false 9 157 133 true 5771020 read 2 true 2490221 currently-reading 22 true 2490220 to-read http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/73719384 to: Let Go: Live Free of the Burdens All Women Know (Hardcover) by Sheila Walsh
Let Go: Live Free of the Burdens All Women Know by Women of Faith speaker Sheila Walsh is an eighteen chapter book that uses scripture verses and stories to illustrate the point that God loves us all and never gives us a burden that He can not handle. Each chapter has a few questions under the title of "Deliverance Discovered" along with a prayer.

The chapter titles were clichéd (The Million-watt Megabulb of God's Hope, for example)and rather than serving to draw the potential reader in, felt insulting and belittling. The stories she includes in the beginning of each chapter don't ring true when set in the time of Christ. They feel too much like amateur actors trying to be relevant. One woman seems to know without having met Jesus that He is God and prays to Him when he detours around her town to the other side of a lake.

Some of the scripture was taken from The Message Bible, whose "contemporary" wording is, at best, distracting to anyone with more than a passing knowledge of Scripture, and at worst, inaccurate. (One quote has Jesus saying, "If you just use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life...") The questions at the end of each chapter become too predictable, often merely rewording the title in the form of a question.

While a valiant effort, I don't think this book lives up to its potential. The book could have been pared down into booklet form, or, conversely, taken its few hidden jewels and gone deeper for a much more satisfying read. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/73564286 to: The Saving Graces: A Novel (Paperback) by Patricia Gaffney
The Saving Graces by Patricia Gaffney takes us on a journey of friendship between 4 women who have been together so long, and are so close, they have a name for themselves. Each chapter is narrated by one of the women in turn, so we get each one's story from all 4 perspectives.We follow their lives and the decisions they make, becoming exasperated and exhilarated by their stories.

During the time this book takes place, each of the women are hit with real adversity and affliction virtually at once. We root for them, we laugh with them and we cry with them as they go through life and learn the lessons that we all must learn.

It is a book that invites readers to celebrate friendship, womanhood and life.



]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72763516 to: St. Anthony: Words of Fire, Life of Light (Paperback) by Madeline Pecora Nugent
Saint Anthony, Words of Fire, Words of Light by Madeline Pecora Nugent, SFO is a fictionalized version of the life of Saint Anthony of Padua.

It is a highly readable text, taking us through Anthony's ministry from its beginnings in Italy, to France and back to Italy. The book shows us how Saint Anthony touched the lives of people he met, both real and fictionalized, through is preaching and his life. Each chapter brings us a different character's transformation, or lack thereof, after meeting Saint Anthony and hearing him preach.

Dedicated as it is, to Father Benedict Groeschel, it brings to mind the important and challenging life of a priest in this Year of the Priest and makes one wonder about the effect of the "new media" on evangalization.

I highly recommend it.

]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/71529643 to: The Clothes on Their Backs (Paperback) by Linda Grant
The Clothes on Their Backs, by Linda Grant is a story of a first generation American woman's search for her family's past, something her parents have deliberately kept from her. Isolated in their British flat, her parents keep a kind of old-world mixed with fear outlook on life.

Growing up in the 60's and 70's of such parents, the narrator naturally begins to explore her world in a way that horrifies her parents, even if much of it is kept secret from them.

She gravitates towards her much disapproved of uncle and learns of the country and family her father has come from but never speaks of.

Given this premise, I expected what she discovers to be more sensational. Too, much of what she goes through is put forward as it is experienced--happening without much explanation or redemption. There is much in this book that is left unexplored--her parents are never forthcoming in emotion or explanation. She is forced to internalize things through her estranged uncle's eyes.

As someone who likes to read meaning and metaphor into things, this book was less than satisfying. It has a very post-modern feel to it. Even the most repulsive revelations and occurrences are very matter-of-fact, and while the author attempts to close the circle, so to speak, it it not done successfully.



]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70162219 to: Spiritual Freedom: God's Life-Changing Gift (Paperback) by Dave Pivonka
Spiritual Freedom: God's Life-Changing Gift by Fr. David Pivonka is a spiritual self-help book on living a happy and fulfilling life. Each chapter has an aspect of spiritual freedom followed by a verse of scripture, some questions and a prayer starter.

Fr. Dave tells us that the fundamental freedom we as humans are created with is a freedom to choose. We can choose how we relate to each other, what ills, slights and hurts to hang on to, and, most importantly, how to love. We are free because God created us to be free and because God will continue to free us if we ask to be freed from the bondage that we are under because of our many sins. We will be free if we ask the Holy Spirit (that much-ignored third Person of the Blessed Trinity) to breathe His freedom into our souls.

Fr. Pivonka delves deep into scripture to illustrate the points each chapter is making. He tries to disabuse us of our misconceptions about who God is and what He wants from us, about who we are and what part we play in our own lives.

]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/68220480 to: Are We Rome?: The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America (Hardcover) by Cullen Murphy
I picked up Are We Rome by Cullen Murphy because its title asked the very question I had been pondering for years: How much in common does America have with Ancient Rome? Will we "fall" in the same way it did?

The book goes into some detail about the similarities and differences between ancient Roman military, political and governmental organization and bureaucracy which is an informative and necessary prelude to answering the questions at hand.

The book then goes on to describe the effect of continual contact with other cultures through trade, immigration, and empire building. It also points out that while governments are changing, rather radically "on paper", people are adapting and learning from each other, often in less traumatic ways.

It is not until the epilogue, though, that Murphy tackles the most interesting question: What will America look like "after the 'fall'"? This, I think, would make an interesting sequel to the book--maybe a series, with a book for each of his future scenarios.

]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/66485707 to: The Noticer: Sometimes, all a person needs is a little perspective. (Hardcover) by Andy Andrews
The Noticer, by Andy Andrews is part parable, part motivational speech. The main character, Jones ("Just Jones, no Mr.")is a mysterious old man who shows up in the lives of people in the town when he is needed most to dispense his wisdom geared specifically to fit each individual's crisis yet timeless and generalizable to everyone.

The character Jones is a literary messiah figure, a symbol for God. He is racially ambiguous but with unforgettably clear blue eyes, a device often used in cinematography when representing Jesus or Mary. Called "Jones" by Anglos, he is called "Garcia" by Hispanics and "Chen" by the Chinese. His lesson of perspective must be learned and shared even when he is not there.

This book is moving and thought-provoking. It is one of those books that will move in and out of one's consciousness long after it is finished--much like Jones. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/66347546 to: The Constant Princess (Paperback) by Philippa Gregory
The Constant Princess tells the story of Katherine of Aragon, who was married to Prince Arthur of England and subsequently to his brother, Prince Henry (later King Henry VIII), when her marriage to Arthur was annulled after his death.

The story answers the controversy over whether her marriage to Arthur was consummated definitively from a narrative standpoint, but the book itself is not as satisfying a read as The Boleyn Inheritance for a number of reasons.

Gregory portrays Katherine's strong will and relentless ambition as much a result of a death bed promise she made to Arthur as it is a part of her own personality.

She skips years in the narrative that could have been filled out to make the story more personalized and suspenseful, a lesson she apparently learned by the time she wrote The Boleyn Inheritance which is a much longer book. I admit, too, that what she does write extensively about, Katherine's interest in war, is not something that held my interest.

Her portrayal of the Muslim influence on Spanish culture is intriguing and leaves me wanting more. She brings tantalizing pieces of eastern beauty into her story, sharply contrasted with the comparative barbarism of England of the day and makes us long, with Katherine, for home. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/64525828 to: The Boleyn Inheritance (Hardcover) by Philippa Gregory
The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory is a delicious summer read, taking us on a journey through Tudor England from the first person point of view of Anne of Cleves, her replacement wife Katherine Howard and lady-in-waiting and confidant to them both, Jane Rochford.

We move about the dangerous world of Henry VIII's court as each of these wives begins their precarious career as a woman in the life of King Henry. We experience, first hand, the naivete of Anne, coming site unseen from Germany and determined to prove an innocent and wholesome wife to the sensuously rapacious English monarch. We follow Katherine Howard from her beginnings in the English court. She is placed there as a teen by devious and scheming relatives and used by them throughout her short and tragic life.

In spite of the fact that the conclusion of the story is well known, the book is well worth the read.

]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/62667514 The Book of Life: The New Testament Retold (Paperback) by Henri Daniel-Rops
The Book of Life: The New Testament Retold is a translation from the French L'Evangile de mes Filleuls by Henri Daniele-Rops. Originally written in 1955, it attempts to rewrite the New Testament in pseudo-story form.

Daniele-Rops' attempt to make the Bible palatable to the young fails, I'm afraid, at least in the English translation. The "story" portions of his book are interwoven with more preachy-sounding Biblical exegesis which, while interesting in and of themselves, are too abrupt and do not weave seamlessly with the rest of the text.

The book is also too self-aware. It keeps drawing attention to the fact that it is being written by an outside author and never draws the reader into the story. We are too aware that we are being read to (or preached at) and are never allowed to lose ourselves in what is arguably "the greatest story ever told." ]]>