literature

Mawi is a remarkable man, and it is hard for anyone to not be inspired by his story.

My entire family has read this book. We spent several hours discussing it together. Mawi is a great storyteller. He made us laugh and he made us think. I have given at least 15 of Mawi's books to friends and relatives to read. One friend and her husband were so moved by the book that they went and visited the organization, World Relief, in Wheaton, IL to find out what they could do to help refugees. They gave their Christmas bonus to helping several families. Everyone should read this book, adults and children in fourth grade and older, refugees and especially everyone that has contact with people of another culture. I give this excellent, insightful book the highest recommendation.

Mawi - thanks for having the courage to share this road map to your sole. Peace be with you... -WLK

Coupled with the fact that Henry didn't smile once during his victorious progress through London...I must conclude that the historical guy was an evil hardass.

The Duke of York was not stabbed to death, and did not dramatically barf blood like in the Kenneth Branagh film. "He was a big man and very overweight, and it is reported that he either suffocated to death in his armor or suffered a heart attack in the press of the fighting."

So the next time you read Shakespeare, especially this play or, my favorite ahistorical pro-Lancastrian history twister, Richard III....just remember.... Shakespeare is a damned liar. :-)

Thanks to Alison Weir for the information in "The Wars of the Roses".

For those readers who have had the opportunity to see Giverny and the gardens in person it will be a special treat to read this book and reminisce. And for those who haven't been there and read this book, certainly it will provide a wonderful travel destination in the future. At the very least I imagine it will have most readers looking for an art book to view more of Monet's paintings or visiting a musuem which has his works.

A note: I do not think the recent translation compares to the original English one...it may read more breezily, but my brief comparison suggests that it loses a LOT of subtlety in trying to achieve a more colloquial, effortless, less dated narrative voice. For instance, a passage in the original English translation reading "knowledge was beginning to become unfashionable" is translated in the new as "science became outdated". Two totally different meanings, and the first is clearly closer, given the context..(in which Musil is waxing sarcastic about a silly but dangerous bourgeois "believing" fad - spookily portentious of the Hitler era). An incredibly absorbing psychological novel...if your reading time is precious...nothing will reward more deeply or stay with you longer.

If we take it that the characteristics of 20th-century life are fatuity, doubt and confusion; the "barbaric fragmentation" of the self, where "impersonal matters . . . go into the making of personal happenings in a way that for the present eludes description"; a crisis of individual identity and collective purpose -- then it is Musil's astonishing achievement to make a comedy of all this.

The book begins with a baroque meteorological description; its first action is a car accident; the hero is first seen looking out of a window, stopwatch in hand, conducting a statistical survey of passing traffic. Can there be any doubt that it is a prophetic book about our world? Musil is us. The world of "global Austria" in 1913 and "the Parallel Action" -- the plan, in the novel, to claim 1918 for the jubilee celebrating the 70th year of the reign of the Emperor Francis Joseph before the Germans get it for Kaiser Wilhelm's 30th, made nonsense of by the intervention of World War I -- is our world of the United Nations International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction and other fatuous schemes. While Musil's contemporaries Proust and Joyce chose interiority and the private world of memory, Musil is uncannily prescient about modern life, where sportsmen and criminals are indifferently idolized, where quantity sits in judgment on quality, so that an author, as Musil puts it, "must have an awful lot of like-minded readers before he can pass for an impressive thinker," where we sit and stew among "bobsled championships, tennis cups and luxury hotels along great highways, with golf course scenery and music on tap in every room." So "The Man Without Qualities" is satire; as one character says, "The man of genius is duty bound to attack." However, it is not harsh satire, nor is it sour. There is something loving about it. Musil's tone is unlike anyone else's. Partly it is the Austrian melancholy that underlies the book, the melancholy of a defunct empire, of a closed conditional: what was to happen did not. WHAT if, the novel implies, instead of expressing itself in the carnage of World War I, human folly had chosen another form? Partly it is the equable irony that plays over every character, institution and group in the book that makes reading Musil such an exquisitely flattering experience. No characters in the book escape mockery -- especially for taking themselves so seriously. All of them are skewed and partial, but none are caricatures; perhaps the book's almost complete lack of physical description plays a part here -- and yet, in spite of that, you feel you could pick them out in a lineup. They are Musil's puppets.

In his early career he wrote stories, plays and novels that had a certain popularity. But none of those prepare a reader for the expanse of "The Man Without Qualities". It took up the last two decades of his life, before he died in self-imposed exile in Switzerland in 1942, at the age of 61. It is a quite overwhelming novel, quite indeed...

For any non-southern American whose sole exposure to what happened there was from history books, this should forever shatter the pat preconceptions and simplistic black and white (no pun intended!) formulas they were taught.

The book plunges you into a vast panorama of ambiguities and contradictions. It was clear to me from the first paragraph that Faulkner was a genius. In the whole history of literature, he surely stands among a select few at the very pinnacle of greatness.

Go Down Moses is a tremendous struggle to get through. Some parts are straightforward and easy, but there are others that you can't hope to make literal sense of. You're bombarded by its twisted grammar. Its frantic confusion. Its endlessly unresolved sentences. But through these, Faulkner ultimately conveys the pain of history -- past and present. The emotion of that pain seems more real to him than the specific incidents it sprang from. Why else would a book begun in pre-Civil War Mississippi -- entirely skip it -- picking up again a generation later?

This book is about the South. Having read it, Faulkner walked beside me every step of the way I took through his state. But this book also has a sub-theme that should not be overlooked. Faulkner was a profound environmentalist, although sharply contrasted with how we usually think of that term. Hunters don't much fit the mold of environmentalism -- and Faulkner was an avid one of that lot. So, in that sense, along with all the sociological, he can shake you up pretty good! Go Down Moses contains some of the most wrenching descriptions you could hope to find on the loss of wilderness. There is nothing ambiguous in his portrayal of that loss. Faulkner may confound everything you thought you believed of Southern sociology, but in an environmental sense, he leaves no room for confusion. Leave those trees standing!

This book will grip you; I can't imagine it having a lesser effect. Like all truly great art, it should change you forever.

I definitely think this book would be great for group discussion. A dedicated individual could no doubt garner symbolism, themes, and the basic plot on his or her own. But the story is so complex, I think you get a lot more out of it in a group, where the ideas can be shared and brainstormed.

Whatever the case, I recommend reading this book. Faulkner's look at the people and their environment of the South is amazing, and it is one of those books that you will find is often alluded to in other works. Spectacular book.

I'd heard of John Piper often and heard him quoted even more so it seemed. A devotional? Maybe this will be a good introduction before reading A Hunger for God or Desiring God.

I was taking a trip and decided to take A Godward Life along since my spiritual rhythm would be off while I was gone. Little did I know that I would be caught up in the personal correspondence and private musings of one of today's greatest pastors. I read all 120 readings in 7 short days--some twice, many highlighted, a few quoted in my journal.

I read a lot of books. I've seen a thousand devotionals. This was the first one to change my life. For me, this is the My Utmost for His Highest for my generation. I can't wait for the sequel.

Be sure to read Piper's letters to the editor of the local newspaper. How refreshing. Get to know the man and his thoughts--not just his outer presentation.

These meditations are strong meat in bite-size form. Piper meditates on Scripture passages (like Matt. 6:34, Phil. 1:21, and Rom. 5:8), gives snap-shot biography (of men like Abraham Lincoln, Adonirum Judson, and Charles Spurgeon), and reflects on social concerns (such as abortion, advertising with sex, and the lottery) - all from a God-centered perspective.

Not only is the content good, but Piper's writing style is both intellectually engaging and emotionally stimulating. He thinks deep. And when you read Piper, YOU begin to think deep. He is about as far from superficial as the Pillsbury Dough-boy is from muscle-tone.

This book helps me prime my spiritual pump. Some of my favorite meditations are: #19 "O SPARE US THIS REBUKE IN WORSHIP: Thoughts on the Handicapped Heart", #40 "WHEN UNCLOTHED IS UNFITTING: Thoughts on Selling with Sex", and #106 "THE POWER OF A FATHER'S DISCIPLINE: Memories of John G. Paton's Father." And there are so many more.

I commend this book with all my heart. Read. Think. And Live.

The chapters are only 2-3 pages, but aren't short on meaning. These are MEATY chapters and you will definitely have something to chew on for the next day(s) to come. I intend to buy Godward Life Book 2 as well.

See my other reviews for other devotional book recommendations!

This book was written by: Correta Scott King
The title was: I Have a Dream

The book contains a thoughtful forward by Coretta Scott King and a brief but informative biographical supplement about Dr. King himself. A magnificent black-and-white photographic portrait of Dr. King in his oratorical mode serves as an effective complement to the rest of the book's illustrations. Also noteworthy are the final pages of the book, in which the artists briefly share their personal thoughts about Dr. King's legacy and about their contributions to the book.

The power of Dr. King's speech is greatly enhanced by the beautiful artwork of this book. The pictures encompass many different artistic styles and techniques. Each one is a masterpiece which invites the reader to return and reflect upon it.

As I noted at the start of the interview, this book should be enjoyed by both adults and children. It would make a wonderful gift for individuals interested in the civil rights movement, in African-American history, in multiculturalism and racial reconciliation, or in contemporary art. This book is a fitting tribute to one of the 20th century's most influential visionaries.