My Book Club Choice

I don't recommend a lot of books. In fact, The Shack is by far the only book I've recommended to anyone and everyone I get a chance to, because it's life-changing. It's challenging and healing and hopeful, and I love everything about it. Other than the Bible, in my opinion, if you only read one book in your life - I recommend The Shack.
That having been said, some friends of ours, while we were discussing The Shack, recommended to us two books by Anne Rice. Yes, the same Anne Rice of Vampire fame. She has had a conversion of sorts and has written two incredible books about Jesus that have really blessed me greatly. The first is Christ The Lord: Out of Egypt and covers the early years of Jesus' life in Egypt and goes with Him and His family as they return to Nazareth. The rich historical material makes it worth the read if there was nothing else, but there is so much more. It gives a sense of the culture and times of Jesus like nothing I've ever read. And then the story is picked up with Christ The Lord: Road To Cana, that covers the last couple years of Jesus' life prior to the wedding at Cana when He turned the water to wine. It's full of all the drama and discovery that you'd expect from a thirty something Jewish man in a small town who is unmarried and is known to be "sinless". It's incredibly fascinating. You will know why He went to that wedding, who was getting married, and why He performed the miracle. It's like reading another Gospel.
The cool part is that both books are in the first person. Yes, Jesus is telling the story. She does a marvelous job of being true to His character and His deity. Sure it's full of speculation and imagination. It's fiction, but you don't feel like it is as you read it. You will have mental pictures in your head about what it was like living in those times that you will never get from a Bible class or a sermon. Treat yourself to some fun and inspiration. I even enjoyed her explanation at the end of the first book for why she wrote it. She is a true apologist for the historical accuracy of the Gospels. Check it out of the library. I listened to the first book on CD's from the library and loved it. I read the second while hunting in Colorado and finished it much faster than I wanted. (Large print version helped)
Hope you're blessed by it like I was.