One of the Few

By Jason B. Ladd

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First Person Narrative

Non-Fiction

318 Pages

 

About the Book (Backcover Blurb):

 

(2016 Next Generation Indie Book Award Finalist)

A US Marine fighter pilot explores life’s important questions as he prepares for combat, searches for truth, and wages spiritual warfare during his mission to become a better husband and father.

Jason B. Ladd grows up in a military family with loving parents but spends his young life filled with spiritual apathy.

Ladd enters the US Marine Corps, becomes a fighter pilot, and sees combat in Iraq before life events align to nudge him into profound spiritual inquiry. Digging deep into his quest for truth, he realizes the art and science of fighter pilot fundamentals can help him on his journey.

Filled with stories that contrast his spiritual apathy with his post-Christian worldview passion, One of the Few is the compelling life story of a spiritual seeker engaged in a thrilling profession combined with a strong, reasonable defense of Christianity.

For fans of Ravi Zacharias, Lee Strobel, and Frank Turek, Ladd’s remarkable journey shares the transformative power of faith during a time when belief in God is dismissed and religious liberty in the military is attacked.

 

Why I Choose this Book: 

 

The author contacted me via email several months ago saying he seen on my blog that I “enjoyed Christian Living titles” and wondered if I would be willing to review his book. My curiosity was peaked, because hey, helping out fellow authors is cool, but what really got me interested was his P.S. to the email where he said I could find out more about his homeschooling family of nine who lives in Alaska.
People. They live in Alaska. (For all you who don’t know, I’m pretty sure Alaska and I would be best friends if we ever got to know each other.) Mr. Ladd and I emailed back and forth a few times because I had various questions about the book, and needless to say, I agreed to review it. (Although, to be clear, the book itself has nothing to do with Alaska.)

What I Thought About this Book:

The book is divided into three parts, and the first part was most assuredly my favorite. It received a very solid four stars. Parts two and three were a bit disjoined and made it somewhat hard to follow, but in the end I also appreciated the information that was presented.
Part One has more of the story of Mr. Ladd’s life than the other two parts, and I really liked how he tied different lessons he’d learned into how they would later make sense to him spiritually. Mr. Ladd also described the world in a way that I greatly enjoyed. His word pictures and descriptions made me smile more than once.
Part Two explores a lot of various issues and sins in the world, and how they affect people, and how Christians should view those issues. Although Mr. Ladd explains in the introduction what Part Two is going to be, I was still really surprised by the sudden switch, not only in content, but also in style. Part Two took me a while to get through because I normally read in the evening, and I found it hard to focus when I was tired. I also skim-read a chapter or two because although I think the subjects presented in the chapters are very important to talk about, I don’t feel the need to personally read about them at this time.
Part Three talks about other religions and how they are different from Christianity, and also why it’s important to study things for ourselves and not just mindlessly accept what other people tell us.

Conclusion:

The book wasn’t what I was expecting, and I wish it had all been more like Part One, but all in all I’m glad I read it. Mr. Ladd didn’t grow up in a Christian environment, so it was especially neat to get to “watch” his journey toward believing the Bible and God. He obviously spent a lot of time exploring the topic before he believed, so that was really cool to see.
Although handled well, the book does talk about some subjects that aren’t suitable for kids (plus, I don’t think they’d grasp a lot of the info anyway), so I’d recommend this book for ages 17 and up.

Rating:

I’m giving One of the Few 4 out of 5 stars and 7 out of 10.

*I received this book free from the author. Find out more about Jason B. Ladd at his website.