Customer Reviews

Bo's Café: A Novel

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Windblown Media is the publishing company established by a couple of guys for the purpose of getting their friend's book, `The Shack', into print. The first copies traveled from person to person as friends passed around the surprising story that found its way into their hearts. Millions of copies and readers later, `The Shack' is both a publishing phenomenon and a discussion starter everywhere.

How exactly do you follow up on the success of `The Shack'? Do the publishers pursue money, marketing share or message? I've been waiting to see what they would print next, knowing that their office is overwhelmed by submissions from eager writers wanting to capitalize on the Windblown brand. After reading, Bo's Café, I am not surprised that the publishers chose to go with `message.'

Bo's Café is a novel written by three close friends. They have previously written a book together called, `TrueFaced,' which describes the difference of trying to live a life of pleasing God or living a life of learning how to trust God. Along the way they discuss authenticity, grace, love, repentance and forgiveness. Bo's Café is similar in theme but is presented in a novel form. As such, it may be more accessible and available to readers.

The book is not flashy in its presentation or prose--it will not win the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished writing. That being said, this novel was not written for entertainment purposes. The characters, background and events are meant to pull the reader into a greater story- the reader's own. If this book is passed around like `The Shack' it will also be because the readers found that it makes a difference.

The main character, Steven Kerner, is at a difficult place in life where all his hard fought success is crumbling around him. But where `The Shack' took its character Mackenzie to the woods to meet with God, Steven has his profound revelations at Bo's Café while meeting with regular patrons. In the mix of giving and receiving real and raw feedback, Stephen experiences profound grace. More could be said about the storyline, but it is better experienced in the paperback itself.

This book is ultimately about moving from control to trust, from protection to vulnerability, and from blame to forgiveness. All of this happens in the context of relationships. It left me in a great place of self-reflection and led me to have some significant conversations with others around me. Bo's Café has whetted my appetite for more.

Read this book with an open heart and you won't be disappointed. You may see grace in a whole new light!

I truly enjoyed this ride. You will too. Trust me. Real life. Real people. Rugged honesty. Wrenching reality.

A mosaic of granting permission to take ourselves less seriously, to confront the challenge of facing ourselves through the eyes of others, the courage to seek or stumble into relationships where the grace of God can work the miracle of transforming us into what we might be --- it's all here in Bo's Café - Will Grace Finally Win?

Jesus really never told people what to think. For the most part, he attracted people to see life with new eyes. Sure, He reasoned with some folks. Yet, he truly appealed to their imagination versus their reason (or lack thereof) --- Sunglasses after sunset (p.29) is a profound embodiment of the ongoing new era of storytelling that gives new life and relevance to the reality of Jesus presence and unrealized impact in our lives. Come as you are to this book. Bring all your stuff along. Reach for grace. What's grace? Listen to the authors (John Lynch, Bill Thrall and BruceMcNicol):

"Grace is a gift only the nonreligious can accept. They're the only ones who can get it. Religious folks see grace as soft. So they keep trying to manage their junk with their own willpower and tenacity. Nothing defines religion quite as well as a bunch of people trying to do impossible tasks with limited power while bluffing to themselves that it's working." (p.89).

It's very important to note that this novel is not written for religious types (although those who consider themselves as such would definitely enjoy it). I am not going to spoil the plot, the characters, or the many poignant truths that will innocently harness your heart in this review. It would be a crying shame to do that. Speaking of shame, take note of the following excerpt:

"You know what shame does? It takes a particular violation or several violations from your past, something that really got to you, and convinces you felt like in that violation is who you'll always be, for the rest of your life. Sad,huh? --- We don't want others to see us for the person the lie has told us we are. We almost unconsciously create a lie to protect us from the lie. Bad combination." (pp.146-147).

You can't write those words without having lived it, and experienced the freedom that lies on the other side of this deception.

Ride with these guys. There should be warning label on the jacket of this book: Read with Sunglasses On. You'll need them to peer into the timeless truths this story reveals in a new, creative, relevant light.

Bo's Café is a different kind of place. More than a good read, this novel is like a secret passage, a hidden portal to a place where the reader's heart sighs and says "I'm home."

Have you ever finished a well-written, spiritually rejuvenating book, only to realize shortly afterwards that you simply don't have what it takes to stay connected to your newfound joy and excitement? You lose momentum, you trip up on old habits, and the excitement quickly fades. You wonder, why. What is it about me?

As a Christian seeking to love God and learn His ways - do you yourself ever have an overwhelming desire to be known; to be understood deep down inside; to be fully accepted for who you are? What would it be like to experience a place where you were completely exposed for who you are - ALL of you, the good and the dark? And through that process, find the secret to a meaningful and rewarding life - a life of enjoying God, enjoying others, and enjoying yourself, consistently . . .

I have come to realize in my own Christian experience, that I hide and judge others to protect myself. This helps ensure my "rightness" and better-than-ness. It also ensures that I lose out on enjoying God and others, and am left craving acceptance from others and from myself. "Oh what a wretched soul am I." There must be a way out, for Jesus "came to give us life, and life to the full". Where can I see, where can I experience a REAL example of life without my shame?

I visited Bo's Café. Got to know some of the regulars. I joined Steven for a while in his fight to hold on to his rightness and superior position, trying to keep an image of himself that he thought would bring acceptance. Then I experienced, in the story of Steven, his strange friend Andy, and his wife Lindsay, the secret to enjoying a fulfilled life. A place where you already have everything it takes to learn this secret. I encourage you to make your way to Bo's . . .

I really enjoyed Paul Young's The Shack so when I realized Windblown Media had finally brought out another book I was very keen to read it. Bo's Café is certainly an interesting book; very different from the Shack, but with a similar grace-filled message. While the Shack starts with solid real-world tragedy then slides into mystery, Bo's Café opens with a mysteriously meaningful encounter, only to slide its way into everyday pain.

The main character, Steven, is a person that many men might easily relate to, and a spouse that many women might recognize. He means well. He tries. But he knows his job is to provide and somehow he forgets there's another provider, and that he's also supposed to be present and part of his family.

As Steven repeatedly reasons himself out of guilt, I find myself feeling sorry for him, then sorry for his wife, then guilty for my own mistakes--yes, wives make mistakes too. Meanwhile the angel in the truck-stop turns out to be a very real man with his own history and faults, as are all the other people Steven meets at Bo's Café.

I enjoyed the characters and their interactions. I valued the small insights into how their lives went downhill before they changed; they were changing still. But the story itself felt more preachy than The Shack--more determined to give me answers than to inspire me to seek for myself. The Shack had a lighter touch it seemed, filled with a sense of the wonder and otherness of God. But Bo's Café is the other side of the same coin, heavier and more firmly grounded, with a God who is passionate about right relationships and attitudes.

If Men are from Mars and Woman from Venus, then Bo's Café might make a good sourcebook for translation. Mars and Venus strike sparks and fly apart, till they finally learn a way to live in balance with self and others. The book gives a fascinating insight into the male mind, and into God's love. I enjoyed this it; just not so overwhelmingly as I enjoyed The Shack.

"A safe place isn't a soft place."

Have some unresolved conflict in your life messing up all your relationships? Feeling exasperated because you give it your best to fix the stuff you carry around but it never really gets resolved?

You might identify with Steven Kerner, the main character in Bruce McNicol, Bill Thrall, and John Lynch's new novel "Bo's Cafe'".

Steven Kerner's living the dream with his executive level job, beautiful wife and daughter, and even finds time to serve on Boards for charitable organizations. To look at his life, you'd think the guys got it all.

But wait, if this kind of life is what we all aspire to have then why is Steven Kerner calling the Marriott home and his wife contemplating divorce?

Enter Andy Monroe.

At first glance Steven sizes Andy up as an old Jimmy Buffet groupie with his Dodgers ball cap, ragged blue jeans and loud Hawaiian shirt. Looks can be and often are deceiving.

Steven is compelled to allow a friendship to develop mainly because Andy is a friend of his fathers. What follows is novel about true friendship which delves deep down to the heart of all our issues.

Andy, along with several of his friend's, provide Steven with conversations that begin to shape his view of himself and of all others around him. The big question is whether he will accept the Truth and begin to live freely for the first time in his life.

I won't give the main storyline away, suffice it to say that you will identify with the issues, your mind may be opened to many of our human `defense mechanism', and perhaps you may find the answer you've been looking for all your life.

"Safe is a place where you can get out the worst thing about you
and they don't run you off, talk you down, or head for the hills....
Safe is where you are loved more for revealing your `problems', not less."

I recommend this novel highly, for the theme, for the revelation of the process and for the colorful characters that come in and out of the story.

Keiki Hendrix
Vessel Project Book Reviewer
[...]

Three friends get together and write a book that they hope will have spiritual impact on people's lives. What are the spiritual truths that they hope to convey? Grace. Yes, they go into the deep addictions and weaknesses we carry in our lives and even more importantly, how to overcome them. I love that they do not deal with anything superficially. There are no bandaids that will fall off and end up on the bottom of someone's shoe. It is about relationships, which lead to vulnerability which in turn can lead to honesty and then healing which is found in God. This is a huge part of the story and so well done. But the root of it all boils down to grace and how unwilling we are to accept it for ourselves. It's not about saying I'm sorry, but about forgiveness and repentance.

Steven Kerner is an amazing lead character, not because he's a great guy, he's amazing because of his flaws - the man has some major anger issues and he does not spare those around him, especially his wife. We get to watch him explode and lose his temper in all his stupidity (more than once) and yet you can't help pulling for him ("Come on Steven, calm down before you blow it. Don't say it, don't say it... NO! He said it!"). You feel for his longsuffering wife, Lindsay and his poor daughter Jennifer who is stuck in the middle of it all just praying that her parents don't get divorced.

Andy Monroe enters the picture and things start to change... or do they? Andy tries to befriend and mentor Steven but somedays he just doesn't want to be helped. Andy takes Steven to Bo's Cafe and introduces him to a cast of characters - Cynthia, Bo, Hank and Carlos. Steven can't believe that Andy thinks any of them are going to be able to help. It's not about help, it's about having a safe place. That is what Bo's Cafe is.

Walk with Steven as he tries to deal, mess up, deal, mess up, apologize and finally get real. Can his marriage survive? Can his new friendships survive? And what about his relationship with his daughter? Good storyline, but this book is definitely a thinker book, not cerebral like you think so hard you can't even enjoy it, but like the kind of book you can't possibly read and not ponder and ponder and ponder. If you are fortunate, this is the kind of book that will change who you are.

Recently I had opportunity to read the advance copy of Bo's Café.

The heart of the book is a wonderful message of Christian community, lived out in all the difficulties of real life against the backdrop of the glory that is revealed when the grace of God is allowed to penetrate our hearts.

Community--a place where we belong and are accepted--even when we do all we can to make others believe that we aren't worthy, as Steven Kerner does.
Community means standing together with each other, fully recognizing and disclosing our own blemishes and accepting others in the humility of knowing their path is not much different than our own.

But, much more than that, community of grace gently insists that we are lovingly honest with each other and ourselves about our sin and our needs. In openness and vulnerability, we can lay it all out on the table, and in return, receive a depth of love and protection that we never imagined. This, in turn, leads to the freedom to be transformed and truly move into maturity.

This is the path that Steven and each of his friends had to take in their journey for healing and wholeness. It is not always easy, and it looks far different than the world's idea of community, which oftens stops at the place of tolerance or accepting each others' wierdness. In the ultimate sense, being a part of this type of community will be the most challenging course we have ever taken.

Bo's Cafe brings to life much of what my heart yearns for in seeing a picture of Christian community in action. I appreciated the openness of Andy and Carlos and Cynthia as they related to Steven, along with the instructional component they offered about what they were doing along the way. They continued to draw Steven back to his relationship with God from a standpoint of grace and unconditional love, and they lived that out as they were available to Steven and stood with him, even in his continued arrogance and destructiveness.

I highly recommend Bo's Cafe for all who are willing to move past the cliches of relationships into a place in which being known and loved allows one to truly live in trust and humility.

Many novels are pure entertainment. You are lost in a different world for a few hours. BO'S CAFE is much more than a simple reading experience. Yes, you will be lost in the drama and life of Steven, the lead character, yet the experience will be much more. I found BO'S CAFE a thoughtful and pointed experience.

I highly recommend this book. I find myself thinking about it in odd moments days after I completed it. Get this book and try it.

I loved it from the moment I started reading. I could see my story written in the pages...

This is by far one of the best books I've ever read. Though written in novel form, it is filled with the truths of God's desire for shared relationship and healing.

It's a story of a man, named Steven, who is broken and doesn't know it. His marriage reveals it, but he's too blind to see. That is until Andy enters into his world.

This amazing book gives a beautiful picture of what we were made for. Created in the midst of of the Trinity, joined in relationship, their shadow falls on us. We were made to walk through the roads of life with others. Bear one another's burdens isn't just about taking a meal to a sick friend. It's about getting in the trenches of hearts, loving others where they are to where they were made to be. In the beauty of shared relationship we find healing. This book portrays the value of letting others know your story, past and present.

Everyone needs a "Bo's Cafe" in their lives.

Beautiful job, Bruce, Bill & John. It is a stunning portrayal of a shared journey. It is a brilliant depiction of how love heals. To be honest, I'm sad that I finished reading.

This book is now added to my "must reads" list. Get a copy. You won't be disappointed.

Bo's Cafe is a story about us all; about who we are in our weakness, rage, fear, love, beauty, blindness, and aloneness. Bo's tells the story of the power of community as it is played out in the very ordinary, very real life of Steven - a harried, hurried and haunted Everyman. Slightly aware of the crumbling grip he has on his own life, a muddled marriage and a meaningless career, Steven shambles towards Grace in the passenger seat of a Buick Electra driven by his very own guide to the real life, Andy Monroe. This is a simple story - powerful and true - of loss and redemption, the fear and lure of being known and what it really means to live in community . A must read for anyone who loves truth and longs to experience the grace of being fully known and still, deeply loved.