When burned-out starship captain Jesse Sanders is seized by a dictatorial medical regime and detained on the colony planet Undine, he has no idea that he is about to be plunged into a bewildering new life that will involve ordeals and joys beyond anything he has ever imagined, as well as the love of a woman with powers that seem superhuman. Still less does he suspect that he must soon take responsibility for the lives of people he has come to care about and the preservation of their hopes for the future of humankind.
This review will be unlike others I have written in the past for a few reasons: this book is like none I’ve read, it is in a genre I’ve not read a lot of, and it is so smart that it may take awhile for me to grasp it.
I was asked to review Sylvia Engdahl’s Stewards of The Flame about a month or so ago, maybe longer. I knew from the get go that it was a book leaning towards science fiction yet the author herself will say that it doesn’t fit in any one particular genre. After reading it I can now see why that is. This book contains of course science fiction tendencies but also contains a love story, some action, inter-stellar traveling, and a little bit of paranormal phenomenon.
Jesse Sanders is the main character, a Fleet starship captain that gets detained on a new planet and is quickly pulled into a group whose mission is to expand on the powers of the human mind in order to escape the militant medical mission of the government. Along the way he falls in love with Carla and makes new friends in the group. He is a likable character in that his hesitation, his nervousness, and his fear of these new relationships come off the page and make you sympathize with him.
The book follows Jesse as he learns the true capacity of his mind to ward off the many life stresses of humans as well as using what he terms “superhuman powers”. But underlying is the debate of how we handle our end of life decisions, government health care, and other matters that are currently in the forefront of our own country. Though set far into the future, so much so that the 20th century Earth is referred to almost as we refer to the Dark Ages, so many things are approached in this novel that we currently see in our news.
This is a book that I hate to give too much away because the plot is so intricate, so detailed, and so smart that so much can be spoiled.
I liked Stewards of the Flame but it is not an easy read. I read books quickly and this took me almost two weeks. And even now, I feel I’ll have to read it at least one more time to really grasp the meaning behind it all-which of course I will do! Engdahl gives so much information that at first glance it can seem overwhelming but it is so necessary to really become invested in these characters and their story. At times I felt I might need to have a degree to read it, or do some other research, but the author always brings it back around in ways to make it easier to understand. In part, because as I read it, it feels like I’m learning it right along with Jesse, the main character.
I highly recommend this one to anyone that has any interest in life on other planets, paranormal abilities, or the government’s role in our lives. It can appeal to so many different readers in so many ways that I’m sure this will become an instant favorite. I’m looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of the sequel Promise of the Flame.
Trade paperback, 496 pages
ISBN 978-0-615-31487-7 ~ $17.50 Order a signed copy
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What is my life story? What is there worth remembering? How will my children or grandchildren describe my life? These questions and many others swirled through my mind as I finished Donald Miller’s new book, “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years.”
Consider what your life is telling is important to you. Is there anything memorable? Are you taking any risks? Have you been out on any limbs lately?
In the book, Miller uses the backdrop of turning his memoirs into a movie screenplay to reexamine his life. What he discovers about the elements of a really memorable movie are what makes up a really memorable life. He shares a very personal metamorphosis that takes him through territory familiar to most people: family, relationships, contributions to society, and others.
The book was excellent! Not only does Don take us into his life, but I closed the book challenged about who I really am and excited about what the possibilities are! His background as a writer makes this book especially interesting to those who use the business end of a pen but equally interesting to anyone! I highly recommend it! I reviewed the book as a book review blogger for Thomas Nelson Publishers! http://brb.thomasnelson.com/
The first is from the New York Times Magazine, about a new early childhood program called Tools of the Mind…it’s designed to facilitate the development of “executive function” skills in young children. I’m finding that executive function is the new catch phrase in education…and while I have lots to say on that, and this article, it’s late, so I’ll save it here for a later post.
Then there’s this one, about the decline of cursive writing in school…which should come as no surprise to anyone who’s used a computer in the last few years…it is interesting though, as a Montessorian, because we have all kinds of reasons for advocating the continued instruction and use of cursive handwriting. A cursory explanation can be found here, at the website of Montessori Australia.
Lastly, I was able to attend a lecture last Thursday here in Portland by neuroscientist Lise Eliot, who has just written another book, Pink Brain, Blue Brain. I haven’t had time to read it yet (ha!), but it was an interesting talk. The basic thrust of her presentation was that neurologically, there’s not that much difference between boys and girls, and that all the hype recently about gender differences in learning are much more subtle than we think. Check out this interview in Newsweek.
If you haven’t come across McManus, you need to log off, go down to your local used bookstore, and find him in the humor section. I’ve found that McManus’s works turn up regularly at my local used book store, less often at the used section of my local library, and not at all in the “Tin Can Mailman” over on the Arcata coast. This bookstore is more literary and oriented to the sort of discards that come out of the university’s lit classes. This says something about who gravitates to McManus. But I think everyone who loves good writing should pick up one of his many collections of short humor. The Deer On The Bicycle is his latest work, and thankfully it is still in print. it is his gift to all of us who aspire to write humor, and it contains both useful suggestions and some of his best work.
Short fiction is a delight to read but tough to sell. McManus managed to break into this market with his work in Outdoor life. It isn’t surprising then that many of his themes and subjects depict him as a hunter and hapless outdoorsman. I can’t say that I own a gun, but I do appreciate Pat’s take on the wild. I especially enjoy his stories about his younger years. They’ve inspired me to focus on my own childhood.
The introduction of Deer on a Bicycle describes the origin of the work, and I”ll be going through it in greater depth as I continue to blog on this. But he says that he found it difficult to continue teaching, so he collected his lecture notes and offered them up. He says:
“I have no idea whether this book will help anyone to become a humor writer, or any other kind of writer for that matter. But perhaps it will at least offer encouragement in the sense of readers saying to themselves, “He can do it, surely I can.”
McManus is write about this, but it is wrong of him to minimize his contributions. He’s a gracious man. Being funny here and there is something that many of us can pull off, but doing it, as he has done, consistently for more than 30 years takes discipline. It helps, too, to approach humor as an object worthy of study. McManus does that, without being pretentious. Technique matters as it gives the working writer something to draw upon. His book contains a number of techniques or ideas worth considering.
I especially appreciate McManus’ commentary. He describes the circumstances behind each story. This book does for humor writing what Jerry Seinfeld did for stand-up with his 2002 documentary, “Comedian. ” This is all the more impressive in that I have yet to see any other book on comedy or humor writing that comes close. There are other books, collections of interviews, which offer a few tidbits, but McManus offers up his full bag of tricks, the fruits of 30 years of his craft. This, I think, is an extremely generous gift. You really need to buy this book if you are serious about humor writing.
I’m going to highlight his suggestions, but he notes that “people become humor writers because they can’t help themselves,” not because they bought a book. Still, if you want to take a shot at it, no other single book will give you as much help. Stay tuned, and you’ll see.
In the midst of my cleaning I was able to make it out to the mailbox where I discovered a book from Eerdmans. Today’s bounty yielded Divine Impassibility and the Mystery of Human Suffering. There’s a great lineup of contributors (e.g., Thomas Weinandy; Robert Jenson; Bruce McCormack; Paul Gavrilyuk, et al.) so I’m really looking forward to digging into this one!
So over the past couple of weeks for school I was reading the book Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. It was a very interesting book to say the least. I never expected it to be anything like how it was based on its title. It was a good book with a very sad ending. If you haven’t read this book and might read it in the future don’t continue reading!
Okay so in the beginning I gave George a lot of credit for staying with Lennie and never ditching him, but then the more I read I realized how controlling and mean George was to Lennie. So then I became unsure of my views on George. But I was always sure I loved Lennie. Lennie was always the innocent lost character. Throughout the book I kept hoping that George and Lennie would be able to buy their land and start a little farm, sadly to find out at the end of the book that would never happen. The ending also made me very crazy. I couldn’t believe that George would kill Lennie. I kept yelling no he was mentally challenged he didn’t know any better. The whole ending is controversial I guess, but its hard to think there could have been any good logical reason to take a man’s life because of a mistake. But then again this was the 1930’s and I wasn’t around so maybe there was logic to this then.
This book raised a lot of questions for me that I am still trying to figure out, some of which are..
Why is this an American Classic?
What sparked John Steinbeck to write this?
Where was John Steinbeck when he wrote this novel?
Was there any sense of reality for him while writing this?
I recommend reading this book even just to be able to say I read an American Classic.
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger is a modern gothic tale set in London near Highgate Cemetery.
The story begins in a hospital, where 45 year old Elspeth dies of cancer while her younger lover, Robert, is at the vending machines getting coffee. Robert crawls in bed with her and wraps himself around her in a touching scene I won’t soon forget.
Elspeth has an estranged twin, Edie, who lives in Chicago. Edie and her husband Jack also have twins, Julia and Valentina, mirror images of each other. Elspeth has left her London flat and everything in it to her nieces, two young ladies she has never met, with the stipulation that they live alone in the flat for one year, and that their parents never set foot in the flat. Julia and Valentina, unmotivated girls who’ve already dropped out of two colleges, find this all a bit mysterious but decide to give it a go.
Once the twins arrive in London and settle in, it’s not long before they sense an otherwordly presence in the flat. Valentina is more attuned to it than Julia and becomes fixated on discovering what it all means.
There are a number of superb peripheral characters in Her Fearful Symmetry that were well developed and interesting. Martin, a neighbor in an upper flat, struggles with raging OCD. His wife Marijke lives apart from him, but their love story is touching and beautiful. Robert, also a neighbor, a guide at Highgate, and the one tragically left behind after Elspeth’s death, is a study in grief and longing.
I don’t want to give away too much of the plot because it’s truly an amazing reading experience. However as much as I enjoyed it, there were parts that left me confused. There’s an intricate twist about Edie and Elspeth and Jack. I re-read that section twice and finally had to get out a piece of paper and diagram the whole thing just to make sense of it. There were scenes that I really enjoyed (the BEST was when Elspeth snagged the kitten!!), but the end felt rushed and wrong to me. I’m sure there are many people who will disagree with me about the ending, but I felt almost cheated by it. Rather than saying, “Wow!” at the end, I was saying, “What??!!” I was waiting for a showdown between two characters (one alive and one dead) that never came, and that disappointed me. I had hoped for answers about one character’s motivations and there weren’t any, which forced me to speculate.
However, don’t let me scare you off. Niffenegger is a pro at writing about love and emotions and does so in a most creative way in Her Fearful Symmetry. This author, who made time travel so believable in The Time Traveler’s Wife, now gives us a beyond-the-grave love story, full of suspense and impending doom. If you’re looking for a creepy ghostly read for October, look no further! Her Fearful Symmetry will be in stores tomorrow, Tuesday, September 29th.
I read HFS as part of the RIP IV Challenge.
FYI, the publisher is giving away ten ARCs and three first edition hardcovers on October 1st in a lottery to anyone who joins the Facebook page as a fan and sends an email to hfs@regal-literary.com. Good Luck!
As a society we should abandon the industrial food system and eat food in its natural form, as put forth by mother nature. This is clearly a strong conviction of Nina Planck, who spells the idea out over 352 pages in her book Real Food. Her arguments are convincing and very closely mirror those expressed by the recently famous Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma, The Botany of Desire).
Real Food presents a strategy on eating based on unprocessed food that is sensible and will be beneficial to those who implement it. Planck essentially places no restriction on foods as long as they are in their pure form. Pie made with lard in the crust and topped with cream? Certainly. She claims that the rise of health issues in Western culture definitively parallels the rise in processing of our food (many people have drawn similarly competent, yet different parallels to the rise of Western diseases, however). She goes on to refute the longstanding idea that saturated animal fats and cholesterol lead to heart disease and obesity. Planck is not alone in this stance as there is a growing contingent in the field of nutrition who have shifted blame away from so called “bad fats” and cholesterol.
This book is a great read for anyone interested in nutrition and will likely encourage you to improve your diet. I strongly suggest you balance her views with those of other authors (new and old), because her ideas are far from scientific fact.
Read this book if:
You are concerned with the shortcomings of our current industrial food system
You enjoy the work of Michael Pollan
You are a vegetarian or vegan and want to hear a contemporary and somewhat compelling argument against your diet
Quotable:
“As consumption of saturated fats fell in the first half of the 20th century, heart disease rose.”
“If beef and butter were to blame for heart disease, heart disease wouldn’t be new. We’ve been eating them for too long.”
This book was sourced from the Knowledge Center at the University of Nevada, Reno. I guarantee you can find this book at your local library.
I registered for a webinar this week from the folks at SocialMediaToday.com, “The Ethics of Blogging”. I had signed up thinking it would be about businesses blogging, being real, being honest with a brand and with their marketing. And it was, but from the perspective of bloggers in general marketing themselves, using ads and such to raise revenue, blogging for pay or for swag. As webinars go, I was impressed – instead of a series of slides and a presentation, it was an hour long panel discussion – a real back-and-forth with different opinions, different thoughts on the subject matter.
I’ve done book reviews for a long time on my blog/s. When I started, it was by asking publishers for review copies. They would send free copies, I would read, and I would post reviews – simple. These were books I requested, books that I knew I would like or would be interested in, mostly by authors I had been following for years. It was a win-win in every sense of the word. But the rub is that I wouldn’t post negative reviews. Either I liked the book and posted what I thought would help others know what it was about, or I would not post since I wouldn’t finish or wouldn’t dig any deeper into a book that ended up being a flop. I have posted a couple of negative pieces, but even then I tried to spin the karma in a way that said I could see where someone might get benefit, but this particular work just wasn’t for me.
Now, I get probably two or three books a month that I don’t always ask for. If I’ve requested a book, I feel an obligation to read/review, but otherwise they pile up un-reviewed. So my question in listening in to the webinar is this: by not posting negative reviews, am I in essence showing a bias? Am I losing sincerity and authenticity by only sharing what I like and by not posting what I don’t like? If there is a bias – and I think true unfiltered objectivity is myth at best – then is it a bad thing that I avoid the negative word and hold a bit more to the positive reinforcement side of things? Similar to the book reviews, I have a Keurig brewer that we absolutely love – but it’s also something we received “for review”, so this pricey coffeepot comes with a built-in bias as well. Would I speak so highly of it and the sweet nectar produced if we had purchased it ourselves? Am I a company shill because of the swag, or can I maintain integrity in the midst of it all?
Honestly, I think it’s okay. Asking the question has made me consider my motivations, and that has to be a good thing. I’m hoping this isn’t just my ends justifying my means, but the question of trust and integrity from author to reader and back again is what we’re talking about here. I think positive reviews do what they are supposed to do – to the extent that there’s trust, the reader “trusts me” to make him aware of stuff that’ll have a positive well-worth-it impact. The reader expects me to give her a reason to take that leap and find that book, that it’ll be worth checking out in our limited free time. And if I don’t post the negative piece? Well, then the reader has to figure that one out for himself, for herself, for themselves – because we’re ultimately not on the same journey, ultimately not in the same frame of mind.
Okay, wait – if I post a positive, then you need to get it because I say it’s worth getting. If I don’t post the negative, then you’re on your own. Wow, that is a deeply flawed logic, isn’t it?
So I’m still chewing this one out, even as I have a couple of book reviews to post in the next couple of weeks from books sent to me by publishers to get their good viral word out. I would hope I’d be biased and not try to be objective; I post what I like, how I like it, what I liked about it. And I leave the rest of both of you still reading this far. In the end, that’s all I can do, right? That, and I could stop being so cheap and by my own dang books and coffeepots, huh?
I love to take the train. Even more than taking the train, I love to knit on the train. Last week, I hopped Amtrak’s Coast Starlight in Emeryville, CA and rode it all the way to Seattle, an approximately 18-hour trip with nothing to do but sleep, read and sit and knit and look out the window at the rugged mountains and rolling rivers that weave through the Pacific Northwest.
I was on my way to Vancouver, BC where I was meeting my mother and then joining up with 10 or so other knitters on the Norwegian Cruise Line’s Norwegian Star for a 5-day repositioning cruise. The trip was organized by K2Tog, the yarn store where I work, as a “knitting cruise” – we would have an on-board workshop in toe-up socks, knitting time, and trips to local yarn shops in the ports of call.
But the first leg of the trip was just me, my knitting and my iPod. I picked up the train in Emeryville at about 10:30 p.m. Friday night. With the help of a Tylenol PM, I was able to sleep okay in a coach window seat. I was kinda cold – they really air-condition the hell out of those cars – and my seat was opposite the staircase to the lower level of the traincar, so there was a light in my eyes. But I slept enough.
Sunrise
In the morning I awoke to this view outside my window. I am not sure what mountain this is, but it is not to far south of the California-Oregon state line and is as pretty as can be. The sky was pink, the rising sun turning the snow on the mountain a pink, too. There were lots of pine trees, low shrubs – maybe sage – with yellow blossoms on the ends of their scrubby branches. We passed rivers and lakes and saw lots of birds. No people. No cars. Just what was probably a state park. It was a great way to wake up.
another sunrise shot
Throughout the day, we continued north through Oregon, stopping in Klamath Falls, Eugene and Portland. I had a seat mate all the way, including one woman in a hijab who was traveling from Klamath Falls to Portland to be with her family for the Eid-al-Fitr. Most of the day, I sat in the lounge car, which has a dome-like glass ceiling, and watched the world go by as I knit and listened to a book on tape.
Which brings me to a book review: I was listening to American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I had purchased it from Audible in early Sept with some trepidation. I am not a fan of fantasy or science-fiction, but I have listened to three other books by Gaiman (Wall, Stardust and Neverwhere) and count them among my Audible favorites. This book surpassed them all and may be my all-time Audible favorite. No one can match Gaiman in terms of creativity and fanciful imagination, and this book was enormously aided by the choice of narrator – WHO – who acted each character perfectly. All of the characters – men, women, young girls, gods and crooks among them – were fleshed out in three dimensions and were entirely distinguishable one from another. I kid you not – if you enjoy a bit of magic in your fiction, check this book out. Listening to it really enhanced my enjoyment of the entire trip and made my knitting more fun, too.
Bobble baby hat
Okay, back to the knitting. On the train, I started and finished a baby hat. I made it with one ball of Crystal Palace Taos yarn and designed it myself (this is a big deal for me). The pattern is below. I love the way it came out! When it was finished, I picked up a ball of Manos del Uruguay silky wool and started the first of a pair of fingerless gloves from a pattern I picked up at Churchmouse Yarns and Teas on Bainbridge Island outside Seattle when I visited there last year. What a yarn store! The pattern is free with the purchase of the yarn – ask for their welted fingerless gloves pattern. I am going to finish them off with a set of vintage pearl buttons on the welts, slightly offset from the center of my wrist.
We were due to arrive in Seattle at about 9 p.m., at which time those of us continuing to
Amtrak wine
Vancouver, BC would board a bus for another 3 hours. At 5 p.m., I decided I had earned a drink, so I headed to the café car to buy myself a glass of red wine. The attendant said the only wine he had for sale was a half-bottle of white. I don’t like white – and how good can Amtrak wine be, right? But I was set for a glass of wine and some sunset knitting, so I paid for my half-bottle and took it and glass to a table in the window. The attendant went on break, so I had the café car to myself. I looked at the wine – a pinot
Our Trento view
grigio – and I saw that its label said it was from the Veneto region of Italy. My husband and I were just there in May, and when I turned the bottle around, the label said it was imported by a company in Trento. Trento was one of my favorite cities we visited on our trip! I had an instant flashback to the evenings my husband I spent in Trento, sitting on our terrace and drinking wine as we looked out across the view to the Castello del Buonconsiglio and the Duomo. At the same time, I was looking out the window at the coastline of the Seattle-Tacoma area speed by. Double vision! It was very cool. I called my husband at home to tell him.
My Amtrak view
The rest of the trip was unremarkable. We arrived in Seattle early (!!!), waited around for the bus for an hour, left there on time and got to Vancouver at about 12:30 a.m. Sunday morning. I hopped a cab to the Sheraton, checked in, and there was my mom asleep in her bed! Yeah! I went to sleep (oh, man, was I ready to be horizontal!) and prepared for the morning when we would head for ship.
Okay, here’s the pattern for the baby hat:
YOU WILL NEED:
1 ball Crystal Palace Taos (or about 200 yds of worsted weight yarn)
1 set of size 5 double point needles (DPNs)
stitch markers
Tapestry needle
ABBREVIATIONS:
k – knit
p – purl
pm – place marker
mb – make bobble
kfbf – knit into the front, the back and the front of a single stitch = 3 stitches
kfb – knit into the front and the back of a single stitch = 2 stitches
RH – right hand needle
ssk – Slip 2 stitches, one at a time, as if to knit, and knit them through the back loops
k2tog – knit 2 stitches together
s – slip 1 stitch knitwise
psso – pass slipped stitch over stitch closest to tip of RH needle
Cast on 72 stitches. Divide stitches evenly on 4 DPNs (18 stitches per needle). Join for knitting in the round, being careful not twist stitches. Pm for beginning of round. K 5 rows. Begin Bobble Pattern.
Bobble Pattern:
At the beginning of next row, k7, *mb (see below) in next stitch, k7*, repeat around, ending k3. K 3 rows. At the beginning of next row, k3, *mb, k7* repeat around, ending k4. K 3 rows. Repeat from the beginning until 5 rows of bobbles have been completed.
Make Bobble:
Kfbf – 3 stitches on right hand RH needle. Turn work. P3. Turn work. Kfb, k1, kfb – 5 stitches on RH needle. Turn work. P5. Turn work. Ssk, k1, k2tog – 3 stitches on RH needle. Turn work. P3. Turn work. S1, k2tog, psso – 1 stitch on RH needle. Continue knitting to next bobble placement.
K all rows until hat measures 4.5 inches from cast on. Begin decreases for crown.
Decreases for crown:
At the beginning of next row, *k10, k2tog, pm,* repeat across row until you reach the first stitch marker. Next row: *k until 2 stitches remain before marker, k2tog,* repeat across row until you reach the first stitch marker. Continue in this fashion until there are 6 stitches left on needles. Cut yarn, thread onto tapestry needle, run the needle under the 6 live stitches and remove from needles. Pull needle and yarn to inside hat and work in end of yarn.
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will.”
“I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself….. Laws and principles are not for the times when there is no temptation . . . They have a worth—so I have always believed; and if I cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane—quite insane: with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs.”
In a way I feel lucky to have read so few classics because of the joy of experiencing a story like this for the first time. Of course I then think what I have been missing for all these years but also what amazing reading there is to look forward to.
What more is there to say about one of the best loved of the classics? Having lived and breathed Jane Eyre for the past week I feel sure it will now always be one of my favourite books. The copy I read was from the library, I will be getting a copy of my own. I don’t tend to re read books (apart from Rosamund Pilcher’s The Shell Seekers which I fall in love with all over again every few years), but this is a book that has so much to say, I’m sure I have missed plenty on the first read and even if I don’t re read it, I just want to have a copy close by if that makes sense?
Jane Eyre is told in the first person and some aspects of it are semi autobiographical. Parts of Charlotte Bronte’s early life are reflected in the story. Jane is an orphan and has to endure a harsh childhood firstly with her cruel aunt and cousins and then at Lowood, a strict charity boarding school. She is shown some kindness at the school and learns by the example of the superintendant Miss Temple and another pupil Helen Burns who becomes her friend. Later she acquires a position as governess at the imposing Thornwood Hall and meets her dark and brooding master Mr Rochester. Jane is drawn to him, and he to her but he has his secrets which will affect Jane drastically.
There is much more…but I don’t want to give too much away..
There are many elements to the book. It is a love story. It has a definite gothic feel with its atmospheric landscapes and cold, dark nights. The opposing elements of fire and ice appear throughout, the imposing Thornton Hall with it’s secrets and cries in the night. The unconventional Mr Rochester, ghostly suggestions…
And then there is the character of Jane – without family, friends and means, she is dependant and powerless. Despite her situation, she strives to stand by her principles, to mantain her integrity and personal freedom.
Considering this book was published in 1847, (under the male psuedonym of Currer Bell), the bold actions of Jane Eyre caused quite a stir upon first release. It was controversial for a woman of Jane’s station in life to be thinking and acting in an independant way.I think its principles remain sound. It would be wonderful if every young girl had the opportunity to read it.
The classics I have been reading this year seem to be getting better and better. I’m wondering if there will be anything to match this?
Published: 1847 Pages: 624 Challenges: Classics, Guardian 1000 novels, Whitcoulls II, RIP IV,
Former New Hampshire State Senator Jim Rubens recently wrote a book entitled, OverSuccess: Healing the American Obsession with Wealth, Fame, Power, and Perfection. In this book he lays out his “science-based recipe for happiness.” In other words he tells us how we can be happy. Allow me to quote from an interview he gave, adding numbers to his list for the sake of clarity.
“Science has shown a number of things will improve our feelings of well being:
1- Have control over the major elements of your life;
2- select major goals for which you are 50 percent likely to succeed given your skills, intelligence, resources and social network, rather than goals that are either too easy or too difficult;
3- focus on the process of reaching goals, not just achievement;
4- do purposeful, meaningful work and activity in which you can grow;
5- be of service to something larger than self;
6- find faith, spirituality or religion;
7- be married, since 40 percent of married people say they are very happy compared with 24 percent of those unmarried;
8- live a rich social life with multiple strong friendships;
9- get sufficient sleep and aerobic exercise;
10- act happy to be happy, since there is evidence to support ‘behavior induction,’ the purposeful replacement of negative emotions, bodily motions, facial expressions and vocalizations with positive ones.
It isn’t rocket science, but many of us have ignored common sense to feed our addiction to OverSuccess.”
(quoted in an interview here, http://www.mymidwestmagazine.com/2009/09/01/qa-jim-rubens-on/)
Science tells us, according to Ruben, that to find happiness these 10 things must be present.
In recent weeks I have been talking about the kingdom of God, and how Christ calls us to participate in building His Kingdom. What struck me as I read Rubens list, is that Kingdom involvement clearly makes many of these things happen. Allow me to go through the list.
1- Have control over the major elements of your life:
For sure following Christ does not give us control over our life. Having control over our lives is really just an illusion. But what following Christ does is much better. It reminds us that God is in control, and teaches us to submit to and enjoy his control.
2- select major goals for which you are 50 percent likely to succeed given your skills, intelligence, resources and social network, rather than goals that are either too easy or too difficult;
With the help of the Spirit of God we are able to select meaningful goals that we ourselves are unable to do, but that we can achieve with the favor and blessing of God
3- focus on the process of reaching goals, not just achievement;
The primary beneficiary of your kingdom building will be you, for in the process of your kingdom building activity God will change you.
4- do purposeful, meaningful work and activity in which you can grow;
I can think of nothing more purposeful and meaningful than participating with God i\n what He is doing.
5- be of service to something larger than self;
Like to the kingdom of God
6- find faith, spirituality or religion;
Yes, building the kingdom helps you find faith!
7- be married, since 40 percent of married people say they are very happy compared with 24 percent of those unmarried;
In kingdom building you may find a mate with a similar heart, or you may simply get prepared to be a better mate.
8- live a rich social life with multiple strong friendships;
Friends who are building the kingdom together are the best of friends.
9- get sufficient sleep and aerobic exercise;
Not sure what to say about this one
10- act happy to be happy, since there is evidence to support ‘behavior induction,’ the purposeful replacement of negative emotions, bodily motions, facial expressions and vocalizations with positive ones.
“Rejoice in the Lord always”?
Ruben says that these 10 things will make us happy. Cleary 7-8 of them will come to pass if we participate meaningfully in kingdom building. Jesus said in John 15: 10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
If we want complete joy and real happiness we will obey Jesus, or participate in Kingdom building. Now Rubens is confirming those words!
Herewith two reviews of recently released Aussie novels, and a handy link to a very cool review site at The Guardian featuring Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol.
Glenda Larke, an Australian now living in Malaysia, has lived on four continents, but it is her experiences in arid Western Australia and Tunisia that appear to most inform The Last Stormlord (HarperCollins, $22.99), the first book of the Watergivers series.
Larke impressed with her breakout, big-publisher debut, The Aware, which I loved for its dystopian air and gorgeous world-building.
The Last Stormlord, a saga of an empire facing its demise, is set in a dry coastal realm bordered by mountains and desert where life revolves around the possession and acquisition of water.
Key to the survival of the city states is the Stormlord, the last of the line powerful enough to take water from the sea and send it inland to break in designated areas, bringing rain to the needy. Under the Stormlord is an aristocracy of lesser powered men and women with varying ability to manipulate water, physically moving it or even removing it from living creatures. This apparent magical power over the essential element has kept the status quo against the nomadic desert dwellers for centuries, but now that is changing. Political ambitions give sway to treachery and murder and the world is set for upheaval.
Caught up in this chaos are two teenagers, Shale and Terelle. Both possess considerable water powers of different ilks, and both find themselves being used as tools in political machinations. The star-crossed pair are given precious little time for adolescence.
Like a brewing storm, the story gains weight and power as it gathers momentum, the considerable cast rising to strike clear identities as ideals of honour and survival clash, and love lies bleeding. There are some gentle religious barbs along the way, too.
Larke’s world-building is a great strength of the story, the dryness and heat permeating the fabric of her society, with enough touches of the fantastic to excite the imagination. This, combined with a bloody climax, leaves the reader keen for the next instalment.
Aussie writer Tracey O’Hara has enjoyed some happy hunting in the United States with Night’s Cold Kiss (HarperCollins, $19.99), her debut novel, the first of the three-book Dark Brethren series. Now the paranormal romance has been released in her home country.
Set primarily in New York, it covers familiar ground for those who enjoy paranormal romance, still one of the hottest of genres.
Antoinette Petrescu, deeply affected by the murder of her parents by a death-loving vampire called Dante, is a slayer of the undead, and an unnaturally gifted one at that. But a deadly conspiracy throws her into the path of the charismatic and filthy rich vampire Christian, and sparks erupt despite her best intentions.
Christian is an agent for a covert, quasi-government organisation that polices the paranormal community with a view to keeping an uneasy truce brokered years before between vampires and humans.
Now someone’s rocking the boat and Antoinette’s past is coming back to bite her – quite literally.
Planes, helicopters, fast cars and elegant upstate mansions all figure as Antoinette is exposed to the other side of vampire existence – she truly gets to see how the other half live as she meets Christian’s well-to-do vampire family and household staff.
Vampire society is well-described, with the usual dividing line between those who try to maintain a sense of humanity and those who embrace their inner beast, revelling in the kill and their otherness. There is enough insight into the realm of the shapechangers to suggest further exploration in coming books.
O’Hara hits all the right buttons for fans of the genre with her tale of desire, betrayal and revenge, providing a pacy and at times steamy adventure with a strong, lusty subplot. This makes up for the occasional lack of sparkle on the page and some haphazard editing as the story builds to a fittingly explosive climax, and overdrawn denouement to springboard the reader into book two.
as you can see, this is my new layout! it’s a lot cleaner and brighter than the previous one. i certainly like this one a lot more than the old one. i hope you do too~~
i think i should really say something about julie & julia. it’s currently on hiatus… and that is due to the significant increase in the amount i need to read for school. please be patience with me while i try to sort out all my readings! ^^
Middle Schoolers (6th-8th graders), High Schoolers (9th-12th graders)
Read this if you’re in the mood to get
An adrenaline rush (Action)
Emotional (Drama/angst)
Happy
This book is about
The adventures of a dog, a super dog, named Lad, who is a pedigree Rough Collie. Based on the author’s real life dog, and all of the stories are too, though embellished. No dog is more perect than Lad.
On a scale of 1 to 5 (1=HATED it, 5=LOVED it) I would give this book a
Tim Sanders has recently relaunched his book Saving the World at Work. This is a great book that is definitely worth your time. I would encourage you to look at his book relaunch page and learn more about it. Tim’s writing style is compelling and his ability to tell a meaningful story is unmatched. This is an important book for our times as the focus on corporate social responsibility is becoming more of a determining factor for how companies partner together. As a part of the book relaunch Tim is donating a part of the proceeds to The National Association for Urban Debate Leagues.
To see a video from bnet discussing the book click here.
An excerpt from Saving The World At Work by Tim Sanders
In December 2006, footwear maker Timberland held its wholesale account reps sales rally in New Orleans, fifteen months after the city had been ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.
Timberland’s event planners always inject a local community service component into the agenda, so on the conference’s first evening, local leaders were asked to talk to the group about the battle to rebuild the city. On the second day, two hundred sales reps were taken by bus to New Orleans’ historic Central City district to work on a neighborhood restoration program.
The specific project they were assigned to was renowned chef Dukey Chase’s restaurant, a Central City neighborhood anchor, whose reopening meant a great deal to the area. So Timberlanders performed demolition, planted trees, hauled trash, and cleaned up a nearby playground, all working side by side with local volunteers.
In just a few hours, the Timberlanders made a difference in the restaurant and Central City’s restoration. But feeling the reps needed to understand more about New Orleans’ dismal situation, meeting planners decided to give them a tour of the Ninth Ward, one of the city’s most devastated areas. Jubilant while working so well at the Central City work site, the Timberlanders now became somber, realizing that even though one eatery had been spruced up, many parts of the city remained utterly uninhabitable.
At the end of the tour, the buses parked to allow the reps to get out and walk around the neighborhood. As they did, one rep noticed a makeshift community gathering spot constructed of tarps and rotted wood where a middle‐aged man in a baseball cap was taking notes on a clipboard. The sales rep started a conversation with the man and soon discovered that he was a volunteer community organizer who had lived in the Ninth Ward pre‐Katrina.
Moved by the moment, the rep asked the volunteer what the community center most needed. “Shoes,” the volunteer replied, pointing to a chalkboard that listed shoes at the top of the Please Drop Off list. “Used ones, new ones—we need shoes.” He then explained that many of the community service volunteers were working in flip‐flops and soleless shoes in an area littered with rusty nails and splintered boards.
The Timberland employee immediately bent down, unlaced his boots, and handed them to the volunteer. He then walked barefoot back to the buses, where employees were loading up for the ride back to the hotel. A coworker, who noticed the sales rep wasn’t wearing his boots, asked why. “That man there told me that they needed shoes,” the sales rep replied, pointing to the community center. “I gave him mine.” The coworker stood up, left the bus, and gave the volunteer his shoes, too. The others watched, and acted: In the next ten minutes, the buses emptied out as all two hundred sales reps walked to the community center and donated their shoes or boots to the Ninth Ward, even though, for many of them, these Timberland boots were prized possessions.
The volunteer, overwhelmed, scrambled to keep pairs matched together, tucking laces into bootsand organizing them by size. All he could muster was a repetitive “Thank you, thank you” to every Timberlander. The trip back to the hotel was silent, as employees reflected on what they’d seen that day. A senior meeting planner later recalled, “It was the quietest twenty‐minute bus ride I’ve ever been on.”
Do you want to know what happened next? The conclusion to this story is inspiring, but
you’ll need to read the book to find out what happened.
The blogosphere is abuzz with the news that Tyndale’s newest NLT, Holy Bible: Mosaic, releases today! For those like me who have anxiously been waiting, this is great news. For those who may not have heard or read about Mosaic, here is the brief description from its website:
Holy Bible: Mosaic is about helping you encounter Christ in a deep and authentic way, through insight from every continent and century of the Christian Church. Historical and contemporary art and writings from across the globe offer a depth of Scriptural wisdom and understanding as you read and reflect on God’s word.
Mosaic is arranged so that every week has variety of content for reading and reflection. Each week follows a theme appropriate to the Church season (such as Advent, Easter, etc). The content included for each week includes full-color art; Scripture readings; a historical reading; a contemporary reading; a prayer, creed, hymn or quote; and space for reflection.
Tyndale has much more information on the Holy Bible: Mosaic website (http://www.holybiblemosaic.com)
As with other bloggers writing about Mosaic, I will be spending some time with Mosaic and writing a review in the days to come. Additionally, this blog will be one of the stops on the Mosaic blog tour–currently, I’m scheduled for October 2nd. Finally, courtesy of Tyndale, I will be giving away a free copy of Mosaic via a contest I will be beginning in a few days! If you can’t wait to try and win one…jump on over to Amazon, do some early Christmas shopping and get a copy for yourself!
Until all these kick off on this website, I encourage you to check the Mosaic blog for the schedule of blog stops and check out the first stop (and blog-a-thon) at The Church of Jesus Christ!
I have just finished reading When Helping Hurts, by Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. I went to seminary with John Fikkert (Brian’s son), so it was fun to read about an acquaintance’s father. This book is one of the best books I have read in some time. It is filled with Biblical, theoretical, and practical wisdom. The foundational contention is that modern Christians (he is speaking primarily to North American Christians) often couple a good heart with bad means and methods; we fail to see the unintended consequences of our actions (cf. Henry Hazlitt’s book). The non-poor fail to see that so much of their “help” is actually hurting the poor, and themselves.
The book is divided into three parts: Foundational Concepts, General Principles, and Practical Strategies. Chapter 2 is worth the price of the book: Corbett/Fikkert apply a paradigm I have often used in other contexts (the fourfold alienation produced by the fall – alienated from God, from ourselves, from others, and from the creation) to the context of poverty. All of us are poor – we have a poverty of spiritual intimacy, a poverty of being, a poverty of community, and a poverty of stewardship (61-62). For some people the brokenness is these foundational relationship results in material poverty. Part of the reason that helping so often hurts is that the non-poor focus solely upon material poverty, they bring god-complexes to their “helping,” and they fail to see the “poverty of being” that the poor have: “One of the biggest problems in many poverty-alleviating efforts is that their design and implementation exacerbates the poverty of being of the economically rich – their god-complexes – and the poverty of being of the economically poor – their feelings of inferiority and shame” (65).
The better route, which the authors set forth in the book, is found in working to move “people closer to glorifying God by living in right relationship with God, with self, with others, and with the rest of creation,” so that they “can fulfill their callings of glorifying God by working and supporting themselves and their families with the fruit of that work” (78). When this holistic vision is your goal, then certain things will follow, which Corbett/Fikkert unpack throughout the book: you won’t do things for others that they can do for themselves; you won’t give relief when development is called for; you will focus on long-term relationships as opposed to seeing people merely as projects; you will focus on broken systems as well as broken individuals; you will start with the assets that the poor already possess, rather than their needs; you will want to utilize as much as possible the local knowledge that the poor possess.
The last three chapters deal with short term mission trips, alleviating poverty in America, and microfinancing. All three are insightful and close the book out with application for every church in the United States. This book is a must read for anyone who desires to help the material poor; it will make you look at yourself and your ministry in a whole new light.
With the lack of available funding, often it is several months before we get new YA novels in the library. Let’s be honest…we only get new books when I go out and purchase them with my own money. I am not complaining, there’s nothing I enjoy more than wandering a book store for hours, unless of course it’s curled up in a comfy chair with hot tea and a good book. However, Hot Hubby can be a bit discouraged when he sees the bank balance dipping below safe levels.
My sister-in-law has passed a copy of our next “new” book along to the library. Her book club has just finished reading The Graveyard Bookby Neil Gaiman. In early 2009, The Graveyard Book was awarded by ALA, the John Newbery Medal for the most distinguished contribution to children’s literature. I think the cover is fascinating. Do you see what I see?
I was doing research for next month’s bulletin boards and I came across a book trailer for The Graveyard Book, that you can see at the link below. http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/m1660HKJT8UK7W
Mr. Gaiman actually kept me company this weekend. While I was printing photos, finding ideas and using my Cricut for lettering, etcetera, I found the site below. It has videos of Mr. Gaiman reading all the chapters of his book while on tour around the country.
Excellent! I can’t decide whether to have him read the rest of it to me, or if I shall curl up in the comfy chair, and read it myself.
…I do have a weakness for English accents. Enjoy.
Every once in awhile I get a request to review a book that doesn’t comply with The Boogle’s stated goal and I’ll agree to take a look, simply because the book is so cool and is something I simply can’t resist. This brings me to a great new addition to my collection of awesome adventure books, TIME Great Discoveries: Explorations that Changed History. This is more than your ultimate coffee table fodder. Filled with stunning photographs that capture the most amazing discoveries of our world – spanning the wonders of geography, paleontology, astronomy and archaeology – and combined with wonderful, classic tales of exploration, this is the perfect book for an armchair adventurer like me.
The book is filled with page after page of stunning, high-resolution, color photographs of the most amazing scenery of this world and beyond. Overhead shots of Machu Picchu, Stonehenge and Mayan pyramids are simply mind-boggling in scope and detail. The collections of ancient coins and weapons, unearthed after being lost for hundreds of years, and the fascinating bog bodies provide dazzling links to the past and remind us that our ancestors were not much different than we are. With an informative and educational narrative accompanying each discovery, the book is perfect for young adults and seasoned travelers alike.
From the depth of the diamond mine in Kimberly, South Africa to the frozen North and South Poles, to the far reaches of our solar system, TIME takes you on an adventure through time and space, visiting Shackleton’s crew in 1915 and journeying beyond the Milky Way, looking back through billions of years of supernovas and galaxy clusters. Dinosaurs and cavemen, the aurora borealis, an elk herd crossing the mountains of Montana, robots exploring the surface of Mars (if you like this kind of stuff then you’ll love Great Discoveries). And that’s just the tip of the iceberg – which also makes a cameo in the cool section about the Titanic.
My daughter is 4 and just becoming interested in the wonders of the world. This is the perfect book to leave on display for her to discover and page through at her leisure, or one for me to read carefully as I sit back with a glass of wine and some light music on a lazy autumn night. Stunning, engaging and delightfully well-crafted, this is the type of book that will inspire the mind and encourage you to travel the world and enjoy the wonders it has to offer!
TIME Great Discoveries: Explorations that Changed History will be available October 13th, everywhere books are sold.
It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. . . .
Set during World War II in Germany, Markus Zusak’s groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau.
This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.
I can’t really tell you how much I enjoyed this book. It’s nothing to read if you want a light, fluffy book to help you get to sleep, but it’s an inspiring book that makes you want to get up and do things, a wonderful pick for my first book.
The book is narrated by Death which provides an insightful and eerie look at the events throughout the story. As you’ve read above, the setting is Germany during World War II, but not from the usual perspective. Most books about the Holocaust or based on the Holocaust are lightly based around the lives of the persecuted, but this book was different. Liesel Meminger, the heroine of the story, isn’t Jewish. She comes to Himmel street after her mother and father are taken away to a Concentration Camp for being Communists; she is adopted by a brash woman (Rosa) and a kind man (Hans). It tells of her instant mutual attraction to the boy next door (Rudy Steiner) and her fast friendship with the Jewish teenager that her father allows to stay in their basement (Max).The story and our narrator (death) follows Liesel through her life on Himmel street: her experiences with death, friendship, love, and most importantly, book thievery. She
To say that I loved this book would be taking it most likely. It moved me in a way that a book hasn’t been able to do in a while, and when I got to the end of the book I had to stop every few chapters, take a deep breath, and wipe the tears from my eyes. By the last page I was sobbing uncontrollably.
A few favorite quotes:
-”The only thing worse than a boy who hates you: A boy who loves you.”
-”The survivors. They’re the ones I can’t stand to look at, although on many occasions I still fail. I deliberately seek out the colors to keep my mind off them, but now and then, I witness the ones who are left behind, crumbling among the jigsaw puzzle of realization, despair, and surprise. They have punctured hearts. They have beaten lungs.”-Death
-”The point is, Ilsa Hermann had decided to make suffering her triumph. When it refused to let go of her, she succumbed to it. She embraced it.”
-”He stood waist-deep in the water for a few moments longer before climbing out and handing her the book. His pants clung to him, and he did not stop walking. In truth, I think he was afraid. Rudy Steiner was scared of the book thief’s kiss. He must have longed for it so much. He must have loved her so incredibly hard. So hard that he would never ask for her lips again and would go to his grave without them.”
-”[from the chapter Death's Diary: 1942] It was a year for the ages, like 79, like 1346, to name just a few. Forget the scythe, Goddamn it, I needed a broom or a mop. And I needed a vacation.”
-”In all honesty (and I know I’m complaining excessively now), I was still getting over Stalin, in Russia. The so-called second revolution-the murder of his own people.
Then came Hitler.
They say that war is death’s best friend, but I must offer you a different point of view on that one. To me, war is like the new boss who expects the impossible. He stands over your shoulder repeating one thing, incessantly: “Get it done, get it done.” So you work harder. You get the job done. The boss, however, does not thank you. He asks for more.”-Death
-”It kills me sometimes, how people die.”-Death
-”I guess I’m better at leaving things behind than stealing them.”-Rudy
-”Tell me something,” he said, “because I don’t understand…” He fell back and sat against the wall. “Tell me, Rosa, how can she sit there ready to die while I still want to live.” The blood thickened. “Why do I want to live? I shouldn’t want to, but I do.”-Michael Holtzapfel
“It’s probably fair to say that in all the years of Hitler’s reign, no one person was able to serve the Führer as loyally as me. A human doesn’t have a heart like mine. The human heart is a line, whereas my own is a circle, and I have the endless ability to be in the right place at the right time. The consequence of this is that I’m always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both. Still, they have one thing I envy. Humans, if nothing else, have the good sense to die.”-Death
“No one wanted to bomb Himmel Street. No one would bomb a place named after heaven, would they? Would they?” -Death
“His soul sat up. It met me. Those kinds of souls always do-the best ones. The ones who rise up and say, “I know who you are and I am ready. Not that I want to go, of course, but I will come.”"-Death
“Rudy, please wake up, Goddamn it, wake up, I love you. Come on, Rudy, come on, Jesse Owens, don’t you know I love you, wake up, wake up, wake up….”-Liesel
“I don’t want to hope for anything anymore. I don’t want to pray that Max is alive and safe. Or Alex Steiner.
Because the world does not deserve them.”-Liesel
Challenge will be posted in less than 24 hours.
Next book will be: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Reading will commence Sunday.
I encounter a lot of claims about the relationship between Greco-Roman religion and Christianity. This is a valid question and must be taken seriously. However, all too often people rely upon summary statements by highly biased authors. If one is to truly understand the importance of Greek religion, it is best to go to the actual texts directly. But how do you do that when there are thousands of books out there? A good place to start is Sources for the Study of Greek Religion. This helpful resource presents small portions of ancient Greek texts in English translation according to topic. Since this book was compiled as resource for biblical scholars, it contains texts of interest to those studying the Bible. At the same time, there is no obvious agenda of defending or attacking the Bible. This is a very helpful resource for understanding the nature and development of ancient Greek religion.
I’ve got a heavy reading load this semester, so I think what I’m going to do for a little while is post some lists of books in various genres. I don’t want to call them Top Ten lists or Best of, because then I’ll end up agonizing over what to choose and nothing will get done. So here are ten realistic fiction books that I enjoyed. Feel free to comment with your own suggestions!
1. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart – A unique and fun story about a girl who is determined to show her boyfriend and his friends that she is at least as smart and capable as they are. Empowering and clever.
2. Someday this Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron – The very real, funny and honest voice of James, the main character, turns this simple story into a fascinating tale of a boy struggling to relate to the world around him. Read my review here.
3. Just Listen by Sarah Dessen – The story of a girl dealing with the loss of her friends and social standing as well as tensions in her family life who learns to speak the truth with the help of her new, music-obsessed friend, Owen. Nothing new or wildly different, but a good, solid story about friendship and honesty.
4. The Schwa Was Here by Neal Shusterman - A boy named Antsy befriends Calvin Schwa, who is mostly unnoticed, almost invisible to those around him, and through their adventures Antsy learns to find his own way of being seen. Funny and poignant.
5. Forever Rose by Hilary McKay - In the fifth and final of McKay’s books about the quirky and loveable Casson family, Rose struggles to solve the family’s problems and bring everyone together as Christmas approaches. It’s a lot more interesting than that summary, I promise.
6. Son of the Mob by Gordon Korman – A fun and fast-paced story about the son of a mob boss who falls for the daughter of an FBI agent.
7. Teen Idol by Meg Cabot – When teen heartthrob Luke Striker comes to her town to research a part, Jenny is assigned to show him around and of course, chaos ensues. Predictable but cute and an enjoyable, quick read.
8. So Yesterday by Scott Westerfield – A satirical story about the development of fads that is chock full of random, interesting pieces of trivia and features a largely nonsensical but highly entertaining plot.
9. Dancing on the Edge by Han Nolan – This one is more serious, but utterly bizzare – Miracle’s mother died before she was born and after the disappearance of her father, Miracle struggles to prove to herself that she is real and alive. For the first half of the book, I didn’t really get it, but it all starts to make more sense in the second half, as Miracle becomes a little more grounded in reality.
10. Armaggedon Summer by Bruce Coville and Jane Yolen – The story of two teens whose parents are followers of a preacher who believes that the end of the world is approaching and that a select group of people will be saved if they gathered on a particular mountain when the time comes.
For months I have been reading wonderful reviews of Maggie Stiefvater’s new YA novel Shiver, and it’s been especially popping up on lists of books recommended for Twilight fans. Well, I finally got a chance to read it recently, and my only complaint is this: more, please! I would have appreciated an extra hundred pages or so of backstory, more time with some of the great secondary characters… but I guess I can settle for a really well executed story, sparely but beautifully rendered, that left me wanting more. (It wouldn’t hurt my feelings if a sequel were in the works, though….)
Shiver will definitely appeal to Twilight fans of all ages. There are obvious similarities: two teenagers in love, seemingly destined for each other–one not quite human. But instead of scary vengeful vampires, this novel’s villains are time and nature.
(I will try very hard not to spoil any plot surprises; most of what I’m about to write can be gleaned from the book jacket and/or the first few paragraphs of the book.)
As a child, Grace has a close encounter with a pack of wolves in the woods behind her Minnesota home. Ever since, she has felt very drawn to them, and to one wolf in particular. Even as a teenager, she still looks forward to cold weather because she knows he’ll be there, in the woods at the edge of her yard, watching for her as she watches for him.
Sam looks forward to warm weather, the short but essential time when he can be Sam again, but every year he gets less and less time as Sam. Eventually, summer may not come at all for him.
A fateful event brings these two together, finally able to talk face to face, and they find themselves in a race with time to find a way for Sam to remain human… and stay with Grace.
Shiver is told alternately from Sam’s and then from Grace’s point of view, which makes it a good pick for male or female readers. The love story in Shiver is not as over the top as the one in Twilight, though still very important and perhaps more believable. And, in the spirit of full disclosure, any Twi-hards out there reading this probably gleaned from the title of this post that I was firmly in Camp Jacob while reading Twilight, making Shiver even more of a treat for those few of us on (dare I say it?) the right side.
Manifesta by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards: I finished it last week, and I would definitely recommend it to those who want a good Third Wave overview. There’s a lot of emphasis on feminist history and the relationships between generations, which to me is more interesting than a simple timeline of waves. They do a good job at showing, not telling, interweaving stories throughout the book.
Our Bodies, Ourselves (the new edition): This is a bit of a mixed review. I recommend it, because it’s huge and comprehensive and has a lot of great charts that lay out things we need to know about everything from anatomy to nutrition to STIs. What I don’t like, and it’s not really a complaint because these things are important to women, but… well, what I don’t like is that the book made me feel quite isolated. A lot of space is dedicated to menstruation (I don’t menstruate), sex with men (don’t do that one either), and pregnancy/children (not interested). They do make an effort to be very inclusive, which I like, but there were things that got to me, like the separate chapters for relationships with men and relationships with women. The organization didn’t make a lot of sense, and it was odd the way they did the sections. That said, it’s a great reference guide to keep around for your body-related questions.
Bitchfest (anthology): Oh, hells to the fucking yeah. This collection of essays includes cultural criticism from a feminist perspective over ten years of Bitch magazine’s existence (1996-2006), covering all sorts of topics. I love the women who submitted essays, and I love the range of topics included. There are plenty of things you wouldn’t necessarily think about, but it’s accessible to someone who isn’t a big pop culture fan as well. It covers topics from lesbian novels to slash fanfiction to the Guerilla Girls, and is a must read for young feminists.
It’s 1864 in Virginia City, Nevada Territory. Statehood is in the future for Nevada and Gil Ross is sent by the government to inspect the potential wealth of the region. Ross, a former magazine writer and now a mine inspector quickly becomes embroiled in the violence and treachery of the region.
Between armed holdups, duels, torching of the newspaper office , befriending Samuel Clemens, and being left to die in a mine there’s so much going on in this short novel. And there’s so much interesting historical detail here about life in the Washoe region, I couldn’t put it down.
It is a common say that if you want to hear that; if you want to hide anything to black person put it in a book. In our particular case you will hear: Tanzanians don’t read books. In both cases there is some truth. But many don’t go further and ask question(s) why we don’t read?
The Power of Reading by Krashen provides informative research findings on literacy crisis, though based in US some findings are universal. During 1970s literacy level in Tanzania was almost 90%, now it is about 60%. It’s not uncommon to find standard seven graduates who can not read and write. In secondary and high level institutions most of the student read for academics as they must read. As the saying goes, you can only learn reading by reading. Krashen is specifically recommending, Free Voluntary Reading (FVR). FVR means reading because you want to.
The following are some of research findings which reflect on cause, effect and posible solution to the problem of reading.
Free Voluntary Reading (FVR) means reading because you want to: not because it’s homework, no book report, no questions at the end of chapter. FVR is one of foundation of language education more effective when combined with other techniques. Types of in-school FVR: Sustained Silent Reading (SSR), self-selective reading and extensive reading
Direct Instruction (DI) may be used to complement FVR. DI entails consciously skills building and error correction and learning language rules. Depending on environment, capacity of the student and availability of reading materials, optimal combination of DI and FVR will yield better results.
Access to quality reading materials is one of solution. Thought it is true that “you can lead a horse to water but you cannot make him drink”. But first and foremost, make sure the water is there. Access should mean good number; quality of books and other reading materials; comfortable, quite and conveniently located.
Children from high-income families reads more-because they have what to read. Research shows that, when children are given many optional on reading materials, they will read what is interesting to them. A family with good income is in better position of accessing and buying more reading material.
Creation of Print-Rich Environment (PRE) should be the way. Parents, schools, government and all stakeholders in promotion of literacy has obligation of ensuring that PRE is creation from home to public libraries. People should be exposed to environment where they can choose and read what they want not what is available. To me Print-Poor Environment (PPR) has significant contribution to the low level of literacy in Tanzania.
Children learn allot from reading to and see other reading. Research shows that when teachers were also reading during sustained silent reading, students read more. Also at home when their parents are reading it motivated them to red more. Secondly, reading to children, for example bedtime stories improve kids language capacities. If you think you kid is to young to read to, some parents start bedtime reading at the age of 6 month.
Reading contributes in improving writing and makes us smarter. From reading, sometimes unconsciously and involuntarily people learn vocabularies and writing style. Formal language is often too complex to learn one rule at a time. When people reads they encounter and learn different styles and gain command of language, which gives them advantage in writing. Reading more without writing will not improve writing skills. Another advantage of writing; it makes us think and solve the problem, in other words, can make you smarter.
Other reading benefits include; pleasure and cognitive development. Now days, in CVs people write that reading is one of their hobbies. I never stop to wonder how many of them understand the pleasure of reading.
Let’s make reading family and community activity. Let’s create Print-Rich Environment for people to access what they like reading. For parents, remember, read stories to your children and when they see you reading it motivate them.
I have heard of Tremper Longman, but have never read anything that he has written, as far as I can recall. How To Read Exodus (from here on “Exodus”) was a very good introduction to him as a writer as well as to Exodus.
Longman calls for his reader to read Exodus with a strategy. The strategy is to understand the literature, explore the historical background and theological theme of Exodus, and then seek to find its relevance to us. An admirable and right strategy, I think.
He continues by directing us to read Exodus as literature. This is not simply to deal with the genre of Exodus, but to deal with the shape and narrative structure of Exodus. “Exodus” presents the book of Exodus as showing us the presence of God, the covenant with the people, and the fact of servitude both to the Egyptians and to God.
“Exodus” then shows to us some of the historic context of Exodus by relating it to various law codes of its time. I like that fact that Longman does not fall into parallelomania (the mania in which inspiration is practically dismissed and the book made to be simply a product of its time), but demonstrates that there are similarities and also very pronounced differences between Exodus and other writings of its time. “Exodus” continues and deals with the event of the Exodus, its historical nature, and the significance of its having happened.
The most interesting section to me was the section in which Longman relates the story of the Exodus to his readers and then goes to show us how this relates to us as Christians. He brings out some very interesting parallels between Exodus events, the ministry of Christ, and other New Testament truths.
I initially feared that this would be a dry, boring tome that would half kill me to read. The truth is that I was very wrong, very surprised, very satisfied. I read this book in just a few hours and thoroughly enjoyed it while profiting from it. It is a highly recommended read for all who care to learn more about the book of Exodus and its significance to the Christian.
A couple of weeks ago I posted a review of The Naked Gospel
.
Today we have the privilege of hearing from the author, Andrew Farley.
Below is PastoralMusings’ interview with Farley.
1. Tell us a little about yourself and your ministry.
I’m the lead teaching pastor of Ecclesia: Church Without Religion, a growing church on the high plains of West Texas. I co-host Real Life in Christ, a thought-provoking TV program that airs every Wednesday morning on ABC-TV in West Texas. And I live in Lubbock, Texas with my wife Katharine and my son, Gavin. You can check out our church anytime at www.EcclesiaOnline.com.
Our philosophy is “Church Without Religion.” Ever since the days of the early church, we Christians have become very adept at adding to the gospel message and thereby making church a very “religious” experience. But Christianity was never intended to meet our ill-perceived need for religion. Instead, Christianity is primarily about restoring to us what we lost in Eden. At that time, there were no church buildings, or services, or Bibles, of course.
So, if Christianity is not primarily about Sunday morning or new building projects or studying a book for self-improvement, then what’s it all about? It’s about receiving and displaying God’s divine life on a moment-by-moment basis. And it’s about freedom to serve from a heartfelt motive, not out of any religious obligation.
2. Name two people who greatly influenced you spiritually.
I’d have to say both my mom and my dad. My dad died in a car accident more than a decade ago, and he meant the world to me. He was so strong, yet so soft and kind. And my mom has incredible discernment. I’ve often consulted her on major decisions. Whenever people say I’m a blend of mom and dad, I take it as the highest compliment. They were with me through “think and thin” and I wouldn’t know the grace of God today if it weren’t for them.
3. Now for the book: What compelled you to write The Naked Gospel? Who is your target audience?
I’ve learned some radical, Scriptural truths that were right there in the Bible, that I never knew existed. That’s why I wrote The Naked Gospel – to share with others the radical truths that absolutely revolutionized my life. The theme of the book is “Jesus plus nothing.”
Today, some are saying “Jesus plus baptism.” Others are saying “Jesus plus tithing.” Others are saying “Jesus plus tongues.” And some are even saying, “Jesus plus Judaism!” Although baptisms, giving, and spiritual gifts are part of healthy church life, I think we need to be clearer about the powerful truths of the core gospel message.
The Naked Gospel was written to serve as an intravenous shot of unadulterated truth that will stir all of us and perhaps even rattle some of us into considering how we’ve added to the gospel and hindered the pure power of “Jesus plus nothing” in our everyday lives.
4. In chapter one you speak of your experience in trying to measure up to certain standards so that God would be pleased. About the experiences you mention in this chapter: were they truly as intense as they sound, or were they more intense so that words actually fail to describe how intense those feelings of inadequacy and despondency truly were?
Yeah, it was intense alright. I found myself lying on the floor of my apartment, begging God for answers. I was saying, “God, I’m doing everything they say to do. I’m reading my Bible four or five hours a day. I’m sharing my faith with everybody I meet. I’m at church every time the doors are open. But I still don’t feel like I’m growing spiritually. I’m stalled, and I can’t explain why. You say the truth will set me free. I’m anything but free!”
I needed God to start all over with me, and He did. Although I was already a Christian, my belief system was poisoned with religiosity. Over the next ten years, I began replacing old thoughts with new thoughts. And it changed everything for me.
Back then, if I were honest and vulnerable, my sales pitch would have been, “Would you like to become a Christian and be miserable like me?” But today I’d wish my Christian experience on everyone.
5. Tell us about your view of the law and the Christian and how it is relevant to a discussion of the gospel and our acceptance before God.
When Paul describes the law as a ministry of condemnation, he notes that the law was “in letters engraved on stones.” Clearly, he’s talking about the Ten Commandments. So, the Ten will only minister condemnation – to the saved and to the lost.
Of course, people will argue the importance of the Ten Commandments for Christian living today. But just ask them, “What did you do last Saturday?” If they did any work of any kind, then they disobeyed one of the Big Ten. They might say, “Well we’re free from the Sabbath now.” My reply, “So then, it’s the Nine Commandments that we’re still under?”
We Christians dice up God’s law to get it the way we like it. But the reality is that the law is an all-or-nothing proposition. James tells us that even if we keep the whole law and stumble in only one point, we are guilty of all of it. We don’t have the right to cherry pick, selecting the parts that are comfortable for us.
It’s 600+ Jewish commands and regulations, or it’s total freedom to serve in the newness of the Spirit. The choice is ours. But there’s no room for selecting from the law here and there and imposing a few on Christians. That makes no sense at all.
The Jewish Law, including the Ten Commandments, is perfect in every way. It’s so perfect that nobody can live up to it! It’s actually designed to allow sin to thrive in our lives, to convict us of that sin, and to point us to our need for Jesus Christ.
After we receive Jesus, all we need is Jesus. He produces the love, patience, and self-control we need for daily living. After the salvation experience, any return to the law or another rule-based system is essentially “cheating on Jesus.”
6. What would you say to the person who objects and tells you that Jesus preached the gospel, so the Sermon on the Mount can be interpreted accordingly?
I guess I’d say, “then cut off your hand next time it causes you to sin. And pluck out your eye too! And while you’re at it, be perfect just like your Heavenly Father is perfect. Oh, and go sell all your possession. OK, now you’re obeying Jesus.” Jesus amplified the law to show that it couldn’t be obeyed. The rich man went away sad. The Pharisees went away mad. Mission accomplished.
In my mind, this point isn’t really up for much debate. We need to understand the “Great Divide.” It’s not baby Jesus lying in the manger in Matthew 1 that changed everything for us. But with our “New Testament” divider page placed just before Matthew 1, we Christians can lose sight of the fact that Jesus’ death, not his birth, initiated the New Testament era (see Hebrews 9:16-17).
Therefore, Jesus was born under law. And much of Jesus’ teaching was aimed at redeeming those who were under law (Galatians 4:4-5). He told them to gouge out their eyes and cut off their hands in their fight against sin. Pretty high standards, I think.
If we Christians were truly following those teachings, and not watering them down or dismissing them, today’s churches would look much like an amputation ward at the local hospital. Instead, we recognize on some level that Jesus was placing demands on his Jewish listeners that were just too great.
As I mentioned, we see this with the Sermon on the Mount, and with the rich man too. Jesus told him to sell everything. Sell everything, really? Yes, Jesus said to sell everything in order to enter the kingdom.
But today, we don’t preach this. You’ll never see an evangelist telling people to go home and list all their belongings on eBay in order to enter the Kingdom. Why not? Those are Jesus’ own words, aren’t they? On some level, we all recognize that Jesus’ death, not His birth in Matthew 1, changed everything for us.
In The Naked Gospel, I talk about the sweeping implications of this dividing line for how we study the
Bible – the teachings of Jesus in particular – and how we relate to God and live life
7. You have named two chapters “Cheating on Jesus” and “We Don’t Marry Dead People.” The titles are somewhat shocking. Tell us why you named these chapters in this fashion.
The Catholic obtains more forgiveness and cleansing weekly through the mass. The Jew obtained more forgiveness and cleansing yearly through the Day of Atonement. And today’s Protestant, for the most part, believes he receives more forgiveness and cleansing as he asks God directly for it. But all three systems ignore what the Bible clearly teaches – God’s blood economy that brings “once for all” forgiveness through the onetime sacrifice of Jesus. That’s why I call those other systems “Cheating on Jesus.”
Also, we’re the bride of Christ, right? But we’re not married to a dead man. He’s risen and alive and seated at God’s right hand. And we’re joined to Him, the risen Christ. That’s what “We Don’t Marry Dead People” is about.
8. You stated that Christians don’t have to ask God for forgiveness. Why do you believe this, and why do you think that it is important to us?
Yes, the phrases “ask forgiveness” and “ask for forgiveness” are entirely absent from all New Testament epistles. It has never been about making promises to God, trying harder, or listing every sin on a legal pad and waiting to be cleansed afterward.
Although it’s very religious to ask for forgiveness, it totally ignores the work of the cross. Jesus took away our sins and cleansed us “once for all.” To ask, plead, beg, and wait for a new portion of cleansing to come our way is to ignore what Jesus said from the cross: “It is finished.”
Yes, we should turn from every sin we commit. Yes, we should be honest and open about our struggles before God. But we should also be honest and straightforward about the blood of Jesus and what it accomplished – an unconditional, irrevocable, one-time cleansing from all our sins!
Requesting forgiveness is not the same as thanking God for the cleansing we already have. Now that forgiveness has been accomplished, our job is to relish the work of Jesus Christ and to deem it “enough.”
As we rest in the finished work of the Son, we please the Father. Why is this important? Because it’s truth. God’s truth! Believing anything else is an absurdity. Just think about it. How many sins have you committed in your life? Millions? OK, now how many of those have you asked forgiveness for? What? Only thousands? So now what will you do? You’ve got millions of unconfessed and unaddressed sins! You can’t go to heaven as a partially forgiven and partially cleansed person.
This is precisely why our forgiveness cannot possibly be dependent on our memory, our words, our confession, or our asking. This is precisely why our forgiveness has to rest solely on the blood of Christ.
This is important because it’s part of the gospel – a “once for all” sacrifice, as Hebrews calls it, found only in Jesus Christ.
9. What would you say to encourage the despairing person who tries, and tries, and tries to please God, but always fails?
I’d say that the first thing to realize is that it’s our faith in Jesus that pleases God. As the Scriptures say, “without faith, it’s impossible to please God.” When I put my full confidence in what Jesus did for me, I’m pleasing God. But when I’m trying to “do” for God, I’m not really pleasing Him anyway. The Father is obsessed with His Son. Jesus is the Gold Standard, and the only thing that pleases the Father is our dependency on the Son. Anything else is simply weak religiosity.
Oh, and stop measuring yourself. As God said in the Garden of Eden, “Who told you that you were naked?” In other words, by what standard are you measuring yourself and coming up short?
The standard has been removed in Christ. The certificate of debt has been cancelled (Colossians 2), meaning that we don’t owe God anything. There’s no debt left. And there’s no measuring stick.
So, my cleanness and my closeness are through Jesus’ work, not through my own.
Bottom line- relax and enjoy Him.
10. Thanks for taking the time to give a sneak peek into The Naked Gospel as well as answering a few questions about your theological approach. Let’s end with this: What would you be most happy to hear from someone who has read The Naked Gospel?
When some hear they can be free from religion and only need Jesus for daily living, they call the idea “naïve.” When some hear that Christians are totally forgiven for all sins – past, present, and future – no matter what, they actually get mad. They call that one a “license to sin” and “heresy.”
I call it the Gospel. If you’re not being falsely accused of promoting a “license to sin” then you’re probably not teaching the Gospel. The Apostle Paul was falsely accused of speaking out against Moses and the law. He also had to constantly answer this one: “Well, then, why don’t we just go out and sin so that grace can increase?”
We Christians should be accused of these things on a regular basis. Otherwise, I’m afraid we’re peddling a powerless gospel of “Jesus plus something.”
So far, The Naked Gospel has received one of two reactions – people love it or hate it. I’ve been called a heretic. I’ve even been told that the book will “destroy America’s churches.” But I’ve also heard lots of people say things like, “it totally changed my life,” and “I’ll never be the same again.”
It’s no fun to be accused, but it’s very rewarding to see people go free. It appears that some may speak out against the book. But it also appears that the book will free lots of people to enjoy the simple, powerful message of “Jesus Plus Nothing.”
And that’s what it’s all about.
Our thanks to Mr. Farley for taking the time to answer these questions and discuss his new book “The Naked Gospel“.
Fans of the HBO miniseries “Rome” will delight in Michelle Moran’s latest historical fiction offering “Cleopatra’s Daughter” because it pretty much picks up where that series was canceled. ..but that’s certainly not a prerequisite to enjoy this engaging book.
This book was exciting, fascinating and a wonderfully educational escape right from page one. Told from the perspective of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony’s daughter, Kleopatra Selene, Cleopatra’s Daughter offers us a unique glimpse of imperialist Rome through the eyes of an outsider. It was easy for the author to weave facts and informative tidbits into the storyline because of that fresh perspective.
At the age of ten, Selene and her twin brother Alexander are taken to Rome as spoils of war and lovingly raised by Cesar’s (Augustus) sister Octavia. They are trapped in a world of privilege and riches, yet they are also prisoners and know that by their birth alone they are a threat and could be eliminated at whim. Selene is determined to keep the last of the Ptolemy family together and is most concerned with making herself and Alexander indispensable to Cesar. Selene is often shocked at how barbaric Rome can be (particularly concerning slaves and the corruption of government); and the plight of slaves is a big sub-theme in the book.
It is obvious that Michelle Moran did her research and outside of getting the history right, she has crafted a very well told story and brought these figures vibrantly back to life. Cleopatra’s Daughter was a joy to read and also very informative. I highly recommend giving this one a look.
Newsflash: I even got my husband to read this book. He has read 2 books for pleasure in the past 9 years.
Many married women genuinely want to feel more desire toward their husbands. But while sex before marriage was hard to resist, now resisting seems like all they do. In her new book, Barbara Wilson shows how couples can suffer for years from the “invisible bonds” of previous relationships without even knowing it. Hidden emotions of distrust, shame, and resentment can sabotage even the most loving marriage.
In Kiss Me Again, Wilson:
· Shares her own story of healing and renewed desire
· Helps women forgive themselves and their husbands for past choices
· Shows readers how to break free from “invisible bonds”
· Explains God’s plan for helping a husband and wife to re-bond
· Includes conversation helps for both wives and their husbands
· Helps couples reignite the passion that they thought was lost
With assessment tools, write-in exercises, and gentle guidance, Kiss Me Again offers a biblical plan for rekindling the closeness and passion women long for in marriage. Because no past is beyond the reach of God’s healing touch.
Barbara Wilson is the founder of Freedom Bound Communications and directs the Sexual Health Education for faith-based Alternatives Pregnancy Center in Sacramento, California. She speaks internationally to youth and adults with her message of sexual bonding and healing. Released from a past of her own, Barbara shares her journey to healing in her book, The Invisible Bond: How to Break Free From Your Sexual Past published by Multnomah Waterbrook Press, a division of Random House Publications. Her second book, Kiss Me Again; Restoring Lost Intimacy In Marriage, releasing in 2009 will help couples heal from their sexual pasts so they can re-bond sexually and emotionally in their marriage.
Barbara has been involved in education for the past 25 years. She has a Bachelors Degree in Psychology from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, and a Bachelors Degree in Education from Brock University.
She is an active member of the multi-campus, Bayside Covenant Church in Granite Bay, California where she offers a bible study that leads women to God’s forgiving, healing power for past sexual sin and trauma. Barbara and her husband Eric live in Sacramento, Ca., have been married for 28 years.
This week I wanted to let you know about a wonderful place to find book reviews from a Christian perspective. It’s the Christian Library Journal, currently an e-zine. You can find it at http://www.christianlibraryj.org/ There are fiction and nonfiction book reviews for children, intermediate children, high school, and adult. Some books are Christian, and some are not. I know because I’m one of their book reviewers A yearly subscription is $15 until Sept. 15th and $25 after. This is a great place to read about titles from a godly view before purchasing them or checking them out from the library. You can look for my reviews if you have access. For children I reviewed Erika San, Counting in the Temperate Forest, and My Name is Yoon. For adults I reviewed Following God with All Your Heart and The Five Love Languages, Singles Edition. This is a great way to find good reading material.
