All Consuming : New Isabella

Consumed "Waitress"

nobody@allconsuming.net (New Isabella) — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:12:50 GMT

Waitress

by Adrienne Shelly

WORTH IT!

Consumed "Iron Jawed Angels"

nobody@allconsuming.net (New Isabella) — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 05:48:54 GMT

Iron Jawed Angels

by Katja von Garnier

WORTH IT!

Consuming "Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience"

nobody@allconsuming.net (New Isabella) — Thu, 15 May 2008 17:35:36 GMT

Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience

by Sharon Salzberg

Consuming "Evolving God: A Provocative View on the Origins of Religion"

nobody@allconsuming.net (New Isabella) — Thu, 15 May 2008 17:34:11 GMT

Evolving God: A Provocative View on the Origins of Religion

by Barbara J. King

Consumed "Into the Wild"

nobody@allconsuming.net (New Isabella) — Mon, 12 May 2008 05:47:52 GMT

Into the Wild

by Sean Penn

WORTH IT!

Consumed "Chicken enchiladas"

nobody@allconsuming.net (New Isabella) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 18:45:16 GMT

Chicken enchiladas

WORTH IT!

Consumed "Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2"

nobody@allconsuming.net (New Isabella) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 18:13:29 GMT

Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 2

WORTH IT!

Consumed "Beethoven: Concerto for violin in D"

nobody@allconsuming.net (New Isabella) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 18:11:56 GMT

Beethoven: Concerto for violin in D

WORTH IT!

Consumed "The Bible: A Biography (Books That Changed the World)"

nobody@allconsuming.net (New Isabella) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 14:37:23 GMT

The Bible: A Biography (Books That Changed the World)

by Karen Armstrong

WORTH IT!

A story about "The Bible: A Biography (Books That Changed the World)"

nobody@allconsuming.net (New Isabella) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 14:37:23 GMT

The Bible: A Biography (Books That Changed the World)

by Karen Armstrong

I just happened to spot this book on the “new books” shelf at the library last month, and grabbed it, because I like Karen Armstrong’s writing.

I read through it quickly, and I was trying to read so many other things at the same time that I didn’t spend a lot of time with it. She does write a lot about interpretation of the Bible through the ages, and she uses the scary Greek terms like “exegesis” and “hermeneutics” a lot, which make the reading a bit challenging. She does provide a glossary to define these terms.

I think the main idea I’ve come away with, which she develops through the book and summarizes in the last chapter, is that some of the greatest exegetes [interpreters] of the past, including Hillel, Jesus, Paul, Johanan Ben Zakkai, Akiba, and Augustine, insisted that charity and loving kindness were essential to Biblical interpretation. And she asks this question at the end: “What would it mean to interpret the whole of the Bible as a ‘commentary’ on the Golden Rule?” Good question.

Consuming "A New Christianity for a New World: Why Traditional Faith is Dying & How a New Faith is Being Born"

nobody@allconsuming.net (New Isabella) — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 20:53:42 GMT

A New Christianity for a New World: Why Traditional Faith is Dying & How a New Faith is Being Born

by John Shelby Spong

Consuming "The Historical Figure of Jesus"

nobody@allconsuming.net (New Isabella) — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 01:35:39 GMT

The Historical Figure of Jesus

by E. P. Sanders

A story about "The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness (purchase includes audio CD narrated by Jon Kabat-Zinn)"

nobody@allconsuming.net (New Isabella) — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 00:41:07 GMT

The Mindful Way through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness (purchase includes audio CD narrated by Jon Kabat-Zinn)

by J. Mark G. Williams

The Mindful Way Through Depression has been a wonderfully helpful book for me. I found it in the new book section of my local library, including a meditation CD. The book is very clearly written, and outlines a program for covering the material. The main message of the book is that meditation is a tool that one can learn and use to combat the bad habit of ruminative thinking, where we try to think our way out of depression by regretting the past and worrying about the future and end up even more depressed. In the past two weeks, I have put what I’ve learned to the test in order to get through a bout with shingles, a disease involving the nerves that seems almost like a stress barometer. The more stressed I feel, the more I hurt. So, the disease has given me the opportunity to practice the meditation techniques I’ve learned, and then has given me instantaneous feedback as to whether I’m doing it right or not. It’s not that pain goes away entirely; it’s that I learn not to add anything extra to the pain by worrying and fretting and panicking. I’m thankful to have read this book and hope to keep practicing its principles.

A story about "Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy"

nobody@allconsuming.net (New Isabella) — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 00:04:52 GMT

Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy

by Donald B. Kraybill

Today, as I write about Amish Grace, yet another tragic school shooting, this time at Northern Illinois University, is in the news. This book explores an event that took place in October 2006, where a non-Amish man shot several young Amish girls in cold blood at an elementary school near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The local Amish community was so quick to forgive the killer’s family that this story superceded the story of the shooting. The book discusses how and why the Amish have forgiven in this and other circumstances, and yet how they can shun their own friends and family members who fail to conform with the Ordnung, the Amish rules of order. My book group had voted to study this book, and it did lead to some interesting discussions.

A story about "Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts"

nobody@allconsuming.net (New Isabella) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 23:36:29 GMT

Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts

by Carol Tavris

Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me) is a book that I found on the new book shelf at my local library. The part of the book that really spoke to me (and made me feel very uncomfortable) was the chapter about marriages and relationships. Having gone through a divorce, I know it is so much easier and more satisfying to blame the other partner for the failure, and so much harder and uncomfortable to take a square look at the mistakes that I’ve made, not to mention admitting them to others or attempting to make amends for them. But that is the whole point of the book: that, especially in our culture today, we are almost blind about extent to which we go to blame others for mistakes and to justify our own.

Consumed "Revelation"

nobody@allconsuming.net (New Isabella) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 21:13:55 GMT

Revelation

by Peggy Payne

WORTH IT!

A story about "Revelation"

nobody@allconsuming.net (New Isabella) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 21:13:55 GMT

Revelation

by Peggy Payne

Revelation, a novel, is an expansion of a short story by author Peggy Payne called “The Pure in Heart.” I read the short story in a book discussion group several months ago and enjoyed it, so I ordered the novel through the Georgia Pines interlibrary loan system. It took about 2 months to get the book, but it did finally arrive. I enjoyed it, but not as much as the short story. (Maybe the problem was that I wasn’t feeling well when I read it.)

While waiting for the book, I’ve found that I enjoy reading Peggy Payne’s Boldness Blog.

A story about "Bread Alone: A Novel"

nobody@allconsuming.net (New Isabella) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:36:49 GMT

Bread Alone: A Novel

by Judith R. Hendricks

Bread Alone is a novel about a woman going through a divorce. A friend of mine pulled her copy off her family-room bookshelf, and told me that she liked how the author incorporated recipes and bread-baking wisdom into the story of a woman re-building her life. I told her about my “bake bread” goal on 43-things, and my story about the results of my recent experiment in bread-baking. So, I took the novel home and was surprised at how many parallels there were between the story of the main character, “Wyn,” who must re-build her life after an unwanted divorce, and my own. Unfortunately, I was more depressed than hopeful after finishing the book. Everything just falls into place in the story, and within a year, Wyn has embarked on her new life, in a new city, with a new business, a new lover, and a new understanding of her parents.

I may try some of the recipes. And I do like the quotation that opens the book:

Upside down I may take shape.
I may become resilient.
Kneaded, turned on end
I will become less
And somehow more myself.
^{from BECOMING BREAD by Gunilla Norris}

Consumed "Bread Alone: A Novel"

nobody@allconsuming.net (New Isabella) — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 19:36:49 GMT

Bread Alone: A Novel

by Judith R. Hendricks

WORTH IT!

Consuming "Procrastinator's SOS Planner: 2008 Desk Calendar"

nobody@allconsuming.net (New Isabella) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 23:03:30 GMT

Procrastinator's SOS Planner: 2008 Desk Calendar

by Susan Cohan Hoffman

A story about "Can You Drink the Cup?"

nobody@allconsuming.net (New Isabella) — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 14:40:34 GMT

Can You Drink the Cup?

by Henri J. M. Nouwen

A friend of mine loaned me a copy of this short book several months ago, and I’ve read it several times since then. I’m returning it today.

I wrote a story about it here.