Book Review @ MindSay

I've recently discovered this series of 3 books (so far) by Liz Curtis Higgs, an accomplished Christian speaker and writer (she's written more than a dozen books now, both fiction and nonfiction) and highly recommend them. The first one is Bad Girls of the Bible and What We Can Learn from Them; the next one is Really Bad Girls of the Bible, and the third one is Slightly Bad Girls of the Bible.  Higgs delves deeply into the stories of these Biblical women and makes them come alive in a way nobody else ever has (for me, anyway).  It's amazing how much information is there when you look at it as she has, and how much we can learn from what isn't said as much as what is.  Some of the women studied in these books are Rachel, Rebekah, Rahab, Hagar, Sarah, Michal, Sapphira, Eve, the Samaritan woman at the well, and the sinful woman who poured perfume on Jesus' feet. Some of these women are familiar and you may never have heard of others, such as Michal (a daughter of King Saul, married to King David).  Some are never named though they are well known for their actions, such as Potiphar's wife.  Of course, characters like Delilah and Jezebel are found in Really Bad Girls of the Bible. 

Higgs injects her own humor into these stories which helps the stories come alive - such as pointing out that the Bible describes the physical characteristics of few people in its pages, but King David and Joseph were two of them - and Higgs writes, "oooh, baby!" after quoting the descriptions.  She also points out that Eve had it made, because she had never been a child and therefore had no chicken pox scars, and I realized that Eve had also never been a teenager and therefore had no acne scars, and had never been pregnant (when she was in the Garden of Eden) and had no stretch marks either! She was drop-dead gorgeous, no doubt about it.

I recommend these books without reservation, and the audio books as well.  The audio book for the first book is abridged but very enjoyable nonetheless, and there is no audiobook for the second one, and I just finished listening to the unabridged audiobook for the third one and loved it. The author reads her own books and she's a hoot. 

In the process of reading/listening to these books, I learned so much about these women, about their times, and especially about God.  Higgs makes them and their stories come alive across the centuries, and it's clear that human nature was the same then as it is now!  Higgs especially shows that the God that took care of them is the same Almighty God in whom we can trust for all our needs today.

Just finished An Unfinished Canvas: A True Story of Love, Murder, and Family in Nashville by Michael Glasgow and Phyllis Gobbell, in paperback, published October 2007.  A great read, a real page turner about a murder that occurred in Nashville in 1996 but the conviction was 10 years later...how can a guy be this bad? You know there will be fireworks when the murderer and the victim's father are both lawyers, and this story does not disappoint.  Perry March was a selfish jerk with a huge ego who left human wreckage in his wake--when he could have had it all.  One of the best-written true crime books I've read in a long time; looking forward to more by these authors.

I'm listening to St. Peter's Fair, another of the Brother Cadfael series of medieval murder mysteries by Ellis Peters.  Kinda getting tired of the series. This is the 4th one and I'm not sure I'll finish it.  However, I can recommend A Morbid Taste for Bones and One Corpse Too Many in this series - great characterizations.  Daughter has recommended others in the series so I think I'll get one of those and forget St. Peter's Fair.  Brother Cadfael is a wonderful character and is much too pleased whenever his crime-solving ability or his talents with medicinal herbs take him away from the abbey and force him to miss services!

Really, it is. I'm working on four hours (had to finish the book I'll be talking about in a bit) and everything about it I like, as long as I only do it once in a while. Seriously... the compressed, fast dreams that I have when I know that I only have three or four hours to get all my sleeping done, resetting the alarm two or three times to squeeze out every possible minute, the mad dash in the shower and the (now) synchronized progress of events in the morning that allowed me to wake up at 7.10, leave the house by 7.22 (I have a razor at work) and show up at my desk only a minute late at 7.31. That minute was most likely due to my contacts... I didn't have to worry about putting them in the last time that I did this.

 

So I've just finished the excellent novel The World to Come. It's the second book by this particular writer (Dara Horn) but the first one that I've read. Highly recommended. The book weaves a story of Yiddish folklore, the early days of the USSR, a painting by Marc Chagall, and the theft of said painting in our time by a man who grew up with it hanging in his house. The writing is extremely rich and readable... at first there were times when I simply didn't want to go on, and just reread parts that I'd already gone over, tasting them as long as possible. The final thirty pages or so are another example of that... I wanted to stay up reading it, but it was just so difficult to speed through it, as beautiful and thought-provoking as it was. I'm releasing it today (I'm a member of Bookcrossing and use them to both get rid of books I may not read again and pass on books that I want as many people as possible to read...) downtown Newport (unless anyone wants me to mail it... it's that good, and I'd be doing you and the book a service). I just hope it finds a good home.

 

That's another thing I'm doing. Since my friend, companion, and roommate is packing up her things to leave, I've been doing some major spring cleaning myself, and getting rid of things that have just been weighing me down. Over the last three days, I reduced a huge box of 'filed' paper and things to about four folders and a tiny Amazon.com box, and I was able to finally sort my knitting things. Still have a lot of work to do, but it's nice not having so much clutter.

 

Okay, I'm sitting at my desk, and I should probably actually get to work. Have funn...

Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
by Betty Edwards

A large portion of Betty Edwards' book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, is instructional in the art of drawing.  Since I took Drawing One last semester with Scott Parsons, many of these instructions were repetitious of what I already knew.  Although the techniques were nothing new to me, this book offered new concepts and angles to drawing that built on my previous knowledge.  I really enjoyed the first chapter and the depth to which it explains "learning to see."  I related very much to the usual artists' answer to the question: How did you do that? I don't know, I just do it.  Often I've been asked this question by my sister and then she becomes frustrated from the answers (like above or I just drew it).   She has always been jealous of my creative and artistic ability - looking for a way to master these skills herself.  Once last semester someone was looking at my sketchbook and asked: You have all this in your head?  They were amazed that I could think of so many ways to fill a square using only lines and a black marker.  I did not know these things were in my head either until they reached the page.  Edwards' explanation on the Right Side vs. the Left Side of the brain helped me understand this.  The Right Side is the "perception" and the seeing.  Once my mind is settled on the Right Side time stops, I see the whole-not the parts, and makes leaps of insight.  It takes a while to leave the Left Side of the brain in the world we live in today.  It is all about time management and planning, expression through words, working step-by-step, and rationality from facts.  I think one of my road blocks in drawing is that I need to completely leave the Left Side when working.  The more often I use the Right Side of my brain, the more things will become apparent, seeing the art everywhere and in everything.  I also particularly enjoyed the chapter about the way children do art.  They see and draw things exactly as they are, as we grow older symbols and perceptions we've learned interrupt our "natural artists' eye."  I think that the artist does not think about what they see, they just look and what is there is what is there. 
Improv is a lot like this artists' eye I've heard so much about.  What is there is what is there- do not think about it, just do.  If one is focused on the improv, the present here and now in an improv bubble, then the art of the Right Side of the brain will present itself - and the magic of improv is created.  It is important to remember that improv is an art, express yourself in that moment and what you feel/think.  Second City used improv to make the skits we saw about the politics we are seeing now, it was what was on their minds.  Just say it.  Just do it.  You are not wrong.  Get in the improv zone and let the art express itself - you never know what you will find.

actually, I'm listening to it in the car.  It's the just-released sequel (second in the trilogy) to Gideon the Cutpurse by Linda Buckley-Archer, and this one is called The Time Thief.  I'm about halfway through it and so far it is excellent; very entertaining and thought provoking. It's for ages 10 and up, but I'm loving it.  The whole story is about two 21st century British 12-year-olds, Kate and Peter, who are accidentally transported back to the year 1763 by means of an experimental anti-gravity machine.  They are in the same location near London, but 2 centuries earlier.  Gideon is the character who witnesses their astonishing arrival in the 18th century and helps them to survive until they can return to their own time.  The first book ends (of course!) with a cliff hanger and the second book involves a villainous character who goes from the 18th century to the 21st....

I just think this has hit movie written all over it.  Harry Potter is finished, and the stage is set for Gideon, Kate, and Peter.  The author has done her homework in researching 18th century language and a lot of other little details that ring true to me.

I'm already looking forward to the third book in the trilogy!