“A lot of men have a wishbone where they ought to have a backbone.” — Unknown
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." — Edmund Burke
“Be as careful of the books you read as of the company you keep, for your habits and character will be as much influenced by the former as by the latter.” — Paxton Hood
“True education is not giving in the answer, it’s in showing them how to find it.” — Kelly Crawford
“I will keep the ground that God has given me and perhaps in his grace, he will ignite me again. But ignite me or not, in his grace, in his power, I will hold the ground.” — John Knox
“Self-righteousness is being more aware of and irritated by the sins of others than you are conscious of and grieved by your own.” — Paul Tripp
“Question everything but Scripture.” — Geoff Botkin
“Good government generally begins in the family, and if the moral character of a people once degenerate, their political character must soon follow.” — Elias Boudinot
“We should never do what we cannot pray God to bless.” — James Smith
“Paul’s life was a prophetic book for Jews to read and see how to be saved, so our lives should be an easy to read book for the lost on how they can easily be saved.” — Ken Ham
“I have enough money to last me the rest of my life, unless I buy something.” — Jackie Mason
“The glory of great men should always be measured by the means they have used to acquire it.” — La Rochefoucauld
“If you don’t fear God, you’ll fear everything.” — Dan Horn
“TV. If kids are entertained by two letters, imagine the fun they’ll have with twenty-six. Open your child’s imagination. Open a book.” — Unknown
“I began my education at a very early age—in fact, right after I left college.” — Winston Churchill
“You don’t have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.” — C. S. Lewis
“Non-Christian investigators of nature are as successful as they are because they work with stolen capital.” — Cornelius Van Til
“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.” — Sir Richard Steele
“Luther once said, ‘The devil hates goose quills,’ and, doubtless, he has good reason, for ready writers, by the Holy Spirit’s blessing, have done his kingdom much damage.” — C. H. Spurgeon
“When she married you, she gave you her life to spend. Are you spending your life wisely?” — Dan Horn
“Music is a discipline, and a mistress of order and good manners, she makes the people milder and gentler, more moral and more reasonable.” — Martin Luther
“I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.” — Martin Luther
“Thanks, modest girls. Appreciated by a male whose time studying the ground is proportional to each degree of rising temperature.” — Unknown
"When a Christian shuns fellowship with other Christians, the devil smiles. When he stops studying the Bible, the devil laughs. When he stops praying, the devil shouts for joy." — Corrie ten Boom
“My dear friend, when grief presses you to the dust, worship there.” — C. H. Spurgeon
“Even if you are on the right track, but just sit there, you will still get run over.” — Will Rogers
“Heaven is eternity in the presence of God through a Mediator. Hell is eternity in the presence of God with no Mediator.” — Tony Reinke
“People fall in private, long before they fall in public. The tree falls with a great crash, but the secret decay which accounts for it, is often not discovered until it is down on the ground.” — J. C. Ryle
“People will not look forward to posterity who will not look backward to their ancestors.” — Edmund Burke
“Television is an invention that permits you to be entertained in your own living room by people you wouldn’t have in your house.” — David Frost
“Drag and Drop for Windows users: DRAG your peecee off your desk, and DROP it in the trash.” — some forum member’s tagline
“Dreams don’t work unless you do.” — John C. Maxwell
“I find television very educational. Every time someone turns it on, I go in the other room and read a book.” — Groucho Marx
“The cold water of persecution is often thrown on the church’s face to fetch her to herself when she is in a swoon of indolence or pride.” — C. H. Spurgeon
“I’m not lost.” — Frank Churchill
“Some people get an education without going to college; the rest get it after they get out.” — Mark Twain
“The very familiarity of blessings sometimes makes us insensible to their value."— J. C. Ryle
“Man does not need to know exhaustively in order to know truly and certainly.” — Cornelius Van Til
“What is the best safeguard against false doctrine? The Bible regularly read, regularly prayed over, regularly studied.” — J. C. Ryle
“A ship in the harbor is safe—but that is not what ships are built for.” — John Shedd
“One proud, surly, lordly word, one needless contention, one covetous action, may cut the throat of many a sermon. Take heed to yourselves, lest your example contradict your doctrine.” — Richard Baxter
“The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only a page.” — St. Augustine
“The measure of a great teacher isn’t what he or she knows; it’s what the students know.” — John C. Maxwell
“[N]ot one particle remains to man as a ground of boasting. The whole is of God.” — John Calvin (Institutes 2.3.6)
“People who have time on their hands will inevitably waste the time of people who have work to do.” — Thomas Sowell
“Every post is honorable in which a man can serve his country.” — George Washington
“The happiest people don’t have the best of everything, they simply make the best of everything they have.” — Unknown
“[T]he ministry of Satan is employed to instigate the reprobate, whenever the Lord, in the course of his providence, has any purpose to accomplish in them...” — John Calvin (Institutes 2.4.5)
— July 24th, 2012 —
Book Review: “A Cry From Egypt,” by Hope Auer
“‘Girls, get back!’ Ezra shouted.
His face was pale, but his eyes kindled with indignation as he stood in front of the girls protectively. Ezra dropped the pitchers in the sand and his hand flashed to a dagger, concealed under his tunic. Jarah’s eyes grew wide. He could be killed for carrying a dagger!
Jarah was a slave in Egypt. It was a dangerous place to be.Her work was exhausting and her family was torn between the gods of the Egyptians and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And her brother…would his Ada be given in marriage to an Egyptian in the palace? Would they ever be free?
Adventure, excitement, love, and faith come together when Jarah and her family find themselves at the culmination of four hundred years of history.” — from the back cover
I approached this book with a bit of mild skepticism. Regrettably, novice Christian writing has gotten a bad rap for being preachy and poorly written; and here was a young Christian authoress who was deeply concerned about the state of young peoples’ reading, and was determined to offer something else, an alternative, to the fluff and trash that is out there. Though such a motivation is admirable, to be sure, I was still skeptical.
But I was in for a pleasant surprise.
Hope Auer has done a great job, in my opinion, of combining biblical historical events as recorded in the book of Exodus with the story of a fictional family living under the tyrannical Pharaoh’s rule. Not only was her writing cohesive, but it was engaging: even though this book was written for a younger audience of boys and girls, it held my attention—as a nineteen-year-old! While Hope communicated a number of important messages very well, nowhere did her writing seem “preachy.” (One of the subplots included a “romance,” but Hope handled it in a wonderfully biblical fashion.)
A book like this is a breath of fresh air. Hope has done a great job, and I can say with complete honesty that I can’t wait to read book two.
Highly recommended.
INDECENCY: None.
LANGUAGE: None.
AGE RANGE: Any age, but it’s written for young boys and girls.
— April 2nd, 2012 —
Book Review: “Rise to Rebellion,” by Jeff Shaara
“In 1770, the fuse of revolution is lit by a fateful command—“Fire!”—as England’s peacekeeping mission ignites into the Boston Massacre. The senseless killing of civilians leads to a tumultuous trial in which lawyer John Adams must defend the very enemy who has assaulted and abused the laws he holds sacred.
The taut courtroom drama soon broadens into a stunning epic of war as King George III leads a reckless and corrupt government in London toward the escalating abuse of his colonies. Outraged by the increasing loss of their liberties, an extraordinary gathering of America’s most inspiring characters confronts the British presence with the ideals that will change history….
More than a powerful portrait of the people and purpose of the Revolution, Rise to Rebellion is a vivid account of history’s most pivotal events. The Boston Tea Party, the battles of Concord and Bunker Hill—all are re-created with the kind of breathtaking detail only a master like Jeff Shaara can muster. His most impressive achievement, Rise to Rebellion reveals with new immediacy how philosophers became fighters, ideas their ammunition, and how a scattered group of colonies became the United States of America.” — from the inside flaps
Jeff Shaara writes historical fiction, and he’s good at it, too. Not only that, but his books are actually appropriate to read—and what’s more, he has an honest appreciation of history, and dislikes it when the revisionists try to throw mud on the truly great men of the past. For those reasons, he is, in my opinion, one of the best historical fiction writers alive today.
His main characters are real people: John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Gage. As such, he realizes he has an enormous duty to be very careful with the words he puts in their mouths and the way he portrays them, and he accordingly spends a tremendous amount of time researching each character. I’m thankful for that. Mr. Shaara is a breath of fresh air in a world where the historical must be made the sensational, the salacious, the sacrilegious. Mr. Shaara has respect for the great characters in our history; and for that, I respect him.
As it’s the first book of two on the War for Independence, I prefer to think of Rise to Rebellion as an Act 1 rather than as a stand-alone book; for while very little major, explosive action happens here, the stage is set, the characters are introduced, and the conflict emerges. A good deal of the book is taken up in showing the rumblings of war, culminating in the historic events on July 2, 1776.
While we certainly see action in battle, discussion plays a key role in the book—just as discussion was key in the development of the conflict in real life. Nevertheless, Mr. Shaara has a peculiar ability, I think, to make such conversation interesting. While the great discussions of the Continental Congress develop the conflict, the small talk between great men develop their characters. I believe he does an excellent job of humanizing the giants of history.
Mr. Shaara writes for adults; and because of this, his books are on a bit more of a mature level, written for more mature readers, than G.A. Henty’s or Douglas Bond’s are. Regardless, even though he doesn’t write for young people, per se, this is a great book that I can comfortably recommend to that audience.
INDECENCY: Almost none. There are a couple of scenes in which Franklin is unclothed in his room with the window open, as this is a peculiar aspect of his philosophy of health; fortunately, his nudity is not the emphasis of either scene—it just happens to be the case, and is handled tactfully. (Again, I believe it’s the author’s attempts to be honest with the men of history—warts and all—that is responsible for it being in the book.)
LANGUAGE: In my opinion, it’s comparatively mild. Thankfully, Mr. Shaara uses discretion with the language, and it often depends on how profane any given character was in real life. That said, the Lord’s name is taken in vain from time to time; probably more common, however, are d*mn, hell, and, to a lesser degree, bl**dy. On a rare occasion some other word will show up; but overall, for having been written in modern times, the book is pretty good about language. NOTE: Washington takes the Lord’s name in vain twice (maybe three times) and uses the d-word. I highly doubt he would have done so in real life.
AGE RANGE: It always depends on the parent’s evaluation of the child’s maturity. I would say Mr. Shaara is a step above G. A. Henty; and with that in mind, I’d probably let my thirteen- or fourteen-year-old read it.
© 2012 Kyle Shepherd | All Rights Reserved | All images property of their respective owners
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