Women Risktakers: It's Your Destiny, Reach Higher, Stand Stronger, Press Harder

Bailey, founder of several mission outreach organizations, encourages women to take strategic risks for God in this uneven, largely unoriginal self-help guide. After a brief and generic introduction, she draws on eight biblical examples of women who took leaps of faith and transcended their apparent limitations. Some of these will be familiar to readers and are in fact staples of the ""exemplary-women-of-the-Bible"" literature: Hagar, Hannah, Deborah and Esther. Others, like the prostitute Rahab, are more original choices, though Bailey's exposition only skims the surface of their stories. The most unusual chapters deal with lesser-known women of the Bible, such as Jochebed (Moses's biological mother) and the five daughters of Zelophehad, who bonded together after the death of their father to claim their family's inheritance in the promised land. Bailey employs an overly effusive writing style that seems better suited to oral communication (including rhetorical questions, an abundance of exclamation points and too many italicized words). The tone is didactic, with cut-and-dried prayers at the end of each chapter and a ""daily declaration"" that affirms the reader's relationship with God.