![]() In How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World, Francis Wheen brilliantly laments the extraordinary rise of superstition, relativism and emotional hysteria. ![]() What characterizes our era? Cults, quacks, gurus, irrational panics, moral confusion and an epidemic of mumbo-jumbo, that's what. ![]() ![]() The result has been that the trickle-down policies promoted by the Republican Party are undermining our economy, democracy, institutions and health.” For further discussion contact author at But trickle-down has not only distorted our economic thought it has also distorted our political thought, our sociology and our concept of the rule of law. From inside the book: “Since 1980, the economy has been growing, and productivity has been growing, but trickle-down values-that we, the American people promote, pursuant to the Republican Party’s conservative ideology-have rigged the economy to continuously upwardly redistribute those revenues attributable to our increased productivity, yielding a productivity/wage disconnect, resulting in increased concentration of income and wealth at the top, in corporations and among older Americans (beneficiaries of income from Social Security, pensions and investments and continuing income due to delaying retirement), and the lowest percentage of GDP attributable to wages and highest attributable to profits since World War II. ![]()
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![]() ![]() But how? How are we to combat these ceaseless thoughts of stress and worry? Allen reminds us that we do so when we “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). The words of a friend, “this isn’t who you are,” allowed Allen to realize that her toxic thoughts were an attack of the enemy and it was time to fight back. I believe many of us can relate to her experience. We allow our minds to spiral and adopt patterns that keep us stuck Allen encourages us with a better way.Īllen describes her own “spiral of darkness.” After an unexpected encounter with a woman at one of her speaking engagements she found herself entertaining thoughts of fear and doubt and even questioned the validity of God and faith. ![]() Fear over our health, families, jobs, and finances overwhelm us. ![]() Thoughts such as “am I good enough, worthy, or loved” can consume us. I find the book, Get Out of Your Head, by Jennie Allen incredibly relevant in these uncertain days as many of us find ourselves battling anxiety, perhaps even questioning truth and faith. Book: Get Out Of Your Head: Stopping the Spiral of Toxic Thoughts Author: Jennie Allen ![]() ![]() And this isn't one of those books people buy but don't read it is no War and Peace. Lest this sound like clichéd sell-copy: The Prayer of Jabez has sold 3 to 4 million copies (and the number is rising as you read this). His The Prayer of Jabez has turned out to be not only an exegetical coup but also a spiritual inspiration to millions. It is to Bruce Wilkinson's credit to have discerned something God-inspired in a couple of formerly obscure sentences in the first nine mind-numbing chapters of 1 Chronicles. It causes one to doubt Paul's affirmation that all Scripture is profitable for instruction in righteousness. Multnomah, 96 pages, $9.99 THE SECRETS OF THE VINE: Breaking Through to AbundanceĪ book that begins with ten names ("Adam, Seth, Enoch, Kenan") and continues thusly, with rarely a verb, adverb, or adjective for nine chapters (all the way to "Obadiah and Hanan") doesn't appear to be rich homiletical ground. ![]() ![]() THE PRAYER OF JABEZ: Breaking Through to the Blessed Life ![]() ![]() ![]() As if his blunt honesty was contagious, she finds that voicing what she really means comes out so easily when she’s with him. ![]() But then she meets Owen Armstrong, a truth-telling, music-obsessed guy. With the focus on Whitney, Annabel begins to bury a lot of her thoughts from her family and it becomes a habit. (Though, she didn’t.) At home, her parents are completely oblivious to Annabel’s friendless life seeing as they’re more preoccupied with her older sister who recently became anorexic. At school, she’s shunned by her peers for shamefully stealing her best friend’s boyfriend behind her back at a party last summer. Though in reality, she’s far from that role. ![]() In everyone’s eyes Annabel Greene seems to appear as “the girl who has everything” for the fact that she plays the part of a well-liked, popular cheerleader in a television commercial for Kopf’s Department Store. Genres: Contemporary, Realistic FictionĪmazon | Barnes & Noble | Books a Million 5 Stars, Reread May 9, 2017 Published by Viking Books on April 6, 2006 ![]() ![]() ![]() Her husband, Cub - whom she married as a pregnant teenager - is a kind but passive man who cedes all decisions to his domineering parents who own the sheep farm where they all live and work. A mother of young children, trapped in claustrophobic rural poverty, Dellarobia long ago repressed any ambitions or promise of her own. As environmental, economic, and political issues converge, the residents of Feathertown, Tennessee, are forced to come to terms with their changing place in the larger world.ĭellarobia Turnbow, the engaging central character who sets things in motion, is ready for a change of any kind. Set in Appalachia, a region to which Kingsolver has returned often in both her acclaimed fiction and nonfiction, its suspenseful narrative traces the unforeseen impact of global concerns on the ordinary citizens of a rural community. ![]() The novel is a heady exploration of climate change, along with media exploitation and political opportunism that lie at the root of what may be our most urgent modern dilemma. Barbara Kingsolver returns to native ground in her fourteenth book, Flight Behavior. ![]() ![]() Moon and Ba effectively employs selective lens focus and color schemes to emphasize the effect of Bra’s relationship with Olinda on his perception of life. Ba and Moon explores the importance of relationships and its effect the characters throughout Daytripper through the use of colors, selective lens focus and echoing. Through the collective sets of obituaries, it forces us to consider the value of our friendships and the purposes of our lives. The humanity of Daytripper is found in the ways that the readers relate and how they are drawn to reflect and put themselves into Bra’s shoes.Although the novel may focus on the deaths of one man, each death is an echo of his life. The complexity of ideas strewn throughout the novel allows the audience to interpret the story in wide array meanings. ![]() ![]() The authors delivers a work of art that commemorates the unique experiences in life while reminding the reader that even a commonplace can be extraordinary. Each issue is a small fragment from different periods of BrA?s’ life that is presented non-chronologically. Collaboratively written and drawn by brothers Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon, “Daytripper” is a novel that effectively utilizes the graphic novel medium that shadows the journey of Oliva Domingo’s as a father, a son, a friend, a writer and a lover through glances of minuscule but focal moments of his life. ![]() No aspect of one’s life can bring more pleasure than their family and nothing can bring more pain. ![]() ![]() ![]() From vampire space robots with sneakers for antennae to a froglike woodland beastie with a striped shirt and slime trail, this is low-tech, high-appeal fun. Czekaj’s goofy cartoon creatures appear at right (one aquatic monster has a single eye, pink lips, dragon wings, and tentacles with paws), opposite Mills’s staccato descriptions (“Scales/ Flippers/ Fur/ Three Feet”). With die-cut pages throughout, readers can flip and mix monsters to create. ![]() (starred review) "Who said an exquisite corpse has to be human? Readers can create mix and match monsters thanks to board book pages divided horizontally into thirds. Elizabeth Mills Horns, Tails, Spikes, and Claws (Mix-and-Match Monster Book) (Nov Brdbk) Board book on . HORNS, TAILS, SPIKES, AND CLAWS is a mix-and-match board book of monstrous proportions Building off of the well-known song Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, this book explores all sorts of different monsters from top to bottom (and horns and claws and fangs and wings). With die-cut pages throughout, readers can flip and mix monsters to create their ideal creature! Elizabeth Mills and illustrated by Jef.įlip the pages to create up to 125 different monsters!īuilding off of the well-known song Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes, this book explores all sorts of different monsters from top to bottom (and horns and claws and fangs and wings). ![]() ![]() So then what should we pack as a present for Ram? A ballot box someone suggests. World’s largest democracy (WLD) which can conduct regular elections can not grudge him that. Even though he wants Muslims to jettison their burqas and skull caps, Naxals their revolutionary anthem, Ambedkar his followers, Sardar Sarovar its Sardar, Kashmiris their whatever, North East its fascination with KPop, Ram as the nightwatchman of contemporary Indian Liberalism deserves this thick vanity birthday card. You can’t escape Ram (that’s what they call him) for he has been one of the most visible of the breed called ‘public’ intellectuals. In mostly collegial banter and luvvies, you can discover that he is from Doon School, St Stephens, a Dylan fan, a cricket enthusiast, failed UPSC aspirant, historian, prose stylist, liberal without his brahmin pony tail(okay nowhere is his caste mentioned, but with such pedigree he can only be a Brahmin). In the dusty magazine shop in Laitumkhrah, a magazine unleashes his 60th Birthday. ![]() ![]() Bloody Hell, even in Shillong one can’t escape Ramchandra Guha. ![]() ![]() ![]() The Pink Hotel exposes a tenuous class system within its walls, full of insurmountable expectations and unspoken resentments, which deteriorate as the city burns. ![]() The Pink Hotel closes its doors to "outsiders," and Keith and Kit find themselves confined with an anxious, disgruntled staff and a growing roster of eccentric, ultra-wealthy, dangerously idle guests who flock to the hotel for sanctuary, company, and entertainment. Soon after their arrival, wildfires sweep through the surrounding mountains and Los Angeles becomes a pressure cooker, with riots breaking out across the city amid rolling blackouts. Kit loves their small-town life, but Keith has always wanted more, and the glittering, lily-scented lobby makes him feel right at home. Newlyweds Keith and Kit Collins can hardly believe their luck when the general manager of the iconic, opulent Pink Hotel invites them to come for a luxurious stay as a bid to hire Keith. Liska Jacobs's stunning indictment of a society teetering toward apocalypse is one you won't easily forget." -Janelle Brown, author of I'll Be You "Heady and dark and dangerous, The Pink Hotel is an intoxicating binge of a book. ![]() ![]() However, when there is action, it rushes forward. Moreover, the mystery surrounding the shroud is drawn out almost to the point of tedium. The pace of the narrative varies greatly from section to section because the author includes business meetings and legal documents in their entirety, his obsessive attention to minutiae slowing down the action for long stretches. Writers of fiction find it much easier to create evil or despicable characters than admirable ones, and Stoker does include one splendid portrait of an individual we love to despise, but the good characters predominate, each one unique and cherished in a different way by the reader. How he uses this power is, of course, the test of his worth. These various aspects are unified by the character of the hero, a purely admirable individual whom we love and admire from the very first and who acquires immense power. It includes a beautiful love story and an adventure tale-a double rescue requiring strength, cunning, and cutting-edge technology. The story spans the years from 1892 to 1909. Yet it is essentially a political novel-a utopian experiment in a fictitious Balkan country, the Land of the Blue Mountains. As the title suggests, this work does flirt with the supernatural. ![]() |