Musing on God Knows What
I finished reading a second book on my list of 50 books yesterday and thought I would share a short review of it with you all.
Donald Miller is a well-known (at least in my circles) Christian author. His books are all in the realm of Christian non-fiction from my understanding, and before he authored books, Miller went on crazy adventures, joined various churches, experienced God at Reed College, and wrote for other, smaller publications.
I picked up Blue Like Jazz because a friend recommended it to me. To be fair, I’ll admit I didn’t want to read it. Not because it didn’t sound like a good book but because it was like so many Christian books. As soon as someone liked it, it became an instant sensation with people buying it up left and right. I always liked being able to find the more obscure or older books that seemed more personally meaningful to me, so I avoided it when it joined the Christian craze.
But my friend told me I would like it, so I grabbed a copy before going to China, left it in the house, and have subsequently picked it up again. It’s an easy, short read and took me about a day to read the whole thing.
Blue Like Jazz carries the subtitle “Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality,” which is a fairly good description of the book. Instead of spewing the same Christian terminology and teaching why we should do this or do that, Miller looks at his own life and faith and describes those using metaphors the church, as a whole, might find a bit odd.
I enjoyed reading the book as it was quick and easy to grasp. I didn’t enjoy some of the stream of consciousness moments that seemed at random and unmoored with the theme of the chapter. Each chapter is broken into themes that are basically the idea for the whole chapter, and no chapter is completely sequential. I tend to think you could take the chapters apart and read them separately, out of order, and be just as happy as you would reading the book through from beginning to end.
What I liked about it was Miller’s blunt honesty. He never sugarcoats things, and the whole book is laced with his derision towards organized religion, particularly churches as a whole. At the same time, you come to recognize Miller’s faith for what it is: the faith that an individual person has developed through his own myriad of experiences.
It’s a journey I’d like to take sometime.
So while this isn’t the best Christian non-fiction I’ve read, it’s good, and I enjoyed it. I would even recommend it to some of my non-Christian friends as a means of understanding more of the Christianity I strive to move towards. It’s no Mere Christianity, but then again, few authors compare to C.S. Lewis. In his own way, Miller chronicles his journey of faith and reminds me that I, too, have a story to tell if I can just muster the courage to explore my own life and faith. And that is encouraging.
So what’s next? I decided to read something different and am now in the middle of Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game in my second attempt to like sci-fi. We’ll see how it goes, but so far it has been a fascinating read. I like Card’s writing style, but I’ll talk more about that in a subsequent blog, I’m sure.
Oh, and I started reading Chinese for Dummies and practicing all the lovely Chinese I can find in the book. Let’s just say this is going to be a lot tougher than it looks!
I’ll update with more later!
– Rae
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 1 so far )Draggy
It’s been a long day, and this is going to be another of those fabulous filler posts. Oh well. I’ll at least post a little about reading since I did some today.
I finished reading Kathy Tyers’s Fusion Fire today. Now I’m preparing to start Crown of Fire, the last in her Firebird Trilogy. So far it’s the only science fiction I’ve really enjoyed, but who knows? I may read some other authors and find myself falling in love with the genre.
That said, the Firebird Trilogy is interesting for a couple of reasons.
First, it’s one of the few Christian sci-fi series I’ve seen. No, it doesn’t go into Christianity, per se. But it does have a lot of parallels with Old Testament stories. For example, the big theme of the race that is featured so prominently in the story is a belief in a coming god who will absolve their darkness. Sound familiar?
A lot of Christian stories I’ve read are all about post-Christ items. For example, Francine Rivers, a pretty well-known Christian author, has a series called the Mark of the Lion. It tells the tale of Hadassah, a young Jewish girl who is one of the early Christians in the days when Jerusalem was sacked following Jesus’s death.
So it intrigued me that Tyers’s story is about the pre-Christ (or whatever the god-character’s name would be) era of this race’s religion. It’s rather fascinating in that it delves into some pretty deep concepts of evil and good and how others view it.
Another thing I like is the relationships. As I’m not that attracted to science in the first place, it helps me that there’s a pretty large focus on the relationships between the characters. Firebird Angelo, the main character of all three stories, has relationships that vary with a number of characters. The most intriguing relationships to me are those of Firebird and her sisters as well as Firebird and the man she eventually falls for, Brennen Caldwell.
Heir to a higher calling through his religious beliefs, Brennen is a totally different kind of person from Firebird. She was bred to believe in her world’s gods: the Nine Powers. They are characteristics that each Netaian citizen should embody. But as the third daughter of the queen, Firebird’s heritage will be one of noble suicide when it is determined that her eldest sister’s daughter is old enough to be confirmed.
Unlike Firebird, Brennen comes from an Ehretan background and believes in a just and loving Singer, the god of his people. It’s beyond him when he meets the suicidal pilot of a space craft he rescued from destruction to understand how Firebird could attempt to kill herself so callously. And, of course, his disbelief grows when he opens the cockpit to find her having swallowed the equivalent of a cyanide pill when her original attempt to explode her craft is thwarted.
And all this happens in the first novel: Firebird.
It’s pretty fascinating, and there’s a lot of good history and background that you discover as you read. My only problem, as has been the case for me, is in reading some of the more scientific bits. It bores me, and I end up starting to fall asleep. I never fall asleep in the middle of a book, so this tells me something: I’m not a fan of sci-fi.
Even so, I’m a fan of this series. We’ll see if I skip over the more technical bits in the third book or not. I’ll probably avoid anything related to sci-fi for a while after this, but at least I’ll be able to give Desteni her books back. She’ll appreciate that.
And, of course, I need to finish reading Card’s how to book by the end of the week in order to prepare for March. But that’s a relatively short book, and I’m more than halfway through at this point. So hopefully I’ll kill two books with one week, or something like that.
Sorry for such a boring filler post. I’ll do better tomorrow. It’s just been a rather long, emotional day. I hope you’re all doing well, though!
-Rae-
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 4 so far )I Am Not Editing – Really!
I got enough sleep last night after all the craziness of the last few days. It was glorious. And it was so lovely to wake up and realize I’d overslept my alarm for the umpteenth time. I suppose getting a job would cure me of that failing or else that failing would cure me of a job. Either way, I feel rested today.
So I thought it would be a good idea to read a bit more of How To Write Science Fiction & Fantasy while I was awake and able to process it. So far I’m really enjoying the book, but it’s also been rather challenging. That’s both good and bad for me.
Having Orson Scott Card’s take on this area of fiction has been rather invaluable for me. I finished reading the chapter on world creation today and am currently reading the story construction chapter. It’s fascinating because there are so many facets that need to be considered in order to write a well-rounded, thoroughly planned, adequately articulated novel. Granted, a lot of those are things that become subconscious, like deciding your genre and then adding in elements that are typical to that genre in order to fit with the conventions. But there are a lot of questions this book is raising for my own story.
For example, I have to wonder if my world is really developed yet. Do I have an organized system of government for my country? Is the magic involved fully scientific and fully ‘magical’ at the same time? Does it make sense? Are their articulated rules on how the magic works?
My answers to each of those questions are the same. Yes and no.
Card’s challenge to think through these expectations of readers is really causing me to want to get into the nitty-gritty development of my world regardless of the story I’ve written. I want to go back and pin down all the variables that make up even the details of the world that will never be written into a story.
It’s kind of exciting and kind of exhausting at the same time. But I’m thinking it’s a good idea to begin working on some of those extra details now while I have the opportunity and before I begin editing that first draft. That’ll make it easier for me when I go back to identify the areas that need to be explored, fleshed out, and detailed. Or nixed altogether.
And, despite the fact this book was written for authors of science fiction and fantasy, I think it can provide guidance for writers of any genre. Just check out the third chapter on story construction. Card begins with a discussion of the distinctions between ‘heroes,’ main characters, and point of view characters and throws out ideas for just how those characters can be the same and different depending on the story.
Perhaps this is a plug for the book, but I’m enjoying it. In fact, I’ll probably go back to reading it some more after I finish this. But it’s beneficial, challenging, and thought-provoking in all the best ways. So I’m going to stick with it.
-Rae-
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( 10 so far )Writing about Reading about Writing
I’ve been wanting to make this title for a post ever since I first thought about getting out some writing-related books to read. Of course, I had to hold off until I officially started reading one of said books, and that wasn’t until after I have purchased one of said books. Confused yet? So am I.
Anyway, I’m currently in the middle of a reading spree of books that might possibly help me in editing my novel in March. I have no idea whether they’ll be of great help or not, but I’m going to try them and see. I’m looking forward to some of them; others are pleasure reads that I can finish shortly and move onto the next book.
So my pleasure read at the moment is Fusion Fire by Kathy Tyers. Again this is the second book in the Firebird Trilogy. It’s a good book so far, and since I’d already started reading it, I’m picking it up where I stopped reading. It’s not that hard to get back into, and I hope I’ll finish it soon.
As far as writing-related books go, I’m reading Orson Scott Card’s How To Write Science Fiction & Fantasy after purchasing it the other night with my dad. So far it’s had more emphasis on writing sci-fi, which I can understand given Card’s background. (Though he has written for both genres.) However, he offers a lot of insight on world creation and other elements.
It’s a five chapter, short book, but it’s making me think a lot about my own world. What is it that makes it a fantasy? What is it that could stand more rules and structure? What requires a bit more development? These are all questions I’m thinking about as I read Card’s book.
I like his style. So far I’ve been pretty impressed, and now I’m kind of wanting to read Ender’s Game and Hart’s Hope as he mentions both those novels in the book. He uses them as examples for his world creation process. I’ve never read any of his novels before, but I’m thinking once things settle down and I’ve shaved off more of my reading list, I’ll invest in a few of his novels and see how he writes fiction.
At this point in the game, I’m pretty sure he’ll impress.
But I’m going to have to end this little post because it’s been a crazy, hectic day, and I have quite a bit to do. I have a choir rehearsal for a concert in less than thirty minutes, am trying to speed up the bake time on tamale pie, and need to get my contacts out because they’re bugging me.
Oh, and I went to the home and garden fair today with my dad. It was really lovely, and I managed to purchase some seeds to start an herb garden. I also got two planters: one has lavender that you sow yourself, and the other has peppermint that’s getting ready to sprout. I’m rather excited about it myself. I got thyme, basil, and Italian parsley seeds as well. We’ll see how it works!
Comments? Thoughts? Snide remarks? Let me know!
-Rae-
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The Book Wyrm 