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Showing posts with label Christianity. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christianity. Show all posts
Sunday, April 04, 2021
Happy Easter!
Whether or not you celebrate Easter, I want to wish you a happy one. Spring is a time of rebirth and renewal, a season that celebrates life, hope, and growth. I feel that hope keenly at this time of year as I join with other Christians to focus on and celebrate the resurrection of our Savior. As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, I also look forward to General Conference, a two-day long event that occurs twice a year, once in April and once in October, in which Christ-centered messages are given by leaders of the Church and musical performances are offered by The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. For my family, both Easter and Conference come with cherished traditions that bring us together for food, fun, and worship. So, from my home to yours, I wish you a very happy Easter and Springtime.
I should have posted this video last week since it's about making Holy Week more meaningful, but I've been slacking on Easter prep this year. Case in point: since I wasn't feeling well after getting my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on Good Friday, I let my kids go shopping for their own Easter basket goodies! Yeah, I'm an awful mom. Anyway, I wanted to share this beautiful Easter message from Russell M. Nelson, president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Enjoy!
Sunday, February 04, 2018
The One Where I Actually Read Something My Husband Recommends to Me
(Image from Barnes & Noble)
My husband often accuses me of ignoring the many book recommendations he's given to me. And justifiably so. It's not that I don't appreciate his suggestions or that I don't want to experience a book that he's enjoyed—it's just that we like very different kinds of books. You've no doubt noticed that I'm a fiction kind of girl. I read for entertainment, so I generally shy away from anything that's too deep. As I like to tell my husband, if I have to re-read every sentence five times before I understand it, I'm out.
One of my husband's very favorite books is The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. He's been urging me to give it a go for a long time, reassuring me that it's more readable than many of the tomes he likes to consume. Ironically enough, it wasn't until it was selected as the next pick for my book club that I finally gave it a chance. And you know what? The hubs was right. It's a worthwhile read. Do I count it as a favorite of mine? No, but that's okay. I'm glad I read it and took the time to ponder Lewis' thoughts.
The allegorical story in The Great Divorce is told by a man who dreams he gets on a bus and takes an incredible journey through Heaven and Hell. He converses with his fellow passengers, meets a variety of supernatural beings, and has his mind opened to some surprising truths about life, death, human nature, and good vs. evil.
I know a good deal of Lewis' ruminations went straight over my head, so I'm not going to even pretend that I understand The Great Divorce. I did, however, enjoy "meeting" the different bus riders, each of whom represents a different type of person—the proud, the faithless, the fearful, etc. When my husband asked me which of them I most identified with, I replied, "Um, all of them?" I saw portions of myself in each of their weaknesses, which definitely provided food for thought. I also appreciated Lewis' ideas on letting go of "earthly" concepts like fairness, justification, quarrels, etc. as I, too, feel that such things do not exist in heaven.
Overall, then, I enjoyed The Great Divorce. It's a short book with some big messages, most of which I would probably have to read about five more times in order to really get. Maybe I'll do that.
(Readalikes: Besides The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the only other thing I've read by C.S. Lewis is The Screwtape Letters. It's similar to The Great Divorce, I think.)
Grade:
If this were a movie, it would be rated:
To the FTC, with love: The Great Divorce is from my personal library.
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
Heavy-Handed Sermonizing Makes Christian Novel A Whole Lot Less Appealing
(Image from Barnes & Noble)
Like all the folks who live in her isolated mountain community, 10-year-old Cadi Forbes is a descendant of a hearty band of pilgrims who came to Appalachia from the wilds of Scotland and Wales. Along with their heavy brogues, these pioneers brought with them legends, myths and Old World customs. Some of which still endure. The Sin Eater, for instance. Cadi knows all about the mysterious figure who's summoned down from the hills when someone dies. His duty—which he will perform as long as he lives—is to take upon himself the sins of the dead so that they can ascend to heaven unburdened. No one dares look the Sin Eater in the face, nor do they seek him out. The man is sentenced, because of his own misdeeds, to a life of banishment and solitude, welcomed among the villagers only when he is needed. And only with extreme caution.
Cadi needs absolution from the sin that is eating her up inside, the evil that makes even her mother turn away in shame. So pained by her affliction is Cadi that she's willing to do the unthinkable. She knows hunting down the Sin Eater will bring punishment from her parents as well as a curse on her family. But she can't stop herself. Cadi can't wait until she's dead to get forgiveness—she needs it now.
As Cadi defies the orders of her family and village leaders in dogged pursuit of her goal, she discovers some shocking truths—not just about the Sin Eater, but also about her community and the secrets it keeps in the name of tradition. Can Cadi convince the others of what she now knows? Will she ever get absolution for her sins? Her journey of self-discovery will lead her down paths she never could have expected to follow ...
When I picked up The Last Sin Eater by Francine Rivers, I had no idea it was a Christian novel. In retrospect, the title probably should have given it away, if not the fact that it's published by Tyndale. Somehow I missed these clues. Not that I have anything against Christian/religious fiction, mind you. I don't. At least not if its lessons are taught with grace and subtlety through complex characters doing interesting things against vivid backgrounds. The Last Sin Eater's Appalachian setting intrigued me from the start, as did its sympathetic story people. All the conflict between Cadi, her family, and the village folk reeled me in as well. In fact, I quite enjoyed the first half of the novel. Then, it got preachy. In an annoying, very heavy-handed way. It became too much, even for me —and I spend at least three hours a week in church! While I appreciated what the story had to say about the importance of repentance/forgiveness, letting Christ into our lives, and moving beyond the sins of the past, I didn't care for the novel's too-obvious sermonizing. In the end, then, The Last Sin Eater was just an okay read for me.
(Readalikes: Um, I can't think of anything. Can you?)
Grade:
If this were a movie (and, apparently, it is), it would be rated:
for violence, sexual innuendo and references to rape, adultery, and abuse
To the FTC, with love: I bought a copy of The Last Sin Eater with a portion of the millions I make from my lucrative career as a book blogger. Ha ha.
Friday, April 27, 2012
Biblical Drama Lacks ... Drama
(Image from Barnes & Noble)
I try to review books right after I've read them—that way, the story's plot, character, tone, etc. remains fresh in my mind while I dissect it for your reading pleasure. The longer I wait to write about a book, the more my memory seems to desert me. Especially in the case of a novel like Marilyn Brown's Fires of Jerusalem, the details of which stand out in my mind not at all. I remember slogging through the book, turning pages (well, scrolling through screens on my Kindle Fire) as quickly as I could so that I could move onto something more exciting. So dull was this reading experience for me that I remember almost nothing about it. Except that the story's chock-full of historical detail, while it skimps mightily on things like plot, character development, and engaging prose.
Since there's not a lot of plot to move the story along, it's going to be difficult to describe Fires of Jerusalem. There's no jacket copy to help me along either. Bother. Well, here's my best attempt at a summary:
The story concerns Jeremiah, the Hebrew prophet who's credited with authoring the Old Testament books of Jeremiah, 1 Kings, 2 Kings and Lamentations. It begins when Jeremiah is a young man, working in the Jerusalem's temple archives as an apprentice scribe. The city around him has become a dangerous place, filled with violence, crime, poverty and despair. Many who live there, and in surrounding lands, have turned away from God, choosing instead to indulge in drunkenness, whoring and idol worship. As the son of a high priest and as a scribe whose job it is to preserve holy scripture, Jeremiah finds the situation troubling, but believes there is little he can do to change it.
It's not until 14-year-old Jeremiah receives a vision from God that he realizes he not only can do something about the people's wickedness, but that he must. He has been commanded to warn the people that they—and their great city of Jerusalem—will be destroyed if they do not turn away from lawlessness and sin. Jeremiah accepts the assignment with great reluctance. Ultimately, though, he spends decades preaching to the wicked, risking his future, his family, even his life, to cry repentance to a people who would rather imprison a prophet than listen to him. Even though Jeremiah is not alone in his work (he gets a little help from people like Lehi, of Book of Mormon fame), he is ultimately on his own to save his people, his religion and himself.
There's more than enough raw material here to make for a very entertaining historical novel, but Brown weighs down the story with so much detail that it plods along far too slowly. The author's intense research is probably the most commendable thing about this book, it just isn't woven into a compelling plot, so Fires of Jerusalem reads more like a textbook than a novel. Other reviewers have commended the author for using her artistic license to make a dull prophet more vivid and interesting—I'm not sure what they're talking about since, to me, Brown's version of Jeremiah still seems very flat and dull. I think what the novel really lacks, above all, is dynamic storytelling. Because, I'm telling you, I had to fight to stay awake through this one. Now, I absolutely admit that I'm not a huge fan of fiction based on scripture and that I never would have picked up this book if it hadn't been chosen as a Whitney Award finalist, but still, the book had a whole lot of unrealized potential. It could have been a riveting page-turner, it just...wasn't.
(Readalikes: I don't read much in this genre, so I'm drawing a blank here. Any suggestions?)
Grade: C
If this were a movie, it would be rated: PG-13 for violence and mature subject matter
Friday, March 23, 2012
Thomas Hall Takes Inspirational Fiction In The Right Direction
(Image from Barnes & Noble)
Renowned painter Thomas Hall is used to being chosen to work on all the most exciting and lucrative art projects in the San Francisco area and beyond. His skills are so desired that employers are willing—if not eager—to accept his demanding conditions, from
enormous paychecks to private work
spaces to his choice of snack foods. Thomas is so used to having things his way that he's never stopped to consider the fact that the constant pampering has turned him into a selfish, egotistical jerk. It's not his personality that matters to most people, after all, it's his painting.
At least that's what he thinks until he meets 27-year-old PR director Susan Cassidy. Thomas is accustomed to being approached by beautiful women, but this one isn't like the others. Cass isn't looking for a date, she's asking for a mural. And not just any mural. She's after something special to decorate the walls of the new children's wing at St. Mark's Hospital. The agnostic Thomas balks when Cass informs him that the piece needs to center around Jesus Christ. Already at work on a more prestigious mural—one that, ironically enough, celebrates Charles Darwin—Thomas dismisses Cass' offer.
When his life starts to fall apart and he's forced to accept the job he first rejected, Thomas finds himself standing in front of a blank wall trying to envision a mural based on a man whose existence he knows little about and believes in even less. Pushed up against an impossible deadline, Thomas needs to forget about his doubts and just paint. But, there's an injured little girl with an astounding amount of faith, a police officer with an impossible story and a PR rep who believes in everything Thomas doesn't. Encounters with each one of them changes the artist, making him wonder which is the biggest lie—Jesus Christ or Thomas Hall. As he wrestles with the mural, Thomas must reevaluate everything he knows, everything he believes, everything he is and find the courage to accept the truth, however disastrous it may be.
When his life starts to fall apart and he's forced to accept the job he first rejected, Thomas finds himself standing in front of a blank wall trying to envision a mural based on a man whose existence he knows little about and believes in even less. Pushed up against an impossible deadline, Thomas needs to forget about his doubts and just paint. But, there's an injured little girl with an astounding amount of faith, a police officer with an impossible story and a PR rep who believes in everything Thomas doesn't. Encounters with each one of them changes the artist, making him wonder which is the biggest lie—Jesus Christ or Thomas Hall. As he wrestles with the mural, Thomas must reevaluate everything he knows, everything he believes, everything he is and find the courage to accept the truth, however disastrous it may be.
I've mentioned before—probably a few times—that inspirational fiction is really not my thing. I'm not opposed to pick-me-up type novels, I just want them to go easier on the sap and heavier on the substance, if you know what I mean. The Evolution of Thomas Hall by Academy Award-winning filmmakerKieth Merrill does this better than any of the other titles it's up against in theWhitney Award competition. Which isn't to say it's perfect. It's not. At 454 pages, the novel's laborious, both overwritten and under-edited. Plus, it features a character who's just not all that likable—even after he "evolves." Still, the book's more readable than I thought it would be, probably thanks to short chapters and enough action to keep the plot moving along (if not swiftly). Although I didn't love it, I found The Evolution of Thomas Hall thought-provoking and uplifting, a book that's faith-promoting but not as cloyingly preachy as other books of its type.
Readalikes: Hm, I can't really think of anything. Can you?)
Grade: B-
If this were a movie, it would be rated: PG-13 for language (no F-bombs), sexual innuendo and references to illegal drug use
To the FTC, with love: I received a copy of The Evolution of Thomas Hall from the generous folks at Shadow Mountain. Thank you!
Monday, October 17, 2011
'Cause Ya Gotta Have Faith; Ya Gotta Have Faith; Ya Gotta Have Faith-a-Faith-a-Faith
(Image from Barnes & Noble)The House of Enlightenment stands at the center of life in the small, Southern town of West River. It's a conservative, evangelical church that preaches traditional family values, decrying sin in ways that are sometimes very ... colorful. Like the annual Hell House production. The religious carnival vividly dramatizes the dangers of indulging in licentious behavior, like drunk driving, sleeping around, and homosexuality. Members of the church aren't exactly zealots, but they're certainly dedicated.
Perennial good girl Lacy Ann Byer counts herself among the believers. The 16-year-old obeys her parents, refrains from swearing, even wears a purity ring to announce her commitment to wait for sex until marriage. Her one vainglorious ambition? To play Abortion Girl in this year's Hell House performance. The role's usually given to a high school senior, but Lacy thinks she has a shot at it even though she's only a junior. She can't tell anyone she's trying out - What would people think? - so she's keeping her secret longing to herself. At least until she knows if she got the part.
Lacy's intense focus on Hell House shatters when she spots a handsome newcomer in town. She's not supposed to lust after guys, even really hot ones like Ty Davis, but his attention is making her hormones spin out of control. Her parents don't approve, especially since Ty seems less than committed to the House of Enlightenment. When Ty's skepticism starts making Lacy question her own faith, everyone's concerned. Especially Lacy. As she begins to see her church's doctrines in a less forgiving light, Lacy must decide for herself what she believes. And, like all major decisions, this one's more than a little complicated.
Small Town Sinners, a new YA novel by Melissa Walker, is an honest, but sensitive look at faith - how it's gained, how it's lost, how it's influenced by those around us. Every good girl will identify with Lacy's plight, empathizing with her desire to be both discerning and accepting. While I found the book's message a little too obvious (it's kind of preachy in a backwards sort of way), I also thought it was compelling and, ultimately, hopeful. Small Town Sinners didn't shake my faith in my own conservative Christian religion, but it definitely offered some food for thought. And I'm always up for that.
(Readalikes: Reminded me a lot of Angela Morrison's YA trilogy [Taken By Storm, Unbroken Connection, Cayman Summer] about a Mormon girl who questions her faith when she falls for a non-Mormon boy and a little of Back When You Were Easier to Love by Emily Wing Smith)
Grade: B-
If this were a movie, it would be rated: PG-13 for language (no F-bombs), sexual innuendo and mature subject matter
To the FTC, with love: Another library fine find
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