Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book was pretty straightforward and simple. I liked some of Austen's discussions (she actually "spoke" as the author instead of just telling the story, which I thought was pretty neat, and as the author she talked about novel writing and other topics). The ending was expected, but a little abrupt. It wasn't the best of Austen's books for sure, but overall a nice, fun read.


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Neil Gaiman's American Gods

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Neil Gaiman is crazy! I enjoyed reading this book for its vivid descriptions and crazy premise. I was left wondering what was going on the whole way through (and only got most of the answers to my questions by the end). The characters are all crazy (sorry, this is just the best word I can use to describe a lot of this book), and there was a little too much sex (and none of it was sex between two people who love each other). I really liked the way the plot panned out, though. The main character grows and changes, the bad guys get their due, and yet a mystery still hangs around what actually happens/happened/will happen. A very entertaining read.


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Sabbath, Part 2

So, after our discussion about the Sabbath on Friday night, I tried to live Sabbath like I should. I love Sabbath, and I always will. It is our special "time out" to be with God. It can include time with family, rest, worship, and food, but mostly it's about worship and being with God. So, this last Sabbath, we went to church (which was a really nice service at Collegedale Community, by the way), then went to my parents' house for lunch. It was a pretty light lunch (very yummy), which helps avoid the usual slump I always get Sabbath afternoon that makes me want to take a nap. After that, though, I did go take a short nap, which was nice. I'm not sure that God wants us to waste part of our day with him in sleeping, but I'll try working on that little by little. If I can at least try to keep my thoughts focused toward him I'll feel better about my Sabbath experience. After that, Ryan and I prepped our food for the evening then went to hang out with our families and have some coffee. It was a nice, relaxing time. Then we had a supper celebration for father's day. A little after sundown we had sundown worship (if I had remembered earlier we could have done it then, but, out of habit, I didn't think about it). I felt like this Sabbath was a positive move toward better Sabbath-keeping, but definitely not at 100%. How do you keep Sabbath?

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book was simply fun! I loved the story, the imagery, the language. Neil Gaiman is awesome! The movie was pretty good, too, but it strayed from the story line a bit. It left some stuff out (as movies often do), but it added some stuff in, which really made it a better story. It's hard for me to accept movie adaptations, so I didn't really like the fact that it changed the story, but I liked the movie on its own.


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Neverwhere: A Novel by Neil Gaiman

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed this book! It had suspense, action, mystery. It was a different world, one that has little in common with the real world. It was vividly told, and quite entertaining.


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The Sabbath

This Friday at Bible study we're going to be studying the Sabbath. Not what day of the week we should worship on, but how do we keep the Sabbath like God wants us to. So, I started searching the Bible. Do you know that not a whole lot is said on the subject? Most of the texts dealing with Sabbath keeping only say what not to do (don't gather food, don't light a fire, don't work, etc.) and the penalty for breaking the Sabbath (death). So how do we really keep the Sabbath and find it enjoyable? Ellen White has some stuff to say on the subject, too. I read some about it from the book Child Guidance. I'm struggling with it a bit b/c it's so far from what I have been doing. Some of it I liked. She says that parents should take their children out in nature to look at God's creation and to teach them object lessons. This is really great. But she also says that children aren't to play on Sabbath (whether indoors or out) and the only thing she suggests doing with them is talking with them on spiritual things or singing songs or praying. Now, my attention span isn't long enough to sit still and talk about God all day, or even to walk in nature dwelling on Christ and his creation. Of course, that definitely says something about my walk with God. But how can we expect children to be still all day long? Even with a nature walk, do we expect them not to run, to get rowdy, to want to laugh and play? Is that even what God wants? God wants our hearts and our worship. How do we give that to him, especially on Sabbath? How do we keep ourselves from breaking his holy day? One thing I really want to start doing more is taking full advantage of Friday (and if necessary Thursday as well) as preparation day so that my house and heart are ready to worship God from sundown to sundown. This includes cleaning, grocery shopping, and prayer. This topic is definitely an important one, and I don't want to limit Sabbath to a list of don'ts. It needs to be a mindset and a sacred time to set my heart apart for God.

The Witching Hour by Anne Rice

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I'm torn between my admiration for the colorful writing, and my dislike of the entire subject matter and the end of the book. Rice writes very descriptively about New Orleans, architecture, landscaping, people, sex, feelings, etc. I was interested in the story, so once I started it I wanted to finish it. However, I wouldn't recommend it to Christians; people who don't like to read about witches, sex, or killing; or "children" under the age of 18. Also not recommended for people who want to get to the end of the story after 900+ pages. Unfortunately, I'm one of those people, so the ending left me hanging (and I don't want to drag myself through the next dark book to see what happens). One good thing: Rice left us hanging and wondering about what was really going on throughout the entire book, and did answer most questions by the end.


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New interest in blogging

So, I haven't been on here in a while, as you can see. I forget about my blog sometimes (probably because no one else is interested in reading it). Anyway, recently I've had a lot more time to spend on the internet (work is really slow), so I've been busy on facebook and now Goodreads (which is an awesome website for readers). If someone sent me an invite to a site for crochet-ers, I would join that one too! A new interest is trying to work up to being able to do 100 pushups at a time (right now I can do 3); Ryan found a website to help me do that, and he wants to try too! (I seriously need some arm/back/tummy definition, and I might try the 200 sit-ups program, too.) Now that I found out I can add book reviews from Goodreads to my blog, I might be on here more. Anyway, if anyone is interested in these same pursuits, let me know!

Stardust by Neil Gaiman

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
So far, I'm really enjoying this book. Ryan and I are reading it together; otherwise I would have it finished by now. I'm a huge fan of fairy tales, so this one fits the bill. It's definitely for adults, though (there's some violence). We're reading a fully illustrated hardback copy that friends are lending to us. It's really cool!


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