OnlineBookClub.org

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Psalms to Inspire" by David Spietz.]

Psalms to inspire: from me to you by David Spietz is a collection of poems that address different areas of life from a Christian perspective. There are 46 poems in total in this anthology and they are categorized into one of the following headings: The Call, Seasonal, One on One, Family, Work, Pain and Personal, and God’s Nation. Every category has a brief introduction explaining what the poems in the section will be about. According to Spietz, the aim of this collection is to “help another family, relationship or individual see the light of the Lord.”

I am a Christian and a poet, so I was excited to review this book. I love how the first poem, ‘Why Me Lord?’ made me reflect on my walk with the Lord. Praising God was also a constant theme throughout the book. Spietz testified of the Lord’s goodness in his life and preached salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ.

This poet’s writing style is not lavished with many literary devices. He mostly relied on rhetorical questions and emotive language to fulfill his purpose. All the pieces are freestyle and most of them are written in the first person in a narrative style. There could have been more variation in his writing style, but I still enjoyed it overall.

There were a few things that I did not like about Psalms to inspire. The book was obviously not professionally edited judging from the numerous grammatical errors it contains. Most of the errors involved missing punctuation marks. The formatting could also be improved to make the book look less like a manuscript and more like a finished product. I believe that since this book was made to honor the Lord, the author should have strived to make it as professional as possible. At the time of writing this review, a kindle version of this copy is available for $5.99 USD and a paperback copy for $10.99 USD at Amazon.com. I might buy the kindle copy, but I would not purchase a paperback book that I am sure is not professionally edited.

In conclusion, I rate Psalms to inspire 2 out of 4 stars. I was hoping to be able to give this book 4 out of 4 stars because it is ‘Christian literature’. However, the grammatical and formatting errors previously mentioned make this impossible. I hope that the author continues to publish his poetry but I highly recommend that he has work professionally edited before publishing it.

******
Psalms to Inspire
View: on Bookshelves

Like Jaime Lync's review? Post a comment saying so!

I'm sorry this book wasn't what you were hoping for. Poetry is so hard to do well. I sure that it would be the best possible. Not just thrown together. Thanks.

I wish the book were profesionally edited. I still want to read these psalms though. I am interested if they are psalms in the traditional way. Are they only poems of worship or is there an oscillation between pure faith and doubt? Thank you for an interesting review!

I read about the author on Amazon and learned that he was compelled to write this book, in obedience to God's instruction. I laud Christians who act on God's prodding. I do agree that the Lord would have been better served by a professionally edited version of the book.

All isn't lost, though. David can still follow the footsteps of the original David who purportedly wrote most of the Psalms.

Thanks, Jaime, for this insightful review!

I'm so disappointed that it was not as great as you hoped. Thanks for your honest review. Poetry although on face value looks like just "a bunch of words" is not so easy to compose. Despite the pitfalls you mentioned I'll still take a look at this collection.

It's a shame about the errors. Hopefully this book will still be able to find an audience who loves it. Thanks for the review!

Love the concept of the book. Once the issues are fixed I will be one of the ones getting a hard copy. Good review.

I am not an avid consumer of poetry, but I definitely don't want to read poems that are full of grammatical errors and lack literary devices. As a Christian, I totally agree with your point that it should have been professionally edited. Thanks for giving this a fair rating rather than boosting it to "help" a fellow believer.

as Christian well agreed but,wrong grammatical classes of word it should be professionally edited.

Poetry demands a unique taste and style. The theme of this book is good. But the book should have been edited professionally. Thanks for your interesting review.

Sounds like the poems are quite spiritual, which picked my interest. However, I am not into books that were not professionally edited. Thanks for the review!

I can't say I'm very religious, and the unprofessional editing errors are a real turn-off. Looks like I'll have to give this one a pass.