Top Ten Places Books have made me want to Visit

Now this is a subject I feel passion about! Best part of it is that it can be real or (bum bum bum) FICTIONAL!!!!

1. Middle Earth- Read Lord of the Rings and oh my I just want to go there! The movies' beautiful scenery doesn't help my longing. 
2. England- All of Jane Austen's novels and any other novels set there. I want to go there so bad!!!!!!!
3. Oz- From of course The Wonderful Wizard of Oz series. Those were my favorites as a kid! 
4. Hogwarts- From the Harry Potter series. :)
5. Redwall, Salamandastron, ect- From Brian Jacques's Redwall series Another favorite from when I was young. 
6. Scotland- From G.A. Henty's In Freedom's Cause
7. Botswana- From The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
8. Mary Poppin Land- Is that a place? Just wherever Mary Poppins goes... it's always amazing! 
9. Narnia- From C.S. Lewi's Chronicles of Narnia
10. Neverland- From J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan. I'd never have to grow up! Wishful thinking I know. However, growing up I must do, much as I do not want to. On a more serious note, I think a serious problem with our society is people never wanting to grow up. Thoughts on that?

So many of these are fictional... obviously I'm not fond of reality. ;)

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Monday! Studying and... reading? (ain't nobody got time for that!)

So I should be studying, but instead I read. I tell myself that it's "reading in my spare time" but it seems to cause a lot of spare time. Anyways... test this Thursday so probably I should focus more on the studying and less on the reading.

Finished this week

• None

Currently Reading

• Prayer by John Bunyan
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows by J.K. Rowling

Coming soon

• That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame
• King Solomon's Mines by Hagard????
• Last of the Mohicans  by ???
• Here I stand: The Life of Martin Luther by ???

Blog Posts this Week

• Christianity and Liberalism  by J. Gresham Machem
• Perelandra  by C.S. Lewis

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Book Review: Perelandra

Finally I have gotten around to reading the second in C.S. Lewis's Space Trilogy after having read the first twice. 

Here's the synopsis from Goodreads: The second novel in Lewis's science fiction trilogy tells of Dr Ransom's voyage to the planet of Perelandra (Venus). Dr Ransom is sent by the Elida to Perelandra (Venus) to battle against evil incarnate and preserve a second Eden from the evil forces present in the possessed body of his enemy, Weston. Through these works, Lewis explores issues of good and evil, and his remarkable and vividly imaginative descriptions of other worlds cements his place as a first-class author of science fiction adventure.

I haven't read tons of science fiction, though I am branching out more into that area so the genre is still new to me.  Perelandra was much harder to read than Out of the Silent Planet but its deep theology continued to impress me throughout the book making me want to keep reading. The book focused on the story of Adam and Eve and their tempting by Satan, which I found absolutely fascinating and incredibly thought provoking. 
This is a great quote from the book and one that provoked a lot of contemplation from me. 

“Whatever you do, He will make good of it. But not the good He had prepared for you if you had obeyed him.” 

Overall a great book and I would highly recommend it. :)

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Book Review: Christianity and Liberalism

For my Clouds of Witnesses reading challenge and my Non-fiction reading challenge I read J. Gresham Machem's book Christianity and Liberalism. This was an absolutely excellent book, so deep that I could probably re-read it tomorrow and find plenty that I missed.

Here's the synopsis from Goodreads: Machen's classic defense of orthodox Christianity establishes the importance of scripural doctrine and contrasts the teachings of liberalism and orthodoxy on God and man, the Bbible, Christ, salvation, and the church. Though originally published nearly seventy years ago, the book maintains its relevance today.

Machen lays out the liberal turn that modern Christianity has taken (even more obvious now than it was then) and looks at what scripture has to say about the changes that are being made by these liberal modern Christians. I will always appreciate someone who turns to scripture about these issues and looks deeply into them. He expressed many things that I have ranted about before... public schools, government, ect. as well as other issues. He speaks to how modern Christianity has become more allowing of certain sins in an effort to appear tolerant. He starts, with the basics though. Defining God, the church and our faith. There is so much more he goes into so I would highly recommend you read it instead of relying on my memory. ;) This book is definitely worthy of many re-reads as I feel there is always something I could be learning from it.

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Top Ten Books for Readers who like Character Driven Novels

I don't normally pay attention to whether books are plot driven or character driven (or whatever other "driven" they are) so this prompt actually made me really think about that.

1. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling- The characters in my opinion are some of the best aspects of the novels. :)
2. Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card
3. Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maude Montgomery
4. Any Charles Dickens novels- Special thoughts towards Little Dorrit, Nicholas Nickelby and David Copperfield, as I remember them having especially interesting characters. 
5. All Jane Austen novels- My favorite obviously being Pride and Prejudice. :)
6. The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank
7. P.G. Wodehouse novels- Jeeves and Wooster... enough said. :)
8. Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens)
9. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
10. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

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It's Monday and I'm reading... books! ;)

I actually had a pretty good week of reading. I'm really far ahead of schedule with my Goodreads challenge but that's probably a good thing. Last year I barely made it so I'll be excited to finish it early this year. :)

Finished

• Christian Love by Hugh Binning READ MY REVIEW- Five stars!
• Wouldn't it be Deadly by D.E. Ireland- 3 stars

Currently Reading

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows by J.K. Rowling (re-read)
• Prayer by John Bunyan

Coming Soon (hopefully)

• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis

Bought this week (library book sale!)

• The Virginian by Owen Wister 
• All Things Wise and Wonderful by Jame Herriot
• And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
• Mark Twain's Best: Eight great short stories by America's master humorist by Mark Twain
• A Pair of Blue Eyes by Thomas Hardy
• Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy
• Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
• Piercing the Darkness by Frank E. Peretti

Checked out from the library

• Facing Grief by John Flavel
• Indwelling Sin in Believers by John Owen
• The Gospel of God: Romans by R.C. Sproul
• Prayer by John Bunyan

Book Review posted this week

• The Time Machine by H.G. Wells
• Becoming Jane: The Wit and Wisdom of Jane Austen 
• Christian Love by Hugh Binning 

Tons to read in the future it looks like! That will keep me busy... though school should be what is keeping me busy. ;)

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Book Review- Christian Love

For my Non-fiction reading challenge and my Clouds of Witnesses reading challenge I read Hugh Binnings book Christian Love.

Goodreads synopsis: In this Treatise of Christian Love, the Scottish Covenanting minister Hugh Binning movingly presents the need for Christians to show by their love for one another that they belong to Christ. Basing his remarks on John 13:35, By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another, he argues, 'This badge that Christ left to his disciples: if we cast this away on every disagreement, we disown our Master, and disclaim his token and badge.' Binning describes the excellence of Christian love, demonstrating its nature from 1 Corinthians 13. he gives strong reasons why Christians should love one another, and shows that love is rooted in Christian humility and meekness, after the pattern of Christ himself. Also included in this edition are three sermons from Binning's work The Sinner's Sanctuary, an exposition of Romans 8:1-15.

First off, I've got to say that I am incredibly impressed that Binning was 25 years old when he died so whenever he wrote this, he must have been quite young... and yet already so theologically astute! Binning had a lot to say about love and how Christian love is different than secular love. He also spoke quite a bit to Christ's love for us and how that should be our standard for loving others. 
Here is in amazing quote from the book to highlight, far better than my words ever could, the wisdom and insight of this book. 

“Self-love is the greatest enemy to true Christian love, and pride is the fountain of self-love” “He whose sins are covered by God’s free love cannot think it hard to spread the garment of his love over his brother’s sins” “Humility makes a man compare himself with the best that he may find how bad he himself is, but pride measures by the worst, that it may hide a man from his own imperfections”

I couldn't recommend this book highly enough! Yes, it is sometimes difficult to read but oftentimes that just means it is even more worth the read. :) 

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Book Review- Becoming Jane: The Wit and Wisdom of Jane Austen

When I first saw this book at the library and especially with it's cover picture being from the movie Becoming Jane I immediately wrote it off. However, later I came back to it, just to flip through it and then I realized that it was actually a collection of quotes from Jane Austen's books and letters. So I checked it out. Reading it was pretty much like reading one of Austen's books only you additionally got some very hilarious and insightful quotes from letters she wrote to her sister and other relatives. It was fun to read a nice collection of some of the best of Austen's book quotes without having to read all of the books... not that I am discouraging reading all of her books at all! Reading that actually made me want to re-read them all. What I mean though is that it was a nice substitute for someone who doesn't have tons of time at the moment. :)
So all in all a nice fun read for any Jane Austen lover. :)

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Talking Tea- Chai O My!

I've got a tea buying and drinking problem. It's this cold weather! It does things to me. Anyways, I bought more tea the other day! The flavors I bought were Caramel Chai, and Chocolate Chai black teas and Moroccan Mint green tea. How could one resist such delicious sounding names??????

After trying them all, I decided they all lived up to their scrumptious names. The Chocolate Chai has a slightly odd, but nonetheless delicious, strong vanilla taste to it... like real vanilla. The caramel chai is exactly as it sounds, chai with just that hint of caramel to make it, if possible, even more delicious. The Moroccan mint is like most any other mint tea that you can get but I can tell it has a superior quality in the taste. 

P.S. I'm thinking making Thursdays tea post days? What think you? Nada? Well then tea post days they are!

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Book Review- The Time Machine

For my last Classics Club spin I read H.G.Wells's The Time Machine. I wasn't totally taken with the last H.G. Wells book I read (War of the Worlds) but as I'm kind of a Doctor Who geek and into the whole time travel thing right now, I was hoping I would enjoy The Time Machine more. To my surprise I did. It didn't totally win me over or anything like that but it was an enjoyable book nonetheless. The Time Machine was not the first story to introduce time travel but it was the one that really introduced it to the general public.

Synopsis from Goodreads: With a speculative leap that still fires the imagination, Wells sends his brave explorer to face a future burdened with our greatest hopes...and our darkest fears. A pull of the Time Machine’s lever propels him to the age of a slowly dying Earth.  There he discovers two bizarre races—the ethereal Eloi and the subterranean Morlocks—who not only symbolize the duality of human nature, but offer a terrifying portrait of the men of tomorrow as well.

One of the interesting things about The Time Machine was that it did not paint a pretty picture of our future but instead showed it regressing. There was still sin in the world... surprise, surprise. ;) I've got to give the hero of the story credit, he is very adventurous... and I'm not just talking about the actual time traveling he does but also about all of the exploring he does in the future and the many risks he takes. He's also quite resourceful, though sometimes a little dull... using up the matches... seriously? Get with it! ;) Though the writing was a little hard to read, it was still interesting and I can realize how ground breaking it would be in its day.
All in all, an okay book and one that you should read just to see one of the first glimpses that was offered into the world of time travel. :)

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