I had never heard of a blog book tour before Tribute Books asked me to participate in one. The book that is on tour this month is Why God Matters: How to Recognize Him in Daily Life, written by a father-daughter team of Karina Lumbert Fabian and Deacon Steven Lumbert.
In the book, the two authors share their stories about how they have experienced God in their lives. Their stories are presented in short alternating chapters (seven written by Deacon Steve and six by Karina). Each of the chapters is designed to illustrate a different aspect of the authors’ experience of God, for example, the ways in which God manifest his presence in times of difficulty or what it means to have a personal relationship with God. In addition, each chapters contains a “Life Lesson”, sometimes in the form of suggestions for prayer or reflection and other times in the form of “tips” to finding ways to bring God into our lives, as well as both a scripture reading and a passage from the Catechism of the Catholic Church for further reflection.
My biggest criticism of the book is that the chapters are too short to really develop the idea presented in any extensive way. While I appreciate that the authors are writing for “average, everyday people” without a lot of time on their hands, I thought the two short pages devoted to each chapters was too cursory to be satisfactory.
Having said that, many of the vignettes presented will resonate with readers, as they present common experiences in the lives of persons of faith. Others will hopefully be encouraged to be more attuned to the ways in which God may be trying to communicate with them. The book is well-written and conveys clearly the authors’ faith and their conviction that “God must be an active part of our lives.”
You can find a list of other blog reviews of this book here. You can find the book’s website here.
Creo en Dios! 