During the Thanksgiving break, I acquired a copy of Stephen King's book of short stories FULL DARK, NO STARS. I read the first short story, "1922," in one day. Even though I have been disappointed with King's works in the past, I couldn't put the book down while reading this story. I'm not quite sure what drove me to buy the book when I've said terrible things about King in the past, but I was drawn to this book like moths to a flame. I was intrigued by everything about it: the cover, the title, the fact that it's a book of short stories, and, ok, I admit it, the fact that it's a new Stephen King.
This story, "1922," is one to curl your toes, typical Stephen King. But it's done in a manner where I didn't find the "offensive" parts offensive. Unlike when I read NEEDFUL THINGS and felt that King just threw in language and violence for pure shock value, this time, everything fit together to create a story that is going to end up in the literary canon for all time.
It's a story to remind us that one decision that is made by one person can affect more than that one individual. If you saw the movie CRASH, you saw how one incident affected the lives of more people than just the original people involved--it's how we all CRASH in to one another and affect the lives of many. I think that's an important lesson for everyone to learn because it's so easy to think that when we make a decision and follow through that the only person affected by that decision is ourselves when the reality is that even people we don't know can be affected by our decisions. We have to live life consciously and make smart choices.
It's also a story that reminds us that everyone plays a role. We are all important to the "universe." I'm not saying that the way I mean to say it....it's just that when we think we aren't special or important, the truth is that we are. Our piddly, insignificant lives make a difference in the lives of others around us, whether we're aware of it or not.
What strikes me the most about King's "1922" is how even when we consciously choose to do something bad--evil, our evil actions are not without consequences. Not just consequences such as going to jail or being grounded. Wilfred in the story commits the unspeakable act of murder--he planned the whole thing, but he soon learns that even though he wanted to do it with every fiber of his being, even though he wasn't a God-fearing man, evil eats away at a man's soul.
I certainly enjoyed this first story in King's new book. That's a weird thing to say when writing about a story about murder, but it's still a great story and well worth reading! For someone who hasn't been a TRUE Stephen King fan, this is one Stephen King work not to be missed!
Great Books
To read or not to read?....that is a silly question!
Sunday, November 28, 2010
CHOOSING TO SEE
I've had Mary Beth Chapman's book CHOOSING TO SEE since it first came out a few months ago, but I put off reading it because I wanted to finish re-reading the HARRY POTTER series and because I knew I needed to be emotionally ready to read it. If you don't know, Mary Beth Chapman is the wife of Christian singer/songwriter Steven Curtis Chapman. (If you don't know who he is, just go to youtube and listen to one of his songs. In the Christian music world, he's huge!) Anyway, in 2008, their youngest biological son (in high school at the time) ran over their youngest adopted daughter (5 years old at the time). It was an accident, but obviously, it devastated their family.
The book is beautifully written and tells the story in such a way that is tasteful and tender. I wept through the majority of it. I couldn't even get through the Forward and Introductions without bawling like a baby. My experience is not at all the same as theirs, but the emotions involved with losing a child are the same. I connected with the pain the Chapmans have been experiencing since this tragedy in their lives. It was so heart-wrenching to read their story, but it was heart-warming to read how God has been with them through this terrible time in their lives.
Mary Beth vividly describes the truth that regardless of our faith, we still hurt to the very depths of our being....we're still sad and so full of pain and anguish that we often wonder how in the world we're going to make it through the next minute, let alone the whole day. But BECAUSE we are people of faith, even in our extreme sorrow, sadness, pain, and suffering, we still experience and KNOW God's peace that passes all understanding...HIS pure JOY in knowing that one day we will all be with our loved ones again....it's simply of matter of CHOOSING TO SEE God at work.
Oh, how I still need those words. It's been 11 years since my FIRST loss, but, like Mary Beth, I still have my good days....and my bad days. My bad days are fewer now, but I vividly remember when there were more bad days than good.
CHOOSING TO SEE is definitely a book worth reading. It is a wonderful tribute to her sweet little Maria who died on that fateful day in May 2008. It's a wonderful tribute to her beautiful family and how they have continued to lean on one another and to have the wonderful support of friends and family through this terrible time. It is also a wonderful tribute demonstrating that God is with us....always, if we simply CHOOSE TO SEE Him.
The book is beautifully written and tells the story in such a way that is tasteful and tender. I wept through the majority of it. I couldn't even get through the Forward and Introductions without bawling like a baby. My experience is not at all the same as theirs, but the emotions involved with losing a child are the same. I connected with the pain the Chapmans have been experiencing since this tragedy in their lives. It was so heart-wrenching to read their story, but it was heart-warming to read how God has been with them through this terrible time in their lives.
Mary Beth vividly describes the truth that regardless of our faith, we still hurt to the very depths of our being....we're still sad and so full of pain and anguish that we often wonder how in the world we're going to make it through the next minute, let alone the whole day. But BECAUSE we are people of faith, even in our extreme sorrow, sadness, pain, and suffering, we still experience and KNOW God's peace that passes all understanding...HIS pure JOY in knowing that one day we will all be with our loved ones again....it's simply of matter of CHOOSING TO SEE God at work.
Oh, how I still need those words. It's been 11 years since my FIRST loss, but, like Mary Beth, I still have my good days....and my bad days. My bad days are fewer now, but I vividly remember when there were more bad days than good.
CHOOSING TO SEE is definitely a book worth reading. It is a wonderful tribute to her sweet little Maria who died on that fateful day in May 2008. It's a wonderful tribute to her beautiful family and how they have continued to lean on one another and to have the wonderful support of friends and family through this terrible time. It is also a wonderful tribute demonstrating that God is with us....always, if we simply CHOOSE TO SEE Him.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Verses on the Death of Polly Anna
Yes, Polly Anna was her name
And smiling (teaching?), laughing was her game.
She loved life and she loved her Lord
Never was she stiff as a board.
How short she was, and chubby too,
She loved all of the boys she knew—
True, she liked the wonderful men
She would have seen them all again.
Gerard Butler, Ewan [Mc]Gregor,
Johnny Depp, Mel Gibson, and more—
Flowed deep within her dreams always
Though, with none could she run away.
But her fav-or-ite man is her
Son, Samuel Josiah, for sure!
Movies, books, fantasies, and on
She’d mightily enjoy ‘til dawn.
Her collection of books was grand
They could not be wrapped with one band.
Gone With the Wind, Cold Sassy Tree,
Twilight Saga, Ivanhoe, see—
All seven Harry Potter books
As long as her husband don't look!
So, too was her collection of
As long as her husband don't look!
So, too was her collection of
Movies large; they came from above:
One Night With the King. Moulin Rouge.
The Phantom of the O-per-a.
Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
Edward, the Cullens, and Bella.
Friends and CSI: Las Vegas
Shania Twain, Twila Paris,
Sting, and Michael W. Smith,
Phil Collins, Amy Grant, Go Fish.
And don’t forget, many pandas,
Precious Moments, and camera
To take many pictures for her
Scrapbooking hobby, she was sure.
She always taught with all her heart
Never was she playing a part
What you see is what you get. So,
Jesus is her truth, her life, mo-
Only way—He will never leave
You or forsake you, promised me.
Yes, Polly Anna--she sure was!
DRACULA IN LOVE
I have finished reading Dracula in Love. It got put off for a few weeks while I re-read all 7 Harry Potter books, but during the past week, I was able to finish what I'd started. It's weird. It definitely has a great premise and follows a line of thinking that anyone who has read the original Dracula was already thinking--that there was more going on between the Count and Mina than Stoker implied. (I can't get the italics to work this time to italicize the book title! Crazy computer.)
With that being said, though, this books takes a very weird turn into even more supernatural characters and events that just aren't as believable as the original. It is based on the primise that Mina was originally (700 years earlier) the daughter of a fairy queen. Thus, it was SHE who had originally seduced/charmed the Count and made him what he is, but then she became pregnant, had the baby, and the baby died during a plague epidemic. Mina, overcome with grief over her baby's death, killed herself, leaving the Count to wonder if she'd ever really loved him in the first place. So over the course of the next 700 years, the Count who has been immortal, has essentially chased Mina all over the place, but each and every life she's reincarnated in to, she chooses SOMETHING over the Count.
And, yes, in this new life, she chooses the baby she's pregnant with (by Jonathan) over the Count--yet again. The book does end on a "happy" note in that Mina and Jonathan apparently have a very "happy" marriage (they seem to have lots of sex) while Mina knows that her passion for the Count will one day bring the two of them together again--maybe this next time, for all eternity....
Blah, blah, blah......
It was all just a bit too much for me. It portrays Dr. Seward, Von Helsing, and Quincey Morris as some of the most evil men ever. Granted, I don't really believe everyone was as "pure" as Stoker suggests in his Dracula, but at the same time, I don't think they were all so very horrible, either. Essentially, it's as if every single human being is overcome with sexual desires, but the ones who express their sexual desires are insane and in desperate need of help--help which only exacerbates the so-called problem.
I know I'm not explaining myself well enough for you to understand what I'm talking about if you haven't read the book. I obviously found it interesting enough to read all the way through to the end, but I promise you that it's not interesting enough that I'll ever read the book again, nor do I recommend it as a book worthy of being shared.
With that being said, though, this books takes a very weird turn into even more supernatural characters and events that just aren't as believable as the original. It is based on the primise that Mina was originally (700 years earlier) the daughter of a fairy queen. Thus, it was SHE who had originally seduced/charmed the Count and made him what he is, but then she became pregnant, had the baby, and the baby died during a plague epidemic. Mina, overcome with grief over her baby's death, killed herself, leaving the Count to wonder if she'd ever really loved him in the first place. So over the course of the next 700 years, the Count who has been immortal, has essentially chased Mina all over the place, but each and every life she's reincarnated in to, she chooses SOMETHING over the Count.
And, yes, in this new life, she chooses the baby she's pregnant with (by Jonathan) over the Count--yet again. The book does end on a "happy" note in that Mina and Jonathan apparently have a very "happy" marriage (they seem to have lots of sex) while Mina knows that her passion for the Count will one day bring the two of them together again--maybe this next time, for all eternity....
Blah, blah, blah......
It was all just a bit too much for me. It portrays Dr. Seward, Von Helsing, and Quincey Morris as some of the most evil men ever. Granted, I don't really believe everyone was as "pure" as Stoker suggests in his Dracula, but at the same time, I don't think they were all so very horrible, either. Essentially, it's as if every single human being is overcome with sexual desires, but the ones who express their sexual desires are insane and in desperate need of help--help which only exacerbates the so-called problem.
I know I'm not explaining myself well enough for you to understand what I'm talking about if you haven't read the book. I obviously found it interesting enough to read all the way through to the end, but I promise you that it's not interesting enough that I'll ever read the book again, nor do I recommend it as a book worthy of being shared.
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