Philip Gulley
From the publisher: "In this acclaimed inaugural volume in the Harmony series, master American storyteller Philip Gulley draws us into the charming world of minister Sam Gardner in his first year back in his hometown, capturing the essence of small-town life with humor and wisdom."
From me: Having thoroughly enjoyed Gulley's memoir, I Love You, Miss Huddleston, and other inappropriate longings of my Indiana childhood, I was eager to dive into his Harmony book series, and I am not disappointed in the least. This fiction book reads very much like I Love You..., but with the added bonus of a little "lesson" at the end of each incident. Not a heavy-handed hit over the head with DOGMA, but a gentle "yeah, this was funny, but there's also something True here." On almost every page, there was something that made me say "Oh, I need to quote this in my review," which, of course, has left me with quoting nothing and just encouraging everyone to read this for themselves. (But if you've got 14 minutes to listen to me read an excellent chapter from the book, click over to https://soundcloud.com/deweyroth/miriam-and-ellis-by-philip.)
Page 56/5th sentence: He stood during the silence and said, "One saved soul, and all it cost was cookies."
A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FUTURE...Twists and Turns and Lessons Learned
Michael J. Fox
"Michael draws on his own life experiences to make a case that real learning happens when 'it all goes skidding sideways.' He writes of coming to Los Angeles from Canada at age eighteen and attempting to make his way as an actor. Fox offers up a comically skewed take on how, in his own way, he fulfilled the requirements of a college syllabus."
I had thought this was going to be more of a How We Made Back to the Future memoir when I requested it from the library, but it's obviously meant to be given as a gift to someone graduating from high school (NOTE: the language is sometimes PG-13). It's a tidy little book, though, and includes just enough behind-the-scene anecdotes to keep the lessons it's trying to teach interesting.
56/5: Understandably, the difficulty of running camera-dolly tracks through the rain forest, along with a plethora of other practical issues, made it impossible for our crew to work in the actual jungle.
THE BOURNE IDENTITY
Robert Ludlum
"He has no past. And he may have no future. His memory is blank. He only knows that he was flushed out of the Mediterranean Sea, his body riddled with bullets....But now Jason Bourne is marked for death, caught in a maddening puzzle, racing for survival through the deep layers of his buried past into a bizarre world of murderous conspirators - led by Carlos, the world's most dangerous assassin."
If you've only seen the movie and that last part of the above promotional blurb doesn't sound familiar, it's because there wasn't anything in the movie about Carlos...at least I don't remember anything about what is 80% of the plot of this book. It was good to be able to picture Matt Damon as Bourne, but it was also good that the book was SO different from the movie...it helped to be able to enjoy it on its own terms. And enjoyable it was. Ludlum keeps the reader in just as much of a fog as Bourne, doling out snippets of information just as they are needed to move the story along.
56/5: Once I'm out, I'll let you go.
GODS AT WAR: Defeating the Idols that Battle for Your Soul
Kyle Idleman
"According to Idleman, idolatry isn't an issue - it is the issue. By asking insightful questions, Idleman reveals which false gods each of us are allowing on the throne of our lives. What do you sacrifice for? What makes you mad? What do you worry about? We're all wired for worship, but we often end up valuing and honoring the idols of money, sex, food, romance, success, and many others that keep us from the intimate relationship with God that we desire."
Aside from my personal pet peeve of people confusing the first and second commandment and making them basically the same thing, when they're not, my other disappointment with this book is the repetitive nature of saying "It's a problem when we have THIS as a higher priority than God," chapter after chapter...just changing what THIS is. Don't get me wrong, it's a good book for folks who have never considered how the trappings of this world system can separate a person from a deep, meaningful relationship with Christ...it's just that I'm not one of those people.
56/5: But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living.
700 SUNDAYS
Billy Crystal
"To support his family, Billy Crystal's father, Jack, worked two jobs and long hours and could spare only Sundays to spend with his loved ones. But these precious days would be in short supply - Jack's life was suddenly ended by a heart attack when Billy was just fifteen. 700 SUNDAYS refers to the sadly precise amount of time shared by a devoted father and his adoring son."
This book is based on Crystal's Tony Award-winning stage production of the same name, and you can definitely hear his vocal delivery throughout. It's not a "laugh riot," but is full of the gentle, good-natured humor you would expect from this comic/impressionist/actor.
56/5: [Heroes] can also have way too much makeup on and cotton candy hair, like my Aunt Sheila.
C. S. LEWIS LETTERS TO CHILDREN
Edited by Lyle W. Dorsett & Marjorie Lamp Mead
"Through his letters, C. S. Lewis shared with his young correspondents his feelings about school (he hated math), writing, and animals. And, of course, he talked about Narnia, explaining why there are only seven books in the Chronicles, how to pronounce Aslan's name...."
I rediscovered this book as I was going through my shelves looking for tomes to offer for sale at the "Dewey's Gently Read Books" Facebook page (now defunct). I had forgotten about it, but noticed a few highlighted passages inside, so I thought I'd give it another read before parting with it. The most surprising (and personally disappointing) discovery was that Lewis thought the 7 Narnia books should be read in the order in which they are now being published, starting with The Magician's Nephew instead of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I suppose that's only disappointing to me, because I read them in the order of their original publication and think you need to at LEAST read Wardrobe before Nephew could be as deeply meaningful as it is, but ah well.
56/5: I'm just back from the mountains of Donegal, which are very beautiful, and where I had some grand walks and bathes.
THE WEALTH FACTOR
Saint Matthew's Churches
No picture, no publisher's blurb, and no endorsement whatsoever. This is really more of a thick pamphlet than a book, and the only reason I read it was because a family member gave it to me and asked me to. The only reason I write about it here is in hopes of warning anyone who might be taken in by its mix of misused Scripture references, promises of health and wealth, and a totally-has-nothing-to-do-with-the-point section on patriotism. There are, within these pages, wonderful examples of twisting Scripture, saying that it says something it doesn't say, and subtly asking (again and again) for the reader to send money...without ever actually asking for money. Pretty ingenious, actually.
My other beef with this booklet is that it kept referring to the reader following "these clear principles," but nowhere in the book does it clearly list what principles it is talking about. It talks about "the seed principle," but never spells out what it is. There are vague, generic phrases about doing things God's way, but nothing that says what that way is, other than implying that if the reader plants seeds of money (with Saint Matthew's Churches, of course) that he/she will receive an abundant financial blessing in return: "You can have peace of mind, improved health, and a never-ceasing flow of financial blessings." Oh really? Try telling the Apostle Paul that.
56/5: Many suffer financially because they fail to give God regular seed gifts out of the blessings He gives them.
FINDING SERENITY: Anti-heroes, Lost Shepherds and Space Hookers in Joss Whedon's Firefly
Jane Esperson, Editor
"Firefly's early demise left fans with a deep sense of loss and plenty of unanswered questions. From what was wrong wih the pilot to what was right with the Reavers, from the use of Chinese to how correspondence between Joss [Whedon, the show's creator] and network executives might have gone, from a philosopher's perspective on Objects in Space to a sex therapist's analysis of Inara, Finding Serenity is filled with writing as exciting, funny, and enthralling as the show itself."
Stumbled upon a reference to this book while looking for something else, found it in the library's catalog, and thoroughly enjoyed every page. While the audience for the book has got to be fairly limited, they are sure to NOT be disappointed. There's a great mixture of lightheartedness and semi-serious analysis.
56/5: Science fiction and fantasy shows have it much harder, as the one thing a genre show has to do that others don't is establish the setting.
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