Books from October - Tebow, Germany, and High Places

Ever since I purchased my Kindle in August 2010, I have become quite a reading machine (if I do say so myself).  About January of this year (2011 [for when I am taking a trip down memory lane in 2031]) I had to make myself temper my fiction reading with some non-fiction.  Then, in about March 2011 (again, for posterity) I started focusing on Jesus-centric reading (Francis Chan, Steven Furtick, etc).  Nowadays, I have to force myself to finish ONE book before I start another (which is so much easier in theory than in application).  Anyways, all of that said as background to provide a brief update on the books I read in October (caveat:  I have never been good at book reviews.  I am not eloquent or introspective.  I am not even sure why I am writing a book review now...).

Hinds Feet on High Places

I loved this book.  Christ's love and patience and plan for us (and His walk with us) and the challenges we face in our Christian walk is woven in with a tale of Much-Afraid and her journey to transform her feet to be like hind's feet and journey to the high places.  Though it took a couple of chapters to get used to the naming conventions Hannah Hurnard uses, I couldn't put the book down.  I am all too often Much-Afraid and anxiously await my hinds feet to get me to the high places.  I call out to the Shepard quite often and thankfully and gratefully he is there.  I will be re-reading this book before the end of the year; as much as it is a tale, the story is challenging and has applicability to my life everyday.  It reminds me so much of C.S. Lewis but is easier to read and understand the analogies and metaphors.

In the Garden of Beasts:  Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin

After reading Unbroken, I was looking forward to this book as I hoped to continue my journey of reading about the heroes of World War II and their stories.  However, as powerful as Unbroken was, In the  Garden of Beasts was not (for me).  It definitely read like a history book and in many cases I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.  The story is eye-opening, as it showed a different side of  Berlin  (not that I have been to Berlin, but did study WWII in college during my history classes [history major here]), but I can't say I really took anything away from it (other than a history lesson).  While I would recommend Unbroken to anyone and everyone, I would not recommend In the Garden of Beasts to everyone.

Through My Eyes

Let me start with I like Tim Tebow.  It started with a picture of him in Thailand with one of my friend's from high school little girl (click here for that picture [it is awesome!] http://www.aolnews.com/2008/07/10/tim-tebow/).  I admire his outspoken testimony and his passion in both his walk with Christ and on the football field (that kind of hurts to say as I am a 'I bleed garnet and gold' FSU fan).  I didn't even laugh with my friends when Tim Tebow cried when the Gators lost the SEC championship in 2009.  All that to say, I did not love his book.  Though his testimony is inspiring and challenges me in not only my actions but in my words and thoughts, to me, all too often (in the book) his passion comes across as arrogance (my parents sometimes refer to this as 'humble bragging').  Also, I don't care about football stats.  Running however number of yards in a game and passing for however many yards goes in one eye and out the other (the reading equivalent of 'in one ear and out the other').  I think that as Tim Tebow gets older, his writing will evolve and improve (I do hope he continues writing).  I would love to hear more about his trips overseas (such as the Philippines) and his foundation.  I loved the chapters about his work with the hospital in Gainesville.  These are the kind of things that inspire me, not how much one can benchpress or negative comments about FSU.