lory_enterenchanted's reviews
499 reviews

The Rom-Commers by Katherine Center

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted

3.5

Another quick and uplifting read, nevertheless those who are triggered by descriptions of serious trauma (here, death and maiming of loved ones, as well as a cancer scare) may not find it soothing.

I liked reading a story about writers, though I did not understand the re-writing situation, they were both just sitting and working their separate computers? How did that come to a single coherent rewrite of the script? 

The Tears of Things: Prophetic Wisdom for an Age of Outrage by Richard Rohr

inspiring reflective

3.5

Love the central theme of the book, which could be summarized thus: "In the prophetic texts, God, like the prophets themselves, evolves from anger and fear to tears to love, and on to a deepening relationship based in trust and truth, not threat and fear. Mature religion and good prophets make sure that this growth happens." (from Chapter 10) The prophets serve a process that disrupts an order which has grown dysfunctional, encouraging movement into "good trouble" and "holy disorder." Out of that disorder can arise a new, healthier order -- a three-part process reflecting the sequence of anger, sadness, love/joy/praise/gratitude.

This is a fascinating observation that can bear good fruit in many ways. But though I love Rohr's generous perspective and his friendly voice, I wish his written style were less rambly and more intellectually rigorous. There is a fair amount of tangential writing and filler in this short book, rather than sticking to and filling out the subject in a coherent way. He also tends to make sweeping statements that seem untenable, such as that never in world history has there been a weeping God before Jesus. Does he really have complete knowledge of all world mythology to ensure this is true? Somebody needs to fact-check the book better.

That said, there were a lot of quotes that I highlighted.

Just from the Introduction:

Once we lose the prophetic analysis, most evil will be denied, disguised, or hidden among the rules and the rituals of religion and the law itself. This is how truth is "discerned" in a dualistic world: by winning the purity and identity contests.

Waking up is often devastatingly simple. It all comes down to overcoming your separateness and any need to protect it.

For the untransformed self, religion is the most dangerous temptation of all. Our egos, when they are vaildated by religion, are given full permission to enslave, segregate, demean, defraud, and inflate--because all bases are covered with pre-ascribed virtue and a supposed hatred of evil. This is what the prophets expose in their wholesale assault on temple worship, priestly classes, self-serving commandments, and intergenerational wealth.

When we lack self-knowledge, we will unconsciously project our disliked and unknown self onto others, condemning them for the very faults we share...René Girard wrote that the Bible is unique in all world literature in spotting this universal human avoidance of our own dark side..."the scapegoat mechanism."...The undoing of this tendency would be the task of any would-be savior for humanity and our continually fragile history.

All transformative religions are, each in their own way, trying to defeat the imperial ego and reveal the always camouflaged shadow self. Yet we need to be bathed in the assurance of infinite love before we can risk such ego deflation. The prophets gradually move us toward and through such divine assurance.

In the prophets, religion--and indeed, humankind--appears to be slowly morphine from code, creed, and cult to a kind of mutual presencing, a gradually learned "nakedness and vulnerability" that require deliberate and focused attention, receptivity, and positive awareness on both sides.

Hello Stranger by Katherine Center

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted tense

3.0

From the two books I've read and a third I've sampled, Center's formula seems to be: rare medical conditions, plus family loss and trauma, plus romance with misunderstandings keeping the lovers apart. Oh, and a pet that is adorable but also has issues. I liked the MC in this one, overall, although her reason for concealing her condition was silly (but then, she was also suffering from unhealed and untreated trauma). Really quite some heavy themes for such a light book.

A point of implausibility: how did the MC manage to pay for BRAIN SURGERY and regular neuropsychology consultations when she couldn't even manage rent? Not to mention blood transfusions for her dog. Is this all covered by Medicare?

Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted

3.0

Enjoyable in the main, although I had some issues. The age gap --  it's just a fact that men mature much slower, and the age gap between 22 year old male and 32 year old female is immense. Plus, he's had a crush on her since he was 15? It's just all a bit weird. He's impossibly perfect, too, aside from having a rare medical issue, which seems to be one of Center's hallmarks.

The problem with romance novels seems to be that the couple has to be attracted to each other, but then you have to keep them apart somehow. It's hard to accomplish the latter in today's hook-up culture. So I often find the reason-for-staying-apart, usually based on misunderstandings and miscommunication, absurd and frustrating. That was the case here.

I also found it strange that the MC NEVER thinks about her job as a first grade teacher. I mean, she does mention it a couple of times, and do a couple of teacher-y things, but she never thinks about the children. Perhaps she is desperate to get away from them - but then I think that would come into her mind at some point. And my experience of being a teacher is that it's not a job you leave behind when you're out of the classroom!

The Whispering Mountain by Joan Aiken

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious tense

3.0

A wild Aiken adventure set in Wales, most memorable for the linguistic acrobatics the author performs with various characters talking her own brand of Welsh, Scots, London thieves' cant, and a made-up middle eastern florid style ... I loved the lens-wearing main character Owen and his book about everything, though he did get to be a bit too much of a superhero after a while. Arabis, too, if also too good to be true, with her remedies for everything, was lovely. 

Good Soil: The Education of an Accidental Farmhand by Jeff Chu

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective

3.5

A fine spiritual memoir, with touching stories about the author's healing encounters with nature at a "Farminary" that sounds far better than attending the actual Seminary. Some favorite quotes:

"Rage is misery that does not know where else to go."

"reading books about God and sitting through classes about God did not necessarily engender encounters with God."

 "telling a new story, that our sins do not have lasting power to break fellowship."

"To be made whole isn't just to have one's physical afflictions removed, it is to be restored to community and returned to relationship."

Particularly in light of those last two, it's heartbreaking that Chu's supposedly Christian parents, especially his father, are unable to accept him or his husband (who sounds like an absolute angel) because of their sexual orientation. Meanwhile, there are Chu's friends who try to tell him he's wrong for still wanting to have a relationship with his parents, for not just cutting them off. 

Why not give this book a higher rating? There was something about the writing that disappointed me somehow ...  I can't put my finger on it. But overall a lovely book.

Midnight Is a Place by Joan Aiken

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense

5.0

Nostalgic favorite from childhood, though it is VERY dark. A pastiche II think I can credit with sparking my later love of real Victorian literature. I like how Lucas and Anna-Marie's relationship developed, while finding a lost grandmother who provides nurture and shelter in an ice-house is the best kind of Aikenish mixture of cozy and bizarre.  

In the post-election disaster scene of 2024, I also thought about what the book taught me is that evil, dysfuctional systems and institutions are reflections of the unhealed souls of their leaders. I think events are more and more proving this thesis correct.

The Empathy Exams: Essays by Leslie Jamison

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense

3.5

I skimmed some of this but I'm going to count it as read. The essays about Saccharine and about female pain started to seem overly self-indulgent. Too many words! The latter could have been boiled down to two sentences: "The wounded woman gets called a stereotype and sometimes she is. But sometimes she's just true."  

As Jamison is writing about wounded women -- and men -- it's most effective when she concentrates mostly on them. Least when she's concentrating on herself. There are books where I appreciate learning of the author's feelings and perspectives but here it became too much.

How Sondheim Can Change Your Life by Richard Schoch

informative reflective

2.5

A few interesting insights into Sondheim songs, pointing out especially where the music expressed something other than the lyrics, but for full impact this would need to be conveyed through a music lesson. A lot of the rest of the writing felt like filler, banal platitudes. 

A couple of teasing glimpses at the author's life -- if it had been more of a memoir, How Sondheim Changed MY LIfe, it might have been more compelling. But he doesn't seem to want to go there, rather to keep things on an impersonal, general, and therefore boring level.

And, the big "revelation" he has about the Baker's Wife from Into the Woods -- that her story is a tragedy because she turned away from the prince who dallied with her to return to her husband and child -- is just stupid. This is an example of overthinking, of wringing a story out to find some original twist on it that does not exist.

I made a playlist of songs mentioned in the book. I think listening to Sondheim, is preferable to read ing about Sondheim.

Momo by Michael Ende

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense

5.0

In Michael Ende’s modern fable Momo, the title character is a young girl who lives in a ruined amphitheater on the outskirts of an unnamed European city. Momo’s outer appearance is a bit strange, with her wild black hair and man’s jacket that is too big for her, but she has an outstanding ability that soon attracts many visitors: she can listen. Simply by listening, she enables friends-turned-enemies to resolve their conflicts. Storytellers are inspired when she is in the audience. And children know that their play takes flight when Momo is listening. 

But mysterious men dressed in grey begin to convince people to stop wasting their time on friendship or stories or children, and instead to save up precious seconds in their “time bank”. Only Momo can hear their real thoughts, their desperate hunger that drives them to suck time away from human beings … and her wondering response is “Does no one love you?” 

The thieves of time have visited all of us. Never has a society been so obsessed with and so successful at saving time, nor so exhausted and depressed. Meaningful work is steadily being sucked away, and deaths of despair are on the rise. The hunger for love fuels all kinds of addictions. Momo’s gift of listening leads her into the depths of the heart to save her city; we can learn from her journey as we face our own struggles. 

I've read Momo before in English, but it's been a while. As I read through it this time in German -- slowly! -- I thought how timely it remains. And while at one time I thought Momo's gift of listening was a bit dull, I now realize ever more how important it really is. Listening is more than merely hearing, more than letting sensations wash over us. It turns the act of giving attention into a doorway of creation. It's what I started to grasp through the spiritual direction training I recently completed, and what I want to continue to practice in as many ways as possible.