Book Reviews

 


You Carried Me: A Daughter's Memoir - From September 2024 Edition 

Melissa Ohden (featured by Heartbeat Press in November 2022) always knew she was adopted, but, growing up with deeply loving parents and a sister who was also adopted, she never felt different from anyone else. Until she turned fourteen and learned a long-silent truth about the beginning of her life.
    She hadn't just been put up for adoption the moment she was born, as she had been led to believe. Instead, she had also survived a saline abortion that caused a premature birth and left her fighting for her next moment of life, until her adopted parents felt a call to take her in.
    Now, after years of healing and self discovery, Melissa recounts, in You Carried Me - a Daughter's Memoir, the incredible journey that transformed her from victim to ministry leader and made her forever grateful for every moment of her life.
    Powerful and life affirming, You Carried Me is sure to draw a few tears, and one can't help but see God's hand on every page, specially crafting one of the Pro-Life movement's most formidable leaders. 


5 out of 5 stars 


Help Her Be Brave by Amy Ford - From February 2024 Edition 

When Amy Ford was nineteen-years-old, she discovered she was pregnant with an unexpected baby and, in a moment that lingers in her memory to this day, her life changed forever. Fearing the disappointment of her family and the ridicule of her church, Amy and her boyfriend decided that abortion was the option that would best enable them to solve their problem before it ever came to light. They scheduled the appointment and came within moments of sacrificing their baby...but God had other plans. 
    After fainting in the procedure room, Amy knew she couldn't kill her child, and she also felt the heartpull of the Lord towards other young women in her same situation who didn't have as many options as she did. She wanted a way to provide those options, but she also realized that any help she could give would be one hundred times more effective and convicting in the hands of churches who wanted to commit to Pro-Life work but had no idea where to begin...and so Embrace Grace was born.
    Beautifully detailed in her new book, Help Her Be Brave, Amy lays out the simple but powerful steps that anyone can take to spur on the Pro-Life movement and pour into the lives of expectant mothers. Skills appreciated, love required. 


4 out of 5 stars 


Fierce Mercy by Abby Johnson - from September 2023 Edition

When last we left Abby Johnson in her book "Unplanned," she had just experienced God's work in a big way. In the span of only a few months, she had been convicted to leave Planned Parenthood after witnessing the horror of abortion firsthand, she had "crossed the fence" to join the Pro-Life organization (Coalition for Life) that she had once despised, and she felt God's prompting to fully commit to the work of saving lives. But where is she now? Did she answer God's call? What is she doing a few years into her conversion?
    In Fierce Mercy, we catch up with Abby, unwaveringly Pro-Life, healing from her past, and once again feeling God's prompting towards ministry. Inspired to start an agency focused on healing and forgiveness, Abby can't wait to get started. There's just one problem: Her organization is specifically geared towards former abortion workers.
    Unlike every other Pro-Life ministry (historically geared towards mothers and children), Abby's idea is unconventional and angering to many, even in the Pro-Life movement. "They're murderers!" "They don't want help!" "They don't deserve forgiveness!" But Abby felt God's prompting to start this ministry and she's sure He will sustain it. After all, if God was able to show mercy to her then shouldn't He be able to grant the same grace to every repentant abortion worker? 

Available on Amazon.com, Abbyj.com, and Audible.com

5 out of 5 stars


Subverted by Sue Ellen Browder - from May 2023 Edition

Women have sought out abortion since the beginning of time, but it has only become widely accepted and praised in the last fifty years. What gave abortion this boost? How did it go from a back-alley atrocity that only the desperate sought out to a storefront fad that is “as easy as getting a flu shot?” Many things are responsible for this shift in America’s morals, but most of the blame lies with the Sexual Revolution of the 1970s and ‘80s. 
    This movement, built on the idea that free love and easy pregnancy disposal was the way to female liberation, encouraged thousands of Americans to ditch the antiquated rules of their parents’ generation in favor of what they felt was right for them. But, instead of ushering in a brave new world, the Sexual Revolution left nothing but a destroyed culture, rampant death, and exploitation in its wake.  
    Subverted, by Sue Ellen Browder, examines the ins-and-outs of the Sexual Revolution and the damage it caused from the point of view of a woman who had a hand in creating it and then suffered at its hands. 
    A deep dive into history and what abortion can do to a culture, this story, told through excellent writing and a personal account that pulls at the heart strings, is an absolutely essential read for anyone who wants to understand how our culture evolved to its current state


5 out of 5 stars


Unexpected Choice by Patti Giebink - from January 2023 Edition 

How do you turn your life around after spending years championing and enabling a way of life that you now realize is wrong? How do you even begin to come to terms with what you have done? Will your guilt ever leave you? Pattie Giebink, the author of Unexpected Choice, and a former abortion doctor, can answer these questions because she lived and had to answer them herself long ago.
    In this first-hand account, Dr. Giebink tells the story of her life: her decision to go into medicine (because of an expectation from her family but also with the hope of helping people); her slog through medical school; her stint as the only abortion doctor in a sleepy town, operating under the delusion that she was helping women in need; her time in the trenches advocating for more abortion freedom; and the dramatic moment when the Lord pulled her heart, leading her to not only give up performing abortions but to turn around and actively work to prevent the practice and save lives. 
    Gripping, if a little too analytical, Pattie Giebink's writing exposes the brutality of abortion through the eyes of a women who knows every aspect of it, committed this heinous act thousands of times, and can still say that she found redemption and new purpose for life.


4 out of 5 stars


The Walls Are Talking by Abby Johnson - from September 2022 Edition

The Walls Are Talking, written by Abby Johnson as a follow up to her 2010 autobiography Unplanned, is a very difficult book to read, but it is essential to understanding just how evil the abortion industry really is. 
    As the subheading explains, the book is comprised of the stories and firsthand accounts of abortion workers who have since left/escaped the business after witnessing and participating in the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of pre-born babies. While it can be easy to hope that these stories are fictionalized and couldn't possibly be true, the words of these women, all written in first-person to protect the workers identities, expose the gruesome reality of abortion in its rawest form. 
    Within the pages of this book, the reader will hear stories of greed, murder, and abuse that should, by the end, spark righteous anger but also a deep sorrow for what is considered "good health care." Through Abby Johnson's brilliant writing, the reader will also come to understand what causes a nurse to join the abortion industry and just how hard it is to get back out. 
    Well written and intensely emotional, The Walls Are Talking should be read by everyone so that the truth can come to light. 

Available on Amazon.com

4 out of 5 stars 


Unplanned by Abby Johnson - from August 2022 Edition 

Unplanned, written by Abby Johnson, could be called the quintessential Pro-Life book. It could also be called a stereotypical Pro-Life book. While both those titles are true and people are free to pick which one they believe, Unplanned is an absolutely essential read for anyone who wants to join, go deeper into, or just understand the Pro-Life movement. 
    Based on the author's first hand experiences as an up-and-coming director of an abortion clinic in Texas, Unplanned recounts Abby Johnson's journey from wide-eyed clinic volunteer who honestly thought she was helping women in crisis, to clinic director who would do anything to promote Planned Parenthood's cause, to goal driven Pro-Life activist who took up the cause after witnessing an abortion for the first time. Though heartbreaking at times, Abby's story is a beautiful example of redemption and how God truly does have a plan for everything (even the death of a baby without a name). 
    The book also highlights a crucial issue within the larger Pro-Life vs. Pro-Choice argument, the plight of women and abortion clinic workers who honestly believe that they are doing a good thing. These people are also victims of abortion, having been so blinded by "doing the right thing" that they are unable to see the true cost or are so trapped within the system they can't find a way out. Abby knows what this is like and she brilliantly lays it on the line here. 
    Well written and packed with emotion, Unplanned is a must read for anyone. 

Available on Amazon.com 

5 out of 5 stars 



Photo Credit: Podium School
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