Book Club: Heaven is for Real

Last Sunday, our book club met at K's place.  Unfortunately the weather didn't allow us to hold our meeting around the pool, but we all settled in on the couch and chatted over snacks and drinks.  I brought along some lime bars (they were easy to whip up using the Barefoot Contessa mix), and K set up a spread of veggies and dip, chips and salsa, taquitos and cheese-filled pretzel bites (amazing!).  She also whipped up mango-flavored margaritas and pomegranate cosmos!

We talked about last month's choice Bossypants and commented on some of our favorite funny parts.  By telling stories of  family, friends, and work projects, as well as describing the challenge of achieving work/life balance, Tina Fey gives us a glimpse into her life... and shows that she doesn't take herself too seriously.  She faces many of the same ups and downs we all do... though she is usually in front of the camera while she lives through them.  It helps to have a good sense of pop culture to get all the nuances of this book, but overall, it was the right fun summer read for our group.

Next month, we'll meet to discuss Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven and Back by Todd Burpo and Lynn Vincent.  After browsing a few bestseller lists for ideas, we all thought this book sounded interesting (my family was actually talking about it over our vacation).  The story is a young boy's account of what he experienced during a life-saving surgery--his description of what he saw and learned while visiting heaven.

via Amazon.com

Amazon.com Review:
A young boy emerges from life-saving surgery with remarkable stories of his visit to heaven.

Heaven is for Real is the true story of the four-year old son of a small town Nebraska pastor who during emergency surgery slips from consciousness and enters heaven. He survives and begins talking about being able to look down and see the doctor operating and his dad praying in the waiting room. The family didn't know what to believe but soon the evidence was clear.

Colton said he met his miscarried sister, whom no one had told him about, and his great grandfather who died 30 years before Colton was born, then shared impossible-to-know details about each. He describes the horse that only Jesus could ride, about how "reaaally big" God and his chair are, and how the Holy Spirit "shoots down power" from heaven to help us.

Told by the father, but often in Colton's own words, the disarmingly simple message is heaven is a real place, Jesus really loves children, and be ready, there is a coming last battle.