Value Gifts for the Holiday Season

"99 Ways to Entertain Your Family for Free" is a useful little book. Like the title suggests, 99 ways to entertain one's family are provided. The book is divided into seven sections--indoors, outdoors, around town, just imagine, out in nature, rituals / routines, and holidays. Each part begins with a short Bible verse and a paragraph that introduces the types of activities. Then, each actual way to entertain one's family is given about a page. The descriptions are quick and to the point, written with lively rhetoric. The activities in the book range from obvious (book reading, exercise, etc) to the outlandishly creative (read the book yourself to find out). Overall, this book is great for quick reference, and it is sure to entertain!

"What Women Don't Know (And Men Don't Tell You): The Unspoken Rules of Finding Lasting Love" by Michelle McKinney Hammond and Joel A. Brooks Jr. is a self-help book for women. It goes over the main reasons why single women--who are seeking a partner--stay single. Some obvious discussion points like unreal expectations, low self-esteem, lack of confidence, and pigeonholing men are mentioned. These are all written with a Biblical twist, oftentimes comparing these scenarios with various relationships of the Bible, most of which are from the Old Testament. There is also a heavy emphasis on celibacy before marriage, which is great for a book on love to mention. Since this book is written by both a man and a woman, readers gain an interesting perspective. Image is heavily discussed, with everything from taking care of one's outward appearance to not overdoing it. One quite pensive point is the notion of three different types of women that readers may fall into. There is the freak, the friend, and the forever. The authors go over this in great detail and write about how to become the forever (and not to over analyze if they are just the friend). In the end, readers will have enjoyed this book's ride with some humor and ideas of what love truly is. This book is great because it mentions how God loves each and every one of us so much that, even if love never finds someone, they are never unloved in God's eyes.

These books were provided for review by Waterbrook Multnomah.

For more information on these books, please visit:

http://waterbrookmultnomah.com/