Pondering the Scriptures Sunday #13

Marriage is the topic today and simply I will just quote some verses in the Holy Bible regarding it.  Just something to think about for those of us who are married ... Valentine's Day is just around the corner!

• For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.  Ephesians 5:31
• Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.  Ephesians 5:33
• Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of the life of thy vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all the days of thy vanity:  for that is thy portion in this life, and thy labour which thou takest under the sun.  Ecclesiastes 9:9
• Let the husband render unto the wife due benevolence:  and likewise also the wife unto the husband. 1Corinthians 7:3
• Wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.  Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.  Colossians 3:18-19
• Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it,... Ephesians 5:25
• Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.  Proverbs 5:15

"Always Looking Up: The Adventures of an Incurable Optimist"

by Michael J. Fox, non-fiction, 2009, 279p, rating=4

"At the turn from our bedroom into the hallway, there is an old full-length mirror in a wooden frame.  I can't help but catch a glimpse of myself as I pass.  Turning fully toward the glass, I consider what I see.  This reflected version of myself, wet, shaking, rumpled, pinched, and slightly stooped, would be alarming were it not for the self-satisfied expression pasted across my face.  I would ask the obvious question, 'What are you smiling about?' but I already know the answer:  'It just gets better from here.' "

This is the second autobiography that Mr. Fox (kinda weird to be so formal considering I had posters of him all over my bedroom wall as a giddy teenager) wrote.  The first titled Lucky Man, which I haven't read.  This one basically memoirs his life after retiring from his hit TV sitcom, Spin City in 2000.  He divided this book into four parts:  work, politics, faith, and family. 

Non-fiction books can be a tedious read so finding an interesting subject becomes essential.  Needless to say, Michael J. Fox was an interesting "subject" for me.  Then having read this book, I find him even more interesting.  He's quite a stand up guy.  Inspirational, funny, intelligent, philanthropic, and yes, optimistic.  Most of his adventures were a delight to read.  It was a refreshing look at his personal life.

I most enjoyed his stories involving his families ...parents, siblings, wife, and kids.  His story of his sister K.C. was especially heartwrenching.  Moreover, his relationship with his wife and kids jumped out as sincere love and devotion.  I'm such a sucker for stories reflecting solid marriage and parenting.

Of course, he discussed his adventures with having Parkinson's disease.  He went through a grieving process but quickly turned it into a fight and built a Michael J. Fox Foundation with an initial pitch of "I need you to help me go out of business." (pg 55).  His determination to find a cure eventually lead him to be in the political arena, namely pushing for the stem cell project.  There he found hurdles but some good news in the long run came.

This was an overall lovely read.  A good man sharing his hopeful journey with upbeat perspective.

"No Country for Old Men"

by Cormac McCarthy, AF, 2005, Playaway audio, narrated by Tom Stechschulte, 7.5hrs, rating=5

"Llewelyn Moss is hunting antelope near the Texas-Mexico border when he stumbles upon several dead men, a big stash of heroin, and more than two million dollars in cash. He takes off with the money, and the hunter becomes the haunted. A drug cartel hires a former Special Forces agent to track down the loot, and a ruthless killer joins the chase as well. Also looking for Moss is the aging Sheriff Bell, a World War II veteran who may be Moss' only hope for survival."

This was an intense book ... very violent.  I can't believe I finished it.  I'm speechless and seriously unsure what to rate it (at this very moment, the rating is empty ...figuring I'd commit to one by the end of this review).  The writing and story telling was what I believe of McCarthy style (having only read one other of his books, The Road)...tell it like it is, sweet and simple (yet at the same time, confuse the heck outta you!), and throw in some bleakness for good measure.  No doubt this book will leave you with some sort of emotional mulling.  So many angles you can get out of this.  Like:  good vs evil; God vs playing god;  the bad side to integrity; the past vs the present; life driven by guilt; human psyche; patronage; and on and on and on!  I tell ya, my head is ready to explode! 

The main cast of characters was a doozy.  Chigurh (sounded sorta like "sugar" on audio), the ruthless killer, scared me.  I certainly don't want to "inconvenience" him or play coin toss with him.  Oddly enough, he's a psycho with integrity that proved to be particularly unfavorable for one of his victims (ok, to all his victims, but if you've read the book, you'll understand which particular victim I speak of).  Then, there was Llewelyn (sounded like "Luellen", a girl's name so my mind had to do some gender fixing) the hunter turned huntee who was generally good but temptation got the best of him.  Furthermore, there was Sheriff Bell, driven to do redemptive good and old enough to witness his country/people change for the complex. 

An intensifying story.  It's etched in my brain now and hoping that a Mr. Clean Eraser can rub it off ...just not liking this eerie feeling.

All right, I've settled to give this book 5 stars.  Not necessarily because I loved it or highly recommend it, but because it was amazing in its own right.  Shook me to a high level of hypnotic awe! ...or confusion.  :)

If you decide to read it or have read it, I'd appreciate to hear your take on it.

"Matched"

by Ally Condie, YA, 2010, 369p, rating=3.5

"Cassia has always trusted the Society to make the right choices for her: what to read, what to watch, what to believe. So when Xander's face appears on-screen at her Matching ceremony, Cassia knows with complete certainty that he is her ideal mate . . . until she sees Ky Markham's face flash for an instant before the screen fades to black.


The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice: between Xander and Ky, between the only life she's known and a path that no one else has dared to follow." (Goodreads)

I was gobbling up the story from the beginning.  Dystopia seem to fascinate me.  I totally enjoyed Lois Lowry's The Giver, my first introduction to this type of classification.  So the premise is similar ... creating the ideal perfect world.  One free from conflict and confusion.  This only to be achieved by a totalitarian kind of governing.  Reasonably sound in theory but impossible to reach when humanity embraces the beauty of wonder.  Anyway, this book touched on that suffocation... the loss of personal freedom to choose anything and everything about ones life.  However, as you may recall, I'm not a fan of love triangles lately.  Over done for my taste.  Yet, the love triangle here wasn't necessarily choosing the better guy but the act of merely choosing for oneself.  Cassia was in a quest to wonder ... to be able to get all the facts, weigh them, and then make a decision for herself.  The life she has known had been like a spell and now with increasing knowledge of a different way of life, that spell was beginning to be lifted.

The beginning was strong then it got a bit trying (from describing a dystopian world not done by other authors that some aspects didn't make sense), but by around page 300 onward, well, I couldn't read fast enough to see how it ends!  Unfortunately, it left me asking, "Huh?".  I will read the sequel but I won't be the Mervyn's lady who's glued to the door squealing, "Open, open!".

P.S.  I think I would have liked a close up of the encircled girl for a book cover.  I think a larger view would be prettier, more colorful, and more inviting.  Just sayin'. :)

"Southern Lights"

by Danielle Steel, 2009, Playaway audio, 9hrs, rating=3.5

This took me for a loop.  I was at the library for a quick browse at the Playaway rack and saw this ...Danielle Steel, I figured a romance book.  I haven't read one in ages so I picked it up without reading the blurb.  When I listened to it at home, it started off in a mystery fashion.  I was disappointed!  I was looking forward to romance and it wasn't.  Never occurred to me that an author would go out of his known genre (back in the 80s I pegged her out as a romance novelist).  I was enlightened!

So the story starts off with a chase and capture of the elusive Luke Quentin by New York detectives.  Then they got lucky and gathered substantial evidence that presented Luke as the snuff serial killer.  So this is where Alex Hamilton, the main protagonist, comes in.  She is the assistant DA that would be prosecuting Quentin.  But then threatening letters started to surface that were addressed to her 17yo daughter, Savannah.  Of course, in fear of her safety she had to turn to her ex-husband, Tom, for help.  It had been 11 years since she had left her southern life with him but she had nowhere else to turn.  So she sent Savannah to live with her father for 3-4 months while she was preparing for the huge trial.  From the get go Tom's current wife, Louisa, had it out for Savannah.  Those few months promised to be hell with Mrs. Cruella de Vil! 

Though initially disappointed thinking that I had another psycho-thriller book in my ears (having just finished Darkly Dreaming Dexter), the story actually focused on the personal life of Alexa.  We learn the background to her past southern life and get sucked in on the drama that enfolds.  But this time around I was preparing myself for a twist.  I was waiting for a dark moment to pop into the memory lane segment, after all the story started out about a suspected killer.  Did it come?  I can't tell you.  I don't want to spoil it for you!

I enjoyed the set of southern characters in this book ... southern hospitality with a hint of snobbishness.  I'm certainly ruined from ever voicing the phrase bless her heart!, unless of course I want to be mean (just kidding, this was a fictional story and not necessarily representative of southern culture).  Overall, we meet a variety of intriguing personalities.

This was a nice surprise and it turned out to be mostly a "page turner".  I personally think it could have ended at chapter 19 (or 20, can't remember for sure).  Those last few chapters could have been summed up in a quick epilogue or could have been used as the beginning to a sequel, so that was my main hiccup of this book.  What I did appreciate was the overall theme of family ties and cultivating relationships.  Oddly enough it was also somewhat a hiccup moment ... everything turned out too smoothly.  This makes me sympathetic to an author's search for a happy medium for their readers... just can't please everyone! 

Pondering the Scriptures Sunday #12

Today let's take a look at Esther 1-4.

Vashti disobeys Ahasuerus, king of Persia, so she was disposed as queen.  The king therefore sook for a new queen.  Mordecai who worked for the king presented his young cousin Esther (whom he took to raise after her parents had died) as one of the candidates, imparting her not to mention that she was Jewish.  The king ended up choosing the very beautiful Esther. 

Haman, the chief prince in the king's court grew angry at Mordecai because he would not bow down and pay homage to him.  In Mordecai's eyes he saw Haman's requests as to worship him instead of allegiance hence Mordecai being a Jew would not break the first commandment.  Haman didn't see it that way and in retaliation he deviously convince the king to destroy "certain people" not naming to the king who they were but Haman was referring to the Jews, therefore including Mordecai.  Moreover, with the permission from the king to handle the matter, Haman sent a decree to all provinces to kill all Jews on the thirteenth day of the twelve month.

Mordecai sent word to Esther regarding the decree and asked her to plead to the king for her people.  Wary at first reminding Mordecai that it was against the law for anyone to go unbidden into the inner court of the king (at that time she had not been called to the king for thirty days).  Those who broke this law would be put to death unless the king held out his golden sceptre, allowing the person to live.  Then Mordecai inferred that she might have been place at her particular situation for such a purpose.  Esther gathered her courage and declared, "..so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law:  and if I perish, I perish.".  Then, Esther admonished her people to fast for three days and three night for her. 

When Esther did go into the inner courts of the king, the king found favor in her and held out his golden sceptre.  Esther arranged a feast and there informed the king that she was a Jew and told him of Haman's plot to kill all the Jews.  The king accepted Esther's plea to save her and her people.

Esther's story was an example of courage to stand firm for truth and righteousness.  Her courage resulted in saving a nation and to this day Jews honor her courage through a festival called Purim.

I leave you with a food for thought ... when challenges that require faith and courage to stand for truth and righteousness, how will you respond?

"Darkly Dreaming Dexter"

by Jeffry Lindsay, AF, 2004, Playaway, 8.5hrs, rating=4

"Dexter Morgan appears to be the perfect gentleman.  He is handsome and polite, and has been in a relationship for nearly a year and a half.  Yet appearances can be deceiving, for Dexter is a serial killer who has slain many people.  But in this tale, he's the good guy, for there is one little twist--Dexter only snuffs out other murderers.  When another serial killer, with an eerily similar style, starts grabbing headlines.  Dexter has a fairly morbid thought.  Am I being challenged?" (back flap)

This is not my usual cup of tea.  That is, books geared to themes of murderers and psychopaths but I'm trying to spread my wings.  Anyway, from reading the synopsis it sounded interesting and that it could be an episode in one of those detective TV shows.  To my surprise, apparently there was/is (?) a Dexter series in Showtime channel (I have young kids so the only cable channels around this house are cartoon ones).  Hmm, I would like to catch an episode of the show for comparison.  Anywho, anywho, this certainly isn't for the faint of heart.  Lots of blood splatters, chopped up bodies, and crazies.  But its saving grace was that I got several chuckles and it had a wicked ending! 

Nick Landrum's narrating voice was just right.  Dramatic, charismatic, ... movie star quality to it.  I was totally following the characters' traits through his dramatization.  So good that I forgot that one actor was playing all the parts.  Great job Mr. Landrum!  Oh, of course kudos to Mr. Lindsay as well for setting up interesting characters.

So if you can stomach some blood and insanity then this is a thriller worth checking out.  It was entertaining, it had captivating cast of characters, and wham, that ending!!  What a twist!  Of course, this is an excitement coming from a newbie mystery-thriller reader.  Those into this genre might say, "What are you talking about?  I saw that coming.  That happens all the time!".  Well, good to be a newbie then.