Category: Book Reviews

Lessons from the Arabian Nights

by atozmom, posted in Book Reviews

I began this humongous book of epic proportions to read to my kids entitled “The Arabian Nights: Their Best Known Tales.”  I’ ve been reading it pretty much non-stop for the past 5 days mainly because it’s due back at the library today.  I finally finished it last night and even my kids were glad.

This book was refreshing because the stories are all ancient and most talk a lot about God or Allah.  It’s nice to see how the characters rely on God and his will for their lives.  Some good quotes I enjoyed:

I resigned myself to the will of God.

Call upon the Almighty, He will help thee; thou needest not perplex thyself about anything else; shut thy eyes and whilst thou are asleep, God will change thy bad fortune into good.

There is no strength or power but in God alone, who is almighty.

God’s purposes concerning me are as yet hid in darkness.

Several times the characters submit to the will of God and chalk up the calamities of their lives and their situations to His will.  They never complain and about it but just accept (or submit if you will) to it and move forward, making the best of what has happened.

I wish I had more of this attitude in my life.  The ability to accept things in your life and not try to fight or change the bad stuff and to do all this humbly and with grace is hard in our day and time of instant gratification.

To realize that God does have a plan for your life but it is hidden in darkness, waiting for you to discover it.

Good stuff to think about this weekend.

Seven at One Blow

by atozmom, posted in Book Reviews

Ever since I started homeschooling, I have read hundreds of books to my kids (this is just since November) and have really gotten into the great kids books and stories out there, most of which I’ve never read since my mom didn’t have the time as a single mother to read to us.  I’ve even had to restrain myself from putting books on hold at the library because there are just so many good ones out there (I now have a running list of hold books–sad isn’t it?).

Anyways, one story that we’ve read lately has really grabbed my kids’ attention.  It’s “Seven at One Blow” by the Brothers Grimm.  I love classics and love reading the classics to my kids but this one was just one I grabbed off the shelf at the library.

It’s about a common tailor who kills seven flies at one blow and that becomes his mantra.  He decides he’s better than a common tailor and sets out on adventures using his seven at one blow mantra to prop him up.  Most people think he’s killed seven men or giants at one blow and not flies.

The version we are reading is by Eric Kimmel who writes in his intro:  “The tailor is one of the most appealing characters in Grimm.  There is nothing heroic about him, but because he possesses such supreme self-confidence he inevitably becomes the hero he pretends to be.  As the saying goes: whether you say you can or can’t, you’re right.”

I love this.  The guy so believes in himself and his ability to accomplish even the most daunting task, that it happens.  He does it.  He finds a way.

So, I’m going to begin believing I am a writer and a published writer at that and soon enough, the Universe will open up, God will step in, and it will happen.

Lessons from Gilgamesh

by atozmom, posted in Book Reviews

I’ve been hesitant to give up homeschool and now I think I know the underlying reason–I have and am learning as much or more than my kids in the process.  I get to study what I want to study for once, investigate things and people I want to know about, and spend as much time as I wish.  This is probably one of the greatest benefits of homeschool and one of the strongest reasons to homeschool i.e. letting the child investigate what speaks to their heart and not what speaks to the State’s heart.

I grabbed a kids’ book on Gilgamesh more for me than my kids.  So I’m reading it and the afterward by a Professor Cyrus Gordon from my alma mater, Brandeis University (I wonder if he’s still around since this book is from the 1960’s).  It relates the historical significance/importance of this ancient Mesopotamian tale as it predates the Ancient Greeks and the Bible.  Particularly, it mentions the sacking of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BC (previously thought to have been the first known dates of Mesopotamian cuneiform)–the very subject I am reading about in the Bible in Jeremiah, Lamentations, and now Ezekiel.  This is all stuff I never learned in school and so visiting it a second time has been…wondrous.

So, the tale of Gilgamesh is the tale of a man who became experienced and wise in his travels; and learned what all of us must learn in order to be wise (despite having failed in his mission to obtain eternal life):  to make the most of our earthly lives without chasing rainbows that are beyond our grasp.

I agree and disagree with this.  I agree with making the most of your life, but I see nothing wrong with chasing rainbows.  Dreams are what give us life and my writing career is definitely obtainable.  In terms of little kids, that’s all my kids do–is chase rainbows, unicorns, Pegasus, dragons, princesses, princes, castles, and fairy tales.

It breathes life into them and that’s all that matters in this world.

I can still learn right along with my kids while they are in school.  I don’t have to stop learning (and neither do they) as long as I choose not to.  They receive the benefits of being with their peers at a regular school and I can still learn whatever I want whenever I want.

There Was So Much Out There, All for Me to Take, if Only…

by atozmom, posted in Book Reviews

I would grasp it. P. 265

Another quote from David Liss’ The Whiskey Rebels.  Great stuff.  We all know that possibilities are endless in this world.  It’s the grasping part that hinders many of us.  Sometimes it’s the knowing what to grasp or the actual process of grasping it.  Later, Liss asks, “Why else live if not to do it?”

This is a great question because we can get caught up in the monotony of life and lose focus sometimes.  It’s good to be reminded now and again that there is more out there than getting the kids off to school, soccer practice, and dinner.  Life is about living and doing, not just living.

On p 286, “Everything begins with someone who either does something or does nothing…”

So my question to you is: which will you be today?

The Whiskey Rebels

by atozmom, posted in Book Reviews

I’m getting such gems from this book by David Liss (could I ever be this good?).  On P. 220, “…beauty that made me love her, before I knew that our minds were perfectly formed for one another…”  This is great because I think most marriages are this way.  You see the outside first but once you’re married, you know the person so intimately that it seems your minds are perfect for one another.  Each compliments the other’s strengths.  I know this is the case in my marriage.

Liss goes on further a few pages down, describing marriage as, “…committing to law what was already in our hearts,” which is basically what a marriage ceremony is—committing to both the laws of the land and God’s law.

“I should live the life of my innermost desires.” Liss says this on p. 245, describing what a character wants for his wife.  Isn’t this what we all want for ourselves as well?

I know for me this is what I strive for every day.  I get up each morning and exercise because I want to be healthy and strong for my family.  I sit at my computer endlessly, typing and attempting to create what is on my heart and on God’s.  I strive to get my kids into the school I want them to go to because I want the best for their little minds.  I homeschool them until that point because I believe that the public system is not good enough and, frankly, I can do a much better job than they can.  I want them to start taking lessons of some sort once we catch up financially so they can discover what their passions are in life and lead the life of their desires.  I want my husband to figure out his passion in life and follow that to wherever it leads.  I pray every day that I find a literary agent who believes in my work and therefore in me and what I’m trying to accomplish in this world.

I think we all want to be living for something, something of our choosing.  Is that too much to ask?