Sunday, July 29, 2012

Three Philosophies of Life: Peter Kreeft



You may remember my post on the stack of books to read in 2012. One I decided was just too boring to read (The Girl Who Could Fly), and I have read five others, so we are down to fourteen books by the end of the year. This is the second book I have read this year that I received from my friend, David Joe.

I admit that ever since college I rarely read books that challenge my thinking in deep philosophical ways. This book was short, but it was really powerful in the way it made me think about deeper life issues. The subtitle is: Ecclesiastes--Life as Vanity, Job--Life as Suffering, Song of Songs--Life as Love.

Each section was interesting to me, but Ecclesiastes meant a lot to me at this point in life. I have been through the Job part of life and look forward to someday living in the Song of Songs part of life.

"Our world is full of thousands of little things, which keep us diverted from the one big thing. We are kepy so busy that we have no time to think" (33).

"Life is a quest for love and a quest for God, and there is no car or plane for this trip. It is an old-fashioned quest made on our own two feet" (110).

Thank you, David Joe, for another great read.

Friday, July 13, 2012

The Circle Maker


Batterson never fails to amaze me with the ways he connects with his readers.

This book is about Prayer. Not being afraid to ask God for big things, for big dreams, and consistently for a long time (because we all know God's timetable is rarely ours).

It never fails that Batterson hits on life goals in his books. It is a reality check every time I read his own life goals and realize what I have already accomplished and what I still hope to accomplish in life.

"If you aren't willing to put yourself in 'this is crazy' situations, you'll never experience 'this is awesome' moments" (50-51).

"Everything we see and hear is priming us in a positive or negative way. That's one reason I believe in starting the day in God's Word" (154). That was definitely something I have been struggling with lately and I needed to hear/see this.

I highly recomment this book. You can read a sample chapter and learn more about the book/DVD series here.

Book vs. Movie

Part 1: The Vow

I went to the library a few weeks ago. I picked up The Vow.  I have not really been paying attention to movies, so I really had no idea what it was about, but I thought it would be a cheesy Nicholas Sparks romance type book. Throughout the book, I was captivated by these two people's faithfulness to each other and to God. It is truly a beautiful and refreshing story that people take their marriage vow seriously. I highly recommend the book over the movie. Check out the youtube clip below. It does a pretty good job of an overview of their story.
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Part 2: One for the Money


My roommate has a very colorful stack of books that I have been eyeing for when I have time to read. I finally went to the library to check out the first book in the Stephanie Plum series, One for the Money. It recently became a movie with Katherine Heigl, who I really like, so I was excited to read the book before seeing the movie.

I really enjoyed the book. It was fast paced and I read it in two days. The movie did a pretty good job for the most part. The ending was totally different, and I did not think they needed to change anything -- should have gone straight from the book. The only thing the movie did was improve the language, which was surprising! Finally a movie that IMPROVES the language of a book instead of spewing F bombs.

Still think the books were better than the movies. Surprise, surprise.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

The Girl's Still Got It



Ruth. My favorite book of the Bible.

It's no wonder when given a chance to read a book about her life, I snatched it up.

Liz Curtis Higgs' book, The Girl's Still Got It, is going to be released July 10, 2012.

I have never read any of Higgs' books before. Higgs goes into depth about what it might have been like for Ruth and the other characters in her story. The book includes discussion questions and a study guide. I also saw that there is a DVD available for purchase. It seems like this book would be fitting for a women's Bible study group.

Ruth continues to be my favorite book in the Bible. I appreciated Higgs' statement about the overall purpose of Ruth: "The book of Ruth is a crash course in Soverignty 101, with God whispering all through it, 'Trust me!'" (2).

Higgs does a great job of knowing the background of the culture.

This book was good, but I did not connect with her writing style very well.

I reviewed this book for Waterbrook Multnomah Publishers Blogging for Books. I received this book for free in exchange for a review of the book.