No comments about Butler's Lives of the Saints: New Saints And Blesseds (Butler's Lives of the Saints (Numbered)).

5 comments about Meditations from Iraq: A Chaplain's Ministry in the Middle East 2003-2004.

1. This book brings real life to the stories of faith and witness going on in Iraq. There were so many excellent touching stories about the people fighting for our country, it's hard to choose a favorite! The author does a great job depicting the realness of human feelings.



2. Meditations from Iraq is an opportunity for those of us at home to experience the country, the war, and our military men and women, all in the light of God's grace. Chaplain Lance Kittleson brings all this to his readers with a wonderful blending of the poignant and the humorous. You'll love his stories! You'll see the best of those who are serving us in this time of war, their fears and their triumphs. You will read about God at work in unexpected ways, and your faith will likely be strengthened in the process.



3. Due to the bully pulpit our press gives Hollywood movie "stars", such as Jake Gyllenhaal, every American should read this true account of life in Iraq from the perspective of the American soldier/chaplain. Making a movie on the Middle-East conflict such as Gyllenhaal did with the flick, "Jarhead" does not give any man proper insight into what these brave young men and women are doing on a daily basis. Kittleson, an Army Chaplain, paints a compelling picture of the hardships these heroes endure. Religious or not, political or not, please read this beautifully crafted book, particularly before speaking out as Gyllenhaal did.



4. Meditations From Iraq is a must for everyone. The author is humble and gives the reader an insight on situations a chaplin
   may experience in his line of duty, ministering to our military
   men and women far from home and family not in the comforts of a church. Chaplin Kittleson adds humor and gives us an understanding of faith at all times.Everyone should read this book before passing judgment on our brave men and women.
   This is a book you can't put down. Even those who do not read because they
   can't remember what they read will find this book worthwhile.



5. Kittleson brings a wealth of personal military experience to this work. Not only was he raised in the home of an American war hero, he has personally devoted himself to serving our country and its soldiers his entire adult life. He brings the perspective and experience of the unassuming soldier---a modest level 5 leader. It is a blend of a little cynicism about the Army its practices and procedures, personal glimpses of war that you will not see in any movie, and a deep sense of honor and devotion. Kittleson is a keen observer and gifted writer. His images combine stark and jarring reality with beautifully crafted language and simple but profound wisdom.
   This is not just a work for soldiers who have been there, or guys who wished they had been, though both will find this an engaging book. It is also for anyone who values real stories about real people, struggling and sometimes failing, sometimes triumphing over what they face.
   This is not a blood and guts saga, despite the fact that Chaplains probably have to deal with that horror more than the average soldier. This is the taste, the smell, the feel of war in a foreign and hot and hostile place. An example: "Here's a recipe that everyone can easily follow at home. Take a hair dryer outside on the hottest and driest day of the summer. Plug it in and be sure the setting is for `high heat.' Before pointing it at your face, add a large fan behind it and turn it on the highest setting. Next, add another ingredient: a winter heater turned on to the max. Now, bask your entire body in the stifling heat for a good twelve to fourteen hours, occasionally shifting from front to back and cheek to cheek to get an even roast. Just for added effect, turn on a bright light in your face as you bask. Before starting the broiling, take a six to eight-pound flower pot, turn it upside down and place it on your head fastened by a chinstrap. Be sure to leave enough room in the headband for sweat to trickle out and down your eyelids. Put on a heavy shirt and pants with boots geared to allow the minimum of air movement and then add a heavy winter coat or vest. Better yet, just for effect, put on a heavy corset and tighten. Throw in front of the large fan, turned on high, at periodic intervals, a good handful of powered sugar or flour so that it sticks to your body and clothes and on occasion throw a particularly large handful of powdery stuff so that it gets in your lungs and you can taste the grit between your teeth. If you aren't coughing up chunks of the stuff, you haven't thrown enough in front of the fan. After basking, broiling, roasting your body, and wearing holes in your gluteus maximus for the prescribed length of time, stop in an area covered in dirt with the churned up consistency of talcum power. Flop down on a cot under the full moon in the open and sleep the night away while trucks and Humvees hum around you all night long, throwing more and more talcum power in the air while some sort of bug bites your weary, roasted flesh."
   Kittleson puts you there. You are not a hero, you are a grunt. But just as you are at the breaking point he helps you see a greater or deeper reality. In the mundane grind of war he unveils truth, wisdom, and sometimes even beauty. The honeywagon becomes a strangely jarring image of the Holy Spirit carrying away your sin. And Jesus like a saper opens a way through spiritual razor wire. You sense the hand of God even in this horrid circumstance of war and come to realize the same hand of God extends into the horrid places in your own life. Kittleson's gift is the ability to show us the magic of grace in the midst of foreign war and so make it possible for us to see it in the midst of our stateside lives.

5 comments about Newsboys (Ccm Lifelines).

1. I found this book very enjoyable to read, especially since I love the Newsboys. I had a good laugh over one typo concerning the bassist Phil Joel and his wife Heather in a photo with Phil's grandfather. (he didn't really see it as a laughing matter) CCM never fails to amaze me (with the amount of mistakes in every issue of this and that), but the newsboys are far more amazing than all other musical rock groups I have encountered in my lifetime. Their skill far outweighs the constant bad reviews of CCM. If you ever get the chance, see these people on tour. They are AMAZING.



2. This book is really good. It gave me a lot of information about the Newsboys that I didn't know, which came in handy for making my site. It's also got some good pictures in it, even some of the 'Boys as kids. Every serious Newsboys fan should definetly have this book!



3. since i have met the newsboys and know alot of them i would say it is an ok book, some of it is a little off but thats ok! ...



4. This little book, Newsboys (Ccm Lifelines), was a good biography for the boys. The book did seem a little short becuase of the double spacing, yet still intriguing. The pictures were great, especially of theyre childhood. It also had humor and seriousness, but best of all it was just a good biography of one of the best chrisitan bands, the Newsboys!



5. Love it. Anything with info on Peter is hot. He can come to my "Candy Shop" anyday. Yummy

4 comments about Meeting Papaji: First-Hand Accounts.

1. In his life, Papaji, a fully enlightened master and disciple of Ramana Maharshi, transformed hundreds (maybe thousands) of lives in his effortless way, through the vehicle of satsang in the little town of Lucknow, India. So many who were in his presence describe the profoundest awakenings to the truth of life. Roslyn Moore, the author of this book, was inspired to track down and interview some of these fortunate individuals. And she did a great job. Reading this book gives you a peep into the deep transformative process that Papaji's presence precipitated in a number of interesting (and beautiful) personalities. The first interviewee is Gangaji, who began giving her own satsangs in the US a number of years ago at the prompting of Papaji (she has done such magnificent work -- see her book The Path of Self-Inquiry to get some feeling for her satsangs). If you are a Gangaji fan, you will love hearing some of the "inside" stories that she tells regarding her times with Papaji. Moore also interviews an Ayurvedic healer, one of Osho's former disciples, a former Japanese monk of the highest order, Papaji's physician, and Papaji's former wife (to name a few), all of whom gave their lives to him and in the process awakened to the wholeness of their being. Many who read this book will be lifted to the "next step" (so to speak) in their lives -- the book is loaded with the influence of awakening. You will be well rewarded for reading this book. Thank you Roslyn Moore for writing it.



2. Interviews with disciples of Papaji/Poonjaji. Good idea, nicely done. Only the interviewd people, except the son of Papaji, seem to be rather brain-leaky. One may like it, if one likes the non religious aproach to spirituality. But even then, it sounds too easy, that one just walks in with a guru and realizes the highest spiritual truths, then soon becomes a spiritual teacher and would have reached the end of wisdom. So I'd take the book as an example, how it should not be, but it's hard work, to figure out exactly whats wrong, because it sounds quite authoritative and unrefutable at certain pages. It's just simple interviews, but their omisions imply a lot which needs rethinking, (which, I think, is good:-).



3. I have been a spiritual seeker for a long time. I have read and pondered many metaphysical books, searched out autobiographies of spiritual masters. But I have never read one that affected me like "Meeting Papaji." I cannot recommend this book highly enough. By reading it I was literally brought into the presence of a living mater. In the preface Roslyn Moore describes being led to gather stories about meeting this great soul. The book is made up of eleven talks she had with people who were with Papaji in the nineties. The author is blessed with a combination of innocence and intelligence that brings each person out perfectly. Seeing what Papaji said to people and how he dealt with them is endlessly fascinating. There is an immediacy in reading "Meeting Papaji" that cuts through all concepts. As a result, many of my questions have come to rest. More importantly, and this would have been hard for me to believe, the search itself has now come to rest. This is Papaji's gift. Prashanti, one of the interviewees, lived near Papaji in Lucknow for many years and is now a software engineer and Ayurvedic healer in Northern California. He says, "With a saint realization happens just from being with him, doing nothing. There is nothing you can attribute any attainment to, although I guess you can attribute it to the Shakti (spiritual energy) of the saint. Being with Papa pointed to the absolute immediate Presence. No words were necessary. You would just snap into knowing, as if someone turned the light on." Papaji's transmission is simple: that we can know what is deeper than appearances; that we can be free; that we are realized now. This becomes clear through his presence, which is the presence, through his Shakti, and through asking for and sincerely desiring that. Even though Papaji left his body in 1997, he is alive!



4. This author/interviewer/compiler has done a great service to:
   
   1. The many who are inspired by the image of Papaji, but who may never have had the chance to meet up with him in meatspace;
   2. Sociologists of relgion;
   3. Psychologists studying mass hysteria;
   
   The obvious audience is category 1, simple would-be devotees who missed the boat in the 90's when Papaji was hot. Both interviewer and interviewees are pretty much united in their mindset that Papaji was some kind of god. (there are quotes in the interviews to this effect). I believe if you try to pin it down however, you'd be told "Oh of course not a god, he was pure emptiness pointing to emptiness". But if that's true, it's not clear why a person is needed for this function.
   
   There really is a deep contradiction shot through this book: on the one hand, everybody is already enlightened. On the other hand, not only do we for some reason still need to awake, but its best done through the agency (or non-agency) of this one particular Indian gentleman. Nobody really steps up to confront this non-sequiter, either they don't see it, or the implications would be too troubling, or they'd prefer to dismiss it is as mere logic/mind/rationality peeing in the punchbowl as usual.
   
   I don't mean to sound too tough on them. They all seem like super nice, sincere, wise and experienced people. I'm sure that they (such individual self as remains to them at least) believe they've awakened or gotten something from their association with this nice man. But to me the interest is more psychological or even sociological.
   
   It is so interesting that over and over, humans have to believe that
   
   (a) there is something transcendent out there; and most particularly
   (b) that certain particular human individuals have some kind of special conduit to that transcendence.
   
   This idea is so incredibly common in human history, yet these people show zero awareness of this human tendency. They just happily grind away at their one particular guy. This idea of 'The One' or the God-Man is the basis of most religions, royalty, pop stardom, politics, everything. It is the hardwired genuflection to the alpha chimp exhibited in any primate troupe.
   
   It is also an interesting exercise in group think, because this loose group of devotees was a totally non-coercive, self-aggregating cult, without any of the normal disparaged mind-control mechanisms - the emanated Shakti alone did the trick. They don't seem to know that many young people who met Chairman Mao in the 1960's (to take just one example) described him in similar terms as having eyes like lightning, etc.
   
   Although I greatly respect Ramana (the meta-guru of Neo-Advaita), somehow Papaji just doesn't ring my bell, he looks a bit shifty and tricky in his photos. Not at all the beatific infinitude of Ramana's beautiful face. But of course to the True Believer that just means that I wasn't on the scene and didn't get a toke of the real 24 karat shakti he must have radiated.
   
   Anyway this heart-warming book serves as a monument to the beautiful, doomed attempts we humans never tire of making to bulldoze the molehill of our chemical nothingness into the Big Rock Candy Mountain of gorgeously empty brilliant shining perfection.
   
   And it seems we need a fellow primate's face to kickstart that, every single time.

2 comments about The Power of One Christlike Life.

1. The "Power of One Christlike Life" will challenge you to look differently at the world around you.Francis Frangipane leads the reader through the scripture and gives the example of how Christ treated those he came in contact with.If love isn't your motivation to reach the world for Christ then you need to look again at the one who started Christianity.You may get a little tired of the many scripture references Francis uses but there will be no doubt when you're done that what he's trying to get across is grounded in scripture.I especially enjoyed the brief biographical sketches at the beginning of each chapter about contemporary christians and it gave me hope that I too can change the world around me for Christ.



2. Abraham. Moses. Christ. Paul. You.

   World Changers!

   God's mercy still triumphs over judgement.You and I matter to God. Our prayers sound in His ears, the results of which ripple through eternity.

   One man or woman to stand in the gap can change the destiny of a person, a neghborhood, a city, a country and beyond. Frangipane points to the lives of Saint Patrick, Brother Laurence, General Booth, John Bunyan, Charles Finney as examples of otherwise ordinary men who changed their times.

   Frangipane also makes a powerful point when he says "God gives us spiritual authority to protect those whom we love." and conversely, "...my lack of prayer left people vulnerable to the enemy."

   The Holy Spirit convinced me on both counts. I have power and authority to prevail in prayer for my family and friends....but also beyond! The effectiveness of my intercessory prayer is limited only by my love for others...or the lack of it - a thrilling yet sobering lesson for intercessors.

   So many lessons so plainly stated. The further I go on with God, the more I discover the power of the simple truth and how easily it has eluded my eyes.

   Thanks, Frangipane, for your clear-sightedness.

1 comments about Let Me Go to the Father's House: John Paul II's Strength in Weakness.

1. reading this book made one seem that the entire life of john paul 2 was his suffering and death. this book was , of course, about his passing, but it was written in such a way that made you feel guilty to be alive. moribund at its best.

No comments about The Journal of George Fox.

1 comments about A Different Kind of Miracle: My Story of Hope, Healing, and God's Amazing Faithfulness.

1. This book is far more than the story of a cancer journey. Emilie Barnes also shares her insights into God, and her reflections on suffering. And she doesn't sugarcoat her struggles. I have also had cancer, and reading this book inspired me--like having a personal conversation with someone whose relationship with God has just grown stronger and more real. I'd love to have had this book to "walk alongside me" when I was in "Cancerland."

No comments about Ride With the Wind: The Adventures of a Grandmother Who Bicycled Around the World.

5 comments about The Big Book of Martyrs: Amazing but True Tales of Faith in the Face of Certain Death! (Factoid Books).

1. In "The Big Book of Martyrs," Paradox Press takes a look at religion. Many saints of the Christian church have led amazing lives, and this volume covers some of them. It should inspire you no matter what you believe!



2. It is my experience that this is the least popular of the Big Book series, usually because it treats its subject matter with a more serious tone than all the other books. However, being an information junkie who also appreciates good art, I feel that this book does a good job of delivering on both.

   While I have never been accused of being the best of Christians, it is my opinion that this subject matter deserves to be treated seriously and respectfully given that it often involves telling the stories of people standing up for their message of love and peace at the threat of violence (a lesson less tolerant Christians can learn from).

   Many of the saints should not be subject to criticism, regardless of the imperfect record of the Catholic church. That being said, not everyone who has been granted sainthood is really a saint. For example, some were mere barbarians respected by the Catholic church for their zeal in slaughtering innocent people of different faiths. But this book, while being respectful of the title of saint, does not cower from pointing out these occassional pieces of hypocrisy. Also included in this book is a chapter dealing with saints who were purely fictional (and are even recognized as such by the Catholic church) including the still popular St. Christopher (of the medallion fame), but I'd be surpised at anyone taking this as an attack on their faith.

   Since this book is about the history of saints and the process (and politics) of cannonization, it is factual regardless of one's personal faith or lack thereof, but I am sure it appeals to Christians the most. But the interesting stories and artwork are worthwhile for anyone to experience, and, yes, even the nonreligious can find inspiration in tales of people standing up for their beliefs in the face of persecution, including those who have been targeted by the Catholic church.




3. While many students might find reading about the lives of early or memorable Christians boring or time-consuming, the stories of religion's greatest heroes must not be forgotten. "The Big Book of Martyrs" is an excellent book to have especially if you have children or young adults who find reading a comic book much more interesting and entertaining.

   Illustrated in the form of comic strips, The stories of many great and memorable Christian martyrs such as Joan of Arc and St. Paul are told in a respectful, interesting manner. Using dialogue and excellent pencil drawings, the lives of these martyrs comes to life as the reader becomes very interested with every page they turn.

   Illustrated by over fifty of the world's top comic artists, "The Big Book of Martyrs" is an excellent companion book to have around when studying theology. It hits all the right spots when covering the lives of every subject featured in the book, and it is overwhelmingly entertaining. The book should be popular with the young adult crowd due to the fact that the book is composed of comic strips, however adults shouldn't rule it out of their reading lists.

   Overall, this is a great book to have. It will provide countless times of very inspirational and educational reading to anyone who picks it up.




4. I picked up the Big Book of Martyrs because I love all of the Factoid Books. As a series, they are irreverent, concise, witty, and always interesting.

   As mentioned by a few other reviewers, the Big Book of Martyrs treats its subject matter with more respect than other subjects covered by the series. Check out the chapter on Princess Di in the Big Book of Scandal to see Paradox Press at its most scathing. But while poking fun at the foibles of the British monarchy can be entertaining, mocking people who died for their faith is tasteless. So I was relieved to see that the martyrs were not depicted as ridiculous.

   However, these are not wholly objective descriptions of the saints' lives. The book seems to have been written by Christians for Christians. I myself am not a Christian, and I was hoping for a more secular approach.

   It is still worth reading though. There are plenty of weird stories, such as the woman who woke up with a beard, after praying to be made unattractive. The beard caused her arranged husband-to-be to reject her, allowing her to keep her sworn virginity intact. St. Christopher's story is pretty strange, as well.

   I do not recommend giving this book to children, since there are some graphic images, such as St. Stephen being stoned to death.




5. If you're not a Catholic, this book will hold no entertainment for you. It revels in all the martyrdom myths of Catholicism in all its gory details and with nothing but saccharine reverence for the martyrs and their supposed "great deed". Most sickeningly of all, the book ends with an open invitation to the reader to die for his faith himself!("Who knows why the martyrs and saints of the future will be? Maybe you?") In a world already torn apart by religious battles and strife, such a comment is at best irresponsible and at worst catastrophic. This book does not belong in an enlightened age. Good riddance to it!