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shelfreflectionofficial's Reviews (844)
“Sometimes one person’s mistakes set off a shock wave of devastation in the lives of those around them.”
In 2018 I read Bleeker’s book, When I’m Gone, and really enjoyed it! I finally got around to reading another one of her books.
Unfortunately, this was one didn’t hit the mark for me.
What’s Left Unsaid is similar to When I’m Gone in that both have a strong focus on letters— the latter to a husband from his deceased wife, the former found by a journalist about a dead woman’s rejected and published ‘story’ mailed to the newspaper office decades before.
I think When I’m Gone created more investment and emotional connection for the reader because of the intimate relationship between a husband and wife and it was a scenario that resonated with me.
What’s Left Unsaid created mystery, for sure— Evelyn (the letter writer) lets us know that she was shot in the chest and damage to her spinal cord has left her in a wheelchair. She wants her story known so she can reveal who the shooter was. She sends chunks of her story monthly so Hannah (the journalist) finds the various letters over a period of time and pieces it together.
So what made this book ‘meh’ for me?
I think some of it is because I found the main character, Hannah, unlikable. I think the author intentionally wrote her flawed— selfish and condescending yet broken and dealing with severe depression— to show character growth and shed light on the struggles of depression and how one views herself. (The Midnight Library does a better job exploring this concept.) But I had a hard time getting past her ‘woke-ness’ in her constant judging of the South and its people as she had just temporarily moved down from Chicago.
The author’s attempt to incorporate the discussion of systemic racism, privilege, the #metoo movement, and women’s independence overshadows the mystery and becomes the main driving factor in this book.
I think some people might appreciate and enjoy this combination. For me, I wasn’t expecting it and it got to be a bit much for me. I don’t personally know what the South is like, maybe this book portrays it accurately. But Hannah’s constant condescension and her going about her life without any regard of how her choices affect other people frustrated me.
Here are some snippets that shed some light on Hannah’s disposition:
“…awkward topics of conversation like she’d been born south of the Mason-Dixon Line.”
“Hannah almost understood how a homemaker’s life could bring moments of fulfillment.” (I really hope this doesn’t portray the author’s POV on homemakers… haha… man, us homemakers really hold out for those rare moments of fulfillment. What an existence.)
“‘I should get you home,’ he said, sounding a little too much like a southern gentleman making sure a vulnerable lady wasn’t out past dark to ‘protect her reputation.’”
“…since the poisonous effects of discrimination turned out to be everywhere, even if the symptoms looked different.”
Someone comments that it was hard to believe a picture was taken a hundred years ago and Hannah says: “Well, not exactly. Ninety years is more like it.” (This might have been an attempt at flirting but it’s more so pretentious.)
“‘Why does everyone hide from sad things down here?’”
“He stuttered again, going through a list he must’ve created inside his head but also seeming to find it difficult to stay angry at a tearful young woman. She should be offended, but she was grateful for the one time misogyny was working in her favor.”
Hannah’s selfishness also shows in her swearing all the time, even doing so when she knows others are bothered by it because she feels it’s her job to ‘free’ them from their beliefs or she thinks it’s funny for others to feel ‘scandalized.’
Hannah tells a lot of ‘jokes’ in this book but Bleeker always comments about it instead of letting the humor stand on its own. She makes sure to include if others laughed at her joke or if Hannah rolls her eyes at her own joke or if Hannah thinks internally about her jokes. Plus the jokes really aren’t that funny and her sarcasm isn’t very clever.
There is a whole segment about her morbidly coming up with ‘good’ names for a crime documentary about her own death and none of them are original.
The whole premise of the letters was a bit odd. I’m not sure why Evelyn wanted to break up her story so much and think that the newspaper would publish segments of it without knowing the full story right off the bat. And every time Hannah reads the letters she applies every detail to her own life. This ends up being significant but I was kinda annoyed because I would have rather heard more from Evelyn than from Hannah.
I know most of my comments have been negative. I don’t think it’s a bad book. I think it just didn’t do much for me. I think there are a lot of readers who will enjoy this book. If you can get past the character flaws and be able to appreciate the growth and the woke-ness, the mystery and the ending are at least satisfactory and keep it interesting. Plus the letter part of the story is based on Bleeker’s own family members which adds to its authenticity.
And if you really like books about journalists finding old letters in newspaper offices, check out Jojo Moyes book, The Last Letter from Your Lover. (I also didn’t like this one though…)
P.S. It’s not just a Southern thing to call it P.E. instead of Gym. I’m from Iowa and we called it P.E. I feel like ‘Gym’ is just for the coasts? Plus Chicago? What do YOU call it everyone???
Book Review Blog: www.shelfreflection.com
Pinterest: @shelfreflectionblog
In 2018 I read Bleeker’s book, When I’m Gone, and really enjoyed it! I finally got around to reading another one of her books.
Unfortunately, this was one didn’t hit the mark for me.
What’s Left Unsaid is similar to When I’m Gone in that both have a strong focus on letters— the latter to a husband from his deceased wife, the former found by a journalist about a dead woman’s rejected and published ‘story’ mailed to the newspaper office decades before.
I think When I’m Gone created more investment and emotional connection for the reader because of the intimate relationship between a husband and wife and it was a scenario that resonated with me.
What’s Left Unsaid created mystery, for sure— Evelyn (the letter writer) lets us know that she was shot in the chest and damage to her spinal cord has left her in a wheelchair. She wants her story known so she can reveal who the shooter was. She sends chunks of her story monthly so Hannah (the journalist) finds the various letters over a period of time and pieces it together.
So what made this book ‘meh’ for me?
I think some of it is because I found the main character, Hannah, unlikable. I think the author intentionally wrote her flawed— selfish and condescending yet broken and dealing with severe depression— to show character growth and shed light on the struggles of depression and how one views herself. (The Midnight Library does a better job exploring this concept.) But I had a hard time getting past her ‘woke-ness’ in her constant judging of the South and its people as she had just temporarily moved down from Chicago.
The author’s attempt to incorporate the discussion of systemic racism, privilege, the #metoo movement, and women’s independence overshadows the mystery and becomes the main driving factor in this book.
I think some people might appreciate and enjoy this combination. For me, I wasn’t expecting it and it got to be a bit much for me. I don’t personally know what the South is like, maybe this book portrays it accurately. But Hannah’s constant condescension and her going about her life without any regard of how her choices affect other people frustrated me.
Here are some snippets that shed some light on Hannah’s disposition:
“…awkward topics of conversation like she’d been born south of the Mason-Dixon Line.”
“Hannah almost understood how a homemaker’s life could bring moments of fulfillment.” (I really hope this doesn’t portray the author’s POV on homemakers… haha… man, us homemakers really hold out for those rare moments of fulfillment. What an existence.)
“‘I should get you home,’ he said, sounding a little too much like a southern gentleman making sure a vulnerable lady wasn’t out past dark to ‘protect her reputation.’”
“…since the poisonous effects of discrimination turned out to be everywhere, even if the symptoms looked different.”
Someone comments that it was hard to believe a picture was taken a hundred years ago and Hannah says: “Well, not exactly. Ninety years is more like it.” (This might have been an attempt at flirting but it’s more so pretentious.)
“‘Why does everyone hide from sad things down here?’”
“He stuttered again, going through a list he must’ve created inside his head but also seeming to find it difficult to stay angry at a tearful young woman. She should be offended, but she was grateful for the one time misogyny was working in her favor.”
Hannah’s selfishness also shows in her swearing all the time, even doing so when she knows others are bothered by it because she feels it’s her job to ‘free’ them from their beliefs or she thinks it’s funny for others to feel ‘scandalized.’
Hannah tells a lot of ‘jokes’ in this book but Bleeker always comments about it instead of letting the humor stand on its own. She makes sure to include if others laughed at her joke or if Hannah rolls her eyes at her own joke or if Hannah thinks internally about her jokes. Plus the jokes really aren’t that funny and her sarcasm isn’t very clever.
There is a whole segment about her morbidly coming up with ‘good’ names for a crime documentary about her own death and none of them are original.
The whole premise of the letters was a bit odd. I’m not sure why Evelyn wanted to break up her story so much and think that the newspaper would publish segments of it without knowing the full story right off the bat. And every time Hannah reads the letters she applies every detail to her own life. This ends up being significant but I was kinda annoyed because I would have rather heard more from Evelyn than from Hannah.
I know most of my comments have been negative. I don’t think it’s a bad book. I think it just didn’t do much for me. I think there are a lot of readers who will enjoy this book. If you can get past the character flaws and be able to appreciate the growth and the woke-ness, the mystery and the ending are at least satisfactory and keep it interesting. Plus the letter part of the story is based on Bleeker’s own family members which adds to its authenticity.
And if you really like books about journalists finding old letters in newspaper offices, check out Jojo Moyes book, The Last Letter from Your Lover. (I also didn’t like this one though…)
P.S. It’s not just a Southern thing to call it P.E. instead of Gym. I’m from Iowa and we called it P.E. I feel like ‘Gym’ is just for the coasts? Plus Chicago? What do YOU call it everyone???
Book Review Blog: www.shelfreflection.com
Pinterest: @shelfreflectionblog
“Jenkins had screwed up. He’d cared. He should have just walked away.”
This great trilogy began with The Eighth Sister and returned with the The Last Agent— both of which were suspenseful cat-and-mouse attempts of our protagonist, Charles Jenkins, at escaping Russia without getting caught.
The Silent Sisters, on the other hand, right out of the gate begins with Charles Jenkins hanging from a hook in a slaughterhouse in Russia being tortured for information.
He has been caught.
“Should have taught him how to treat a woman,” he tells his interrogator, “we wouldn’t be here if you had.”
Rewinding a few weeks, we find out that Jenkins, tasked with exfiltrating the remaining 2 (of the 8) sisters (aka Russian-born American spies) from Moscow, gets mixed up with not only a very dangerous Russian mafia family, but also the Moscow police department, and a high-ranking political director whose career and reputation hinges on the capture of Jenkins.
While trying to lay low, Jenkins goes to a dive bar to eat, but after stepping in to defend a woman being treated like a dog, Jenkins witnesses a murder and becomes the prime suspect.
His job just got harder.
Exfiltrate two spies already in precarious situations while being hunted by three different resourceful, weapon-wielding groups, while also being one of the very few black men in Russia. Good luck man.
I thought that knowing Jenkins got caught would ruin the suspense of the story for me.
But true to form, Dugoni writes another adrenaline-laced page-turner, and I really enjoyed it. And it had quite the ending!
You know Jenkins must escape somehow, so the suspense lies in: the build-up— how did he get caught?; and the tricks he must have up his sleeve— how will he escape such a hopeless predicament?; and what happens to the two sisters—do they survive, are they double agents?
I believe this book wraps up the Russian chapter of Charles Jenkins but Dugoni alludes to the possibility of continuing Jenkins books, possibly in Egypt next time!
I’ve enjoyed the learning experience about Russia, even though I was dreaming in Russian espionage for every book. Here are a couple interesting things I learned this time:
- There is a university in Moscow called Moscow State University. But Russia is not divided into states like the US. Why does it have such an Americanized name? Also, look up images for this— the main building is insane.
- There is an underground city built under Moscow from the Cold War. They had built all these tunnels and bunkers and even another rail for potential nuclear fallout. The book says it could hold 15,000 people for 30 years. I did brief Google searching on this and it’s probable Dugoni was elaborating on reality, but there is a complex underground system of tunnels as well as the mysterious underground Neglinnaya River. The Russian government would try keep the extent of these tunnels under wraps right??
Anyway, if you liked the first two books, you’ll love this one as well! Highly recommend this series!
[PG-13 disclaimer: There is some sexual content throughout, used to show the degradation of a couple characters but nothing extensive or overly descriptive.]
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
Book Blog: www.shelfreflection.com
Pinterest: @shelfreflectionblog
This great trilogy began with The Eighth Sister and returned with the The Last Agent— both of which were suspenseful cat-and-mouse attempts of our protagonist, Charles Jenkins, at escaping Russia without getting caught.
The Silent Sisters, on the other hand, right out of the gate begins with Charles Jenkins hanging from a hook in a slaughterhouse in Russia being tortured for information.
He has been caught.
“Should have taught him how to treat a woman,” he tells his interrogator, “we wouldn’t be here if you had.”
Rewinding a few weeks, we find out that Jenkins, tasked with exfiltrating the remaining 2 (of the 8) sisters (aka Russian-born American spies) from Moscow, gets mixed up with not only a very dangerous Russian mafia family, but also the Moscow police department, and a high-ranking political director whose career and reputation hinges on the capture of Jenkins.
While trying to lay low, Jenkins goes to a dive bar to eat, but after stepping in to defend a woman being treated like a dog, Jenkins witnesses a murder and becomes the prime suspect.
His job just got harder.
Exfiltrate two spies already in precarious situations while being hunted by three different resourceful, weapon-wielding groups, while also being one of the very few black men in Russia. Good luck man.
I thought that knowing Jenkins got caught would ruin the suspense of the story for me.
But true to form, Dugoni writes another adrenaline-laced page-turner, and I really enjoyed it. And it had quite the ending!
You know Jenkins must escape somehow, so the suspense lies in: the build-up— how did he get caught?; and the tricks he must have up his sleeve— how will he escape such a hopeless predicament?; and what happens to the two sisters—do they survive, are they double agents?
I believe this book wraps up the Russian chapter of Charles Jenkins but Dugoni alludes to the possibility of continuing Jenkins books, possibly in Egypt next time!
I’ve enjoyed the learning experience about Russia, even though I was dreaming in Russian espionage for every book. Here are a couple interesting things I learned this time:
- There is a university in Moscow called Moscow State University. But Russia is not divided into states like the US. Why does it have such an Americanized name? Also, look up images for this— the main building is insane.
- There is an underground city built under Moscow from the Cold War. They had built all these tunnels and bunkers and even another rail for potential nuclear fallout. The book says it could hold 15,000 people for 30 years. I did brief Google searching on this and it’s probable Dugoni was elaborating on reality, but there is a complex underground system of tunnels as well as the mysterious underground Neglinnaya River. The Russian government would try keep the extent of these tunnels under wraps right??
Anyway, if you liked the first two books, you’ll love this one as well! Highly recommend this series!
[PG-13 disclaimer: There is some sexual content throughout, used to show the degradation of a couple characters but nothing extensive or overly descriptive.]
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
Book Blog: www.shelfreflection.com
Pinterest: @shelfreflectionblog
“The only way to stay strong in a shifting culture is to resolve to know God and live by His truth.”
Abujamra begins her book with this observation: “There is a deep disconnect between what Christians say we believe and how we live, and it’s threatening to destroy us.”
I immediately thought of the book The Christian Atheist. Both of these books challenge the outworking of our faith. Do we really believe what we say we believe? And do our choices and behaviors align with and portray these beliefs?
Both books are worth reading because they pinpoint different areas and encourage in different ways.
Resolved has a more confident tone, bolstering us to stand firm against a culture of relativity and me-centeredness. What can seem harmless or even peace-making might actually be undermining our resolve to be in the world but not of it.
“No matter how strong we claim our faith in God is, when life is hard it all comes down to resolve.”
Though they are not earth-shattering or new, here are the resolutions she proposes:
1. Believe When It Looks Ridiculous
2. Love When It’s Inconvenient
3. Obey When It’s Not Popular
4. Yield When It’s My Right
5. Speak Up When It’s Easier Not To
6. Give When I Barely Have Enough
7. Be in Community When I’d Rather Be Alone
8. Have Joy When Life is Depressing
9. Hope When It Hurts Too Much
10. Rest in the Midst of Chaos
To be clear. This is not a list of behavior modifications so you can know that you are a Christian. That is anti-gospel. And to counter that feeling, The Imperfect Disciple is a good book to read alongside this one to remind us of the finished work of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For we know that it is not by works or just doing enough or being good enough that we are saved. Our salvation is by grace through faith and the process by which we become more like our Savior (sanctification) is tethered to the Holy Spirit at work in us.
She reminds us, “it is His Spirit in us who is the catalyst for our transformation.”
Abujamra is not suggesting here that we can ‘resolve’ to save ourselves. But the Bible is clear that there is an element of human responsibility in our faith. These resolutions help us set our minds on biblical principles. They help us make decisions and give us confidence in a world where the truths of the Bible appear as foolishness to those who do not believe.
If we believe in God’s provision and faithfulness to us, if we believe that God is all we need, then we can cheerfully give away our time, money, and resources. We can find our joy in him when we experience loss and pain. We can trust him in obedience that puts us at risk.
If we believe that God’s Words are truth then we would cling to them before any other maxim, and we would share them for the sake of others. We wouldn’t allow ridicule or unpopularity to taint our faith with a seeking after horizontal justification and acceptance instead of vertical justification and acceptance.
Here are some of the convictions and comforts Abujamra confronts us with in this book:
“When you get to the place where your dream controls your level of joy, that dream has become your idol.”
“We become afraid to give too much, worried about the ramifications of self-sacrifice…”
“Too many of us use grace as a crutch to get away with disobedience.”
“Yielding moves from the driver's seat to the passenger seat and refuses to be a backseat driver. Yielding is powerful because it elevates God to his rightful place of worship. Yielding to God is a declaration that I am not God, but I trust God with what’s best for me.”
“When we resolve to obey God, we’re declaring to a watching world that God matters most, that this God we’ve given our lives to will come through for us, and that He is good and in control no matter how bad the circumstances in our lives may seem.”
“In choosing the safety of silence, we have condemned many to a life apart from God’s goodness and grace.”
“The strength of your resolve has less to do with the outcome of the matter and everything to do with the One you’re committed to.”
“Sin is getting what I want, when I want it, in the way I want it without considering what God wants and trusting him for it. When that happens, our hearts become restless and we stop being quiet. Our hearts become chaotic.”
“The world is not impressed with people who claim that God is more than enough, that Jesus is all we need, and that we’re living for eternity when our day-to-day lifestyles reflect an unusual attachment to the things of this world.”
“Whether it’s natural disasters or life-ending diseases, violence at the hand of evil or global injustice, our pain is real and it’s deep. Life is hard. The pain we feel is acute, and it spares no one in this world. What makes the Christian life radical isn’t that we escape pain but that we can rise above it through Christ and the strength He gives us.”
I would recommend this book to all Christians, but particularly believers who need a condensed and concrete list of practices to meditate on— what living out our faith might look like in our culture.
We’re not quite to New Year’s resolutions, but I could see this being a good ‘beginning of the year’ book with resolutions that matter more than weight loss and bucket lists and would keep a God-centered focus without the distraction of achieving or failing.
I, personally, read this book with a couple friends. Over the course of several weeks we discussed a chapter or two at a time. It spurred really good conversation and would make a good Bible study/book club type of book.
I think having resolve for these things is biblical and worthy of our time. But the most important and comforting thing about it all is this:
“It’s never the size of your resolve but the size of your God that makes the difference in your victory.”
And our God is pretty big.
Set your resolve on Him and His Word and be free.
Book Blog: www.shelfreflection.com
Pinterest: @shelfreflectionblog
Abujamra begins her book with this observation: “There is a deep disconnect between what Christians say we believe and how we live, and it’s threatening to destroy us.”
I immediately thought of the book The Christian Atheist. Both of these books challenge the outworking of our faith. Do we really believe what we say we believe? And do our choices and behaviors align with and portray these beliefs?
Both books are worth reading because they pinpoint different areas and encourage in different ways.
Resolved has a more confident tone, bolstering us to stand firm against a culture of relativity and me-centeredness. What can seem harmless or even peace-making might actually be undermining our resolve to be in the world but not of it.
“No matter how strong we claim our faith in God is, when life is hard it all comes down to resolve.”
Though they are not earth-shattering or new, here are the resolutions she proposes:
1. Believe When It Looks Ridiculous
2. Love When It’s Inconvenient
3. Obey When It’s Not Popular
4. Yield When It’s My Right
5. Speak Up When It’s Easier Not To
6. Give When I Barely Have Enough
7. Be in Community When I’d Rather Be Alone
8. Have Joy When Life is Depressing
9. Hope When It Hurts Too Much
10. Rest in the Midst of Chaos
To be clear. This is not a list of behavior modifications so you can know that you are a Christian. That is anti-gospel. And to counter that feeling, The Imperfect Disciple is a good book to read alongside this one to remind us of the finished work of Christ and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
For we know that it is not by works or just doing enough or being good enough that we are saved. Our salvation is by grace through faith and the process by which we become more like our Savior (sanctification) is tethered to the Holy Spirit at work in us.
She reminds us, “it is His Spirit in us who is the catalyst for our transformation.”
Abujamra is not suggesting here that we can ‘resolve’ to save ourselves. But the Bible is clear that there is an element of human responsibility in our faith. These resolutions help us set our minds on biblical principles. They help us make decisions and give us confidence in a world where the truths of the Bible appear as foolishness to those who do not believe.
If we believe in God’s provision and faithfulness to us, if we believe that God is all we need, then we can cheerfully give away our time, money, and resources. We can find our joy in him when we experience loss and pain. We can trust him in obedience that puts us at risk.
If we believe that God’s Words are truth then we would cling to them before any other maxim, and we would share them for the sake of others. We wouldn’t allow ridicule or unpopularity to taint our faith with a seeking after horizontal justification and acceptance instead of vertical justification and acceptance.
Here are some of the convictions and comforts Abujamra confronts us with in this book:
“When you get to the place where your dream controls your level of joy, that dream has become your idol.”
“We become afraid to give too much, worried about the ramifications of self-sacrifice…”
“Too many of us use grace as a crutch to get away with disobedience.”
“Yielding moves from the driver's seat to the passenger seat and refuses to be a backseat driver. Yielding is powerful because it elevates God to his rightful place of worship. Yielding to God is a declaration that I am not God, but I trust God with what’s best for me.”
“When we resolve to obey God, we’re declaring to a watching world that God matters most, that this God we’ve given our lives to will come through for us, and that He is good and in control no matter how bad the circumstances in our lives may seem.”
“In choosing the safety of silence, we have condemned many to a life apart from God’s goodness and grace.”
“The strength of your resolve has less to do with the outcome of the matter and everything to do with the One you’re committed to.”
“Sin is getting what I want, when I want it, in the way I want it without considering what God wants and trusting him for it. When that happens, our hearts become restless and we stop being quiet. Our hearts become chaotic.”
“The world is not impressed with people who claim that God is more than enough, that Jesus is all we need, and that we’re living for eternity when our day-to-day lifestyles reflect an unusual attachment to the things of this world.”
“Whether it’s natural disasters or life-ending diseases, violence at the hand of evil or global injustice, our pain is real and it’s deep. Life is hard. The pain we feel is acute, and it spares no one in this world. What makes the Christian life radical isn’t that we escape pain but that we can rise above it through Christ and the strength He gives us.”
I would recommend this book to all Christians, but particularly believers who need a condensed and concrete list of practices to meditate on— what living out our faith might look like in our culture.
We’re not quite to New Year’s resolutions, but I could see this being a good ‘beginning of the year’ book with resolutions that matter more than weight loss and bucket lists and would keep a God-centered focus without the distraction of achieving or failing.
I, personally, read this book with a couple friends. Over the course of several weeks we discussed a chapter or two at a time. It spurred really good conversation and would make a good Bible study/book club type of book.
I think having resolve for these things is biblical and worthy of our time. But the most important and comforting thing about it all is this:
“It’s never the size of your resolve but the size of your God that makes the difference in your victory.”
And our God is pretty big.
Set your resolve on Him and His Word and be free.
Book Blog: www.shelfreflection.com
Pinterest: @shelfreflectionblog
“The final trial is yet to come: a battle the magnitude of which we can’t yet know.”
This is the final installment in the double trilogy of Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children.
I say double trilogy because many avid fans would prefer the series had stopped after The Library of Souls as was originally intended. But Riggs added another trio of books that has polarized his fans a bit.
There are those that think three was good and the books resolved enough at that point and there are those who enjoyed the extra adventures and characters incorporated into the last three.
(If you haven’t read any of the books yet, this review may contain some spoilers for you. Feel free to head over to Book One instead.)
The Library of Souls ends with the evil Caul being trapped inside the collapsed loop. But we find out in the subsequent books that there is a way he can be freed from this cage. His minions have collected the ingredients required to resurrect Caul. He is back and assembling and dispatching an advanced and horrific army. It will take everything the peculiars have to survive and destroy Caul once and for all.
We have some Marvel correlations in this book. Caul even says “I am inevitable.” And a character is referenced as the Destroyer of Worlds. It did feel a bit like Infinity War at times.
What was shocking to me to realize as I finished up book six was that all of the books take place within a span of about one year! Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children was published in 2011. So if you have been reading this series as the books are put out, the journey of one year has actually taken ten years to accomplish.
For me, this was good and bad.
Bad because with so much time passing between reading each book and having read many books in between, every book took me some time to reorient myself with the peculiar world and remember where we left off, what has happened, who is who, etc. All parts are crucial.
Good because I think it allowed me to feel less critical of the second trilogy. Many feel let down by the lack of character development for some of the characters or because certain ends weren’t tied up or resolved. I think many of these things didn’t stand out to me because they weren’t fresh in my mind, the connecting threads through the books weren’t super strong for me.
That being said, I would recommend reading them all back to back (or close to it) if possible. I think that would be the most cohesive experience of the series.
This last book was filled with action and danger and quite a bit of death. I was also realizing that some of the descriptions and violence may not be good for younger readers though this is marketed as a Young Adult book. The desolations themselves include blood and bones. People lose limbs, are eaten or melted, etc. It’s definitely not as gruesome as a film adaptation would be but that is something to be aware of.
The unique, or rather peculiar, aspect of this series has always been the inclusion of the vintage photographs that Riggs incorporates into his story. So of course the finale would continue this as well. I’ve said in other reviews of this series and it still holds true— the pictures are more engaging and interesting in the first couple books but as the series goes they seem less important or exciting. Still a great feature, but seems more like an afterthought.
I am happy with how the series ended. I would agree that we don’t necessarily get all the answers we want about all the characters, but I didn’t really feel that until I read other people’s reviews and thought, ‘Oh yeah, I guess they didn’t tell us about that or they didn’t resolve that part.’
I thought the culmination of this would require a bigger sacrifice from one of the main characters. I think it would have created a more sobering yet momentous conclusion.
Also as a parent, I’m not thrilled with Riggs’ choice to detach Jacob from his parents because I feel like that’s actually something we’re seeing more of in the culture and in schools. Which is super sad. Generally, parents aren’t the bad guys and people can still live fulfilling and authentic lives as a true family unit. It worked out for Jacob to go off with his friends and leave his parents behind, but typically no one else will love you as much or as unconditionally as parents. Your parents are not expendable.
But I digress.
Overall—first impressions were very satisfactory.
This series was always a surprise gem for me. I didn’t think I would like it when I started it, but because Riggs was so creative with his world and character building and never shorted us on action, danger, and seemingly impossible scenarios, that it became a series I looked forward to reading each next book!
I’ll end with two conclusionary quotes from The Desolations of Devil’s Acre:
“I tried to imagine what I’d be doing now if none of this had happened. If I’d never gone to the island, never met Emma or the other children. But I couldn’t. I’d come too far and changed too much.”
“In the end, our real home had always been one another. And a real home was all I’d ever wanted.”
This is the final installment in the double trilogy of Miss Peregrine’s Peculiar Children.
I say double trilogy because many avid fans would prefer the series had stopped after The Library of Souls as was originally intended. But Riggs added another trio of books that has polarized his fans a bit.
There are those that think three was good and the books resolved enough at that point and there are those who enjoyed the extra adventures and characters incorporated into the last three.
(If you haven’t read any of the books yet, this review may contain some spoilers for you. Feel free to head over to Book One instead.)
The Library of Souls ends with the evil Caul being trapped inside the collapsed loop. But we find out in the subsequent books that there is a way he can be freed from this cage. His minions have collected the ingredients required to resurrect Caul. He is back and assembling and dispatching an advanced and horrific army. It will take everything the peculiars have to survive and destroy Caul once and for all.
We have some Marvel correlations in this book. Caul even says “I am inevitable.” And a character is referenced as the Destroyer of Worlds. It did feel a bit like Infinity War at times.
What was shocking to me to realize as I finished up book six was that all of the books take place within a span of about one year! Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children was published in 2011. So if you have been reading this series as the books are put out, the journey of one year has actually taken ten years to accomplish.
For me, this was good and bad.
Bad because with so much time passing between reading each book and having read many books in between, every book took me some time to reorient myself with the peculiar world and remember where we left off, what has happened, who is who, etc. All parts are crucial.
Good because I think it allowed me to feel less critical of the second trilogy. Many feel let down by the lack of character development for some of the characters or because certain ends weren’t tied up or resolved. I think many of these things didn’t stand out to me because they weren’t fresh in my mind, the connecting threads through the books weren’t super strong for me.
That being said, I would recommend reading them all back to back (or close to it) if possible. I think that would be the most cohesive experience of the series.
This last book was filled with action and danger and quite a bit of death. I was also realizing that some of the descriptions and violence may not be good for younger readers though this is marketed as a Young Adult book. The desolations themselves include blood and bones. People lose limbs, are eaten or melted, etc. It’s definitely not as gruesome as a film adaptation would be but that is something to be aware of.
The unique, or rather peculiar, aspect of this series has always been the inclusion of the vintage photographs that Riggs incorporates into his story. So of course the finale would continue this as well. I’ve said in other reviews of this series and it still holds true— the pictures are more engaging and interesting in the first couple books but as the series goes they seem less important or exciting. Still a great feature, but seems more like an afterthought.
I am happy with how the series ended. I would agree that we don’t necessarily get all the answers we want about all the characters, but I didn’t really feel that until I read other people’s reviews and thought, ‘Oh yeah, I guess they didn’t tell us about that or they didn’t resolve that part.’
I thought the culmination of this would require a bigger sacrifice from one of the main characters. I think it would have created a more sobering yet momentous conclusion.
Also as a parent, I’m not thrilled with Riggs’ choice to detach Jacob from his parents because I feel like that’s actually something we’re seeing more of in the culture and in schools. Which is super sad. Generally, parents aren’t the bad guys and people can still live fulfilling and authentic lives as a true family unit. It worked out for Jacob to go off with his friends and leave his parents behind, but typically no one else will love you as much or as unconditionally as parents. Your parents are not expendable.
But I digress.
Overall—first impressions were very satisfactory.
This series was always a surprise gem for me. I didn’t think I would like it when I started it, but because Riggs was so creative with his world and character building and never shorted us on action, danger, and seemingly impossible scenarios, that it became a series I looked forward to reading each next book!
I’ll end with two conclusionary quotes from The Desolations of Devil’s Acre:
“I tried to imagine what I’d be doing now if none of this had happened. If I’d never gone to the island, never met Emma or the other children. But I couldn’t. I’d come too far and changed too much.”
“In the end, our real home had always been one another. And a real home was all I’d ever wanted.”
(3.5 rounded up to 4)
Mo Rocca, correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning, has a love for obituaries. He has coined his own term ‘(mo)bituary’ as a way to “appreciate someone who didn’t get the love she or he deserved the first time around.”
Mobituaries is part obituary, part history with a side of humor and a dash of politics.
Where else can you find a comparison between Thomas Paine and T-Pain, a discussion on dragons, the definition of a disco biscuit, and a list of trees that died too soon, all in one place?!
This is a mostly entertaining book as I do enjoy learning odd trivia and history and Rocca is fairly witty. My interest did wan a bit towards the end of the middle. Rocca loves theater so there were many references to plays, songs, and people revolving around theater or TV from years past that I didn’t know. In those cases, knowing the context would have made that particular mobituary more interesting.
The biggest thing this book lacks is PICTURES!
I had to google so many things to see what they looked like. I think it would have been a great addition to include pictures, even if they were in black and white, to help visualize who these people were and what these places or things looked like. I’m not sure why they didn’t do this. Almost every page I was wanting a visual.
I thought the formatting of this book was clever. Each mobituary was titled ‘Death of a….’ and then had a related addendum. For example: “Death of a Leviathan: The Station Wagon” had the addendum- “…and Other Things from the ‘70s That Could've Killed Us”
Interspersed among these are brief “Forgotten Forerunners” about people with great achievements that didn’t get proper recognition during their time. Like the first computer programmer, the first great wall, the technically first African-American MLB player, etc.
Most of the chapters are for specific people (like the Siamese twins who lived in Tennessee, Audrey Hepburn, or Sammy Davis Jr.), but he also gives attention to things like dragons, medieval science, a sports team, fashion trends, Prussia, people with only one eye, or defunct diagnoses.
An entertainingly broad spectrum.
At the end of the introduction, Rocca included a lovely sentence diagram of the first line of Bill Cosby’s obit (that doesn’t exist yet) and made me realize I’ve never truly diagrammed a sentence and I immediately wanted to. Grammar nerd alert. This had little bearing on this book at all but I felt compelled to give it some attention here with a picture.
As to Rocca’s wit, here are a few excerpts:
“President Glover Cleveland discovered a tumor in his mouth that was growing much faster than America’s struggling economy.”
“Like a lot of men’s fashion, the codpiece was born out of practicality. And like anything men do, it was soon carried way too far.”
“Over the years, Shakespeare’s reputation has survived more assassination attempts than the Road Runner.”
And if you’re wondering what kind of useful things you will learn within these pages, here are a few highlights:
- St. Augustine seems to be the main authority for claiming dragons can fly
- After Einstein died there was a lot of studying done on his brain which subsequently ‘disappeared’ and then found 23 years later. (I think there should probably be a sci-fi movie created about someone stealing Einstein’s brain.)
- ‘Macaroni’ meant ‘fashionable’ (i.e. That hat is so macaroni!) Thus, the song Yankee Doodle Dandy is making fun of Yankees who put feathers in their hats and thought they were cool. So embarrassing.
- Herbert Hoover standardized many things which was actually pretty life changing. Some of these products were milk sizes, brick sizes, traffic lights being red, yellow, green, and light sockets. Standardizing is something we’ve never really had to think about and definitely something we’ve taken for granted!
- Audrey Hepburn was born the same year as Anne Frank and endured some of the hardships of WWII in Holland, almost starving. Anne Frank’s dad tried to get Hepburn to play Anne on-screen.
- Okay, this one shocked me— in Family Matters, Laura and Eddie had a little sister named Judy! But she was more of a background character so when Urkel came on the show and became so popular Judy randomly disappeared! Apparently I never saw the earlier episodes...
- Mahatma Gandhi and Orville Wright died on the same day.
- The station wagon got its name because the earliest ones transported people from railroad stations to hotels.
- And because I know you’ve been wondering since I mentioned it earlier, a disco biscuit is a slang term for recreational drugs like ecstasy that was popular in the ‘60s.
I feel like by now you should be able to gauge whether you would like this book or not. But if you are still unsure, many of the things he has included in his book are things he’s talked about on his podcast (same name). So if you are more into listening than reading, you may want to check that out!
One other thing I’ll mention about Mobituaries is that the majority of the people selected were selected (I’m assuming) because the reason they didn’t get a fair shake was due to their race, gender, or sexuality or because they were activists for civil, women’s, or LGBTQ rights. Rocca himself is gay so I think he was drawn to many of these people/stories for that connection. But the commentary for many of these chapters highlights these details.
I wouldn’t say it was an overtly political book by any means, but it would make sense that depending on the time period they were alive, certain people’s accomplishments would not be brought to light or given the credit they deserved and I can see Rocca's desire to do so.
I love the idea of this book and appreciate the research Rocca has done to put it together and creatively pull in surprising connections! I would think there is potential for second editions of this book and I would probably read them. (Hopefully with a few less obscure theater/TV references for those of us who never watched silent films or Barbra Streisand.)
Book Blog: www.shelfreflection.com
Pinterest: @shelfreflectionblog
Mo Rocca, correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning, has a love for obituaries. He has coined his own term ‘(mo)bituary’ as a way to “appreciate someone who didn’t get the love she or he deserved the first time around.”
Mobituaries is part obituary, part history with a side of humor and a dash of politics.
Where else can you find a comparison between Thomas Paine and T-Pain, a discussion on dragons, the definition of a disco biscuit, and a list of trees that died too soon, all in one place?!
This is a mostly entertaining book as I do enjoy learning odd trivia and history and Rocca is fairly witty. My interest did wan a bit towards the end of the middle. Rocca loves theater so there were many references to plays, songs, and people revolving around theater or TV from years past that I didn’t know. In those cases, knowing the context would have made that particular mobituary more interesting.
The biggest thing this book lacks is PICTURES!
I had to google so many things to see what they looked like. I think it would have been a great addition to include pictures, even if they were in black and white, to help visualize who these people were and what these places or things looked like. I’m not sure why they didn’t do this. Almost every page I was wanting a visual.
I thought the formatting of this book was clever. Each mobituary was titled ‘Death of a….’ and then had a related addendum. For example: “Death of a Leviathan: The Station Wagon” had the addendum- “…and Other Things from the ‘70s That Could've Killed Us”
Interspersed among these are brief “Forgotten Forerunners” about people with great achievements that didn’t get proper recognition during their time. Like the first computer programmer, the first great wall, the technically first African-American MLB player, etc.
Most of the chapters are for specific people (like the Siamese twins who lived in Tennessee, Audrey Hepburn, or Sammy Davis Jr.), but he also gives attention to things like dragons, medieval science, a sports team, fashion trends, Prussia, people with only one eye, or defunct diagnoses.
An entertainingly broad spectrum.
At the end of the introduction, Rocca included a lovely sentence diagram of the first line of Bill Cosby’s obit (that doesn’t exist yet) and made me realize I’ve never truly diagrammed a sentence and I immediately wanted to. Grammar nerd alert. This had little bearing on this book at all but I felt compelled to give it some attention here with a picture.
As to Rocca’s wit, here are a few excerpts:
“President Glover Cleveland discovered a tumor in his mouth that was growing much faster than America’s struggling economy.”
“Like a lot of men’s fashion, the codpiece was born out of practicality. And like anything men do, it was soon carried way too far.”
“Over the years, Shakespeare’s reputation has survived more assassination attempts than the Road Runner.”
And if you’re wondering what kind of useful things you will learn within these pages, here are a few highlights:
- St. Augustine seems to be the main authority for claiming dragons can fly
- After Einstein died there was a lot of studying done on his brain which subsequently ‘disappeared’ and then found 23 years later. (I think there should probably be a sci-fi movie created about someone stealing Einstein’s brain.)
- ‘Macaroni’ meant ‘fashionable’ (i.e. That hat is so macaroni!) Thus, the song Yankee Doodle Dandy is making fun of Yankees who put feathers in their hats and thought they were cool. So embarrassing.
- Herbert Hoover standardized many things which was actually pretty life changing. Some of these products were milk sizes, brick sizes, traffic lights being red, yellow, green, and light sockets. Standardizing is something we’ve never really had to think about and definitely something we’ve taken for granted!
- Audrey Hepburn was born the same year as Anne Frank and endured some of the hardships of WWII in Holland, almost starving. Anne Frank’s dad tried to get Hepburn to play Anne on-screen.
- Okay, this one shocked me— in Family Matters, Laura and Eddie had a little sister named Judy! But she was more of a background character so when Urkel came on the show and became so popular Judy randomly disappeared! Apparently I never saw the earlier episodes...
- Mahatma Gandhi and Orville Wright died on the same day.
- The station wagon got its name because the earliest ones transported people from railroad stations to hotels.
- And because I know you’ve been wondering since I mentioned it earlier, a disco biscuit is a slang term for recreational drugs like ecstasy that was popular in the ‘60s.
I feel like by now you should be able to gauge whether you would like this book or not. But if you are still unsure, many of the things he has included in his book are things he’s talked about on his podcast (same name). So if you are more into listening than reading, you may want to check that out!
One other thing I’ll mention about Mobituaries is that the majority of the people selected were selected (I’m assuming) because the reason they didn’t get a fair shake was due to their race, gender, or sexuality or because they were activists for civil, women’s, or LGBTQ rights. Rocca himself is gay so I think he was drawn to many of these people/stories for that connection. But the commentary for many of these chapters highlights these details.
I wouldn’t say it was an overtly political book by any means, but it would make sense that depending on the time period they were alive, certain people’s accomplishments would not be brought to light or given the credit they deserved and I can see Rocca's desire to do so.
I love the idea of this book and appreciate the research Rocca has done to put it together and creatively pull in surprising connections! I would think there is potential for second editions of this book and I would probably read them. (Hopefully with a few less obscure theater/TV references for those of us who never watched silent films or Barbra Streisand.)
Book Blog: www.shelfreflection.com
Pinterest: @shelfreflectionblog
“To grow as a disciple of Christ is not adding Christ to your life but collapsing into Christ as your life.”
Do you feel stuck in your faith? Wanting to grow but not feeling very successful?
Dane Ortlund has written this book for you:
“This book is for the frustrated. The exhausted. Those on the verge of giving up any real progress in their Christian growth."
This is a short book, not to give 9 steps to follow to achieve all your goals, but is a coming back to the fundamentals of our faith. Our spiritual growth happens when we have the right view of Jesus and our unity with him, are honest about our sin, and are resting in his saving and unconditional love.
In other words, when we have the Spirit, we already have what we need to grow.
“Implicit in the notion of deepening is that you already have what you need. Christian growth is bringing what you do and say and even feel into line with what, in fact, you already are.”
“If you are in Christ, you have everything you need to grow. You are united to Christ: by the Holy Spirit, you are in him and he is in you… You cannot lose. You are inexhaustibly rich. For you are one with Christ, and he is himself inexhaustibly rich.”
You may have read Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund. And if you haven’t, you should. There is some crossover here with Deeper and both are excellent books.
While Gentle and Lowly is a longer book focusing on the heart of God and his position toward us at all times, Deeper, though shorter, does bring in these tones specifically in his Embrace chapter but speckled throughout other chapters as well. Both books give us a sense of compassionate security, confidence, and encouragement in our faith journey.
Deeper is primarily a book about sanctification (growing more and more like Christ) but also spends some time talking about justification. I really liked his distinction between the two. He says:
1. Justification is outside-in, and we lose it if we make it inside-out
2. Sanctification is inside-out, and we lose it if we make it outside-in
3. And this inside-out sanctification is largely fed by daily appropriation of this outside-in justification
Basically, we are justified (declared ‘not guilty’) by Christ and the cross apart from anything we could do to earn it, and we are sanctified not by the way we appear to others but because of heart change within through the work of the Spirit. Our sanctification is driven not by a need to earn our justification but from the outflow of the knowledge that we stand justified already.
If we are trying to grow as a means of ‘making up’ for all of our sin, we have it backwards. If we are trying to grow by merely looking more godly to others but are not changing our heart towards our sin, we have it backwards. (2 Tim. 3:2-5)
“If we long to grow in Christ, we dare not do what comes so naturally— namely, say we believe that the verdict over our lives is decisively settled in our justified status before God but then move on to other ideas and strategies when it comes to our emotional lives and daily pressures. For if we do, we will find our lives riddled with fear.”
“God himself has come to us with a justification of his own doing. It is the atoning verdict of Jesus Christ. We can only receive it. To add to it is therefore to subtract from it. We simply breathe it in with a heart posture of trusting faith. And thereby God justifies us— God himself. Our okay-ness, our record, our identity, our significance, are no longer in our hands, not even a little.”
I found this book encouraging and easy to read. I would recommend to anyone who desires to grow spiritually, for in this book he asks and seeks to answer this question:
“What must happen in the individual human heart, most fundamentally, most deeply, for a man or woman to get traction and grow?”
Here are some other snippets:
“If you view your sinfulness as a bothersome headache more than a lethal cancer, you will see tepid growth, if any. The gospel does not take our good and complete us with God’s help; the gospel tells us we are dead and helpless, unable to contribute anything to our rescue but the sin that requires it. Christian salvation is not enhancing. It is resurrecting.”
“If you are a Christian, God made you so that he could love you. His embrace of you is the point of your life… He wants you to know a love that is yours even when you feel undeserving or numb.”
“You are restricting your growth if you do not move through life doing the painful, humiliating, liberating work of cheerfully bringing your failures out from the darkness of secrecy into the light of acknowledgment before a Christian brother or sister. In the darkness, your sins fester and grow in strength. In the light, they wither and die…We consign ourselves to plateaued growth in Christ if we yield to pride and fear and hide our sins. We grow as we own up to being real sinners, not theoretical sinners.”
“Through the pain of disappointment and frustration, God weans us from the love of this world.’
“Reading the Bible is inhaling. Praying is exhaling.”
“The commands of the Bible are the steering wheel, not the engine, to your growth. They are vitally instructive, but they do not themselves give you the power you need to obey the instruction.”
“Idolatry is the folly of asking a gift to be a giver.”
“It doesn’t matter what you feel. That doesn’t define you. Jesus was defiled to free you from your defiled status and your defiled feelings. That doesn’t mean we will never battle feelings of defilement. But it does mean that one aspect of growing in Christ is bringing our subjective feelings of defilement into line with that objective, decisive, invincible, true-for-all-time-and-eternity cleansing in the blood of Christ.”
“Killing sin is a strange battle because it happens by looking away from the sin…. [i.e.] looking at Jesus Christ… sin loses its appeal as we allow ourselves to be re-enchanted time and again with the unsurpassable beauty of Jesus.”
“‘The Bible contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, and practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you… Christ is its grand subject, our good its design, and the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently, and prayerfully. It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, and a river of pleasure… It involves the highest responsibility, rewards the greatest labor, and will condemn all who trifle with its sacred contents.’”
**Received an ARC via Amazon**
Book Blog- www.shelfreflection.com
Pinterest- @shelfreflectionblog
Do you feel stuck in your faith? Wanting to grow but not feeling very successful?
Dane Ortlund has written this book for you:
“This book is for the frustrated. The exhausted. Those on the verge of giving up any real progress in their Christian growth."
This is a short book, not to give 9 steps to follow to achieve all your goals, but is a coming back to the fundamentals of our faith. Our spiritual growth happens when we have the right view of Jesus and our unity with him, are honest about our sin, and are resting in his saving and unconditional love.
In other words, when we have the Spirit, we already have what we need to grow.
“Implicit in the notion of deepening is that you already have what you need. Christian growth is bringing what you do and say and even feel into line with what, in fact, you already are.”
“If you are in Christ, you have everything you need to grow. You are united to Christ: by the Holy Spirit, you are in him and he is in you… You cannot lose. You are inexhaustibly rich. For you are one with Christ, and he is himself inexhaustibly rich.”
You may have read Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund. And if you haven’t, you should. There is some crossover here with Deeper and both are excellent books.
While Gentle and Lowly is a longer book focusing on the heart of God and his position toward us at all times, Deeper, though shorter, does bring in these tones specifically in his Embrace chapter but speckled throughout other chapters as well. Both books give us a sense of compassionate security, confidence, and encouragement in our faith journey.
Deeper is primarily a book about sanctification (growing more and more like Christ) but also spends some time talking about justification. I really liked his distinction between the two. He says:
1. Justification is outside-in, and we lose it if we make it inside-out
2. Sanctification is inside-out, and we lose it if we make it outside-in
3. And this inside-out sanctification is largely fed by daily appropriation of this outside-in justification
Basically, we are justified (declared ‘not guilty’) by Christ and the cross apart from anything we could do to earn it, and we are sanctified not by the way we appear to others but because of heart change within through the work of the Spirit. Our sanctification is driven not by a need to earn our justification but from the outflow of the knowledge that we stand justified already.
If we are trying to grow as a means of ‘making up’ for all of our sin, we have it backwards. If we are trying to grow by merely looking more godly to others but are not changing our heart towards our sin, we have it backwards. (2 Tim. 3:2-5)
“If we long to grow in Christ, we dare not do what comes so naturally— namely, say we believe that the verdict over our lives is decisively settled in our justified status before God but then move on to other ideas and strategies when it comes to our emotional lives and daily pressures. For if we do, we will find our lives riddled with fear.”
“God himself has come to us with a justification of his own doing. It is the atoning verdict of Jesus Christ. We can only receive it. To add to it is therefore to subtract from it. We simply breathe it in with a heart posture of trusting faith. And thereby God justifies us— God himself. Our okay-ness, our record, our identity, our significance, are no longer in our hands, not even a little.”
I found this book encouraging and easy to read. I would recommend to anyone who desires to grow spiritually, for in this book he asks and seeks to answer this question:
“What must happen in the individual human heart, most fundamentally, most deeply, for a man or woman to get traction and grow?”
Here are some other snippets:
“If you view your sinfulness as a bothersome headache more than a lethal cancer, you will see tepid growth, if any. The gospel does not take our good and complete us with God’s help; the gospel tells us we are dead and helpless, unable to contribute anything to our rescue but the sin that requires it. Christian salvation is not enhancing. It is resurrecting.”
“If you are a Christian, God made you so that he could love you. His embrace of you is the point of your life… He wants you to know a love that is yours even when you feel undeserving or numb.”
“You are restricting your growth if you do not move through life doing the painful, humiliating, liberating work of cheerfully bringing your failures out from the darkness of secrecy into the light of acknowledgment before a Christian brother or sister. In the darkness, your sins fester and grow in strength. In the light, they wither and die…We consign ourselves to plateaued growth in Christ if we yield to pride and fear and hide our sins. We grow as we own up to being real sinners, not theoretical sinners.”
“Through the pain of disappointment and frustration, God weans us from the love of this world.’
“Reading the Bible is inhaling. Praying is exhaling.”
“The commands of the Bible are the steering wheel, not the engine, to your growth. They are vitally instructive, but they do not themselves give you the power you need to obey the instruction.”
“Idolatry is the folly of asking a gift to be a giver.”
“It doesn’t matter what you feel. That doesn’t define you. Jesus was defiled to free you from your defiled status and your defiled feelings. That doesn’t mean we will never battle feelings of defilement. But it does mean that one aspect of growing in Christ is bringing our subjective feelings of defilement into line with that objective, decisive, invincible, true-for-all-time-and-eternity cleansing in the blood of Christ.”
“Killing sin is a strange battle because it happens by looking away from the sin…. [i.e.] looking at Jesus Christ… sin loses its appeal as we allow ourselves to be re-enchanted time and again with the unsurpassable beauty of Jesus.”
“‘The Bible contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers. Its doctrines are holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and its decisions are immutable. Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, and practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you… Christ is its grand subject, our good its design, and the glory of God its end. It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet. Read it slowly, frequently, and prayerfully. It is a mine of wealth, a paradise of glory, and a river of pleasure… It involves the highest responsibility, rewards the greatest labor, and will condemn all who trifle with its sacred contents.’”
**Received an ARC via Amazon**
Book Blog- www.shelfreflection.com
Pinterest- @shelfreflectionblog
“Twelve minutes ago, they breezed into my office— glamorous, affluent, enviable. The golden couple. Now the underlying tarnishes they’ve never allowed the public to see are already beginning to show.”
Avery, a therapist who recently lost her license, has publicized her breakthrough ten session plan sure to fix whatever issues you have. The golden couple, Marissa and Matthew Bishop, have come to repair their marriage after Marissa admits to infidelity.
But things are not what they seem and everyone has a secret. Or two.
And the secrets are eerily entangled more than they realize.
Oh also— the Bishops are definitely not seeing Avery by mere coincidence.
The formatting of this book follows Hendricks & Pekkanen’s book, An Anonymous Girl— the main female character has chapters told in third person, the therapist has chapters in first person.
It takes awhile to figure out where they’re going with it. From the beginning I was questioning: Is the therapist shady? Which one of the golden couple is shady? Or are they for real and are innocently caught up in something sinister?
And can we trust the narration? I’ll be honest, ever since I read Gone Girl, I’m assuming I can’t fully believe anything from a first person narrative— talk about trust issues! Thanks a lot Gillian Flynn.
Also similar to An Anonymous Girl, this book is a slow burn. It does drag a bit in the middle and some of it feels repetitive. I didn’t like The Golden Couple as much as the other one. There was so much of it centered around the act of infidelity and the marital therapy whereas the other one had more of a mysterious psychological element to it.
So some of this was a bit boring— 10 sessions is a lot to go through!
As for the mystery— you might figure this one out, but there are enough red herrings that will make you second-guess yourself.
I agree with some other reviewers that Avery’s character seems more like a Nancy Drew type sleuth than a therapist. You wonder how much of her life is invested in this particular client. The authors do include bits of her other clients so you know she is working on multiple projects but it does seem odd with how investigative she seems to be about the Bishops.
I also agree with other reviewers that the characters aren’t super likable.
It’s not an amazing book, but it’s not terrible either.
I’m not sure if this and An Anonymous Girl are enough to keep me reading these authors. It seems like most of their books are domestic suspense that revolve around some sort of marriage dysfunction.
Too much of the same thing for me. But if that storyline intrigues you, I would guess you would enjoy their other books.
Sidenote: A language content disclaimer— there are quite a few f-words in this book.
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
Book Blog: www.shelfreflection.com
Pinterest: @shelfreflectionblog
Avery, a therapist who recently lost her license, has publicized her breakthrough ten session plan sure to fix whatever issues you have. The golden couple, Marissa and Matthew Bishop, have come to repair their marriage after Marissa admits to infidelity.
But things are not what they seem and everyone has a secret. Or two.
And the secrets are eerily entangled more than they realize.
Oh also— the Bishops are definitely not seeing Avery by mere coincidence.
The formatting of this book follows Hendricks & Pekkanen’s book, An Anonymous Girl— the main female character has chapters told in third person, the therapist has chapters in first person.
It takes awhile to figure out where they’re going with it. From the beginning I was questioning: Is the therapist shady? Which one of the golden couple is shady? Or are they for real and are innocently caught up in something sinister?
And can we trust the narration? I’ll be honest, ever since I read Gone Girl, I’m assuming I can’t fully believe anything from a first person narrative— talk about trust issues! Thanks a lot Gillian Flynn.
Also similar to An Anonymous Girl, this book is a slow burn. It does drag a bit in the middle and some of it feels repetitive. I didn’t like The Golden Couple as much as the other one. There was so much of it centered around the act of infidelity and the marital therapy whereas the other one had more of a mysterious psychological element to it.
So some of this was a bit boring— 10 sessions is a lot to go through!
As for the mystery— you might figure this one out, but there are enough red herrings that will make you second-guess yourself.
I agree with some other reviewers that Avery’s character seems more like a Nancy Drew type sleuth than a therapist. You wonder how much of her life is invested in this particular client. The authors do include bits of her other clients so you know she is working on multiple projects but it does seem odd with how investigative she seems to be about the Bishops.
I also agree with other reviewers that the characters aren’t super likable.
It’s not an amazing book, but it’s not terrible either.
I’m not sure if this and An Anonymous Girl are enough to keep me reading these authors. It seems like most of their books are domestic suspense that revolve around some sort of marriage dysfunction.
Too much of the same thing for me. But if that storyline intrigues you, I would guess you would enjoy their other books.
Sidenote: A language content disclaimer— there are quite a few f-words in this book.
**Received an ARC via NetGalley**
Book Blog: www.shelfreflection.com
Pinterest: @shelfreflectionblog
“There were two kinds of wizards in the world— those who cast spells, and those who broke them.”
This was a fun book set in Victorian England. A world where magic is normal and accessible. Well, at least for the elite, and mostly men.
But when something is valuable, violence surrounds it.
Synopsis:
Elsie, mysteriously separated from her family when she was little, is an unregistered spellbreaker who has been doing spellbreaking work for an underground Robin Hood-esque group she calls the Cowls. Her work is illegal but she will do anything to help those who are taken advantage of by the elite’s magic.
She is caught by Bacchus who is working toward becoming a Master Spellmaker. He has his mind set on acquiring a very rare and specific spell. He decides to keep Elsie’s work a secret if she will help him.
As their working relationship turns into friendship, and maybe something more, Elsie is realizing the people she thought she could trust may be part of a sinister plan to kill spellmasters and steal their magic.
And her childhood may have more to do with the Cowls than she thinks.
Historical Setting:
As mentioned, this world is set in London during the 1800s. There are gaslights and carriages and corsets.
And there are inequalities in terms of gender and of class. In this book there is a thread of social justice that weaves throughout. Elsie has a passion to help the poor and a resistance to magic being mostly reserved for men.
This, along with her insecurities and feeling unloveable, is the main character definition for Elsie.
Bacchus has his own social challenges. He is a mixed-race illegitimate child who spent the majority of his life in Barbados with his father. Even though he has a lot of money, there are still stigmas he has to deal with.
Both being on the fringe of their social class, perhaps, creates a special bond in their friendship.
Worth Reading?
I had previously read Holmberg’s The Paper Magician— the first book in that series. At the time, I didn’t have access to the rest of the series to finish it.
It was awhile ago, but I remember it being an intriguing premise and good writing. But there was a chunk of that book that was kinda strange and left me a little confused.
So based on my limited memory, I found Spellbreaker to be a better book. It was more historical fiction (with magic) than fantasy. It was easier to follow and understand.
I found Holmberg’s world and magic in this book very creative. It made me want to know more. It’s a duology— only two books— but I think she could have easily written more for this world.
Holmberg took her time setting up the world and using her characters to explain terminology and how the magic works, so the beginning is a bit slow. But the last third of the book picked up in pace and the ending was great!
It definitely leaves you on a cliffhanger!
If you enjoy stories with magic and don’t need high-impact action and adventure, I think you’ll like this one a lot.
Give this book a shot!
And if you would rather have a book with magic AND a lot of action, try Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.
**Received an ARC via Amazon**
Book Blog: www.shelfreflection.com
Pinterest: @shelfreflectionblog
This was a fun book set in Victorian England. A world where magic is normal and accessible. Well, at least for the elite, and mostly men.
But when something is valuable, violence surrounds it.
Synopsis:
Elsie, mysteriously separated from her family when she was little, is an unregistered spellbreaker who has been doing spellbreaking work for an underground Robin Hood-esque group she calls the Cowls. Her work is illegal but she will do anything to help those who are taken advantage of by the elite’s magic.
She is caught by Bacchus who is working toward becoming a Master Spellmaker. He has his mind set on acquiring a very rare and specific spell. He decides to keep Elsie’s work a secret if she will help him.
As their working relationship turns into friendship, and maybe something more, Elsie is realizing the people she thought she could trust may be part of a sinister plan to kill spellmasters and steal their magic.
And her childhood may have more to do with the Cowls than she thinks.
Historical Setting:
As mentioned, this world is set in London during the 1800s. There are gaslights and carriages and corsets.
And there are inequalities in terms of gender and of class. In this book there is a thread of social justice that weaves throughout. Elsie has a passion to help the poor and a resistance to magic being mostly reserved for men.
This, along with her insecurities and feeling unloveable, is the main character definition for Elsie.
Bacchus has his own social challenges. He is a mixed-race illegitimate child who spent the majority of his life in Barbados with his father. Even though he has a lot of money, there are still stigmas he has to deal with.
Both being on the fringe of their social class, perhaps, creates a special bond in their friendship.
Worth Reading?
I had previously read Holmberg’s The Paper Magician— the first book in that series. At the time, I didn’t have access to the rest of the series to finish it.
It was awhile ago, but I remember it being an intriguing premise and good writing. But there was a chunk of that book that was kinda strange and left me a little confused.
So based on my limited memory, I found Spellbreaker to be a better book. It was more historical fiction (with magic) than fantasy. It was easier to follow and understand.
I found Holmberg’s world and magic in this book very creative. It made me want to know more. It’s a duology— only two books— but I think she could have easily written more for this world.
Holmberg took her time setting up the world and using her characters to explain terminology and how the magic works, so the beginning is a bit slow. But the last third of the book picked up in pace and the ending was great!
It definitely leaves you on a cliffhanger!
If you enjoy stories with magic and don’t need high-impact action and adventure, I think you’ll like this one a lot.
Give this book a shot!
And if you would rather have a book with magic AND a lot of action, try Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.
**Received an ARC via Amazon**
Book Blog: www.shelfreflection.com
Pinterest: @shelfreflectionblog
(3.5 rounded up)
'Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth’ (2 Timothy 2:15)
“Eternal life is not experienced by familiarity with the Scripture, but by knowing and trusting the Son whom that Scripture reveals."
Chad Mansbridge is not a scholar and he didn’t even attend seminary. But that’s the point of his awesomely titled book— you don’t have to have a doctorate in theology to understand the Bible. It’s for everyone!
His heart is to equip everyone with the tools they need to open the Bible and make sense of it. He simplifies his points using acronyms and alliteration, making them more memorable. It’s an easy book to read and outline.
(I think it would have been a great addition to create a detachable bookmark or small printout summarizing the main questions/points to consider when reading your Bible that you can keep in your Bible to reference.)
Is This Book For Me?
Whether or not you should read this book, I think, depends on how committed you are to seeking truth.
There are a lot of good things in this book, but there are a few of his own beliefs peppered in as examples— not to convince you of his theology but to present texts that can be interpreted differently— that I would disagree with.
If you are going to read this book and actually study the Bible for yourself and not just accept his interpretations as ‘the way it is,’ then this would be a good resource for you.
If you want to learn how to read the Bible for yourself, but you don’t trust yourself to think critically and ask more questions, then I would recommend a different book that, I believe, would have more trustworthy interpretations— Knowing Scripture by R.C. Sproul.
The Vitals
The most important aspect of this book is that Mansbridge has a high view of Scripture. The Bible is our ultimate authority, it’s God’s very words that should be followed and shared, it’s infallible, and the Bible should interpret itself. He also emphasizes that any interpreting should not be done in isolation but should be done with others, comparing notes with at least two other sources.
He also emphasizes the work of the Holy Spirit required to understand Scripture:
“[What] no human mind has conceived … God has revealed to us by his Spirit … no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God … [we have received] the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us … because they are discerned only through the Spirit.” (1 Cor. 2: 9–14)
Finally, his gospel message is solid. The purpose of Scripture is to know God and understand our relationship to him. To understand our sin and need of a Savior. All Scripture points toward that end: the sacrifice of Jesus to rescue us and put us in true fellowship with our Creator.
The Helpful
The book is divided into three sections according to the title’s three ‘simple steps’:
- What does it say?
- What does it mean?
- What does it matter?
What Does it Say?
He suggests this ‘vowels’ acronym for reading our Bibles:
A—Appreciation
E—Expectation
I—Intention
O—Openness
U—Understanding
We recognize and appreciate the complexity of the Bible and are grateful to have such a masterpiece. We expect God to speak to us through it as we intentionally spend time reading, studying, researching, memorizing, and letting it influence our lives. We come willing to challenge our beliefs and correct where we need to as we recognize our own predispositions and biases we come with to the text.
Importantly: the beliefs that are most impactful to our lives are the ones we research and discover for ourselves to prove to ourselves how important they are. I love this! Own your faith and prove how important it is to you by understanding why you believe what you believe.
What Does it Mean?
Here he provides the ABCs of exegesis (which means “to draw out the original intended meaning”)
A—Author and Audience
B—Big-Picture Background
C—Corroborating Content
S—Style of Speech
He pulls out different passages and demonstrates how the meaning changes based on who wrote that particular book or who their audience was. For example, we are not the audience for the Levitical laws or some of the direct commands of the prophets.
He provides a chronological overview of all of Scripture to help us understand how the little pieces fit into the bigger picture. He also details some cultural differences that can cause misunderstandings.
He differentiates the three covenants that laws or commands fall into: the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Christ’s Covenant. The first in which covenant blessings were solely based on being part of Abraham’s family. The second— covenant blessings based on performance. The third is the covenant we are part of and is the fulfillment of the first two— we receive blessing because we are part of God’s family and based on Christ’s perfect performance.
Mansbridge also explains literary genres and devices that affect how we interpret Scripture— e.g. we don’t take every part of poetry literally whereas a historical narrative is not assumed to be allegorical.
What Does it Matter?
The main point of this section is application. He gives five important ‘cuts’ to make
- What is Major vs What is Minor
- What is Clear vs What is Cloudy
- What is Descriptive vs What is Prescriptive
- What is Theirs vs What is Yours
- What is the Practice vs What is the Principle vs What is the Purpose
These cuts are important because there are mysteries in the Bible. Not everything is major, clear, directive, to us, or meant to be regularly practiced. We have to use discernment as we apply Scripture.
He also talks about how the Bible tells us our identity. This is immediate application because knowing who we are and our relationship to God and others influences every aspect of our lives.
“Similarly, to love others as Christ has loved you, you must first know others, know Christ and know your true self! After all, we cannot love what we do not know.”
This acronym was finding JOY in Scripture by seeing what it reveals about Jesus, Others, Yourself.
The Not-So-Helpful
The biggest let down for me was lack of a comprehensive case study. I think it would have been really beneficial to include one large chunk of Scripture where he goes through each of his acronyms and questions on the SAME passage.
Those who read this book are going to put it into practice by opening up, say, Ephesians, and attempting to understand that book. To show one cumulative example of all these pieces at work on the same passage would have been an effective way to help the reader feel like they can complete these steps on their own.
I’m not sure this book would do this for many people. We see all the questions and things to consider but, to me, to go and do likewise still feels a bit overwhelming and disjointed and I feel fairly familiar with my Bible.
Also, as I mentioned earlier, he has some quirky beliefs about certain interpretations of passages that I had never heard before. It required me to do a little research.
He is clear that his intent in writing this is not to dictate his own theology to us and convince us of why he is right. He is explaining how he went through these methods of interpretation and came to his conclusion. He wants us to do the same.
But here are a few places that I disagreed with him to give you an idea.
- He proposed that it was Lazarus who wrote the book of John, not the apostle John because only Lazarus was referred to as the one Jesus loved. But John 21:20-25 doesn’t seem to support this. D.A. Carson’s commentary on John was suggested to me as another source to read more about it.
- When he discussed collectivist vs individualistic societies he proposed that he believed Paul, in talking about predestination, would be understood to be referring to a collective group. That God predestines a group of his people not individuals. Mansbridge wasn’t super clear on his entire belief of predestination (intentionally) but I believe it’s important that God predestines us personally and I think Scripture supports this. One reference being that God chose Jacob but not Esau (Rom 9).
- The passage in Scripture that talks about God cutting off branches that do not bear fruit, Mansbridge interprets the word used here to mean ‘take up’ not ‘take away’ and that God lifts the branches up to get more sunlight and have a better opportunity to bear fruit. Whereas I believe this passage to be referring to those who are not genuine believers. They did not produce fruit so they were not genuine converts and God condemns those branches to hell.
- In his interpretation of the phrase ‘whole world’ or ‘all nations’ he was differentiating passages that referred to the localized ‘world’ that the people were aware of vs the actual entire world. And so, it would seem he might believe the flood was localized rather than a global flood, which I don’t believe is the correct interpretation.
- It also seemed like he believed the Bible taught that women could be pastors and preach the word to men. I’m not sure exactly the nuances of his beliefs on this but I find Wayne Grudem and Kevin DeYoung’s interpretation of these passages more compelling. I would suggest Grudem’s book Evangelical Feminism and DeYoung’s book Men and Women in the Church (links below).
Lastly, it does include some graphics and doodles throughout the book. They didn’t do much for me. There were a couple that were relevant to the text in providing a visual, but most of them were more comic-ky. I think they could have done more to create drawings that would go along with the acronyms or visual devices to help remember things or keep things in order, e.g. the chronology of the Bible. I’ve seen pictorials for this in other books that I thought were helpful. In this context it felt a bit juvenile to me.
In Summation
Mansbridge is absolutely right that you and I CAN rightly handle the Truth, just like Timothy. If we are willing to put in the work, to ask the questions and seek the answers, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we will hone our belief system and it will change our lives.
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12
The Bible is God’s very words and if we would know our Creator, we would care about understanding his Word, not just reading a Psalm when we feel sad.
If you don’t know where to start, this would be a good introduction to hermeneutics and exegesis. It reminds us to consider authorship, audience, context, culture, chronology, styles of speech, themes, and literary devices to interpret God’s Word.
But if you have a more advanced understanding of your Bible, this may feel too introductory to you or not practical enough. Other book options are listed below.
Either way, I admire Mansbridge’s passion for equipping believers to take responsibility in studying and understanding the Word of God and I hope this book inspires many people to take their beliefs seriously.
Further Reading:
Seamless: Understanding the Bible as One Complete Story by Angie Smith (this is not about exegesis but is a really good overview of the Bible and the characters, themes, big picture background, and chronology)
One-To-One Bible Reading: A Simple Guide for Every Christian by David Helm (His acronym is COMA: Context, Observation, Meaning, Application. It’s a more practical look on how to study the Bible specifically with someone else)
Knowing Scripture by R.C. Sproul (This is an old book but a classic. Solid and foundational look at how to interpret the Bible. It may not be as easy to read as Mansbridge though; it’s on my TBR list)
Finding the Right Hills to Die on: A Case for Theological Triage by Gavin Ortlund (A book on differentiating the major vs the minor doctrines that Mansbridge referred to)
The Whole Message of the Bible in 16 Words by Chris Bruno (a short book on the chronology and major themes throughout Scripture; provides a good framework for study)
Surviving Religion 101 by Michael J. Kruger (The main point of this book is not hermeneutics but there are chapters on the canonization of the Bible and explaining common misconceptions of the Bible; written by a New Testament scholar)
Book Review Blog: www.shelfreflection.com
Pinterest: @shelfreflectionblog
'Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth’ (2 Timothy 2:15)
“Eternal life is not experienced by familiarity with the Scripture, but by knowing and trusting the Son whom that Scripture reveals."
Chad Mansbridge is not a scholar and he didn’t even attend seminary. But that’s the point of his awesomely titled book— you don’t have to have a doctorate in theology to understand the Bible. It’s for everyone!
His heart is to equip everyone with the tools they need to open the Bible and make sense of it. He simplifies his points using acronyms and alliteration, making them more memorable. It’s an easy book to read and outline.
(I think it would have been a great addition to create a detachable bookmark or small printout summarizing the main questions/points to consider when reading your Bible that you can keep in your Bible to reference.)
Is This Book For Me?
Whether or not you should read this book, I think, depends on how committed you are to seeking truth.
There are a lot of good things in this book, but there are a few of his own beliefs peppered in as examples— not to convince you of his theology but to present texts that can be interpreted differently— that I would disagree with.
If you are going to read this book and actually study the Bible for yourself and not just accept his interpretations as ‘the way it is,’ then this would be a good resource for you.
If you want to learn how to read the Bible for yourself, but you don’t trust yourself to think critically and ask more questions, then I would recommend a different book that, I believe, would have more trustworthy interpretations— Knowing Scripture by R.C. Sproul.
The Vitals
The most important aspect of this book is that Mansbridge has a high view of Scripture. The Bible is our ultimate authority, it’s God’s very words that should be followed and shared, it’s infallible, and the Bible should interpret itself. He also emphasizes that any interpreting should not be done in isolation but should be done with others, comparing notes with at least two other sources.
He also emphasizes the work of the Holy Spirit required to understand Scripture:
“[What] no human mind has conceived … God has revealed to us by his Spirit … no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God … [we have received] the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us … because they are discerned only through the Spirit.” (1 Cor. 2: 9–14)
Finally, his gospel message is solid. The purpose of Scripture is to know God and understand our relationship to him. To understand our sin and need of a Savior. All Scripture points toward that end: the sacrifice of Jesus to rescue us and put us in true fellowship with our Creator.
The Helpful
The book is divided into three sections according to the title’s three ‘simple steps’:
- What does it say?
- What does it mean?
- What does it matter?
What Does it Say?
He suggests this ‘vowels’ acronym for reading our Bibles:
A—Appreciation
E—Expectation
I—Intention
O—Openness
U—Understanding
We recognize and appreciate the complexity of the Bible and are grateful to have such a masterpiece. We expect God to speak to us through it as we intentionally spend time reading, studying, researching, memorizing, and letting it influence our lives. We come willing to challenge our beliefs and correct where we need to as we recognize our own predispositions and biases we come with to the text.
Importantly: the beliefs that are most impactful to our lives are the ones we research and discover for ourselves to prove to ourselves how important they are. I love this! Own your faith and prove how important it is to you by understanding why you believe what you believe.
What Does it Mean?
Here he provides the ABCs of exegesis (which means “to draw out the original intended meaning”)
A—Author and Audience
B—Big-Picture Background
C—Corroborating Content
S—Style of Speech
He pulls out different passages and demonstrates how the meaning changes based on who wrote that particular book or who their audience was. For example, we are not the audience for the Levitical laws or some of the direct commands of the prophets.
He provides a chronological overview of all of Scripture to help us understand how the little pieces fit into the bigger picture. He also details some cultural differences that can cause misunderstandings.
He differentiates the three covenants that laws or commands fall into: the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Christ’s Covenant. The first in which covenant blessings were solely based on being part of Abraham’s family. The second— covenant blessings based on performance. The third is the covenant we are part of and is the fulfillment of the first two— we receive blessing because we are part of God’s family and based on Christ’s perfect performance.
Mansbridge also explains literary genres and devices that affect how we interpret Scripture— e.g. we don’t take every part of poetry literally whereas a historical narrative is not assumed to be allegorical.
What Does it Matter?
The main point of this section is application. He gives five important ‘cuts’ to make
- What is Major vs What is Minor
- What is Clear vs What is Cloudy
- What is Descriptive vs What is Prescriptive
- What is Theirs vs What is Yours
- What is the Practice vs What is the Principle vs What is the Purpose
These cuts are important because there are mysteries in the Bible. Not everything is major, clear, directive, to us, or meant to be regularly practiced. We have to use discernment as we apply Scripture.
He also talks about how the Bible tells us our identity. This is immediate application because knowing who we are and our relationship to God and others influences every aspect of our lives.
“Similarly, to love others as Christ has loved you, you must first know others, know Christ and know your true self! After all, we cannot love what we do not know.”
This acronym was finding JOY in Scripture by seeing what it reveals about Jesus, Others, Yourself.
The Not-So-Helpful
The biggest let down for me was lack of a comprehensive case study. I think it would have been really beneficial to include one large chunk of Scripture where he goes through each of his acronyms and questions on the SAME passage.
Those who read this book are going to put it into practice by opening up, say, Ephesians, and attempting to understand that book. To show one cumulative example of all these pieces at work on the same passage would have been an effective way to help the reader feel like they can complete these steps on their own.
I’m not sure this book would do this for many people. We see all the questions and things to consider but, to me, to go and do likewise still feels a bit overwhelming and disjointed and I feel fairly familiar with my Bible.
Also, as I mentioned earlier, he has some quirky beliefs about certain interpretations of passages that I had never heard before. It required me to do a little research.
He is clear that his intent in writing this is not to dictate his own theology to us and convince us of why he is right. He is explaining how he went through these methods of interpretation and came to his conclusion. He wants us to do the same.
But here are a few places that I disagreed with him to give you an idea.
- He proposed that it was Lazarus who wrote the book of John, not the apostle John because only Lazarus was referred to as the one Jesus loved. But John 21:20-25 doesn’t seem to support this. D.A. Carson’s commentary on John was suggested to me as another source to read more about it.
- When he discussed collectivist vs individualistic societies he proposed that he believed Paul, in talking about predestination, would be understood to be referring to a collective group. That God predestines a group of his people not individuals. Mansbridge wasn’t super clear on his entire belief of predestination (intentionally) but I believe it’s important that God predestines us personally and I think Scripture supports this. One reference being that God chose Jacob but not Esau (Rom 9).
- The passage in Scripture that talks about God cutting off branches that do not bear fruit, Mansbridge interprets the word used here to mean ‘take up’ not ‘take away’ and that God lifts the branches up to get more sunlight and have a better opportunity to bear fruit. Whereas I believe this passage to be referring to those who are not genuine believers. They did not produce fruit so they were not genuine converts and God condemns those branches to hell.
- In his interpretation of the phrase ‘whole world’ or ‘all nations’ he was differentiating passages that referred to the localized ‘world’ that the people were aware of vs the actual entire world. And so, it would seem he might believe the flood was localized rather than a global flood, which I don’t believe is the correct interpretation.
- It also seemed like he believed the Bible taught that women could be pastors and preach the word to men. I’m not sure exactly the nuances of his beliefs on this but I find Wayne Grudem and Kevin DeYoung’s interpretation of these passages more compelling. I would suggest Grudem’s book Evangelical Feminism and DeYoung’s book Men and Women in the Church (links below).
Lastly, it does include some graphics and doodles throughout the book. They didn’t do much for me. There were a couple that were relevant to the text in providing a visual, but most of them were more comic-ky. I think they could have done more to create drawings that would go along with the acronyms or visual devices to help remember things or keep things in order, e.g. the chronology of the Bible. I’ve seen pictorials for this in other books that I thought were helpful. In this context it felt a bit juvenile to me.
In Summation
Mansbridge is absolutely right that you and I CAN rightly handle the Truth, just like Timothy. If we are willing to put in the work, to ask the questions and seek the answers, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we will hone our belief system and it will change our lives.
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” Hebrews 4:12
The Bible is God’s very words and if we would know our Creator, we would care about understanding his Word, not just reading a Psalm when we feel sad.
If you don’t know where to start, this would be a good introduction to hermeneutics and exegesis. It reminds us to consider authorship, audience, context, culture, chronology, styles of speech, themes, and literary devices to interpret God’s Word.
But if you have a more advanced understanding of your Bible, this may feel too introductory to you or not practical enough. Other book options are listed below.
Either way, I admire Mansbridge’s passion for equipping believers to take responsibility in studying and understanding the Word of God and I hope this book inspires many people to take their beliefs seriously.
Further Reading:
Seamless: Understanding the Bible as One Complete Story by Angie Smith (this is not about exegesis but is a really good overview of the Bible and the characters, themes, big picture background, and chronology)
One-To-One Bible Reading: A Simple Guide for Every Christian by David Helm (His acronym is COMA: Context, Observation, Meaning, Application. It’s a more practical look on how to study the Bible specifically with someone else)
Knowing Scripture by R.C. Sproul (This is an old book but a classic. Solid and foundational look at how to interpret the Bible. It may not be as easy to read as Mansbridge though; it’s on my TBR list)
Finding the Right Hills to Die on: A Case for Theological Triage by Gavin Ortlund (A book on differentiating the major vs the minor doctrines that Mansbridge referred to)
The Whole Message of the Bible in 16 Words by Chris Bruno (a short book on the chronology and major themes throughout Scripture; provides a good framework for study)
Surviving Religion 101 by Michael J. Kruger (The main point of this book is not hermeneutics but there are chapters on the canonization of the Bible and explaining common misconceptions of the Bible; written by a New Testament scholar)
Book Review Blog: www.shelfreflection.com
Pinterest: @shelfreflectionblog
“If love is like a possession, maybe my letters are like my exorcisms. My letters set me free. Or at least they’re supposed to.”
The brief synopsis:
Lara Jean writes love letters— more like good-bye letters— to her crushes. To put her feelings on paper is to release their hold over her. But when these secret letters from years past somehow get mailed out to these boys, she will have to face the consequences.
One of the boys who received a letter is Josh, her sister’s very recently ex’d boyfriend whom Lara Jean actually liked before Margot ever did. Not wanting to betray her sister, she fakes a relationship with letter-boy Peter to keep Josh from any thoughts of a relationship with her.
A classic high school almost love triangle.
Who will Lara Jean choose?
Of course I have read the book AND watched the movie and can compare both for you today.
Which was better, the book or the movie?
I think we can all answer this together. Ready? 1, 2, 3…. the book!
It’s not that the movie was bad. It was good! And it actually followed the book fairly well— all the major things.
Some main differences: in the movie they depicted her letters as major love letters, not good-bye letters. There is no car accident/Peter encounter. Margot’s coming home at Christmas isn’t as dramatic. The ski trip incident is dramatized in the movie with a viral video rather than just a rumor.
But I felt like you got a better sense of the characters in the book. You understood her relationship and feelings toward them better. There’s only so much in-her-head-narration you can put into a movie. Their burden is to SHOW you the feelings, but the book has the luxury of giving us all the details and the backstories to really understand character relationships and development.
For example, Josh really isn’t in the movie much so you don’t really understand how integral a part he was in their family before Margot broke up with him. Also he just seems angry and confused most of the time which is not the vibe I got from the book.
And you mostly just see Peter’s popular guy side in the movie and don’t understand the nuances that Lara Jean picks up on when they spend time together. That he’s not what everyone assumes him to be. (Although I’m not convinced.)
The book makes it seem like a tougher choice for Lara Jean on which boy she is going to choose.
I thought the movie cast the characters really well (except for Margot). It was a good rom-com. It fits the genre and was a pretty clean movie.
This genre isn’t generally my go-to but I plan to continue to both read and watch the series!
Back to the book…
I liked the writing style but at times it seemed simplistic for a junior in high school. I criticized The Infinite Pieces of Us for being too mature so I don’t know. I must be too out of touch with my high school mind to truly evaluate.
I did find myself oscillating between “That’s not what high school is like!” and “Is that what high school is like?!” And having anxiety about sending my daughters to high school. But that happens with pretty much any high school related show/movie/book I partake in these days. Youths! Am I right?
There were some ways Lara Jean was relatable to my high school self: scrapbooking, fear of driving,, hanging at home on the weekends, and layering the butter at the movies (I mean… who DOESN’T do that…?) and I never wrote love letters but I did save an embarrassing notebook full of MASH/MASHER games that probably shouldn’t see the light of day.
I liked the premise but it didn’t take the path I was expecting and I forget that in this genre there isn’t much plot movement. The letters were the catalyst but the main drive of the book is the day to day interactions between Lara Jean and Peter and Lara Jean and Josh, repeat.
Oddly, I wasn’t that bored reading it, but when I stopped to think about the progression of the storyline I realized not a lot really happened.
I can’t say I really understand the mind of a high schooler who makes decisions about relationships. But in this series, I liked it enough to set that aside and read the story for what it is. Plus, in reality, the brains of high schoolers have not developed enough biologically to be able to consider future ramifications and consequences of their choices very well yet so there’s that.
Other things I liked: the emphasis on family and the fact that Lara Jean, her sisters, and dad were all really close and enjoyed being together. The responsibility Lara Jean felt and took in taking care of Kitty. Their traditions. That when Josh was dating Margot they hung out with the whole family. I like when the S.O.’s make the younger siblings feel important.
And I loved how on my hard copy of the book the title really looks like it was written with permanent marker and not just printed that way.
I’ll leave you with a Lara Jean quote that pretty much sums up romance of all kinds and the point of this series:
“To belong to someone. It seems like that’s all I’ve ever wanted. To really be somebody’s, and to have them be mine.”
XOXO
Brittany
Book Blog: www.shelfreflection.com
Pinterest: @shelfreflectionblog
The brief synopsis:
Lara Jean writes love letters— more like good-bye letters— to her crushes. To put her feelings on paper is to release their hold over her. But when these secret letters from years past somehow get mailed out to these boys, she will have to face the consequences.
One of the boys who received a letter is Josh, her sister’s very recently ex’d boyfriend whom Lara Jean actually liked before Margot ever did. Not wanting to betray her sister, she fakes a relationship with letter-boy Peter to keep Josh from any thoughts of a relationship with her.
A classic high school almost love triangle.
Who will Lara Jean choose?
Of course I have read the book AND watched the movie and can compare both for you today.
Which was better, the book or the movie?
I think we can all answer this together. Ready? 1, 2, 3…. the book!
It’s not that the movie was bad. It was good! And it actually followed the book fairly well— all the major things.
Some main differences: in the movie they depicted her letters as major love letters, not good-bye letters. There is no car accident/Peter encounter. Margot’s coming home at Christmas isn’t as dramatic. The ski trip incident is dramatized in the movie with a viral video rather than just a rumor.
But I felt like you got a better sense of the characters in the book. You understood her relationship and feelings toward them better. There’s only so much in-her-head-narration you can put into a movie. Their burden is to SHOW you the feelings, but the book has the luxury of giving us all the details and the backstories to really understand character relationships and development.
For example, Josh really isn’t in the movie much so you don’t really understand how integral a part he was in their family before Margot broke up with him. Also he just seems angry and confused most of the time which is not the vibe I got from the book.
And you mostly just see Peter’s popular guy side in the movie and don’t understand the nuances that Lara Jean picks up on when they spend time together. That he’s not what everyone assumes him to be. (Although I’m not convinced.)
The book makes it seem like a tougher choice for Lara Jean on which boy she is going to choose.
I thought the movie cast the characters really well (except for Margot). It was a good rom-com. It fits the genre and was a pretty clean movie.
This genre isn’t generally my go-to but I plan to continue to both read and watch the series!
Back to the book…
I liked the writing style but at times it seemed simplistic for a junior in high school. I criticized The Infinite Pieces of Us for being too mature so I don’t know. I must be too out of touch with my high school mind to truly evaluate.
I did find myself oscillating between “That’s not what high school is like!” and “Is that what high school is like?!” And having anxiety about sending my daughters to high school. But that happens with pretty much any high school related show/movie/book I partake in these days. Youths! Am I right?
There were some ways Lara Jean was relatable to my high school self: scrapbooking, fear of driving,, hanging at home on the weekends, and layering the butter at the movies (I mean… who DOESN’T do that…?) and I never wrote love letters but I did save an embarrassing notebook full of MASH/MASHER games that probably shouldn’t see the light of day.
I liked the premise but it didn’t take the path I was expecting and I forget that in this genre there isn’t much plot movement. The letters were the catalyst but the main drive of the book is the day to day interactions between Lara Jean and Peter and Lara Jean and Josh, repeat.
Oddly, I wasn’t that bored reading it, but when I stopped to think about the progression of the storyline I realized not a lot really happened.
I can’t say I really understand the mind of a high schooler who makes decisions about relationships. But in this series, I liked it enough to set that aside and read the story for what it is. Plus, in reality, the brains of high schoolers have not developed enough biologically to be able to consider future ramifications and consequences of their choices very well yet so there’s that.
Other things I liked: the emphasis on family and the fact that Lara Jean, her sisters, and dad were all really close and enjoyed being together. The responsibility Lara Jean felt and took in taking care of Kitty. Their traditions. That when Josh was dating Margot they hung out with the whole family. I like when the S.O.’s make the younger siblings feel important.
And I loved how on my hard copy of the book the title really looks like it was written with permanent marker and not just printed that way.
I’ll leave you with a Lara Jean quote that pretty much sums up romance of all kinds and the point of this series:
“To belong to someone. It seems like that’s all I’ve ever wanted. To really be somebody’s, and to have them be mine.”
XOXO
Brittany
Book Blog: www.shelfreflection.com
Pinterest: @shelfreflectionblog