Bound for the Promise-Land

Bound for the Promise-Land by Troy D. Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have had the pleasure of calling Troy D. Smith a friend since we were in middle school and I owned Bound for the Promise-Land in paperback when it first came out. I hadn't re-read it in years but when it came out for kindle it was one of my first purchases. Troy has a true gift for historical fiction...his characters, whether fictional or factual, are believable and fully "human" in the best sense of the word. Alfred Mann is one of my favorite characters. His evolution throughout the book is compelling. His search for his own humanity, for what it means to be "a man", for where God is in all he has endured, for what it means to be truly free is something anyone who has experienced love and loss, hurt and injustice can identify with. I highly recommend this book.

View all my reviews

I Want it Now! A Memoir of Life on the Set of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory by Julie Dawn Cole
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I adore the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory so when the opportunity to grab it for my kindle came along I jumped on it. I am so glad I did. Julie Dawn Cole, the original Veruca Salt, has written a wonderful memoir that takes the reader behind the scenes and makes one feel as if they are one of the "Wonka Kids" themselves. The photos alone are a delicious treat for any fan of the movie. I thoroughly enjoyed this glimpse into the real person behind the nasty Veruca.

View all my reviews

The Secret Holocaust Diaries

The Secret Holocaust Diaries: The Untold Story of Nonna Bannister by Nonna Bannister
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

When I grabbed this book off the recommendation from PixelofInk I didn't expect to find a hometown connection and a story of the Holocaust from a perspective I had never before encountered but that was just what I found and what kept me engaged throughout the book. I had a fascination with WWII in high school and I read many survivors accounts from the German perspective and the Jewish perspective over the years. I had never before encountered one from the Russian perspective. This is an important piece of history and I hope that the free kindle edition's availablity will give it a broad readership. These first person accounts become ever more important as the last of the survivors of the Holocaust and of the war itself are aging and dying. I wish I could have given it more than four stars. I think the parenthetical information inserted within the text to explain certain word choices or historical context interrupted the flow and would have been better if provided as end notes or in the case of this kindle format even as clickable links. Other than that I found this a very good read and an important piece of history.

View all my reviews

Cybill Disobedience by Cybill Shepherd
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Memphis and Cybill Shepherd are forever tied together. This was an interesting read because of the hometown connections.

View all my reviews

First book of 2012

My Emily by Matt Patterson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The tender story of the brief life of Emily Patterson written by her father Matt. Emily was born with Down's Syndrome and then stricken with ALL. Despite the shortness of her life, the legacy she left behind is beautifully memoralized in her father's book.

View all my reviews

1. Discovering the God Imagination - Jonathan Brink
2. Fall to Grace - Jay Bakker
3. Son of a Preacher Man - Jay Bakker
4. My Beautiful Mess - Jeremy Ritch
5. The Girls from Ames - Jeffery Zaslow
6. City of Bones
7. City of Ashes
8. City of Glass - all by Cassandra Clare
9. Paranormalcy - Kiersten White
10. Sex God
11. Velvet Elvis
12. Love Wins - all by Rob Bell
13. Unconditional - Brian Zahn
14. A New Kind of Christianity
15. The Secret Message of Jesus
16. Finding Our Way Again - all by Brian McLaren
17. A Desperate Journey - Debra Parmley
18. Cross Road Blues - Troy D. Smith
19. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - Barbara Kingslover
20. You Know You Should be Glad - Bob Greene
21. Bulletproof Faith - Candace Chellew Hodge
22. Peace, Love and Baby Ducks - Lauren Myracle
23. The Help - Kathryn Stockett
24. Vegan Virgin Valentine - Carolyn Mackler
25. I, Coriander - Sally Gardner
26. The New Christians - Tony Jones
27. Uncensored Prayer - Joy Wilson
28. Life Makovers - Cheryl Richardson
29. Touch - Rudy Rasmus
30. I Am Rembrandt's Daughter - Lynn Cullen
31. Corsets and Clockwork - Trisha Telep (editor)
32. Screamfree Parenting - Hal Runkel
33. My Dyslexia - Philip Schultz
34. The Writing Diet -Julia Cameron
35. What God Has Joined Together - Myers and Scanzoni
36. Elvis, Willie, Jesus and Me - Bert Montgomery
37. Psychic Pancakes and Communion Pizza - Bert Montgomery
38. Pirates - Marco Carini and Flora Macallan
39. The Practice of Love - Johnathan Brink (editor)
40. Down We Go - Kathy Escobar
41. The Orthodox Heretic - Peter Rollins
42. Dressing Your Truth - Carol Tuttle
43. Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain
44. The Story We Find Ourselves In - Brian McLaren
45. The Last Word and The Word After That - Brian McLaren
46. Creating With God: The Holy Confusing Blessedness of Pregnancy - Sarah Jobe - disclaimer I am NOT pregnant nor do I plan to be at any point in the future.
47. Leviathan
48. Behemoth
49. Goliath - all by Scott Westerfield
50. The Girl Who Couldn't Say No: Memoir of a Teenage Mom - Tracy Engelbrecht
51. Virdis - Calista Taylor
52. One IM-Perfect Christmas - Myra Johnson
53. The Blood of Patriots - Troy D. Smith
54. The Strange Case of Finley Jane - Kady Cross
55. The Weight of Shadows - Allison Strobel

At the beginning of 2011 I set out to read 52 books in 52 weeks...I read far more than that but keeping track of what I read isn't my strong suite. This is the list of the ones I can document. I got a kindle fire for Christmas and I've read the last dozen in the last two weeks plus more. I LOOOOOVE my Kindle! In 2012 I intend to continue with the 52 books project and I'm going to be doing some kind of project 365 as well...stay tuned!

Week 41 - Time to Update The List

1. Discovering the God Imagination - Jonathan Brink 
2. Fall to Grace - Jay Bakker 
3. Son of a Preacher Man - Jay Bakker 
4. My Beautiful Mess - Jeremy Ritch
5. The Girls from Ames - Jeffery Zaslow
6. City of Bones 
7. City of Ashes 
8. City of Glass - all by Cassandra Clare 
9. Paranormalcy - Kiersten White 
10. Sex God
11. Velvet Elvis
12. Love Wins - all by Rob Bell 
13. Unconditional - Brian Zahn 
14. A New Kind of Christianity 
15. The Secret Message of Jesus 
16. Finding Our Way Again - all by Brian McLaren 
17. A Desperate Journey - Debra Parmley 
18. Cross Road Blues - Troy D. Smith 
19. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - Barbara Kingslover 
20. You Know You Should be Glad - Bob Greene 
21. Bulletproof Faith - Candace Chellew Hodge
22. Peace, Love and Baby Ducks - Lauren Myracle 
23. The Help - Kathryn Stockett
24. Vegan Virgin Valentine - Carolyn Mackler
25. I, Coriander - Sally Gardner
26. The New Christians - Tony Jones
27. Uncensored Prayer - Joy Wilson
28. Life Makovers - Cheryl Richardson
29. Touch - Rudy Rasmus
30. I Am Rembrandt's Daughter - Lynn Cullen
31. Corsets and Clockwork - Trisha Telep (editor)
32. Screamfree Parenting - Hal Runkel 
33. My Dyslexia - Philip Schultz
34. The Writing Diet -Julia Cameron
35. What God Has Joined Together - Myers and Scanzoni
36. Elvis, Willie, Jesus and Me - Bert Montgomery
37. Psychic Pancakes and Communion Pizza - Bert Montgomery
38. Pirates - Marco Carini and Flora Macallan
39. The Practice of Love - Johnathan Brink (editor)
40. Down We Go - Kathy Escobar
41.  ?

I am waiting on the arrival of a large Amazon order, six new books, hopefully today. I will try and expand on some of what I've read in future blog posts. Kathy Escobar's is one that I'll be going back over with a highlighter and making margin notes.

22 Weeks In

So I'm pretty horrible about writing book reviews. I love to read. I love to write. I don't so much love to write about what I am reading. How odd. Anyway here I am 22 weeks in and I thought I should at least list what I've read thus far this year to see where I am in my 52 in 52 goal:

1. Discovering the God Imagination - Jonathan Brink 
2. Fall to Grace - Jay Bakker 
3. Son of a Preacher Man - Jay Bakker 
4. My Beautiful Mess - Jeremy Ritch
5. The Girls from Ames - Jeffery Zaslow
6. City of Bones 
7. City of Ashes 
8. City of Glass - all by Cassandra Clare 
9. Paranormalcy - Kiersten White 
10. Sex God
11. Velvet Elvis
12. Love Wins - all by Rob Bell 
13. Unconditional - Brian Zahn 
14. A New Kind of Christianity 
15. The Secret Message of Jesus 
16. Finding Our Way Again - all by Brian McLaren 
17. A Desperate Journey - Debra Parmley 
18. Cross Road Blues - Troy D. Smith 
19. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle - Barbara Kingslover 
20. You Know You Should be Glad - Bob Greene 
21. Bulletproof Faith - Candace Chellew Hodge
22. Peace, Love and Baby Ducks - Lauren Myracle 

Still reading #14 and pretty sure I left off a couple so I'm very much on track. Go me!

More Thoughts on "Fall To Grace"

From the introduction to the co-author's notes at the end Fall to Grace is one of those books I simply could not put down. I read into the wee hours of the morning as the snow fell and piled high (for Tennessee) outside the windows. Using the book of Galatians as his backdrop and sprinkling first person testimonies called "Grace Notes" between the sections of his text Jay Bakker issues a call to a hurting world and an all too often legalistic bullying church/political culture to understand the revolution that is God's Grace.

As I read others reviews of this book I was shocked to see all kinds of things that in my opinion the reviewer had to read into the text. One such review claimed that this is a gospel of Universalism, one that denies the need for the individual to accept God's grace and in so doing denies the core of the Christian faith. I am baffled as to where this reviewer got that idea. In the first sentence of Chapter 4 he states "At the core of Paul's idea of Grace is the belief that man is freed from religious law and reconciled with God through Jesus' life, death and sacrifice." Seems pretty orthodox to me.

I suspect that those who take issue with Jay Bakker's message do so for one of two reasons. The first being that he is the son of disgraced televangelist Jim Bakker and the second being that like his late mother, Tammy Faye Bakker, Jay is LGBTQ affirming and accepting, arguing for full equality including the right of same gender couples to marry. Regardless of your position on the LGBT issue "Fall to Grace" is a thought provoking biblically sound message and one that many who have been hurt by the church need desperately to hear. I highly recommend it.

Next On The Reading List

 

http://www.girlgeniusbooks.com/

I've been reading Girl Genius online for a couple of years starting from the beginning and catching up to the current page in a weekend and then reading on Monday, Wednesday and Friday regularly. I can't wait to get my hands on the new novel and I'll be checking the bookstores for it tomorrow!

Fall To Grace - Jay Bakker

We got snow this week so I have had more time to read than usual. On Sunday, before the predicted "Snowmaggedon" hit our area, I went to Barnes and Noble and picked up Jay Bakker's new book "Fall to Grace" 

I got to know Jay Bakker a bit over a month ago now. Some of my readers may know the name, he's the son of Jim and the late Tammy Faye Bakker of PTL fame. He's also one of the most genuine people I know. I'm going to pick up his first book, "Son of a Preacher Man" from the library as soon as I can get out from the snow. I won't even begin to go into Jay's story, he tells it much better than I could and if you're doing the 52 in 52 you can add it to your list and read it for yourself. "Fall to Grace" is an exploration of what Grace is really all about. It draws on the book of Galatians and on Jay's life experience and on the stories of others, "Grace Notes" inserted between the sections, to build a beautiful case for grace. 

Jay's writing style is natural and easy to read. As the mother of a dyslexic child I find it profoundly comforting to read the work of a profoundly dyslexic author. He does use a co-writer, Martin Edlund, but the voice in the book is clearly Jay's. I found the book encouraging on so many levels. It is a perfect match to Jonathan Brink's book, which I am still reading and pondering over. 

Jay will be doing book signings in several parts of the country. If you're in any of these areas you need to check him out: 

Fall to Grace, Book signing tour dates!

by Jay Bakker on Friday, January 7, 2011 at 2:04pm

·         January 14 at 7:30pm – Book Signing at Spoonbill & Sugartown, 218 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211
·         January 17 at 7:00pm – Book Signing at Borders, 7836 Rea Road, Charlotte, NC 28277
·         January 19 at 7:00pm – Book Signing at Borders, 650 Ponce de Leon, Ste. 500, Atlanta, GA 30308
·         January 22 at 7:00pm – Book Signing at BookPeople, 603 North Lamar Blvd, Austin, TX 78703
·         January 24 at 7:00pm – Book Signing at Borders, 400 Post Street, San Francisco, CA 94102

I'm 82 Pages and 4 Chapters In

This is presenting a fascinating paradigm...starting with the creation story a case is being made that the problem created in the garden when we (humanity) chose to eat of the tree of knowledge of good/evil is that we lost our capacity to see ourselves in the truth of how God sees us (he proclaimed humanity at creation to be "very good") and that it is not God or Satan who must be appeased at the Cross but rather humanity's own demands based on our flawed judgment of what happened in the Garden. It is a fascinating premise. I'm curious to see how it develops.

How This Is Going To Work

So I'm thinking that I won't be reading a book a week necessarily...some weeks I may read more than one and some books may take more than a week to read. My goal is 52 in 52 not a book a week. This week's book is by my outlaw preacher friend Jonathan Brink. I got it from him at OP10 - the Outlaw Preacher's (re)Union last month and haven't gotten started on it yet. His breakout session on it was very thought provoking and I'm looking forward to reading it. I expect this one to take more than one week.

Discovering the God Imagination: Jonathan Brink 

I am excited about engaging with this book. The concept he is exploring here is not one I'm sure I agree with but the little bit we talked about in the group session has me wanting to dig more deeply into scripture to see if its possible that we've gotten a whole lot of things all tangled up by not understanding what happened in Eden.

This Poor Blog

I'm sure it must suffer from an identity crisis. Over the years of its existence it has been:

1. A place for my random thoughts
2. A geocaching blog 
3. A bento cooking blog 
4. A homeschooling mama blog 

And now the blog for keeping track of what I'm reading for the 52 books in 52 weeks 2011 challenge.

Jessica and I are embarking on a challenge to read 52 books in 52 weeks. She's dyslexic so it may be much more a challenge to her than to me. We shall see. Her blog can be found at this link so please check in and encourage her as the year goes along. At any rate this old blog is getting a new purpose and a new look for the New Year. Happy Reading!

Today I Told DB

Today I finally talked to DB and I think I can finally lay the issue to rest. Each one of the friends that you brought into my life, the ones I feared I had lost in losing you, know my truth. It is enough. I did not ask any of them to pick between us. I know the heart is large enough to love us both. Yet to be honest, to be real in my relationships with them, I couldn't pretend that this great gaping hole wasn't blown out of my life history. Whatever happens to those relationships from here forward is no longer about you. It is about me. It is about my relationship with that person outside the context of you.

So much of my adult life was in the context of you. Too much of it. I didn't see that until you were gone and I finally saw how enmeshed we had been. Learning to live in this new reality hasn't been a smooth process and it has taken me nearly two years to finally gather the courage and make the decision to speak my truth to DB. He apologized to me on your behalf. How sad is that? He filled in a few gaps for me. There is a girl. I hope and pray she is the one and that the two of you are beautifully happy together. I hope you have the courage to be honest with her about where you have fallen and the places you are weak so that she can help you up and help you to be strong. I wish you joy. Despite everything. I wish you joy.

Life Interrupted

I started back writing in this blog a bit last March with the intent of making doing so a regular thing but life got rather dramatically interrupted shortly after that post and remains so to this day. We are among the many victims of the May floods of 2010 that hit much of Tennessee. I am sitting on the landing between the living room and the dining room, both remain emptied of furniture and stripped to the bare concrete/asbestos tile floors. The living room is virtually empty. A vacuum cleaner, a broom, a fan and a work light are the only items there. The dining room is less organized. A blanket covered in kitchen items to be kept and another covered in kitchen items to be donated, a drying rack where several pieces of delicate laundry are drying, a step stool that acts as the desk for my notebook computer, a tv tray where I cook much of our food, a large trash can and the various blinking electronic devices that connect me still to the internet world. It is like living in a really poorly equipped college dormitory. At least we are back home. It was three weeks before I could be inside the house at all due to the dampness and the mold. It was another three weeks before the last of the soggy, damaged parquet hardwood gave up its hold on the concrete sub-floors and was finally removed from the house. Four weeks of air-conditioner problems in one of the hottest Memphis summers in decades kept us out at the last. After that was resolved there was nothing that would keep us from moving back home.

I understand now the doggedness of the survivors of Katrina. The seemingly irrational drive to save what to someone on the outside looking in would seem much wiser to simply walk away from. This is HOME. This is the house where our daughter was conceived and to which we brought her home from the hospital. It is the only home she has ever known. This is the house where a dozen church kids looked beyond the mess and disorder and saw welcome anyway. This is the house that we invested our own blood, sweat and tears in when we moved in, still newlyweds, 16 and a half years ago. This is the home we never intended to make our forever home but that somehow became that while we were busy building our lives. So even though the loans we are taking to put it back together will result in us being hopelessly upside down, walking away and letting the bank take her isn't an option. It just isn't.

Life has been interrupted for sure but we will find our way somehow back home.

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

Top is what the dough looks like when you take it from the fridge and have cut one loaf's worth off to bake. The second photo is what the one loaf looks like as it is resting before baking. Note the cornmeal on the cutting board to keep the dough from sticking. This will become important later. Photo three is what the loaf looks like after having cooked, upside down because it flipped instead of sliding off the board, just before being removed from the oven. Photo four is the finished product, cornmeal topped crust and self created steam vent are due to said flip from photo three. The oven may be just a little bit on the hot side but the finished product tastes amazingly good all things considered

It's Been Almost A Year

since I posted here last. I had thought about simply letting this blog fade away since I am committed to blogging daily over at my med blog but I think there is still a purpose for a place for me to blog things that really don't fit over there and so here I am again.

I don't know how often I'll write or what even this blog is going to be about. The good news is that fits the subtitle. The random musings of a homeschool mom and geocacher...and artist...and churchmom and woman of many other roles.

I am still learning daily who I am. This last year has been one where everything except the foundations has been shaken. Yet I am still standing. God is still in control. Life is still good.

I am finding new interests and reviving old ones. Meeting new pieces of myself and reclaiming ones that had been trusted to people who were not worthy of that trust. I am bruised and cautious but starting now I am beginning to move toward hope and healing.

It is well with my soul.

This needs to be my prayer...Often.

“My failure to be true even to my own accepted standards:

My self-deception in face of temptation:

My choosing of the worse when I know the better: O Lord, forgive.

My failure to apply to myself the standard of conduct I demand of others:

My complacence towards wrongs that do not touch my own case and my over-sensitiveness to those that do:

My slowness to see the good in my fellows and the see the evil in myself:

My hardness of heart towards my neighbours faults and my readiness to make allowance for my own… O Lord, forgive.” A Diary of Private Prayer by John Baillie

 

See 1 customer image Share your own customer images

Search inside this book

Please tell the publisher: I’d like to read this book on Kindle Don’t have a Kindle? Get yours here.

 

Missing Christmas and Other Ponderings

This year we didn’t celebrate Advent in the way we have typically done in the past and I think that contributed heavily to feeling as though somehow we “missed” Christmas. Advent began and ended with the deaths of two of my mentors and I think that contributed to the melancholy that settled on me and overshadowed much of the holiday season. I didn’t begin to feel like it was truly Christmas until after the day itself had passed. What turned the season around for me was the time spent with friends in this period between Christmas and Epiphany known as “The Twelve Days of Christmas”. I will be much more intentional about celebrating this part of the season in years to come. I will also be much more intentional about not skipping over Advent. I need that time to focus and get my mind out of the fog of responsibilities and obligations that come with preparing for the Christmas season.

 

Things that stick out in my mind as sweet moments from this time:

 

Clinging Matthew’s hand and singing together for the first time in at least twenty years as we celebrated the life of a woman who had been a mentor to us both

 

A group of 5 or 6 of us, huddled together in our grief, as they took her from the building for the last time…friends still, supporting each other as she taught us

 

Watching Taylor and the pure joy he sees the world with

 

Watching Ben and Taylor interact and seeing brotherly love

 

Doing a puzzle with my crazy family and laughing until it hurt

 

Seeing Cherri and Lil Dave even though they were at work so it had to be all too brief

 

Meeting for the 7^th year in a row with another group of friends from my high school days and enjoying the annual bonding

 

Seeing John for the first time in decades and being able to throw my arms around his neck and give him the hug that I wanted to when he returned safely from Gulf War I

 

Watching Dave with his children and getting to see a side of him that we rarely ever see

 

Holding Rory

 

Brunch with Stephanie and Brian, Mama Katherine and the kids

 

Meeting Debba’s new beau and seeing the difference in how he treats her and how she interacts with him and knowing that it is likely that this is “the one”

 

Finally choosing to make a phone call and ask a question I should have asked months ago the answer makes me feel foolish for waiting so long and sorry I missed seeing Mack based on misinformation

 

Visiting Mrs. A with Amy and Samantha and Jessica and knowing that for a few hours we eased the pain of missing Murray for all of us.

 

Spending the evening at Incredible Pizza with the tech kids laughter is such a healing gift.

 

New Years Afternoon at the Range with Aubree, Jason, Harold and David

 

New Years Eve watching old episodes of Buck Rogers with Jason, David, Jess and Harold

 

The last several days since New Years I have spent being very introspective and working on changes I’d like to make in my life to create space for more moments like these. For too long I’ve hidden behind my chaotic house and my even more chaotic schedule and avoided spending time with the people I care about. No more. I don’t want to look back and see missed opportunities to be with those I love. I may have “missed Christmas” but somehow I “got the message” anyway.