This book! The story it tells is horrifying and incredibly difficult to read, but so well-researched and well-written that it was somALLLL the stars!
This book! The story it tells is horrifying and incredibly difficult to read, but so well-researched and well-written that it was somehow a joy to read anyway. Daniel James Brown manages to take a story with terrible events that will literally turn your stomach and cause you to avert your eyes, and tell it with beauty, compassion, clarity, and insight. Well done....more
This book was challenging and surprisingly full of depth. It has definitely helped shape my perspective on my smart phone usage... now to implement soThis book was challenging and surprisingly full of depth. It has definitely helped shape my perspective on my smart phone usage... now to implement some new habits and maintain them!...more
His testimony is a powerful one, as is the story of the revival among the tribes to whom he ministered, but this little book is only excerpts from othHis testimony is a powerful one, as is the story of the revival among the tribes to whom he ministered, but this little book is only excerpts from other, more complete works, so I felt like I was missing vital information as I went along....more
Phew! This one required every single brain cell I possess and some that I don't (and likely never will!). In other words, I'm not sure I fully gr3.5 ⭐
Phew! This one required every single brain cell I possess and some that I don't (and likely never will!). In other words, I'm not sure I fully grasped one hundred percent of everything C S Lewis was saying here, nor am I sure that I ever will.
However, I understood enough to get the gist of his meaning and I did find it very interesting. The amount of time in my life that I have spent pondering the miracles in the Bible can be contained in a thimble, so I really appreciated the opportunity to examine the whole concept of miracles in general, and a few miracles in particular, in a way I never have before.
This book is written for skeptics, so I'm not the intended audience, but I still got a lot out of it. But it's not for the casual reader, that's for sure. It's meaty, intellectual, philosophical, occasionally theological. Lots of material to ponder.
I don't agree with Lewis on some finer points of theology, but I loved his exploration of "old creation" miracles vs "new creation" miracles, and his thoughts on what we can infer from Jesus' resurrected body in regards to our own future resurrected body....more
Not quite what I expected - by which I mean, the person of Helene Hanff was not at all what I had imagined her to be - but delightful all the same. WhNot quite what I expected - by which I mean, the person of Helene Hanff was not at all what I had imagined her to be - but delightful all the same. What I loved most was the offhand glances into the different challenges and changes faced by Americans and Brits during the years immediately following WW2 and into the tumultuous sixties. That was so fascinating!
I didn't know most of the books referenced, but that's OK, because our girl Helene read P&P for the first time during the course of the story, and of course, she loved it (even though fiction was not her thing), so much that she immediately ordered herself a copy of it from her favorite bookseller.
This book delved a lot deeper into the science of taste than I was expecting, and your girl is NOT into science. Especially chemistry. Biology, OK, buThis book delved a lot deeper into the science of taste than I was expecting, and your girl is NOT into science. Especially chemistry. Biology, OK, but when we start getting to the cellular level, I'm out.
HOWEVER. I understood enough of the science talk from the first half of the book that it provided the necessary framework for comprehending the more practical aspects of the second book, where the author actually begins to discuss the process of tasting coffee.
More than merely TASTING coffee, this book teaches you how to CATEGORIZE and VERBALIZE what you are tasting, which can be a very tricky thing. I would like to read more books about different types of beans and the process of roasting (not to mention the process of coffee preparation), all of them in terms of taste. But this is a good overview on tasting coffee in general and I benefited from this read. ...more
I must admit this little gem of a book was much better than I expected. I'm currently re-reading it with my teenage boys as a devotional this summer. I must admit this little gem of a book was much better than I expected. I'm currently re-reading it with my teenage boys as a devotional this summer. Excellent and approachable discussion of how the gospel sanctifies us. Similar to The Gospel Primer for Christians, although not as in-depth....more
I'm glad I read those before reading it with my teenage kids. The information in this book really should be reframed a little. There's a distinct dangI'm glad I read those before reading it with my teenage kids. The information in this book really should be reframed a little. There's a distinct danger that it can come across to the reader as a legalistic list of behaviors that a successful Christian will exhibit - a sort of standard to measure up against - rather than being a discussion of what God is able to work in those who love Him and abide in Christ and His Word. It raises the bar for the modern teen but doesn't talk enough about how it is GOD Who accomplishes all this in a person's life through the glory of the gospel and the process of sanctification....more
I enjoyed reading the actual letters and journal entries. The accompanying narrative and edits by Ednah Cheney felt intrusive and mostly unnecessary. I enjoyed reading the actual letters and journal entries. The accompanying narrative and edits by Ednah Cheney felt intrusive and mostly unnecessary. The material was largely organized chronologically, but the commentary kind of interrupted that flow with misplaced mentions of various events. And the commentary often restated what was already in the letters (frequently verbatim) without providing additional context, which seemed fairly pointless. It would have been very helpful if , instead, Cheney had provided additional necessary context to clarify incidents and characters and places mentioned by Alcott, and if she had organized everything in a chronological fashion, interspersing letters in between journal entries where they fit in the timeline, rather than grouping letters together, then journals, etc. In short, it was a little difficult to track.
However, I give it 4 stars because the actual letters and journals were very interesting and I felt like I got to know Alcott's personality pretty well. I'm interested in reading the Selected Letters by Myerson and Shealy - I wonder if it would be overall a better experience. ...more
This is the biggest pile of horse poop I ever read. That's the nicest thing I can think of to say about it. Ok, there were a few random sentences thatThis is the biggest pile of horse poop I ever read. That's the nicest thing I can think of to say about it. Ok, there were a few random sentences that I found pithy and true. And I do believe there is a place for standing firm in your beliefs and thoughts and not allowing yourself to be swayed by popular opinion. But this is a paean to the self as god, to the self as the be-all and end-all of truth at the expense of every other relationship and even at the expense of logic. No, thanks. I'm a pretty stubbornly independent thinker, but you go too far, Emerson. Far too far....more
My boys and I used this as a morning devotional. We would sing the hymn and read the verse and hymn story for the day. It was very informative and alsMy boys and I used this as a morning devotional. We would sing the hymn and read the verse and hymn story for the day. It was very informative and also will function well as a resource when I want to look up the story behind a hymn. It works chronologically, starting with the oldest known hymns and ending with some that were written in the 70s I think.
I especially recommend this for families to use during family devotion time so as to introduce their children to the great hymns of the faith, which they may or may not have opportunity to hear elsewhere. It's not super deep as a devotional, but it serves that purpose very well. ...more
My expectations were not met here... and I venture to say it's not that my expectations were faulty. The blurb ends with this paragraph: "From va2.5 ⭐
My expectations were not met here... and I venture to say it's not that my expectations were faulty. The blurb ends with this paragraph: "From vanishing coaching inns to submered riverside stairs, hidden burial grounds to apocryphal shops, Dickensland charts the curious history of an endlessly captivating - if often entirely fictional - world."
From that, and other statements in the blurb, one gets the idea that this book will take us through sites in London that Dickens wrote about in his books, and that we will get a history of the specific buildings and locations. And there's definitely some of that. The items listed in the paragraph I quoted are basically the locations that are discussed in this book by Lee Jackson, but get this - none of those locations are actually the ones Dickens had in mind when writing his books. Only one of the surviving coaching inns has any connection to Dickens, and it's tangential. Every other building or site he discusses at length in this book either no longer exists or was never proven to be the one Dickens had in mind.
And, before we go further, let me just say that ALL THAT IS FINE. By all means, let's hear about the no-longer-existing sites and the fake sites. I have zero objections.
HOWEVER. Actual sites that still exist to this day are not even mentioned except in maybe two places, and that in passing. "Middle Temple is one of the capital's historic lawyer's colleges, the Inns of Court. Dickens himself was very fond of the Inns as a quaint setting in his fiction, with, for example, Pip having rooms in the Temple in Great Expectations; Traddles having rooms at Gray's Inn in David Copperfield; and Mortimer Lightwood also having rooms in the Temple in Our Mutual Friend. For even in Dickens' day, the old Inns of Court seemed like a peculiar, fusty world, set apart from the bustling streets, with a curious atmosphere all their own. Nowadays, thanks to their well-preserved terraces and squares of Georgian and Victorian buildings, they regularly appear as not only 'Dickens's London' but also 'Old London'." In other words, these buildings that were featured in multiple Dickens novels are still standing and still visible today, still possible to be visited by the tourist. Why is this site given only a passing mention, when entire chapters are devoted to non-existent or fake sites?
A quick internet search reveals the following London sites that are still very much in existence today and are featured in multiple Dickens novels: Palace of Westminster, Westminster Cathedral, St Paul's Cathedral, Bank of England, Covent Garden Market, Tower of London. Those are only the most famous and most obvious. There are a ton more. Another search reveals that there are many different walking tours of London available to this day that take you to a variety of existing (proven) Dickens' sites. The author (Lee Jackson) himself has written a walking tour guide of London with this perspective.
So if this book is not about actual sites of Dickens that you can visit either in person or virtually through an arm chair travel book (which is what I was expecting here, if I haven't made that clear yet), what is it about, then? I'm honestly not sure. There seems to be a level of condescension directed towards anyone who wants to imagine themselves into a Dickens novel by visiting sites he described in his books. There seems to be more than a little derision towards the concept of literary tourism. Then again, towards the end of the book, the author seems to double back on himself and change his tune by saying that - essentially - the author's imagination creates the setting, the reader desires to visit that setting, which then in turn fuels HIS imagination as a reader, enabling him to more fully enter into the story. He seems to settle for himself that, ultimately, that is not a bad thing, although the majority of the book is questioning whether such imaginative escapades into real or imagined literary sites degrades the superior work of the author/creator in imagining the setting in the first place.
On top of that, the author occasionally inserts his own literary analysis and interpretation of specific scenes in Dickens' novel, and I wasn't really here for that. Again, expectations unmet.
All in all, I was disappointed, ALTHOUGH I did learn a lot about Dickens, his works, London itself and its changing topography, and adaptations of Dickens work throughout history. If you go into it expecting that, then you won't be disappointed. ...more
I really enjoy this author's humorous and conversational style of writing. This book covers a lot of ground, but in a very approachable way intended fI really enjoy this author's humorous and conversational style of writing. This book covers a lot of ground, but in a very approachable way intended for the average person (like me) and not necessarily a Bible scholar. Not everyone is going to agree with his conclusions about the meanings of various biblical passages (honestly, on some things regarding eschatology, i hold pretty loosely to the interpretation that makes the most sense, because I'm not sure anyone really knows), but I like his approach that looks at each passage with the entirety of scripture in mind....more
I was never really into the Duggar family personally so I didn't know too much about Jinger prior to reading this book. However, I do not live under aI was never really into the Duggar family personally so I didn't know too much about Jinger prior to reading this book. However, I do not live under a rock, so I was familiar with the Duggars and their background/story, and I have personal experience with the Gothard ministry. I was curious to hear Jinger 's journey of "disentanglement" because I have been disheartened by the amount of deconstruction I've seen in people coming from Conservative Christian backgrounds.
I loved that this was her story, and that she told it graciously and yet truthfully. It wasn't dishy or arrogant but full of grace.
I was a little surprised by how serious the Duggar family was about following Gothard and his teachings. Like I said, I have some familiarity with the ministry but I gotta be honest that I didn't realize he taught half those things. I guess in my family we didn't take him that seriously ...more
So this was not what I was expecting. This particular punctuation book was written with a specific category of readers -- authors of fiction -- in minSo this was not what I was expecting. This particular punctuation book was written with a specific category of readers -- authors of fiction -- in mind, and I am not a member of that audience. I therefore skipped all the exercises at the end of each chapter, but I otherwise enjoyed reading.
What I learned about punctuation: there are rules, which are really more like suggestions that you had better follow even if they're hopelessly vague and begging to be broken.
I actually learned more about how punctuation shapes literature, which incidentally gives me more insight as a reader than as a writer of the English language. I'm paying a lot more attention to punctuation as I read now and it's kind of fascinating....more
This book gives you a peek - but only a peek - into Emile Jacques-Dalcroze's ideas on "rhythmic gymnastics", or his methodology for teaching music viaThis book gives you a peek - but only a peek - into Emile Jacques-Dalcroze's ideas on "rhythmic gymnastics", or his methodology for teaching music via organized movement. It's a quick read that delivers insight into how he utilized his methodology and what he was able to accomplish, but it doesn't really even scratch the surface. I am now even more curious than ever and interested in really digging deep into Dalcroze eurhythmics. I have had a little bit of training and experience, but I'm anxious to learn how to utilize it more effectively and consistently in my music classrooms, so I need to find a thicker, more detailed book about it. ...more
Anne (In Search of Wonder)
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