Michael Neale

The River is a beautifully written story about love, family, facing one’s fears and forgiveness. It is also an inspirational read that teaches a powerful lesson in letting go of the past and embracing the future. Michael Neale is a gifted storyteller whose prose brings the characters and the various settings vibrantly to life. To read my review in its entirety, please click HERE.… (més)

I am not much into sappy stories, and bits of this book are awfully touchy-feely and sappy. But, I was pleasantly surprised that despite this being a Chrstian allegory written by a worship leader at Christ Fellowship Church, this was actually a story written to be inclusive of people who are not Christians at all.

In this book Blake, a man whose wife and kids have left him, turns up at a Colorado whitewater rafting venue called The River, which sounds like many of the rafting companies along the Cache la Poudre River. He has been invited by a man named Gabriel, who has been a rafting guide for many years there. Gabriel offers Blake a week at the River to sort himself out a bit, and in the course of the rest of the book we hear Gabriel's story and Blake's, and get some philosophy and potentially good advice. For people who need this to be a Christian book, it is easy enough to see the allegory, but for those of us non-Christians who are tired of being pressured by Christians, this book can be read just as written, and comes across as a sort of Colorado flavor of zen.

(I received my copy of this book free through the Goodreads First Reads giveaways program.)… (més)