An inviting and attractively packaged devotional for Christians.
A writer offers a Christian-themed tour through the four seasons.
In her slim and beautifully designed nonfiction debut, Wrobel presents her readers with devotional reflections on the “astonishing ways” God moves through their lives. The author writes these ruminations with the clear understanding that even devout Christians can sometimes find their faith difficult to uphold. “Have you experienced moments of feeling like your soul is as dry as the desert?” she asks. “Where even the most moving of praise and worship songs leaves you feeling apathetic and blasé? Reading scripture is a chore?” Her book’s plainspoken, enthusiastic prose is clearly aimed at helping believers during those and other difficult times. She enhances this effect by mixing in portions of her own life story to illustrate the struggles that someone can have with the daily walk of faith. When writing about her grief following her mother’s death, for instance, she recalls that her prayers were “stilted and weak” until God opened her heart to the simple concept of joy. These anecdotes do quite a bit to personalize a faith narrative that would otherwise be fairly standard in its general outlines. Wrobel’s comments about the faithful finding support even in the midst of trials and sickness will strike many readers of Christian inspirational titles as very familiar, almost clichés. But her invocation of everyday things, such as worrying about the health of relatives or tackling back-to-school shopping for her youngest daughter, helps to ground her observations and flesh them out. The author concludes each of her work’s brief sections with blank spaces where her readers are called to “Selah—Meditate on These Things.” Some of her seasonal references are comforting, as when she notes that the winter snows can be seen as reflections of the purity and holiness of Jesus. And the volume’s central message of hope remains uplifting.
An inviting and attractively packaged devotional for Christians.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-973676-07-2
Page Count: 130
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 25, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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