Review/Giveaway: The Last Day

A WINNING READINGS GIVEAWAY!

Title: The Last Day

Author: James Landis

Genre: Christian contemporary fiction

How to enter: Leave a comment on THIS post right here! If you're a subscriber or a follower, leave a second comment for a second entry.
Entry deadline: January 25, 2010
Restrictions: Open internationally!

That's right, enter right here for this giveaway. This is my review copy, so it has been gently read.

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This week, the
Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
is introducing
The Last Day
Steerforth; 1 edition (September 1, 2009)
by
James Landis


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:


James Landis lives in New Hampshire.


ABOUT THE BOOK

Warren Harlan Pease, the young narrator of this spellbinding novel, returns to his native New Hampshire from the Iraq War and spends an entire day with Jesus visiting and contemplating hi own life with fresh eyes, and a willing heart. He examines his relationships to those he loves─his girlfriend, his best friend, his father, his dead mother, his daughter ─ and grapples with the pain he has been carrying since the death of his mother when he was still a boy.

While in Iraq, armed with his sniper’s rifle and his deeply held faith, Specialist Pease traveled across ideological borders and earned an appreciation for his enemy’s culture and for what connect us all as human beings. He also learned how to kill and taught others to do the same. “War doesn’t test your faith in Jesus,” Warren comes to realize. “It tests your faith in yourself.” The Last Day answers some questions and asks many more. It’s a powerful meditation on religion and war, love and loss.

This work of compassion and healing grace will resonate with skeptics and believers, be shared and discussed between friends and among families. It is a book for our time, and forever.

If you would like to read an excerpt from Chapter one of The Last Day, go HERE .

My Review

I admit, this wasn't a book I could relate very well to. I think someone with a military connection would probably have more in common. And the perspective on what happens after death is outside my comfort zone. I don't want to go into too much more detail, or it would give the book away.

That being said, the author has created some very likable characters. And I appreciate the Jesus he conveys - very down to earth, humorous, likable, and straightforward. The text itself is beautiful; descriptive; poetic. For instance, here's what one of my favorite characters - the father of Warren's girlfriend, has to say:

"Language is not life. It is the expression of life. And life is nowhere more beautifully expressed than in poetry... All words are beautiful, but not all words are used beautifully... In good poetry, all words are used beautifully... A great poem is not the expression of life. A great poem is life."

This book has me wanting to pull out all the great poems I remember from childhood and start reading them to my 2.5yo daughter now!

In spite of my discomfort with some aspects of this book, I CAN understand why it's received such a high rating from others. Its twists and turns are truly original and meaningful...