Some more Favorites

Worship music:
I love Chris Tomlin's music.
http://www.christomlin.com/
I got to see Tomlin, Louie Giglio and David Crowder with his band in Seattle during the Passion tour.
Also, The drama team I traveled with, The Company, worked with him on three different projects. Two weeks of Super Summer Camp, and the Texas Youth Evangelism Conference (which is NOTHING like the Alaskan one- We used the San Antonio arena for it! And filled the whole thing with students. The only comparison in Fairbanks is the Carlson, but something like three times over. It was huge.)
In San Antonio we worked with him putting motions to one of his old songs "Alle-lu-ya". He was great. Excited to see what we were doing- in fact, he messed up in rehearsal 'cuz he was trying to watch us.
There are two things I have appreciated about him- his authenticity, and his enthusiasm for worship. Also, I respect his ability to make singable songs. (After living with a song-writer for 8 years, I understand the difficulty and the art. Tomlin's very good at it.)
I saw him lead worship for 2 weeks at 2 camps. And then I had the opportunity to attend a worship leader's pre-concert event in Seattle. During this time I was again struck by his genuineness. I believe he seeks to keep himself genuine and without a mask.
During the worship leader's event in Seattle I was again reminded of his desire to worship, and lead others to the throne of Christ... After the evening worship events at SS camp he would lead music while the students exited to go to their 'serious talk time'. But, after they were gone and only the few leaders who didn't have to go were left, he would continue to lead us. Maybe 20 in the big hall and we'd continue to sing for 20 or so minutes. This was a gift to us. I'm sure he was also enjoying it, but most of us who remained were admin staff or techie guys, and he chose to use his music to minister to us.
I hope that these qualities continue to be a mainstay of his life.
Some of my favorite recent songs were sung/written by him, and I've been delighted to see his music being appreciated by more people. Some of his most well-known songs are "How Great Is Our God," "Indescribable," "Forever," "Famous One," "We Fall Down," "Holy Is the Lord," "Made to Worship," and "Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)."

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Authors:


Lois McMaster Bujold http://www.dendarii.com/
I've found nothing of hers that I don't like! Amazing.
I'm fairly picky, but I really like Bujold's style, and I LOVE her characters. I love her Chalion books, her Vorkosigan books, and her Sharing Knife series. She write space opera, and fantasy. But it's her characters that keep drawing me back. I love her people, and I want to know what happens to them!
I voraciously read her books as they come out, and she's one of the few authors I buy. I mostly check stuff out of the library, 'cuz I'm POOR. But her stuff I buy. 'Cuz I KNOW I'll want to re-read them again, and again, and again. That's how much I love her characters.
Most of her books are fairly serious, but if you're in the mood for a light book, her 'Diplomatic Immunity' is HYSTERICAL. I read portions of it out loud to my family, and they thought it was funny, even though they hadn't read any of her books before and weren't familiar with the characters.