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To the FullestTrying to make each day really matter
One Month to Live: Thirty Days to a No-Regrets Life
By Kerry and Chris Shook
WaterBrook Press
Colorado Springs, Colorado
ISBN 978-1-4000-7379-5
226 pages, $19.99
If you only had one month to live, what would you change?
Two Baylor alums—Kerry '86 and Chris Nelson Shook '86—have tackled that question in this New York Times best-seller, One Month to Live: Thirty Days to a No-Regrets Life.
Knowing you only had thirty days left, would your perspective change?
Would you stop waiting for "someday" and start living today? Rick
Warren, author of The Purpose-Driven Life,
writes in the book's foreword, "So many of us waste our lives with
'when and then' thinking, believing that 'when' this or that happens,
'then' we will really start living and do something for God that really
matters." But, he says, the fear of death paralyzes most people and
prevents them from making the most of the time they have.
But the Shooks aren't "most people." In their introduction, their first
words are straight to the point: "Your time on earth is limited. No
matter how much this idea makes you squirm, it's a fact."
But their purpose in writing this book isn't to make people squirm.
Rather, they are convinced that "embracing our time on earth as a
limited resource has incredible power to liberate us." They witnessed
people facing the end of their lives—taking risks and gaining clarity,
saying what they really feel and doing what they really want. And they
began to wonder, why can't all of us live more like that sooner?
Kerry and Chris Shook consider their lives and ministry to be an equal
partnership. "We truly function better as a team," they say. In 1993,
this "team" founded a church near Houston with eight people. Since
then, Fellowship of The Woodlands has grown to more than fifteen
thousand, and their weekly television program is broadcast to all fifty
states and more than two hundred countries worldwide.
In the book, they discuss four life-changing principles—live
passionately, love completely, learn humbly, and leave boldly—nicely
dividing into one principle per week for thirty days. Each day there's
a chapter designed to help the reader focus on that week's principle.
Readers are asked to take a "One-Month-to-Live Challenge," and anyone
who takes them up on that challenge will find a wealth of other
resources online at onemonthtolive.com.
"You don't have to wait until there's a crisis to consider how you can
experience life to the fullest," they write. "If you're willing to take
this challenge, be prepared for life to radically improve. You can live
with no regrets and embrace a life so abundant you'll wonder why you
ever settled for less."
*****
The Watchers
By Mark Andrew Olsen
Bethany House Publishers
Minneapolis, Minnesota
ISBN 978-0-7642-2818-6
411 pages, $19.99
Gripping, imaginative, bizarre. This novel by Mark Andrew Olsen '89 is that and more. If you're a fan of DaVinci Code-like
plot twists and Thomas Harris-style murders, this may be a novel for
you. Especially if you are intrigued by cosmic wars between demons and
angels who happen to be wise to cell phones and blogs.
With characters spread from the Pacific Palisades to the Nigerian rain
forests to the "very gates of heaven itself," Olsen spins a story about
the forces of good and evil and about spiritual powers not perceived by
ordinary people. Among those unwitting souls are Abby, a California
girl who innocently posts her visions on her blog and sets off a
supernatural firestorm, and Dylan, a troubled young man sent by an
ancient foe to silence her.
*****
 Chappie: World War II Diary of a Combat Chaplain
By Alton E. Carpenter and A. Anne Eiland
Mead Publishing
Mesa, Arizona
meadpublishing.com
His Name Was Donn: My Brother’s Letters from Vietnam
By Evelyn Sweet-Hurd
Outskirts Press, Inc.
Denver, Colorado
outskirtspress.com
These memoirs produced by Baylor alumnae provide two very personal
accounts of war. Anne Carpenter Eiland '56, along with her father, Dr.
Alton Carpenter, offers his World War II diary with entries that span
almost three years, including the invasions of North Africa, Italy, and
Normandy. His small notebook was one of four items he carried
everywhere—along with a Bible, Greek New Testament, and pictures of his
family—and it contained daily accounts of the struggles and sacrifice
witnessed by the combat chaplain affectionately dubbed "Chappie" by the
GIs he served.
In a memoir from a different generation, Evelyn Sweet-Hurd, PhD '85,
has compiled the letters her brother, Donn, wrote home before his death
in Vietnam. The "little girl in pigtails who idolized her older
brother" moved a box of his letters around with her for more than three
decades before getting up the courage to look inside. But at age
fifty-seven, she asked herself if she wanted to die without having
written about her brother, and the answer was no. "This is a book about
life and death in Vietnam," the author says, "but it is also a book
about all wars and the families they affect forever."
*****
Couples Who Pray
By SQuire Rushnell and Louise DuArt
Thomas Nelson Publishers
Nashville, Tennessee
thomasnelson.com
A Gallup Poll study, "Love and Marriage," published in 1991, included
an unanticipated finding—the most powerful correlate of marital
happiness was for couples to pray together—often. The authors of this
book, SQuire Rushnell and Louise DuArt, turned to Baylor's Institute
for Studies of Religion to reevaluate the Gallup study's findings, and
the book includes observations from Dr. Byron Johnson, the institute's
co-director and a Baylor professor of sociology, and assistant
professor of sociology Dr. Jerry Park.
The authors
elaborate on the importance of prayer, including testimonies of
well-known celebrity couples, as well as ordinary people.
Also of Note
Dr. William Pinson Jr., a visiting professor at Baylor, is the author of Baptists and Religious Liberty, published by Baptist Way Press. [baptistwaypress.org]
Dr. Michael E. Sherr, assistant professor at Baylor's School of Social Work, has written Social Work With Volunteers, published by Lyceum Books, Inc. [lyceumbooks.com]
Dr. LuAnn Soliah, professor and director of the Nutrition Sciences Program at Baylor, has written Good Things Happen to Healthy People, published by Fire and Lightning Publishing. [luann_soliah@baylor.edu]
Inkwater Press has released What Should We Believe About Jesus? written by E. B. (Ben) Self '51, MA '52. [inkwaterpress.com]
Preston Taylor, att. '57-58, has written Ephesians: God's Eternal Glory, published by Xulon Press. [prestontaylorbooks.net]
David Alexander '62, former NASA designer and manager, has written his biography, The Moon and More, published by iUniverse. [iuniverse.com]
Vanderbilt University Press has published Vanderbilt Law School: Aspirations and Realities, written by D. Don Welch '69. [vanderbiltuniversitypress.com]
Jan Poe Whitt '77, MA '80, has written Reflections in a Critical Eye: Essays on Carson McCullers, published by University Press of America. [univpress.com]
TyMAC Books has published I Stand Accused, written by Monica Frazier Anderson '84. [drmoeanderson.com]
Living Ink Books has published Stories of Faith and Courage From the Revolutionary War, written by Jane Hampton Cook '92. [amgpublishers.com]
The Preston McReynolds Worship Band, led by Preston McReynolds '06, has recorded a CD, Yours. [prestonmcreynoldsworshipband.com]
If
you've recently had a book published, a CD released, or a video
produced, send a copy to Lisa Asher for consideration c/o "Under
Review," Baylor Line, One Bear Place #97116, Waco, TX 76798-7116.
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