Sunday, December 16, 2012

Bumped: Three-Sentence Book Review

Bumped, by Megan McCafferty

An interesting YA-level answer to the question, "What if ONLY teenagers could get pregnant?"  Characters were not quite fleshed out, and some of the dialogue was stilted, but otherwise I enjoyed this!  I'll definitely look forward to reading the sequel.

Stacked: Three-Sentence Book Review

Stacked: A 32DDD Reports from the Front, by Susan Seligson

I'm not sure what I was expecting with this book.  Probably something less statistics-based and more cultural.  But regardless, this book depressed me with it's candid explanation of women and how they see their bodies.

Sunday, November 11, 2012

God Believes in Love: Three-Sentence Book Review

God Believes in Love: Straight Talk about Gay Marriage, by Gene Robinson

The logical arguments in this book are made more effectively than the emotional arguments.  The emotional arguments are written as if his experience as a gay American is the same as all gay-American experiences, which is just not the case.  Read this if you just want information, rather than to be convinced.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

Live to Tell: Three-Sentence Book Review

Live to Tell, by Lisa Gardner

A good detective novel.  I liked the parts where she focused on the effects of mental illness in children; I didn't care for the parts where she focused on the "interplanal auras" or whatever.  And the end was just okay.

Blood in the Water: Three-Sentence Book Review

Blood in the Water, by Jane Haddam

A pretty good mystery.  Weird ending.  Pretty much as sensationalist as the front cover makes it sound.

Sunday, October 21, 2012

Shame

This morning at church, the pastor spoke on the topic of shame.  His sermon was great, mostly because he did a great illustration.  I wanted to share it with you!

Dan (the pastor) talked about how many things can bring us shame.  He got a backpack, and had a volunteer put large rocks into the backpack as he named the shames they represented: a job (losing one or being in one that feels below you); a child not living up to your expectations; unfaithfulness (yours or your spouses); certain emotions; being overweight.  Stuff like that.

The backpack, obviously, became quite weighed down with rocks.  Dan likened this to being weighed down by shame.  Excellent part of the illustration (EPI) #1: it weighed him down emotionally as it was hard to carry, but shame also weighs us down and affects us physically!

Then Dan talked about how we try and cover up our shame.  He put his suit coat on over the backpack full of rocks.  EPI #2: Even though we feel like we're hiding our shame, something is still obviously wrong with us.  He said it was like being deformed: when we feel shame, we feel like the way we were created to be has somehow gone wrong.

By the time Dan was finished speaking, I had actually forgotten about the backpack.  And I think that's EPI #3: the people we are worried about seeing our shame totally forget about it, but if we insist on carrying it around, we're never going to forget about it.

And, of course, we don't have to carry the shame around.  God doesn't want us to.  He wants us to put it all at the foot of the cross (which Dan did), and stop feeling ashamed, weighed down, exposed, deformed.

At the end of the service, Dan asked us to close our eyes and hold out our hands, imagining we were holding a bag filled with our shame.  I don't know if you've ever held your hands clenched straight out in front of you, but the longer you hold, the heavier your hands feel!  It was EPI #4: feeling the weight that shame can bring.  And then we let go of our shame.

So here's me letting go of my shame: I am unnecessarily ashamed that I have to take Prozac because I am anxious and/or depressed.  I feel non-Godly shame because I have gained ten pounds since high school.  I am ashamed that I can't last three hours without eating.  I feel shame because I have to have two part-time jobs, and not one full-time.  That shame deepens into the shame of not having much money.  I feel shame because I'm not furthering my education; in fact, I feel less smart than I did two years ago.

But you know what?  You know what, Satan?  You are wrong.  And that feeling I feel, that shame, those rocks I carry around?  They are wrong, they are not of God.  This is of God: I am complete; I am beautiful; I am healthy; I am hard-working and dedicated; I am rich in life; I am intelligent.  God is for me, so you, shame; you, sin; you, Satan; cannot be against me.  So there.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Some things about our life

1.  Sometimes, Macon smells.  Like, really really bad.  It's apparently the river.

2.  I've been watching the TV show "Luther".  Good call, Momma.

3.  You all should check out the blog I'm keeping on behalf of my students at St. Peter Claver: stpeterclaverreaders.blogspot.com.  The kids read books, write about them, and I upload what they've written (except for kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade: they dictate).  Isn't it great??

4.  We've found a church!  Vineville United Methodist.  The 9:00am service is the "Praise Service," and both of us really like it.  Even Robert!  Robert likes it because the musicians are totally legit musicians.  Every other week, there's a full band: keyboards, drums, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, back-up guitar, bass, two back-up singers.  And on the opposite weeks, the lead guitarist and sometimes the keyboardist do more of an intimate service.  We like the switching and I love the songs and Robert appreciates the music.  The pastors are very intelligent, very good, and who preaches varies, too: sometimes it's the associate pastor, and sometimes it's the senior pastor.  So no two services are exactly the same.

I've been going, for the past two weeks, to the Young Adult Small Group.  Robert can't go very often because it meets on Wednesdays, and he has a rehearsal.  The Young Adult Small Group is really great.  Downside: it's totally homogeneous and everyone's like us: white, middle-class, in their twenties, well-educated.  But that's okay.  You can't have diversity everywhere, I guess.  But they're all serious about Jesus and serious about studying the Bible, and I've been enjoying the discussions!  And they're great people.  I can see them becoming Christian friends, and that's what we want.

5.  Our dog is really cute.

Where We Belong: Three-Sentence Book Review

Where We Belong, by Emily Giffin

Beautifully written in two voices.  Adopted daughter finds her birth mother, and everyone's life changes (not as cheesy as it sounds).  My only complaint: it isn't all tidily wrapped up at the end!

So Far Away: Three-Sentence Book Review

So Far Away, by Meg Mitchell Moore

Two distinct stories.  1) Modern-day girl gets bullied; 2) tragedy of the life of a 1920s housegirl.  Interesting to wonder how they connect.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Family Communion

Let's start with a funny story.

So at my church, we usually do Communion in the deacons-hold-the-elements-at-the-front-congregation-comes-to-the-front-to-receive-elements way.  My family traditionally receives the elements individually, but doesn't eat/drink them immediately.  Instead, we make a little family circle in a corner, pray together, and eat together.  Usually my dad prays.  One Sunday, my dad and Abbie were gone (I think in the nursery), so it was just my mom, Reid, Robert, and me taking Communion.  I don't think my mom was quite prepared to pray (come to think of it, I rarely hear my mom pray out loud--usually my dad does it), but she did a great job!  I mean, she would've done a great job, except she was praying in front of her three smart-aleck kids(-in-law).  She started: "God, we thank you for family, for friends, for faith..."  Now, Robert, Reid and I know what alliteration is, and we had noticed that all the words began with F.  So I jumped in: "for food..."  Reid: "for fish..."  Robert: "for French fries..."  The three of us added lots of alliterative words, like fungi and fun and Finland.  By the end, all four of us were giggling at the front of the church, and my wonderful mother said, "Jesus likes f-words!"  And then we weren't giggling, we were stifling laughter.  "Amen."

Jesus likes laughter.

Yesterday, at the church we've been attending in Georgia (Vineville UMC), they served Communion.  Apparently, yesterday was World Communion Sunday, a time when churches all over the world take Communion together.  I don't know if my family took Communion yesterday, but the thought that Communion was about community with each other, not just Christ, struck me anew.  In taking Communion, I was participating in a significant act that connected me to Christ's sacrifice, and to all the times my family has taken Communion in the past 24 years.  My family might as well have been there; since it was Communion, I was necessarily taking it in spirit with all Christians everywhere.  And that includes my family!  The tradition was a bit different, the church was different, the state was different, but the elements and the act are the same.  When I take Communion, I commune.  Amen!

I cried a little.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

The Georgia Trail

Remember the computer game "Oregon Trail" and its sequels?  I used to love those.  My favorite part was coming up with names for the people I was travelling with.  There was almost always either a Zeke or Luke (and in my head, I was probably married to him), plus a Catherine, Emma, Emily, or Elizabeth.  I would make these names into my own little family, and I was way more worried about them than about killing bison or whatever else you did on the trail.  And if Luke/Zeke died, forget it: I was starting the game over, because no way was I making it to Oregon as a single mom.

I don't know what made me think about that, except maybe now I have, with my own little "family", traveled to Georgia.  And my Zeke/Luke, who's really named Robert, didn't die, so I was willing to make it all the way here!

People keep asking how we're settling in and liking Georgia!  Well...I don't feel settled yet.  We had just gotten all moved in to our new apartment--I had just re-organized the towels and sheets for into a more permanent order--when we decided to move into this duplex.  We've been moving/moving in/moving out for two months, so...how do we like it here?  We don't even know where "here" is!

Actually, "here" is: the dog park; Margarita's (but not the chain); Dolce Vita; St. Peter Claver Catholic Church; Mercer University.  That's where we spend our time.  Those are our constants.  We've made friends!  At the dog park, there's the lesbian contingent (what is it with lesbians and owning dogs?), plus the anime girl and the school principal's family.  At SPC, there's the PE teacher kids think is my sister, the pregnant elementary-school teacher who has all the inside knowledge, the Spanish teacher with the super-Southern accent.  At Mercer, there are music people.  Lots of music people!  The dog lady and the tiny girl with the big voice and the marrieds and trombonist and the soulful black women (not stereotyping, just fact-ing).

Plus we have each other: Joy, Robert, and Penny.  Penny makes life cuter and more active, and Robert makes life busier and happier.  I think I make life neater.

If we were on the Oregon Trail, we would totally make it.  Robert would fix the wagon every time it broke (he's really good at fixing things), and I would being awesome at trading and Penny would bark at every single thing ever!

Never Tell: Three-Sentence Book Review

Never Tell, by Alafair Burke

A good suspenseful novel.  Not as in-depth as Lisa Jackson or P.J Tracy (for instance), but with way fewer f-words.  Like a cross between YA mysteries and adult suspense.

Monday, October 1, 2012

The Winter Palace: Three-Sentence Book Review

The Winter Palace, by Eva Stachniak
Simultaneously broad in scope and very focused.  Covers too many years to be truly informative while entertaining, but it's very well-written.  I think this may get me started on an Imperial Russia kick.

Wife 22: Three-Sentence Book Review

Wife 22, by Melanie Gideon
Not the most complicated of books, but a nice story.  Also a good example of how to save or doom a marriage.  I enjoyed every bit of this book.

Friday, August 17, 2012

Defending Jacob: Three-Sentence Book Review

Defending Jacob, by William Landay
The most brilliant use of foreshadowing.  And you still won't see the end coming.  I didn't!

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Thoughts of an Evangelical Christian After Her First Mary-Centered Mass

Even though I've been raised in and attending Evangelical Christian churches all my life, I've still been to my fair share of Masses.  I've gone as part of religion courses; I've attended out of curiosity in Kansas City; I've even been to Masses held in Spanish (Sevilla) and French (Belgium and France).  But this morning, I attended my first Mass that focused on the role the Blessed Virgin plays in the Catholic faith.

At all other Masses I've attended, I've come away with a feeling of, "This is a different form of service than I'm used to, but the basics were all the same."  There's been liturgy instead of prayers of praise, an organ instead of a worship band...but really, that can be said about a lot of Baptist/Methodist/Lutheran/etc churches.  All in all, the only big differences between Catholic Mass and the services I attended was that at Catholic Mass, we crossed ourselves and didn't say the last part of the Lord's Prayer.

But today, at the Catholic school where I'm working, we went to Mass to celebrate the Assumption of Mary.  And man: do the Catholics view Mary differently than I do!

The man giving the homily started by asking the students what BFF meant.  Best Friends Forever, right?  Then he asked what qualities you look for in a BFF.  After gathering the ideas from the students, he listed them: someone you can trust, someone who cares for you, someone you can talk to at any time, someone who will listen, someone who loves you.  He asked, "Who is the BFF of all of us in this room?"  A student answered, "Jesus!", and I tell you, I thought that was the right answer.  I don't know why I was so stunned when the homily-giver said, "Well...yes, but who's our real BFF?  Mary!"

I'll be honest: it made me a bit uncomfortable.  This highlighted two aspects of Catholicism that I don't really get: one, that we cannot speak directly with the Trinity, so saints (including Mary), must intercede for us.  Two, that Mary is equal with Christ.  According to today's liturgy, she is "Queen of Heaven, seated at [God's] right hand, arrayed in gold."

I don't want to disparage Catholicism or Catholics.  I simply don't agree.  Mary was a woman.  She was a great woman, certainly!  She was a devoted mother who stayed with her Son through His death.  She was a faithful girl who accepted God's plan for her life.  She was, presumably, one of the first Christians!  (Although I'd have to check the Bible on that?)  But it makes me uncomfortable to sing her praises.  We don't sing Paul's praises.  We don't sing Peter's praises.

This was the first time I have seen so clearly the difference between Catholics and evangelicals.  Do I think Catholics are going to hell?  Do I think they're a cult?  No.  But do I agree?  Nope.

Monday, August 13, 2012

We have a wonderful Daddy!


Among the many things I moved to Georgia, you'll see in this picture a medal (on the right) and a trophy (on the left). Daddy gave me the trophy when I was real little, "just because he was proud of me," and he gave each of us a medal when I was a little older. The back of the medal says " you'll always be a winner in my eyes. Love, Dad." I've kept them for all these years, and they mean a lot to me.

We have a great Daddy!

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Church Review #1

So the last time I had to find a church, I was in England, and my primary concern was finding a place where people under 82 actually attended.  I guess that's still near the top of the list as Robert and I look for a church in Macon, but there are a few other things that are key this time around:
1.  This time, there's another person!  And I guess Robert's opinion counts, too.
2.  We'd like the preacher/pastor/minister to have a good preachin' based on the Bible.
3.  We'd like to get involved and serve somehow.
4.  We want to make friends and connect in a small group.
5.  No way am I wearing a hat to church.

So, we tried our first Macon church today.  We'll call it NW Macon church...because it was in northwest Macon.  Also because its initials are NW.  Anyway.

First thing I noticed: there were three HUGE video screens.  First thing Robert noticed: the band members had in-ear monitors.  "This church be rolling in greenbacks," is what he (more or less) said.  Between the giant TVs and the earpieces, the service was pretty polished and professional.  There were well-made videos before the service and before the sermon, and during the worship, there was concert-like video of the band.

We sang four songs: one by Kristian Stanfill, one by Eternal somebody, and two by Chris Tomlin.  I love hearing their songs on the radio!  But this band...the songs sounded exactly like they do on the radio.  Phrase-for-musical-phrase, note-for-note, etc.  And that's just...fine, I guess.  Not my thing.  I like personality, not imitation.  Also, I like more singing.

And I like the singing to connect to the sermon!  You know what the link between these songs was?  Jesus.  I mean, His existence.  Or His power.  His love.  But really just the word Jesus.  You know what the link between the songs and the sermon was?  Um...God.  I think.  Where is the continuity?

One thing I did like A LOT was that on the PowerPoint with the lyrics, they included a verse that the lyrics applied to.  Like, "light of the world forever reign" and "The Lord shall reign for ever and ever.--Exodus 15:18."  I think all churches should do that.

Another thing I noticed was that the communication card spiel was the exact same as the one at FBC-NKC.  Maybe pastors are given a list of phrases to use, like, "we'd love to have a record of your attendance," and "we commit to pray for you during the course of the week."  The only difference is that this pastor had a Southern accent.  And, let's be real now, he didn't have an iPad with News and Notes like Spencer Stith does.

The people at NW Macon church were nice enough.  Maybe this was the Sunday when everybody new came, or maybe we sat in the new-people-only section, because no one seemed very involved in the service or interested in the other people around them.  The pastor's sermon was well-presented, but maybe didn't quite dig in enough for us to be inspired or challenged.  And, not to be blunt here, but we liked this: the church wasn't all white.  Holla!

So, NW Macon church seemed like a good church.  I don't think we'll go back, but not because they did anything wrong.  We just weren't engaged by it.  We're not polished people, so the polished service felt weird for us.  That's my theory, anyway.

On the upside, we passed like eight churches (not kidding) on the 15-minute drive to NW Macon church, so we'll have plenty of options.  Next week, Robert gets to pick the church!  Update to follow.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

The Baker's Daughter: Three-Sentence Book Review

The Baker's Daughter, by Sarah McCoy
A bit slow in the beginning, but the characters are engaging.  The weaving of Nazi Germany and illegal-immigration Texas is interesting and thought-provoking.  This book probably shouldn't work as well as it does.

One Day in September: Three-Sentence Book Review

One Day in September, by Simon Reeve
An incredibly well-written account of this tragedy and results.  Reeve doesn't get bogged down in unimportant details or emotion.  Instead, he factually and compellingly explains the before, during, and after of the event.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Gone Girl: Three-Sentence Book Review

Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn
Disturbingly excellent and masterfully written.  Flynn creates three distinct voices within two individual characters.  I hope people like this don't exist in real life, but I'm glad they exist in this book.

Monday, June 25, 2012

The 19th Wife: Three-Sentence Book Review

The 19th Wife, by David Ebershoff
Polygamous ("plural marriage") Mormonism, from the nineteenth-century perspective and the twenty-first-century perspective.  I liked the different ways he told the story: chapters from another book, a letter, first-person narration.  But some of it was too slow, so recommended if you have a lot of time and are good at persevering.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Forgotten Country: Three-Sentence Book Review

The Forgotten Country, by Catherine Chung
I could tell this author's ambitions, but she didn't quite get there.  She wanted an ethnocentric and -specific story, but wrote a story that can apply to anyone, anywhere; she wanted dynamic characters, but wrote flat ones; she wanted to mix the ideas of math and philosophy, but just wrote about math and philosophy.  Enjoyable, but not a must-read.

Saturday, May 26, 2012

I Am Forbidden: Three-Sentence Book Review

I Am Forbidden, by Anouk Markovits
I didn't know anything about Hasidic Judaism before this book, and now I just want to know more.  Feminist lit?  There's more story to this story, and I wish it existed in another book.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Midwives: Three-Sentence Book Review

Midwives, by Chris Bohjalian.
The kind of book that you read at night, and then think about all the next day until you can pick it up again. John Grisham with a feminine tone. Highly, highly recommended.


Three-Sentence Book Reviews

It'd probably be more accurate to say "three-phrase book reviews," since I don't know if all of my thoughts will be complete sentences! But regardless, keep an eye out for book reviews that are short and sweet...just like me!

Sorry, couldn't resist.