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What was Shakespeare’s religion? It’s possible to answer this seemingly simple question in lots of different ways. Like other English subjects who lived through the ongoing Reformation, Shakespeare was legally obliged to attend Church of England services. Officially, at least, he was a Protestant. But a number of scholars have argued that there is evidence that Shakespeare had connections through his family and school teachers with Roman Catholicism, a religion which, through the banning of its priests, had effectively become illegal in England. Even so, ancestral and even contemporary links with the faith that had been the country’s official religion as recently as 1558, would make Shakespeare typical of his time. And in any case, to search for a defining religious label is to miss some of what is most interesting about religion in early modern England, and more importantly, what is most interesting about Shakespeare.

The post What was Shakespeare’s religion? appeared first on OUPblog.

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 In " Can The Sad Come Out", young readers are shown how life changes by using a classic, metaphorical image...

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Then this was the fun part. I decided to do some texture, and drew little blades of grass. The dirt was originally on its own layer, but somewhere along the way (probably when I was getting too tired) I merged these two layers together. Oh well.



I love this one. Just the skin! ewwwww.



And the trees. This was done with a few layers, then I mushed them together.

And so on. I may not actually finish this piece because as much as I love Jesus, I'm getting really tired of working on this one illustration of him. I hope he understands. I think I'll change it up and do some Romans, or Lazarus, or Noah.

Meanwhile, hello all you nice publishers who need religious art! I'm all enthused to illustrate your book of Bible stories for you! All 500 illustrations, spots and vignettes and full bleeds, Moses and the Red Sea, the Burning Bush, Jonah, temples, palm trees, the 12 apostles, sandals, beards, robes, Mary, Joseph, Egyptians, . . . Call me! (well, maybe email first.) [email protected]

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I’m sorry to report that I didn’t love Cloudy Jewel. A bunch of people recommended it, and it definitely sounds as if it should be right up my alley, but I’ve never met a Grace Livingston Hill character I liked more than a little, and if I had, Julia Cloud wouldn’t be it.

She should be. She’s a capable, unselfish spinster left at loose ends after her mother dies. She doesn’t want to go live with her genuinely awful sister and brother-in-law, and fair enough, but she hasn’t got enough money to do anything else. Enter her orphaned, almost grown-up niece and nephew, Leslie and Allison. They’re bound for college, and they want her to live with them and keep house and be a substitute parent with a salary. They find a house and furnish it at length, with nice rugs and modern appliances and kind of a lot of homemade curtains. And I don’t know what French gray enamel furniture looks like, but somehow it sounds really appealing.

So there’s home-making (always fun!) and winding the population of the town around the Clouds’ collective finger (usually fun) and also there’s kind of a lot of religion. Which isn’t actually a problem for me in itself, but it might be becoming a problem for me with Grace Livingston Hill. I might not have realized this if I hadn’t stopped in the middle of Cloudy Jewel to read something by Amy Le Feuvre, but I did, and when I came back to Hill afterwards she started to look like a hypocrite.

I mean, there’s a fine line. You want characters to be human beings, not saints, right? But Julia Cloud seems meant to be saintly, only Grace Livingston Hill doesn’t know how to show that. Julia’s clearly not meant to be too saintly — Hill knows not to do that. But she doesn’t know how to temper Julia’s saintliness. Like, laughing at Leslie and Allison’s mean-spirited jokes. Not cool. These aren’t, like, sociopathic, Tom Rover mean jokes, but they do betray a fundamental lack of sympathy for people in general.

Okay, so, eight or ten years ago I was at a bar or bat mitzvah for one of my cousins, and the rabbi talked about the commandment to love thy neighbor as thyself. My family hated this rabbi so much. We still talk about him once in a while. And here’s why: mostly he wanted to narrow the definition of “neighbor.” Your neighbors, he said, weren’t the people who happened to be around you. They were the people you’d chosen to go through life with.

Take a minute to think that through. Going by that definition, the commandment becomes meaningless. Because this is the golden rule: treat people as you want to be treated. You don’t get to choose who to be nice to and who not to be nice to. But what this rabbi was saying kind of boils down to this: be nice  to the people you want to be nice to. You only have to be nice to the people who are like you. In fact, you get to decide who is and isn’t worth treating well. And I’m not religious, but doesn’t that completely miss the point? I mean, you’re only really as nice as you are to the person you’re least nice to.

Hill reminds me of that rabbi. Not in an overt way, but…I don’t know. If I’m reading a book about people who are “real Christians,” I don’t want to see them delighting in uncharitableness towards people who haven’t done anything especially awful. And I say that as someone who’s pretty uncharitable, as a rule. If Julia Cloud is supposed to be better than me, I want her to actually be better.

I guess the bottom line is that all I want from religious fiction is a sense of everyone being essentially human, and worth being nice to. And it’s less important that I get that from the character then that I get it from the author. I get that from Le Feuvre. I get it from Susan Warner. I even get it from Mary Jane Holmes, who is super vindictive all the time and not necessarily very religious. But I don’t get it from Hill, who doesn’t seem to think anyone other than the three Clouds and their two best friends is terribly important. And sure, that’s not the end of the world. But it does leave a bad taste in my mouth.

Anyway.

I thought Cloudy Jewel was fun. I didn’t care about or respect any of the characters enough for more than that, and I haven’t figured out why the interior decoration and club organizing bits weren’t more satisfying for me, but I was, at least, really into Leslie’s motoring adventure. I mean, I was into any bit where Leslie shot at people. Also I’ve spent entirely too much time wondering why they couldn’t have carried a thermos or two on their cold-weather hikes and canoe trips instead of an actual pot of soup.

Tagged: 1920s, gracelivingstonhill, religious

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So, apparently Grace Livingston Hill’s brand of religion makes me want to go read about Amy Le Feuvre’s brand of religion. And I suppose it serves me right that Dwell Deep is more Hill-like that any Le Feuvre book I’ve read to date. It’s the story of Hilda Thorn, a young woman who moves in with her guardian’s family, who have little tolerance for her religious scruples.

I think the fact that she was converted before the story begins was part of what bugged me, although I guess it saved me one of Le Feuvre’s weirdly unsatisfactory conversion scenes. I also wasn’t wild about the first person narration, although I eventually got used to it.

The setup reminds me a little bit of Elsie Dinsmore, with a religious main character surrounded by people who not only don’t share her views, but can’t seem to live and let live. But it seems more pointless here. There’s no real reason for them to get angry with her for choosing not to go to parties, as her guardian does, or to tease her mercilessly about her religion, as her guardian’s son Kenneth does. She even points out to Kenneth how unfair he is to her: if she doesn’t react to his teasing, it’s because she considers herself above the rest of them, and if she does, she’s not as good as she pretends to be. She can’t win. And then he’s like, yeah, I guess that’s true, and continues to be an asshole.

That said, it’s hard to see the Forsyths’ lack of sympathy and occasional hostility towards Hilda as anything resembling persecution. A sickly poor child dies, but that’s the function of sickly poor children in books like this. One of the Forsyths’ guests is more of an asshole to Hilda than Kenneth, even, but that never seems terribly important, either. Even when a major character gets sick and nearly dies, we only find out about it once she’s on the road to recovery. The stakes are never very high, is what I’m saying.

I did get into Dwell Deep, eventually. I stopped being disconcerted by the first person narration, and got comfortable with Hilda as a character. And I like Hilda’s hands-off attitude to converting people, and that the most important piece of advice she gets is basically to trust her own judgement, because otherwise someone else’s opinion could become more important to her than God. It’s not exactly the thing I’m used to seeing from Le Feuvre, but it’s in harmony with the way she always treats religion–as a framework, a system of belief rather than just a belief. I don’t think I’m going to itch to reread Dwell Deep the way I itch to reread Her Kingdom and Olive Tracy, but I still like Amy Le Feuvre a lot.

Tagged: 1890s, amy le feuvre, amylefeuvre, religious

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So. More Amy Le Feuvre. This one is called Olive Tracy, and follows the title character over roughly the span of the Boer War. At the beginning, she’s the de facto housekeeper of her family’s home, which she shares with her mother, her younger sister Elsie, and Osmond, the invalid son of her dead eldest brother. The oldest sister, Vinny, is unhappily married and living in London, while another brother, Eddie, is in the Army, and not behaving as his family would wish him to. Then there’s their neighbors, Sir Marmaduke and Lady Crofton, and their two sons: Marmaduke is a captain in the army, and in love with Olive. He’s also steady and reliable and not super attractive in a way that made me think of Lord Algy from Pretty Kitty Herrick. Mark, the younger brother, is even more dissolute than Eddie, and seems to have been given up, even by his parents, as a bad lot.

Olive’s troubles begin when Marmaduke — Duke for short, thankfully — goes off to South Africa to keep an eye on Mark. He proposes before he leaves, but she turns him down, and only afterwards realizes that she might have feelings for him after all. Then her mother dies, and the Tracy household is split up, with Elsie going one way and Olive and Osmond another. Also the Boer War begins, and is omnipresent and awful in the background. Somewhere in there, Olive finds God in the same way that everyone finds God in these books, which is, I don’t know, either the most weirdly flat conversion I’ve ever read, or pure mysticism. Or both.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot, “this” being both Amy Le Feuvre’s brand of religious fiction and my reaction to it. Part of it, of course, is that I find religion in fiction and in history a lot more interesting that I find religion espoused by modern-day people who would like me to act according to their moral code instead of my own. But part of it is definitely that matter-of-fact mysticism.

Another part, maybe, is related to how I feel about Precious Bane. Precious Bane has always felt more like Sci Fi or Fantasy to me than it does like a historical novel. It’s hard to identify the setting as Shropshire in the early 19th century, and easy to believe it takes place on an alien planet, with an alien culture and (especially) alien plants. Amy Le Feuvre unintentionally creates an alternate universe in a similar way.

I like the way Le Feuvre’s characters have different personalities that predispose them to different kinds of problems. If the solutions to all of these people’s problems are the same, well, Le Feuvre is convincing enough that it feels perfectly comfortable to believe that she’s writing of a world where things really do work that way. It’s not the real world, but that’s okay. It helps that the characters who find God retain both their personalities and their problems. It’s sort of like what I’ve been told about therapy: you can’t really just fix your problems, but you can acquire tools for dealing with them. And in the strange alternate universe chronicled by Amy Le Feuvre, there is only one tool, and it’s God.

I’m just kind of impressed, I guess, by the faint touch of realism evident in the messes most of Le Feuvre’s characters have made of their lives. Not that this, or her other books I’ve read, are in any way realistic. But there’s something about them — about the way people get better and worse and don’t know how to talk to each other or manage their lives — that kind of is. And there’s something seductive about the idea of handing all your worries over to someone else, someone absolutely trustworthy. And Le Feuvre conveys that appeal instead of doing as other authors of religious fiction do and making everyone prigs.

So that’s it. That’s the appeal, for me at least. I have made my peace with liking these books, and I’m looking forward to reading Her Kingdom again this fall, curled up in a big, comfortable chair with a hot toddy, or some other drink of which Le Feuvre would disapprove.

Tagged: 1900s, amy le feuvre, religious

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I am in general, not a huge fan of religious fiction, but Amy Le Feuvre is my weird, inexplicable exception. I have just confirmed this by reading a book called The Carved Cupboard. I’ve read a couple of other things of hers, but they were full of angelic dying children and dead dogs, and…no. No angelic dying children for me. The Carved Cupboard, like Her Kingdom, is about young women, and its religious focus is a vehicle for the larger theme of their finding their places in the world.

I just reread my post about Her Kingdom, and I don’t really remember the process of writing it, but I suspect I wrote a long, rambling draft about how much I love it, and then scrapped that and wrote something else instead. So I can’t point you at anything explaining my deep and irrational positive feelings towards it. Part of it is that it’s a mix of tropes I like a lot — the slow remaking of one’s circumstances, taming wild small children, he/she fell in love with his/her wife/husband, etc. But Amy Le Feuvre clearly has something else going on that I’m into, because The Carved Cupboard doesn’t include any of those things. And I don’t love it the way I love Her Kingdom, but I like it a lot.

It starts with four sisters being turned out of their home after their aunt dies, their cousin having apparently bullied her into changing her will in his favor during her final illness. With Aunt Mildred gone, each of the four Dane girls has only about a hundred pounds a year. Shades of Her Kingdom, but also of Sense & Sensibility. The four girls decide to pool their money and rent a cottage together in the country. There a mystery is introduced in the form of the titular cupboard, which the owner of the cottage has told them never to open — shades of Bluebeard. Not that they could if they wanted to, since it doesn’t open in any conventional way.

The eldest and youngest sisters are pretty well off — Agatha has her housekeeping and good works, Elfrida has her music and natural cheer, and both of them have God. Gwendoline and Clare, though, are less content. Gwen is the proud, practical one who needs to learn how to let herself be guided by God, and Clare is the imaginative, discontented one whose fiancé is on a survey expedition in Africa and how needs to learn patience. Each of them suffers — Clare when Hugh’s party is massacred, and Gwen when her plans for her brother in California go wrong — but they learn from their experiences and, with the help of the carved cupboard and the circumstances surrounding it, all four sisters are eventually provided for. Bad things happen, but mostly everyone ends up okay. Not all of the religious people are perfect, and the scheming cousin is never redeemed.

The biggest problem with The Carved Cupboard is that there’s so much story that Le Feuvre doesn’t have space to spread out. Suprisingly, character development doesn’t come off too badly — even minor characters are pretty well developed. Everything fits in the space provided, actually — it just doesn’t fit comfortably, and you don’t get much space for extra detail. And by extra detail I mean the meat of a story like this, which is, under a thin veneer of melodrama, about people growing into change. But while I missed what wasn’t there, I liked what was.

I keep thinking about the religious stuff, and about why it doesn’t bother me, when religious fiction so often does. It might just be a lack of condescension. For now, at least, I’m content to enjoy Le Feuvre, and hope I come across more of her non-children’s books in the future.

Tagged: 1890s, amylefeuvre, religious

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I happen to have the privilege to be part of a great group of authors published by Trestle Press and Helping Hands Press. Starting today, you will be hearing from them on my blog. They have a lot to say about a lot of different things.

First up is best-selling Amish author Karen Anna Vogel. She asks herself a few questions.

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I am delighted to announce today that the third story of One is available now from Trestle Press!

You can get Dr. Candy by Sudè Khanian for ONLY 99 Cents by clicking HERE.

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A Christmas Journey Home:  Miracle In The Manger is a Christian Fiction.

Isabella Alcantara and her husband Francisco are newly wed and expecting their first child when Isabella's family are killed by banditos and they are encouraged to sneak across the Mexican border to escape the indecencies happening to the Mexican people by her own kind.  Her Abeulo, has given his life savings to them in order to hire a "coyote" to take them across into America where he believes they can have a chance at a better life for their baby.

Carolyn Sinclair, her daughter Miriam and grandson Davey are in mourning over the loss of Miriam's husband, David, a border patrol officer who was killed in the line of duty.  Miriam hates illegal aliens and believes them to all be thieves and murderers.  Carolyn and Davey hold onto faith that everything has a reason even though Davey is young, his understanding of God and humanity is remarkable.

Isabella and Francisco have been left in the Arizona desert to die, their "coyote" stole all of their money and left them to wander aimlessly.  They happen upon a group of people whom they believe to be their salvation and find themselves in a worse situation.  Believing God will see them through, they wait for their chance to escape their newly found prison.  When the miracle arrives on Thanksgiving morning, the two set off into the unknown to find a safe haven in which to have their baby and begin their new life.

The members of both families have their own agendas with God and each person must find their faith in order to survive the insurmontable lessons that life is dealing in order to heal their broken hearts.

I was enthralled with the plot of this story, the evils that humanity can do to another is heart-wrenching.  If you have a weak disposition, some of the scenes described may upset you, they are written with much depth of emotion that you cannot help but cry from the injustice in the world.

I found that each of the characters were strongly written and well described.  Each one had their own persona and you will have no problems following any dialogue that may occur.  The dialogue was a bit cliched in areas, but it works for the believability of human nature, we don't always speak in well structured sentences and most of our lingo or common speak is full of cliches.

I loved the back story characters, especially Isabella's grandfather, his emotions brings you closer to the world around us.  Through his eyes we see the decay of his neighbourhood and watches the joy slip from his neighbours eyes.  Everyone walks while looking over their shoulders wondering when the next senseless acts of barbaristic attacks to the innocent will occur.  I found the book to fray your emotions on many levels.

I would give A Christmas Journey Home a four and a half stars out of five, I did find the story to be a bit predictable but the read is still entertaining and the characters ingraining.  You feel for everyone in the story, as everyone is reaching for the same ideals, without even realizing it.

The ending was superb and author, Kathi Macais, leaves you with enough to let your imagination finish the tale without having to do it for you.

SYNOPSIS:
During Isabella Alcantara’s seventh month of pregnancy, her parents and siblings are murdered in gang- and drug-related violence, simply because their home was targeted by mistake. Isabella knows she was spared only because she now li

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I am involved with a new Christian radio station preparing to go on the air in Central Florida. As this is a non-profit, it will rely heavily on volunteers and pledges.

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Jesus, My Father, the CIA and Me is a memoir...of sorts.

Author, Ian Morgan Cron, tells his life in a personable and off-hand manner, knowing he has lived this life, but not totally believing all the players in his game.

As a young boy, he had many questions concerning his father and their lifestyle.  His father was very mysterious and would often be gone for long periods of time or have to stop what he was doing and head off into the unknown.  When Ian found pictures of his dad playing golf with the president, he questions his mother, who is just as enigmatic as his father.

All through his life, Ian is left with more questions than answers and he must struggle with his own inner demons to become the man he was meant to be. 

The reader is taken on a journey that seems almost fantastical in places and heart-wrenching in others.  We learn of Ian's fathers addiction to alcohol and how it eventually removes him from the game.  We learn of Ian's struggle with his father's love, always left wondering if his father did, in fact, love him and he wasn't just a "tool" of the trade. 

We learn of Ian's struggles with Jesus and God and their intentions for his life.  How he embraces their lessons and applies them to his life.  We watch as he walks the path less traveled to come to a point in his life where everything seems to fall into place and his message is clear.

This was a very engaging book by Ian Morgan Cron, who also authored, Chasing Francis:  A Pilgrim's Tale, which was also an exceptional read.  You can read my review here.  I thought the insights into his life were written in an enjoyable and thought-provoking method.  I enjoyed reading his thoughts and worries and his projections for the future.

I thought his grip on reality was an interesting one and I enjoyed his sharing it with me.  The writing is engaging, interesting and easily read.  The reader will find minor to mild expletives, which might surprise the average person, especially when you read that the author is an Episcopalian minister.  It is that honest, "average-joe", writing style that will submerge the reader into the author's realm of life and leave you with a well-blended tale of one man's life and the choices he makes.

I would give this a four out of five stars, while I thought the book was a great read and I am sure anyone who reads it would agree with such, I just found there was a certain something lacking from its pages that would have made it exceptional, maybe a degree of warmth that was lacking or maybe it was the introduction of his faith, the people that surrounded him, cajoling him into their fold, it kind of gave me a creepy feeling and I am unsure how I would handled the situation.  If it wasn't for the good-looking girl coming into the picture, who knows where Ian Morgan Cron's life may have ended, it was certainly looking like he was heading down a path of destruction.

SYNOPSIS:

When he was sixteen years old, Ian Morgan Cron was told about his fathers clandestine work with the CIA. This astonishing revelation, coupled with his fathers dark struggles with chronic alcoholism and depression, upended the world of a boy struggling to become a man. Decades later, as he faces his own personal demons, Ian realizes the only way to find peace is to voyage back through a painful childhood marked by extremes-pr

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I have really been enjoying myself working on the "One" series. Thanks to Giovanni, I have had the opportunity to explore my own thoughts, but also work with my father as a writer.

With October only a few days away, we are about to release another installment, by Sudè Khanian. I have been fortunate to get to know her over the past several months and I am impressed. She has a unique view of the world that is inspiring.

You can follow "One" HERE: http://www.facebook.com/MarkMillersOne for all of the latest news and releases.

We are working to put out one story a month, each by a different author. In November, look for Giovanni Gelati to tip his hat, followed by Melissa Studdard. Award-winning teen poet, Rachel Hunter will come along after that and we may have a retired Catholic priest as well.

Each of these authors is going to bring you something personal, and most likely emotional. They want to share their faith and beliefs with you.

Be sure to listen in to the G-Zone on BlogTalkRadio this Saturday (10/01) to hear the first three authors of "One" share their experiences with Giovanni!

Also, leave a comment below if you would like to read "Meant To Be", the first story of "One", for FREE!

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Another good day in a busy week, so gives thanks in the manner to which you are accustomed!

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20. New free fiction! BRINDLE

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By: Robin Brande, on 3/17/2011
Blog: Robin Brande (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  religious fanaticism, religious fantasy, religious fundamentalism, religious metaphor, religious mythology, religious oppression, religious suspense, spirituality, Short Fiction, religion, religious, short story, religious satire, spirits, religious fiction, paranormal short story, paranormal spiritual ghost story, paranormal story, religious extremism, Add a tag

I’ve always had a hard time classifying BRINDLE. Is it a ghost story? A paranormal satirical religious fantasy? An old-fashioned mystical fable with a twist? I’m seriously open to your suggestions.

For now we’ll just call it a short story of mine, and for the next few days it’s FREE! You can download it here, and use the coupon code: VR22W. But hurry! Coupon expires March 20.

Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: child, children, fable, fantasy, Fantasy Fiction, fantasy short story, Free fiction, Free short stories, free short story, Free stories, ghost story, ghosts, orphan, orphans, Paranormal, paranormal abilities, Paranormal Fiction, paranormal short stories, paranormal short story, paranormal spiritual ghost story, paranormal story, religion, religious, religious extremism, religious fanaticism, religious fantasy, r

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21. Her Kingdom

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By: Melody, on 10/6/2009
Blog: Redeeming Qualities (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  books, romance, religious, 1920s, amylefeuvre, Add a tag

Objectively, I’m pretty sure that Her Kingdom, by Amy Le Feuvre, is a terrible book.But it’s also old and fat and printed on thick, soft paper, and really nice to curl up on the couch with when the weather is beginning to get cool. Anstice Barrett’s father has just, leaving her almost penniless. She goes to [...]

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22. 10 Amusing Things to Do in Church

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Posted on 7/25/2009
Blog: Time Machine, Three Trips: Where Would You Go? (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  fun, Comedy, Church, funny, Farting, Religious, annoying, Amsuing, Minister, sneezing, Add a tag

1. Put fake money into the collection plate.

2. Sing badly out of tune.

3. Take a fake fit of sneezing.

4. During songs put whoopee cushions on peoples seats.

5. Shout Hallelujah constantly even when people are telling a sad story.

6. Bring crunchy sweets like wethers originals with you, and chew on them constantly.

7. Continuously shout “Thank You Allah!” if its a Christian Church.

8. Constantly sniff, this will really annoy the old ladies sitting in front of you.

9. Fart a lot, annoying to every near to you…!

10. Grunt constantly, especially when people are reading Bible passages.

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23. 20 Amusing Church Signs

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Posted on 7/21/2009
Blog: Time Machine, Three Trips: Where Would You Go? (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  god, bible, Church, google, Religious, churches, Add a tag

Today, churches have different ways or methods on how to spread God’s words, even to the extend of setting up amuzing church signs. Though some deemed it funny just the same, church authorities have conveyed their message loud and clear. Here are some of those really amuzing church signs and how I view each one of them. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/au_tiger01/2404125621/

OK, just give me some more minutes to take my bath and I’ll go attend the Sunday service.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/au_tiger01/2404125607/

I believe that, Google can’t answer what our Choir would sing!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/au_tiger01/2404952864/

Thank God, majority of the members this congregation are cheerful givers.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/au_tiger01/2404952070/

Yes, some passages scare the hell out of me.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/au_tiger01/2404952070/

This reminds us of Moses and the stubborn Israelites.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/au_tiger01/2404952028/

Good one, this will enlighten many about their final destination.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/au_tiger01/2404126087/

This answers the publicans question.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/au_tiger01/2404125955/

Thank God, I don’t like party as well as Bar-B-Que..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/au_tiger01/2404125955/

I guess I should stop smoking right now. Good advice.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/au_tiger01/2404126159/

Remember, put God first in everything you do.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/au_tiger01/2404125531/

Got that, God bless the meak and the humble ones.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/au_tiger01/2404952156/

Very true, no need of high-tech and top-of-the-line gadgets to have communications with God.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/au_tiger01/2404125449/

For those who are having troubled-life, go enter this place and I guarantee you’ll have a different perspective of llife after 2 hours!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/au_tiger01/2404126253

That is the best weather forcast of all time. An eternity of sunny days!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/au_tiger01/2404125987/

The Ten Commandments in review. Got to attend this class.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/au_tiger01/2404951958/

It reminds us that we should do what is right the moment we faced it.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/au_tiger01/2404952104/

A little bit tricky, but I know heaven is where the saved live.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/au_tiger01/240412580

Just but logical, if you are not God’s children then your father is the Devil.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/au_tiger01/2404952716/

A very good remedy for those encountering sleepless night.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/au_tiger01/2404951858/

This will make giant telecommunication firms change their marketing approach. A new competitor is in town.

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24. Confessions of a Completely (In)Sane Mother by Kersten Campbell

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By: Alena, on 3/16/2009
Blog: My Clean Book Reviews (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:  Non-Fiction, Worth Owning, Religious, Alphabetical C, Reviewed by Shannon, Adult, Add a tag

Confessions of a Completely (In)sane Mother


Rating:
This book is highly entertaining and indeed humorous. My only problem with the book came from my own discomfort at the realization of how much I had in common with the author. A couple of the chapters caused me extreme embarrassment and shame at my own lack of organizational skills. I laughed out loud over the zucchini chapter having tried to put several gargantuan zucchini "up for adoption" when I was a child. I wanted to cry with the author over the depth and breadth of disasters than can occur in one household (I probably have her beat in this category). I did enjoy this book thoroughly. I would not hesitate to share or recommend it to any mother who feels overwhelmed and overworked. To know that I am not alone is invaluable. The best consequence of reading this book was that I was finally motivated to clean out my church bag!

Description:
(Taken from the front Cover) Welcome to the world of Kersten Campbell! She's a mother of 5 children, a devoted wife, and an extremely enthusiastic homemaker. As she strives to have sanity in her crazy household, Campbell infuses her humor in every situation that she comes up against. Whether it's her two-year-old creating a mushroom cloud of powdered milk in the kitchen or trying to sleep in a tent with five children on a campout, Campbell works with her family to overcome their problems and find laughter in all situations.

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25. Outcasts of Skagaray by Andrew Clarke

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By: Alena, on 8/27/2008
Blog: My Clean Book Reviews (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Outcasts Of Skagaray -

Rating:
This book was a very interesting read and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The book was definitely clean and appropriate, but it was written more for teens and it deals with issues that readers of this age should think about. I really liked how this was an interesting and exciting story, but taught a good lesson about faith, the proper way to live, and the only true source of strength. In this book, Tarran has always been uncomfortable with the violent ways of his people. When he is asked to participate in an act of cruelty that he cannot stomach, he decides that it is time to leave his people and their ways. Living as an outcast, he comes to learn that true strength lies in kindness and that only in following the One True God can he be free.

review by Math T

1 Comments on Outcasts of Skagaray by Andrew Clarke, last added: 8/27/2008

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Alena said, on 8/27/2008 3:04:00 PM

I read the book also and thought it was very entertaining. I was interested in the story from the very beginning, and I never lost interest. I thought the author did a good job introducing general Christian ideals into the story without making it awkward or forcing anything. (The beginning reminded me of the Old Testament and towards the end it was more like the New Testament in terms of what was happening in the story.) I'm glad I took the time to read it.

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