Category Archives: Books

Book Review: Unbroken

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The preface of Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand tells of three men in a raft in the Pacific Ocean. Their plane had crashed, the rest of the crew was dead, they’d been on the raft for 27 days. Finally they rejoiced to hear a plane. They shot flares into the sky and put dye in the water to make their raft more visible. But then the plane started shooting at them: it was Japanese, not American. One of the men jumped into the water, but the sharks came toward him…

And then the author cuts away to the childhood of Louis Zamperini, one of the men in the boat. He had been on the fast track to becoming a juvenile delinquent until his brother intervened for him with the high school principal who had banned Louis from participating in sports as a punishment. The principal relented and allowed Louis to run track, where Louis found focus and purpose.

Louis did so well, in fact, that he ran in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and was expected to be the first man to break the four-minute mile. His dream of the 1940 Olympics was shattered when they were cancelled due to WWII.

Louis joined the Army Air Force and became a second lieutenant and a bombardier. On one harrowing mission, his plane was ravaged by over 500 bullet holes, yet made it safely back to base.

But on one May day in 1943, their plane crashed into the Pacific, killing the other eight crewman. Louis and the other two survivors stayed afloat for 27 days until the event described in the preface occurred.

I had thought that would be the climax of the story, but it was just the beginning of Louis’s troubles. The crew was eventually captured by the Japanese and taken to a place off the grid from the other POW camps. It was not registered with the Red Cross, no one knew about it, the men were given up for dead, and ultimately the Japanese could do what they wanted with the prisoners with no fear of consequences.

When we think of WWII we often think of the atrocities of the Nazis, but the Japanese were uncommonly cruel. Hillenbrand explains that their concept of “saving face” makes surrender the ultimate humiliation, and the soldiers’ surrender to them gave them license, they felt, to degrade them in any way that came to mind.

At several points in Louis’s story, I thought, “How much more can one man endure?” He must have wondered the same thing at times.

Even after he returned home, his troubles did not end as he was afflicted with post-traumatic stress syndrome, severe nightmares, and succumbed to alcoholism.

But the subtitle to Unbroken is “A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption.” Louis’s survival, resilience, and redemption make for an exceptionally touching and inspiring book.

The story is told primarily through narrative, with very little dialogue, but it is captivating. I listened to it via audiobook, and Edward Herrman did an excellent job narrating.

There are those who would want to be forewarned that there is a smattering of bad language in it, understandable in the context, including one particularity vulgar word that could have been left out. But other than that, this is an excellent book.

(This review will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)

“Preaching the Gospel to Yourself”

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I’m joining in the “Reading Classics Together” at Challies‘ place, and the book currently under discussion is The Discipline of Grace by Jerry Bridges.

I wasn’t able to discuss last week’s chapter due to family activities with loved ones from out of town, but its title was “The Pharisee and the Tax Collector.” Tim summed it up nicely here, but I’ll just say, if anyone has any shred of hope in their own goodness, this chapter will trounce that idea. We think we’re ok, like the Pharisee, because we don’t do any of the “really bad,” obvious sins like murder, adultery, etc., but we overlook our “refined” sins like pride, envy, and the like. But sin is sin. And even the good we do is shot through with wrong motives and lack of faith.

It could actually be a depressing chapter, even for one who has known those truths for years. But it is necessary to remind ourselves of those things in order to see the need for God’s grace, not just for salvation, but for daily living that pleases Him.

The title of the current chapter is “Preach the Gospel to Yourself.” My former music pastor once said that the gospel is not just the first step of the Christian life, but it is the hub of the wheel that everything else in the Christian life connects to and emanates from. Bridges says “The gospel is for believers also, and we must pursue holiness, or any other aspect of discipleship, in the atmosphere of the gospel” (p. 46).

Bridges then thoroughly discuss Romans 3:19-26, bringing out the gospel truths that “no one is declared righteous before God by observing the law,” “there is a righteousness from God that is apart from the law,” “the righteousness of God is received through faith in Jesus Christ,” “this righteousness is available to everyone on the same basis because we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” “all who put their faith in Jesus Christ are justified freely by God’s grace,” “this justification is ‘through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus,'” and “God presented Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in His blood.” Those phrases are all sections of the chapter that he then discusses in more detail.

One important distinction he makes is that between “justification and mere pardon. A pardon is excusing an offense without exacting a penalty, “such as when a president or governor pardons someone even though they are guilty. “In God’s plan of justification, however, justice is not violated by a gratuitous pardon of the convicted sinner. Rather, justice has been satisfied; the penalty has been fully paid by the Lord Jesus Christ” (p. 56).

“It is not our contrition or sorrow for our sin, it is not our repentance, it is not even the passing of a certain number of hours during which we feel we are on some kind of probation that cleanses
us. It is the blood of Christ, shed once for all on Calvary . . . that cleanses our consciences and gives us a renewed sense of peace with God” (p. 58).

“To preach the gospel to yourself, then, means that you continually face up to your own sinfulness and then flee to Jesus through faith in His shed blood and righteous life. It means you appropriate again, by faith, the fact that Jesus fully satisfied the law of God, that He is your propitiation, and that God’s holy wrath is no longer directed toward you” (p. 59). Just as in salvation we depended on Jesus’s goodness and righteousness rather than our own, so we do every day of our Christian lives as well, rejoicing that our sins are forgiven and we face no condemnation since we are in Christ.

This does not mean we do not pursue holiness. Much of the latter part of the book discusses holiness. It’s not that once we’re forgiven, we sit back, relax, and live however we want til we get to heaven. Rather, out of love for God and gratitude to Him, we should be even more motivated to pursue holiness. But we need to remember “when you set yourself to seriously pursue holiness, you will begin to realize what an awful sinner you are. And if you are not firmly rooted in the gospel and have not learned to preach it to yourself every day, you will soon become discouraged and will slack off in your pursuit of holiness” (p. 60).

On a side note, I have to admit, before reading this chapter, the phrase “preach the gospel to yourself every day” grated on me a bit. Not that I didn’t believe its truths, even before reading here, but we have such a tendency to operate by catch-phrases: I kept seeing and hearing this brought up in the face of any problem or situation. Yes, if someone has financial or marital or other problems, we do apply the truth of the gospel to it and operate on the basis of the forgiveness wrought for us in Christ. But as Wendy Alsup often says, the gospel affects everything, but the gospel isn’t everything. We apply the gospel and operate from its base, but we go on to learn the whole counsel of God and apply it to our lives as well.

This chapter is very beneficial. I would even venture to say it is the key chapter of the book. More discussion of it is here.

Book Review: Safely Home

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In Safely Home by Randy Alcorn, Ben Fielding is on the fast track to becoming CEO of Getz International. To increase the company’s business with China, Ben’s boss wants him to spend a few weeks there and suggests Ben stay with his old college roommate, Li Quan, to get a feel for what the “common man” in China might need from their business.

Ben has been in China many times before, is familiar with much of the culture, even speaks fluent Mandarin, but he has never looked up his old roommate. He is uncomfortable doing so now. Quan had come to college in America an atheist and became a Christian while here: Ben was a professing Christian in college, but his business goals have usurped everything else in his life. But, being put on the spot by his boss, he has little choice but to go and see Quan.

Ben is shocked that his brilliant roommate, who as a student had been asked to stay on at Harvard as  history professor, is living in such poverty. When he begins to learn about house churches and persecution of Christians, he is disbelieving, having fallen for the public relations hype fed to American businessmen and officials. But the more time Ben spends in China with Quan, the more his eyes are opened, not only to the true situation there, but also to the needs of his own heart.

Interspersed with Ben and Quan’s story are glimpses into the heavenlies as Alcorn interprets it, the great “cloud of witnesses,” the King’s care, watchfulness, and preparation for His own.

The story was inspired by Ron DiCianni’s beautiful print Safely Home, depicting a martyr being greeted home by his Savior, an angel waiting to the side with the new arrival’s white robe, the nations of earth visible below.

Knowing a couple of people who have worked in China, I do know that true Christians have to meet “underground,” have to be very careful about their words, actions, and even e-mails, and they can lose their jobs or be arrested for their faith.

We have it so relatively easy in America, we forget the hallmark of many Christians through the ages has been suffering and martyrdom. This book is a wake-up call, and it was a rebuke to me over the “little things” that I get grumbly about or the ways I fail to stand. In myself I know I don’t have it in me to face what some Christians do. But they would say they don’t either: their Savior helps them, as He will us as we walk for Him. We just need to remember that, in a world that hates Him, we often need to make a choice whether we’ll play it safe here, or do what we ought to and take the consequences; temporary safety and ease here, or being joyously welcomed Safely Home there.

A couple of my favorite lines from the book:

From the King: “They don’t understand that I am not only at work here, preparing a place for them, but I am at work there, preparing them for that place” (p. 313).

“The hands and feet of the only innocent man became forever scarred so that guilty people would not have to bear the scars they deserved” (p. 375).

My only little teensy criticism was that the story seemed a little more message-driven rather than story-driven. All writers are conveying a message, of course, and craft stories around the truths they wanted to convey or portray. It’s just a little more obvious here. But that may just be my impression — the reviews I looked through didn’t mention that, so it’s obviously not a drawback.

I do not only recommend but encourage the reading of this book.

(This review will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)

Reading Classics Together: The Disciplines of Grace

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I’m joining in the “Reading Classics Together” at Challies‘ place for the first time. I’ve always liked the idea: a group of people reads a chapter of a book a week and discusses it. But this is the first time the title they are discussing appealed enough to me for me to jump in.

The Disciplines of Grace by Jerry Bridges attracted me for a couple of reasons. I’ve heard Bridges favorably mentioned and recommended for years but just have never gotten to one of his books. And the title of this one seemed to explore what I was pondering in a post a while back, Of grace, law, commandments, rules, and effort (who knew someone had already written a book about it? 🙂 ) As I said there, people often seem to go too far one way or the other, either emphasizing grace to the point of having a laid-back attitude toward sin and obedience and even accusing those who emphasize obedience of legalism (I’ve seen this so many times in online discussions), or emphasizing obedience so much that they get caught up in their own performance and think they have to earn favor with God.

The first chapter, “How Good Is Good Enough?” deals with those two sides and illustrates them by contrasting two days, a good one where we’ve done pretty well by our standards, and a bad one where we failed at the starting block and can’t seem to get back on track all day. Bridges emphasizes that we can never earn God’s grace — by its very nature grace is undeserved, and though God wants us to obey (by His grace), even if we do, it’s only by His grace. He also emphasizes that depending on God’s grace every day doesn’t negate the need for vigorous personal effort in the pursuit of holiness.

Here are just a few quotes from the chapter that stood out to me:

The pursuit of holiness requires sustained and vigorous effort. It allows for no indolence, no lethargy, no halfhearted commitment, and no laissez faire attitude toward even the smallest sins. In short, it demands the highest priority in the life of a Christian, because to be holy is to be like Christ — God’s goal for every Christian (p. 12).

When we pray to God for His blessing, He does not examine our performance to see if we are worthy. Rather, He looks to see if we are trusting in the merit of His Son as our only hope for securing His blessing (p. 19).

It is only the joy of hearing the gospel and being reminded that our sins are forgiven in Christ that will keep the demands of discipleship from becoming drudgery. It is only gratitude and love to God that comes from knowing that He no longer counts our sins against us (Romans 4:8) that provides the proper motive for responding to the claims of discipleship (p. 21).

And my favorite:

Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God’s grace (p, 19).

More discussion on this chapter is here.

Book Review: Roots: The Saga of an American Family

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I first became vaguely aware of the mini-series of Roots when it came on TV back in 1977. I didn’t watch it then. According to Wikipedia it came on in January of that year, so I was probably back in college by the time it aired, where we did not have TVs nor the time to invest in a mini-series. I knew it made a sensation, but I was never interested in pursuing it. Videos of commercial films and home video players were not quite so prevalent then. And the whole subject of slavery is awful and cruel and a blight on our national history, and I had no desire to spend several hours watching a film about it.

Some years later, our pastor happened to mention a scene from Uncle Tom’s Cabin in a message, and commented, “Uncle Tom is the kind of Christian you always wanted to be.” I had not read it for the same reasons I hadn’t watched Roots, but I hadn’t known it had a Christian perspective to it. Curiosity piqued, I picked it up one day, and after reading it agreed very much with my pastor’s assessment. Though some scenes were horrible, the way Uncle Tom met them was inspiring and admirable.

Fast forward a few years later: I was watching some black comedy from the 80s, and I heard someone derisively called an “Uncle Tom.” Derisively, I thought? They don’t like and admire him? Didn’t that book lay the groundwork for the Civil War? Didn’t it lend a voice to back people when they were not allowed to have one? Why wouldn’t anyone like Tom?

I didn’t know. But just a few weeks ago, as I was scrolling through the classics listing at Audible.com looking for a new book to listen to, I came across Roots. It wasn’t on my radar at all, but in October I’m hosting the reading of Uncle Tom’s Cabin at Carrie’s book club, and I began to think: “Kunta Kinte from Roots is held in high regard and Uncle Tom is not, at least from what little I have heard. I wonder why.” So I decided to listen to the book and find out. I’ll come back to that thought a little later.

The book opens with Kunta’s birth in the small village of Juffure in the Gambia in the 1700s. The description of family and village life as he grows up is fascinating. Everyone has a responsibility: the youngest boys greet visitors passing the traveler’s tree and invite them in; boys a little older herd goats;, after “manhood training” they go on to other responsibilities, until they’ve established a home, built up their flock of goats and land, and desire to marry. The religion is primarily Islamic but some superstition is mixed in. At first it seemed kind of idyllic, but gradually the problems and dangers of life crowded in (drought, near-starvation before harvest, people disappearing, captured by slavers.) And some of the customs themselves seemed cruel. Men were not to show emotion, and when a boy excitedly runs to greet his father during manhood training, he is beaten. Children and wives could be beaten for many reasons. Women were even lower in social standing than teen-age boys. So it wasn’t perfect, but it was home, and there was much admirable about it outside of those things.

Knowing that Kunta was eventually going to be captured, every time he went off by himself I was afraid for him, and one of the saddest parts of the book is when he is actually captured by slavers. He endures a grueling and horrid few months in the hold of a ship with scores of others, chained together, eating poor food, being beaten at a whim, having to sit in their own filth with festering wounds, being at the mercy of disease that spreads rapidly in the close conditions.

When he is sold to a Virginia plantation owner, he makes several attempts to run away, but is captured and cruelly treated each time. The last time was especially horrid, and he is taken, bleeding and broken, to a doctor’s home, where the doctor and his maid nurse him back to health. The doctor eventually buys him from his first owner, who happens to be the doctor’s brother. The doctor is not what I would call a kind man, but life on his place is a heap better than the first place Kunta had been.

But Kunta holds himself aloof from the other slaves. He comes across as proud, and indeed he does look down on them because they don’t do things in the “superior” way he is accustomed to, but especially because they seem to have forgotten their heritage. But he can no longer run, and eventually he marries and has a child.

The rest of the book traces the next couple of generations and what happens to them, each of them passing down the story of their ancestor, Kunta.

The book is aptly named for several reasons: Kunta’s trying to hang on to his own roots, his ancestors passing down his story, the other blacks having forgotten theirs, and the setting of new roots down in this country.

One caveat: the book is very….frank about Kunta’s awareness of his budding sexuality as he grows up, and in its description of a couple of rapes and of one master’s leeriness. But I didn’t think any of it was meant to be sensationalized or titillating. It was just matter-of-fact.

Overall the book was wonderfully told, though heartbreaking in places.

The book was inspired by Alex Haley’s grandmother telling stories of her ancestors. He began to research and believed Kunta was his ancestor. That research is disputed now, but Haley defended it.

A shadow is cast over the book with the accusation of plagiarism. Haley first denied it, then settled in court and released a statement that he did use material from Harold Courlander’s book, The African.

I must say that Avery Brooks’ rich timbre greatly enhanced the audiobook. During the African section of the book, I almost felt like I was sitting on a log at the evening fires listening to a master storyteller passing along the oral traditions and history of the village’s forefathers, and then when Kunta is taken to Virginia, Brooks ably displays an amazing variety of Southern accents.

I’ve watched the first hour or so of the mini-series on YouTube. I definitely prefer the book so far. But I do hope to see it all at some point.

Back to the question: why does Kunta Kinte seem to be held in high esteem and Uncle Tom does not? I’ll be better able to think about this after I refresh my memory by rereading Uncle Tom’s Cabin in a few months, but I think it has a lot to do with the fact that Kunta never did fully settle in to life here, and he continued to have a hatred of white people (understandably). Uncle Tom, by contrast, was a Christian and as such was governed by admonitions to love his enemies and overcome evil with good. That looks like “kowtowing” to those who don’t understand, but the meekness of Uncle Tom is the same meekness Christ showed, not the meekness of a sycophant or of the conquered. There is a difference.

Interestingly, Kunta’s grandson married a Christian girl, and late in the book the story of Joseph in the Bible is a comfort to her and to others when she shares it.

(This review will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)

Book Review: Not By Chance: Learning to Trust a Sovereign God

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As I mentioned when I reviewed Beyond Suffering: Discovering the Message of Job by Layton Talbert, my husband and I have known Dr. Talbert for years, back before he was a PhD., before he was married….when he still had hair. 🙂 He was one of the adult Sunday School teachers at the church we attended when we were first married, and sitting under his teaching plus reading his columns in Frontline magazine, have caused me to trust his treatment of Scripture. But that trust did not come just from knowing him, but rather because of attitudes such as this:

The Holy Spirit is not capricious or careless in His use of words. It is incumbent upon us, therefore, to handle the text of Scripture attentively and accurately. If we are to form a correct understanding of the facts of the story (and, consequently, to arrive at sound theological conclusions), it is vital that we carefully observe the details — and confine our conclusions to the information explicitly communicated by those details (p. 87).

And:

We are not at liberty to draw inferences that contradict other explicit statements of Scripture. And we must be tentative about defending apparently logical inferences that carry us beyond explicit statements of Scripture (p. 252).

Though he would not claim infallibility, nor would I claim it for him, Dr. Talbert’s detailed study and respect for the Word of God and carefulness and balance in teaching it makes his books trustworthy.

I first picked up Not By Chance: Learning to Trust a Sovereign God years ago mainly because it was his with the thought, “Yes, I should read that some time.” I believed in God’s sovereignty and providence and was often comforted by it, so I wasn’t quick to plunge into a book about it, even as much as I respected its author. But like I suspect is the case for many of us, it’s when something bad or seemingly incongruous happens to shake us up that we begin to wonder about God’s providence, not to question it per se, but to wonder how this or that fits into it.

Dr. Talbert begins by discussing what providence means and thoroughly examining Scripture concerning God’s providence over man, creation, weather, opportunities…and multitudes of other things. By the end there is no escaping the fact that God is in control. And while that’s a comfort on one hand, it’s a conundrum on the other: what about the bad things?

Dr. Talbert covers that well, too. Notice I didn’t say he explains it. There are some things about providence that we can’t understand or fully explain, just like we don’t thoroughly understand the Trinity, or the fact that Jesus is both fully God and fully man at the same time, and other mysteries. But he does shed as much light on it from Scripture as he can, and it does help. For instance, in dealing with a mistaken logical inference, he says:

We often assume that all good things come from God and all “bad” things come from Satan. That is a false and unbiblical assumption that gives Satan far too much credit and attributes to him far more power than he actually possesses. Contrary to popular misconception, Satan is not God’s evil counterpart, but Michael’s. Satan, like Michael, is “only” an angel; so he is an evil angel, not an evil God. Jehovah Himself claims that He is the only God and the ultimate ruler over all our circumstances, both the “good” and the “bad” (p. 12).

And here:

God guides and governs all events, including the free acts of men and their external circumstances, and directs all things to their appointed ends for His glory.

Notice that this definition does not say that God initiates or causes all events. If we are to maintain Biblical precision in our understanding and application of Scriptural truth, the terms we choose to state it are vital (p. 62).

And from a study of the life of Joseph:

God also providentially superintends and often uses the unfairnesses of life to accomplish His purposes in and for us and those around us (p. 66).

This is something many of us wrestle over:

Part of the mystery of providence resides in the fact that God rules and reigns over all things according to His will and pleasure (Ephesians 1:11), yet man is still fully responsible and accountable for his choices and actions. In other words, God exercises His providence and accomplishes His will through the free and voluntary choices and attitudes of men and women. Were this fact limited to God’s persuasive working in believers, that would be amazing enough. But it is equally true of the wicked. God never prompts evil men to sin, yet even their rebellion against Him and their hostility against His people is providentially governed and employed by God. (The clearest example of this…[is] found in the events surrounding the Crucifixion) (p. 86).

Sometimes pondering providence can lead us to think that it doesn’t matter what we do since God is in control anyway. But Dr. Talbert reminds us that God has assigned certain duties to us in Scripture and providentially works through them.

The providence of God is never intended to lull us into a lackadaisical attitude of fatalism, as if our actions don’t really matter because God rules and overrules however He wants anyway. It is revealed to maintain a glow of energizing trust that, despite all appearances to the contrary, God is governing for His glory and for my good — a trust that inspires me to stay faithful, obedient, loyal and devoted to Him, and confident in Him…God’s providence, then, encompasses and incorporates the faithfulness and obedience of His children (p. 70).

There are chapters on God’s preserving providence, governing providence, the mystery of providence, the means of providence, silent providence, the problems of providence, providence and prayer (why pray when God is in control? this is an excellent chapter) and case studies from Biblical characters illustrating the truths being taught. Plus there are chapters on God’s providence displayed in the incarnation and passion of Christ and the church. There is a wonderful section in the study of Joseph about why God sometimes allows delays and what He accomplishes through them. There are several appendices, one being the two sides salvation: God’s determination and man’s responsibility.

I marked over 60 quotes that especially stood out to me, so there’s no way I could share all of them here. But here are just a few more:

When we are willing to submit to and practice only what immediately makes sense to us, and ignore what doesn’t (even when it is clearly commanded), we have substituted ourselves — our finite mind — as the sovereign (p. 215).

[God] is the Maestro of providential orchestration, of split-second timing, of perfect point and counterpoint (p. 249).

We dare not construct a system of theology that helps the Holy Spirit by refining or redefining the words He selected or by interposing words He chose to omit so as to tweak out of it, ever so gently, a slightly modified meaning that better fits the system (p. 259)

One of the absolute best statements I’ve ever heard as to why God’s providence allows for hard or painful things was quoted from Steve Estes, in When God Weeps with Joni Eareckson Tada:

“God permits what He hates to achieve what He loves.”

In short (although I guess it is too late to say that, huh? 🙂 ) I do very highly recommend this book.

(This review will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)

Book Review: The Horse and His Boy

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Chronicles of Narnia Reading Challenge

Reading to Know - Book Club

I read The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis for the Chronicles of Narnia Reading Challenge and the book club choice for July sponsored by Carrie at Reading to Know.

The events in The Horse and His Boy take place during the latter time period in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, when the four Pevensie children are kings and queens in Narnia.

But Shasta had never heard of Narnia. Shasta was a boy living in Calormen with a poor fisherman whom he called his father. When a stranger arrived to lodge with them, Shasta listened at the door while the stranger bargained with the fisherman about buying Shasta! Shasta was shocked, but relieved, for he had felt uneasy about not really loving the fisherman as a father.

Shasta strolled out to where the stranger’s horse was grazing to think over his predicament, only to discover that the horse is a talking horse from Narnia named Bree. Bree convinced Shasta that they must both escape to Narnia.

On their way they encountered another escapee, Aravis, on another talking horse, Hwin. Aravis was proud daughter of a lord of Calavar and is escaping an arranged marriage.

They had to go through a great city, but in the process Shasta was absconded by a group of Narnians who mistook him for someone else while Aravis recognized a friend and hid away with her. Through these situations they learned the best way to get across the desert, but they also learned of a planned attack on a neighboring city of Narnia. When they met up again, they hasten on to Narnia now not just for their own reasons, but to warn them of attack.

I had read the whole Chronicles of Narnia some time ago, but I didn’t remember much of anything about this story. And while I wouldn’t say it’s a favorite story of the series, I love the richness of the themes.

One obvious theme is identity. Shasta discovers he is not who he always thought he was and exclaims, “Why, I could be anybody!” He’s even more surprised when he does learn who he actually is. Bree and Hwin could not express their true and full identity while in captivity. Aravis has to hide her identity to escape, and when she meets up with her friend she sees her former lifestyle in a new light. Rabadash, the proud, jilted prince who leads the attack against Narnia’s neighbor as a foothold toward Narnia itself, becomes in form like the identity he’s portraying. And when Aslan identifies himself to Shasta, Shasta is “no longer afraid” that he would harm him, “but a new and different sort of trembling came over him. Yet he felt glad too.”

Another theme is finding one’s true homeland (Bekah develops this theme beautifully here in Groping for another land.)

A third theme echoes many Biblical admonitions that those who humble themselves will be exalted and those who exalt themselves will be humbled.  Shasta comes from a humble background yet Aravis later has to admit, “I’ve been snubbing him and looking down on him…and now he turns out to be the best of us all.” Aravis has to take responsibility for her actions and determines “I think it would be better to stay and say we’re sorry than to go back.” Bree realizes his proud folly as well, but at first holds back, being almost too proud in his abasement to go forward. The Hermit tells him. “But as long as you know you’re nobody special, you’ll be a very decent sort of Horse, on the whole.” Rabadash refuses to humble himself and faces the consequences.

Still another theme is Providence (which I didn’t know when I started the book, but it dovetails nicely with my concurrent reading of  Not By Chance: Learning to Trust a Sovereign God by Layton Talbert. I’ve just finished that except for one appendix and hope to review it later this week.) When Aravis remarks to the hermit she has taken refuge with that she’s had luck, he remarks, “I have now lived a hundred and nine winters in this world and have never yet met with any such thing as Luck.” When all the characters meet up with Aslan, they learn he had been with them, watching over them, guiding circumstances. Shasta’s situation, in fact, is reminiscent of Joseph’s in the Bible, being sent ahead to later save others. Related to Aslan’s providence towards individuals is his repeated admonition that he tells each one no story but their own when they ask about what’s going on in other people’s lives. And when Shasta is telling the story of how he came to be in Calormen, he remarks that Aslan “seems to be at the back of all the stories.”

This is one of those books that has me still thinking, making connections, realizing themes and truths long after the book is closed. And that’s one mark of a good book.

__________________

Instead of writing a separate wrap-up post for the end of the Narnia challenge tomorrow, I’ll just wrap it up here by saying I also read The Silver Chair (linked to my thoughts) for this year’s challenge. I always enjoy breathing Narnian air and look forward to finishing up the last two books of the series next year.

Previous Narnia-related posts are:

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Prince Caspian.

Voyage of the Dawn-Treader.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe Graphic Novel.

Narnian Magic (not a book, but a hammering out of my thoughts on the use of magic in the series.)

(This review will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)

What’s On Your Nightstand: July 2012

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What's On Your NightstandThe folks at 5 Minutes For Books host What’s On Your Nightstand? the fourth Tuesday of each month in which we can share about the books we have been reading and/or plan to read.

Since last month I’ve finished:

(All links in this section are to my reviews.)

Beyond the Shadows by Robin Lee Hatcher (audiobook) about  a woman whose husband is an alcoholic. Very good.

Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns, about a small-town Southern community’s reaction when a widower remarries just three days after his wife’s funeral. Not crazy about it but it did have some good points.

Coming Home by Karen Kingsbury. End of the Baxter family saga.

Lost Melody by Lori Copeland and Virginia Smith (audiobook). A promising classical pianist is severely injured in a subway accident, ruining her career hopes and dreams. Then she begins to have a recurring nightmare and an impression that she’s supposed to warn her small seaside town of a coming disaster. Mixed emotions.

Walking on Broken Glass by Christa Allan, about a woman recovering from alcoholism and learning how to respond to her controlling husband.

The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis. Two children are sent on a quest to find a lost prince held captive by an evil queen. Good stuff. A part of Carrie‘s The Chronicles of Narnia Reading Challenge and July Book Club choice.

I’m currently reading/listening to:

The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis.

The House at Riverton by Kate Morton. A former maid is the only living person associated with an old manor house and has a secret she’s kept quiet all these years. Pretty intriguing so far. I’m sorry to have listed this here. The story ended up being very sordid with some use of vulgar language and I cannot recommend this book or author.

Not By Chance: Learning to Trust a Soveriegn God by Layton Talbert. Excellent.

Roots by Alex Haley, audiobook. This book was not on my radar at all, but I was looking for a new audiobook and scrolling through the classics listing at Audible.com, and saw it.  I don’t know that I’d call it a classic just because it is not that old. But it’s pretty fascinating. I do have another reason for reading it (listening to it) that I’ll share later.

Up next:

I still haven’t decided whether to join in the summer Louisa May Alcott reading challenge but since there is only one more month of summer, I guess I’d better decide soon. I always enjoy a visit with her books. I have The Discovery by Dan Walsh on hand and I’ve got about 38 downloads on my Kindle app, so I should probably work on a few of them.

Happy Reading!

Book Giveaway

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Author Adam Blumer is giving away a copy of his book

 Fatal Illusions

here.

I read and reviewed this book here and can highly recommend it.

Fatal Illusions

I’m going to close comments here so people don’t get confused. Go to Adam Blumer’s for a chance to win a copy of his book, Fatal Illusions.

Book Review: The Silver Chair

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Chronicles of Narnia Reading Challenge

Reading to Know - Book Club

I read The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis for the Chronicles of Narnia Reading Challenge and the book club choice for July sponsored by Carrie at Reading to Know.

I’m reading the Narnia books in the order in which they were first published, and The Silver Chair comes fourth, just after The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (linked to my thoughts.)

The book opens with Eustace from that book (though by now Eustace is “not a bad sort,” having changed from the negative, complaining boy he used to be) and schoolmate Jill Pole dealing with some bullies in the school. As Eustace tries to tell Jill about Narnia, they wonder if maybe they could ask to be taken there. Then they hear the bullies pursuing, make a run for a gate in a wall, and find themselves suddenly somewhere else. Eustace ends up falling over a cliff while trying to help Jill keep from doing so, but Aslan rescues him by sending him to land.

Jill is frightened by Aslan at first. She’s dreadfully thirsty, but Aslan is beside the stream, and Jill is hesitant to go forward. He invites her to come and drink. She wants to look for another stream, but he tells her there is no other. Parts of this conversation recall the invitation from Christ to come and drink and the fact that there is no other stream of living water that can be had other than His.

Jill does finally trust Aslan enough to come and drink. After dealing with her about her part in Eustace’s fall, Aslan gives her a task for the both of them but says it will be harder because of her actions. She and Eustace must find and bring home the young prince Rillian, Caspian’s son, who has been missing for ten years. Aslan gives Jill four signs and makes her memorize them, then sends her off to join Eustace.

She quickly “muffs” the first sign, which makes their task even harder than it would have been. With the help of some owls and Puddleglum, a Marsh-wiggle, they set off to find the prince. They are sent the wrong way by what seems to be a beautiful woman and a silent knight, run into some trouble with the next two signs, brush against great danger at a giant’s castle, and end up searching through an underground world to find a seemingly silly young man who has to be tied to a silver chair every evening during a fit of insanity. Or is that when he is truly sane?

Though I missed the Pevensie children, I did enjoy this foray back to Narnia. A repeated theme throughout the book seems to center around obedience and trust. When they don’t follow the first signs, their task gets that much harder. Then when things come to a crisis and the final sign seems to be before them, yet the circumstances are not what they thought they would be, Puddleglum says, “There are no accidents. Our guide is Aslan…and he knew already all things that would” happen, and “Aslan didn’t tell Pole what would happen. He only told her what to do.”

Besides those already mentioned, there are other Biblical allusions, among them, the reminder from Aslan about how important it was to keep reminding oneself of his word, and his remark, when Jill wonders how he could have been calling them when they were the ones looking for a way to Narnia, “You would not have called to me unless I had been calling to you.” Though at first they fall into trouble by being more concerned with creature comforts, getting to a place where they could get in out of the elements, rest, and eat, though that place was a place of danger to them, later on they’re delivered from great temptation and disaster by reminding themselves of Aslan’s words and the bedrock truth they know.

I enjoyed some of the veiled humor sprinkled throughout the book as well, often aimed at the children’s school, known as the “Experiment House.” The best of those lines was when “the Head’s friends saw that the Head was no use as a Head, so they got her made into an Inspector to interfere with other Heads. And when they found out she wasn’t much good even at that, they got her into Parliament where she lived happily ever after.”

I also read the chapter pertaining to The Silver Chair from The Way Into Narnia (linked to my thoughts. I had read it last year except for the chapters specific to the books I hadn’t read yet. It’s a great Narnian resource). He pointed out something that hadn’t dawned on me in the structure of the story, that it takes descending steps and then ascending steps. He felt the theme was freedom and obedience, or freedom through obedience, and I think I’d agree.

(This review will also be linked to Semicolon‘s Saturday Review of Books.)