5 comments about Rebel with a Cause.

1. Rebel With a Cause is a wonderful autobiographical account of Franklin Graham's formative years. In his youth, Franklin wasn't a devil, but he was no angel either, and lived under the pressure of being the son of Billy and Ruth Graham. The value of the book derives not so much from the author's position in the family of the 20th century's most prominent evangelist, but from the universality of his journey from country boy to rebellious teen to responsible Christian leader. It is wonderful that his youthful exuberance morphed into his irrepressible adventurous spirit!
   
   While Mr. Graham wrote the book about himself and not about his family (letting them tell their own stories), he inevitably provides glimpses into the Graham family home life. This includes his mother's hospitality to strangers and boldness with snakes, his Huck Finn-like escapades, dealing with his father's long absences, special people who influenced his life, and his willingness to take on bullies. His loneliness and misbehavior while away at a prep school eventually give way to more positive endeavors, though the rebel dies slowly.
   
   Finally, Mr. Graham finds an initial calling toward humanitarian and through the founder of Samaritan's Purse, which takes root with some of his initial trips overseas. He describes the founding of medical mission work, too. Mr. Graham describes his love for aviation and Alaska, and the development of his management and leadership skills. Franklin did not seek the mantle of leadership for Samaritan's Purse and later the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, but comes to realize that he is God's man for these roles. This accomplished, we can look back and understand how all the diverse experiences of his early life were good preparation for a unique kind of service.
   
   While this book is wonderful for almost any reader, it is particularly valuable for teenage boys who struggle with finding identity and purpose. Learning that Mr. Graham went through similar struggles but ultimately found God's plan for his life should inspire young readers to hope for and seek their own calling and purpose. Like Franklin, they, too, must make a decision about whom they are going to serve. That choice makes all the difference.



2. This book can change an "I, Me, Mine" attitude. You don't have to be the son of Billy Graham to do something for someone in need. Just look around you. But watch out -- God might do great things through you too.



3. This book is just wonderful. Franklin shares his growing up years with us that were such fun to learn about. I am grateful to him for sharing!



4. Franklin Graham's autobiography is inspirational, interesting. and informative. It would truly be an encouragement to parents with wayward kids or sons or daughters of prominent people who struggle to find their own identity. All through the book one can see how God worked in his life and used his experiences to prepare him for the work God had for him to do. I really enjoyed reading about his background growing up. Although he was cocky, reckless and rebellious as a youth, God protected him and brought him to the place of full surrender through bringing key people into his life.
   
   The most important thing I learned from this book is the "God Room" principle that deals with faith. Faith is promising more than what you have resources to deliver, thus leaving room for God to work. He gives one example after another of how this works.
   
   Another thing that really impressed me was his account of the Samaritan Purse ministry that he became President of and the principles that he stuck to. One was to always preach Jesus along with meeting the physical needs of hurting people all over the world, and two was never to ask for money for the ministry. His strategy was to "Present the facts, let people know the need, and then back off. We would let the Holy Spirit do the rest."
   
   Overall, I liked this book but it became a bit tedious near the end when he went into so much detail about each of the projects Samaitan's Purse took on. It's because of this book though, that I became aware of the Samaritan Purse ministry and participate in Operation Christmas Child each year which is one of the projects Samaritan's Purse does.
   
   Karen Arlettaz Zemek, author of "My Funny Dad, Harry"



5. This book is an excellent example of how God takes us just as we are turning our weakness into his strength. Franklin Graham is incredibly candid as he reveals a day in the life of being the son of Billy Graham. At times this book will make you laugh while providing a powerful witness of how God won't stop his pursuit to finish the work he's begun in all of us. If you've ever told God "No", this book is for you.

3 comments about Pascal's Wager: The Man Who Played Dice with God.

1. PASCAL'S WAGER: The Man Who Played Dice With God.
   By James A. Connor, Harper Collins Publishers, 2006]
   
   James Connor has given us the opportunity to enter the physical space and place of 1588-1670 France. He brings classic and substantive insight into the provincial and fomenting social mores of these times: the militancy and corruption of the papacy; the intrusive and diminishing ideology of Aristotelian philosophy; and, the deepening schism in the Catholic Church and monarchies of Pascal's times. Through the lens of Blaise Pascal's tightly-knit family, we enter the inordinate emotional sibling reliance (addiction) of children who have been raised in the isolated, dominating, and cloistered world of a widowed father suddenly thrust into self-survival and the salt of erudition. Through his infancy and childhood years Blaise Pascal was afflicted with an abnormality which forced him to shift into a shrieking knot of psychic pain whenever he was with more than one parent at a time. From the beginning of his days Pascal was labeled a dark angel. Caught in the polemic of the adamancy of original sin and simultaneously possessed with the fomenting dreams of a scientist, Pascal's heart and mind joined the tight rope of his life-long pain stricken body in total accommodation. The essential terror of this dilemma necessitated a sort of "doubling phenomenon" as a protective shield against the continuous threats to his spiritual identity and intelligence.
   
   "When I think about the shortness of my life," Pascal said, "melted into the eternity that came before me, and into the eternity that will come after...and the insignificance of the space I fill and even see, I'm lost in the infinite vastness of that space that lies beyond, that space of which I am ignorant and which has no knowledge or care of me. I'm frightened and astonished to awaken in this place rather than that and I see no reason why I should be here and not there, now and not then. Who put me here? By whose order and direction have this place and time come to me?" (Connor: 179)
   
   Living in these polemics eventually brought Pascal into conceiving a rationality of faith based on gambling. Miraculously, Pascal's lifelong physical and emotional pain coupled with the Faustian delight of formulating mathematical theories resulted in the genius birth of the science of probability. Further, his piercing insights into the "law of big vs. the law of averages" and his brilliant staging of a new metaphysics embodied in quantum mechanics; his prideful invention of the first computing machine, the Pascaline are primo among the collective hallmarks of his extraordinary life. Connor's case study of Pascal's divided psyche exposes a tightly leashed self-will evolving into a theology of moral powerlessness. Pointing out that, in 1658, with the return of signaling pain, Pascal had taken to wearing "an iron girdle full of sharp points, which he put next to his skin." Any time Pascal had a prideful thought, or felt pulled toward some diversion, he pushed on the girdle, driving the points into his flesh. He wore that girdle until the day he died. Connor's biography of Blaise Pascal provides a curved mirror adroitly exposing the primal desire of mortals as they seek to decipher the Immortal; and, to discover the veracity of that great spiritual river running between the heart and the soul. He beautifully illustrates Pascal's scientific mind as influencing today's inquiries into cybernetics, physics, nanotechnology; advanced theories of relativity, space stations, and, yes, "the truth and the comics" imbedded in blasting beyond Disney's Black Hole. Within the context of our stumbling steps at the cusp of the 21st century, Connor offers a beguiling interpolative rendition of the facts during Pascal's life and times: How do we reconcile the scientist and the mystic? How do we formulate true questions, questions that ask a question and continue to ask another after that? Perhaps Blaise is whispering to us today, reminding that the ancient hawk of peril, courage, and creativity of his times coincide with the "new age" inquiry of our own. James A. Connor whispers back:
   
   "Personally, this one universe is enough for me. I find it to be as weird as I can handle. Weirdness is a value in and of itself, for in weirdness lies poetry, and in poetry lies beauty, and in beauty lies truth, weird as it is. Pascal would appreciate this. (Connor: 215)
   
   Jess Maghan Chester, CT



2. As an engineer I had studied all about Pascal's products, the conic sections, the vacuum, and the probability studies. However, until I read this book never could have imagined the sad and inspirational story behind the genius, Blaise Pascal. It is written in short readable chapters that give you a vivid picture on the 17th century in which he lived. The book gives a spectacular vision of the beginning of science as we know it in the 21st century. It also examines the conflict of one man between his faith and his passion for science. I won't tell you how it comes out that for you to read. The only thing I will tell you is that it is not the usual science is good and religion is bad that you find in many book today. Read this book, and if you have children interested in science have them read it too, or better read it to them.



3. This fairly short (216 pages) book centers around the central dilemma of Blaise Pascal's, the 17th century math prodigy's, life philosophy: How to reconcile his austere view of life as should be lived by a creation of God with his obvious love of math, science, and worldly ideas. Another hundred pages could have been used to flesh out Pascal's writings and scientific ideas so that the reader could make more of his own decision about him. Instead the author has chosen to present his own thesis for acceptance or rejection. There is considerable interesting background provided on the France of Pascal's time and on Jansenism, the ascetic (Augustinian) form of deterministic (Calvinistic) Catholicism that Pascal ultimately accepted.
   
   There are several descriptions of the discoveries of Pascal and his peers but nothing that requires a math or science background. The last chapter is a musing by the author that uses the probabilistic view of modern life that Pascal originated by his seminal work in probability theory. The author's dividing of people into climbers and sprawlers is insightful especially if you're inunudated with amazing coincidence \ God's providence spam e-mails as I seem to be. Recommended if you're Roman Catholic, definitely recommended if you're a fan of the Jesuits (the author is a former Jesuit). The book reads fast and is divided into short chapters; useful if, as I do, you like to finish a chapter before getting off the mass transit. Well recommended.

No comments about Falwell Inc.: Inside a Religious, Political, Educational, and Business Empire.

1 comments about A Strange Freedom.

1. I first became acquainted with the work of Howard Thurman when I found a leather-bound copy of Disciplines of the Spirit at an antique store. I was struck first by the practicality of his work, and then by the universality of his vision of spirituality and brotherhood. I am very excited to find this volume of his essays published. I hope it brings to many in 1999 and the millenium the practical, down-to-earth theology of this man who was a mentor to Dr. Martin Luther King

2 comments about Love Is the Measure: A Biography of Dorothy Day.

1. The biographical account of the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement and cofounder of the popular and influential newspaper The Catholic Worker, creates a complex yet simple image of Dorothy Day for Jim Forest's readers. His biography is relatively short in covering 83 years of life and is filled with brief chapters accounting small monuments in her inspiring and powerful life. The life of Dorothy Day spanned many decades and eras, from the First World War to the anti-communist era of the 1950's, only to be followed by the Civil Rights era.
   Dorothy Day was born November 8th, 1987 in Brooklyn, New York to a family of journalists, and she continued that tradition. Day was a brilliant young woman excelling in Greek and Latin, and was an avid reader. Yet scholarship was not her calling, she craved to be with the people, the huddled masses. She worked on many radical papers and her passion contributed to her success, yet it was not until she met Peter Maurin and allowed her faith to be the strength and the reason behind her arguments for justice and peace, that Dorothy Day began to be successful. Before she was baptized into the Catholic Church in 1927, she had been married twice, had one abortion and one daughter, whom she named Tamar. Yet the birth of her Daughter caused her faith to grow, and she finally began to embrace her spirituality as the drive behind her radical passion.
   While living and writing in New York, Peter Maurin sought Day out and began dictating his vision for a new, Catholic, pacifist and agrarian society to be enacted through the circulation of a newspaper, which they agreed to call The Catholic Worker. It rapidly grew in circulation, yet grew controversial for its enduring pacifist stance in the First World War, the Second World War, the Vietnam War, and during the Red Scare. Although Day faced opposition and persecution within her own Church, she continued to write in favor of non-violence, "we are still pacifists. Our manifesto is the Sermon on the Mount, which means that we will try to be peacemakers" (102).
   By the Second World War, Day became incredibly concerned with the use of the Atom Bomb, the development of the H-Bomb, and the distinctly Catholic codenames and conduct surrounding the employment of these catastrophic weapons in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yet Day preserved in her faith, writing, "we do not have faith in God if we depend upon the atom bomb" (135). These harsh truths were necessary in the world of the 1940s, and were abundant on the lips of Dorothy Day.
   Day did not only write for the Worker, but helped to start hospitality houses all over urban areas in New York, as well as begin agrarian communes to care for those interested in living in a Christian commune. Day wrote of the benefits of these communities and the young people following her movement, "they learn not only to love, with compassion, but to overcome fear, that dangerous emotion that precipitates violence" (185).
   By the time of the Red Scare, the government began to spread anti-Communist propaganda to fight the Soviet Union's growing influence. This caused rampant accusations that damaged the reputations of well seeking social justice workers. Many lost their jobs, their reputations, and some were even executed. Yet Dorothy Day and The Catholic Worker used biblical rhetoric and appealed to the senses and spirits of many Americans to rethink blind accusations of Communism and the spirit of social justice and hospitality that seems to have died with it. During the Red Scare and novelty bomb evacuations, Day led protesters to stay above ground and ultimately to be arrested. This granted Day favorable opinion in some publications and ultimately was part of the reason New York City stopped these emergency evacuations. These fear mongering tactics were opposed by Day, who sought conversion, rather than defeat, as a means of victory.
   In spite of all this adversity, Dorothy Day grew in fame and influence. Before her death on November 29th, 1980, she had opportunities to build relationships with Mother Theresa, Ceasar Chavez and several Popes. In the end, her vision and passion lived through. "Let me say that the sight of a line of men waiting for food, dirty, ragged, obviously sleeping out in empty buildings, is something I will never get used to...The heart hungers for a new social order wherein justice dwelleth," Day wrote (169).
   Forest's biography of Dorothy Day does an exceptional job of covering 83 years in only 200 or so pages. It inserts many inspiring quotes throughout the book, but it lacks in inserting outside perspectives on Dorothy's life as well as full transcripts of her speeches and writings that would have helped a reader to get a feel for the tone of her writings and how her mind progressed. After reading the book, I still would like to get inside her mind a bit more and read her own writings. When reading about someone, I find I can come to understand more about them directly from their own writings than from a biographers. Perhaps I should have read one of her own autobiographical writings.



2. The controversy surrounding Dorothy Day's long life epitomizes a quote by Dom Helder Camara; "When you give food to the hungry, they call you a saint. But when you ask why the hungry have no food, they call you a Communist" (Forest, 204). She was both revered and criticized for being a friend of the poor and unemployed and pushing the envelope in their favor to such a point that J. Edgar Hoover recommended she "be considered for custodial detention in the event of national emergency" (Forest 178). Love is the Measure, a biography of her life by fellow Catholic Worker Jim Forest, displays this oscillating view of Dorothy Day.
   
   The first few chapters highlight Dorothy's childhood, following her family's moves from Brooklyn to California to Chicago as her father moves from newspaper to newspaper. It was her father's strict parenting-style that led her to remain in their home's library day after day, befriending Jack London, Peter Kropotkin and Upton Sinclair. These men pushed her to take walks in the grim West Side of Chicago and begin to feel a connection with the poor and the workers. Her love of reading continued into university which she attended on a scholarship and supported through manual labor. She wasn't satisfied with assisting victims of social evils, but consumed with the presence of the evils in the first place. It was a theme that rang true throughout her entire life as a reporter and eventually as a co-founder and editor of The Catholic Worker.
   
   Her life as a reporter began shortly after as she dropped out of school and moved back to New York. She began working for The Call and entered a period of "Red Friends, Revolutionary News" as Forest eloquently entitled the chapter. She interviewed Leon Trotsky and attended dances held by anarchists before moving to another magazine, The Masses, until it was suppressed. She bided her time by taking part in a suffragette movement and hunger strike in jail. It was to be one of many times she would be arrested for civil disobedience.
   
   She also began to spend time with a coworker in the hospital she found a temporary job. Lionel Moise was her first real love, but his disbelief in marriage and love proved difficult when she found herself pregnant and alone. Her decision to have an abortion deeply affected her and made her value her second pregnancy with Forster Batterham so immensely that she formally converted to Catholicism and baptized their child Tamar. Her faith then put her in contact with a variety of religious publications which led her to Peter Maurin. He was the man who pushed Dorothy to create The Catholic Worker, the publication she is most famous for to this day. Peter wanted to advocate "steps that could bring about the peaceful transformation of society" (78) in a publication centered upon faith principles and believed appropriately that Dorothy was essential to the project.
   
   On May 1, 1933, The Catholic Worker printed 2,500 copies and handed them out at the gathering of 50,000 in Union Square in New York (1-3). The printings fluctuated over the years as the publication both gained rapid successes and lost subscribers over Dorothy's unwavering stance of non-violence and appreciation of unions and protests, all of which were identified with communism. It was in this that Dorothy really created controversy.
   
   Furthermore, it was out of the publication that houses of hospitality came about, places where staff members would feed, cloth, and shelter anyone who wished or desired it. The houses later expanded into farms and community living that staff members and faithful subscribers became residents of for years and years. It was in a house of hospitality that Dorothy finally passed away in November of 1980. She had a simple funeral with a plain casket and was dressed in donated clothes (200-201).
   
   Overall, the novel is a quick read that touches upon the multitude of key points and people in Day's life. However, ostensibly the impressive list of events creates the illusion that one is reading an abridged version of United States and World history of the twentieth century. Consequently, to accurately portray the rest of the events occurring between the first publication of The Catholic Worker and her death a half a century later would require a much lengthier recitation, something the book does do in great detail. To demonstrate this fact, one should know that Dorothy, having been born in 1897, was privy to such high-profile events as the Women's Suffrage Movement, the Great Depression and May Day, both World Wars, the Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, the Cold War and the McCarthy era of fear, among others. Furthermore, her controversial stances put her in contact with names such as Thomas Merton, various Popes, Cesar Chavez, Mother Theresa, Leon Trotsky, and Mike Gold. While captivating, the magnitude of information and events can be viewed as wearisome and cause for some disjunction between and within the chapters. For example, Forest writes a short chapter introducing Dorothy's friendship with Ammon Hennacy and then pens a short chapter devoted to the Cold War (121-129).
   
   While understandably necessary due to the fact that her life was extremely intertwined with these events, it left me exhausted and longing for detail about Dorothy's mannerisms and attitude. I was able to insinuate this as much as one can from learning about a plethora of her actions, but it lacked a more intimate portrait; something that surprisingly came in the Afterword. There Jim Forest revealed that he did know Dorothy personally as a co-worker at The Catholic Worker, but wanted to keep his experiences out of the narrative (202). I praise him for his professionalism and do view it as a great strength of the book; however, his short narrative at the end thoroughly entertained me and summarized the book in a more coherent and brief fashion. For example, he quotes Jack English's description of seeing Dorothy for the first time. "She talked the entire lecture with a cigarette hanging out of a corner of her mouth, with a beret on, and someone said it looked as if she needed her neck washed" (203). This description painted a vivid picture in my mind that otherwise was foggy from the snip-it's in the novel and made me long to hear her speak.
   
   Overall I would recommend this book as it does professionally portray how involved Dorothy was in almost every major movement and protest in the twentieth century. I would just warn readers to cherish the beginning and the afterword, with their description of the intimate moments that create the person whom caused so much controversy from a love of the poor and desolate.

5 comments about No Compromise: The Life Story of Keith Green.

1. I listened to his music in the early 1980's never realizing what his life was like. Although his life on earth was brief, his intensity and passion along with his unwavering determination to discover the purpose for his life and, when he found it in Jesus, to be authentic and determined in his faith, is an encouragement to anyone journeying on the narrow path that Christ calls us to. His life clearly displays how much God loves and seeks us out even when we are not living according to His will. A definite must read!



2. I grew up listening to the Music of Keith Green. My parents were big fans, and to them, Keith was more then just a singer.
   I slowly stopped listening to his music when I got older, and thought that the new music I listened to had a better sound and a more meaningful message, simply because it was newer music. But then I started listening to Keith Green again, and saw that his music is timeless, and can still change lives.
   
   I picked up this book, and started reading it right away. The tone read very much like a novel, with pictures every now and then to show you how Keith and those around him had changed over time. At first, I wasn't sure how I felt about there being pictures so much, but then I saw the effect they had on me.
   
   I got to know Keith as if he were a friend of mine. I got to see his struggles, his fears, his likes, his dislikes; I got to shake hands with Keith. His story of how he came to know Jesus is one that can touch anyone.
   
   Ultimately, when the book started to end, I knew how he was going to die. I knew it was coming. I even looked ahead to see what chapter it happens in. Even though I knew it was coming, I still started to cry.
   I spent my time reading this book, and getting to know Keith, his children, and his friends, that I he died all over again. I missed him again.
   
   Still, with that said, I think my favorite part in the book is the story of how they had a cow die, and they couldn't get a butcher out to the farm (because the butcher has to kill the animal he'll be butchering), so they did it themselves.
   
   With all that said, this is an amazing story that every Christian should read. Even if you weren't a fan of his music, it is still an amazing story.



3. Melody green did an amazing job at letting us in on her life with Keith Green. She is very open and honest and makes it easy to follow. It is very easy to relate to for practically anyone. Some parts brought tears to my eyes and it brings you to self reflect where you are at spiritually. I highly recommend this book!



4. Keith Green's book "No Compromise" was an in depth look at this Christian mans life. He lived his life solely for God, and never looked back. He was constantly examining himself to see if he measured up to how a Christian life should be led. He was an inspiration to me of how to live for Jesus!



5. This book is a great book describing a man who lived a life loving the Lord and encountering some of the issues we individually face. This just goes to show that we all can stand out and trust the Lord. Keith was a man who chose to live a life with No Compromise with his relationship with the Lord.

No comments about Thomas More.

3 comments about Called by Name The Inspiring Stories of 12 Men Who Became Catholic Priests.

1. 
   In the forward, Archbishop Wuerl wrote that God calls each of us and invites us to respond to that call. That's what this book is about - hearing and responding to that call. While this book is about how 12 men responded to the call to the priesthood, the messages found here are for all of us, no matter what vocation we are being called to.
   
   I really enjoyed reading these stories and highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning more about the gift of the priesthood and who these men are that are being called. Each of these 12 stories was inspiring. Each has a unique, powerful story. I hope that the authors consider writing a sequel.



2. The stories of these priests were so inspiring, what they overcame to become the "sons" of Blessed Mother and Jesus is awesome. I loved all the stories, but Fr. Maxim Popov touched my heart the most. You won't regret ordering and reading this book.



3. I highly recommend this book for all young men discerning their vocation to the priesthood. The vocation stories are truly inspiring and I felt humbled when I read them.

5 comments about The God I Love: A Lifetime of Walking with Jesus.

1. Joni Eareckson Tada is the author of several books, but this is the most revealing look at her life ever. She spends several chapters talking about her childhood and her early teen years before her paralyzing accident. Joni talks about the suicidal thoughts she had after she became paralyzed. "The God I love" tells very sad stories, humorous incidents, poignant recollections, and the romantic story of how Joni and Ken Tada fell in love. Through it all, Joni's devout Christian faith has always been growing.1
   Today, besides being an author, artist, and advocate for the disabled, Joni Eareckson Tada is an outspoken opponent of embryonic stem cell research. It's too bad the general public has not heard as much from her as they did from the late Christopher Reeve (as much as I respected his and his wife's courage.)
   Joni Eareckson Tada is a modern Christian heroine.



2. For Joni Eareckson Tada's memoir to turn out to be anything less than stellar would be difficult to imagine. A long-time bestselling author with an amazing story and a highly successful ministry, Tada outdoes her remarkable record with an autobiography that may be her best book so far.
   
   The basics of Tada's life are well-known in Christian circles. Reared in a Christian home, Joni Eareckson was planning to enter Western Maryland College in the fall of 1967. But a trip to a Chesapeake Bay beach in July of that year permanently changed her life. A "simple" dive went wrong, and Joni ended up paralyzed from the neck down, confined to a wheelchair for life. In the following decade, Christians in America would become familiar with the once-unknown young woman who had learned to draw and paint with her mouth and was steadily producing a successful line of artwork sold in Christian stores. Her story was told in print and on film, and her voice later became a mainstay on Christian radio. In the intervening years, she has become an advocate for the disabled, not only in the United States but also around the world.
   
   In no previous book has Joni Eareckson --- now married to Ken Tada --- been quite so transparent and open about the highs and lows of her relationship with God, particularly in the years immediately following the accident but also amid the day-to-day frustrations that come with being dependent upon others for the basic necessities of life. Through it all --- through the extraordinary accomplishments of someone who at one time had every reason to give up on life --- you get the sense that many of Tada's inner struggles are very ordinary, very human, and therefore very easy for others to relate to.
   
   Tada writes about social issues, such as her firsthand experience with oppression in former communist countries, with as much sensitivity as she writes about highly personal issues, like her disappointment and sorrow after learning that she was infertile. She seamlessly intersperses detailed accounts of her many international trips with loving stories about her close-knit family, her circle of friends, and her marriage to Ken. Especially poignant are passages relating to the deaths of her mother and father.
   
   Throughout, of course, the focus always returns to Tada's relationship with God and the subtle irony inherent in the subtitle, "A Lifetime of Walking with Jesus." Even from her wheelchair, Tada "walks" with God. She writes, "Ah, this is the God I love. The Center, the Peacemaker, the Passport to adventure, the Joyride, and the Answer to all our deepest longings. The answer to all our fears, Man of Sorrows and Lord of Joy, always permitting what he hates, to accomplish something he loves...There are more important things in life than walking."
   
   Fans of Joni Eareckson Tada's previous books will not be disappointed with this one. It's a beautifully written tribute to the love of God as seen through the life of one woman who found freedom and joy in Christ in the midst of what another might consider a cruel confinement.



3. This is by far the best of all the books that Joni Eareckson Tada has written. Once I started it I couldn't put it down. I have a personal interest in anything Joni writes..I also had a diving accident and I'm also a quadriplegic. Joni expressed it so well in this book...living in a wheelchair does not have to be a burden but an ADVENTURE! God is GREAT and I wish everyone could come to know the love and peace He gives us.



4. This is a wonderful, inspiring, honest, heartwarming, encouraging and inspirational book. I so enjoyed it, it was hard to put down. I learned so many things about Joni I hadn't heard before and plan to buy it on tape to share with others. What an encouragment to trust in our Lord no matter what! Don't miss this one.



5. When Joni Eareckson Tada completes a book, I buy it immediately.
   Since her first book detailing her accident, I have purchased every one since and given many as gifts. I love them all but this one is the most revealing.

   The God I Love, is wonderful. I relate to Joni and her horse accomplishments and her life before the accident. She is an incredible writer. Now in this book, she fills us in on her entire life up to the present.There are several surprises. Her family, her friends, her travels thruout the world, how she deals with her physical condition, and what makes her joyful, are all here, written so beautifully and so sincerely.

   I recommend this book to everyone - young and old - no matter what your religious affiliation - this book is about a life well lived despite being confined to a wheelchair because this talented intelligent woman reached out to God.

5 comments about Dancing Under the Red Star: The Extraordinary Story of Margaret Werner, the Only American Woman to Survive Stalin's Gulag.

1. There are no words in the English language to describe how great this book is. I think it should be required reading in all high schools, but since God is mentioned, forget that ever happening.
   
   Not only tells of one families struggle under Stalin and communist Russia, it tells the truth about Henry Ford as well.
   
   God bless Karl Tobien for paying attention to his mother's stories.



2. Never, in Hollywood's motion picture history, has there been a book and riveting true story more worthy of an epic screen adaptation than DANCING UNDER THE RED STAR.
   
   A 2006 Non-Fiction "Pick" title by the American Booksellers Association, DANCING UNDER THE RED STAR has been adopted by many of America's top libraries, reading groups, book clubs, pro-family and faith-market organizations, home-schooling associations, and high school reading curriculums around the country.
   
   GENRE: Historical & Inspirational Drama / Adventure / War / Political Persecution
   
   Margaret "Maidie" Werner was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1921. The daughter of European immigrants--Carl & Elisabeth Werner, Margaret was your typically ordinary, innocent fun-loving 11-year old American schoolgirl, when--in 1932, during the Great Depression, her entire world was suddenly turned upside down.
   
   In the wake of this radically turbulent time, the Ford Motor Company commissioned an estimated 450 of their employees, and families, to leave America, set sail across the seas and take up residence in Gorky, Russia, in order to operate Ford's manufacturing facility there (though Ford admits to only 114 employees being sent). Margaret, along with her parents--Carl and Elisabeth, were one such family.
   
   Carl Werner was a tool and dye specialist with Detroit's Ford Motor Company, seeking only a good life for his family, and the "temporary economic opportunity" in Gorky that Henry Ford had promised, in the face of Detroit's hard times. Carl soon found more than he had bargained for...
   
   Russia of the late 1930's was an unimaginably brutal place. With the beginning of Stalin's infamous purges and the ensuing "Great Terror"--widespread arrests, political corruption, human torture, and unparalleled malevolent evil was the lay of the land. More than 30 million people had passed through the Gulag system: Russian Civil War prisoners, former aristocrats, businessmen, and large land owners were incarcerated alongside murderers, thieves, and common criminals, plus political opponents, intellectual "enemies of the state," religious dissenters, women, children--and those found "guilty" of simply associations with any of the above. Suddenly and unjustifiably, Margaret's father--Carl Werner, was deemed one such enemy.
   
   A little known (or virtually unknown) fact is that AMERICAN WORKERS BY THE THOUSANDS (employees of Henry Ford, and others), perished in Stalinist Russia--like animals, in the dreaded political prisons and malevolent slave-labor camps of Siberia, while both the Ford Motor Company and the U.S. Government, each turning a blind eye, did nothing to intervene or facilitate their rescue. Other Americans then trapped in Russia were not quite as fortunate. They were simply executed by Stalin's henchmen, murdered in the streets.
   
   Of these faithful American pioneers; the men, women, and children who originally made this now historic passage and lost their lives as a result thereof, spending years, nearly lifetimes, in the infamous and dreaded Siberian death camps, purely by the grace of God--there was one American woman who survived the horror and lived to tell of it. Margaret Werner. She is one of only two gulag survivors who eventually made it back home. She was the first. She was an American...
   
   In the end, Margaret "Maidie" Werner would become the only American woman known to have survived the brutal Siberian Gulag of Stalinist Russia, later escaping from East German exile through the Iron Curtain, to engineer a most miraculous eventual return home to the United States, where she would finally, and gratefully, kneel and kiss the pier at New York Harbor!
   
   Spanning nearly 30 years of Margaret Werner's extraordinary life story, "Dancing" is a brutally honest and illuminatingly sensitive record of how one very special woman, through clearly miraculous circumstances and the ever-present hand of a God she didn't fully recognize, managed to live through years of wrongful imprisonment in the Soviet Union, overcoming innumerable hardships while defiantly cheating death in her ultimate journey back home--the fulfillment of her vision and destiny.
   
   Margaret Werner's remarkable journey beyond the Iron Curtain and back is a story of defiance, hope, inspiration, and personal triumph--those often unseen elements rooted in the deeper spiritual realities of the human experience.
   
   When rightly caste and developed for feature film production, this amazing chronicle is sure to captivate and inspire the hearts of moviegoers across the globe--with hope, vision, and other lasting treasures, gifts, priceless "deposits" of eternal consequence...
   
   Historically unprecedented and fascinating beyond words, DANCING UNDER THE RED STAR stands as one of the most compelling and uniquely powerful stories of a woman's survival ever recorded.
   
   
   BOOK SYNOPSIS:
   
   In 1932 Detroit, the depression was "looming large and about to take its toll on everyone." Ford employee CARL WERNER carefully considers the decision of a lifetime--for his entire family, as HENRY FORD finalizes a new contract to begin automotive production in Russia. Despite much, maybe prophetic, steadfast opposition from mother and daughter...the choice is all Carl's, and the reluctant decision is made; the Werner's are bound for Russia.
   
   The story begins in 1938 Gorky, Russia, amid the Stalinist regime, as American 17-year-old high school student and, now, champion Russian swimmer, MARGARET "MAIDIE' WERNER witnesses the brutal arrest of her father, Carl, at the hands of Russia's notorious NKVD, the Soviet secret police. Margaret and her mother, ELISABETH, the family's quiet but confident spiritual leader, are more than devastated as a result of the inexplicable madness they have just witnessed, and are now left with the unanswerable question of "Why?" Margaret, trying hard to recover, ponders her mother's steadfast words of faith, "Everything will be all right; Do not lose hope. God has a plan...and HE will get us through this..."
   
   Carl is now declared a "vrag naroda" (an "enemy of the state") and has been sentenced to an indeterminate term in a labor camp in Siberia's far North. Within one month of Carl's savage arrest, Margaret and her mother are evicted from their tiny apartment, with no savings--no means of support, now having to fend for themselves in the midst of their impoverished surroundings. At an assembly in her high school auditorium, Margaret is appalled as the authorities urge she publicly "denounce her father as a traitor of their country," and, to the absurdity of such a demand, she vehemently speaks out against this ruthless Soviet system that has "murdered the years of her youth," as friends and classmates, including best friend, MARIA, can't believe their ears!
   
   Margaret becomes a champion `Soviet' athlete, highly touted, excelling in both swimming and track. She is quite taken with a handsome young Russia lifeguard--NIKOLAI; as the entire country is in a state of moral, social, and physical collapse, spiritual bankruptcy. Con men abound...trying to take advantage of bereaved families. During a brief vacation at a youth resort near Moscow, Margaret, now age 19, hears the camp loudspeaker suddenly announce that "Finland has just attacked Russia," and the country is officially at war. Everyone knows that the true perpetrator is Russia, but no one dares speak his or her mind on the matter, as Margaret is ordered and mobilized, along with several hundred of the city's youth, to dig anti-tank trenches from there to Moscow. Her life is miraculously spared; she narrowly escapes aerial gunfire from German planes advancing on the Russian capital, as World War II is now in full swing...
   
   She befriends British officers: LESLIE & MAC (serving in Russia as part of the `Allies Lease-Lend Pact'), who willfully offer their assistance to help facilitate Margaret and Elisabeth's hopeful escape. Margaret and Elisabeth manage to survive the war years, selling their blood for money and/or food. Margaret's life is again spared--surely by God's grace--as she is almost caught, by a MILITARY GUARD, stealing small bits of wood for nothing other than personal survival. It is, nonetheless, considered a "crime" punishable by execution. As a necessary means of survival, Elisabeth harvests (the world's worst tasting) potatoes at a kolkhoz, as she and Maidie jokingly make light of them, in an attempt to ease the consuming insanity.
   
   World War II rages on, and Gorky is all but obliterated, primarily by air, by the considerably superior tactics and weaponry of the German army; while Margaret works for a brief time at the People's Court, where foreign and national POLITICAL PRISONERS, and others, are brought to stand trial on various trumped-up charges.
   
   The war continues, as Maidie and her FRIENDS have a momentary time out at a dance in a war-torn building in the center of town; a surprise set up! Nikolai, whom Margaret has not seen in 5 years, is now a distinguished Russian aviator, a fighter pilot, who appears out of nowhere to meet her there. Their true love for one another is apparent, and blossoms, as plans are made to wed. Days later, Nikolai has orders to return to Leningrad, where, reportedly, tens of thousands are dying daily. Only a day later his plane is shot down and Nikolai is killed, taking along most of Margaret's heart. She is shattered. Eventually recovering, she later reflects on the fact that, perhaps, God somehow spared her life? The war is declared "over" on May 7, 1945, everyone "spilling out of their apartments, celebrating, and dancing in the streets." The Russian death toll: Military and civilian...27 million lives.
   
   The events of all the mounting years have taken their toll on our heroine. Now, in much the same fashion as with her father some 7 years prior...Margaret, age 24, is arrested, declared a political prisoner, in December 1945, and first detained at Gorky's infamous Vorobyo'vka political prison, where she is the only American detained. Prison conditions are ghastly; and equally so, her demonic cellmate, ANASTASIA. She endures constant interrogations, conducted mainly by FIDOLI, her somewhat compassionate Russian interrogator--a sly fox, but whom she actually likes...and says "could pass for a kindly old English professor."
   
   Margaret is jolted to learn that her filthy, demon possessed witch of a cellmate, Anastasia, has disclosed to her interrogator facts that she has learned about Margaret's life (her relationship with Leslie & Mac), now tainting Margaret's circumstances all the more, and leading to an eventual `spiritual' confrontation between the two. Day after day, almost non-stop, she is interrogated--but remains determined, simply refusing to cooperate with the malevolent Russian agenda. The official charges against her are "Treason," "Espionage" and "Anti-Soviet Propaganda," i.e. spying for the British Secret Service...
   
   Margaret has no choice; from sheer exhaustion, she finally breaks down and signs their bogus confession. She says, "...they simply outwait you and outlast you...leaving you no alternative." She is temporarily transferred to the much-feared Lubyanka prison in Moscow, and then, suddenly, again returned to Gorky, to her interrogator; where she breaks a very serious Russian taboo, by asking Fidoli his thoughts on God? The room is silent, anticipating; Margaret apprehensive and somewhat fearful, but defiant nevertheless.
   
   In April 1946, Maidie Werner, a falsely accused American citizen, stands trial in Moscow--where a former close `FRIEND' has falsely testified against her--for the charges leveled by the NKVD; and is sentenced to "ten years hard labor." Finally, news comes that she will be shipped to a Siberian labor camp. First, she and OTHER PRISONERS are humiliatingly marched through the city streets of Gorky, past the demoralized but sympathetic crowds of ONLOOKERS, then, herded like animals into a railroad cattle car, her trip to the far North begins. Upon arrival, she has a most painful, but surprising encounter with a Blatnoi man, MIKAL--a street thug, at the feared Siberian lumber camp, Burepolom; and also a shockingly strange, most unexpected encounter with another OLD ACQUAINTENANCE from years past.
   
   Maidie works in a log-loading brigade, the most physical, unimaginably demanding work she has ever done. But, as the news about her talent for drawing and tracing blueprints spreads, a quick transfer to a purported `better life' in a construction brigade ensues. She is the only American--man or woman, here...and the only "political prisoner" in the entire Siberian camp.
   
   Perhaps the best news Margaret has heard yet...the camp is auditioning dancers and performers for its dramatic entertainment troupe! She is readily accepted. Then...old and ugly, dormant feelings are stirred up once again: bitterness, resentment, hatred...as she spots Anastasia, the witch--the informer, amongst a column of newly arriving prisoners in the summer of 1948. In the middle of one particular night, Margaret is awakened from a dead sleep, and told, "Pack your things now; you will be leaving in the morning."
   
   Margaret's new `home' and labor camp is at Inta, Komi, A.S.S.R., far north in Siberia, just a few miles south of the Arctic Circle, one of the most notoriously brutal labor camps in all of Siberia. In a climate she describes as "bone-chilling, mind-splitting, devilish cold," she meets political prisoner--LINA PROKOFIEV, Spanish wife of the famous, world-renowned Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. A wonderful friendship begins... "One day," Margaret recalls, "a woman named TAMARA arrived in our camp, and things were never the same again!" -- as Margaret becomes a key member of the camp's Cultural Brigade, the official entertainment, ballet and dance group. It is here that we meet her closest lifelong friends--"SISTERS" all, simply held together in the mutual madness by just a single common thread--the thread of HOPE.
   
   Life continues for Margaret in this perpetually gray and unforgiving Soviet slave labor camp in Northern Siberia. We learn much more about the conditions and factors--indignities and `favors,' effecting camp life for these women. The prevailing thought in Margaret's mind through most of it is simply, "God, when are you going to change all of this?" The writer takes a shockingly truthful and spiritual look at the epidemic reality of suicide in the Russian death camps; the infiltration of hopelessness and despair into the human spirit, and then its devastating results, as Margaret decides, "this is all just too insane; where's the off button?"
   
   Margaret details her natural love for ballet--what physically demanding, exhaustive `work' it truly was; along with the existing jealousies created within the camp, due to the theatrical work of the "privileged" WOMEN in the Cultural Brigade. Russia's malevolent dictator, Joseph Stalin dies in March of 1953; it is practically nationwide jubilation in the hearing that "the master of the house has died, and all of the grateful servants celebrate." Maybe now, for the first time, Margaret begins to see the light at the end of her tunnel of darkness, as her original 10-year sentence nears its close.
   
   Maidie is an integral member and performer in the Cultural Brigade, also working as draftsman for a small construction group. Brigade member, NATASHA, disgusted with her producers one day (because they can't find her a "suitable role" for an upcoming show) throws a bucket of feces on their heads...as Maidie and others are doubled over in laughter! Though officially outlawed, the women have taken in pets. One day, their loving dog is missing, then soon discovered, as Margaret declares "oh, what evil lies in the hearts of men!" Later, a chilling `secret abortion' is performed in her barracks.
   
   Margaret has been `requested' back in Gorky by the officials of the MVD--Ministry of Internal Affairs, for the purpose of recruiting her mother, Elisabeth, to work for them in Gorky. She describes her mama looking like "a deer caught in 2AM headlights on a dark and lonely road...it was nothing but a set up...honey all over the bear trap," as Elisabeth, sitting at an overflowing mountain of delectable food, uncomfortably awaits her daughter's arrival. Back in Siberia, March 3rd, 1955, the day of Margaret's release has finally arrived. Before exiting, however, as she did once before...many years earlier, she again decides, regardless of the consequences, to defiantly stand up and speak her mind...
   
   Shortly after her eventual release, while dancing for Tamara's group in Inta, Margaret meets and later marries GÜNTER--a former German war prisoner, fellow labor camp survivor, and theatrical stage performer--now exiled to Siberia. Their BABY is soon born...
   
   Although considered `free' to some yet unknown degree, Margaret steadily realizes her increasing dependence upon "the grace, favor, and protection of an unseen God." She examines those spiritual certainties, which have most assuredly surrounded and guarded her life for all of these years, in miraculously inexplicable ways. At Inta, before giving birth, she dances her final dance...as Elisabeth, for the first time ever, witnesses her daughter's last dramatic performance. Still trapped in Russia, however, Maidie visits a former friend, JOHN, in Moscow...and, upon his advice, decides to write a grand and lengthy appeal to the country's Prime Minister, NIKITA KHRUSHCHEV, requesting permission to leave the country (to East Germany)--in accordance with a new "War Prisoner Exchange Agreement" between Germany and Russia.
   
   In December 1957, the good news finally arrives; they are authorized to leave Russia, eventually crossing into the GDR in February 1958 at Fuerstenwalde, not far from Gunter's hometown. Did Nikita "buy" the appeal?
   
   Margaret states, "we knew that we could never survive in the GDR; it was too much like Russia...and I'm an American. This is not my home!" Thus, a clever plan for defection, escape to the "free West," is hatched, as Soviet-controlled East German Border Police, or VOPO's, look upon the developing drama. West Germany was, in fact, the strategic-most place on the globe; the best place imaginable for launching back to the U.S.; also described as Margaret's "private plan within the plan." She recalls, "This would become our instant demise, death, if we blew the scene!"
   
   Nearly 30 years from the day Margaret first left Detroit as an 11-year-old schoolgirl, she returns to America--her country--with mother and son, her destiny finally fulfilled--as she slowly kneels down amid the gathering crowd of onlookers...to kiss the boards of the pier at New York Harbor...as she considers: "Were it not for God, I would have certainly died out there! My life had been stolen from me, but now it was being returned. The forces of evil had destroyed much of my life, yet, if but for a moment, I almost felt as if I hadn't missed a thing. I knew I could just as easily have died out there, given up and folded my hands. Many others had done just that. I knew them. I knew their faces. But now I was free. Here was my life, waiting for me all over again, as if I had just been born..."
   
   
   CLOSING THOUGHTS:
   
   Margaret "Maidie" Werner was the only American woman known to have survived the Siberian slave-labor camps of twentieth-century Stalinist Russia, to have escaped from exile, and to have returned to the United States...
   
   Though Ford insists its American workers returned to the United States in the later part of 1932, Carl Werner was still living in Gorky in 1938, and working at the plant Ford built to manufacture the trucks essential to Stalin's Five-Year Plans.
   
   Just what did Detroit's Ford Company know, and what didn't they know about the affairs going on in Gorky? What did they disclose, and what did they conceal? And why? What was their involvement, their level of support for their people? Why had they abandoned their employees? What, if anything, was their liability? And what was the U.S. government doing about all the innocent Americans who were there in harm's way? Indeed, even today there are many more questions than answers...as we realize that things are not always as they first appear.
   
   There is much documentary evidence that the Ford Motor Company worked for both sides during World War II. While Russia was at war with the Germans, the United States--as official ally to Russia and Britain, was certainly also at war with Germany. And Henry Ford, as history would recount, was doing business simultaneously with the two archrivals--Hitler and Stalin--supplying cars, financing, and political influence, for profit, to each. The Ford story was concealed by Washington, however, like almost everything else of that genre that could touch upon the name and sustenance of the Wall Street elite.
   
   It is said that if the Nazi industrialists brought to trial at Nuremberg were even remotely guilty of so-called "crimes against mankind," then so must be their fellow collaborators in the Ford family, Henry and Edsel Ford.



3. First a note about other reviews:
   Largely ignore the negative comments.
   
   The three greatest negative comments I've read are those referring to:
   1) Proselytizing
   2) Writing style
   3) Historical research/content/details.
   
   At this point, these three types of negative comments seem to run from greatest to least in this order.
   
   First of all, or to cover #1 . . . proselytizing: There really isn't any. The quantity of coverage given specifically and directly to God within these pages seems no more than would be set aside for him in anyone's book. There's no literary "alter call" and the closest you get to a description of a conversion experience is found within the last three or so pages--and no formula is given and no call to the reader extended. It's obvious the author and the subject (if he has been faithful to her memories/recollections) consider God a central figure in the universe and their lives, but because this story is what it is, a true biographical telling of survival in Stalinist Russia, it says little of God directly. Apparently, Margaret Werner knew little of God during these difficult years and so there is little said. What insight she received were tidbits from her mother . . . which were generally meant as encouragement to get through the next day, hour, moment. So, given the little amount of space the book devotes to specifically mentioning God, I will say no more here . . . or run the risk of spending even more space here than there was there!
   
   The second objection I've seen in reviews of this book: Writing Style. The book is well written. I read an Advanced Reading Copy and noted only a couple of typographical or print errors--these may have been corrected in the final printing. The writing style itself, while a little wordy perhaps, does an excellent job of portraying the words of the subject as if they are being delivered in person, one on one, from an eloquent, down to earth individual. There are no literarily elaborate phrases and you don't need a Harvard education to grasp the vocabulary. The story is delivered in a direct and straightforward fashion and the entire read, I found, was pleasant. It was certainly good enough to "forget" I was reading and fall into the story.
   
   Finally, the last negative comment I've seen in reviews of this book are its attention to historical content/detail/research. This is not an historical treatise. There are not a lot of historical details given in the text. We are given details, but they are those directly related to the story, by the subject, in the first-person. Most of the historical information we receive is that which the subject was familiar with at the time and not what would have become available after-the-fact through research. This book is a retelling of events that befell Margaret and the struggles she endured. Indeed, the reader learns a lot of things about death camps in Stalinist Russia during this time frame--but these details are those which are relevant to the telling of the story and nothing more.
   
   I have attempted to cover what seem to be the main negative parts of the reviews I have read of this book. I will not spend a lot of time reviewing the positive aspects because that has already been done amply by others. As I began this review with the suggestion to largely ignore the negative comments of others regarding this book, I will now suggest that you give credence to the positive comments others have given. Take the most glowing comments you read with a grain of salt and realize that everyone will have his or her own bent--specific reasons they liked this or that which are personal to them. But as you should largely ignore the negative comments given, I suggest you largely consider the positive.
   
   This is a wonderful read and a good solid book and it has earned its place in my library--and as suggested reading to others.



4. What should have been an amazing story - a young woman goes to Russia because her father is a Ford worker on an exchange program, then her and her father end up being tried for treason and imprisoned, although not together, and only she makes it out of the prison system alive - fails to be a page turner in Karl Tobien's recitation of his mother's story. The main problems are Karl's confusing writing style (I had to read the book several times before every scene made sense, also I think he claims that his grandparents were "waiting out the Depression" on a beet farm in 1921, which differs a little from the dates I was taught in school) and his incessant proselytizing.
   
   It would be understandable if Mrs Werner had given her son a whitewashed vision of the camps. She had lived quietly for years after returning to America and was careful to avoid publicity or attention, and even though she seemed to lead as charmed a life as a gulag prisoner can, there was probably a lot she didn't care to dwell on. But Karl doesn't do any of his own research to supplement her story, leading the reader with a lot of questions especially about the Ford-Gorky exchange and Carl Werner, who despite his daughter's obvious worship, might have dug his own hole in Soviet Russia.
   
   The second problem is that Karl is clearly a born-again Christian, and possibly his mother also was by the end of her life. This really shouldn't be that obvious halfway through the book, but there we are. While a gulag-as-a-spiritual-discovery-journey is explicitly stated, right off the bat young Maidie is crediting a benevolent God with every possible stroke of good luck and never once does she seriously question him about the bad. In fact, there is a surprisingly small amount of conflict in the whole book, both in her heart and in her environment, considering she's in a freaking gulag. By the epilogue, where Karl exclaims that we need truth! need it now! in our schools! without ever once stating what truth he's talking about because to him it's totally obvious, I have to wonder how much of the story is really Margaret Werner's, and how much was Karl.



5. Dancing under the Red Star was a good book but not what I would call a "page turner." The beginning was a little slow and confusing because the author went back and forth changing time sequences...but once I got past the beginning, everything was in chronological order. Also, the author tended to go a little too much into detail about Margret's personal thoughts...sometimes pages were spent with her thoughts just going and going. I wanted the storyline to continue...not drone on and on. However, overall, this is a good book with a great deal of details on what life must have been like for millions under Stalin. I would recommend this book for high schoolers and above.