... by Pulitzer-Prize winning author Lucinda Franks.

Franks' book is a remarkable "memoir" of her father, a W.W. II veteran. Using her journalistic instincts, she sniffs intrigue and mystery surrounding her father's sometimes odd behavior (hiding a gun under her bed, e.g.). Eventually she begins unraveling tangled threads in her father's secret past; at the same time the estrangement and feelings of anger she has harbored begin to dissipate.

Old love-letters from her father to his young wife (pre-war) are strikingly warm and tender compared to the man who returned from the war. He was tapped by the U.S. government, at age 30, to work for the Ordnance Department. But there are strange inexplicable allusions to him being in various places around the globe instead. What gives?

He was a spy. And whatever he did or didn't do contributes to the sometimes empty soul that looks out from his darkened eyes when he eludes directly answering Lucinda's probing, painful questions.

Highly recommend if you like biographies, war history (esp. Holocaust era), espionage accounts. A small smattering of curses and crudities, but not enough to detract from the content.

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The opposite of joy is not sorrow. It is unbelief. ~ Leslie Weatherhead
Picture me with my ground teeth stalking joy--fully armed too, as it's a highly dangerous quest. ~ Flannery O'Connor

quote:

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Originally posted by Fuzzies:
What did you make of _Lot 49_ Ladon?

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Meh, I liked Gravity's Rainbow more. The shortest of his novels, easy to step into for a younger reader.

How is Gravity's Rainbow? My dad read it and said it was very good. I'm likely going to start reading that after I finish Anna Karenina. Though I may read more of Tolstoy's work; I quite enjoy it.

"He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God." -Aeschylus

1. Gospel of Matthew. Doing an expositional study of this New Testament book, written from a former tax collector's point of view (hence, there are many references to money, debts, etc.) regarding the life and death of Messiah Yeshua.

2. Martyn Lloyd-Jones' Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, (1959). Originally delivered as sermons at Westminster Chapel; Dr. Lloyd-Jones was first a heart surgeon, if memory serves me right, and after he became a believer he devoted the remainder of his life to teaching/preaching Scripture. Soul-searching and really pinpoints man's, especially hypocritical-religious man's, accountability to the Creator for his secret thoughts and motivations.

3. Dr. John MacArthur's NT Commentary: Matthew 1-7, (1985).

4. Finished reading earlier this month Richard Wurmbrand's In God's Underground, (1968, 2nd printing 2004). One of those books that I impulsively must turn down page corners and pencil mark b/c there are so many incredible passages. Autobiographical narrative of how party-loving Richard Wurmbrand abandoned his paganism to follow Jesus.... and the path of loyalty to Jesus led to severe testing of his faith, which ultimately prevailed over his 20th C. communist torturers because he was consumed by agape-love for God and for them, not hatred. Excerpt:

The row over the stool had brought others to listen [in prison], and I began to preach earnestly about life after death. It was for us no academic matter, but a topic of burning and immediate interest. Men died every day in Gherla.

"If God had made us for this life only," I said, "He would first have given us age with its wisdom, then youth with its vigor. It seems senseless to gather knowledge and understanding simply to take it to the grave. Luther compares our life on earth to the life of an unborn child: he says that if the embryo could reason in the womb it would wonder why it grew hands and feet, and it would surely come to the conclusion that there must be another world to come in which it would play and run and work. Just as the embryo is preparing for a future state, so are we." (p. 215)

5. Have just begun reading Marx and Satan (1986) by Richard Wurmbrand. From back cover: [Marx] began life in a God-fearing family. It is documented that he was once a [professing] Christian.

But a drastic change at some point in his life led Karl Marx to a deep personal rebellion against God and all Christian values. Eventually, he became a Satan worshipper who regularly participated in occult practices and habits.

This book delineates very quickly there are 2 unseen kingdoms: the kingdom of light, love and self-sacrifice and the kingdom of darkness, hatred, and ego-worship. Sobering reflections....

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The opposite of joy is not sorrow. It is unbelief. ~ Leslie Weatherhead
Picture me with my ground teeth stalking joy--fully armed too, as it's a highly dangerous quest. ~ Flannery O'Connor

Just started re-reading a volume that combines Peacock's 'The Four Ages of Poetry' along with Shelly's rejoinder 'A Defence of Poetry'.

I highly recommend it to all those who are curious of the form, evolution and "purpose" of poetry.

Brilliant stuff.

Penguin CLassic's collection of H.P. Lovecraft entitled "The Thing on the Doorstep, and Other Weird STories"
Quite good - I can't put it down.
Also, The Metamorphosis by Kakfa, which is delightfully absurd.

Ambrose Bierce: 'Terror by Night'.
Weird stuff.

Letters From the End of the World, Author Toyofumi Ogura, a firsthand account of the bombing of Hiroshima.

This man is awsome.

"Compromise, hell! ... If freedom is right and tyranny is wrong, why should those who believe in freedom treat it as if it were a roll of bologna to be bartered a slice at a time?" Former Sen. Jesse Helms (R)

Life is hard. After all, it kills you. Katharine Hepburn

Angels in ER: Inspiring True Stories from an Emergency Room Doctor by Dr. Robert D. Lesslie, MD

An easy read..... by that, I mean it's a page-turner filled with interesting people-profiles and narratives that zag, just when you think that you can safely predict they'll zig. I appreciate Dr. Lesslie's "light touch" with regards to his Christian worldview. He writes his narratives in such a way that the 'moral of the story' is hidden in a velvet glove. He's also quite honest regarding times when he gets disgusted, irked, angry with folks, be they an unethical medical colleague or a perp who's shaken a 6 month infant to death. This book would make a fine gift for anyone in the medical field, a caregiver, or even someone interested in anthropology and human psychology.

------------------------------
The opposite of joy is not sorrow. It is unbelief. ~ Leslie Weatherhead
Picture me with my ground teeth stalking joy--fully armed too, as it's a highly dangerous quest. ~ Flannery O'Connor

quote:

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5. Have just begun reading Marx and Satan (1986) by Richard Wurmbrand. From back cover: [Marx] began life in a God-fearing family. It is documented that he was once a [professing] Christian.

But a drastic change at some point in his life led Karl Marx to a deep personal rebellion against God and all Christian values. Eventually, he became a Satan worshipper who regularly participated in occult practices and habits.

This book delineates very quickly there are 2 unseen kingdoms: the kingdom of light, love and self-sacrifice and the kingdom of darkness, hatred, and ego-worship. Sobering reflections....

---

Um. I do hope you read this with a critical mind, Airedale. I've been looking over an online copy, and even the first sentence is a lie. Not a mistake, just a lie. Nothing near 'a third' of the world are Marxists - not in 1986, or ever. I know plenty of Marxists (more accurately Trotskyists), and not all of them claim that Marx was 'deeply' humane in all respects, only in the sense that he wanted to help all mankind. Marx did indeed say that religion is the heart of the heartless world - meaning that religion itself is a false, hardened heart - and you know that I tend to agree with that. I also agree with Marx that Capitalism is a merciless and slow killer of trillions, and given all that I've read of Marx and Trotsky, a Marxist state has never existed, save for an exceptionally short period under Lenin. That does not mean I would argue that transitioning to a Marxist state is possible. The lack of scholarship in Wumbrand's book is just amazing; he does not even question his sources, he conflates young-Marx with adult-Marx, he moves from 'probably' to 'definitely' in the space of a paragraph. I am sad that Wumbrand suffered so at the hands of an awful regime, but a regime that does not implement democratic communism - and Romania did not - is no more 'communist' than modern China is 'a democracy'. Calling such a regime 'communist' is just... ...well... ...inaccurate, for a start.

This text is warped and anti-historical to a feverish pitch. I think that Wumbrand has suffered so much that he is trapped in that kingdom of darkness that you mentioned - blinded by hatred of his misidentified enemy, Marx - and I'm not gloating over the fact. I find it very, very sad.

quote:

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Um. I do hope you read this with a critical mind, Airedale. I've been looking over an online copy, and even the first sentence is a lie. Not a mistake, just a lie. Nothing near 'a third' of the world are Marxists - not in 1986, or ever.

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My 1986 copy's Intro reads, "Marxism has governed over one-third of mankind." Now, I don't see where W. says that one-third all lived concurrently. I do agree it would have been nice had he footnoted his estimate, but presuming he knows his geography and marxism history better than we do, I can give him the benefit of the doubt, esp. when he lays out the tenets of Marxism (anti-God, for one).

quote:

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This text is warped and anti-historical to a feverish pitch. I think that Wumbrand has suffered so much that he is trapped in that kingdom of darkness that you mentioned - blinded by hatred of his misidentified enemy, Marx - and I'm not gloating over the fact. I find it very, very sad.

---

You actually had me chuckling here, Fuzzies. Were you more familiar with Wurmbrand's incredible obedience to Yeshua's "love your enemies", you would realize how you've really stepped in ...

Now, if you feel this strongly, go start a Marxism thread in DF. This thread's devoted to "What are you reading right now?" Not another QL thread trainwreck, please.

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The opposite of joy is not sorrow. It is unbelief. ~ Leslie Weatherhead
Picture me with my ground teeth stalking joy--fully armed too, as it's a highly dangerous quest. ~ Flannery O'Connor

It's okay, Airedale, I don't really want to debate Marxism. It is abundantly clear that one probably knows more about Marxism prior to reading Wumbrand's tract than after. I honestly cannot think of a "marxist" country (as in, a country that has governed according to marxist doctrine rather than fallen into a vague quagmire of authoritarianism before any transition to marxism could take place). Marx himself was anti-religious thought, but not anti-religious rights, in fact if you bother to read his texts at all you will find he champions democracy, and merely discourages religious thinking.

At any rate, we've used this thread to discuss reading material before. Oddly enough, this fits in with my reading of late, because I've been reading:

Ten Days that Shook the World by John Reed.

Europe Central by William T Vollmann

The Gospel According to Jesus Christ by Jose Saramago

Bharat Ke Mahan Yogi- Part III & IV by Vishwanath Mukherjee

Twelfth Planet by Zecharia Sitchin

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"For every credibility gap there is a gullibility fill"
-- Richard Clopton

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much love, light and laughter,
ananya.

*~Come play with my children feel the peace and Scatter some joy.~*
~*Blowing out someone else's candle doesn't make your's burn any brighter.*~
We can't all be stars, but we can all twinkle.
We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

For Christmas, I'm reading The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett to my younger sister.

I'm also reading:

The Collected Stories of Katherine Mansfield (in Penguin, re-reading)

Katherine Mansfield; Letters and Journals selected by C. K. Stead.

Just finished reading two books:

1. C.S. Lewis: In a Time of War
Subtitle: The World War II Broadcasts That Riveted a Nation and Became the Classic Mere Christianity
~ by Justin Phillips. Publ. 2002 by HarperCollins.

I thought this 300+ book began rather like a dry history text. Named many BBC radio people from England who were CSL's contemporaries and who were instrumental in prodding, poking, stimulating, editing, and badgering the uni professor to share Christian theology in layman's terms. After the first 100 pages or so the tempo picked up. I enjoyed reading the "behind the scenes" correspondence between the BBCers and CSL. I imagine if I were to reread the book, I'd get more out of it b/c I was so ignorant of radio programming during my initial reading (Asa, by contrast, would probably understand much more than I). BBC management took soberly their role in encouraging war-torn Londoners, and I appreciated the steely 'stiff upper lip' they exhibited when forced to use often meager, if not decimated, buildings to produce radio programming. I was also struck how frequently certain BBC employees in the business of production were excellent editors, challenging CSL to greater clarity, more examples, better logic; they really did him a great favor. One great irony noted in the book was how CSL was actually disliked by the collegiate establishment once he "sold out" and became a popular speaker and writer; apparently, in stuffy university settings, English tutors were only supposed to publish boring, erudite material.

2. Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott, 1874. I first read this novel when I was prob. 12 yrs old. In the intervening years, I never gave the book away (it belonged to Limn orig.) but also didn't reread it, until this last week. The novel opens with an orphaned young teenager named Rose who is about to meet a slew of male relations: 7 cousins and Uncle Alec, her trustee. Rose has been cared for in the last year by great aunts and aunts; she is a hypochondriac, pale, and listless. Uncle Alec and the Scottish Campbell clan to the rescue! I appreciated the many themes of kindness, generosity to those economically deprived, self-sacrifice, confession of wrongdoing, reconciliation, and extension of forgiveness towards others. I found myself wishing young children were exposed to classics like this in their tender years, as I was.

"Written in an age when few women had control of their own money, property, or indeed their destinies, Alcott's portrayal of Rose’s upbringing is a good deal more revolutionary than we in the 21st century may realize."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Cousins

Very true. Until I looked up LMA's bio, I couldn't appreciate what a revolutionary she was for her time!

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The opposite of joy is not sorrow. It is unbelief. ~ Leslie Weatherhead
Picture me with my ground teeth stalking joy--fully armed too, as it's a highly dangerous quest. ~ Flannery O'Connor

Just finished

1. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins, 2004

John Perkins reveals the workings of the US Government, international banking industry, and multinational corporations in their quest for global empire building at the expense of poor in underdeveloped countries around the world. It is a fascinating book about unscrupulous “economist” using fuzzy economic data to rationalize the actions of the greedy and about the myth that exporting capitalism to poor countries helps their citizens. He gives good examples of how the US attempts at exporting capitalism have only lowered the standard of living of the citizens of these countries while making a few families there extremely rich. He also contrasts his insiders view of major historical events with what is feed to US citizens through the media. One problem I had is he kept saying he wanted out but, stayed in for a long time. He even got out then came back in a couple times. I liked the honest account of the activity though.

2. A History of Knowledge, Past, Present, and Future by Charles Van Doren.

This is a book about the beginnings of knowledge from Egypt, India, China, Mesopotamia, Aztec's and Inca's and the way culture influenced its development. It talks about the beginnings of math, science, poetry, and literature and the development of each through time. It goes through mans ideas of knowledge through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and to today. It also talks about religions influence on civilization and the struggle between the two ideologies of man at the center and God at the center of life. The author has advanced degrees in science and literature and he gives equal time to both in a fascinating story about knowledge.

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"In all of our hearts lies a longing for a Sacred Romance. It will not go away in spite of our efforts over the years to anesthetize or ignore its song, or attach it to a single person or endeavor." Brent Curtis

[This message was edited by eagleandchild on 01-06-09 at 11:52 PM.]

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde is a lot fun so far. I'm still getting ready for a paper on Mansfield and her influences (including Wilde).

Big Bad Love by Larry Brown
On Food and Cooking by Harold McGee

Design Your Self by Karim Rashid

This very delightful book on design in life, takes a funfilled approach to rethinking the way we live, love, work and play. It is inspiring and informative, and full of artistic anecdotes from designer Karim Rashid's Life.

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Everything in my drawings was better than it was in real life. I was fixated on improving things.
-- Karim Rashid, from Design Your Life

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much love, light and laughter,
ananya.

*~Come play with my children feel the peace and Scatter some joy.~*
~*Blowing out someone else's candle doesn't make your's burn any brighter.*~
We can't all be stars, but we can all twinkle.
We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.