Good and profitable read but not great literature:

Mondays With My Old Pastor 

by Jose Luis Navajo

                            

“Old age is like climbing a large mountain. The higher you get, the more tired and breathless you become, but your sight becomes more free and the view more extensive and serene.” Igman Bergman

An unnamed retired pastor was such a man who from the top of the mountain was able to bring encouragement at a time when Evangelical Pastor Navajo was burned out and disillusioned and ready to quit the ministry.  At his old pastor’s insistence, Pastor Navajo visits the dying pastor for a number of weeks over which 15 encouragements are given to him.  These encouragements bring new life and renewed vision to Pastor Navajo and his wife and will also bring much encouragement to the reader.

Although I profited a great deal from the book and would highly recommend it, it fell short as a good work of art.  I found the book often excessively sweet and sentimental. The author tried to make the book read like a novel, but it was choppy in it’s genre as it often came through as non-fiction.

At the end of the book (don’t read ahead!) the fifteen principles are summarized, and I will probably extract them for regular review. Jose ends with

“During the night, a person asks a thousand questions. … But morning finally comes and the sun restores everything to its rightful place. Then we discover that the grotesque shadows at night that seemed like arms of a skeleton were only branches laden with fruit, and that empty blackness that seemed like an abyss in the darkness was a well of crystal-clear water willing to refresh us.”

 Overall a great book, I would give the book 4 stars out of 5

(I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”)