Book Review

The streak of disappointingly late blog posts continues

Before I start the arduous task of relating everything that I learned and experienced this year, let’s take a minute to thank all the authors and characters who were my companions, teachers and comic relief throughout my journey:

1. The Girl of Fire and Thorns Series by Rae Carson

The three main books in this series are: The Girl of Fire and Thorns, Crown of Embers and Bitter Kingdom. There are several spin off books but I have not gotten to them yet. These first three books feature Princess Elisa who has been chosen by God for some great task. What this task is no one seems to know but it is apparent that Elisa is chosen because of the magic blue gem stone lodged in her navel. Our princess starts out as an awkward sixteen year old who eats her feelings; feelings of insignificance and inadequacy.  Her father and sister marry her off as the story begins to the king of the neighboring desert kingdom. As the story moves forward Princess and later Queen Elisa finds herself jettisoned into one adventure after another. She fights to keep her new kingdom from falling apart despite attacks from both without and within. On top of all her political growing pains, Elisa has to learn how to use the God-given power that flows through her mystic blue stone. Finding and losing love multiple times further complicates her journey. Elisa switches several times from the victim to the rescuer. These are not Christian-fiction books just a young adult series that I stumbles upon and enjoyed.

Favorite quote:  “It’s nice to consider that God may not count imperfection as an obstacle to working out his will in the world”

2. A Damsel in Distress by PG Wodehouse

 I believe I’ve mentioned my first acquaintance with PG Wodehouse’s works a while ago. A Damsel in Distress follows George Bevan, an American composer living in England, as he seeks to conquer herculean task before him: rescuing Lady Patricia Maud Marsh. Maud is the only daughter of Lord Marshmoreton, a member of England’s nobility. George thinks, mistakenly, that he is the hero of this story and the only thing waiting for him and Maud once he saves her from the house arrest her brother and aunt place her under is true love. However, Maud has already cast someone else as the love-interest in her life. She gave her heart to Geoffrey Raymond, another American, the previous summer. Undeterred  by the small fact that she is in love with someone else, George sets out to find any and every way that he can be of service to his lady love. He agrees to act as the go between for the two lovers separated by geography and family will. But which unlikely American hero is it that truly loves Maud?

Favorite quotes from this book: “You can’t rush up to pretty girls in the street and tell them you are lonely. At least, you can, but it doesn’t get you anywhere except the police station”
“To fail now, to allow this girl to pass out of his life merely because he did not know who she was or where she was, would stamp him a feeble adventurer.”
“That is life. Just one long succession of misunderstandings and rash acts and what not”

3. Something New by PG Wodehouse

Vastly impressed by Mr. Wodehouse’s style and diction, I quickly found another story of his to act as my break from reality. In Something New, friends Ashe Marson and Joan Valentine are a pair of Americans who discover that they share more than the same apartment house in London and the same hated profession of short-story authors for local papers; they are both frustrated with the overwhelming itch for something more in their lives. The answer to their mutual conundrum comes in the form of an accidental theft. This theft occurs after the Honorable Frederick Threepwood, youngest son of the Earl of Emsworth, becomes engaged to Miss Aline Peters, the daughter of a self-made American millionaire Mr. J. Preston Peters. As propriety demands, the Earl goes to visit Mr. Peters while in London on business. During the visit, Mr. Peters walks the Earl through his collection of rare and expensive scarabs, gushing over them as he describes for the Earl the Egyptian history surrounding each piece. In the middle of showing the Earl his most prized possession, a Cheops of the 4^th Dynasty, Mr. Peters is called away for a moment to see to a business matter. In the meantime, the Earl completely forgets that he is holding the most precious of scarabs and pockets the ancient bug. Distracted by wanting to finish the tour, Mr. Peters does not notice the scarab is missing until long after the Earl has gone and Aline has come home. The problem here is twofold: first that Mr. Peters is a fanatic collector of scarab beetles, the jealously over which would rival a dragon’s jealously over the gold that it hordes, and second that the Earl of Emsworth is exceedingly absentminded. Fuming over the loss of his priceless artifact, Mr. Peters exclaims that he would pay $5000 to any man who would return his treasure to him. Aline, tired of being her father’s verbal punching bag, leaves to seek some sympathy from her old school friend, Joan Valentine. She tells Joan about her father’s promise of a $5000 reward and Joan leaps at the chance. Meanwhile, Mr. Peters takes it into his own hands to find a champion who would retrieve his scarab for him. He places a mysterious ad in the paper for “A young man of good appearance, who is poor and reckless, to undertake a delicate and dangerous enterprise.” Fancying himself such a young man, Ashe Marson answers the ad. And so Joan and Ashe both set about the task of retrieving the unintentionally stolen scarab from the castle of the Earl.

Favorite quotes: “But for these social distinctions, the whole fabric of society would collapse and anarchy stalk naked through the land – as in the United States.”
“She looked what she was – a girl of action; a girl whom life had made both reckless and wary – wary of friendly advances, reckless when there was a venture afoot.”
“That’s simply your old-fashioned masculine attitude toward the female, Mr. Marson. You look on woman as a weak creature, to be shielded and petted. We aren’t anything of the sort. We’re terrors! We’re hard as nails. We’re awful creatures.”

4. The Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas

A time tested classic: The Three Musketeers follows the adventures of young d’Artagnan as he journeys to Paris to join the Musketeers, one of the most prestigious military sects solely loyal to the king. d’Artagnan befriends three members of the Musketeers shortly after arriving in Paris. Well first, Athos, Porthos and Aramis all engage d’Artagnan in duels, but after an interruption by the Cardinal’s guards and the presence of a budding camaraderie, the four become the best of friends. In this time being loyal to the king meant that they were enemies of the Cardinal. As such the four become swept up in political chess games in which pieces are moved, blocked and respectively taken and removed from play. Each of our heroes loves and losses in their own way as the story takes its twists and turns. 

Favorite quotes: “People, in general, only ask advice not to follow it; or if they do follow it, it is for the sake of having someone to blame for having given it.”
“Heroes or madmen – two classes of imbeciles greatly resembling each other”

5. Forbidden by Ted Dekker & Tosca Lee

In a futuristic world robbed of emotion and governed by fear, Rom Sebastian works as a musician who performs at funerals for those deemed dead. One afternoon while returning home, Rom’s life is turned upside down by a man he’s never met. This stranger seems to know Rom’s father and the real story about his death. But before Rom can decipher the man’s strange sayings about keepers and a man called Book, the man shoves a parcel into Rom’s hands and orders him to run. Rom doesn’t have a choice but to run after seeing the Citadel Guards take hold of the man and kill him in broad day light. After escaping and finding his friend Avra, Rom opens the parcel to see just what it is that was so important to the highest order of the Guards. Inside is a small vial of blood, five measures to be exact. Once Rom and Avra each drink a measure, the spectrum of long dormant human emotions rushes on them. For the first time they are alive and aware of their feelings for each other. Needing more answers, Rom decides to seek out the man called Book who is being kept prisoner in the Citadel. Rom’s way in is through his friends Neah and Triphon, Triphon agrees to help and readily drinks the blood while Neah, overcome by fear, threatens to turn them all in. They force her to drink the blood and incriminate her along with the rest of them. Rom's journey becomes even more complicated when Book tells him that the only way to survive and unmask the truth is to kidnap the soon-to-be sovereign Feyn and get her to drink the blood as well. All of this is leading to the reestablishment of the human heart which, though it beats, has been dead within man for years following the stamping out of all human emotion except fear.

Favorite quotes: “The Maker does not require the rules of us; we require the rules of the Maker. We are the ones who need them, not he.”
“Do you have the slightest clue how history has conspired to bring us to this single moment of hope once again?”

6. Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes by E Randolph Richards & Brandon J O’Brien

This could be the most important book for anyone to read who wants to look deeper into the culture I’ve lived in for the past year in a context that is relevant and applicable to life in Western culture. I don’t know if you all have noticed but the Bible was not written in a culture that resembles ours. The culture that you and I have lived in and have grown to be a part of is worlds different than the culture that saw scripture penned for the first time. As a result, there are times when we read our cultural perceptions and biases into the text rather than taking the time to study what was actually between the lines. Main topics of this book are cultural mores (folkways of central importance accepted without question and embodying the fundamental moral views of a group); race and ethnicity; language, syntax and diction; individualism vs collectivism; honor vs shame; time and using it; relationships; vices and morals; God’s will for me, you and all of us; and addressing the “cultural blinders” that we work within the parameters of. This book is a bit on the intellectual side so if you’re looking for a lighter read you might want to put this one on the back burner for a bit.

Favorite quotes: “We can easily forget that Scripture is a foreign land and that reading the Bible is a cross-cultural experience”
“My American pragmatism had been winning out over my Christian standard of honesty”
“The words we use are a good indication of what we consider important”

7. Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung

Near the 3/4 mark of my time when I ventured to Scotland, you might recall me making some melancholy remarks in my posts. The main reason for this was that I could not figure out what in the world I was supposed to do with my life, especially my life post Jordan. Anxiety about direction and even goals is a problem facing...well everyone, but most especially those who find themselves in similar situations to mine: close to finishing or finished with school and seeking the answer to "what's next?" I would have to describe myself as goal driven, and likewise deadline driven. If I have something to do and a time frame in which to do it, fire the gun and off I'll go. But the directionless void that stretched before me, how was I going to step into that and accomplish anything? In this book, Kevin DeYoung approaches the widespread anxiety that many Christians feel with his simple statement: just do something! The book begins by talking about how some Christians use this search for God's will for their lives as an excuse to stand idly by and wait for divine intervention. DeYoung recommends that we seek wisdom in making decisions, both everyday and life altering ones, rather than painstakingly agonizing over each decision as it comes up. In 1 Kings 3, God tells Solomon to ask for anything and Solomon asks for wisdom. He could have asked for money to secure his rule through wealth, a strong army to defeat his enemies with or any other material good that would have aided in the building up of the delicate kingdom, instead he asked for the ability to rule his people well and honor the Lord. Because his request pleased the Lord (1 Kings 3:10) God added to Solomon everything he did not ask for: wealth, long life, peace in his kingdom and the honor and respect of neighboring kingdoms. Wisdom is more than clever sayings, it is the ability to assess a situation and react in such a way that God is honored and our fellow man is lovingly served. So there it is our answer to the big question: What do I do with my life? Answer: you grow in Christlikeness (which includes wisdom) and you do whatever your heart desires after that. 'Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you'

Favorite quotes: “I’d like us to consider that maybe we have difficulty discovering God’s wonderful plan for our lives because, if the truth be told, He doesn't really intend to tell us what it is. And maybe we’re wrong to expect Him to.”
“We are talking about a profoundly God-centered approach to life. Biblical wisdom means living a disciplined and prudent life in the fear of the Lord.”
“Live for God. Obey the Scriptures. Think of others before yourself. Be holy. Love Jesus. And as you do these things, do whatever else you like, with whomever you like, wherever you like and you’ll be walking in the will of God.”

The obsession with literary works continues. I'm still working on these ones:

A.    Gathering Water by Regan Clare

B.     The Pursuit of God by A W Tozer

C.     Lord, Teach Us to Pray by Andrew Murray

D.     Who is Jesus really? A Dialogue on God, Man and Grace by Josh McDowell and Dave Sterrett

E.     The Bible - I should have the New Testament finished before I head home.

Speaking of which, my dates are set, I'm flying out on May 3rd, bright and early in the morning. Wow that's soon.