Book Review: Signs of Life, David Jeremiah

"We need to freely dispense the same grace God has shown us."
~David Jeremiah

"Let no one despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity."
~1 Timothy 4:12

The Christian life that genuinely belongs to Christ will not only manifest itself inwardly, in the heart, but also outwardly, through the actions.  Signs of Life is designed as a 40 day reading plan which will encourage Christians to live the servant heart and reach out into the world that needs to experience His grace.  Each reading explicates a particular biblical wisdom and illustrates it in action by the use of anecdotes.  And at the end of each is a one sentence summary making the lesson easy to remember, a Bible verse that will corroborate the lesson, and an application question that will make the readers reflect.

I find this book very practical and timely.  It is quick to become indifferent in a culture that is bombarded by permissiveness, selfishness, materialism, greed, and lack of compassion.  This book is provoking one to go against the grain of what society teaches and live that quality of life that evidence's Christ round the clock, all year round, even on holidays ;)

Book: Dusty Shoes, Rolled-Up Sleeves, and other Signs of Life (Back to the Basics of Authentic Christianity)
Author: David Jeremiah
Number of pages: 276
Published by: Thomas Nelson
Price: PHP 600
Available at: OMF Lit book shops

♥

Jose Rizal on Convictions

Jose Rizal.  That man had convictions.  He advocated freedom through non-violence, encouraged his fellow citizens to love God, their parents, and their country, to be courageous and prudent, to have self-control and to be selfless.  His patriotism and convictions got him murdered by means of firing squad.  They might have succeed in killing him but what he stood up for one hundred and sixteen years ago still echoes today.

"A man ought to die for his duty and his convictions.  I maintain the ideas that I have expressed concerning the state and future of my country and gladly, I'll die for her, to obtain justice and tranquility for you.  I have always loved my poor country and I'm sure I shall love her until my last moment, should men prove unjust to me.  I shall die happy, satisfied with the thought that all I have suffered, my life, my loves, my joys, my everything, I have sacrificed for the love of her.  I wish to show those who deny us patriotism that we know how to die for our duty and conviction."
~Jose Rizal


Have you got convictions?  What are they?  Is it for the good or the bad?  Is it for love or spite?  Whatever you stand up for, be it in your private life or public will not only affect you but also those around you and those of the future generation yet unborn.

♥

A Book Review: The Diary of Anais Nin, Volume Three: 1939-1944

"Let him remain a poet and reveal magic coincidences and magic possibilities."
~Anais Nin

I first came upon Anais Nin while reading about Henry Miller.  She is best known for her unstructured bohemian lifestyle that was the life blood of her diaries.  As a diarist, she is very aware of herself in relation to her environment and those with whom she interacts.  She is decadent and affront.  She can be sympathizing but sometimes highfalutin.  In most of her pages she records her obsession for love which I find narcissistic and foolish that my eyes roll inadvertently all the way to the moon while reading.  Regardless, she's a good, though not great or awesome, writer.  She can bring color to her opinions on art, writing, and everydayness by means of poetic locutions.

"Proust and Dostoevsky are opposite poles in the study of love.  Proust studied its fragmentations, analyzed its disintegrations,  the malady of doubt and jealousy.  Dostoevsky studies the exaltations of instinct and impulses, the dangers of emotional passions.  In Proust duality, in Dostoevsky an effort to dissolve dualities and conflict by a Christian self-annihilation, lost of the self in the ecstacies of sacrifice.  In Proust disintegration of analysis.  In Dostoevsky through passionate instinctive blind impulses, masochism, the chaos of nature.  In Proust the tragedy of lucidity, in Dostoevsky the tragedy of blind emotions, obscurantism, mysticism, contradictions."

~Anais Nin
  September, 1941

Book: The Diary of Anais Nin, Volume 3: 1939-1944
Author: Anais Nin
Number of pages: 327
Published by: A Harvest Book (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.)
Price: *
Available at: *
*I got this book via ebay.  I'm not sure if local bookstores in Manila got 'em.

♥

Remember

Sometimes life gets so tough.  The more painful it becomes the easier it is to forget about God.  It's much easier to throw in the towel and sulk and hate those who have caused worlds to crumble.  Pain alters its wounds to anger that fuels a hardened heart as an act of self-preservation.  But the Lord has loving ways to call those He loves back to Him.

So breathe now, He's got your back.
So forgive those that ripped your heart, He's your strength.
So live in love, He's the one to please.

♥

Poetry: Robert Browning Hamilton

I walked a mile with Pleasure,

She chatted all the way;

But left me none the wiser

For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow,

And ne'er a word said she;

But, oh!  The things I learned from her,

When sorrow walked with me.

~Robert Browning Hamilton

♥

Would You Read a Book that is Insanely Difficult?

"The Interpretation of Dasein in its everydayness, however, is not identical with the describing of some primitive stage of Dasein with which we can become acquainted empherically through the medium of anthropology: Everydayness does not coincide with primitiveness, but is rather a mode of Dasein's being, even when that Dasein is active in a highly differentiated culture - and precisely then."
~Martin Heidegger

Two months ago the search for the world's most difficult books came to an end.  The adventurous and brave reader will be dared to give them a try.  Click over to Publishers Weekly for the list.

When boredom strikes or when the mind needs some push, I love to be challenged.  It adds that spice in everyday that one needs once in a while.

This is why I picked up Heidegger's Being and Time.  I got this in 2009, about the same time as The Million started its quest for the most difficult books.

I've read, reread, and reread it over and over for more than the number my fingers and toes can count but I can never get past page 77 or part 1.  And each time I end up with more forehead wrinkles accompanied by a headache.

"The 'essence' [Wesen] of this entity lies in its "to be" [Zu-sein].  It's Being-what-it-is [Was-sein] (essentia) must, so far as we can speak of it at all, be conceived in terms of its Being (existentia)."

~Heidegger

...See what I mean?
The book drives me crazy!
His intelligence is so demanding!
But those are some of the things that makes the world of reading fun.

Back to the question: Would you read a book that is insanely difficult?

♥

A Book Review: The Swan Thieves, by Elizabeth Kostova

"Marriages are like certain books, a story where you turn the last page and you think it's over, and then there's an epilogue, and after that you're inclined to go on wondering about the characters or imagining that their lives continue without you, dear reader.  Until you forget most of the book, you're stuck puzzling over what happened to them after you close it."

~ Elizabeth Kostova

This book is a detective story without the frills and thrills of a typical hollywood mystery or "it" novels.  Each chapter peels a thin layer after another slowly revealing the secrets of the plot and its characters.

My first impression upon reading the prologue is boredom.  But it was nothing of that.  As I continued to read, I became interested in the characters, what made them the way they are.

The first half of this book searches and finds answers on who Robert Oliver is.  The other half explores the mystery of his obsession.

As beautiful as the storyline is how the author wrote it.  She can bring to life the paintings she pictures and the settings she puts her characters in.  She introduces her characters with such skill that readers will understand their insights, feelings, melancholy, and mania.

Overall, this book is timeless.  Might even be a classic.  I would compare the beauty of this book to the quiet morning breeze.  It will take patience to read through it but satisfaction comes in following their stories until the very last page, until the very last word.

I know Kostova's first book, The Historian, is about vampires.  I am repulsed by books that depend on vampires or the paranormal to make it interesting.  But after reading her writing in The Swan Thieves I think I will someday be giving The Historian a try.

Book: The Swan Thieves

Author: Elizabeth Kostova

Number of pages: 607

Published by: Sphere

Price: PHP 299

Available at: Fully Booked

♥

It's the Weekend!

Dearest Readers,

Friday!  Friday!  Friday!  Yesterday was a Friday.  That day of the week always excites me because the day after it means I can forget, for two days, about the office and all of its pressures and challenges.

Saturdays for me amounts to doing the laundry and tidying up the living space for the first part of the day.  And be lazy and read for the next half of it.  What joy!

Before

While I was doing the cleaning this adorable dog is doing what she does best:
being cute!

After

Currently reading...

I'm half way through "The Swan Thieves".
Book review coming soon.

thinking about a post for the other blog...

Looks like I may be out of ideas for now :(

and a reward or two...

Yakult!
For a healthy digestion ;)

How about you dear reader, how do you spend your weekend?

♥

A Book Review: Holiness Day by Day, by Jerry Bridges

"The Holy Spirit's work in transforming us more and more into the likeness of Christ is called sanctification.  Our involvement and cooperation with Him in His work is what I call the pursuit of holiness.  That expression is taken from Hebrews 12:14: 'Strive for [literally pursue]... the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.'

...the pursuit of holiness must be anchored in the grace of God; otherwise it is doomed to failure."

~Jerry Bridges

I'm not a big fan of devotionals but I absolutely love this one.  It's a gem of encouragement for everyday to live in a way that pleases God.  It contains tidbits, but chunky ones, from different books by Bridges' such as Transforming Grace, The Pursuit of Holiness, The Gospel for Real Life, The Discipline of Grace, Respectable Sins, and The Fruitful Life.

While reading this it is hard to not examine my own heart, to see it in its fallen bankrupt state and to see what it has become through God's grace found in Christ.  Jesus paid the price for us to be able to live in the way that delights Him.  Ain't that just wonderful?

Bridges' love for God is so catching you will be heartened to begin a journey with Jesus or to continue in the journey of pursuing holiness.

Book: Holiness Day by Day: Transformational Thoughts for your Spiritual Journey

Author: Jerry Bridges

Publisher: OMF Literature Inc.

Price: PHP 250

Available at: OMF Lit book shops

♥

Inspiration Dior: Coffee Table Inspiration

I rarely buy coffee table books because they tend to be more expensive than the regular good ol' book.  This book is one of the few I have.

Inspiration Dior.  I got a glimpse of this magnificent exhibit held at the Pushkin Museum though a newsletter in which when the link was clicked it took the viewer through a breathtaking 3D interactive tour of the exhibit.  For those who can't be in Russia at that time, the virtual tour was the next best thing.  And so is this book.

This book chronicles the evolution of the House of Dior: the fashion, silhouettes, and inspirations, the perfume bottles, bags, and jewelry.  It also tells us a little bit about Mr. Dior and how a small cast-iron shaped into a star spurred him on to his legacy.

Dior paved the way for femininity to once again take over over the masculinity that enveloped women's fashion.  And until the current time that house keeps on redefining the feminine to be more relevant in today and tomorrow's masculine and androgynous mainstream.

Overall, this huge book is packed with photographs of Dior's best dresses and gowns that rocked their time. It is expensive and I cannot say if it is worth the price but those looking for fashion inspiration will enjoy this visual feast.

Book:  Inspiration Dior

Pages:  327 (including captions and acknowledgements)

Publisher:  Abrams

Price:  PHP 5,625

Available at:  Fully Booked (check for availability)

♥

Author: Antonia Fraser

"Fraser brings a completely sure hand to everything she writes.  A lot of historians have a flair and panache but in the end it turns out that it wasn't 1810 it was 1812...  You never have that with Antonia Fraser.  When she says Marie Antoinette wore green you know that she wore green."
~Amanda Foreman (Quote Source: The Guardian)

Photo Source: Wikipedia

Lady Antonia Fraser, the eldest daughter of the 7th Earl and Countess of Longford, has a colorful life as those who she writes about.  She got married, had children, wrote several very good books, almost got killed by an IRA carbomb, got divorced, got married again, and went on to write even more very good books.

She is said to have promoted history into what it has become today: interesting and accessible.

I have read several books by Antonia Fraser, Marie Antoinette being the first.  Her books aren't my favorite but I got to say they are the ones that got me into reading biographies.  The information she gives her readers are tremendous and accurate.  She can give you information on what Mary Queen of Scots had for dinner while sailing from France to Scotland.  She writes intellectually, which, I find enjoyable to read.   Her heart for her historical subjects make her extremely sympathetic and much biased.  But maybe those are some of the things that make her books stand out.


Have you read any historical biographies by Antonia Fraser?

♥

A Book Review: House, by Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker

A collaboration between two of today's best thriller writers: Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker.

The result is...

...a really. scary. book.  I'm a bona-fide scaredy-cat, so, I don't know if other readers will be as creeped out as I was.

House is a story that follows 7 characters trapped inside a haunted house who are forced to play a game imposed by the serial killer, Barsidious White.  While they play along they will have to kill one in their group if they want to get out of the house alive.  As the game progresses they each will face their own fears and the darkness of their hearts.

The reader is taken through twists and turns until you can see the characters for who they really are.

Overall, this book, though creepy, is a lightweight and very good read.  The symbolisms the authors entwined throughout the plot is remarkable.


Book: House
Author: Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker
Number of pages: 372
Published by: Thomas Nelson
Price: PHP 550

♥

A Book Review: Golda, by Elinor Burkett

"If only political leaders would allow themselves to feel as well as to think, the world might be a happier place."
~Golda Meir

She was the first woman Israeli Prime Minister.  So far she is the only woman who became prime minister in the state of Israel.

This book chronicles Golda's life from Milwaukee to Israel, from a student activist to politician, from prime minister to icon.  Golda was reckless, and worldly.  Married her husband but then run off with different men and with politics.  She was resourceful and passionate.  She stayed true to her ideals and fought for it no matter the outcome.  She dreamt of a perfect socialist Israel without crimes, corruption, and capitalism.  She labored for it but ended up disillusioned as poverty and unemployment increased, crimes were rampant, corruption was present in the government, and capitalism became the dog of greed.

Golda Meir genuinely cared for her people.  The experiences she lived through and witnessed has shaped her views, her policies, and who she was as a person but most of all as a politician.

Elinor Burkett has written an excellent biography.  She places the reader inside the events that have taken place and puts the reader beside the Iron Lady herself.  While reading this book I got to laugh with Golda and at her, get the feel of the victory they won, be outraged at some of the outcomes, be sad when her people were mistreated, cheered for her political stance, and be disappointed on some of her actions.

This is a biography that is neither sympathetic or apathetic.  Burkett gives the readers room to critique Golda, to hate her, or to love her.  There is no room for in-between.

Overall, if you love to read biographies and would want to get to know who Golda Meir is, this book is a good read.

♥

Books First Lines

They say to not judge a book by its cover.  I don't, but, I do judge it by its first lines.

First lines printed on a page.  It can capture or lose readers.  

Reading a good one is like receiving an embrace and welcoming words from a new friend.  Encountering a bad one is like listening to a stranger with bad breath talk gibberish or hearing nails scratching on chalkboards.

Here are some first lines that I find arresting:
"It was love at first sight."
~Catch 22, Joseph Heller

"Woof!  Woof woof!  Woof!  Woof!  

Barking in the night.  Barking, barking.  I shriek but no one answers.  I scream but there's not even an echo."

~Nexus, Henry Miller

"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins.  My sin, my soul.  Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth.  Lo.  Lee.  Ta."
~Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov

"In the middle of the twentieth century three men were charged with the task of removing the tension between minute and vast things."

~Oh Pure and Radiant Heart, Lydia Millet

"Who is John Galt?"
~Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand




What are your favorite first lines?

♥

Book Blogger Hop Meme

This is the first time I ever participated in a meme and I like! :)

Question:
Who is your go-to author when you're in a reading rut?

My go-to author is Joel C. Rosenberg.  His novels put me on the edge that I just have to continue reading.  His light and suspenseful novels give me the momentum to get out of reading rut.

♥

When History becomes Fiction

There has been news about recalling from shelves and halting publishing of The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths you've always Believed About Thomas Jefferson due to inaccuracies and misinterpretations made by the author.  You can read the full story here.

There are numerous reasons why, if not careful, historians or writers can turn history into fiction.  History is such a gigantic subject.  It is a given that historians tend to be biased on their subject or topic based on their beliefs and prejudices.

But when someone writes history by interpreting it to suit their bias they are then writing, well, fiction.

Also, history has countless points-of-view and the historian is limited to their chosen few to tell the story.  Therefore, it is important to have reliable sources regarding their chosen point-of-view.  But with archives and archives, and books and books of information available, this is not an easy task.

Learning from not so distant past I have no plans of reading The Jefferson Lies.

Have you read this book?

The Secret Wife of Louis XIV.  I picked this up from a discount rack of second hand books.  I was smittened with it until I searched the web for more information on the author and the book itself.

One of the author's secondary sources for this book is The Secret Diary of Louis the XIV.  Sounds intriguing, doesn't it?  It turns out that source is a fiction written by an academic imagining the contents of Louis XIV's diary if he ever had one.  How come the author of The Secret Wife..., who had a critically acclaimed book on a queen of Sweden, did not know this source is fiction?

It is heart-breaking for readers, damaging for writers, and a headache for publishers when a history book that seems promising end as being unreliable.

♥

Reading List: The Iron Ladies, a 2nd Volume, and Thieves

Next on my list of books to read are:

Golda, Elinor Burkett - This past Israeli Prime Minister fascinates me.  She is the first to be called the Iron Lady.  She has the tenacity of a Honey Bagder, has a delightful charm, and fuses the mind with the heart in the realm of politics.  And according to the St. Petersburg Times review this book is "...a better-researched, better-written biography [of Meir]..."

"Not being beautiful forced me to develop my inner resources.  The pretty girl has a handicap to overcome."

~Golds Meir

The Iron Lady, John Campbell - I became interested in Margaret Thatcher whilst reading the wikipedia page on Golda Meir.  I wanted to know what made her also be called an Iron Lady.  Is she as head-strong as Golda?

"Where there is discord, may we bring harmony.  Where there is error, may we being truth.  Where there is doubt, may we bring faith.  And where the is despair, may we bring hope."

~Margaret Thatcher

Plexus, Henry Miller - Plexus is the 2nd volume of Miller's Rosy Crucifixion trilogy.  I've read the third volume Nexus and loved it.  I consider Henry Miller one of the best writers I've ever read.

"In my portfolio was locked the key to all human knowledge.  Presumably.  And wisdom, like Winchester, only forty miles away.  Nothing in the world is so dead as this compendium of knowledge."

~Henry Miller

The Swan Thieves, Elizabeth Kostova - This about a doctor and a patient.  It is up to the doctor to dig deep to find out why his painter patient refuses to talk.  The story sounds like a mystery of the human psyche.  But it's not only the plot that I find interesting.  I've read the first few paragraphs while in the bookstore.  It is beautifully written.

"Someone is lighting a lantern there, too, bending over the flame, a human form but distinct in the distant window."

~Elizabeth Kostova

In dreams I am reading all these books all together at the same time.  But in reality I'll start with Golda.

♥

My blog content must really suck

In an attempt to reach more readers, I uploaded this blog on BearFood.  After some hours on queue and with a number of visitors coming from BearFood I still have 0 points or likes, but, the blogs that came after me already have points (I don't even want to know what that blog above my entry is about).  Sad.

Oh well, there's always room for improvement.  As the saying goes, "When the going gets tough, the tough stay pretty."  (Huh?  I couldn't connect what I just typed to what I typed before what I just typed.)


Anyhoo, you should check out the BearFood's creator's witty site The Oatmeal.  It's worth the click.

♥

Book Spine Poetry: Passivity

Here's another of my take on book spine poetry.

Passivity

Back on the road

Atlas shrugged

the hours,

the question concerning technology,

the elegant universe.

Books I used for this book spine poetry:

Che Guevara, Back on the Road

Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

Michael Cunningham, The Hours

Martin Heidegger, The Question Concerning Technology

Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe

♥

Book Spine Poetry: Either Or

Book spine poetry has been a project of American artist Nina Katchadourian in 1993.  It looked fun sorting books this way, so, I gave it a try.

Here's what I came up with.

Either Or

The ethics of ambiguity
manufacturing consent:
Pride and prejudice,
crime and punishment.


The books I used are by:
Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity
Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky, Manufacturing Consent
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment



Do you want to give book spine poetry a try?

♥