Love Does Review

Title: Love Does
Author: Bob Goff

Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World sets out to list the adventures of Bob Goff (the author) who you may remember from several of Donald Miller's books.  Bob Goff is one of the founders for an organization called Restore International and this book is really a conglomeration of his stories in his life.  Using these stories though Bob Goff sets out to demonstrate that love isn't static, it isn't something to read about in a book, or think about while sitting in a chair.  Love is an action.  Love is an adventure.  Love compels us to move.  Love....Does.

As I picked up the book to review I noticed Donald Miller had written the forward and praised the book as well.  While I don't know Bob Goff at all, I know of Donald Miller.  The first time I picked up Blue Like Jazz I felt linked to Donald (as did many in my generation).  His story spoke to me and drew me in more so than anything else I had ever read.  So I hoped Bob Goff's book would do the same.

Honestly this book reminds me a lot of Blue Like Jazz (BLJ), which is good and bad.  It's good because of the high esteem I have for BLJ.  I liked that it felt as though I was in the room with Bob listening to his stories of adventure.  I liked that Love Does goes further than BLJ to explain the authors own spiritual interpretation of the story told (one of the detractors of BLJ was that it left too much for the reader to make from the story, this book is more clear).  However, since much of it reminded me of BLJ it also made me feel redundant, like it was a stories manufactured into the same mold as BLJ (which also happened to the rest of Donald Millers' books).

Love Does is a great book and I certainly wouldn't discourage anyone from reading it, but some will be disappointed with it's similarity to Blue Like Jazz.  Bob Goff is an interesting character that you can laugh with/at, cry with and feel connected to in just 200 short pages.

Read this book if you loved Blue Like Jazz.
Read this book if you hated Blue Like Jazz.
Read this book if you find yourself sitting more than doing.
Read this book if you're involved in Bible Studies and no Bible Doings.
And above all don't just read this book, do this book.  Get out of your chair and live the adventure, live your call, live out the Gospel.

Five out of five stars.

uDisclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”ides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”