Love Does, by Bob Goff

I imagine being a member of Bob Goff's family is a never-ending roller-coaster ride of "what will he think of next?" Love Does, written by Mr. Goff, is full of snippets of his fascinating life experiences -- from the unusual way he got into law school to taking his children to meet various world leaders to helping children in slavery escape from those who torment and use them. The most intriguing thing I find about the experiences he shares is that fact that, by and large, they didn't happen to him. He made them happen on purpose, and he made them happen because of what he believes. What he believes is that love gets up off the couch and love does.

This book is a wonderful source of inspiration for those who are weary of the humdrum, the expected, the ordinary "don't get too involved" way of living life. Every chapter carries a spiritual lesson that may just give a new twist to the way you have always seen your religious life.  As well as being an interesting individual, Mr. Goff knows a lot of other interesting individuals and they too become part of the story.

 Well worth a read to reinvigorate your sense of whimsy (one of Mr. Goff’s favorite words) and your zest for living a life full of love that does.

I reviewed this book for the booksneeze.com blogger book review program and received a free copy of the book in return for my honest review. 

You can find out more about this title at Amazon or at Thomas Nelson.

Book Review - Simple Secrets to a Happy Life, by Luci Swindoll

I admit, the picture on the cover of this book shares about 50/50 credit with the title for my attraction to it. It looks like the sort of life -fresh, clean, simple and attractive - to which I aspire. And green is my favorite color.

Having said that, within the covers of the book are "50 ways to make the most of every day" from the accumulated wisdom of Luci Swindoll. Ms. Swindoll does seem to practice what she preaches; she has lived a very full life thus far, having sung onstage at the opera and shouldered significant responsibilities in her job at Mobil Oil, among other things.

I liked that the chapters were short and to the point. A book like this is easy to carry with you to read in snippets and then spend some time mulling over each bit rather than having to wade through lengthy chapters to get the author's point. I generally like things more in-depth, but this was a refreshing way to gather bits of wisdom from someone who has lived longer than I have. Ms. Swindoll is a Christian lady and this book is written from a decidedly Christian perspective.

If you could also use some refreshment, spiritually and relationally, this is good book to pick up and read. It would also make a nice gift book for someone you care about who might feel a little wilted by life.

I reviewed this book for the Thomas Nelson Booksneeze blogger review program and received a free copy of the book in return for my honest review.

You can find out more about the book at Amazon.

Coming out of the blog desert...

I must be careening into midlife crisis. Lately I've been wondering a lot if this is all there is...work, stressful relationships, work again, feeling like a total underachiever, another day of work... And then I wonder, why can't I do the things I would really like to do? Quit my day job, go hang out on the beach on some tropical island and live off coconuts and play music -- and how much time do I have left to do something crazy like that?

And then there's the self-imposed guilt and fear. You should be grateful to have a job in this economy, even if it isn't stretching your abilities. What if you dropped a relationship only to regret it when it's too late to get it back? What if living on the beach eating coconuts isn't all it's cracked up to be? Hmmmmm?

I'm a big chicken, but even chickens get desperate. I once saw a chicken/rooster thingy soar through the air very nicely when it felt such efforts were called for.

Book Review - Called to Controversy by Ruth Rosen

Having been raised a Christian and recently discovering some possible Jewish connections in my family tree, I was interested to read this book by Ruth Rosen, daughter of the book's subject, Moishe Rosen. I suppose I was hoping for a more in-depth look at the psychology of becoming Christian for Jewish people. The book touches on Moishe's conversion experience but doesn't linger. It is more an overview of his life for those who are already familiar with the Jews for Jesus organization he founded and led for many years. As such, it is a fine work, not sparing the truth about Moishe's faults and failures as well as his strengths and successes.

Obviously, Moishe Rosen was a multi-faceted individual who loved God and was eager to share his religious convictions with his fellow Jews, despite the understandable reluctance many of them feel about being "witnessed to" by Christian believers. Having read this book about his life I am now interested in finding out more about Jews for Jesus and the Messianic Jewish movement in general, so this was a good jumping-off point for me to do that. For those who are already more familiar with Moishe's ministry and who want to more about the life of the man himself, this is an excellent resource.

I reviewed this book for the Thomas-Nelson Booksneeze blogger book review program and received a complimentary copy of the book in return for my honest review.

You can find out more about this book at Thomas Nelson or at Amazon.

Makin' It Work...

I think I'm becoming a pragmatist after all these years of idealism. It's finally starting to sink in that I need to do what works for my life. Oh, I don't mean anything illegal or immoral or anything like that, but for too long I've lived my life chafing under the idea that someone might think I'm doing something wrong or stupid, whether it was good for me or not. Take, for instance, my house...

I live in a very small house. It measures 18' x 24' to be exact, with a loft over nearly half that. It's a cute little house - we started building it several years ago as a "temporary" cabin to live in while we built the "real" house on top of the hill. Now I am so sick of building (this was our second attempt, the first house we built was much bigger) that I don't really care if a bigger house gets built on top of the hill. Frankly, I rather like living in a very small house. It keeps me from bringing in a bunch of knick-knackery that would only take up space and require dusting. I don't like spending a lot of my time taking care of knick-knackery, but I want a clean home. So this little house works for us. (OK, I admit, I still need to finish the paring down of belongings; we still have way too many clothes stuffed into our closet and drawers, and there are still a lot of totes languishing in a storage unit somewhere, but let us enjoy what progress has been made!)

Another thing that comes to mind is magazines. A lot of those simple-living/frugal/green type folks would advise people to drop their magazine subscriptions, and for some people that would undoubtedly be a good thing. After all, no one needs yet another pile of paper they will never look at taking up space on their countertops or lurking in the corners of their bedroom. But my family reads magazines. We don't have television at home and we barely have internet there, so what we do a lot of for fun is read. Old National Geographics? Picked up over and over again by my husband and daughter. When we have finally read the heck out of a magazine, I often take it to the local library's magazine-swap table so someone else can read the heck out of it. A subscription to National Geographic or Countryside or Archeology goes a long way at our house.

Which brings us to plastic crates. For the record, I'm not a huge fan of plastic. I prefer materials that feel more real and earthy, so I used to put magazines and books in this attractive square basket I had. It was very real and earthy. A little too real and earthy. Living in the South in the summertime without air conditioning, let's just say things get a little humid. My basket started going moldy, and even washing it didn't take care of the problem. Now I have a plastic crate that I keep those things in. Not as pretty, but it works. Someday perhaps we will have time to build that bookshelf under the loft stairs, but for now we do what we can.

Make it work!

Gardening Glamor

The seed catalogs have begun arriving in my mailbox. While my thumbs have no hint of green about them (I can kill most any houseplant at ten paces with a glance), I still harbour the yearning hope that this, this will be the year I grow a lush and fruitful vegetable garden from which to feed my family.

I have the garden spot. It's too big, really, sloping very gently from a nice usable soil to a corner of mucky clay. I keep telling my husband - and myself - that we would do better to cultivate only a corner of it so we can keep up with it better, especially when July and August roll around and we are hauling water from the creek for those insatiably thirsty plants. As well, it would be much easier to keep those insatiably hungry forest critters out of a smaller patch, since the dog seems to have little or no intention of performing his canine duty of running off furry vegetable thieves. There is nothing so discouraging as coming blithely to the garden one day and finding your tomato plants - until now green and relatively happy - nipped off to pokey-looking sticks. The poor things try to rally, but they are no match for the persistent teeth and empty bellies of our forest friends.

One year I got something to spray on the plants to make them smell and taste yucky. No, I didn't taste it, but it did smell yucky. It seemed to work, but of course as soon as the plants are rained on it has to be reapplied and in the ten seconds between the washing-off and you getting back down to the garden with the spray bottle, there goes the greenery! (No, really I wasn't that diligent about it. I'm a lazy gardener, what can I say?)

I have harangued DH for years about putting up a fence. I will harangue him again this year. He works in mysterious ways...one day he will simply get the fence-building bug and up it will go. Until then, haranguing makes me feel that I am contributing.

So, back to the catalogs to circle varieties and fill out tentative order forms that total astronomical amounts while my lone surviving houseplant eyes me from its perch on the corner cabinet and hopes to be ignored.

Book Review -This Thing of Ours, by Cammy Franzese

In a nutshell, this is the story of Cammy Franzese’s marriage to mobster Michael Franzese and how she lived while he spent eight years in prison. I would say it's really more of an overview, because she doesn't go into any great detail about anything. As Michael has books of his own out about his old mafia life, perhaps she felt that had already been covered. Her point in this particular book seems to be that God wanted her to stick it out with this guy and blessed her because she did.

To be honest, I had a difficult time relating to the author. I know she was very young when she fell in love and married this man, but she seemed to be awfully, and may I say willfully, clueless. It's the willful part that makes her a less sympathetic character in my opinion.
I want to like this book, because I think the overall message is intended to be positive, and perhaps if I knew more of the story I would like it better, but with the little information the author gives in this particular volume I found it hard to “get into” what she is trying to say. The feeling I came away with was that I’m glad it worked out for her, but she – and he – asked for all the trouble they had along the way!

I reviewed this book for the booksneeze.com blogger book review program and received a free copy of the book in return for my honest review. I'm disclosing this in compliance with the law. You can find out more about the book here at the Thomas Nelson site or here at Amazon.com.