by Teresa Jones ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 13, 2013
A casual discussion of a lifelong journey of faith that many readers will find relatable and enlightening.
A personal work that details what one woman has learned from her belief in Christianity.
Jones begins her examination of her faith by recalling a memory of a large rock on her parents’ land. There, she first felt close to her childhood idea of Jesus and realized what his love meant for her life. She addresses general questions that readers may also have about Christianity, such as, “But doesn’t [God] have an entire universe to care for? There are more than seven billion people in the world today. How does He have the time for each of us?” Remembering the special place of her childhood, she constructs a metaphor to address such concerns: “[I]n my innocent, childlike faith, [the rock] was a place I could go to feel God’s presence….God is still ready to meet with me whenever I reach out to Him. I no longer need my big rock.” Each chapter follows this pattern, introducing a doubt or concern and then presenting Jones’ reasoning with personal examples that support her spiritual beliefs. From her feeling that a lost pocketbook was a direct message from God about tithing, to her husband’s decision to attend seminary, the author reviews many moments from her history as a Christian for the benefit of those struggling to better understand their own faith. She writes with clarity, plainly and directly addressing both her own questions and those that might plague others. She also carefully controls her tone so as to never come across as judgmental; she maintains the voice of a warm, knowledgeable, and inviting guide without ever coming across as presumptuous or overbearing. However, readers looking for highly precise treatments of specific religious concerns may find that her book has a frustrating lack of organization. Jones structures her work around broad notions, such as “protection” or “empowerment,” which makes some chapters feel like collections of vaguely associated anecdotes, Bible verses, and generalizations. Nevertheless, this remains an approachable, insightful book about the big questions facing modern Christians.
A casual discussion of a lifelong journey of faith that many readers will find relatable and enlightening.Pub Date: May 13, 2013
ISBN: 978-1449794811
Page Count: 122
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: May 7, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by Robert Greene ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1998
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
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BOOK TO SCREEN
by R. Crumb ; illustrated by R. Crumb ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 19, 2009
An erudite and artful, though frustratingly restrained, look at Old Testament stories.
The Book of Genesis as imagined by a veteran voice of underground comics.
R. Crumb’s pass at the opening chapters of the Bible isn’t nearly the act of heresy the comic artist’s reputation might suggest. In fact, the creator of Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural is fastidiously respectful. Crumb took pains to preserve every word of Genesis—drawing from numerous source texts, but mainly Robert Alter’s translation, The Five Books of Moses (2004)—and he clearly did his homework on the clothing, shelter and landscapes that surrounded Noah, Abraham and Isaac. This dedication to faithful representation makes the book, as Crumb writes in his introduction, a “straight illustration job, with no intention to ridicule or make visual jokes.” But his efforts are in their own way irreverent, and Crumb feels no particular need to deify even the most divine characters. God Himself is not much taller than Adam and Eve, and instead of omnisciently imparting orders and judgment He stands beside them in Eden, speaking to them directly. Jacob wrestles not with an angel, as is so often depicted in paintings, but with a man who looks not much different from himself. The women are uniformly Crumbian, voluptuous Earth goddesses who are both sexualized and strong-willed. (The endnotes offer a close study of the kinds of power women wielded in Genesis.) The downside of fitting all the text in is that many pages are packed tight with small panels, and too rarely—as with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah—does Crumb expand his lens and treat signature events dramatically. Even the Flood is fairly restrained, though the exodus of the animals from the Ark is beautifully detailed. The author’s respect for Genesis is admirable, but it may leave readers wishing he had taken a few more chances with his interpretation, as when he draws the serpent in the Garden of Eden as a provocative half-man/half-lizard. On the whole, though, the book is largely a tribute to Crumb’s immense talents as a draftsman and stubborn adherence to the script.
An erudite and artful, though frustratingly restrained, look at Old Testament stories.Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-393-06102-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2009
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