Book Review: "You Carried Me"

I received a complimentary copy of the book, "You Carried Me (a daughter's memoir)" and was asked to write an unbiased review.  Melissa Ohden is the author of this memoir. "You Carried Me" is a powerful story of love and forgiveness.  At age 14, Melissa learns she is a survivor of a botched abortion, and in her book she shares how that truth shaped her life.

  First, this book is an easy read.  I read it in two sittings over a two day period.  One reason it is an easy read is that the story is so compelling...you want to find out how Melissa' story turns out.  Melissa is very open and shares extremely difficult parts of her life in her book.  As a reader you get to go on a journey with her to discover the back story of why her biological family wanted to have her aborted.  It it intense and heartbreaking, but filled with so much redemption.

 As a woman of faith myself, I wasn't surprised that Melissa's faith in God played a major role in how she allowed her story to be used for good purposes.  My favorite part of the book is at the end, when after many years Melissa gets to meet her birth mother.  I will not share what happens, but it is worth purchasing the book to find out.

Thank you handlebar Publishing for sending me this book.

BookLook Blog Review: Saving the Saved

  I was super excited to get this book from BookLook Bloggers to review this time around.  BookLook Bloggers gave me this book complimentary, and I in turn agreed to write this unbiased review.

 The book's title is "Saving the Saved (How Jesus saves us from try-harder Christianity into performance-free love)".   What an unusual title, but it struck to the heart of how I have felt for most of my Christian life.  The book was written by Bryan Loritts, a pastor himself.  Not to mention (and Bryan barely does talk about this) he is the son of  well known pastor, Crawford Loritts.   If Bryan Loritts has felt like he had to perform to earn Jesus' love, then I guess I am not the only one.  Actually, there are way too many of us out there to count.

   I am not going to write a chapter by chapter review of this book, but I want to say that it is one of the best books I have read in a long time.  After reading this book,  I feel like things will be different.  Not necessarily because I learned something new, but I was reminded once again that Jesus' saving of my soul is not based on one good thing I ever did or can do in the future.  I grew up in the church and I know it is not my works that earn my way into Heaven, but sadly that is the mindset I have had for most, practically all of my Christian life.

    I felt like Bryan interviewed me for this book.  I have felt so many of the same things that he has felt.  Bryan also shares stories of others who have tried to perform to earn God's love and grace.   Bryan points the reader to the truth of God's Word, and once again reminds those that call themselves Christ followers that we need to accept the truth that Jesus does all the saving of our souls.

  Again, I know this is not my typical review of sharing a lot of what is in the book, but more a plea for you to buy this book if this is at all something you understand.   You will not be disappointed!