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323. Romans For You 8-16

Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:   Timothy Keller

Genre:  Non Fiction, Christian, Theology

224 pages, published February 3, 2015

Reading Format:  Book

Summary

Romans For You 8-16 is the second half of Romans study by noted theologian and Christian writer Timothy Keller.

Quotes 

“The same sun that melts wax hardens clay.” In other words, what makes a life “good” is not a particular set of circumstances, but how the heart interacts with them.”

 

“Sin can only grow in the soil of self-pity and a feeling of “owed-ness.” I’m not getting a fair shake! I’m not getting my needs met! I’ve had a hard life! God owes me; people owe me; I owe me! That’s the heart attitude of “owed-ness” or entitlement.”

 

“Notice that in 16:25 Paul does not say “is able to save you”; rather, he says God is powerful to “establish” us through the gospel. This reminds us that the gospel is not only the entry point into the Christian life; it is also the way we continue in, grow in and enjoy life with Christ. Paul has shown in Romans how the gospel not only saves us (chapters 1 – 5), but also how it then changes us (chapters 6 – 8; 12 – 15). If we believe the gospel, God is working powerfully through it, in us. We need never move away from it.”

 

“Look what God’s done for me! Is this how I respond to him?”

 

“This shows us that “the good” God always is working for us is character change. He is making us as loving, noble, true, wise, strong, good, joyful and kind as Jesus is.”

 

“Christians who don’t understand “no condemnation” only obey out of fear and duty. That is not nearly as powerful a motivation as love and gratitude.”

 

“Paul is saying that sin can only be cut off at the root if we expose ourselves constantly to the unimaginable love of Christ for us. That exposure stimulates a wave of gratitude and a feeling of indebtedness.”

 

“children of God” only for those who have received Christ as Savior and Lord: “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children [tekna] of God” (John 1:12). Sonship is given to those who receive him. No one has it naturally except Jesus Christ.”

 

“The “Spirit of sonship” that Paul speaks of is, therefore, an ability that the Holy Spirit gives us to approach God as a Father instead of as a boss or slavemaster.”

 

“Not Christians. We don’t expect things in life to “work for good” of their own accord. When we find things working out beneficially for us, it is all of God, all of grace, all of him. When things work out, Christians never say: Of course—that’s as it should be! Rather, they praise God for it.”

 

“But second, this truth removes general fear and anxiety when life “goes wrong.” We know it hasn’t gone wrong at all! If God “works” in “all things,” it means his plan includes what we would call “little” or “senseless” things. Ultimately, there are no accidents.” 

My Take

After reading Galatians for You and especially The Reason for God, I am a fan of Timothy Keller.  A thoughtful and intelligent religious thinker and writer, Keller challenges his readers to dig deep and really think about what it means to be a Christian.  Romans for You 8-16 does this well and Keller has some interesting discussions of some challenging texts in the Bible.

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317. The Outsider

Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:   Stephen King

Genre:  Fiction, Mystery, Thriller, Crime, Suspense

561 pages, published May 22, 2018

Reading Format:  Audio Book

Summary

When an eleven-year-old boy’s violated corpse is found in a town park, all the evidence, from eyewitnesses to fingerprints to DNA, point to Terry Maitland, Little League coach, English teacher, husband, and father of two girls.  Detective Ralph Anderson, whose son Maitland once coached, orders a quick and very public arrest. Maitland has an alibi, but Anderson and the district attorney arrest him with what seems to be a bulletproof case.  When Maitland’s alibi checks out, the authorities start to questions their rush to judgment, but have no answers as to how the two contradictory circumstances are possible.

Quotes 

“If you can’t let go of the past, the mistakes you’ve made will eat you alive.”

 

“I believe there’s another dozen thoughts lined up behind each one I’m aware of.”

 

“I would like to believe in God,” she said, “because I don’t want to believe we just end, even though it balances the equation—since we came from blackness, it seems logical to assume that it’s to blackness we return. But I believe in the stars, and the infinity of the universe. That’s the great Out There. Down here, I believe there are more universes in every fistful of sand, because infinity is a two-way street.”

 

“Dreams are the way we touch the unseen world,”

 

“My tongue runs like a supermarket conveyor belt on payday.”

 

“Money was no cure for sorrow, Alec reflected, but it did allow one to grieve in relative comfort.”

 

“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.’ ” 

My Take

The Outsider is quintessential Stephen King.  You get to affectionately know a cast of characters comprised of normal people in a normal town that have to deal with something completely abnormal.  King, a master storyteller, delivers the goods once again.

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301. Today Will Be Different

Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:   Beth Roach

Author:   Maria Semple

Genre:  Fiction, Humor

259 pages, published October 4, 2016

Reading Format:  Audio Book

Summary

Today Will Be Different is a day in the life of Eleanor Flood, an accomplished graphic novelist, mother of preschooler Timby (who has faked an illness to spend the day with his mother), wife of acclaimed hand surgeon Joe (who may be leading a double life), and sister to Ivy who has married into a Southern Gothic family .  As Eleanor navigates her topsy-turvy life, she learns about what is important in life.

Quotes 

“Today will be different. Today I will be present. Today, anyone I speak to, I will look them in the eye and listen deeply. Today I’ll play a board game with Timby. I’ll initiate sex with Joe. Today I will take pride in my appearance. I’ll shower, get dressed in proper clothes, and change into yoga clothes only for yoga, which today I will actually attend. Today I won’t swear. I won’t talk about money. Today there will be an ease about me. My face will be relaxed, its resting place a smile. Today I will radiate calm. Kindness and self-control will abound. Today I will buy local. Today I will be my best self, the person I’m capable of being. Today will be different.”

 

“I don’t mean to ruin the ending for you, sweet child, but life is one long headwind. To make any kind of impact requires self-will bordering on madness. The world will be hostile, it will be suspicious of your intent, it will misinterpret you, it will inject you with doubt, it will flatter you into self-sabotage. My God, I’m making it sound so glamorous and personal! What the world is, more than anything? It’s indifferent.”  “Say amen to that,” Spencer said.

“But you have a vision. You put a frame around it. You sign your name anyway. That’s the risk. That’s the leap. That’s the madness: thinking anyone’s going to care.”

 

“That was happiness. Not the framed greatest hits, but the moments in between. At the time, I hadn’t pegged them as being particularly happy. But now, looking back at those phantom snapshots, I’m struck by my calm, my ease, the evident comfort with my life. I’m happy in retrospect.”

 

“There’s a phenomenon I call the Helpless Traveler. If you’re traveling with someone who’s confident, organized, and decisive you become the Helpless Traveler: “Are we there yet?” “My bags are too heavy.” “My feet are getting blisters.” “This isn’t what I ordered.” We’ve all been that person. But if the person you’re traveling with is helpless, then you become the one able to decipher train schedules, spend five hours walking on marble museum floors without complaint, order fearlessly from foreign menus, and haggle with crooked cabdrivers. Every person has it in him to be either the Competent Traveler or the Helpless Traveler. Because Joe is so clearheaded and sharp, I’ve been able to go through life as the Helpless Traveler. Which, now that I think about it, might not be such a good thing.”

 

“You try your best, or you don’t try your best. The mountains don’t care.”

 

“You know how your brain turns to mush? How it starts when you’re pregnant? You laugh, full of wonder and conspiracy, and you chide yourself, Me and my pregnancy brain! Then you give birth and your brain doesn’t return? But you’re breast-feeding, so you laugh, as if you’re a member of an exclusive club? Me and my nursing brain! But then you stop nursing and the terrible truth descends: Your good brain is never coming back. You’ve traded vocabulary, lucidity, and memory for motherhood. You know how you’re in the middle of a sentence and you realize at the end you’re going to need to call up a certain word and you’re worried you won’t be able to, but you’re already committed so you hurtle along and then pause because you’ve arrived at the end but the word hasn’t? And it’s not even a ten-dollar word you’re after, like polemic or shibboleth, but a two-dollar word, like distinctive, so you just end up saying amazing?  Which is how you join the gang of nitwits who describe everything as amazing.”

 

“There was no relief deeper than being loved by the person who’d known you the longest.”

 

“In the middle of one of her self-help phases, Ivy had once proclaimed that underneath all anger was fear. I’d long since wondered what, if anything, was underneath all fear.

I knew then: If underneath anger was fear, then underneath fear was love. Everything came down to the terror of losing what you love.”

 

“How’s your day so far?”

“Oh, can’t complain,” he said. “You?”

“Can complain, but won’t.”

 

“A live concert needs to be listened to live. Otherwise, it’s like eating day-old salad.”

 

“Because the other way wasn’t working. The waking up just to get the day over with until it was time for bed. The grinding it out was a disgrace, an affront to the honor and long shot of being alive at all.”

 

“One thing that happens when you have an alcoholic for a parent is you grow up the child of an alcoholic. … For a quick trip around the bases, it means you blame yourself for everything, you avoid reality, you can’t trust people, you’re hungry to please. Which isn’t all bad: perfectionism makes the straight-A student; lack of trust begets self-sufficiency; low self-esteem can be a terrific motivator; if everyone were so gung-ho on reality, there’d be no art.”

 

“Pain I’m good with. It’s discomfort I can’t handle.”

 

“Smell the soup, cool the soup,” Timby said. “Huh?” “It’s what they teach us in school when we’re upset. Smell the soup.” He took a deep breath in. “Cool the soup.” He blew out.”

My Take

Having enjoyed Semple’s previous book Where’d You Go, Bernadette, I had high hopes for Today Will Be Different.  I was not disappointed.  The plot isn’t important.  Which is a good thing because there isn’t much of one.  Instead, the reason to read this book is the richly drawn characters and the very clever and enlightening insights about life that Semple regularly delivers.

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299. Carnegie’s Maid

Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:   Marie Benedict

Genre:  Fiction, Historical Fiction, Romance

283 pages, published August 12, 2014

Reading Format:  Audio Book

Summary

Fresh off the boat from Ireland in the 1860s, through a case of mistaken identity, fresh faced and intelligent Clara Kelly finds herself serving as a ladies’ maid to the mother of prominent businessman Andrew Carnegie.  By the end of the book, Clara and Andrew find themselves in love, but at a crossroads.  Throughout the book, we witness Andrew Carnegie’s transformation from hardnosed industrialist into one of America’s greatest philanthropist.

Quotes 

“As Mrs. Barrett Browning says, ‘The world of books is still the world.”

“You know what they say. Any fool can earn money, but it takes a wise man to keep it.”

“Whatever I engage in I must push inordinately; therefore should I be careful to choose that life which will be the most elevating in its character.”

 

“Andrew Carnegie, who is the man who built this free library and thousands more libraries with his own money. A man who gave the gift of books and education to every person, regardless of how much money they had.” 

My Take

Other than his namesakes Carnegie Hall, Carnegie Mellon University and his donations to many, many libraries throughout the U.S., I didn’t know much about Andrew Carnegie prior to reading Carnegie’s Maid.  Through the viewpoint of a maid in his house, the book paints a detailed and sympathetic portrait of the man and the times that he lived in.  Not the greatest book, but it is worthwhile for its illumination of this famous man and period of American history.

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298. An Event in Autumn

Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:   Henning Mankell

Genre:  Fiction, Crime, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense, Foreign

176 pages, published August 12, 2014

Reading Format:  Audio Book

Summary

An Event in Autumn is a short novel featuring the famous Swedish detective Kurt Wallander (who has spawned two television series).  Soon after Inspector Wallander looks at a home to potentially buy, he makes a horrifying discovery of a skeletal hand poking through the earth in the garden.  He unearths two corpses and turns the investigation over to the local police.  However, Wallander is soon drawn into the search to discover who died, why and by whose hand.

Quotes 

“A question that wasn’t asked was a question that didn’t need an answer.”

 

“Many years ago Wallander had learned that one of the manifold virtues a police officer must possess is the ability to be patient with himself.”

 

“There was a sort of beauty that only comes with age. A whole life engraved into facial wrinkles.”

 

“It struck Wallander that nothing could make him as depressed as the sight of old spectacles that nobody wanted anymore.”

 

“The great Danish-Norwegian author Aksel Sandemose once said, liberally translated, “the only things worth writing about are love and murder.”

 

“No doubt you thought I was dead. I sometimes think I am myself.”        

 

“It’s about contradictions between us and inside us, between individuals and society, between dream and reality. Sometimes these contradictions express themselves in violence, such as racial conflict. And this mirror of crime can take us back to the Greek authors.” 

My Take

An Event in Autumn is the first Kurt Wallander book that I have read and it was very enjoyable.  Mankell is a gifted writer and his books are much more than your standard whodunit’s.  He delves into characters and place in an original, nuanced and insightful manner that adds depth to the mystery, which is also an entertaining page turner.

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294. The First 1,000 Days: A Crucial Time for Mothers and Children—And the World

Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:  Darla Schueth

Author:   Roger Thurow

Genre:  Non Fiction, Health, Environment, Food, Public Policy

282 pages, published March 3, 2016

Reading Format:  Book

Summary

The First 1,000 Days refers to the time period of pregnancy and a child’s first two years of life.  During this crucial time, whether or not a pregnant woman and her baby receive proper nutrition, medical care and hygiene can have an enormous impact on the rest of that child’s life, and in turn the social and economic health of the nation in which the child is born.  Author Roger Thurow explores various aspects of this global issue by profiling poor women and children in Uganda, Guatemala, India and Chicago.  Great progress has been made, but as The First 1,000 Days poignantly illustrates, there is still a long way to go.

Quotes 

“The time of your pregnancy and first two years of life will determine the health of your child, the ability to learn in school, to perform a future job. This is the time the brain grows the most.”

 

“Your child can achieve great things.” 

My Take

The First 1,000 Days is a well researched, compelling read.  It is heartbreaking to read about the abject poverty suffered by many people in the world, especially women and babies.  Reading this book really made me appreciate how good we have it in the United States.  Our lives are truly golden. The encouraging news is that progress is being made on several fronts to improve the global health of children.  Access to better nutrition and health care has improved and is continuing to improve.  Hopefully, the next decade will see a dramatic reduction in infant mortality and stunting.

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292. The Door

Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:   Meris Delli-Bovi

Author:   Magda Szabó

Genre:  Fiction

272 pages, published 1987

Reading Format:  Book

Summary

The Door is a semi-autographical novel by Hungarian writer Magda Szabó who won many national literary awards but was also labeled an “enemy of the people” by the Communist government, was fired from the Ministry of Education, and had her books banned from publication from 1949 to 1956.  The book, which is set in Hungary, focuses on a 20 year relationship between a writer named Magda who hires an housekeeper named Emerence.  Emerence is a singular person, relentlessly efficient, incredibly headstrong and obstinate, extremely private and tied to the old ways.  And yet Emerence is respected by the neighborhood as much as she is feared.   Magda and Emerence develop a deep and connected relationship which is ultimately threatened by Magda’s attempt at kindness which Emerence views as a betrayal.

Quotes 

“Creativity requires a state of grace. So many things are required for it to succeed—stimulus and composure, inner peace and a kind of bitter-sweet excitement.”

 

“God usually ignored us when asked for something, but he invariably granted what we feared.”

 

“I know now, what I didn’t then, that affection can’t always be expressed in calm, orderly, articulate ways; and that one cannot prescribe the form it should take for anyone else.”

 

“She was lonely. Who isn’t lonely, I’d like to know? And that includes people who do have someone but just haven’t noticed.”

 

“If there’s no-one to show pleasure when you come home, then it’s better not to live.”

 

“In my student days, I detested Schopenhauer. Only later did I come to acknowledge the force of his idea that every relationship involving personal feeling laid one open to attack, and the more people I allowed to become close to me, the greater the number of ways in which I was vulnerable.”

 

“Everything has to be done properly, even death.” 

My Take

The Door is a unique book that I enjoyed for the most part.  Set on a single street in mid 20th Century Budapest, the relationship between the two main characters is symbolic of humanity’s struggle to love fully and unconditionally.  Magda and Emerence don’t quite achieve this lofty goal, but the glimpses of its possibility make the struggle worthwhile.

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285. Why The Jews?

Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:   Dennis Prager, Joseph Telushkin

Genre:  Non Fiction, History, Theology, Sociology

272 pages, published August 12, 2003

Reading Format:  Book

Summary

Why have Jews been the object of the most enduring and universal hatred in history? Why did Hitler consider murdering Jews more important than winning World War II? Why has the United Nations devoted more time to tiny Israel than to any other nation on earth?  In Why The Jews, authors Dennis Prager and  Joseph Telushkin answer the question of why the Jews have been persecuted throughout history, from the ancient world to the Holocaust to the current crisis in the Middle East.  The authors also look at the replicating of Nazi antisemitism in the Arab world, the pervasive anti-Zionism/antisemitism on university campuses, the rise of antisemitism in Europe and why the United States and Israel are linked in the minds of anti-Semites.

 

My Take

I am a big fan of Dennis Prager, having listened to him for years and consider him to be one of the wisest people in public life.  In addition to being a nationally syndicated Talk Radio Show Host, a prolific author, the force behind the tremendous website Prager University, he is a serious religious scholar specializing in Judaism.  On his radio show, he often mentions his book Why The Jews.  Having heard a lot about this book, I was very interested in reading it.  I was not disappointed, but I was very saddened at the horrendous treatment of the Jewish people throughout history.  Prager and  Joseph Telushkin offer the following explanations for our world’s history of anti-Semitism:

– 1600 years of Christian hatred of Jews culminated in the Holocaust … Christianity did not create the Holocaust … but without Christian antisemitism, the Holocaust would have been inconceivable.

– Jews, merely by continuing to be Jews, threatened the very legitimacy of Christianity … if Judaism remained valid, then Christianity was invalid … therein, from the days of the founding of Christianity, lie the origins of Christian hatred of Jews … Christianity had no choice but to deny the validity of Judaism.

– the mere existence of Jews is a threat to the prevailing order of the societies in which Jews live … Judaism is an existential threat to the core values and beliefs of others … living with this threat often aroused deep and lasting hatred.

– Jews allegiance to the biblical commandments of God, Torah and Israel have made Jews outsiders who challenge the validity of the non-Jew’s gods, laws, and national allegiance.

– economic factors, the need for scapegoats, resentment of Jewish affluence, ethnic hatred … these have all exacerbated antisemitism but do not explain its genesis.

– any group acting so differently from the majority culture is bound to elicit hostility … by observing Kashrut, a Jew can eat little at a non-Jew’s house … observing the Jewish Sabbath increases the otherness and isolation of Jews.

– Nazi Jew-hatred was an end, not a means to an end … Nazism was a vehicle for antisemitism, not the reverse … Hitler used war as a means of killing Jews on a larger scale than he could do in peacetime.

*** Nazi antisemitism was based on hatred of the Jewish character, not hatred of Jews’ non-Aryan blood … the Nazis hated the challenges to their view of the German world posed by Jews and Jewish values.

 

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281. Circling the Sun

Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:   Boulder Librarian

Author:   Paula McLain

Genre:  Fiction, Historical Fiction, Foreign

366 pages, published July 28, 2015

Reading Format:  Audio Book

Summary

Circling the Sun tells the compelling story of Beryl Markham, the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.  While this feat is remarkable in itself, there is a lot more to Beryl’s life.  Raised in Kenya, she was abandoned by her mother at a young age.  Her father raised her to be an expert horsewoman and she made a living training champion thoroughbreds.  She also had an ill-fated affair with Denys Finch Hatton (who introduced her to flying) and was friends with Karen Blixen (who was seriously involved with Denys), author of Out of Africa.

Quotes 

“We’re all of us afraid of many things, but if you make yourself smaller or let your fear confine you, then you really aren’t your own person at all—are you? The real question is whether or not you will risk what it takes to be happy.”

 

“Denys understood how nothing ever holds still for us, or should. The trick is learning to take things as they come and fully, too, with no resistance or fear, not trying to grip them too tightly or make them bend.”

 

“Sometimes when you’re hurting, it helps to throw yourself at something that will take your weight.”

 

“I’ve sometimes thought that being loved a little less than others can actually make a person, rather than ruin them.”

 

“I’ve never travelled,” I told her. “Oh, you absolutely should,” she insisted, “if only so that you can come home and really see it for what it is. That’s my favourite part.”

 

“Things come that we never would have predicted for ourselves or even guessed at. And yet they change us forever.”

 

“Proper learning isn’t just useful in society, Beryl. It can be wonderfully yours, a thing to have and keep just for you.”

 

“People interest me so much. They’re such wonderful puzzles. Think of it. Half the time we’ve no idea what we’re doing, but we live anyway.”

 

“We can only go to the limits of ourselves. Anything more and we give too much away. Then we’re not good for anyone.”

 

“For most of a day we walked through alkali flats, the white crust like a frosted layer of salt that rose in a powder when your boots punched through. We wore the chalk on us everywhere—up to our knees, in the creases of our fingers clenching the rifle strap, down in the cavity between my breasts, and in my mouth, too. I couldn’t keep it out and stopped trying. I couldn’t keep anything out, I realized, and that was something I loved about Africa. The way it got at you from the outside in and never let up, and never let you go.”

 

“what I’d really like to know is how it feels to be on my own. Not someone’s daughter or wife, I mean…but my own person.” “Oh.” It seemed I’d surprised him. “There isn’t a lot of that kind of thinking around here.” “Of course there is,” I told him, trying to draw a smile. “It’s just usually a man who’s doing it.” —”

 

“Searching out something important and going astray look exactly the same for a while, in fact.”

 

“Miwanzo is the word in Swahili for “beginnings.” But sometimes everything has to end first and the bottom drop out and every light fizzle and die before a proper beginning can come along.”

 

“Have you ever seen stars like this? You can’t have. They don’t make them like this anywhere in the world.” Above our heads, the sky was a brimming treasure box. Some of the stars seemed to want to pull free and leap down onto my shoulders—and though these were the only ones I had ever known, I believed Denys when he said they were the finest. I thought I might believe anything he said, in fact, even though we had just met. He had that in him.” 

My Take

Paula McLain, the talented author of Circling the Sun also wrote The Paris Wife, a book about Ernest Hemingway’s first wife that I read a few years ago.  Both books are historical fiction biographies based on strong women protagonists.  I preferred Circling the Sun because of the unique character of Beryl Markham, a woman before her time and an aviation pioneer.  Although she was a bit prone to self absorption and often made foolish, impulsive decisions, she was an amazing woman.

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278. The Story of God, the Story of Us: Getting Lost and Found in the Bible

Rating:  ☆☆☆1/2

Recommended by:

Author:   Sean Gladding

Genre:  Non Fiction, Christian, Theology

237 pages, published August 27, 2010

Reading Format:  Book

Summary

In The Story of God, the Story of Us, author Sean Gladding tells the story of the entire Bible.  Gladding’s convention is to follow the conversations of a group of people (sitting around a campfire in Babylon, reclining at table in Asia Minor, or huddled together by candlelight in Rome) wrestling with the Story of God for the first time.  While the book can be read alone, it is designed to be shared with a group.

Quotes 

“The ever present ache of exile rises above the comforting sounds of the river, as the image of the house of the LORD in ruins breaks the peace. . . . Despite the warmth of the fire, he feels a chill. He wraps his cloak around him and looks into the eager faces of his people, then closes his eyes. ‘Picture this scene . . .'”

 

“Did you hear it? Can you picture the symmetry? Our God is a God of hospitality, creating a place for a people, a place where all life can flourish. God provides for all creation, as our Story shows. Our God is a God of order; we can trust God to provide for us now as in the beginning. “I know that it may not seem that way today, for here we are, exiles in a foreign land. Life is hard. We know that. And that is why we must tell each other the Story, and keep telling it, to do exactly what God has continually told us to do: remember . . . remember . . . remember.”

 

“Sin is not just something I do. Sin is social; it always impacts the whole community.” 

My Take

I read The Story of God, the Story of Us in a small group from First Presbyterian Church in Boulder, of which I am a member.  This book is a fresh take on the Bible and provides a succinct and compelling overview.  I especially enjoyed the discussions of the book with my small group and recommend reading it in a group if you can.  There is a companion study guide which we found very useful.

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