Genevieve > Recent Status Updates

I have to pause to comment again on how goofy this is. I had no idea that Don Quixote wasn’t “serious” literature. I was under the impression that it was stuffy and simply a chronicle of a crazy man. I just read a scene where the narrator paused to tell us about writing the book. Gives me a lot of freedom to write my own book someday. :-)

Don Quixote is quite the goofball and it’s a bit disconcerting for me to read it because I have literally gone cuckoo like this and had to be hospitalized. Up for a week straight, no sleep, will do that to you. It is funny though. I’ll keep going. His family and friends are trying to burn all his books right now: the source of the madness.

Socrates: question everything.
Plato: we only know things by pondering the true Form, not the thing itself.
Aristotle: explore the things. Seek eudaimonia: flourishing found in cultivating character, so we know how to behave well in every situation.
That’s my summation anyway…

This is so much fun. I love how quirky the main character is. He’s so simple. Just a regular guy confronting death and chatting with the devil every day.
But as he’s reflecting and choosing what item to trade next in order to gain another day of life, he’s uncovering wisdom. I already want to reread it.

This book is hitting me emotionally. There are too many tough things going on in my life and there is so much in the world. Pain, suffering, horrible injustice. How do we help? Can we?
I'm stressing out about what is going to happen next!! (In our lives and in this book!)

I took a 2 month break from reading. Too worried about my sister having mini strokes. 5!
When I stopped reading, I could tell something awful was about to happen. It did.
As soon as a character shows up with a gun…oh dear. Then the doc making a speech featuring Karl Marx. Goodness. Nothing good can come of that.

I love every character and have this deep sense of foreboding. Something so terrible is going to happen. I’ve peeked at a few reviews and then didn’t finish reading them because I’m right. I’m so scared!!!

This is so much fun. Jesus’s life told through the people closest to him. Part 1 is told from Mary’s perspective. The author must have had such joy imagining Mary’s thoughts as he takes us through biblical events. Excited to finish this.

Do you ever learn something new and fly off into a rage? That’s where I am. I just learned that my obsession with flip flops and high heels is what has me in knee, hip, and back pain right now. It’s not just because I’m old! Hahahaha!
I’m livid. My knee pain started in high school after I started working at the outdoor pool and was in flip flops all summer long. Oops.

Blowing my mind. I started reading this during a time when I needed to trust God. It’s WAY too heavy for that. Now that my life is more secure, I am finding it eye opening.

Really inspiring me to drastically alter my day-to-day life with our girls. Also, totally jealous of the relationship this couple has built together.

I cannot read this fast enough. Totally obsessed. I dreamt about exploring a new planet the first night after I started reading. Book 2 and it’s just as good as the first.

I know, why would I be reading this book about a woman dying and leaving behind her 5 year old? I don’t know, but I am enjoying it so far.

I can definitely tell that I’ve found a book used in a seminary classroom. My brain hurts. Lots of well researched information. There’s a dedicated bibliography at the end of each chapter to cite what was used and suggestions for further reading.

Fascinating reading as I bounce between it, White Fragility, and How to be an Antiracist.
It’s not super heavy on the Christianity front. A few Bible verses scattered here, a short prayer at the end of each chapter.
It’s more pointing out the flaws in thinking of what the author likes to refer to as “radical secularists” or “humanists”.

I promised myself no more WWII books! But I am somewhat enjoying this.
It’s switched from following a boy in Nazi Germany to orphaned brothers in America. The only connection between them: a special harmonica.
I want to stop reading, but I have to see how on earth the author connects this to the prologue- which was a different boy. I’m intrigued.

Ah! That’s how you write a book about a guy stranded on Mars. You make it like Apollo 13- NASA working on the ground to bring him home. Duh. Have to read the rest of the back cover. :-)
Also, if I skim the detailed MacGyver moments, I can stomach this.

I don’t know how much more of this I can take.
“A MacGyver-trapped-on-Mars tale” ~ so says the back cover. And I just am not into reading about creating water out of fuel cells and calculating the calories needed to survive for 4 years. Tedious.
How is this book going to get anywhere with one guy alone on Mars? That’s the only reason I’m still reading…

“…admiring a working-model of the solar system…
“…ingenious…Who made it?”…
“Nobody made it. It just happened-it made itself.”
…realized he was being taught a lesson and became annoyed…
“You can’t believe that this little model made itself, and yet you believe that the real sun and moon and earth…and everything else in the vast universe just came into existence without any Maker!””

Luke 16:19-31
“Abraham is saying: if people want to know how to be saved, they can read the Law and the Prophets, and they’ll repent. But if they don’t, then not even a resurrection will persuade them. The Scriptures are enough.
In our world, there are countless people who agree with the rich man on this one… miracles done in front of other people, or in other generations, don’t count.”

“When you get into conversations about the Bible, you find that the biggest challenges for most people are not over issues where the Bible is unclear, but over issues where the Bible is very clear, and people don’t like it. Judgment. Miracles. Sex. Things like that.”

“You’ve heard this, but I’m saying you should do that. If you hear these words of mine and do them, you’re like a smart guy who built his house on rock - but if you don’t, then good luck with your sandcastle when the tsunami comes.”
Haha! Great paraphrase of Jesus’ words.

Ug. Election. The thing that just bugs me most. I need to research a bit to find out if C.S. Lewis tackles this subject. Maybe I missed it in Mere Christianity…? That’s where I found the best explanation for the trinity. Finally could settle into the mystery of that. Need to settle with election now. Found some good videos, but every time it comes up…I bristle.

“That this crucified Jew, Jesus Christ, could truly be a divine being sent on earth, God’s Son, the Lord of all and the coming judge of the world, must inevitably have been thought by any educated man to be utter ‘madness’ and presumptuous.”

“All this leads to the final conclusion…When Paul spoke in his mission preaching about the ‘crucified Christ’, every hearer in the Greek-speaking East between Jerusalem and Illyria knew that this ‘Christ’…had suffered a particularly cruel and shameful death, which as a rule was reserved for hardened criminals, rebellious slaves and rebels against the Roman state.”