Miriam’s Profile

43 ratings (3.86 avg)
39 reviews

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Miriam is Currently Reading

Miriam is currently reading

Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained (Signet Classics)

by John Milton

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Miriam said: "I abuse goodreads terribly. Rather than contributing to the community with excellent book reviews, I use is as a place for organizing my thoughts while I read. There is a lot that I think about as I read Paradise Lost. I mean it's well done of course...more I abuse goodreads terribly. Rather than contributing to the community with excellent book reviews, I use is as a place for organizing my thoughts while I read. There is a lot that I think about as I read Paradise Lost. I mean it's well done of course, who an I to contend with that. But it falls so short of what it is trying to represent, that it disappoints me somewhat, particularly in light of how influential it is. It is a child's version of the battles of Satan and man, a Disney-esqe version of the way things are.
Take Satan for example, he is obnoxious, comic and cunning. Overall, not entirely unlikable. It is possible to have sympathy for him. I used to feel that way when I was a child. I used to pray for Satan to become good again. Then one night I had a dream in which Satan had me in a headlock. One arm around my neck and the other gripping my hair and pulling my head back so far that my neck was at the point of snapping. Through gritted teeth, he commanded me to worship him. When I refused he told me he would do everything in his power to destroy me. I commanded him to leave and thought I was safe. Two days later however (in real life, not a dream) I was sitting at my desk and for no apparent reason, I had the sensation that pain was trickling down my back, from the upper and outer parts of it, down into my lower spine. It hurt so much.... cold, cutting, persistent. It got worse and worse as the day went on. Despite stretching, taking a hot bath an ibuprofen, it kept getting worse. By the next morning I couldn't walk. I have never been in worse pain. People assure me childbirth is worse, but I don't believe them. Doctors, chiropracters, and physical therapists could find no cause for what I was going through. Not a herniated disk, no pinched nerves. They could feel my taut muscles and inflamed vertebrae, but there was no explanation for them. That went on for a month. It hurt so much that I couldn't sleep for more than an hour or two each night. Prescription pain killers didn't touch it. It finally stopped when, upon finding out that my iron was low, I ended a two year attempt at vegetarianism by eating some red meat. Perhaps being low on iron causes inflamed vertebrae....I blamed it on Satan and have pretty much been at all out war with him ever since. I told God that of course I would love it if Satan became good, but that I didn't really think I could influence that very much, and i was just going to pray to be kept safe from him after that. I don't have sympathy for Satan any more.

I think that Joseph Smith describes him well in this account.

"After I had retired to the place where I had previously designed to go, having looked around me, and finding myself alone, I kneeled down and began to offer up the desires of my heart to God. I had scarcely done so, when immediately I was seized upon by some power which entirely overcame me, and had such an astonishing influence over me as to bind my tongue so that I could not speak. Thick darkness gathered around me, and it seemed to me for a time as if I were doomed to sudden destruction.
But, exerting all my powers to call upon God to deliver me out of the power of this enemy which had seized upon me, and at the very moment when I was ready to sink into despair and abandon myself to destruction—not to an imaginary ruin, but to the power of some actual being from the unseen world, who had such marvelous power as I had never before felt in any being—just at this moment of great alarm, I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.

It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!"

Except that most people aren't rescued so directly.

I wonder if Milton will touch upon the armor of God as described in Ephesians 6. Will he mention that aside from the bounds that God sets upon Satan, that is the main protection we have? I wonder if he will touch upon the fact that whenever there is a chink, or a gaping hole, or a missing part of armor Satan attacks that vulnerable place with full force.... that if he can find a way in, he will do whatever damage he can. Inescapable guilt and fear, addiction and pain of every sort seem to be among the preferred weapons he uses.

Finally, I wonder how Milton will handle the intervention of Christ. Will he touch upon how Christ is able to heal that which cannot be healed and mend that which cannot be mended? I suspect that that there may be cartoonish characters portrayed throughout.(less)"

Nov 29, 2009 08:09pm · see review

Miriam is currently reading

Massacre at Mountain Meadows

by Ronald W. Walker

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Miriam said: "So far it is good. I like that it is a scholarly attempt at Mormon history that seeks to present the massacre without prejudice for or against religion. Hope it keeps going so well. It is authored by Mormons so I am a little suspicious, but I think I...more "

Apr 17, 2009 06:22pm · see review

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Miriam is now friends with Noreen Astin
May 06, 2013 10:03am · like
Miriam rated a book 2 of 5 stars Jaws by Peter Benchley	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I went to the Monterey Bay aquarium for a teachers symposium where they generously gave us a lot of their discarded educational materials and clearance items from the gift shop that hadn't been sold in a long time. Among those items were stacks and s...more
Feb 04, 2012 04:36pm · see review
Miriam added Goodreads to her Facebook Timeline Add your books to Timeline! learn more
Feb 04, 2012 04:33pm
Miriam liked SomePig's review of Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2): " Perhaps it is because I finally got tired of Gaiman (Ýes, it can happen. For me it was somewhere between The Absolute Sandman Volumes 1 and 2), and approached Collins in a more objective light this time, but I actually liked Catching Fire better t... " Read more of this review »
Mar 03, 2010 12:32pm · see review
Miriam liked SomePig's review of M is for Magic: " The problem with assigning a star rating to this book is that, like any book of short stories, it is a mixed bag. Especially considering that this particular book of stories is by Neil Gaiman who can pen novles that are original enough that the on... " Read more of this review »
Mar 03, 2010 12:28pm · see review
Miriam liked SomePig's review of Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang: " There is no faulting the flow of Oates' prose. Having read Foxfire, I would even venture to say that I agree that she is a tour de force in contemporary fiction, but the star rating, as laid out by Goodreads, is all about how much I LIKE or don't... " Read more of this review »
Mar 03, 2010 12:26pm · see review
Miriam rated a book 5 of 5 stars Squiggles by Tarō Gomi	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jan 12, 2010 12:21pm
Miriam rated a book 5 of 5 stars Doodles: A Really Giant Coloring and Doodling Book by Tarō Gomi	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jan 12, 2010 12:20pm
Miriam rated a book 5 of 5 stars Scribbles: A Really Giant Drawing and Coloring Book by Tarō Gomi	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
So much fun!
Jan 12, 2010 12:20pm · see review
Miriam rated a book 5 of 5 stars The Absolute Sandman, Vol. 3 by Neil Gaiman (Goodreads Author)	Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Good storytelling.
Jan 12, 2010 12:19pm · see review