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A VIEW FROM HEAVEN

Name: A VIEW FROM HEAVEN
Author: Carolyn Neary
ISBN: 978-1-5127-7065-0

by Carolyn Neary & Paul Day with illustrated by Linda Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 29, 2017

A series of quick, impressionistic affirmations for Christians in a beautifully crafted booklet.

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A series of meditations examines the Christian life.

Neary opens this slim nonfiction debut with a vivid account of the night at Bible study camp in her 16th year when she decided to challenge Jesus directly, praying that if he would reveal himself to her, she would serve him. At once, the room filled with light and breeze, and she felt herself in the presence of her Lord. This kind of encounter is in accord with what Neary’s collaborator Day writes in his preface about the Christian God. “He wants to be found,” Day claims. “He wants to be known. He has been waiting for you to arrive at this moment in history to make Himself known to you.” Since someone who wants to be known would actually make himself known—not through private, ambiguously felt presences but by direct, observable, and unambiguous encounters—this and other sentiments expressed throughout the book indicate its target readership is the authors’ fellow devout Christians. And for those Christians, Neary and Day have enlisted the aid of artist Lee to make their book a lovely, illuminated work. There are briskly narrated meditations on seemingly trivial items (the desert, for instance, or the alabaster jar containing the scented oils Mary Magdalene used to anoint Jesus, which becomes the focal point for an intriguing elaboration). And each of the volume’s sections is suffused with the kind of peaceful optimism (“We are meant to have joy all the time and have it be our strength,” for example) that the authors clearly intend to impart. There are occasional minor inconsistencies. On the same page, for instance, readers are told conflicting tidbits about angels: that they understand nothing about humans except what they learn from God and that they know mortals’ stories because they have studied them. But the majority of this handsome pamphlet acts as pure reassurance for the faithful.

A series of quick, impressionistic affirmations for Christians in a beautifully crafted booklet.

Pub Date: March 29, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7065-0

Page Count: -

Publisher: Westbow Press

Review Posted Online: July 3, 2017

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.