Tribute boy and girl from 6, Slight, Woof, Cecelia, Tribute boy and girl from 10.

I think Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amanda Plummer, and Jena Malone are the most famous names of the bunch and they're not even that famous.   I like not having these huge famous names in the series.   It lets the movie be about the movie and not the actors.  The most famous names we have in the movies are Elizabeth Banks, Woody Harrelson, and Lenny Kravitz.  Famous names, celebrities, are fine, but when it's a book to film of a very popular book series it's good to let the films stand on their own, in my opinion.

Book Review: Covenant Child by Terri Blackstock

Kara and Lizzie thought they had the perfect life.  Their mother was no longer with them, but their father loved them with more than enough love for two people.  Plus, he found a new wife who loved the girls as if they were her own flesh and blood.  She couldn't have her own children, but having Kara and Lizzie was the next best thing.  No.  It was better than the next best thing.

Amanda, the girls' new mother, was all set out to adopt the girls when her husband, their father, died in a plane accident.  Right before his death came the death of his parents leaving him a massive fortune, which was now left to the girls when they turn 18 as it goes.

At the age of 3, the twins were swept from their loving home to live with their other grandparents, their mother's parents, that they had never met.  Amanda fought to keep them, but because the adoption process had not been finalized, I'm not even sure it had started, she had no legal right to the girls and their grandparents, being the closest living blood relatives, did.

They were pulled from a beautiful life of love to a life of filth and greed.  Deke and Eloise, the grandparents, were only after them because they were the "Billion Dollar Babies."  They received money every year from the girls' inheritance, but they squandered it on gambling.  Eventually, the girls forgot about Amanda and their previous life, believing that it was nothing they wanted to go back to.  This was their live now.

Amanda didn't stop.  She knew she had to wait until the girls were 18, but she kept watch, keeping the business, the money, and the mansion the girls inherited safe so she could turn it over to them as soon as they were of age.  She loved the girls with all her heart and wanted nothing more than to give them what was rightfully theirs.

The ending gives us a powerful message from God.  He tells us that He will always be here for us.  No matter what we do He still loves us.  Nothing can take that away.  Nothing!  This story shows just how far the love goes.  I was blown away at the end when I got the message.

Nominated for the Christy Award for Allegory in 2003.

I read this as a review request from Booksneeze using the Kindle App on my laptop.  All opinions are my own.  I was not compensated for this review in any way.

Book Review: Double Clutch (Brenna Blixen #1) by Liz Reinhardt

Brenna Blixen has moved back home after spending a year with her mom and stepdad in Denmark.  Being homeschooled allowed her to do a split schedule upon returning.  She spends her mornings at the regular high school and her afternoons at the tech school learning graphic arts.  Both places she meets a guy who steals her heart.

One guy she wants with her brain and her heart, while the other guy she wants with her heart and not her brain.  How can she decided what to do?  What are the secrets the two boys hold?  What is their connection?

I wasn't totally enamored by this book.  It was just okay for me.  I did want to know what was going to happen next, but I don't know.  I can't say it was predictable, but I also can't say it wasn't.  It's a typical young adult romance novel without the vampires and junk.  If you like cliche YA you'll like this book.

I hate thinking of self-published novels in this way, but I think this is one that would have been a lot better going through a major publishing company. I think it could have, too, though I'm no editor, just a book reviewer.  The characters needed some editing.  They were properly cliche.  We have Brenna, the "new" girl who is on the outside seemingly with no friends though she does have her best friend from when she originally lived in town and yet, two boys like her.  Hm.  These two boys are yin and yang.  They're good and evil with a splice of the other tucked inside.  Brenna has to choose between good and evil but there's a hidden layer so she can have both.

I will admit the cover is what drew me in.  Don't judge a book by the cover, but we all do. It's a picture of a pretty girl in front of a chain length fence.  That doesn't sound like much, but it was enough to make me want to enter the giveaway that I eventually won.

There are two other books in the series. This wasn't a great book for me, but part of me does want to continue on.

I won this book in a giveaway.  All opinions are my own.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.  Anyone can playing along!  Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• Be careful not to include spoilers! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away!  You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.

In his mind, with a few brain cells not busy cataloging key facts about his environs, he was already counting the money.
P. 105 The Judge by Randy Singer 

Book Review: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander

Want to know more about the magical beasts in the world?  Newt Scamander has written the book for you.  He scoured the globe looking for creatures that classify under the Ministry of Magic's term of Beast.  However, some creatures, like the centaurs and mermaids are only classified as beasts because they refuse to be in the same classification as a few animals that have been labeled beings.

The book is not a boring encyclopedia of information.  It contains stories among the facts to keep the reader entertained.  The copy that Muggles have been fortunate enough to lay their hands on is a reproduction of the famous Harry Potter's textbook, which he shared with his pal, Ron Weasley.  Intermingled among Scamander's written word are notes written by the two boys themselves.

I liked the forward by Albus Dumbledore and the introduction which explain how the book came about.  Who is Newt Scamander and what is his motivation for putting this book together?

If you want to know more about the creatures inhabiting the wizarding world pick up a copy of Fantastic Beasts today.

---

In 2001, JK Rowling put together two books, one a text book and the other a library book, from Potterverse with the 20% of the proceeds going to her favorite charity, Comic Relief.  Fantastic Beasts is a fun way to expand one's knowledge of the world she created.  Information on these beasts can be found on the internet, but not in the capacity that they are in this book.  I truly enjoyed reading it and think that any Harry Potter fan will as well.

I did feel the book was too UK centric.  I had to think about it.  Newt Scamander is from the UK so of course he would know more about that area than any other part of the world.  But, too many beasts live in the UK and not spread all over the world.

I was skeptical when I first heard of the book back in 2001, because I was not a Harry Potter fan and didn't know about the charity.  I thought Rowling was just trying to make more money, but this is a great thing for charity.  Harry Potter fans do buy these books.  Rowling writes something Harry Potter and the fans lap it up, even back in 2001.  I bought this as a collection of both books, so look for my review on Quidditch Through the Ages by Kennilworthy Whisp coming soon.