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Motivational Propaganda {1} Comments Off

“What I must do is all that concerns me,

not what the people think. This rule, equally arduous in actual and in intellectual life, may serve for the whole distinction between greatness and meanness. It is the harder because you will always find those who think they know what is your duty better than you know it.”

“Insist on yourself; never imitate.

Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life’s cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another you have only an extemporaneous half possession. That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him.”

“Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.”

“Man is buffeted by circumstances so long as he believes himself to be the creature of outside conditions, but when he realizes that he is a creative power, and that he may command the hidden soil and seeds of his being out of which circumstaces grow,

he then becomes the rightful master of himself.”

“To put away aimlessness and weakness,

and to begin to think with purpose,

is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment; who make all conditions serve them, and who think strongly, attempt fearlessly, and accomplish masterfully.”

-James Allen

—Photo by aprilzosia.



Reading Addicts, Unite + Review of “Graceling” by Kristin Cashore Comments Off

I have been consuming books by the boatload lately.

Three reasons.
1. I realized (again) that I learn from books – if I want to grow, be motivated, inspired, changed, challenged, etc. – I read on a topic. And I need to grow in a lot of, er, topics.

2. I miss fiction. I’d fallen out of the lovely habit of just savoring books, enjoying the pure pleasure of story. Too much academic reading, too much nonfiction (without the good stories alongside), too much literary fiction and too few rewards. I hate a snarky read. I hate bad writing. Where is the blessed book free of both?

Well – not always true, I’m sure – but I took Gretchen Rubin‘s commendation to heart and started reading YA fiction. Delicious. I probably won’t be satiated in YA alone – the appetite is enormous – but I do find YA to be a large, interesting room full of smart, deep, well-written books. Some duds, too, sure. But plenty of good ones to choose from.
Anyhow. Oh yes, and I do read fiction as a lovely way to procrastinate on doing the (nonfiction) things I’ve been reading about and learning to do…

3. Joe got me a Kindle for Christmas.

= fall in love all ovah again
= best gift ever
= so many benefits that even an old-school, paper-infatuated, Apple-resistant gal like me can’t deny the love, the absolute and utter thrill of being able to carry a room full of books with me wherever I go. Because, despite the rigors of getting three kids under four dressed, pottied, redressed, and loaded in the car on any sort of outing, the most stressful part of leaving is still the moment I stop in the library (aka bulk storage room full of books masquerading as home office), purse in hand, and ask myself, “Which book should I take?” Now: I take them all. Oh joy, joy, joy.

Joe came home with a stack of YA fiction I’d requested from the library. I started (after much deliberation between which to start with, which nearly resulted in an ugly treadmill incident) on Graceling by Kristin Cashore.

Her first novel. Lovely. (I’ve used that word too much in this post.) The prose is striking, original, ringing, vivid. I found myself wanting to copy lines down just to savor and share later, but didn’t because I was too interested in the story for a petty exercise like NOTE TAKING (which I happen to love, truly madly deeply).

Oh, the story. Right.

You don’t really need a plot summary. There’s a heroine, who is more than she seems and a hero with similar characteristics, and a villain as well… And the characters make you like them and the world draws you in, and my only complaint is that the final “downfall of the villain” scene is almost anti-climactic. It’s like Kristin (can I call you Kristin? Is that okay?) felt like she’d ventured into a sticky mess of conflict and she’d better RESOLVE, RESOLVE NOW before things got out of hand and there was no clear way to resolution. To which I’d say: Kristin, trust yourself a little more. You wrote the whole gorgeous story, created the whole world it contains, you’re not going to get lost at the end. Take your time.

Maybe it was getting close to her deadline.

At any rate, despite that single complaint, the book is a gem. Poetry-like prose, “I-like-you-will-you-be-my-friend” characters.
Read.
Enjoy.

5/5 stars.
Image by Ginnerobot.

Modern Homemaking REdefined: Ditch the List 1

Today’s guest post is by Sarah Jessica of From Tolstoy to Tinkerbell. If you’re interested in writing a guest post, see the guidelines here.


As modern homemakers, we love lists—any type of list. If we didn’t, why would we make them daily? We have our to-do lists, our grocery lists, our school supply lists, our chore lists, our book club reading lists. Written in brief bullet points, rattling off the essential needs for the household to run smoothly; lists give us power. They show us that we are reasonable, rational beings who can minimize text for maximum efficiency and benefit.

We also cling to other important lists such as People’s 50 Most Beautiful People, Forbes‘ list of the most influential people, and perhaps the most intimidating (or at least for me) The New York Times bestseller list. Perhaps, we glance over this book list, go the local bookstore and peruse over the recommended titles. (Maybe the New York Times bestseller list is not one that you follow. Insert whatever book list whether it is romance novels, Christian devotionals, classic literature—whatever books’ lists, the specific list is not important.)

Books from self-help to postmodern novels to presidential memoirs stare down at us with their glossy dust jackets and $25.00 price tags. We may leave feeling disillusioned, disengaged, or worse: buy an expensive dust-collector for the ever growing collection of expensive dust-collectors. We return to the mundane, wishing to engage our minds, but despairing in our lack of fortitude since we did not follow the book list. All of these books come highly recommended by “the book list,” our fellow book club friends, everyone except us.

Reread that last sentence (I helped you out with the wonders of copy/paste)– “All of these books come highly recommended by “the book list,” our fellow book club friends, everyone except us.” We disengage our minds because we are too busy comparing our desires, interests, and emotional responses to others. By comparing ourselves to others’, we set ourselves up to be disappointed.

engage your mind: quit comparing

The first step to engaging our minds is to give up comparing our likes/dislikes to our friends, co-workers, neighbors, and mostly importantly, the recommended book list. We must openly admit that there are books, blogs, magazines that we DON’T LIKE! I have a list of authors that I have tried, really, really hard to enjoy—Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Faulkner, D.H. Lawrence, Harriet Beecher Stowe—to name a few. This does not in any way negate those who do enjoy these writers from appreciating these texts. I would prefer to have my tongue nailed to the kitchen counter everyday before breakfast than read these authors’ works. I have learned to admit what I don’t like so that I can spend more of the precious time I have reading what I DO LIKE!

engage your mind: be enchanted

The second step to engaging our minds is to be enchanted with our reading. I believe Emily Dickinson in her poem best describes how we women should approach our minds/reading:

I think I was enchanted
When first a sombre Girl –
I read that Foreign Lady –
The Dark — felt beautiful –( Poem 593).

Enchantment. When was the last you time that you picked up a book, enthralled by its contents, smell, the feel of its pages, utterly absorbed in the emotional ecstasy of the written word? After we discover what we like to read, we must move to what we LOVE to read.
Books that we love should move us toward a higher plane, ignite within us a new curiosity, encourage us to think deeply. Books I love are the ones I read over and over just because I continually find new facets of the plot, characters, or the language itself. The books that have enchanted me always give me a reason to return to their well-worn, ink-marked pages.

engage your mind: join a community

The final step to engaging our minds is to find/create a community. Once we are enchanted with a book, poem, short story, blog, we need the support of others to keep our minds focused. There is no right or wrong way to find or create this community. Whether you choose to write a blog professing your love of zombie haiku, or gather other people who share your passion for cookbooks and create a five star worthy French bistro dinner—we need community. Community opens up dialogues, and dialogues reaffirm our enchantment with the written word.

Today, I am enchanted by Emily Dickinson’s poetry (if you couldn’t tell). My love for her poems has been rekindled. I’m enthralled, enchanted. I invite you to join me.

“There is No Frigate Like a Book”
Emily Dickinson

There is no frigate like a book
To take us lands away,
Nor any coursers like a page
Of prancing poetry.
This traverse may the poorest take
Without oppress of toll;
How frugal is the chariot
That bears a human soul!(Poem 99)

What book has enchanted you?

Today’s 2 Cents Courtesy of:

Sarah Jessica grew up reading, thinking, musing which led her to pursue a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in English. This Virginian settled in the Carolinas where she lives with her husband Mark, two beautiful step-children AJ and Ashley, and three rambunctious English Springer Spaniels: Ginger Snap, Cupcake, and Ophelia (Ophelia was thus named when no one in Sarah’s family was hungry). She is currently writing blog posts for From Tolstoy to Tinkerbell, and you can follow her on Twitter.

{Review} Captivating by John and Stasi Eldredge 2

I tend to avoid books when they are on the bestseller list; it’s kind of a reverse snobbishness, I guess.

So I avoided Captivating the first time around, despite the fact that I’d read The Sacred Romance (by John Eldredge and Brent Curtis) and loved it, and despite the personal recommendations I received. I can’t, thus, tell you much about how this revised-and-expanded version is better than the original.

But I can tell you that, if you are a woman this is a book worth reading. Not if-you-are-a-woman-and-a-Christian, just: if you are a woman.

Why? Not that the Christian thing doesn’t matter, but that every woman struggles on some level with the issues that the Eldredges talk about. Their philosophy and, yes, their solutions are Biblically based; for non-Christian women, I can understand that might be a turn-off. But I urge you anyway: stride through the Scripture quotations and sit still for the stories and the truths that aren’t tied up in church-speak.

And for Christian women, this book can help you step out of the easy answers so often given via church-speak and deal with the hurts it’s quite possible to hide but impossible to truly forget. The heart of this book is about remembering, about dealing with the lies that tell us to forget-about-it, quit-making-things-such-a-big-deal.

This book helps us to understand why some things are a big deal, and should be, and how we need to look at them and find out what they’re telling us. As we acknowledge, and remember who we really are, we can let go not in self-denial or resentment, but in true freedom. That’s a good read.

Details:

Captivating: Unlocking the Mystery of a Woman’s Soul. By John and Stasi Eldredge. Revised and Expanded. Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2010. Purchase or get more information at the Amazon product page.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

I review for BookSneeze

{Book Review} Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God by Sheila Walsh 1

Beautiful Things Happen When a Woman Trusts God

by Sheila Walsh

Thomas Nelson Publishers; 3 out of 5 stars

I like this book, I do, so I feel kind of guilty being harsh in my review. But repetition bores me, and the writing in this book is very formulaic. Each chapter follows the same format: personal story or anecdote, parallel drawn to Biblical character, more insight into Biblical character interspersed with additional personal anecdotes, conclusion, and then the “transitional sentence” to lead into the next chapter. continue reading…

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