Saint Patrick by Jonathan Rogers

This book is a short concise account of Saint Patrick’s life. To often the contributions of the Irish to Christianity is overlooked. The Irish are largely responsible for the continued success of Christianity through the Middle Ages. And the work in Ireland can be traced back to Saint Patrick.

This book gives a very brief overview of his life including some of the major events. It also contains some of Saint Patrick’s original writings. This book is written in a very plain manner and has a narrative feel to it. It’s format and style is very similar to John H. Arnold’s Very Short Introduction to History. Even though it is designed for a general audience it does have the proper documentation that you expect in scholarly sources. So there are several interesting stories / events in the life of Saint Patrick that you can check the endnotes and see the primary source.

Overall, I would say this is an excellent book for any Christian who wants to better understand the history of Christianity and / or the history of Christianity in Ireland.
The price is right on it and I would say that it makes a great gift for any adult.

Living in the Zone by Kyle Rote Jr and Dr. Joe Pettiegrew

Living Life in the Zone contains many of the basic elements we have come to expect from 40 day devotionals books, like short easy to read chapters, real life examples, though provoking questions, and daily homework.

While it could get lost in among other devotional books I believe the strong content directed towards men make this book a must read. Living In the Zone deals with all of the stressful things in a man’s life and puts them in perspective by seeing how all of these issue relate to our personal walk with God.

My favorite parts of the book were Day 30 “Living Up to Your Potential” and Day 36 “Fighting the Battle.” They were real encouragements to me. Another aspect of the book is that not only does it talk about what a Godly man looks like but also what it takes to become that man.

I would recommend this book to any man wanting to improve himself, his relationship with God, and his relationship with his family. I would especially recommend this to new men of Faith. The practical issues of the day-to-day walk of the Man of God dealt with in the book will help any new Christian as they learn to be the man God wants them to be.