Read this one!

[Nemesis]

I recently recovered and read the book "Mister God, This is Anna" by Fynn, which I found wonderful and recommend to everyone.

Mister God, This Is Anna is an enchanted little book which presents to us the very large in the very small... we encounter the infinite in the finite... in truth that is exactly the way we all encounter the Divine God, no matter how erudite and sophisticated we may deceive ourselves into thinking we are... the deeper the "theological sophistry" the larger is the shovel required to bale it out.

This small volume brings into our life a small child...a five year old girl (just exactly as she appeared into the life of "Fynn")... and just as Fynn had the scales fall from his own eyes as he discoursed with this street urchin/angelic waif... so too will this encounter open our spiritual eyes to the incarnate presence of "Mister God" in our own lives.

We can see a bit more clearly, through a glass made a bit less dark, if we try to look through the eyes of Anna, this five year old little girl as she opens her thoughts to Fynn... and to us.

here is an extract, just read on!

*********************

Her ability to ignore the excesses of information, dismiss the useless frill and uncover the heart of things was truly magical.

'Fynn, I love you.'

When Anna said that, every word was shattered with the fullness of meaning she packed into it.

Her 'I' was a totality. Whatever this 'I' was for Anna it was packed tight with being.

Like the light that didn't fray, Anna's 'I' didn't fray either; it was pure and all of one piece. Her use of the word 'love' was not sentimental or mushy, it was impelling and full of courage and encouragement.

For Anna, 'love' meant the recognition of perfectibility in another. Anna 'saw' a person in every part. Anna 'saw' a 'you'. Now that is something to experience, to be seen as a 'you', clearly and definitely, with no parts hidden. Wonderful and frightening.

I'd always understood that it was Mister God who saw you clearly and in your entirety but then all Anna's efforts were directed to being like Mister God, so perhaps the trick is catching if only you try hard enough.

******************

and what are your recommendations?

[Caprice]

Let me tell you about one of my favorites: Elizabeth Walker's "DAY DREAMS". It's a 601-page book. I read it more than 9 times, so far.

The book is about a golden girl: Celia Sheraton. The adored daughter of a wealthy man, married with 2 lovely children (girls), she lives fast and drives fast...too fast: a car crash leaves her in a coma from which it seems that she will never recover.

Until an ambitious young neurosurgeon decides that waking Sleeping Beauty (so far hidden in a private ward, for reasons you'll discover if you read the book) will make his name. Charles Davenport's determination and genius achieve the impossible: Celia returns from the dead!

But outside the hospital, life has not stopped. Celia's parents are dead, their fortune left to her cousin Edwin Braddock. Her husband, David, has brought another woman into her home - and into her bed. Her daughters, babies when she crashed, are truculent teenagers in the midst of adolescence. And someone wants to put celia back to sleep - forever....

The thing I liked about this romance is that it gives us an insight into neurosurgery (a field I love so much!) and into coma patients' psyche. A tightly plotted and dramatic novel of suspense, it is also an unusual and sensual love story.

[Nemesis]

A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini


Mariam's life revolves around her father's visits. While she lives in a hut with her mother, it's the weekly visits from her father that are the light of her existence. All that changes when she turns fifteen and is forced to marry an older man she has never met. Rasheed lives on the other side of the country, so Miriam leaves behind the only people she has ever known to live with a stranger. Rasheed is a strict man, and Miriam finds herself with restrictions on her new life.
On the day the Soviets invade Afghanistan, another woman is born. Laila is raised in a progressive family. Her father encourages her to learn as much as she can in school. Her mother suffers from depression and leaves her alone most of the time. Her best friend is a neighbor boy, Tariq, who lost a leg to a land mine years earlier.
Laila lives just down the street from Mariam, yet they hardly interact until the struggle for control in Afghanistan brings tragedy to their street. Then their lives become irrevocably linked. Despite the 19 years age difference between them, a strong bond of friendship is formed. Will it be enough to endure the hardship ahead?

***************************

This book isn't light entertainment by any stretch of the imagination. The writing style produces an almost melancholy air right from the start.
I found the first half slow going at times, mainly because I knew where the story was going. Once I got into the second half, things really picked up. The ending was very bittersweet but I couldn't think of a better way to end it.

Adding to the book's richness is the historical background. The novel covers 40 years of Afghani history. While that is never the focus of the novel, it is an ever present backdrop to the personal struggle of the two women. We in the west often forget how much we truly have to be thankful for. Here, we get a picture of life in the midst of a civil war and under an oppressive regime.


This book comes highly recommended.

[Caprice]

Sounds interesting. I'm looking forward to reading it!

[Nostalgia]

I have just downloaded this book, I can’t wait to read it and delve into the Afghani human stories in its various dimensions.
I have already read the kite Runner by the same author, it was best seller in America in 2003..It told the story of two boys growing up in Kabul, inseparable until a betrayal followed by war and flight from war tore them apart. I strongly recommend it for you!

[Nemesis]

Envoyé par Nostalgia

I have just downloaded this book, I can’t wait to read it and delve into the Afghani human stories in its various dimensions.
I have already read the kite Runner by the same author, it was best seller in America in 2003..It told the story of two boys growing up in Kabul, inseparable until a betrayal followed by war and flight from war tore them apart. I strongly recommend it for you!

yes, I ve read the kite runner too...

The Kite Runner of Khaled Hosseini's deeply moving fiction debut is an illiterate Afghan boy with an uncanny instinct for predicting exactly where a downed kite will land. Growing up in the city of Kabul in the early 1970s, Hassan was narrator Amir's closest friend even though the loyal 11-year-old with "a face like a Chinese doll" was the son of Amir's father's servant and a member of Afghanistan's despised Hazara minority. But in 1975, on the day of Kabul's annual kite-fighting tournament, something unspeakable happened between the two boys.Narrated by Amir, a 40-year-old novelist living in California, The Kite Runner tells the gripping story of a boyhood friendship destroyed by jealousy, fear, and the kind of ruthless evil that transcends mere politics. Running parallel to this personal narrative of loss and redemption is the story of modern Afghanistan and of Amir's equally guilt-ridden relationship with the war-torn city of his birth. The first Afghan novel to be written in English, The Kite Runner begins in the final days of King Zahir Shah's 40-year reign and traces the country's fall from a secluded oasis to a tank-strewn battlefield controlled by the Russians and then the trigger-happy Taliban. When Amir returns to Kabul to rescue Hassan's orphaned child, the personal and the political get tangled together in a plot that is as suspenseful as it is taut with feeling.

even though it is fiction, this haunting story with spectacular, yet uncomfortable scenes creates in the reader a sense of reality that is difficult not to believe.
I easily felt like I was reading the real life story of a young boy, who grows up still haunted by his past cowardice. the characters are real and alive, the setting in afghanistan and america is superb, the plot is outstanding and the pace of the novel is fast and captivating.. all in all, this emotionally gripping story provides an insight and understanding of the human tragedy in afghanistan. The author successfully touched on human emotions, stirring guilt, sadness, anger, and happiness throughout the book.

[Nemesis]

lamb
the gospel according to biff, christ's childhood pal by christopher moore

the birth of jesus has been well chronicled, as have his glorious teachings, acts, and divine sacrifice after his thirtieth birthday. but no one knows about the early life of him, the missing years... except biff, the messiahs best bud, who has been resurrected to tell the story in the divinely hilarious yet heartfelt work "reminiscent of Vonnegut and Douglas Adams" (Philadelphia Inquirer).
verily, the story biff has to tell is a miraculous one, filled with remarkable journeys, magic, healings, kung fu, corpse reanimations, demons, and hot babes. even the considerable wiles and devotion of the saviors pal may not be enough to divert joshua from his tragic destiny.
but theres no one who loves josh more and biff isnt about to let his extraordinary pal suffer and ascend without a fight.

******************

at first glance, it might seem biff is an archetype - the guy whose exterior reflects "a**hole," (to quote the angel, raziel), but who actually possesses a heart of gold.
but on further examination, biff's more than that. he's intelligent (incidentally, the first to theorize that the world was round, and the first to speculate on the existence of gravity), kind and selfless. sure, he has his faults, but that brilliant combination of jerk/gentleman is what makes him so intriguing.
and after reading lamb I came away with a new understanding of jesus (called joshua in the book) as a human being. christopher moore brings that belief home with an almost magical tenderness.

is lamb a perfect book? no! some of the humor was a little too slapstick to really work. but as a whole, it's a bright spot in a world that has grown far too serious and cynical. lamb was painstakingly researched; it's poignant and real; and, oh yeah...it's incredibly funny.