Savvy Thinker » Non-fiction http://savvythinker.com thinking about life, playing with makeup Tue, 22 May 2012 15:37:11 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 A Secret Gift by Ted Gup http://savvythinker.com/a-secret-gift-by-ted-gup/ http://savvythinker.com/a-secret-gift-by-ted-gup/#comments Fri, 11 May 2012 11:19:38 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/?p=7485
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    I recently read an author interview with Ted Gup about his book A Secret Gift in The Christian Science Monitor (December 20, 2010.) It sparked my interest, so I ordered the book from the library.

    This is not a review, but a heads up on this non-fiction book, because I haven't finished reading it yet, but I will say that what I've read is 5* out of 5*.

    The story
    In December, 1933, B. Virdot (the pseudonym for Gup's grandfather, Sam Stone) placed an ad in the Canton, Ohio, local paper, offering to sent $10 to up to 75 families who wrote to him telling him of their needs. He got a very large response, so he actually sent $5 to 150 families. $5 in those days is roughly the equivalent of $100 in today's money. He never told anyone about what he had done or that he was B. Virdot. However, it was common knowledge to his wife and children, including Gup's mother.

    Stone knew the power of a philanthropic gesture. Even if he couldn't alleviate all suffering, he could do his part. We know how much $100 would mean to us today, even if our straits are not so dire, so with a little knowledge of what those times were really like, we can catch a glimpse of how much it meant then.

    How did the story come to light?
    When Gup's mother was downsizing, she took him up to the attic and gave him a small suitcase which he didn't immediately go through. And when he did look at it more closely, he still didn't immediately catch the significance.

    The name B. Virdot rang a bell for him, though, and as he pondered how he knew this name, he remembered that his grandfather had named a boat with it.

    Now the book
    Gup makes the depression come alive, with real folks' difficulties, whether they were at one time wealthy then lost it all or were from more modest circumstances and then had even less. With a historian's eye, he reads the letters to his grandfather requesting money and the many letters of thanks his grandfather received afterwards. Gup does his best to track down the various writers' families to see how the gesture of receiving $5 at a time of extremity factored into future events with the writers and their family line.

    He unearths secrets within the townsfolk, as well as in his family.

    I find it utterly fascinating, easy to read, even though the subject is difficult.

    In my own family the depression was not kind to one side of the family. From what I remember of what I was told: While they had once had a home, they lost it during those years and the father (my grandfather) who had been a good provider spent his days playing cards and drinking. His wife, my grandmother, I was told, went door to door selling dresses. I don't know where she got them. Maybe they were her own. Or maybe she sewed them. Or maybe she was selling dresses she got from other people. Those are parts of the story lost to me, as my parent who would remember has died. But it could not have been an easy life.

    Gup's book certainly puts those times and years into perspective.

    Have you read it?
    It is also available for Kindle.

    Buy the physical book here. A Secret Gift: How One Man's Kindness--and a Trove of Letters--Revealed the Hidden History of the Great Depression

    Buy the Kindle book here. A Secret Gift: How One Man's Kindness--and a Trove of Letters--Revealed the Hidden History of the Great Depression

    Sam Stone is a man worth remembering. May his name be for a blessing.

    Karin
    www.savvythinker.com



    Originally posted 2011-01-27 14:34:03.

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    ]]>     http://savvythinker.com/a-secret-gift-by-ted-gup/feed/ 0     Review Mudhouse Sabbath by Lauren F Winner http://savvythinker.com/review-mudhouse-sabbath-by-lauren-f-winner/ http://savvythinker.com/review-mudhouse-sabbath-by-lauren-f-winner/#comments Thu, 03 May 2012 14:01:07 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/?p=8416

    The subtitle of the book is: an invitation to a life of spiritual discipline.

    I got this book from the library, because I read a review of another of her books, so I found her as an author. I generally enjoy reading other people's faith stories. Winner's is interesting because she went from Judaism to Orthodox Judaism to Christianity, but she still feels an affinity for much of what is Judaism.

    This book is a short read and fast, that incorporates some ideas about how an understanding of the spiritual practices and richness of Judaism and its traditions are valuable to the practices, prayers, and beliefs of a Christian.

    Some of the things she discusses are attentive eating, supporting a marriage, marking the stages of grieving, how one looks at one's body, aging, and more. She missed some of the rhythms of Jewish life that follow the year, much like Christian liturgy does, and wanted to incorporate it into her faith life -- and share it with us. She is now an ordained in the Episcopalian church.

    I especially liked her explanation of Sabbath.

    Have you read any of her books?     She is quite a prolific writer.
    Do you have a favorite?

    I rate this book 3.5 star out of 5.

    Parts of it were meaty for me; others parts were not. Theologically we are not necessarily at the same place all of the time. I get a bit tired of her writing style. That hasn't stopped me from looking at one article of hers referenced and available online or from reading two other of her books these past couple of weeks, reviews to follow.

    It is also available for Kindle:

    Karin
    www.savvythinker.com



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    ]]>     http://savvythinker.com/review-mudhouse-sabbath-by-lauren-f-winner/feed/ 0     Review girl meets GOD a memoir by Lauren F. Winner http://savvythinker.com/review-girl-meets-god-a-memoir-by-lauren-f-winner/ http://savvythinker.com/review-girl-meets-god-a-memoir-by-lauren-f-winner/#comments Wed, 02 May 2012 17:55:00 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/?p=8430
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    girl meets GOD is the third book I've read by Lauren F. Winner, though it is the first that she wrote. I got it from the library.

    She organizes the book mostly around the Christian calendar -- Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Eastertide, Pentecost, Advent -- and ties it to the Jewish calendar when it applies. The first chapter is Sukkot.

    Winner is a seeker after God. She collects an impressive library of Jewish works by the time she is in her teens, then gives them away when she becomes a Christian, then re-buys many of them to re-build her library. She is earnest. It is obvious that she wants to be her best at what she believes, from her converting to Orthodox Judaism (her father was a Reform Jew)(her mother a lapsed Baptist) to her driving a couple of hours away for an Episcopal priest to hear her confessions, even though she has confessed them to God and made an effort to leave them behind.

    She is not a virgin, and she writes frankly of trying to reconcile that to church teachings (and her confessions.) Additionally, she has written an online article about sexuality (which I read) and a book (which I have no interest in reading.) Her online article was not well received by some Christians. She feels it is unlikely that people will remain celibate into their 30's, if they postpone marrying until that time.

    Because I read all three books over a relatively short time, with a lot of interruptions by life, the books have run on together in my thoughts. The one easiest to read was Mudhouse Sabbath (see my review here.) That one ties together the two elements of her religious life, Judaism and Christianity. It shows how having a deep understanding of Judaism permeates and enriches her Christian faith. (It did many of the early converts to Christianity also, though she doesn't mention this.)

    What drew her to Christianity?
    The long and short of it: she read extensively, to the point that her Jewish friends commented on it, that it didn't make sense to them. She had a dream. She fell in love with Jesus. I think she was drawn to the ideas of atonement, forgiveness and heaven.

    Also, the farther she drifted from Judaism, none of her Jewish friends pulled her back or encouraged her in her faith walk of Judaism.

    What happens when she converts to Christianity?
    She loses friendships in the Orthodox Jewish community. It deeply disturbs her father. Later, both her father and her mother (who are divorced) are drawn more into their own faith traditions. Her father becomes active in the synagogue, and her mother becomes active in the Episcopalian church.

    In some ways she wrote this book as an apology to her Jewish friends, and with the hope that Christians might learn something about Judaism.

    My take:
    I give it 2 stars out of 4.

    I got tired of this book, perhaps because I know what follows in her later books. It got tedious. She has been called self-indulgent. In some ways, following along with her is an emotional roller-coaster. She deals with her jealousy of a friend's marriage and pregnancy -- and more.

    As I said, she is earnest, but it's as if, to me, she is trying so hard, because she isn't exactly sure what would happen if she didn't. There comes a point at which one rests in one's faith, while not being complacent. It is who one is, not so much the outward symbols of what one does, though how one acts is definitely important.

    Have you read it?
    What did you think?

    You can find my reviews of Still: notes on a mid-faith crisis here.

    It is available for Kindle:

    Karin
    www.savvythinker.com

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    ]]>     http://savvythinker.com/review-girl-meets-god-a-memoir-by-lauren-f-winner/feed/ 0     Review STILL: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis by Lauren F Winner http://savvythinker.com/review-still-notes-on-a-mid-faith-crisis-by-lauren-f-winner/ http://savvythinker.com/review-still-notes-on-a-mid-faith-crisis-by-lauren-f-winner/#comments Wed, 02 May 2012 15:47:52 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/?p=8421
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    This is the book that started me reading books by Lauren F. Winner, when I read a review of the book. It sounded interesting.

    It was, and it wasn't, at least for me. Dark nights of the soul are not uncommon to those in or out of religion. It's likely proverbial that each person's dark night is dark to them, and it's not a contest to see whose is darker or what problems or grief precipitate the crisis. And there really is no satisfactory answer, in the throes of a crisis, why one is in it.

    In Mudhouse Sabbath (see my review here) Winner is looking forward to her marriage and complimentary of her husband-to-be. This book chronicles her crisis of faith when she is miserably unhappy in her marriage and decides after much prayer and unhappiness to divorce him after six years.

    She says very little about their marriage, but you can read between the lines. I had a couple of pretty good ideas.

    She does not write anything negative about her husband, but she wends her way through her own crisis. It doesn't help her, some of the things that are said to her (for example, that it is a sin for her to divorce.) Her ex-husband is well thought of and seems not to show any signs of the crisis, at least in this book.

    Her mother dies shortly before her marriage, after a long struggle with illness, and that doesn't help the beginning of her marriage.

    Her faith path
    In her short life, she has gone through moderate interest in Judaism (her father was Jewish, her mother was not), to Orthodox Judaism, to Christianity, falling in love with Jesus. Even her friends wonder if she will move past Christianity. So far, she has not. She is ordained in the Episcopal church, since this book came out. She also teaches at Duke Divinity School in North Carolina.

    It is both interesting and profound, as well as sad, that in one of her books, she chronicles one of the reasons why she left Judaism -- for one thing, no one went after her to shepherd her back, to ask her why she had stopped going to shul, or where she was physically or mentally. In this book she feels that when she couldn't pray for herself or even go to church, she felt she had friends who were praying for her.

    Additionally she says that while she converted to Orthodox Judaism (because one is considered a Jew if one's mother is, regardless of whether one's father is) in many ways it did not count -- and her then-boyfriend's mother did not accept her -- and neither fully did he, because he hoped to have large family (both sides) gatherings at the various important days of Judaism when he married. Ironically, he later seriously dates a girl who is not Jewish at all, so much for all that. We all wonder what his mother would think then.

    These are salient points to think about for the expression of our own faith traditions -- do we pay attention if someone disappears? do we fully accept them if they weren't born into it? do we continue to show love? what if our children are dating or marry someone not of our faith?

    What do we say to someone deep in a crisis -- and do we even care what they are going through? (Perhaps our own life is in tatters.) Caring will cover over many a mis-statement, but saying the wrong thing without love is a sure turn-off.

    In an interview with Kim Shippey, after he read the book, she told him

    that the spiritual life can be summarized as a process of meeting God again and again. “I will say that there was a season of alienation between God and me—a standoff, perhaps. Still chronicles the tail end of the standoff and the beginning of a reacquaintance. . . . I encounter God in sermon-writing. In my fear. Sometimes in silence. I know God to be present in my conversations with friends, in my classroom. In my failures. In my merrymaking and in my sorrow.” Christian Science Sentinel p 20 4-9-2012

    As she says in this book:

    “I am not a saint. I am, however, beginning to learn that I am a small character in a story that is always fundamentally about God.”


    Have you read it?     What did you think?
    Do you have a favorite of her books or articles?

    My take
    I give this book 2 stars out of 5, only because faith stories and faith crisis are an interest of mine, and having gone through some deep waters myself, I read other people's stories to see how they come out the other side. But this book seems to me to wallow more than a bit and also to whine. It doesn't help that those she goes to for spiritual comfort and advice do not give it. (Similar to many stories, actually.)

    My advice is to read the chapter at the end of the book with questions and answers, then skim through the rest of the book. That chapter gives an overview of what she learned -- the book is almost a moment by moment diary.

    It is also available for Kindle:

    You can read my review of Girl Meets God here.

    Karin
    www.savvythinker.com

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    ]]>     http://savvythinker.com/review-still-notes-on-a-mid-faith-crisis-by-lauren-f-winner/feed/ 0     Review The Geography of Bliss by Eric Weiner http://savvythinker.com/review-the-geography-of-bliss-by-eric-weiner/ http://savvythinker.com/review-the-geography-of-bliss-by-eric-weiner/#comments Tue, 01 May 2012 01:42:07 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/?p=8394
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    I wanted to read this book after I read Man Seeks God, even though Weiner wrote it first. Again, I got it from the library.

    Books about happiness have interested me, it seems like forever. This one is better than most and definitely more fun. It is not a self-help book. It is more like a travelogue.

    I laughed my way through it. And some of it is laugh out loud, that just begs to be read to the person in the room with you. In fact, I did. Weiner's sense of humor, his sense of irony, must be very much like mine.

    Weiner has, like his name as he points out (whiner) a low-grade depression most of the time. So he is definitely interested in seeking happiness. He learns that certain places have a higher happiness rating, so he goes to those places in search of the elusive happiness, to see if what he has heard is correct. Toss in assorted odd characters, plus ones who show him the ropes. Toss in his penchant for including interesting details, tidbits, sound bites of miscellaneous fitting quotes or just plain trivia that applies to where he is. I can't begin to remember all of it.

    His humor is never malicious. Sometimes it is dark, but not always, and he finds he holds love for some of the people he meets along the way that he would not have thought. There is a touching incident in Moldova.

    He begins in the Netherlands, then goes to Switzerland, Bhutan, Qatar, Iceland, Moldova (the lowest happiness rating on earth), Thailand, Great Britain, India and America. In many ways, he finds that like Dorothy, home holds the heart.

    The short of it is that he finds that happiness is relational. It depends on friends, family -- and more. You could read the epilogue first and get a feeling for all he learns. (I didn't and wasn't even tempted -- unlike my usual method of reading.) Then you might not read the book, but you would miss a very good read, indeed.

    Have you read it?
    I rate it 5 star out of 5 star.

    The only thing I disliked was how much alcohol was imbibed along the way.

    It is available for Kindle:

    Karin
    www.savvythinker.com

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    I've been on a roll lately, reading, and finding books to read at the library that lead me to other books, and I've not been good about keeping up with mentioning them on my blog, so I will make a beginning.

    I thoroughly enjoyed this book -- a sort of male version of Eat, Pray, Love, minus the love affair. I liked it so well, I asked the library to get me his first book, The Geography of Bliss (review to follow.) And I took quite a few notes so I would remember what were to me some of the more salient points.

    Since I was reading Girl Meets God by Lauren Winner at the same time, it made me wonder if this title shares some similarities. If I hadn't been reading them at the same time, I doubt I would have seen it.

    Weiner's voice is funny, ironic, self-depreciating -- and I laughed my way through a lot of it. He is a whole lot easier to read than Winner.

    He investigates: Sufism, Buddhism, the Franciscans, Raelism (in Las Vegas), Taoism, Wicca, Shamanism, and Kabahlah.

    The book starts out with a personal experience that begins when he thinks he is dying, but it is only a severe attack of gas. The nurse asks him: what is God to you? In the course of the book, he tells us that he suffers from hypochondria; he loves books, he loves to underline in his books; he suffers always from low-grade depression; and he likes to watch life and religion from a safe distance, not really as a participant. His back story is that he was raised in Judaism, but he isn't involved in it. He is more of a secular Jew. He is married with a wife and daughter, adopted from Kazakhstan. He credits his wife a lot.

    If you ever wanted an interesting overview of the particular religions he investigates, easy to read, with lot of interesting sidelines and people, this book is for you. As I said, I liked it a lot.

    I give it 4 stars out of 5.

    Have you read it, or anything else by Weiner?

    It is also available for Kindle:

    Karin
    www.savvythinker.com



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    ]]>     http://savvythinker.com/review-man-seeks-god-by-eric-weiner/feed/ 0     Getting through the day if you are dealing with hard times http://savvythinker.com/getting-through-the-day-if-you-are-dealing-with-hard-times/ http://savvythinker.com/getting-through-the-day-if-you-are-dealing-with-hard-times/#comments Sat, 10 Dec 2011 21:56:08 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/?p=7540
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    Someone once said that grief is self-centered.

    Having been there, done that, I have to disagree. For me, if it was self-centered, it wasn't self-imposed. I don't ever want to grieve again as deeply as I did ever ever, if I have a choice.

    How do you get through? in my own words in no particular order (and you may have other ways):
    - don't listen to ones who say really strange things to you in the name of trying to help
    - be good to yourself every day
    - hang onto the lifeline of spirituality and God
    - make choices for happiness -- choose small things that make you happy
    - look for any good that you can find
    - recognize the smallest happiness/good and multiply it, if you can
    - do this day by day, without fail, and somehow you get down the road a piece...
    - don't fault yourself for grieving (you have two problems if you lay guilt on yourself)
    - honor your feelings, they are valuable, even to God
    - don't listen to others who tell you that their way is better/you are at fault
    - use your life experiences to help others, if possible
    - do something to take your mind off yourself -- visit with a friend, read a book, get out into nature, volunteer your services...

    How are you getting through or how did you make your way through?
    or how have you seen others make it through?
    To some extent, each has to find and do what it takes to get through. Know you are not alone. And somehow, we do get through, as hard or as impossible as it seems.

    Here's a book that sounds interesting:

    In the book The Hidden Gifts of Helping: How the Power of Giving, Compassion, and Hope Can Get Us Through Hard Times Stephen G. Post tells how he got through a relocation crisis and how others can get through hardships or disappointments.

    Be bold if life throws you a curve ball or you are forced to make changes in your life.

    Throw yourself wholeheartedly into the journey...with a full heart...ready to give of yourself with compassion and forgiveness, never seeking the hidden gifts but finding them just the same. Stephen G. Post

    Buy: The Hidden Gifts of Helping: How the Power of Giving, Compassion, and Hope Can Get Us Through Hard Times

    Buy: (Kindle Edition) The Hidden Gifts of Helping: How the Power of Giving, Compassion, and Hope Can Get Us Through Hard Times

    Karin
    www.savvythinker.com



    Originally posted 2011-02-08 07:14:18.

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    ]]>     http://savvythinker.com/getting-through-the-day-if-you-are-dealing-with-hard-times/feed/ 0     Review: Read My Pins by Madeleine Albright http://savvythinker.com/review-read-my-pins-by-madeleine-albright/ http://savvythinker.com/review-read-my-pins-by-madeleine-albright/#comments Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:28:53 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/?p=6976
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    I'm not sure how I missed this book when it first came out, but if you are fascinated by jewelry and like a good read, I highly recommend this book. I couldn't put it down, once I started it.

    And while it is available for Kindle, only buy it in hard cover. There must be several hundred full color photos, and you would miss a lot by seeing it only in black and white.

    I must have been sleeping during the entire time Albright was Secretary of State, because I never knew anything about her wearing pins to send a message or to relay how she was feeling about sensitive talks. During the time she served in this position, once she began wearing pins there was even a website dedicated to watching what pin she wore and what it might possibly mean. I would have liked to have followed that, if I had known about it!

    She fills the book with interesting vignettes of her life. I never knew she was born in Czechoslovakia or that her father was a diplomat or that she went to Wellsley and married into the Guggenheim family. It must have been a great advantage to speak and understand more than English in her political life.

    The pictures in the book take your breath away! Many of the pins are gemstones and expensive, but there are many that are antique costume pins. She speaks about buying, at full price, some of the pins that were gifted to her in diplomatic negotiations.

    When the Russians bugged her office, she wore a HUGE gemstone cockroach as a pin. It is beautiful, and tremendously savvy, but nothing I could ever carry off.

    She began to wear pins when Saddam Hussein called her a snake. She happened to have a gorgeous gold snake pin and she wore it in the meeting she had with him.

    She is a smart, aware woman, and to be able to send a message that is both pointed and subtle is quite a forte.

    Have you read this book?
    I give this 5 out of 5 stars. While I borrowed it from the library, I would like it to be in my library. I expect I will be buying it.

    Karin
    www.savvythinker.com

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    Originally posted 2010-06-25 09:15:04.

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    ]]>     http://savvythinker.com/review-read-my-pins-by-madeleine-albright/feed/ 0     The Third/or Fourth Man Factor http://savvythinker.com/the-thirdor-fourth-man-factor/ http://savvythinker.com/the-thirdor-fourth-man-factor/#comments Mon, 17 Oct 2011 02:20:29 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/?p=5178
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    The Third Man Factor is an interesting concept. Evidently it should be The Fourth Man Factor, but

    It was [Sir Ernest] Shackleton’s experience that inspired the term “Third Man factor” (although for his group it was actually a “fourth man” — T.S. Eliot misremembered the number when he wrote his poem The Waste Land, which popularized the idea). Geiger

    The new book out by John Geiger sounds like a fascinating read.

    Plus you can get this book for your Kindle.

    The Third Man Factor is an extraordinary account of how people at the very edge of death experience the sense of an unseen presence beside them who encourages them to make one final effort to survive. This incorporeal being offered them a feeling of hope, protection, and guidance, and left the person convinced he or she was not alone. There is a name for this phenomenon: It's called the Third Man Factor.

    If only a handful of people had ever encountered the Third Man, it might be dismissed as an unusual delusion shared by a few overstressed minds. But over the years, the experience has occurred again and again, to 9/11 survivors, mountaineers, divers, polar explorers, prisoners of war, sailors, shipwreck survivors, aviators, and astronauts. All have escaped traumatic events only to tell strikingly similar stories of having sensed the close presence of a helper or guardian. The force has been explained as everything from hallucination to divine intervention. Recent neurological research suggests something else. Amazon

    You can read a long excerpt from his book here. One of the stories he relates is of Ron DiFrancesco who was the last person to make it out of the South Tower alive. He felt such a presence. It came to him as a voice, telling him what to do, encouraging him to survive, changing the direction in which he headed.

    One of the interesting things to me was to learn this phenomena has existed in many places. I suppose I would prefer to think of the man as an angel or of Christ. It reminds me of the Biblical story of the three men thrown in the fiery furnace, but witnesses saw a fourth man walking.

    He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. Dan 3:25

    Do you find this interesting?
    Do you find it as interesting as I do to have a kind of substantiation of the Bible story by modern day experiences? I take things on faith, but it is good to have proofs of a sort anyway, not that all the proofs in the world would change someone's mind that is already made up.

    I can't say I've ever felt a presence per se, but I have had words come to me as thoughts. I have never been in any extreme survival situation.

    Karin
    www.savvythinker.com

    Originally posted 2009-10-19 21:31:14.

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    ]]>     http://savvythinker.com/the-thirdor-fourth-man-factor/feed/ 2     Forced to be family http://savvythinker.com/forced-to-be-family/ http://savvythinker.com/forced-to-be-family/#comments Sun, 16 Oct 2011 01:58:39 +0000 Karin http://savvythinker.com/2008/05/19/forced-to-be-family/
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    I appreciated the title and subtitle of this book for its cleverness: Forced to Be Family: A Guide for Living with Sinister Sisters, Drama Mamas, and Infuriating In-Laws. The author has also written a number of other books.

    I enjoyed looking through this book, reading whatever caught my eye. It has some good strategies, most of which are common sense, and a lot of stories from real life.

    If you've lived any of these scenarios, you know there isn't a one size fits all for the subject at hand. You may have already found a path that works for you, but if you would like other insights, this book might be an interesting place to start.

    Karin

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    Originally posted 2008-05-19 08:36:55.

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