Victors forget, Vanquish remember.

I recently caught an episode of Paul Merton in Europe where he visited around in Ireland.  One stop was in Duncannon where the locals conduct a reenactment of a battle between the British and Nazi forces.  As I listened to Merton's narration, I realized he had just perhaps unintentionally presented a great truth about war:  Victors forget, the Vanquished remember.  As he filmed the reenactment, he remarked that the British uniform caused greater controversy than the Nazi uniform; in fact, he stated he felt safer riding around with Nazis actors than those in British uniforms.

How telling!  The military reenactment held at Duncannon Fort in Wexford County is in southern Ireland.  Outside of immigrants from the Emerald Isle and a few history buffs, few Americans are aware of the view that a cultural genocide against the Irish was waged by the British.  Not withstanding a recent resurgence, Gaelic unfortunately has seemed to go the way of Latin as a spoken language since the English-only requirement imposed on the Irish school system.  This is all the stuff of history books and yet, as Paul Merton discovered, the resentment towards the British remains in segments of the Irish population in the 21st Century.

Over the years, various "Yankee" friends have often remarked with scorn how we Southerners view the Civil War.  "Get over it, already!" is the frequent refrain.  I'm not talking about the political right or wrong of the war - that's for another discussion.  I am talking about the significant cultural impact which occurred in the South from the War of Northern Aggression and the resentment towards northerners that remains (especially when your IQ is accounted to be 30 points lower as soon as your accent is heard!).

This idea of losing sides remembering long after victors have forgotten is something we as Americans need to always remember as our armed forces are scattered around the world - especially in the Middle East arena.

We are aligned with victors.  We are fighting their vanquished.

We have forgotten.  They have not.

Liturgy in Life

Not having grown up with it, I was always wary of liturgical churches.  Men in robes, responsive readings and written prayers just seemed too “planned” to be spiritual.  The Lord has a wonderful sense of humor – I married a man who would become the pastor of a liturgical church and soon I would develop a love of liturgy.

In actuality, all churches, in fact, have a liturgy of sorts, a schedule or order for their worship services.  As my husband/pastor has taught his congregation, Scripture gives us a glimpse of a heavenly worship service in the book of Revelation and it is an orderly, liturgical celebration.  All the participants know their parts and respond without prompting.   C. S. Lewis describes this well: “Every service is a structure of acts and words through which we receive a sacrament, or repent, or supplicate, or adore.  And it enables us to do these things– if you like, it ‘works’ best– when, through long familiarity, we don’t have to think about it.  As long as you notice, and have to count, the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance.  A good shoe is a shoe you don’t notice. Good reading becomes possible when you need not consciously think about eyes, or print, or spelling.  The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God… But every novelty prevents this.  It fixes our attention on the service itself; and thinking about worship is a different thing from worshipping” (Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer, 4-5).

Whether in sacred or secular endeavors, as human beings, we crave liturgy.  We desire ceremony.  We want feasts.  My hubby made this point as we watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics.  There were the athletes dressed in their finery, pageantry abounding around them with banners flying and stirring music serving as a soundtrack.  The official opening announcement and the Olympic oath were dictated by prescribed phrases.  The gold, silver and bronze medals were distributed at an orchestrated awards ceremony with a prescribed liturgy of events.

We see this ceremony, or liturgy, at all important stages in our lives.  Graduation has a ceremony.  The students wear robes, the speeches are carefully written, and the music has grandeur to it with one traditional tune even called Pomp & Circumstances. Weddings are an obvious example of liturgy in our lives with its gorgeous gowns, stately tuxes, and beautifully crafted flowers and decorations.  The ceremony has prescribed elements in it with prayers and pronouncements.   A ceremonial aspect is present again at the end of our lives when our friends and family say goodbye during our funeral liturgy, as it were.

Not surprisingly, liturgy is found in our lives as citizens as well.  Every four years, we watch as our new president is sworn in at an inauguration which has been arranged carefully with the intent of spectacle.  Speeches are carefully written, prayers are prepared, and order rules the process.  From our government to our courtrooms, we find prescribed order and oaths everywhere. 

If we accept and prefer this kind of planning with our political transitions and personal transitions of graduations, marriages, and more, then why should we not desire this when coming before the King of Kings, the Ruler of the Earth?  To my friends, I speak off the cuff.  When speaking formally before an audience, I consider my words carefully.  On my knees, I pray extemporaneously, but in our weekly command performance before the Lord, worship, I am happy to have well-thought out and considered prayers and responsive readings to recite before Him.  The prayers are no less spiritual or meaningful by being written than the written lyrics we sing.  The words to Amazing Grace are still as meaningful today as they were when John Newton’s poem was first published in 1779.

A worshipping liturgy is not limited to the words of a worship service.  It spills out into the colors of the linens covering the communion table, the colors on the pulpit and worn by the pastor, and, as with our church, the covers of our bulletins.  This association of colors with seasons is already present in our lives - red and green at Christmas, black and orange at Halloween, an autumnal palette for Thanksgiving, pastels for spring, and, of course, red, white and blue in July.

At my church, Christ Covenant Presbyterian, we observe a liturgical calendar, which means our “seasons” include the seasons of Advent, Pentecost, Lent and Ordinary Times.   The first half of the year the emphasis is on the life of Christ.  The second half of the year the emphasis changes to the teachings of Christ.  We celebrate St. Patrick, a Christian hero, just as we as Americans celebrate national heroes such as George Washington.  We celebrate special days significant in the life of the Church such as All Saints’ Day, a remembrance of those loved ones who have preceded us in heaven, just as we as a nation celebrate Memorial Day as a remembrance of the deceased. 

There is a richness to liturgical worship, an appreciation “of Him with whom we have to do,” as the King James Version puts it.  Having eschewed royalty, our egalitarian culture has lost the sense of deference and giving honor to those who rule and this includes, I fear, He who rules from heaven.   While worship renews us and strengthens us, it isn’t primarily for us.  It is, first and foremost, our command performance before the King.  It renews us and strengthens us to serve Him.  Liturgy serves to reorient our thinking to that of our being “…His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

Reading Through A Pastor's Stories

One of my husband's congregants and our good friend, Sherri Burgher, gave him a book she thought he might enjoy.  It was added to the mile-high stack of books he hopes to read one day.  This week, he came across the book and tossed it to me with  a "You might enjoy this."

And, boy, did I!  Stories I Couldn't Tell While I Was A Pastor by Bruce McIver had me crying both with empathy and from laughing so hard my stomach hurt as he recounts episodes from his time as pastor of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas from 1958 to 1988.

Growing up in what was, at the time, one of Louisville's larger Baptist churches and serving on staff there for a few years, I recognized many of the people about whom he writes.  Sure, they went by different names in Dallas, but I knew these people!  Any one in ministry will tell you, certain personalities exist in every church of every denomination and size - the good, the bad and the ... well, you know. As a pastor's wife now, I read the stories on the page while also reading the stories I knew were there between the lines!

This little snippet had me picturing the Daisy Nells in my home church:

Daisy Nell didn't intentionally try to disrupt a worship service or any other gathering for that matter; she just couldn't help it.  She was the kind of person whom you heard approaching, who filled the room when she arrived, and whose dust you saw when she left.

She was loud, boisterous, and loved a good argument.  The subject of debate really didn't seem to matter to her.  Among her specialties, however, were the new church budget, taxes, relatives, Paul's missionary journeys, the price of groceries, and the length of hair worn by a church staff member.  She would talk as long as anyone listened on any of these matters.  I'm convinced that the Daisy Nells of life are sent to keep pastor's humble, other staff members nervous, ushers hopping, and Sunday school teachers intimidated. . . Every new staff member, sooner or later, was initiated into the real world of ministry through an encounter with Daisy Nell.

If you have every been involved in church work, you will relate to these stories and find yourself teary-eyed at the poignancy of ministry one moment and chuckling at the hilarity of it the next.  Especially if Daisy Nell wants to show you her scar. . .

My Father's Gifts

I am usually hesitant to ask the Lord for little things in my life.  I pray for family, friends and associates, my country, and fellow Christians around the world.  I pray for wisdom for our church leaders and for myself in preparing Sunday School material.  I pray for big things.  For upcoming trips, I always pray for traveling mercies and good weather.  I prayed for these things recently when my hubby and I had the blessing of returning to Yellowstone with friends.  On our previous two visits to this unbelievably gorgeous park, I've asked for safety and good weather and the Lord graciously gave us both.  This trip, our family prayed for the usual things and then added a request to see wildlife.  This would be their first visit, so we wanted the couple joining us on the trip to have a wonderful experience.

We were barely five minutes into the Grand Tetons National Park, when we saw two grizzly bears not 30 yards from our car!  At Jenny Lake, we saw a black mink and had several marmots scampering at our feet.  We also caught sight of a western tanager and other colorful birds.  Later that afternoon on our way back to Jackson Hole, we were treated to elk, mule deer, pronghorns, and - a bull moose, the animal my husband had most wanted to see!  All this was before we even stepped foot in Yellowstone!

The blessings were just beginning.  We saw a total of 11 bears, four of which were grizzlies within just yards of our car!  We watched as cow elk grazed with their babies right beside us and heard them communicate with each other.  At incredibly close proximity, we watched a buffalo calf nursing and had the rare opportunity to see a bighorn sheep with two kids.  We stopped where a couple had a telescope on a great grey owl in its nest with babies and they graciously let us take a look.  We were tipped off to a beaver dam and arrived to see the beavers busy cutting plants and carrying them to the dam.  My husband wanted to get a picture of one of them swimming and would later admit he had stopped and prayed for this.  It was like the beaver heard his prayer, because the little animal swam right to him and seemed to stop and pose!

The four of us marveled at the blessings the Lord was bestowing on us and actually stopped to sing the Doxology at one point.  We heard of a mama bear with cubs in the vicinity.  We remarked how wonderful it would be to have an iconic Yellowstone experience like that - just minutes later we saw a black bear with two little cubs playing   on the side of the road and then the trio ambled across the road right in front of our car.  At this point, if a Bengal tiger had appeared in front of us, we wouldn't have been surprised!

The abundance of wildlife we encountered is not proof God is a good God who gives good gifts, that would be true whether we had seen the first animal or not.  What it is proof of is the graciousness of God.  What I learned through this is to appreciate my Father God.   I have experience with sanctification through hardship.  When it comes to learning spiritual lessons, I'm often dense.  The Lord has had to whop me upside the head several times in my life to get my attention.  I treasure the Apostle Paul's incredibly honest statement in Romans, "For that which I do, I allow not; for what I would, that I do not; but what I hate, that I do."  On this trip, I learned more about our God, not through His faithful chastening, but through His abundant blessings.  I repeatedly thought of Matthew 7:11:  "If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"  The beginning of the model prayer, "Heavenly Father." has a much richer meaning for me now.

The Bait & Switch of "War Horse" : A Movie Review

It had all the ingredients:  boy and his pet, against-all-odds underdog, poignant World War I setting, and yet, as the credits rolled, I realized War Horse had left me cold.

The film is based on a children's novel by Michael Morpurgo, who purposed to tell the horrendous suffering of an entire continent and beyond during World War I.  Morpurgo spoke of his inspiration in 2010:

One of the kids who came to the farm from Birmingham, called Billy, . . .the teachers warned me that he had a stammer . . . and told me not to ask him direct questions because it would terrify him if he had to be made to speak because he doesn't speak.  They said, "He's been two years in school and he hasn't said a word, so please don't confront him or he'll run back to Birmingham," which is a long way from Birmingham and they didn't want that.  So I did as I was told and I stood back and I watched him, and I could see that he related wonderfully to the animals, totally silently, never spoke to the other kids at all, and then I came in the last evening, which I always used to do, to read them a story.  It was a dark November evening and I came into the yard behind this big Victorian house where they all lived, and there he was, Billy, standing in his slippers by the stable door and the lantern above his head, talking.  Talking, talking, talking, to the horse.  And the horse, Hebe, had her head out of, just over the top of the stable, and she was listening - that's what I noticed, that the ears were going, and she knew - I knew she knew - that she had to stay there whilst this went on, because this kid wanted to talk, and the horse wanted to listen, and I knew this was a two-way thing, and I wasn't being sentimental, and I stood there and I listened, then I went and got the teachers, and brought them up through the vegetable garden, and we stood there in the shadows, and we listened to Billy talking, and they were completely amazed how this child, who couldn't get a word out, the words were simply flowing.  All the fear had gone, and there was something about the intimacy of this relationship, the trust building up between boy and horse, that I found enormously moving, and I thought, "Well, yes, you could write a story about the First World War through the eyes of a horse, let the horse tell the story, and let the story of the war come through the soldiers: British soldiers first of all, then German soldiers, then a French family which whom the horse spends winters, and that maybe you'll then get a universal idea of the suffering of the First World War...

This concept works well in written form (and I am actually eager to read the novel).  In the book, the author could give voice to the horse's thoughts and perceptions, but even in the usual capable hands of Steven Spielberg, the concept falls flat in live action form.  The human characters are not sufficiently developed, thus no emotional connection is truly made between them and the audience.  You care about "Joey" the horse, but even his owner Albert is one-dimensional and weakly portrayed by newcomer Jeremy Irvine.

The ending is meant to be "feel good," but the journey to get there has been too rough.  There is very little pleasant about the movie.  Comedic and heartwarming scenes are followed immediately by brutality.   The movie is not a film about  a boy and his remarkable horse with WWI as a backdrop.  The movie is true to the book  in that it is an overtly antiwar film showing the sheer horror and heartache of war with the horse's journey as a backdrop.  That's the marketing bait and switch.  War Horse shows, in a line repeated several times in the film, "War takes everything from everyone."

War Horse was filmed in a style reminiscent of old-time classics like Gone with the Wind and other sweeping, epic films of that era.  Glorious sunsets, soaring John William's score, and breathtakingly beautiful cinematography aren't enough to redeem this emotionally manipulative movie.  It is indeed a tearjerker, but without the emotional satisfaction with which a fully realized film leaves its audience.

Global Warming Skeptics Unite

I'm weary of defending my position (and intelligence) regarding my skepticism of man-made global warming.  Thankfully, this article might help show my fellow doubters and I aren't completely stupid.  

Our perspective tends to be limited to our lifespan.  Younger generations are growing up with global warming hysteria and accept it as fact. However I remember hearing the same hysteria in our media and science magazines over "Global Cooling" and the coming of the next "Ice Age".   Ours is a cyclical universe. . .

(VERY) Brief Film Reviews

I have a huge weakness for "bargain books".  Put a clearance sign over a bin of books and I'm there.  That weakness has garnered me a few duds, but also an interesting read or two.  While strolling through the Dollar Tree (of all places), I came across a little black book entitled, "Four Word Film Reviews."  I glanced through, chuckled a little, and determined it was worth a buck.

These little pithy reviews are consistently witty.  Here's just a same of the book's offerings:
The Bourne Identity - "One Bourne, many die."
The Dark Knight - "An unbalanced Ledger."
Pirates of the Caribbean - "High-seas dead people."
Saw - "Survival of de-footist."
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings - "Hobbit gains elf-respect."

Now, I'm hooked.  I find myself trying to come up with four-word reviews for films I watch.  Here are a few of my attempts:

Avengers - "Assembly required."
Thor - "Hammering worlds together."
Green Hornet - "Where's the bug spray?"

It's a great exercise in keeping your writing concise and still complete.

Hospitality Commands

I recently reread Alexander Strauch's The Hospitality Commands. I had forgotten what a helpful and convicting booklet this was. Strauch begins his book by walking us through a quick history lesson on the lives of Christians as described in the New Testament. He shows hospitality was an absolutely integral part of the early church, to the point of it being a defining characteristic of these first believers.

Scripture describes the relationship between Christians in familial terms. In fact, the terms brethren, brother or sister occur some 250 times in the New Testament, particularly in Paul's letters. Home is where familial relationships are built. Martin Luther's Table Talk is a compilation of just that - talks around his table recorded by his students and guests. Luther and his wife were known for their generous and frequently-extended hospitality. Sharing a meal, eating together, is an intimate activity.

Strauch says, "Unless we open the doors of our homes to one another, the reality of the local church as a close-knit family of loving brothers and sisters is only a theory...We cannot know or grow close to our brothers and sisters meeting for an hour and fifteen minutes a week with a large group in a church sanctuary."

Homes are natural places for the spread of the Gospel. I'll never forget hearing Chuck Swindoll repeat this quote on one of his radio shows, "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." Opening their homes to others has been a hallmark of Christianity since the beginning. Just think about the homes of Aquila and Priscilla or the home of Martha. We have the scriptural examples of Cornelius and Matthew opening their homes for the purpose of spreading the Gospel. Inviting visitors into your home (or out for a meal if the budget allows) shows loving concern and can be a more effective means of evangelism than all the talking in the world.

Showing hospitality provides us with more than just evangelistic opportunities. It lets us put the solitary in families (Psalm 68:6). We have the opportunity to give our singles experience with what a Christian home looks like, how a Christian husband and wife interact, and how Christian parenting is done (albeit all imperfectly). We have the opportunity to show "pure and undefiled religion" by caring for our senior adults (James 1:27) through the sharing of meals and fellowship. When we host visiting college kids, traveling Christians or missionaries, and others in our homes, it gives our families glimpses into their lives and callings that others may never see. When we help God's messengers, we become partners in their work (I John 8). Finally, we can't forget it gives us the opportunity to play host to angels (Hebrews 13:2)!

An experience in my 20s has had a lasting impact on my life. It was the summer after I graduated from college. I decided to delay starting a career until the fall to participate in my denomination's summer missions program and spend ten weeks in the American Southwest working with local churches. One week was spent in a home that could have come straight from the pages of Architectural Digest. The house was stunning, but I always felt I was an intrusion upon them.

Another week, I spent a week with a family who shared from their poverty, not their wealth. The home was humble and the conditions were, at times, downright challenging. I confess several mornings I woke up grumbling. My hosts were consistently warm and welcoming. When we left, this loving family gave my partner and me gifts. From observation, they didn't have the extra funds to do this. It brought me to tears. I have never forgotten that lesson on gracious, truly Christian hospitality.

Let me make myself clear: What differentiated these two families was not their socioeconomic levels; it was their love and concern for guests.

If we are going to practice hospitality, we have to plan to practice hospitality. Set a regular time each week or month to have people over for a meal. If you don't plan, typically you won't do because life will get in the way. Plan ahead simple (and budget-appropriate) meals. Remember, beans and franks, when freely shared, is showing hospitality. If you have an extra room or your kids could be persuaded to bunk up for a night or two, host a visiting missionary or traveling Christian.

Sometimes the scariest thing about having strangers or new acquaintances in our home is the fear of running out of things to talk about! Be interested in people's lives. Ask questions. If we're honest, we all love to talk about ourselves and our families.

It was a tradition after communion in the church of my youth to sing, "Blessed be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love. The fellowship of kindred minds is like to that above." That blessed tie is developed and strengthened around the dinner table.

Book Review: Wordsmithy by Douglas Wilson

"Interesting people are interested people." If I had stopped reading on page 23, this quote would have made the book worthwhile. Staying engaged in life and culture is a must if you are to presume to have anything relevant to say. Douglas Wilson has lots of pithy quotes and admonitions for writers, and those of us who aspire to be called writers, in his book, Wordsmithy: Hot Tips for the Writing Life.

I was disabused of the notion my vocabulary was sufficient several times while reading Wordsmithy. Wilson's use of uncommon words or foreign languages phrases was not for pretension's sake, but rather to underscore his point that if we wish to be writers, we have to view words as our tools. Wilson encourages writers and would-be writers to keep a notebook handy to jot down an interesting word or turn of phrase that pops out at you while living a real life. "Words are the bricks with which you build. Buy the bricks before starting on the wall." (pg 104). Having a record of notable quotes is also recommended. Sad to say, some of my favorite quotes are not from classic novels, but from romantic comedies such as Under the Tuscan Sun ("Regrets are a waste of time. They're the past crippling you in the present."). [Maybe I'd better get busy expanding my notebook. . . ]

Wilson especially stresses living a real life - as in living in the real world. This is not the trendy call to authenticity that is all the rage today, which Wilson skewers delightfully:

One of our great problems today is that we have gotten caught up in our culture-wide quest for authenticity. We want our jeans authentic (pre-ripped at the factory), we want our apples authentic (grown locally instead of somewhere else), we want our music authentic (underground bands nobody ever heard of), we want our lettuce authentic (organically manured), we want our literature authentic (full of angst), we want our movies authentic (subtitles), we want our coffee tables authentic (purchased from a genuine peasant while we were on some eco-tour). . . This quest for authenticity, in its current configuration, is actually a quest to feel superior to other people, and because everybody has gotten in on this very attractive proposition, this presents a considerable marketing challenge.

Wilson's book is a book of 7s - seven chapters with seven subpoints in each. The advice is practical, the style is rather playful, and the suggested reading lists made me want to run to my local library immediately [always library first, Amazon second. Frugality reigns!]. He also advises writers to stretch their boundaries. Attempt writing forms and styles which are beyond your comfort zone. So, in that spirit, I'll conclude with my attempt at one of the forms Wilson mentioned, a clerihew:

Douglas Wilson writes on writing

Of all the errors that need righting.

On bon mots and clerihews,

on writing don'ts and writing do's.

Book Review - The Tipping Point: How Little Changes Can Make a Big Difference

Pop sociology at best, shallow science at worst, Malcolm Gladwell nevertheless had me rapidly flipping the pages of this now 10-year-old book. The phrase Tipping Point "comes from the world of epidemiology. It's the name given to that moment in an epidemic when a virus reaches critical mass." The book looks at products, societal changes, a certain Revolutionary War event and more through this prism. What made each go viral, become infectious, as it were? What creates a fad? A trend? A phenomenon? Is the importance of word of mouth dependent upon from whose mouth the word proceeds? Can ideas, products and behaviors become infectious?

Gladwell theorizes, "The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts." He asserts it requires three types of people: Connectors, highly social with a huge Rolodex of contacts usually crossing several socioeconomic levels; Mavens, who devour Consumer Reports and actually read the product manuals and who relish passing on their knowledge; and, finally, Salesmen, the persuaders who convince the general populace to act on their recommendations. At times, one or more of these 3 personality types may exist in one person, which may explain why Paul Revere is a household name while another midnight rider, William Dawes, is not.

Gladwell presents the story of Paul Revere in light of his Tipping Point thesis. Revere was very integrated in many communities and knew the movers and shakers across socioeconomic lines (Connector). He had a reputation as being in the know (Maven) an, as evidenced by the response his alarm generated, was persuasive (Salesman). Gladwell describes the latter as personified by a person he meets: "He seems to ahve some indefinable trait, something powerful and contagious and irresistible that goes beyond that comes out of his mouth, that makes people who meet him what to agree with him. It's energy. It's enthusiasm. It's charm. It's likability. It's all those things and yet something more."

What causes rapid, dramatic changes in the market or society? According to Gladwell, it's the Context (the situational environment), the Idea and its "stickiness" (has to resonate) and the People involved (Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen). He believes when an idea reaches key people in the appropriate context, dramatic change can occur.

The book reviews the near demise and subsequent rebirth of the Hushpuppies brand of shoes. Prior to 1994, sales were down to 30,000 pairs and the brand was in trouble. Then the sales went to 430,000 and in 1995 they were 4 x that amount! What happened? Gladwell presents the difference between a brand being phased out and explosive growth as individuals in the fashion forward New York neighborhoods of Greenwich Village and Soho began picking up the shoes in consignment shops. Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi and others were spotted wearing the shoes. Soon the shoes were featured in fashion shows presenting designers' new lines. Suddenly everything old is new again and Hushpuppies became de rigueur for wannabee fashionistas. Gladwell recognizes we have trouble accepting these types of epidemics in terms of geometric progression because the end results seem far out of proportion to the cause.

New York City's drastic decline in crime is given the Tipping Point treatment. This is where a lot of the book's critics takes aim. Some of his assertions may be overly broad, but I did find his Broken Window theory discussion interesting. (In a nutshell - when broken windows aren't repaired in a neighborhood, it gives off a sense of apathy and the criminal element feels free to act believing no one will care enough to do anything about it.)

Some of Gladwell's claims do seem questionable, at times he makes rather large leaps, and his evolutionary perspective made me groin, but he redeems himself somewhat when discussing such drastic changes as the Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood going rapidly from a modestly successful book to a blockbuster bestseller or of the success of children's programming such as Sesame Street or Blues Clues.

Flawed but fun, The Tipping Point made me incredibly curious about the genesis of recent trends and bestsellers. If books like Freakonomics fascinate you or you are interested in marketing and haven't yet devoured it, The Tipping Point will be an interesting and quick read.

Whitney Houston: A Lesson on Addiction

Whitney Houston's debut album was the soundtrack of my summer in 1985. Along with about every other girl in her teens and twenties, I sang Saving All My Love into an imaginary microphone. I played her follow-up album and danced my heart out to I Wanna Dance with Somebody. The vocals soared and the melodies were infectious. She was incredibly talented.

Watching Whitney's character fall for Kevin Costner in The Bodyguard, I almost believed he was sexy (almost). Hearing her sing, I Will Always Love You inexplicably brought me to tears each time. I had loved the Dolly Parton song for years, but Whitney transformed it into something completely new. She was amazing.

Bobby Brown had three children by two different women and a rumored history of drug use before Whitney married him in 1987. Like a lot of her fans, I wondered what the daughter of a gospel singer who had grown up in church was doing with the New Edition bad boy. It wasn't long before rumors of Whitney's drug use started appearing in the tabloids. In 2000, she was arrested for drug possession and a succession of rehab stays began shortly thereafter. She was an addict.

Her long-time champion Clive Davis spearheaded an intervention for Whitney. In 2011, he worked with her for what was hoped to be her comeback. During several concerts, the woman with the angelic voice was booed off the stage. The damage to her vocal cords couldn't be hidden. By February 11, 2012, she was dead.

The callous, cruel jokes began almost immediately. You've read them - "Houston, we have a problem." "Whitney Houston died. Did she fall off the wagon and hit her head?". What surprised me was reading these cold-hearted remarks from some people who had battled their own demons. It seems, "There, but by the the grace of God, go I" is a forgotten saying.

"Whitney Houston caused her own death." "She had everything going for her and threw it all away." I won't argue with either of those statements. However, I will ask for at least a modicum of compassion for a person made in the image of God who fell into the pit of addiction and couldn't find her way back out.

In his excellent book, Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave, Ed Welch points out that addicts feel trapped and out of control. They feel they can't let go even when the addictive behavior yields few pleasures and a great deal of pain. Something or someone other than the living God controls them. That controlling object tells them how to live, think and feel. Drunkenness, for example, is a lordship problem. Who is your master? God or your desires? Creator or creature? At root, drunkards are worshiping another god, alcohol. The drunk is controlled by alcohol as if he is its subject and it was his ruler. The alcohol worship is a form of self worship. We worship people and things to get what we want even when what we are wanting is destroying us.

I have a great deal of respect for Houston's mother Cissy Houston and Clive Davis for never giving up on Whitney. Mel Gibson, who has publicly crashed and burned and battled back numerous times with his substance issues, reached out to Whitney several times, which is why his name was on the funeral guest list. Addicts need people to love them enough to confront them and keep confronting and caring - as long as it takes.

I pray those who mocked Whitney Houston's death never find themselves needing such longsuffering compassion.

Thank You Power

A few years ago, I saw a copy of Thank You Power: Making the Science of Gratitude Work For You in a clearance book bin. What intrigued me about the book was who its author was, Deborah Norville.

In 1987, University of Georgia suma cum laude graduate Norville was selected to replace Jane Pauley on NBC's The Today Show. Cries of ageism immediately sprang forth as people protested what they saw as the usurpation of the popular Pauley. Struggling to defend her credibility when Jane Pauley left the morning broadcast, the pressure became unbearable for Norville, who left the show during her maternity leave in 1991. For a while, to be replaced by a younger worker was even dubbed being "norville'd". Many people, including the Emmy-winning reporter herself, thought she would never return to television. A few years later, Ms. Norville would regroup and write a book about her experience, Back on Track: How to Straighten Out Your Life When It Throws You a Curve.

Thank You Power is a quick and simple refresher course on the importance of gratitude presented in the context of studies in "positive psychology" and its role in personal happiness and intrapersonal relationships. Norville discussed various studies done on this topic and what the researchers learned in an interview while promoting the book:

[Positive Psychology] is a fairly new field, this notion of counting your blessings and the quantifiable benefits of gratitude. But what gratitude does is it puts you in a positive affect. You feel good from counting your blessings, you're more optimistic, you're less pessimistic, you even exercise on average an hour and a half more per week...You feel good when you do all those things. If you feel good, your dopamine receptors are activated. You're a better thinker. You will do better on a test."

Ms. Norville made a profession of Christian faith at the age of 15 and this perspective permeates her writing. The last chapter covers Scripture's admonitions to give thanks in all things and hold fast to the promise of Romans 8:28: We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. She cites studies echoed in Arthur C. Brooks' Gross National Happiness.

Duke University's Center on Spirituality has done a great deal of research on [people of faith being happier]. Spiritual people and religious people live longer. Religious people are happier. There is even one study that encompasses many, many years called the Nun Study. It was published by researchers at the University of Kentucky...They took the writing of some sisters shortly after they took their vows and they looked at their explanatory style. They looked at their hopefulness. They evaluated the personality of these people based on their writings. Those who has a more hopeful explanatory style lived an average of ten years longer. So, simply being an optimistic person can add a full decade to your life. "

There's nothing new or profound in this little book. At times, the writing is cliched. However, I have enacted one of its recommendations. I now have a "Thank You" journal where every day I write down three things from the day for which I am thankful and who or what made these things possible. It is a wonderful way to be reminded to have an attitude of gratitude - regardless of whether it makes me live longer or not.

It's All Greek To Me! A Review of "The Classics: All You Need to Know from Zeus's Throne to the Fall of Rome"

I know I should have resisted that title, but I honestly just couldn't! I blame the breezy, sassy style of Caroline Taggart's writing. This isn't the book for you if you are looking for a serious review of all the classical literature and mythology you have forgotten since college. Taggart's obvious love of all things Greek (and by extension Roman), doesn't stop her from pithy quips and irreverent commentary on the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece. This is a fun refresher of the Greek and Roman names, places and phrases that have become part of our everyday lexicon.

Taggart defends the study of the Greeks right off the bat: "So the Greeks didn't invent art, architecture or culture, either. Why all the fuss? . . . They invented our art, architecture, culture and philosophy. In the 21st century Western world, there are classical influences all around us." If you doubt Ms. Taggart, take a walk around Washington, DC past the ionic, Doric and Corinthian columns on temples devoted to our dead heroes. Our language tips its hat towards these Greeks. Throw in a funny ad lib while working on an ad hoc committee and you might have a Herculean task to get back to work. "We are just statistics, born to consume resources." A quote from the latest environmental book? Nope. That's Homer writing in the 1st century.

Taggart reminds many who have taken the SAT or ACT why they thanked God for their high school Latin classes: Biology: bio (life) and logia (study); monogamy: monos (one) and gamos (union); telephone: tele (far) and phone (voice) are just a few examples of Greek words adopted in the English language.

Taggart gives her reader a crash course in mythology and provides plenty of witty remarks disguised as footnotes. She discusses historical (and maybe not so historical) figures, gives her readers Homer's background and generally fleshes out those problematic crossword puzzle Greek names and phrases.

A parting shot, or more correctly a Parthian shot, trivia abounds and some of it was really nifty. I now know if we raise a glass to nunc est bibendum ("now is the time for drinking"), we have Horace to thank. Arachne challenged Athena to a weaving contest and ended up being turned into a spider. (Yep, that's how it became arachnophobia.) Nebuchadnezzar built the hanging gardens of Babylon (Yep, same Nebuchadnezzar.) The running of the Olympic torch wasn't part of the ancient games. The man responsible for the 1936 Olympics came up with the idea and the PR guy ran with it. Did I mention it was the Berlin Olympics and the PR guy was Joseph Goebbels?

This, like Taggart's other books, is light reading. If you're looking for a fun way to pass the time (and discover how Hippocrates is associated with certain personality tests), pick up a copy.

Thoughts on Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl

As I read the back cover of Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl, I kept thinking of those TV chefs that reel off ingredients so quickly you can't remember them all, but you catch enough of them for your mouth to water in anticipation. Reading the book itself, my analogy shifts to that of being in a virtual ZORB and pushing it around our world as a way to see it from different perspectives.

The narrative is incredibly sensory. At times, I rolled my eyes at the abundance of metaphors, but then I realized this excess was purposeful. This book wasn't meant to be an intellectual exercise as much as a sensate experience. Being in the Reformed community, I'm used to using the ol' grey matter to analyze and discuss areas of Scripture and truths of God. However, the Lord also made us with a right side to our brain and if we are going to be fully developed, we must use it in these endeavors as well. He writes in the introduction, "A neutral observer would not find this world to be believable. Ergo, the cause of said unbelievable world must place similar stretch marks on the imagination.

Wilson begins by looking at the created world as art, especially the devalued artistry of snowflakes - each one unique and masterfully created and yet so plenteous as to be thrown around by shovels and plows! That says something about the God we serve. Without a microscope, we won't see all the intricacies of these snowflakes, but the Creator is an Artist who creates beauty for His own enjoyment. Wilson pushes us to see the wonder, the whimsy, and the magic in creation:

"What is the world? What is it for? It is art. It is the best of all possible art, a finite picture of the infinite. Assess it like prose, like poetry, like architecture, sculpture, painting, dance, delta blues, opera, tragedy, comedy, romance, epic. Assess it like you would a Faberge egg, like a gunfight, like a musical, like a snowflake, like a death, a triumph, a love story, a tornado, a smile, a heartbreak. . . This painting is by an infinite Artist. It is a reflection of Himself (could there be a better subject?), worked out in colors, lives, and constellations, in a universe that to us seems endless but is to Him a mere frame, a small space, a confining challenge for His artistry."

Wilson says instead of philosophers:

"Give me priests. Give me men with feathers in their hair or tall domed hats, female oracles in caves, servants of the python smoking weed and reading psalms. A gypsy fortune-teller with a foot peddle Ouija board and a gold fishbowl for a crystal ball knows more about the world than many of the great thinkers of the West. Mumbling priests swinging sink cans on their chains and even witch doctors conjuring up curses with a well-buried elephant tooth have a better sense of their places in the world. They know this universe is brimming with magic, with life and riddles and ironies. They know that the world might eat them, and no encyclopedia could stop it . . . Marx called religion an opiae, and all too often it is. But philosophy is an anesthetic, a shot to keep the wonder away."

If this world is God's art, His story, then what character are you? What role do you play? Would you like yourself if watching yourself portrayed on the silver screen? Do you respond the way you would want the character in the story to respond? More importantly, if we are characters in His story, then we have a story arc with all that implies - tragedy and comedy, good and evil, wins and losses.

Wilson address "The Problem with Kittens." Go into any Christian bookstore and you'll see cards or plaques with photos of adorable kittens in baskets with a comforting verse tacked on. The problem is: The same God who made kittens made the kittens grown up to be lions, cougars and tigers who kill Bambi and other adorable creatures to feed to their young. The same God who made bunnies made red-tailed hawks and eagles who rip the cottontails apart with their talons for food. We must have room for kittens and lions, bunnies and hawks in our concept of who God is. We struggle with evil in our lives, but we don't in our art. We understand the evil in a story moves the plot along. Wilson puts it this way:

"The Problem Part Two: The world is rate R, and no one is checking IDs. Do not try to make it Go by imagining the shadows away. Do not try to hide your children from the world forever, but do not pretend there is no danger. Train them. Give them sharp eyes and bellies full of laughter. Make them dangerous. Make them yeast, and when they've grown, they will pollute the shadows."

Notes from the Tilt-A-Whirl is rich in beauty and instruction. I loved the poetic look at our earth: "The ocean can never forget the Flood. It has tasted mountains. Waking and sleeping, it chews," and the four seasons as analogous to our lives: "My grandfather is like his house. Once strong and young, now his beams and timbers sag beneath the weight of long use, heavier even than the piles of snow on his roof and the fanged ice stretching down from the gutters . . . Let the Winter come. It is the only path to Spring. The house is battered with cold, but inside there is a warmth that cannot and will not die."

"Do you resent this world, this art? Do you hate Him for cancer, for car wrecks, and for the sudden shocking sleep of the young? . . . Go to Him or go to Hell. Those are the only two choices because Hell will be wherever He is not."

Our world is God's painting, sculpture and play. When the curtain is drawn on our role, we will walk off this stage and on to a greater stage - with Him or without Him.

Sun Studio Tour: Black, White & Blue Suede Shoes

This summer, we were "walking in Memphis," strolling down Beale Street and listening to blues at the home of the "Beale Street Blues Boy" - B. B. King's Blues Bar. As an admitted Elvis fanatic, I had to go to the South's Mecca and so off to Graceland we went. It was a wonderful, albeit bittersweet, experience. However, it was an impromptu stop at Sun Studios and subsequent tour that would make the biggest impression on me from our time in Memphis.

Owner Sam Phillips had worked as a DJ for an Alabama radio station which had an "open format" that broadcasted music from both white and black musicians. Living in the 21st century, it's hard for us to get our minds around the significance of that; however, being allowed to play the music of both white and black musicians in the segregated South was of monumental significance in shaping Sam Phillips as a music producer and, in the larger context, rock-n-roll itself. In fact, the generally accepted first rock-n-roll record, "Rocket 88" was recorded by Phillips. The band was Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats, a band led by 19-year-old Ike Turner, who also wrote the song.

Sun Studios recorded the "Prisonaires," an African-American blues group made up of prisoners in the Tennessee State Penitentiary. Phillips arranged for the group to be transported under armed guard to Memphis to record. A few weeks later, Just Walkin' in the Rain was released and quickly sold 50,000 copies. Their success was such they were allowed out on day passes to play around the state. The band became a favorite of then Gov. Clement and frequently played at his mansion. The group was reportedly the inspiration for a certain trio of jailbirds famously depicted in O Brother Where Art Thou.

Phillips' had a desire to record the music of the African-American community and did record B. B. King and numerous R & B pioneers. He discovered Johnny Cash, as well as a white boy with a black sound from right there in Memphis named Elvis Presley.

One of the best parts of the Sun Studio tour for me was the realization that Elvis' discovery wasn't by chance. Instead, Elvis fervently pursued a career in music. The story about recording a record for his Mom's birthday? Probably a PR mythology. The Presleys didn't own a record player and he could have recorded it cheaper at a local drug s tore. Elvis was trying to be discovered. Sam Phillips gets the credit, but it was his long-time assistant, Marion Keisker who championed the would-be singer. Elvis had recorded a ballad, My Happiness, but Phillips was looking for something new. Marion thought Elvis had something special and would bring his name up to Phillips at just the right time. She and Elvis had a famous exchange upon meeting: I said, "What kind of singer are you?" He said, "I sing all kinds." I said, "Who do you sound like?" He said, "I don't sound like nobody."

Unlike Graceland, where things are cordoned off and under glass, at Sun Studios you stand in the studio where rock-n-roll greats stood. On the same floor tiles. Under the same ceiling tiles. And you can hold the actual microphone Elvis used. It becomes to real to you.

When you hear That's Alright, Mamma juxtaposed with clips of music from that era, you realize just how revolutionary it was! Phillips gave a copy to a local DJ at WHBQ who had to play it 14 times in a row because of the overwhelming audience response. Elvis was persuaded to go to the radio station for an interview where the DJ made sure to include a question about which high school he attended as a way to let the audience know his race without directly asking the question.

It was providential that Phillips and Sun Studios were in Memphis, the home of the Civil Rights Museum, because they were part of that movement. As Michael Bertrand discusses in his book, Race, Rock, and Elvis, "An unprecedented access to African-American culture challenged Presley's generation to reassess age-old segregationist stereotypes." The recording of Elvis, a white boy with a black sound, the embrace of the music of Ray Charles by a white audience, and the merging of musical styles broke down the barriers of a segregated society. In that sense, in the '50s, there really was a whole lotta shakin' going on!

Christian = Reader (or Should At Least)

Several years ago, my husband began a Pastor's Book Club at our church. We have just ordered our 50th book, Notes From the Tilt-A-Whirl. The previous 49 books have enlightened, entertained, challenged and, most importantly, educated the book club members.

In our 1st book, A House For My Name, we read an overview of the Old Testament that looked at infallible Scripture as divinely-inspired literature replete with imagery, repeated themes and revealing composition styles. It made me excited to open the pages of the Old Testament.

Our 4th book, When People Are Big and God Is Small, made us examine for whom we were living. Is ours an "Audience of One" where our chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever or do we bow to others through peer pressure, codependency and fear? Far from a baptized psychobabble book, the author shows we are created with certain needs and desires that others' approval or self-actualization will not satisfy -they are God-shaped and only He can fulfill them.

Along the way, we have dealt with tough issues people living in the real world face every day through such books as When Good Kids Make Bad Choices, Real Sex: The Naked Truth About Chastity, How to Be Free From Bitterness, Depression: A Stubborn Darkness and Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave.

We've read fun books that defend snarky satire (Serrated Edge by Douglas Wilson), strolled through history (33 Questions About American History You're Not Supposed to Ask by Thomas E. Woods, Jr. and the Politically Incorrect Guide to the Sixties by Jonathan Leaf), and we now know that real men do read Jane Austen (Miniatures & Morals by Peter Leithart).

And there have been a few books that have stretched our minds and perspectives in wondrous ways - A Table in the Mist by Jeffrey Meyers and Saving Leonardo: A Call To Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals & Meaning by Nancy Pearcey just to name two.

If you are a Christian, you should be a reader! As Nancy Pearcey brilliantly shows in Saving Leonardo, we can only be salt and light to the world when we interact with that world! The Proverbs tell us, "The first one to plead his cause seems right, until his neighbor comes and examines him." How do we examine a secular "ism" or belief system when we are ignorant of it? To transform our world, we must obey the words of Timothy to "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." To help you get started, here are some suggestions:

A House for My Name - Peter Leithart

Thinking Straight in a Crooked World - Gary DeMar

Hospitality Commands - Alexander Strauch

When People Are Big and God Is Small - Ed Welch

Biblical Healing for Modern Man - Frank Payne

God at Work - Gene Edward Veith

Serrated Edge - Douglas Wilson

The Battle Belongs to the Lord - K. Scott Oliphint

Market-Driven Church - Udo Middleman

My Life for Yours - Douglas Wilson

Blame it on the Brain 0 Richard Winter

The Lord's Service - Jeffrey Meyers

Still Bored in a Culture of Entertainment - Gene Edward Veith

Everyday Talk - John Younts

A Journey in Grace - Richard P. Belcher

humility: the forgotten virtue - Wayne & Joshua Mack

Trinity & Reality: An Introduction to the Christian Faith - Ralph Smith

When Good Kids Make Bad Choices - Elyse Fitzpatrick & Jim Newheiser

Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense - N. T. Wright

Real Sex: The Naked Truth About Chastity - Lauren Winner

Paedofaith - Rich Lusk

Angels in the Architecture - Doug Jones and Doug Wilson

A Table in the Mist - Jeffrey Meyers

For a Glory and a Covering - Douglas Wilson

How to be Free from Bitterness - Jim Wilson

Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming (& Environmentalism) - Christopher C. Horner

The Baptized Body - Peter Leithart

Why Baptize Babies? - Mark Horne

33 Questions About American History (You're Not Supposed to Ask) - Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

10 Books that Screwed Up the World - Benjamin Wiker

Gross National Happiness - Arthur C. Brooks

Faith, Reason & the War Against Jihadism - George Weigel

Meltdown: A Free Market Look at Why the Stock Market Collapsed - Thomas E. Woods, Jr.

Running Scared: Fear, Worry & the God of Rest - Edward T. Welch

The Liturgy Trap - James Jordan

Whatever Happened to Justice - Richard Maybury

Depression: A Stubborn Darkness - Edward T. Welch

God vs Socialism - Joel McDurmon

How to Argue with a Liberal & Win - Joel McDurmon

Jane Austen (biography) - Peter Leithart

Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen - Peter Leithart

Addictions: A Banquet in the Grave

10 Books Every Conservative Must Read, Plus 4 Not to Miss & 1 Impostor - Benjamin Wiker

Five Cities that Rules the World - Doug Wilson

Good News for Anxious Christians: 10 Practical Things You Don't Have to Do - Phillip Cary

Rollback: Repealing Big Government Before the Coming Fiscal Collapse - Thomas E. Wood

Johann Sebastian Back - Rick Marschall

The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Sixties - Jonathan Leaf

Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals & Meaning - Nancy Pearcey

Notes From the Tilt-A-Whirl - Nathan Wilson

Fiction Squared - Book Review: Heat Rises by Richard Castle

ABC Television is trying the old tried and true "play within a play" formula to promote the dramedy series, Castle. They are doing it with a twist, however, by using a literary tie-in. Castle has as its title character hot-shot novelist Rick Castle, who uses his friendship with the mayor to gain permission to tag along on crime scenes with an NYPD homicide team led by Detective Kate Beckett. Although initially his presence is begrudgingly accepted, Castle's mystery writing sensibilities make him a helpful addition to the team. Before long, sparks begin to fly between the writer and the detective, sometimes not in a good way as, much to her chagrin, Castle writes a racy detective series based on Det. Beckett.

The marketing gurus at ABC started producing the books their

title character was supposedly writing on the show as a nifty little promotional tool. Rick Castle will be seen towards the end of the season with the mock-up of his latest book featuring a New York detective named "Nikki Heat" who is shadowed by a hot-shot journalist named Jamison Rook. (The marketing department is sending a wink to their readers: In chess, "castle" and "rook" are interchangeable names for the same piece.) The books have plots loosely based on the series season just ending: Heat Wave (season one, 2009); Naked Heat (season two, 2010); and Heat Rises (season three, 2011), which had its debut at #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List.

While I love the show, I had zero interest in the books until I came across a rumor Stephen J. Cannell, a writer whose work I have enjoyed for decades, might be one of the ghostwriters. The books were small, so I decided to give one a try. And with that, I was hooked. When I read the books, I actually hear the actors in the television show speaking the lines. The novels are written in the same style as the show and are a really fun read. If you're a fan of the television show, give one of the novels a try.

[Disclaimer: Unlike the television series, in the books Nikki Heat and Rook are romantically involved. The books are slightly racier than the show, but the writers keep it pretty PG. However, you have been warned.]

Book Review: The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Sixties

Blame it on Memphis. I have been in a 50s and 60s state of mind since our brief vacation to the home of the blues in July. My husband found himself dwelling on that era as well and thus came this selection for his Pastor's Book Club of The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Sixties by Jonathan Leaf.

The P.I.G. series (as the Politically Incorrect Guides are affectionately known) give readers what Paul Harvey would have referred to as "the rest of the story" on topics ranging from American History, the Constitution and English and American Literature to Hunting and the South.

The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Sixties is divided into three parts: The Social Sixties, The Cultural Sixties and The Political Sixties. Part One covers the student radicals, the sexual revolution and a chapter entitled, "Civil Rights to Uncivil Wrongs: From Freedom Rides to "Burn, Baby, Burn." Part Two of the book covers rock-n-roll, movies/TV, fashion and the space race. The final section explores the Warren Supreme Court, JFK's Camelot, LBJ's war on poverty, the Vietnam War and finally, "The Birth of the Counter-Counterculture."

This book is as entertaining as it is informative. No chapter is too long - just as you're ready to move on to another subject, so is the book. If you think you know all about the Sixties, Leaf's Guide may just prove you wrong.

And, as a member of the book club astutely noted, if you want to understand the underlying worldviews behind the radical sixties, our current selection should be on your To-Read List: Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals and Meaning.

Book Review: Juliet by Anne Fortier

Anne Fortier's debut novel, Juliet, takes her reader to Sienna, Italy in both the present day and as it was in the 14th century. A re-imagining of Romeo and Juliet with shades of The Da Vinci Code (without the gnostic gospels element).

Julie Jacobs is mourning the recent loss of her beloved Aunt Rose when more grief comes her way. Her Aunt has left her entire fortune to Julie's superficial and shrewish twin, Janice. The only things bequeathed to Julie are actually from her long-deceased mother - a key, a secret and a passport in Julie's real name - Giuletta Tolomei. She discovers she is a direct descendant of the 14th century Giuletta Tolomei who lived in Sienna, Italy and was half of the ill-fated pair of lovers immortalized in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

As Julie travels to Sienna in hopes of discovering what treasure is unlocked by her mother's key, she learns the "Curse upon both your houses," may be alive and well these 600 years later. She soon meets a wealthy woman from Sienna who is insistent on befriending her (and introducing her to the lady's handsome nephew). Armed with ancient diaries, relics, a fresco and a 14th century painting, she sets out to understand the past as a way to understand the present and perhaps her future.

The book moves along at a quick pace and I actually found it to be quite the page turner (until the end, but that critique comes later). The chapters alternate between events in the present and events in the 14th century which seem to correlate and pushes Julie further into danger. The whole re-imagining of Romeo and Juliet was very appealing and works to a large extent. There are lots of red herrings and false turns to keep the suspense going, but there are also abrupt changes and storylines that are simply abandoned that mar the story as well.

The ending is rather disappointing. While it ends the way the romantic in me says it should ultimately, it felt rushed with new characters introduced and familiar characters almost rewritten (to the point I wondered if a new heroine had been determined!). The transition from Julie and Janice's relationship at the beginning of the novel to the one at the end happened almost instantly and was not supported adequately in the narrative. The change was too abrupt and hurt believability.

Nevertheless, this is overall a fun read. It has enough history, romance, intrigue and mystery to keep the reader involved, but also enough holes, character underdevelopment and farfetched storytelling to make its reader long for what the novel could have been. Perhaps the movie in development will fill in these gaps.

Movie Reviews: The Fighter, True Grit, The Next Three Days and New In Town

The Fighter
Christian Bale's performance in The Fighter is incredible. His Oscar is well deserved. This movie will make you uncomfortable. It will make you wince. It will make you angry. In the end, it will make you glad you watched it. Mark Wahlberg's "Irish" Mickey Ward is another in what is becoming his trademark underdog roles. Wahlberg really championed this script and was right to do so.

True Grit
When you remake a John Wayne classic, you've already got a strike against you in my book. You just don't mess with The Duke. The Coen Brothers and Jeff Bridges didn't get that memo and the cinematic world is the better for it. This version of True Grit is grittier than the original and, for me, more poignant. Bridges' performance is outstanding and homeschooled Hailee Steinfeld is incredible.

The Next Three Days
You just can't go wrong with a Russell Crowe movie (The Quick and the Dead being a possible exception). This is an excellent suspense movie. It occasionally stretches believability to the breaking point, but it was clever, well-acted and had me on the edge of my seat, which is what I look for in this genre.

New In Town
While I love Harry Connick, Jr., I'm kind of holding a grudge against Renee Zellweger for the unceremonious dumping of Kenny Chesney. Nevertheless, this is a really cute, sweet movie. I don't need to tell you it's predictable - it's a rom-com afterall, but I will tell you it is surprisingly affirming of Midwestern values.