Saturday, January 28, 2012

Book Review: Four Letter Words

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For the past couple of weeks, I've been reading Four Letter Words by Bill Giovannetti on my Kindle.  Intended for teens and young adults, this has been a great book to read, though I'm not quite ready to hand it over to my (young) teens.

I have really enjoyed the book.  Giovannetti really makes me think, which is a great thing.

From the publisher:
Thou shalt tolerate every opinion... except the Christian's. Today's postmodern "prime directive" leaves many followers of Jesus tongue-tied. In the global village, isn't it unreasonable, and even dangerous, to suggest that the Bible has a monopoly on truth?

The church needs a new breed of Christ-follower. We need Christ-followers who are alert to today's touchy ideas, the truths that fire up more heat than light. We need Christ-followers who can make a clear case for the Bible's worldview; who are ready to help our friends think through their beliefs; who can recognize inconsistencies and challenge them; and who can do all of this with humility, confidence, humor, and love. For more information visit http://fourletterwords.org.
Each chapter is set up in the same basic way:
  • A quote about the chapter's topic
  • Touchy ideas -- which are fabulous -- and are basically a list of Christian points of view that are considered politically incorrect in today's day and age.  These really set the stage for what will follow in the chapter.
  • Touch scriptures -- also fabulous -- a list of scripture verses relating to those touchy ideas listed above
  • The bulk of the chapter, where Giovannetti expounds on the touchy ideas and the touchy scriptures.
  • Talking Points -- kind of a chapter summary, these talk about the highlights and quite often include a challenge to the reader.  
And at the end, there is also a discussion guide.  That is rather inconvenient with the Kindle, since I haven't exactly figured out all the bookmarking functions.  But... had I noticed it earlier (and when I do have my kids read it) there is also a printable guide at the Four Letter Words website.

The chapter topics start with one on Christianity in general, then move into topics involving truth and knowledge.  While I love the style and tone of this book, those really didn't present anything terribly new for me, nor for my kids I'm sure.

But then it starts getting into chapters on pain, suffering and evil, or on love, or hell... and those got my attention.  I really like the idea of my teens working through these chapters, and I ended up with a lot to think about.

And then, Chapter 9, titled "Wait."  While I think this chapter on sex is great for adults, and for older teens, I have to say this is more detailed than I want my (young) teens reading.  Okay, so I'm probably a prude, but it was just a bit too much for now.  Probably if they were in public school, well, I'd feel different I think.  I did really love the "four letter word" he chose for the chapter on sex though.  "Wait" definitely IS a four-letter word these days.

Anyway, with the one caveat of pre-reading the "Wait" chapter... this is a book I'd definitely recommend for teens, young adults... and not-so-young adults too.  You can read what others thought at the LitFuse blog tour page.


And a giveaway!

Bill is celebrating the new Kindle edition of Four Letter Words (for only $4.99)! He’ll be traveling coast to coast over the next few weeks on this virtual book tour and he's celebrating by hosting a great giveaway!

Click here to find out how you can win two gift certificates to Amazon (in the amount of $50 and $25) and free downloads of his yet-to-be-released title, Recession-Proof: Living a God-Blessed Life in a Messed Up World.

The whole scoop is here.


Disclaimer:  I received this book through LitFuse Blog Tour.  No other compensation was received.  All opinions expressed in this review are my own.  

1 comment:

Diane said...

This looks like an interesting book. Thanks for your thoughts and the review. :O)