Review: Our Life In HIS Hands, ISBN 1-4241-2326-7, by Richard B. Garren, PublishAmerica: Release Date to be announced, sometime in 2006.

Richard B. Garren provides a poignant insight into the personal, and sometimes intimate aspects of family life for a small town boy in the lean years of the forties and fifties in America's heartland.  Enid, Oklahoma was a town without distinction and without much hope, but for the Garren family it was home and the anchor of their lives.  Garren's work, Our Life In HIS Hands is certainly an engaging tale on its own, but there is a much more profound purpose in this work than just the telling of a family's history.  Garren has a very specific message to share and he delivers it in such a beautifully humble and profoundly sincere manner that it has enormous power to affect the reader and perhaps even to change lives.  In the smallest of instances, the most mundane of life's situations, Garren reveals the immeasurable influences of a loving and infinitely compassionate Heavenly Father and so exquisitely pairs these situations to some of the most powerful scriptures of the Bible that his entire life serves as a living testimony to the power and providence of the saving grace of Jesus Christ.

Garren is a natural storyteller.  He captures the attention of his reader with his sincerity and honesty and is so candid and forthcoming that the entire Garren clan becomes close friends as the reader shares the pains, the joys, the frustrations and truimphs with young Garren as he struggles through the difficult process of growing up.  Garren unapologetically exposes many of the intimate details of his family's financial difficulties, their petty jealousies and sibling rivalries.  Yet, his tremendous love and admiration for his parents, siblings, extended and somewhat nontraditional family, as well as, long time friends and the occasional eccentric  acquaintance shine forth from every page as the story pulls the reader along while tugging at one's heartstrings.

In Our Life In HIS Hands, Garren has provided a deeply inspirational message of hope and divine providence in even the seemingly most insignificant of situations by revealing the marvelous work of our Heavenl Father in what may be mistaken for very routine and even inconsequential ways.  I found myself often stopping to ponder the relevance in my own life of a particular scripture Garren used to illustrate a point and never failed to receive a comforting reassurance that the helping hand and healing influence of the Lord Jesus Christ and God, the Father - as promised, prophesized and preached in biblical times - are as powerful today as they were then, and the loving grace and omnipotent power of the Savior still reigns for the eternal benefit of God's children here in this life as well as in the next.

Richard Garren has opened his heart and revealed the message of his soul in this very personal and profoundly moving testimony of his personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  Through the example of his own troubled and often desperate life experiences he constructs an undeniable modern day relationship with ancient scripture and how these divinely inspired words still resonant with the power to comfort and conquer the fears and trepidations generated by what some might feel as a cold and uncaring world.

Our Life In HIS Hands is so fresh and unaffected that its sincerity contributes to the subtle yet profound power of its message.  For those who have already accepted Christ in their lives, Richard Garren's story is a beautiful affirmation of faith.  For those still searching, it may very well serve as a light to repel the darkness.  Review by R. deVoll Fisher, author of Caleb's Branch, An Incomplete Tale Of Unfinished Lives for Cheers E-zine April 2006.

In this most uplifting collection of memoirs, Richard Garren recounts the story of his boyhood, and the mysterious ways in which God used everyday circumstances to mold a child into the man he would become.  From the Great Depression, through the uncertain War Years, and into the tumultuous 1950's, this is the story of how a family evolved; with love for one another and faith in their Creator being the only constant in an ever-changing world.

The author draws upon a vast knowledge of Scripture, weaving it throughout his stories like golden threads in this wonderfully warming quilt of memories.  This, coupled with a poignant honesty and a delightful sense of humor made this memoir a pleasure to read.  Our Life In HIS Hands is a 'memoir with a message,' and will challenge readers to listen for the still, small voice of God amid the clamor of modern society, and to trust that even though a man may not always know where he is headed in life, he will never walk alone.

Reviewed by M. Jean Pike, author of The Winds of Autumn

Our Life in HIS Hands takes the reader along the life journey of the Garren family.  Richard has done a fine job giving his account of the Garren family history, allowing us to laugh at the good times and cry at the not-so-good times, as if we are part of the family in some way.  I felt the despair of the gamily as a result of having to move countless times, but also laughed at many other moments.  Not only do the readers learn the value of having a close-knit family in terrible times of struggle, Richard provides the readers with scripture verses all along the way in a manner that speaks of God's presence in our lives even when we are not aware.

Readers who are history buffs will particularly enjoy reading Our Life in HIS Hands, as the author has provided, through his viewpoint and experience, historical information about American life during World War II and post war economic struggles.  The inner child in all of us can identify with the depiction of the memories and the struggle of our families.  We look to our parents during our life struggles, but we must remember that true strength comes through our struggles, only we don't realize it until we look back.  Richard Garren has done an excellent job of reminding us of that in his book. --Alissa Dunn, author of The Unclaimed Christmas Gift..

Tom Ward, author

The Enemy Within

Outposts of Hell or Portals to Heaven

This was a very interesting book written by Richard Garren.  The book highlights the tales and history of the author's family.  The love of his family is highlighted in every word he has written.  You can feel the love for his own and for the True Father in Heaven.

Richard gives a description of an actual event then will correspond the event to an actual Bible verse and give his interpretation of how the Scripture guided them through the hard times as well as the good.

The family history is recorded from the Great Depression to the Great World War II.  Oklahoma has been captured in a well light and the state should be proud of their very own, Richard B. Garren

Jeffery S. Miller                                                                                                                                                                

Author of The Higgins Series