Jenn

This book contains 4 stories. I have to admit that I'm not a huge fan of the first story. I just don't “get it,” I suppose. I can understand the message, but it didn't inspire me. It actually put me off the book for a while, and if I hadn't had to finish reading the book for our book club meeting this morning, I might not have picked it up again to finish reading the other three stories and that would have been a sad thing indeed.

Those other three stories were amazing and taught me a great deal about God. I especially loved Numaris, and almost cried twice reading it. Perhaps that's just because I'm a Navy girl and have a soft spot for the military. These stories were far deeper than I had anticipated and were a true treat to read.

I cried. Wow. This was an amazing book, really. Love and first love and regret and forgiveness and God.

We picked this book to read for April for the St. Anastasia Book Club mostly because I had just seen the movie “Of Gods and Men,” which was excellent. The book is great for giving additional information to support the movie. It spends a lot of time speaking of the political atmosphere in Algeria, of the various factions and of the religious aspect to the conflict. This made for some dry reading, but it was useful, if you were looking for a comprehensive understanding of the situation the monks were in.

Personally, I wasn't as interested in that part so much as the lives of the monks themselves. While the majority of the attention seemed to be on Christian, the elected prior, each of the monks was revealed in the book. By the end, you really knew them: their personalities, likes, struggles, and a little bit of what Tibhirine and the Islamic community around them meant to them.

Throughout the book were passages which are worthy of copying down and praying with. The lives of these monks teach us so much about community, love, living the faith, dealing with people with different viewpoints with love, and courage.

The book was well-written in that it showed these men as real people: not paragons of virtue, but men with strengths and faults. I think it is precisely in the accurateness of their presentation that we can come to identify with them and learn from them. They did not present an unattainable ideal, but a very human response to the world around them. An excerpt written by Paul, one of the monks, states this beautifully, “A monk is simply a sinner who joins a community of sinners who are confident in God's mercy and who strive to recognize their weaknesses in the presence of their brothers.”

We selected this book for our parish book club's first selection. It was as good as people have said! :) Certainly, I can't really relate to the priest's experience of being a prisoner working in labor camps in Siberia after World War II, but Fr. Ciszek makes his experience applicable to everyone and gives really helpful insight into how the most monotonous and boring job, how the tediousness that life can be from day-to-day, can be viewed as God's will for you in that moment and how you can choose to glorify God in the way you perform the most mundane tasks.

Not only does he show us the living out our faith is to be done in the simple as well as in the spectacular moments of our life, but he shows by his own witness what it really means to have faith and how to cling to faith in the midst of very trying circumstances. How a denial of self and a firm and decided trust in God can change your entire outlook on a situation.

Because of the grueling labor he was forced to undertake, he has some beautiful things to say about the body and how the body is not just simply a container to be ignored or despised, but a gift from God for us to cherish.

This book is definitely going to be read several more times. Pick up a copy, you won't be sorry! :)

In the preface they seem to pit the “7 NT letters [Paul] actually wrote” against the letters “attributed to Paul by later Christians though not actually written by him,” (xiii). They seem to say that the message contained in the one set is opposed or contradicted by the other set, without giving any explanation for this, which would seem necessary because – whether or not they were written by Paul – they continue to be part of canonical Scripture and inspired by the Holy Spirit, who cannot contradict Himself. Instead of answering this question that they introduced, they say, “Our book is about the actual and historical Paul, about the radical apostle who was there before the reaction, revision, and replacement began,” (xiii-xiv).

I can understand perhaps a desire to use only the undisputed letters, if you are trying to construct an accurate picture of Paul, but there seems to be an undercurrent of antipathy toward the disputed letters, which I don't understand if one believes them to be Scripture.

Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture – great series!
Ephesians – great book! :)

This is a great book on chastity. So many of the books out there just say no. Or, while they might give reasons for staying chaste, do not give real world examples that you can connect with. This book truly engages the reader and sympathizes with the struggles that we all face in living a truly chaste life. A great read that I highly recommend.

I picked up this book from the bookstore rather randomly, but I devoured it; reading it in a single night. Needless to say, it is thoroughly engaging, and Tatiana de Rosnay does a remarkable job with weaving the different storylines together.

I just could not get into this book. I'm sure the book is a great adventure for someone. The writing is good, there are some interesting characters that do interesting things. I might even like this book if I try to read it sometime later.

I was just not able to care about Peter to want to continue his story. Nothing personal, Peter. I'm sure my life is pretty boring right now too.

I remember reading this as a kid and enjoying it.

I selected this book to re-read so that I could complete my A-Z Reading Challenge (I'm going my titles only). I had re-read another Xanth book recently, only to be disappointed. It didn't have the same fun and enjoyment that I had remembered from my childhood.

However, this time around, I appreciated the clever puns and fun, fluffy adventure. Breanna, the main protagonist in this book, had a great story arc and had a lot of personal growth throughout the narrative. There were a lot of side plots and foreshadowing that wrapped up nicely in the end. There was a lot of older, beloved characters who made an appearance, so that long-time fans could have something to look forward to. That being said, even though this is the 22nd Xanth novel, it could easily be read as a standalone.

For a short story, there's a lot of insight provided into human nature. This was witty, fun, and just a little emotional. It was a great, quick read!

I've probably read this book dozens of times.

This was a great read and an interesting, relevant assortment of issues. The characters dealt with realistic situations and had to make choices about whether they would follow the faith heroically, or if they would give in in some way to the pressures of modern society. Their struggles and those of their priest were presented as real struggles – very human.

The priest's trip to Rome was especially moving for me. Something about those encounters filled my heart with hope and love.

I think this book did a great job of letting the reader enter Sara's world. Even though reading it now, there are certainly a lot of anachronisms, the feeling was so real it was like you were experiencing everything right with her.

The author also did a great job with showing the different ways of thinking of the different characters. They felt very authentic.

I think this was a well-written book - probably more of a 4.5/5 star rating (but I only have integer stars to give). The characters all felt authentic and had unique personalities and motivations. They were relatable and likable, which can be hard when you have such a large cast. And they were all flawed, but in different ways. I found myself looking forward to reading more of the book, and reading far too much in one sitting because I didn't want to stop.

I like how we learned about the aftermath of this accident by changing POVs, growing in our understanding as well as seeing how things played out as time passed.

I like how multi-layered the title is. The accident occurred at an intersection. As it says on the cover blurb, “...a gripping moment at the crossroads of the struggle to find the light or surrender to the shadows.” The intersectionality of human experience in a time of grief. The intersection of this diverse cast and how their lives were intertwined. How multiple actions and decisions contributed to the accident itself, and how continuing actions and decisions will continue to shape the lives of the characters.

Just a note about the paperback itself: this was a really nicely crafted book. The cover is that soft, almost velvety texture, and the pages seem to be of just a slightly heavier weight than normal paperback paper.

View my review here.

View my review here.

I loved this book as a kid.

I remember reading this book as a kid, and somehow, the character of Delvecchio Santini stuck with me. :)

This was one of my favorite books growing up. I was reminded of it today when reviewing someone's BookTube channel. I wasn't even aware that it had sequels, so I'm excited to pick up the trilogy and read some more!

The most emotional book so far. I loved it!

I really enjoyed the pictures in this book. They are very cute. However, the story itself, while it attempts to be helpful to children who are frustrated by a bed-wetting habit, doesn't quite deliver. The only thing it says is that one day, your bed will be dry and BOOM! there you go! However, bed-wetting isn't solved in one dry night. And the reassurance that the mermaid is supposed to give Cecelia is a quick afterthought to the tale of their adventure under the sea.

Also, in the morning, her wet coat and hat seem to give the impression that she had an actual encounter with a mermaid, instead of a reassuring dream. I found this to be odd and confusing to the story.

I have long been a fan of Tom Clancy, and in particular the Jack Ryan books. I am grateful that authors like Grant Blackwood and Mark Greaney are taking on the task of continuing the stories in the Jack Ryan universe.

However, there is a difference in the writing. Tom Clancy would always have 50 different balls in the air at once, with extremely complex story lines which would take the entire length of the book to reveal exactly how they were interwoven. It was very detailed, skillful storytelling.

This book has one plotline and follows only the perspective of Jack Ryan, Jr. While it was an interesting and entertaining story, it lacked the complexity that I am used to in a Tom Clancy novel. Events for the main character seemed a little too easy. It didn't show more of how he puzzled through the tracking of the bad guys, etc. I would have like a little more struggle, or conflict, throughout to make it more believable. There are also some significant supporting characters who are not defined as well as they should be.