Now, It’s Monday – what are you reading?

Books Read & Reviewed:

1. Eric & Leslie Ludy - When Dreams Come True - 2012/008 [Reread]
2. Leslie Ludy - Sacred Singleness - 2012/009 [Reread]
3. Leslie Ludy - The Lost Art of True Beauty - 2012/010 [Reread]

Incoming Books:

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It’s Monday!  What are you Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by BookJourney.  Mailbox Monday is another weekly meme hosted in February 2012 by Metroreader.

Now, It’s Monday – what are you reading?

Books Read & Reviewed:

1. Leslie Ludy - Authentic Beauty - 2012/004 [Reread]
2. Eric & leslie Ludy - When God Writes Your Love Story - 2012/005 [Reread]
3. Leslie Ludy - Set-Apart Femininity - 2012/006 [Reread]
4. Eric & leslie Ludy - When God Writes Your Life Story - 2012/007 [Reread]

Incoming Books:

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It’s Monday!  What are you Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by BookJourney.  Mailbox Monday is another weekly meme hosted in February 2012 by Metroreader.

Now, It’s Monday – what are you reading?

Books Read & Reviewed:

1. Tom Wright - Virtue Reborn - 2012/002
2. Shannon Ethridge - Every Woman’s Battle - 2012/003

Incoming Books:

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It’s Monday!  What are you Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by BookJourney.  Mailbox Monday is another weekly meme hosted in January 2012 by At Home With Books.

The Back of the Book (from Amazon):

And they may be more dangerous.

When does an affair begin? Not with the first forbidden touch…but with the first forbidden thought. Unexpectedly, you find yourself enjoying a powerful emotional bond with another man. You feel like you matter to someone again. And the door you thought was locked so firmly–the door to sexual infidelity–is suddenly ajar.

The only way women can survive the intense struggle for sexual integrity is by guarding not just your body, but your mind and heart as well. Every Woman’s Battle can help you learn to do that.

Using real-life stories and examples from her own struggle, Shannon Ethridge helps women like you–whether married, engaged, or planning to marry someday–to:

·     Understand the four unique components of female sexuality
·     Discern the common myths that keep women standing in the line of fire
·     Design a new defense to protect every aspect of your life
·     Cultivate an unimaginable level of intimacy with your husband or husband-to-be
·     Develop an affair with the one and only Lover who will truly satisfy your innermost desires: Jesus Christ

Written in the honest style of the best-selling Every Man Series but with a uniquely female perspective, Every Woman’s Battle will lead you on a lifelong path to true joy and fulfillment—sexually, emotionally, and spiritually.
 
Includes a comprehensive workbook for individual or group study.

NotJustLaura’s Review:  This is the best book on female sexuality I’ve come across and I really wish I’d read it when I first heard of it several years ago.  Writing primarily for married (or to be married one day) women, Shannon Ethridge lays out the reasons why a woman needs to guard her heart, mind, body and spirit and then provides a very practical ‘how-to’ for each area.  In each chapter, she points the reader firmly towards Jesus as our first love – before husband, others and self – and shares how she has learned to put this into practice.  The text is easy to read with lots of real life examples to illustrate the argument.  I particularly liked the ideas for retreats which are included towards the end of the book and am already planning how to carve out time to try one of them.

The Back of the Book (from Amazon):

NotJustLaura’s Review:  Some books are popcorn.  Some books are steak.  This book was definitely on the chewy side but I feel a great sense of accomplishment in having finished it.  I think I even understood most of it so credit should certainly go to the author who has made theology, philosophy and ethics digestible.  In this book, Tom Wright looks at the practice of virtue from pagan times and through the Gospels and Saint Paul to the present day.  He explains his ideas clearly throughout the book with one concept building on another to form an argument in favour of virtue in today’s Church and examples of what that might look like.  Although this isn’t a book for the faint-hearted I think its message is well worth the effort needed to read it.

Did you meet your reading goals for 2011?  I was initially aiming for 52 books read and reviewed and having achieved that upped the target to 75 which, as you can see from the list below, I just missed.  I’m setting the target at 75 for this year although I certainly haven’t been reading very much thus far.  I have only one review for you in this round-up and am not really very sure what I’ve been doing instead!  Well, that’s not quite true – I no longer have a car or a cleaner so travelling and housework are nibbling into my time.  I’ve also been knitting quite a bit and doing a lot of sleeping (cleaning is hard work!)

My main aim for 2012 is to end the year with fewer books waiting to be read than I started with.  Yes, I’m going on a book diet.  Now, I’m not saying ‘I won’t buy books in 2012′ because we all know that’s not going to happen.  But I’m going to use these round-up posts to keep a running tally of books in and books out and hopefully I’ll end up with -# and not +# by the end of the year.  I haven’t made the best of starts with 9 incoming and 1 review giving a total of +8 books so far but I will keep trying.  I have to – the shelves can’t take the strain!

Now, It’s Monday – what are you reading?

Books Read & Reviewed (2011):

1. Tom Wright - Surprised by Hope - 2011/067
2. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee - Knitting Rules - 2011/068
3. Matthew Norman - Domestic Violets - 2011/DNF
4. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee - Things I Learned from Knitting - 2011/069
5. Marion Zimmer Bradley - Darkover Landfall - 2011/070
6. Catherine Campbell - God Knows Your Name - 2011/071
7. Elizabeth Abbott - A History of Celibacy - 2011/072
8. Carl Anderson & Jose Granados - Called to Love - 2011/073
9. William Kaczinski – Fleeing from the Fuhrer: A Postal History of Refugees from Nazi Germany - 2011/074 [NewBooksMag]

Incoming Books (2011):

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It’s Monday!  What are you Reading? is a weekly meme hosted by BookJourney.  Mailbox Monday is another weekly meme hosted in January 2012 by At Home With Books.

This is the world to which Marion Zimmer Bradley introduces the reader in this volume.  The characters are richly drawn and the description evocative.  When I read these books I feel Darkover is a real place inhabited by real people with real challenges to face.  Stormqueen!‘s plot is more complex than the previous book and so much more real to me because of that.  I would happily jump on a starship and travel light-years to visit the plant and am very much looking forward to the next instalment.

The Back of the Book (from Amazon):

Christianity has long been regarded as viewing the body as a threat to a person’s spiritual nature and of denying its sexual dimension. In 1979, Pope John Paul II departed from this traditional dichotomy and offered an integrated vision of the human body and soul. In a series of talks that came to be known as “the theology of the body,” he explained the divine meaning of human sexuality and why the body provides answers to fundamental questions about our lives.

In Called to Love, Carl Anderson, chairman of the world’s largest catholic service organization, and Fr. Jose Granados discuss the philosophical and religious significance of “the theology of the body” in language at once poetic and profound. As they explain, the body speaks of God, it reveals His goodness, and it also speaks of men and women and their vocation to love. Called to Love brings to life the tremendous gift John Paul II bestowed on humanity and gives readers a new understanding of the Christian way of love and how to embrace it fully in their lives.

NotJustLaura’s Review:  I tried to read John Paul II’s Theology of the Body a few weeks ago.  After failing to get beyond the first few sections I decided to try reading about it before plucking up the courage to try again.  Having read Anderson and Granados’ book I’m a little more comfortable with it but not ready to plunge back in.

Called to Love is marketed as an accessible treatment of Theology of the Body.  I can’t comment on the authors’ fidelity to John Paul II’s text and ideas but I would hesitate to call it ‘accessible’ as there were times I really struggled with it.  The language used is generally clear enough but the concepts it deals with are difficult and I have to confess that some of it flew straight over my head.  I would suggest that this is a book for scholarly rather than casual readers and I feel quite proud of myself for finishing it.

The Back of the Book (from Amazon):

NotJustLaura’s Review:  Elizabeth Abbott writes very good books.  This is the second of her works which I have read and, while it was challenging, I enjoyed every moment.  In it, Ms Abbott explores celibacy from Greco-Roman times to our present-day AIDS-conscious society.  Religion plays a large part in the story and she shows how both major and minor religions have regarded sexuality and celibacy in different times and different places.  Throughout the book, I felt Ms Abbott tried to maintain a non-judgemental tone although she closes with an Epilogue which sheds light on her own practice of celibacy.

The Back of the Book (from Amazon):

NotJustLaura’s Review:  Do you read the blurb on the back before you start reading a new book?  I don’t.  I add titles to my wishlist whenever I hear of something I think I would like to read, buy the book when its name gets to the top of the list and put it onto Mt ToBeRead.  When it comes to the top of that pile, I pick it up and read from page 1, without reminding myself from the blurb why I wished for it in the first place.  Sometimes this means I get surprises and that is no bad thing!

I don’t actually know why I wished for God Knows Your Name.  And I still haven’t read the blurb on the back.  I’m glad I did although it’s not really a book I’d naturally be drawn to.  Catherine Campbell writes movingly of her experiences caring for her disabled children – especially her first-born.  These accounts are interleaved with imaginative re-tellings of Biblical and modern life stories in which God’s love and care for his people – in particular, his women – shines out from backgrounds of hopeless, nameless despair.  I will never forget some of those stories and I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to share in them.