5 comments about Rosanna of the Amish.

1. I thought this was one of the most interesting books I've read all school year. I've always wondered about the amish society, but until I finished this book this afternoon, I didn't have any clue as to what the amish believed.
   Joseph Yoder makes it possible for people like me to really enjoy a school book.
   I really think that if you have any questions about the amish to go straight to this book and read it.



2. While this book may not be for everybody, and it might not include all the aspects that a reader might expect - kind of a one stop shopping to tell everything that is necessary to understand this sect - it nevertheless tells you what the Amish are really like and why they wear the unusual clothes they do, as well as preach against the "worldly wisdom." You get to follow Rosanna through her childhood, youth, courtship, and marriage, and child-rearing. Not only that, you see how her Amish life will differ from that of her Catholic friends, especially when they visit from their Philadelphia home.

   While this is not a modern day presentation, it is really useful as a historical piece. Just don't get bogged down by expecting a thorough intellectual examination of the Amish. The book is not intended for that. It is written as a honest, sympathetic and straightforward reflection of these folks from a religious, social, and economic snapshot. The traditions of the Amish are celebrated, and it's done very nicely. Recommended!!!




3. I loved this book....and was sorry to see it end. The author (son of Rosanna) wrote a beautiful yet simple and compelling biography on the life of his mother, and the people closest in her life. I felt privileged reading this story - almost as if I were a member of this close-knit community. This story of honor and simple values would be wonderful today as it was then. Probably the most surprising statements which helped me to put it in perspective were comments made about Lincoln.....while I would prefer to believe this was a modern day story - stage coaches were in use and Lincoln was the President of the day. I highly recommend this book as an insight into the wisdom of how people should hold respect for one another, how families could work together for each other's good......and how communities can thrive without the aid of much of the electronic gadgetry of our modern times. This is a book of simple wisdom and peaceable lives. I am so grateful to son Joseph for his writing. There is even a very few pages at the end of the book, telling a bit about him......I highly recommend this book and hope you find value in it as I certainly did.



4. The author is the son of the main character, Rosanna. Rosanna is the daughter of an Irish immigrant who is born around 1840 (my estimate as it is never given in the book). Rosanna's mother dies following Rosanna's birth. She is given to an Amish family on a temporary basis. When her father dies some months later, she ends up being permanently adopted and rasied by this old order Amish woman who later marries and bears more children.

   The author tells this interesting story, all the while weaving information about the lives of the old order Amish. I found this an interesting read. Explanations for why the Amish do things the way they do are given. There are details about their religious services, weddings, and funerals. Why they refuse to buy medical or fire insurance, why they refuse government aide, and why they refuse to fight in American wars is all explained.

   The author ends up going to college and later leaves the old order Amish to become a Mennonite. The old order Amish don't allow attending college as the author chose to do, to further his formal training as a teacher, so he had to change religious affiliations.

   What is missing from this book is a true spirit for Rosanna as a woman. Specifically, there is not much emotion or thoughts about certain things such as what it is like to mother children. There was virtually nothing about the experience of pregnancy, childbirth from her point of view, or how she could balance all that work and rearing so many children. The emotional aspect of losing her only daughter when she was just a toddler was not really elaborated on. I understand that it may be the custom to not verbally express emotions but I refuse to believe that emotions are not experienced...then again, if she was quiet about expressing her emotions I guess she would not have told her son therefore making these thoughts impossible for him to know and write about. Also missing was an explanation for what an Amish childhood is like, how much do they play and work? How much do they contribute to the laborious farm work the families accomplish? How does a busy Amish mother have time to pamper and enjoy her newborn baby? Also I'd like some parenting information such as common philosophies such as "is corporal punishment used"?

   Something else that I would have appreciated is a bit of an overview of the differences between the different orders and about the differences with the Mennonites. A better explanation of when and why people are ex-communicated, banned or shunned would put things more in perspective. There is nothing about this except a couple of sentences of inferred information. To get that information will take further research and reading.

   The account of the old order Amish is tastefully and respectfully written about in this book. I think this would make a great read aloud book for young children or as a book for a young person to read to themselves, perhaps if learning about American history or just to satisfy a curiosity about the Amish. There is nothing in here that is controversial such as sexual content. Since they live such a clean and virtuous life, there is nothing that needs censoring here for young children.

   The old order Amish are portrayed as a content, happy, and peaceful people. If we each changed a few things we non-Amish do to follow in their footsteps we'd be all the better for it.




5. I remember my mother reading this book to the family when I was a child so when I found it in the bookstore I had to pick it up.
   I found the book interesting and the Amish a fascinating group of people. The book tells about the Amish and about growing up Amish. The Amish live a totally different type of lifestyle than most of us are used to and this book explains some of their reasons for why that is. In living close to them I was able to compare what the book said with what I saw them doing.
   If you ever find this book I recommend reading it.

1 comments about King Of The Cannibals: The Story Of John G. Paton, Missionary To The Hebrides.

1. John Paton a Psalm Singing reformed Christian, was a native of Scotland that became a missionary to the cannibals of the South Pacific in the 1800's. Mr. Paton shines with the grace of his Lord by risking his life over and over again for people that did not want him. This man truly believed in the sovereignty of God.. A memorable moment in the book was when Mr. Paton challenged the witch doctors, to kill him with their magic (this reminded me of Elijah's challenge to the prophets of Baal in I Kings 18). Mr. Paton spent his whole life learning their language and translating the Bible for them. Many other missionaries lost their lives on the Islands but by God's Grace Mr. Paton lived to see the fruits of his labors. I highly recommend this book to you and pray that more men and women like John Paton will be raised up among us.

2 comments about Bernard of Clairvaux (Great Medieval Thinkers).

1. I've been using a library copy of this book, and it suffers none of the shoddy printing issues mentioned by the previous poster. An attractive volume, all-around.



2. I can't speak to the content of this book, having only skimmed it in the library, but buyers should be forewarned that it is one of the most shoddily printed books you will ever see. It looks as if it were typeset with an inkjet printer and run off on a photocopier -- both badly in need of new ink cartridges. I understand that there isn't much money to be made in academic publishing, but this is disgraceful. In such a case, it would have been better to publish this exclusively as an e-book, and skip the paper altogether.

1 comments about Birdie: The Girl Next Door.

1. Birdie : The Girl Next Door
   opened my eyes to believe that God is still working miricles in the lives of his people.The author is so real!

5 comments about The Cure D'Ars Today: St John Vianney.

1. This is an intriguing and pious treatment of St. John Vianney [1786-1859], but the book defies easy categorization. The outline is clearly the life of the mystical French parish priest best known for his extraordinary grace as a confessor, but the author has skillfully set Vianney in the aftermath of the "troubles" of his country--the Revolution, the Gallican Church controversy, Napoleon--while from time to time speculating on Vianney's spirituality and pastoral approaches vis-à-vis the post-Vatican II era.
   
   George William Rutler is honest about his feelings toward the Enlightenment. In an extensive appendix he provides an overview of the French Church and its relationships with the succession of governments from Louis XVI and beyond. In Rutler's view the "Daughter of the Church" was hardly the virginal bride, with most of its clergy and bishops nondescript and woefully lacking in vision and piety. Thomas Mores and John Fishers were hard to come by. Vianney's formative years run concurrent with a quarter-century ecclesiastical malaise, most noticeably in France but in actuality through much of Western Europe.
   
   Rutler describes Vianney's youth as the age of "the home church," when domestic instruction and prayer carried faithful Frenchmen through a period of persecution, ambivalent priests [or no priests at all, in many circumstances.] He learned to farm but not to read, as Rutler puts it, though his early sense of a priestly calling compelled him to master reading skills, albeit with very modest success. His vocational aspirations were nearly derailed by military draft. For two years Vianney lived underground to avoid conscription. Rutler argues that the Napoleonic cause, poisoned, as it were, with assaults on the lands and the office of the papacy, was beneath the dignity of this pious young man.
   
   If there were religious superiors of character in France at this time, Vianney was fortunate to have encountered them in his formative steps to orders. His piety and faith, if not his book learning, seemed have been the deciding factors in his tenuous approval for ordination. Many years later, in my own lifetime, a seminary rector commented to me that "piety comes and goes, stupidity remains forever." Vianney would be the exception to the rule.
   
   Once ordained, Vianney would serve a brief and rather successful term as an assistant pastor at Ecully until he received his own parish in Ars. Ars in fact had but one church--and seven saloons. The church had recently served as a shrine to the Goddess of Reason, among other things. If anything the residents of Ars were perplexed to see a pastor who actually cared about ringing the bells, providing instruction, and preparing his sermons. As is often the case, pastoral solicitude was not initially welcomed or understood by a people unbothered by matters of the soul, and episodes of enmity from time to time were not unheard of.
   
   But Vianney's gift as a confessor, a trait already noticeable at Ecully, soon became noteworthy in Ars as well. Rutler tends to assume that Vianney's remarkably austere life and spiritually are at its heart, and naturally there is truth to this. His fame reached far beyond Ars, but it is hard to gauge what contemporaries really thought of him. I was disappointed that the author did not say more about Vianney's ritual and practice within the confessional rite. For example, did Vianney have a rare perceptive psychological skill set that prompted his penitents to unburden their most secret crimes, vices, and sinful attitudes?
   
   For Rutler, the cause is less important than the effects. Not only did Vianney save individual souls, but he seemed engaged in a struggle for the reign of God itself in Ars, a turmoil that brought him face to face with Satan. Rutler treats of the demonic assaults upon the saint with appropriate balance, much as the Evangelists did in recounting Christ's words and deeds of the kingdom. Vianney also wrestled within himself. On three distinct occasions Vianney tried to flee Ars. Again, it is not clear precisely why. The most likely reason is his celebrity status as a confessor, which he probably found annoying and distracting. But most likely, the strain of confessional encounter, coupled with a profound sense of humility and inadequacy, led him to possible scrupulous fear that his penitential ministry just might be an outrageous affront to God in the sacramental forum. To his credit, he recognized these temptations and urges for what they were and did not succumb to them.
   
   Rutler's style is philosophical and meditational. He has a love [some might say a lust] for reversing familiar phrases to extract new meanings. While his sympathies lie with a triumphal Church, he is candid in his assessments about bishops and popes who compromised the holiness of the Church by opportunism, pride, fear, or intellectual arrogance. Vianney, in this framework, represents a restoration of the true dignity and spirituality of Holy Orders, a man unsullied by the type of "enlightenment" that muddled many pulpits in his day.
   
   One of the purposes of this book is a restoration of the Sacrament of Penance. Writing in 1988 Rutler could not help but notice the disappearance of personal confession from Roman Catholic life. Rather than rail about it, the author includes a second appendix, the sermons of Pope John Paul II given during a retreat for priests at Ars in October, 1986. The talks themselves are revitalizing and nurturing, a reflection of Vianney's exhortations to see parochial sacramental life as the extension of the Reign of God. Rutler comments that when the event was announced, a number of priests protested to the Vatican on the grounds that Vianney was not an appropriate model for the priest of today. There is sadness in hearing of this, but the author does his best to make things right by giving us a heartwarming sense of what we are missing in contemporary parish life.



2. This book is not really a biography. Indeed, a reader should come to it with a fair amount of prior knowledge not only of the saint's life, but of his culture as well. It resembles our own.
   
   Rather, Mr. Rutler has given us a meditation on the meaning of the priesthood. Where today, when we seek a priest at all, we seek counsel (in the modern sense recognized by the psychologist and the social worker), the villagers of Ars lacked, without realizing it, a spiritual father. They found one in the Cure, who knew he would have to account to his Lord for every lost soul.
   
   Rutler develops an old-fashioned conception of the priesthood, as heroic as it is unabashedly paternal. I am certain that if we returned to this conception, vocations would increase ten-fold: boys naturally want to be fathers and heroes. The moment they see a real specimen of either they instantly recognize and want to act on this desire.
   
   My only complaint regards Fr. Rutler's adherence to Chesterton as a model of prose style. Paradox is interesting when used sparingly but often obscures the reality an author is trying to illustrate. Too often, Fr. Rutler allows a shimmering axiom to obscure by its brilliance the more substantial glow of surrounding exposition.



3. This is a very great book, and a true Masterpiece. I was deeply moved by its beauty and depth. Rutler uses language like a great composer without losing the central theme. He adds a new dimension to Saint John Vianney and brings to life the pristine soul of "The Cure D'Ars".



4. I must agree with a previous reviewer; if you are looking for a biography of St. John Marie Vianney, this is not the book for you. However, if you would like to read about the message and meaning of the Cure's life, how it applies to Christians of his time and Christians today, then this book will provide all you need.
   
   If diction alone could convey the truth of a message, this sublime work would be enough to convince any of the truth of Catholicism. As it is, the book conveys spiritual truths through Rutler's lofty prose as a feast for mind and soul.
   
   It is not an easy read, and certainly takes some digesting. Nevertheless, it is well worth the read.



5. I purchased this book thinking I would be able to read about the Cure of Ars. I had to wade through 9/10 preaching and platitudes to read the 1/10 of the book about the Cure. If you are wanting a biography of the Cure, this is NOT the book for you. If you are conservative Catholic or christian, you may appreciate the ramblings of the author and his opinions about everything from feminism to Pope John-Paul's speeches.

5 comments about Sister Ignatia: Angel of Alcoholics Anonymous (A Campion Book).

1. This is a great history of the beginnings of A.A. and of the struggles of Dr. Bob to find a credible medical facility to help in the physical and spiritual recovery of alcoholics. Sr. Ignatia is one more non-alcoholic, like Dr. Silkworth and Fr. Ed Dowling, who serve at a pivotal point in the A.A. story. The author helps us see in Sr. Ignatia's own spiritual and personal biography how uniquely prepared and how providentially generous she was to be able to facilitate Dr. Bob's and A.A.'s program at St. Thomas Hospital in Akron, Ohio. I was intrigued with the seriousness that Sr. Ignatia, the doctors at St. Thomas and the Sisters of Charity in recognizing and attending to the underlying spiritual dimension of alcoholism. They were not the only ones to do this, as the book relates, but they helped bridge the moral/clinical gap that so many professionals and others, then as today, refuse(d) to accept.
   I found Sr. Ignatia's life journey very instructive. She was a very diligent teacher of music, professional, and in a sense driven. She had her Waterloo experience in a near nervous breakdown. The doctor asked her if she wanted to be a dead music teacher or a live nun? Thence, began her service as Admissions Director at St. Thomas. She had learned first hand that living life involved ups and downs and that a "mysterious-to-us-at-times" Providence, Power Greater Than Ourselves, God would lead when we were ready to surrender. Living in that awareness allows one to take risks for the good. The story of Sr. Ignatia, Dr. Bob and early A.A. in Akron and Cleveland is a story of risk and fulfillment.



2. For eighteen years now, I have been researching, analyzing, and pulling together all of the wellsprings of A.A. My area of focus and such expertise as I have concerns the original A.A. program in Akron which derived primarily from the United Christian Endeavor Movement of Dr. Bob's youth in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. The Akron program was summarized by Frank Amos in his report to John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in 1938; and its ingredients are a dead ringer for the techniques of the Salvation Army, the Rescue Missions, the principles and practices of Christian Endeavor, and several of the Oxford Group life-changing ideas. But early Akron A.A. was a unit unto itself. On the East Coast, Bill Wilson was formulating his ideas for recovery from the conversion thesis of Dr. Carl Jung, his own conversion at the altar at Calvary Rescue Mission, Ebby Thacher's prior conversion there, and Bill's study of the monumental coverage of such conversion experiences by Professor William James. There is much more, and it is discussed in my latest title The Conversion of Bill W. And later, after the Akron program had earned its spurs as a Christian Fellowship, Wilson was commissioned to write a text which was supposed to describe the original program and flesh it out with testimonials by those who participated. Instead, Bill drew on all the sources in the East, plus some newcomer ideas from Richard Peabody, Sam Shoemaker, Dr. Silkworth, and New Thought writers. Out of this came the Big Book, published in 1939, and very much based on the teachings of Rev. Sam Shoemaker of Calvary Episcopal Church. But Bill left out the rich Akron roots including the Bible, Quiet Time, Anne Smith's teaching and her journal, the Book of James, the Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians 13, and the devotionals like the Upper Room, the books AAs studied such as Drummond's The Greatest Thing in the World, plus what Bill was later to call the "doctrines and dogma" of the missions. The end results of the Wilson pen were a Big Book and Twelve Steps which neither resembled the Akron program nor the conversion picture painted so clearly for Bill by Jung, Hazard, Thacher, Silkworth, James, and even Shoemaker. Because of this jumble, I have spent most of my research time and 31 published titles covering the materials that were left out, are virtually unknown today, and yet produced the astonishing 75% success rate in Akron and the 93% rate in Cleveland.
   Meanwhile, author Mary Darrah had been working up her materials on Sister Ignatia of St. Thomas Hospital in Akron. For me, the material seemed at first to be irrelevant to my work on the earliest A.A. But, from the beginning, I noticed the very important pieces of Akron history that Darrah had unearthed and placed in the Ignatia book. I appreciate them even more today. These included: (1) Specific mention of Anne Smith's Journal and its relevance to the Twelve Steps later penned by Wilson. (2) Her delightful phrase that Anne Smith served God and Scripture daily to those who supped at the Smith home each morning. (3) Her highlighting of the close relationship between Ignatia and Dr. Bob's wife Anne. (4) Her providing Ignatia's materials on hospitalization and recovery. While Darrah's history pertained to the period which began after the Big Book was published in 1939 (though Mary tries to make it otherwise), she seemed to grasp the importance of the all-but-forgotten history of Akron A.A. itself. She overrates Ignatia's part in the "founding," but she brings to light one of the major factors that branched forward in Akron during Bill's twelve or so years of major depression. For, in post-big book days, while Bill was suffering from immobilizing depression, it was the work of Clarence Snyder in Cleveland, Dr. Bob and Anne and Ignatia in Akron, Richmond Walker's writings, Father Pfau's writings, Ed Webster's writings, and the materials from local groups that changed the face of A.A. yet allowed it continued growth. By all accounts, Ignatia's contributions in this period were enormous. And I believe that if one looks at the very unusual AA of Akron pamphlets that were written by Evan W., commissioned by Dr. Bob, and circulated from the 1940's to this day, you can see that there was a hearty ember of Bible, Christianity, and devotional practices that was fanned and kept glowing during New York's dark years. And if you look at the original Akron program (1935-1938), the sources of that program, the surviving details as outlined in DR. BOB and The Good Oldtimers, the program at St. Thomas Hospital as spelled out by Darrah, and the Akron pamphlets, you can see a deeply religious foundation in the A.A. program which no one seemed to understand any better than Sister Ignatia. My recommendation? Look at A.A. from a chronological standpoint--not the tired and erroneous timelines still being circulated. Look at the Akron beginnings in Vermont and the program that emerged and produced the pioneer 40 in Akron and their cures. Look then at the beginnings in the East Coast and the original emphasis by Bill on conversion--sparked probably by his own grandfather Willie's conversion and healing of alcoholism. Then look at the Big Book program and Twelve Steps that Bill fashioned in 1938 and 1939 largely from the Oxford Group teachings of Rev. Sam Shoemaker. At that point, you have three major legs of our history. Then came Bill's long devastating depression, the new ideas and writings that sprang into being, coupled with Clarence Snyder's consistent championing of the Big Book, the Steps, the Bible, and the Four Absolutes and Ignatia's priceless work with beginners that did not diminish or detract from the Christian principles and Bible roots and did produce worthy results. The Darrah book is very valuable if one wishes to see the biography of A.A. from 1934 through 1955 when major and substantially different changes were placed in cement with A.A. Comes of Age, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, and the St. Louis Convention. Good for Mary. See a summary of the foregoing picture, including Darrah's findings, Ignatia's role, the St. Thomas story, and the important Akron picture in the 1940's in my title Real Twelve Step Fellowship History. Dick B.



3. Mary Darrah deserves credit for tackling the biography of a tremendously overlooked personality from AA's past. The story of the little Nun is covered in detail. Darrah does a good job of getting the facts down.
   
   However, this book suffers from stilted language and poor organization. The narrative conveys no passion or excitment, something I'm sure the writer must have possesed in order to cover such an obscure figure as Sister Ignatia. The chapters are not organizaed well and do not flow evenly into each other.
   IT almost has the feel of one of those bad textbooks you had in high school.
   
   However, it's still worth laying out the money for this book if you're desiring a better understanding of AA history.



4. Mary Darrah's book on Sr. Ignatia is an excellent historical document for all to read whether or not they are in recovery from alcohol or other drugs. This book is an accurate historical account of both the early days of Alcoholics Anonymous as well as the life of a compassionate yet tough woman.

   This book is a must read for anyone interested in the truth about AA history. It is interesting, informative and enlightening.

   Mitchell K. (Author of HOW IT WORKED, The Story of Clarence H. Snyder and the Early Days of Alcoholics Anonymous in Cleveland, Ohio)




5. In the early days of Alcoholics Anonymous, the recovery rate was about seventy five per cent. Today, the recovery rate is less than one per cent. In the early days of AA, 1935 to 1945, the founders of AA (Bill Wilson, Dr. Bob Smith and Sister Ignatia) operated under the concept that alcoholism was the indication of a spiritual illness. You first took away the alcohol, let the patient go through the withdrawal, and then they trained the alcoholic to be a spiritual person, both by learning to pray, (any religion would do) and then to pass your victory on to other suffering alcoholics. As AA grew, it began to be accepted in government run hospitals. And anything to do with the government has to have nothing to do with religion. So they began to treat alcoholics with psychiatry and downplayed the religious angle, hence the much lower recovery rate. Groups that use religion to treat alcoholics, like Teen Challenge, have an 80% recovery rate. When Sister Ignatia was helping to steer the recovery boat, along with Bill Wilson, Dr. Bob and the assent to Grace, recovery from alcoholism was possible for the first time on this planet. The other influence working against AA's religious methods was the birth, in the late 50's, of political correctness which fears surrender to religion (of ALL kinds) Reading this book about Sr. Ignatia has strenghthened my spirituality in AA. I just celebrated fourteen years sober.

5 comments about "God Has Made Us a Kingdom": James Strang And the Midwest Mormons.

1. Although there have been a number of biographies of James J. Strang, Prophet of the Great Lakes Mormons, very little has been written about his followers, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (Strangite).
   
   Vickie Speek's excellent book, "God Has Made Us a Kingdom," is a much needed step toward painting the broader picture. In addition to telling Strang's story in a careful, engaging way, Speek tells the stories of his four plural (or polygamous) wives, both before and after their husband's martyrdom. These narratives enrich our understanding of the lives of early Mormons --- especially the (often ignored) lives of early Mormon women. It should also be mentioned that the history Speek includes of the Strangites after Strang cannot be found in any other book.
   
   Speek's careful treatment of the charges that the Beaver Island Mormons were engaged in church-sanctioned stealing illustrates her fair and neutral approach to the sources.
   
   Overall, this is an excellent book. My only complaint was that it left me wanting to read even more of the always interesting history of the Strangite Mormon church.



2. The foreword of the book gave me a better idea of what I was going to read. I had longed for this book. Books about the other denominations, sprung out of Joseph Smith (1805-1844) are very limited. If they do exist, they are apologetic, not neutral scholarship.
   
   V C Speek, with her sublime and humble style, diplomatic and investigative, has given me a personal deep understanding of Strang and his people. She has dug in archives, she has read books about the LDS movements, former books about Strang, taken contact with his descendants and the congregation that still cherish this faith. I thought it would be the life story of Strang - I wanted to have some source criticism of his two major works, the Voree plates and the Book of Law. I did get some insight, but more on the surface. Speek didn't want to go into the polemical side of these issues. Good done - she treated these works as natural as all other sides of Strang's life. Normally, Strang becomes the focus in many books and the way she has dedicated the half part of the book to the five wives of Strang and two chapters to the time after his murder and what happened to his people and the controversy between his followers and the islanders, have made a book a sort of a synthesis.
   
   The book starts with the discovery of this denomination in Voree and how Speek starts her voyage thru the archives in different cities to capture this off-shot of Joseph Smith' movement. After his death many sought to be new leaders of the church, one of them his own brother, William Smith. Strang in his own way - thru personal revelation and a letter (put in question) by Joseph himself - became a new prophet for a new people with a new covenant. Even though he had broken with Joseph about the issue of plural marriage, he took with himself the role of translator, prophet and seer. He established a new kingdom according to the kingdom envisioned by Joseph, the Council of Fifty. Strang came to accept plural marriage. He became the king Joseph never had the time to become, he also got his kingdom till both islanders and people of his own put a stop to it. He also became a senator, Joseph had run for president, but never made it.
   
   So much continued, with it also the same troubles: mobs attacking the movement, stealing, rumour spreading about how dangerous and contra-US the movement is. Once again the people had to relive the Missouri and Nauvoo persecutions. With his murder, his wives scattered and what happened - yes, just find out by your self. Left was that island, Beaver Island, civilised, modernised, but empty.
   
   His wives were different in many ways. Each of them was educated, competent and skilled. Speek has captured their sorrows and happy times, thru diaries of their own or others and has shown this spirit of survival and of hope.
   
   The resemblance between Joseph and Strang shows how much belief and faith make us want to change everything. The new revelations of Strang brought new perspectives to the LDS faith. It can be his way, it can be the way he understood his higher power, at the end, I see how much we need faith. When you make a city out of marshes and jungles, you have proven that paradise CAN exist today on earth, NOW.
   
   Both Joseph and Strang left so many broken hearts, so much unresolved. The question of whether they are fraud or prophets haunts them. But Speek catches the people, their every day life, whether cutting trees or gathering berries, wearing funny clothes or not drinking. Finding more, and bringing new pieces to the puzzle of faith and its interaction with us. These people really had a bawl, not always, but they had it. Do we?



3. "God Has Made Us A Kingdom": James Strang And The Midwest Mormons by accomplished journalist Vickie Speek is a history of James J. Strang, a charismatic Mormon dissident and polygamist who was considered to be the successor to Joseph Smith in Mormon communities of the Midwest. "God Has Made Us A Kingdom" also pays especial attention to accusations that the Strangite clan engaged in wholesale"consecration of gentile property" that may have amounted to raw piracy. Two-thirds of "God Has Made Us A Kingdom" is devoted to Strang's life; the remaining third to the lives of his wives and children. A handful of black-and-white photographs illustrate this revealing glimpse into a man in the center of Mormon community, whose life and example 150 years ago leaves repercussions upon Mormon life today.



4. Vickie Speek has written a definitive history on the Strang era on Beaver Island, MI. She pays special attention to Strang's five wives, their children, and developments in the aftermath of Strang's assassination. Unlike van Noord's somewhat dry history of Strang, Speek writes in a compelling narrative style that you won't be able to put down. This book cries out to be a major motion picture. It's a fascinating story from American history.



5. Vickie Speeks's "God Has Made Us a Kingdom" has joined the many other books on my bookshelf about Strang. Ms Speek's book is so well written and so thoroughly researched that I could dispense with all others on this subject but this one. She has tried very hard (and I believe has been successful) to show the various viewpoints of this contriversial King of Beaver Island. The numerous footnotes attest to her extensive research.

No comments about San Pablo en sus cartas/ Saint Paul in the Cards.

5 comments about Sins of a Father: Forgiving the Unforgivable.

1. I've been privileged to know Kitty Chappell for twenty years and have seen for myself the inner joy that radiates from her in every circumstance. Her forgiveness of a sinful father is a holy and genuine thing. To read her book and be reminded of the horrifying experiences that could have shaped a life of bitterness, but didn't, is an inspiration to me. Her words have made me examine my own life and the relationships I've had where forgiveness is overdue. Thank you, Kitty, for your open heart and your generosity in sharing your wounds and your healing with us.



2. Many, many people are going through life harboring deep hurts that stand in the way of their happiness. They want to forgive and know they should, but just don't know how. This is the story of an amazing woman who learned how to do it, and you won't believe what and who she had to forgive, but she did it!!! She shares it all with you, and it will leave you awestruck. I promise you that you won't be able to put this book down. You will want to share it with others who are hurting.



3. "Sins of a Father" is an incredible book. Kitty Chappell has the rare sensitivity to share the horrors of her childhood without sensationalism and with restraint, telling just enough to help us understand her message.

   The message...this is what sets her story apart from so many other books dealing with childhood abuse. This is the story of how Kitty, and how any of us, can rise above difficult circumstances. It is not just about "enduring" and "making it through" our problems. It is about what comes next. How do we restore wholeness, joy, love, and mercy to our spirits? How do we truly forgive those who hurt us?

   My husband and I read this book just as another family dispute with our parents erupted, and Kitty's words rang true in every respect. We underlined and discussed each of her ideas as we read, applying them to our own situation. After twenty years mired in family conflict, she gave us concrete, positive, and loving ways to move forward.

   So many books offer suggestions on conflict and forgiveness, but the "modern" way seems to center on finding out who to blame for our pain. Too many books seem to encourage forgiveness in a general way, but then reinforce how badly we've been treated and how right we are to be angry. "Hold onto the hurt, but forgive them anyway, even if they don't deserve it."

   Kitty shows a better way. And she gives concrete I-can-do-these suggestions that we can apply right now. Her suggestions are working for us.

   Anyone who struggles with difficult people and with a difficult past can learn much from her wisdom, her experience, and her honesty. This book is wonderful!




4. I happened upon this book while looking for something to encourage a friend. I read it with the expectation of sharing it with her and hoping that the message would adress issues in a recent discussion. Not only did this book address the need to forgive, but it also nailed the mechanics of how to forgive in spite of the emotions that so often cloud our view. It is the thing that is missing in most books that address this topic. Yes we know we need to forgive, but how do you do that? I found answers to questions of my own.

   My heart went out to Kitty as I read her story, and I was pleased by the process through which she identified the right choices and implemented them. I pray that this book will make it into the hands of those who are ready to put the past behind them and move into a productive and positive life. If you are tired of looking back, while trying to move forward, buy and read this book. Thank you Mrs. Chappell!




5. I have had the honor of attending a seminar in which Mrs. Kitty Chappell spoke and shared her story. Kitty has gone through some of the most stressful times I have heard of and has learned how, with God's help, to go on with her life and not be one of the "damaged" people we see all around us. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is hurting and trying to get on with their life. God Bless you, Kitty.

   Elaine Johnson

5 comments about Madeleine L'Engle Herself: Reflections on a Writing Life (Writers' Palette).

1. A writer's dream of a book that could only come from Madeleine L'Engle herself! This collection comes mostly from L'Engle's nonfiction books and since I happened to have most of them, much of this book seemed a little redundant and like I've read it all before. But, it would be the perfect gift for any serious writer who takes characters, words and story as seriously as they should be taken. A wonderful gem of a book that no working writer or struggling writer or unpublished/published writer should be without. Trust me on this one.



2. Not so much of a memoir as a collection of thoughts. I read it a section at a time, front to back, while keeping a reading journal at the same time. Madeleine L'Engle has some striking and moving ideas that reshaped my vision of myself as a writer and as a Christian. She's a remarkable woman, and this is sort of a 'best of' collection.



3. As a writer, I am challenged and encouraged by L'Engle's storytelling. She evokes emotion and images, fantasy and reality...all with a seeming effortlessness.

   In "Reflections on a Writing Life," we see into the heart and mind of this incredible woman. We discover the amount of work that goes into her writing, and, along the way, we realize that this 'work' is really a process of letting go.

   Each section can be read in a minute and mulled over for days. This is deep and rich food for thought. Artists and creative people of all sorts can find enrichment in L'Engle's shared wisdom. I recommend heartily this mine of daily gold.




4. The compiler (a fine writer herself), Carole F. Chase, knows Madeleine's work like no other. The reading selections collected and brilliantly edited here will inspire and motivate anyone who writes. Besides her own substantial corpus of work (more than 40 books of poetry, fiction, and non-fiction), L'Engle is widely known for her writing seminars and workshops -- she has lived the writer's life for more than 60 years; always working to 'serve her gift'. But, she has also laboured long and hard to help others serve their gifts as fruitfully. Chase, L'Engle's best biographer, met the famous author years ago and knows her teaching on writing well. The selections which make up this great book come from many unpublished sources and constitute the best of L'Engle's teaching/coaching/mentoring on good writing and the writer's life. I have shared this book with several of my writing friends and have yet to encounter a less than enthusiastic response. My five-star assessment comes from rigid standards and sober contemplation. Quite simply, the book EARNS it. Besides Julia Cameron's THE ARTIST'S WAY, and Rilke's LETTERS TO A POET, this is the most significant writing book on my shelves.



5. Any person of a spiritual bent who is interested in writing would benefit greatly by reading this book. Not purporting to be a full course in "creative writing", these short one- and two-page excerpts from lectures and other works are inspirational to the budding author. L'Engle is a strong believer in the power of story, in allowing the characters in the story to take the author to unexpected places, in "serving the work", and in the belief that there is no difference in writing for children or adults. Biblical inerrantists may stumble a little at her theology (she seems to be somewhat neo-orthodox), but that should not hinder the creative Christian and non-Christian alike from gleaning much wisdom from this book.