A well-crafted and engaging Christian devotional.
Frank provides devotional readings for every season of a Christian’s life in this debut nonfiction book.
“Knowing that God is in control, and that everything happens at the appropriate time,” writes the author, “doesn’t change the fact that we don’t always understand what He’s actually doing.” Despite these uncertainties, Frank argues, Christians have the hope that Jesus will be with them in “every season of our lives.” While this book of 101 concise devotionals doesn’t shy away from the difficulties and pains of life, it does offer an optimistic message centered on the author’s belief in God’s innate goodness and love. Organized around the theme of “seasons,” the book has a dual structure common to the devotional genre. For readers interested in reading the book chronologically within a year, the book separates chapters to be read each month, from January to December, encouraging slow, methodical reading to allow for ample reflection on its spiritual messages. Simultaneously, the book is organized thematically, with chapters grouped by “the seasons we go through” during the course of our lives, from periods of grief and suffering to those of peace and joy. This structure intentionally affords readers the option of reading the devotionals out of order to best match their current circumstances. An immigrant to Canada from Trinidad and Tobago, with a master of divinity degree from the Tyndale Seminary, Frank adds a pastoral touch to his devotions, which blend learned theology with pop-culture references and charming anecdotes from his own life experiences. A former engineer, the author similarly understands the perspective of lay Christians, and he’s careful to avoid religious jargon. While distinctly Protestant in his doctrinal approach (ignoring, for instance, the liturgical nature of Catholic and Orthodox calendars, which offer a similar approach to “seasons”), the author is generally ecumenical in his conception of Christianity. He avoids hot-button social issues such as reproductive rights, which readers may view as either refreshing or as a cop-out, depending. Each devotional is accompanied by inspirational quotes, Bible verses, prayers, and reflective questions for contemplation.
A well-crafted and engaging Christian devotional.Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2023
ISBN: 9781039195004
Page Count: 258
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: March 20, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A football star’s bracing account of his battle for racial equality—and how powerful forces arrayed against him.
A principled athlete strives for social justice.
Kaepernick forthrightly details the activism that earned him global renown but cost him his NFL career. In 2016, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback “was filled with disgust” after police shootings of fellow Black men in several American cities. Before a preseason game, he made a spontaneous decision: “It hit me in that moment that I should find a seat” during the national anthem. He did the same at two more games before reporters noticed. Kaepernick will forever be associated with “taking a knee” during the anthem, but he credits Eric Reid—a teammate who agreed with Kaepernick’s message—for suggesting that they kneel together during subsequent anthems. The protest changed everything for Kaepernick. President Trump vilified him. Kaepernick and his wife received death threats. And though he’d taken the 49ers to a Super Bowl, no teams would sign him. He will likely make news for his take on Jay-Z, whose lucrative partnership with the NFL was criticized as an attempt to launder the league’s reputation. Visiting Africa, where Kaepernick learns about “African leaders who willingly sold their own people to the enslavers,” he “couldn’t help but to think about Jay-Z and the NFL.” In opening chapters, Kaepernick recalls suffering traumatic racial abuse as a child. Being in “white spaces”—he was adopted by white parents—placed him “under a microscope every minute of every day.” He isn’t always nuanced, depicting some people he disagrees with as cartoonishly clueless. But his writing about how college and pro teams “lied” to him about injuries underlines his “feeling of being a disposable commodity.” A decade has passed since Kaepernick played in the NFL, but he stays fit in case “a team needing a QB” calls.
A football star’s bracing account of his battle for racial equality—and how powerful forces arrayed against him.Pub Date: Sept. 15, 2026
ISBN: 9781538777879
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Legacy Lit/Hachette
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2026
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2026
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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