The Pharaoh's Daughter

 The Pharaoh's Daughter was very well researched and is sprinkled with quotations from the Christian Bible. Mesu Andrews has written several books based on biblical stories. The other one I read was about Job, Love Amid the Ashes. Both books are fiction and offer one authors creative story of what could have happened. I enjoyed learning about the Pharaoh power and complete control over the Israelite slaves and their very own family. The changing of the person's names were interesting to me. God changed Abram's name to Abraham, so it makes sense to me. The use of children to work in the field and to plug the holes where rats and snakes was hard to believe. But I think the author tried to make the novel as authentic as possible The importance of the Ramessid guards and Medjay warriors used for protecting the royal families added a depth to the story and an added cast of characters to the novel. I would very much like to read the sequels. This book was given to me for an unbiased review from Blogging for Books.

Matheny Manifesto by Mike Matheny

The few choices for Christian fiction were books I had read before so I choose this nonfiction by Mike Matheny, retired catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals. The Matheny Manifesto started as a letter to local parents who asked him to coach their youth baseball team. My grandsons play baseball, soccer, and basketball. Some coaches were good and some coaches were less than stellar. Through Matheny’s experiences as a young player, through his college, and Major League career he has formulated a plan for parents to help their children be successful and enjoy the game as good sportsmen. Matheny dedicated chapter 6 titled What a Great Coach Looks to John Wooden including six pages of JOHN WOODEN’S MAXIMS.  Wooden is one of the few sports figures I recognize and that is only because I downloaded an e-book of his quotes for my lectures on the Christian life. Honestly I cannot name any pitcher or quarterback or basketball player this year or any other season. Truly I am not a fan of sports unless my grandsons are playing. That said Mike Matheny is the kind of coach I wish my boys could play for. He does not play favorites and he does what is best for the team. Matheny’s book is divided into three sections, the third titled THE KEYS TO SUCCESS. The eight keys are Leadership, Confidence, Teamwork, Faith, Class, Character, Toughness, and Humility. Each chapter has a catchy title: one of my favorites is “The Coach is Always Right-Even When He’s Wrong.” One of my favorite things about Matheny was his demand for players to respect the umpire, the coach, and other players. BTW Matheny posted a lifetime batting mark of .239 with 67 home runs and 443 RBI in 1,305 games. He holds the Major League catching record for consecutive errorless games (252). I was very impressed with all his accomplishments, but most of all that he was a Christian and unashamed for all to know.

I was given this book for my honest review by Blogging for Books.