Book Reviewers

Comment by Theresa Ceniccola on September 28, 2010 at 12:25pm

Hi, Lori! I am new to CWA and am glad to find your Group. I'm a huge reader and book club fan, so I'd love to learn more about book reviews. Looking forward to connecting here!
Theresa

Comment by Cheryl Cope on September 10, 2011 at 1:18pm

Can I post my own book reviews here?

Comment by Cheryl Cope on January 5, 2012 at 11:43am

Life of John Newton

Since this book was originally published in 1831, the style of writing took a little getting used to. It was helpful to me, that I had already read a different book in this series previously. It wasn’t so much that the vocabulary was large or even antiquated (although some people might think that was true), it was more that the authors very frequently wrote extremely long sentences using only a semicolon to break it up. That was the hardest thing about the style of writing that I had to get used to.

The best thing that I liked about this book was its liberal use of long quotes from Newton’s own journals—lengthy quotes, some of them even pages long. This is what broke up the writing and assured me that it was factual. (What could be more factual than a person’s own journal entries as a first-hand account?)

There were some interesting facts about John Newton himself included. He got saved by reading the Bible itself. (His own account of it is included on pages 57-58.) He was saved from death several different times which he attributed mostly to “Divine Providence”.

Another interesting fact was that he was a slave trader after his profession of faith. It is an unfortunate but common truth (illustrated here) that Christians can be blinded to their own sins, however small or however horrible they may be.

I was pleased to see that the authors included a dream (night time dream) by Newton that seemed (by his own words) to impact him greatly. Most Christians tend to ignore or downplay dreams, which is another unfortunate thing, as the Bible does not.

This book is best suited to those who like to study Christian biographies, like to study original documents (enough was included), like to study Christian history and those who teach others on those topics, especially home school parents. I think most home school parents would love this book.

One tip for home school parents: Don’t let your child read the “Review of Mr. Newton’s Character” at the end of the book, until after you’ve first discussed this topic with your child (see what they were able to pick out from the reading first).

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from New Leaf Publishing Group’s blogging for books program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 225: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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