Leonora (Book Review)

The painter Leonora Carrington, at least as she appears in Elena Poniatowska's 2011 novel, sounds like she would have been exhausting company. As a child, if she was not playing with her imaginary friends (known as sidhes) she was telling anyone who would listen that she was a horse.

Her later success as an artist who specialized in equine surrealism is, Poniatowska suggests, less a matter of choice than temperament. When her father yells, "You are a truly impossible child!", one hears "truly impossible" as a piece of prophetic art criticism that describes the fantastical figures of "The Pomps of the Subsoil" or "The Giantess".

Currently the subject of a retrospective at Tate Liverpool, Leonora was born into a life of wealth and ambition. Her father, the major shareholder in ICI, loved his only daughter, but planned a life for her of debutante balls. Leonora was her father's daughter, for good and bad. Possessed of his determination and drive, she also found in Harold Wilde Carrington the perfect person against which to rebel.

Before the Fire (Book Review)

This is a novel about Stick (or Kieran to his mum) and about burning anger and how that can manifest itself. It’s about violence and depression and anger internalised and then realised in a fit of fury and directionlessness. It’s about going nowhere fast.

In June 2011, Stick and his best friend Mac are preparing to celebrate turning 18 by packing up a shitty second-hand car and driving to Malaga to live the high life of sun, sex and sangria. The night before they leave, Mac is stabbed to death in a seemingly random attack. Stick tries to come to terms with Mac’s death but when external forces – his parental units, the justice system, friends – let him down, he turns to numbing himself with weed, booze and running around at night. Then he meets J, an equally damaged teenager, who has long since decided that dreams of escape from their estate in Manchester are futile. As they crash towards August, and violence and rioting in London spreading across the country, Stick and J have to confront their rage and grief and decide how best to channel it.

Sarah Butler’s novel is a slow burn of a book. Her ear for teenage dialogue, neuroses, tiny details about mannerisms, dress, opinions, are well-researched and feel authentic. The descent into rage and anger is well-paced and Butler manages to keep the external threats to Stick’s resolve throbbing away. The book revels in the diversity and mystery of young people. It never tries to imitate the “innit”-ness of other authors who fling out slang as a substitute for character development. Instead, Butler’s prose is microscopic, delicate and honest.

The book is good at showing how one kid from one estate with one history might end up caught in the madness and violence and looting and rioting that happened in August 2011. Instead of trying to condone or condemn all young people, Butler is more interested in telling a human story about grief and how that can manifest itself in unflinching anger, no matter our age.

The Kindness (Book Review)

The canny reviewer tries not to spoil the reader’s potential enjoyment of a book by spilling its secrets. Sometimes this can make it very awkward to write the review; to be both true to the book and helpful to the reader. Polly Samson’s second novel (she’s also the author of two acclaimed collections of short stories), is just this sort of narrative. It may not begin like a thriller, but it produces, without warning, some of the twists and reverses of one. Reader beware, things are not as they seem.

The Kindness begins in a naturalistic style, in the baking summer of 1997, at Firdaws, a picturesque cottage deep in the English countryside described in lush, lyrical prose, where Julian, “an old man of twenty-nine”, lives alone, ill and mourning the loss of his three-year-old daughter, Mira. There are no photographs of Mira now, “no sticky bottle of Calpol” by the bed, the house has been “cleansed of her existence”. This is a wringing evocation of grief. Firdaws was once Julian’s parents’ home, and redolent with older memories. His organizing

mother arrives with his stepfather, Michael, who is also his literary agent – Julian is the author of bizarre-sounding dog stories and film scripts for children – and the pair of them urge him respectively to eat and work. They’re followed by Katie, his childhood sweetheart, spurned years ago in favour of Mira’s mother, Julia (yes, Julian and Julia!), but now back living in the village, raw from her divorce, two little boys in tow, and with renewed designs on Julian.

As he fields these unwelcome incursions on his lonely vigil, Julian revisits the past. We learn how as a student he first met his beloved Julia while she was flying a hawk on a windy hillside. Decade-older Julia, once a teenage runaway before marrying an abuser, reflects later that she “would feel safe and comforted for the only time in her life” with Julian. She became pregnant. Julian gave up his studies to support her. She lost the child. They moved to London where Julian forged his career and Julia, too, grew happy, running a garden design business with her friend Freda. Finally, after years of childlessness Mira was born. Then Julian unwittingly spoiled everything by moving the little family down to the back of beyond, and stress and bitterness entered his and Julia’s relationship.

All this Samson recounts while moving dexterously back and forth in time, sustaining a single, seamless narrative, though it’s vital for the reader to stay alert. We bask in the charming, genteel, bohemian sensibility of her writing. Woven into it, however, like a sinister black thread, is the heart-wrenching account of Mira’s long struggle with cancer.

Then, two-thirds of the way through the novel, comes the mother of all twists. The burden of the narrative passes to Julia, but five years further on, and this apparently all-cards-all-the-table novel abruptly changes procedural tack. For a while the reader flounders, caught by the authorial sleight-of-hand, forced suddenly to review everything they thought they knew. There were clues, yes, but is there really a sense of an unclear picture now moving sharply into focus? Is it fair to dupe the reader about something all the characters knew but the reader didn’t?

Once equilibrium is regained, Julia’s narrative plunges into a different community of characters, many of whom we’ve met earlier but are now emerging fully realized from the shadows. We’re grateful for Julia’s viewpoint, and that she answers questions we were troubled by, not least by providing a properly engaging picture of Julian as she first met him, “a windswept boy lolloping towards her across the Downs… His eyelashes were... as long as a girl’s and so thick it appeared he was wearing kohl”. This helps us finally appreciate the depth of Katie’s anguish when she lost him and why, once divorced, she wants him back.

A bit less plausible, on the other hand, is the introduction of a series of odd, schematic events, such as a car crash, that rely less on carefully built-up traits of character than on chance or, in one example, biological quirk. We’re also asked to believe that Julian would act in a particular way that greatly affects the story’s outcome. Samson brings the book round, though, to a most satisfying and believable ending. The Kindness is to be read more than once, not merely to enjoy again the beauty of the writing and the considerable insights into human experience, but to test the earlier narrative with the knowledge of what is to come.

Landmarks (Book Review)

Part poet, part walker, part don, Robert Macfarlane has become our leading writer of a form of neo-Romanticism. Essentially, this is about getting us to pay more attention to the natural world – an attentiveness which, in the face of human depredations and climate change, has taken on a particular moral urgency.

Landmarks is his fifth book and is less about personal journeys through the British landscape than the specific, local language and words referring to it which are in danger of being lost. Having this “shadow language” is, he contends, essential to being able to notice and value nature more precisely. A few (drizzle, scree) are still familiar, but many evocative, useful and beautiful ones, from “Smirr” (fine misty rain, Gaelic) to “monek” (mineral rich ground, Cornish), are not. This book weaves together glossaries of words referring to topography, weather and animals with vivid portraits of the authors who have influenced Macfarlane’s own writing: Nan Shepherd, Roger Deakin, Richard Mabey and the “keeper of lost words” Richard Skelton.

As his book progresses, he introduces many of these words into his own text, so that vividly onomatopoeic sentences such as “the wind flung rain against the windows with a fat clatter” are counter-pointed by unfamiliar nouns, verbs and adjectives that sparkle like ammil (a Devon word meaning the effect of morning sunlight on hoar frost.)

The mood is one of celebration, and, inevitably, of defense of what nature is, despite our insistence on reducing everything to cost benefit analysis. Macfarlane is alert to the danger posed by all nature writing of tipping into sounding like Molesworth’s Fotherington-Thomas; these are not the kind of over-ripe ramblings satirized by Evelyn Waugh in Scoop, but the product of an active academic intelligence and emotional generosity, irradiated by a profound sense of wonder.

Landmarks feels like his masterpiece, an exploration on the links between language and landscape that has taken half a lifetime to collect. An especially moving chapter called “Childish” is about the way “what we bloodlessly call ‘place’ is to young children a wild compound of dream, spell and substance”, for which they invent new words. Macfarlane appears not to have lost this rich apprehension himself.

Few books give such a sense of enchantment; it is a book to give to many, and to return to repeatedly.

The Kindness (Book Review)

The Kindness is a fascinating novel. In less deft hands one could imagine it languishing in the dubious realms of "chick-lit", but Polly Samson spins a subtle and richly complex portrayal of the collapse of a couple's relationship in the wake of a deception conceived as an act of kindness.

In many ways, the plot is a simple one. Julia, a beautiful but unhappily married woman finds love with a promising young undergraduate eight years her junior named Julian. A hopeless romantic, his passion for her is such that an immediate unplanned pregnancy, which leads him to abandon a scholarly career, does little to dampen his spirits or his ardour. "Not much more than a boy," he's "weak against the charm of beauty's powerful glance".

Fast-forward a few years and despite the reservations of their friends and family, all looks peachy. Julian is making a living as a successful scriptwriter; he and Julia have a beautiful daughter, Mira; and they've just bought a dream home in the country. This, however, is when things begin to fall apart. Mira becomes desperately ill and their lives unravel with alarming speed as the huge secret that Julia has been hiding slithers like a snake out of the grass, striking at the heart of their happiness together and destroying the prelapsarian idyll Julian has strived so hard to build for the three of them. The underlying premise is not dissimilar to that of Samson's previous book, Perfect Lives – a collection of interconnected short stories that explored the less than gleaming reality of seemingly flawless lives. But, in its tighter focus, The Kindness reads as the rightful heir to that earlier project.

One of the things that makes Samson such a skilled writer is that she presumes intelligence in her readers. The plot hinges on two revelations, but rather than attempt to keep them from us, she lays a very clear trail – it's her characters to whom they come as a surprise, and much pleasure is derived from the anticipation of the inevitable moment of comprehension.

Most admirable, though, is her ability to inhabit her protagonists' minds so effortlessly, weaving recollections from the past with the reality of the present in one seamless amalgamation of lived experience. She's so good in fact, that when she retreats out of the immediacy of a character's psyche, episodes of dialogue can come across as almost clunky by comparison, but this is nitpicking. Precisely plotted and told in elegant prose, The Kindness explores the often messy and far from perfect complexities of love.

Lord of the Flies (Book Review)

William Golding's compelling story about a group of very ordinary small boys marooned on a coral island has become a modern classic. At first, it seems as though it's all going to be great fun; but the fun before long becomes furious & life on the island turns into a nightmare of panic & death. As ordinary standards of behavior collapse, the whole world the boys know collapses with them—the world of cricket & homework & adventure stories—& another world is revealed beneath, primitive & terrible. Lord of the Flies remains as provocative today as when it was 1st published in 1954, igniting passionate debate with its startling, brutal portrait of human nature. Though critically acclaimed, it was largely ignored upon its initial publication. Yet soon it became a cult favorite among both students and literary critics who compared it to J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye in its influence on modern thought & literature. Labeled a parable, an allegory, a myth, a morality tale, a parody, a political treatise, even a vision of the apocalypse, Lord of the Flies has established itself as a classic.

The little Prince (Book Review)

Moral allegory and spiritual autobiography, The Little Prince is the most translated book in the French language. With a timeless charm it tells the story of a little boy who leaves the safety of his own tiny planet to travel the universe, learning the vagaries of adult behaviour through a series of extraordinary encounters. His personal odyssey culminates in a voyage to Earth and further adventures.

The DaVinchi Code (Book Review)

An ingenious code hidden in the works of Leonardo da Vinci. A desperate race through the cathedrals and castles of Europe. An astonishing truth concealed for centuries . . . unveiled at last.

While in Paris, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is awakened by a phone call in the dead of the night. The elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum, his body covered in baffling symbols. As Langdon and gifted French cryptologist Sophie Neveu sort through the bizarre riddles, they are stunned to discover a trail of clues hidden in the works of Leonardo da Vinci—clues visible for all to see and yet ingeniously disguised by the painter.

Even more startling, the late curator was involved in the Priory of Sion—a secret society whose members included Sir Isaac Newton, Victor Hugo, and Da Vinci—and he guarded a breathtaking historical secret. Unless Langdon and Neveu can decipher the labyrinthine puzzle—while avoiding the faceless adversary who shadows their every move—the explosive, ancient truth will be lost forever.

The Book Thief (Book Review)

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery.

So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordian-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burning, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jewish fist-fighter in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up, and closed down.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time. 

The Giving Tree (Book Review)

"Once there was a tree...and she loved a little boy."

So begins a story of unforgettable perception, beautifully written and illustrated by the gifted and versatile Shel Silverstein.

Every day the boy would come to the tree to eat her apples, swing from her branches, or slide down her trunk...and the tree was happy. But as the boy grew older he began to want more from the tree, and the tree gave and gave and gave.

This is a tender story, touched with sadness, aglow with consolation. Shel Silverstein has created a moving parable for readers of all ages that offers an affecting interpretation of the gift of giving and a serene acceptance of another's capacity to love in return. 

Pride And Prejudice (Book Review)

"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

So begins Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen's witty comedy of manners--one of the most popular novels of all time--that features splendidly civilized sparring between the proud Mr. Darcy and the prejudiced Elizabeth Benet as they play out their spirited courtship in a series of eighteenth-century drawing-room intrigues. 

Twilight 1 (Book Review)

About three things I was absolutely positive:

First, Edward was a vampire.

Second, there was a part of him - and I didn't know how dominant that part might be - that thirsted for my blood.

And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.

When Bella Swan moves to the gloomy town of Forks and meets Edward Cullen, her life takes a thrilling and terrifying turn. With his porcelain skin, golden eyes, mesmerizing voice, and supernatural gifts, Edward is both irresistible and impenetrable. Up until now, he has managed to keep his true identity hidden, but Bella is determined to uncover his dark secret.

What Bella doesn't realize is the closer she gets to him, the more she is putting herself and those around her at risk. And it might be too late to turn back... 

To Kill A Mockingbird (Book Review)

The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.

Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior - to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and pathos.

The Hunger Games (Book Review)

The nation of  Panem, formed from a post-apocalyptic North America, is a country that consists of a wealthy Capitol region surrounded by 12 poorer districts. Early in its history, a rebellion led by a 13th district against the Capitol resulted in its destruction and the creation of an annual televised event known as the Hunger Games. In punishment, and as a reminder of the power and grace of the Capitol, each district must yield one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 through a lottery system to participate in the games. The 'tributes' are chosen during the annual Reaping and are forced to fight to the death, leaving only one survivor to claim victory.

When 16-year-old Katniss's young sister, Prim, is selected as District 12's female representative, Katniss volunteers to take her place. She and her male counterpart Peeta, are pitted against bigger, stronger representatives, some of whom have trained for this their whole lives. , she sees it as a death sentence. But Katniss has been close to death before. For her, survival is second nature. 

The PowersThat Be (Book Review)

Walter Wink has been on my radar screen for many years but in reading recently from N.T Wright, Greg Boyd and Rob Bell and their references to Walter Wink, I had to get this book. In 1993, Engaging the Powers  and the Powers trilogy won several awards. The powers that be are a shortened version, particularly of Engaging the Powers and I was not disappointed. It was so rich that I had to stop on several occasions, pray, re-read and pray again. This happened throughout the reading of The Powers that Be.  I also needed to keep my dictionary close at hand. 

This is a book that covers a lot of ground related to worldview, the Powers and their domination system and how history belongs to the intercessors and prayer warriors. It also tackles the hard words of Jesus and what he was meaning in the coming of the Kingdom of  God which made so much sense.  He underlines that evil is not just personal but structural and spiritual and on page 31, states that "Any attempt to transform a social system without addressing both its spirituality and its outer forms is doomed to failure. "

He looks at Jesus' words in the context of the first century and their meaning then. Somehow we can read the Bible and  translate it into our modern day context. Jesus' words were so radical for the day, we would miss the equivalent today because we would not go radical enough. In Jesus' answer to domination, he identifies domination, equity, non-violence, women, purity and holiness, family, law and sacrifice and it is worth the whole book.  You will be deeply challenged but you will understand why Jesus' words seemed so strong, even at times questionable. You will have some 'aha' moments and then serious reflection as to what does this mean for me right now,  when you read this book. 

He spends quite a bit of time on the major idol today and calls it, "the myth of redemptive violence" and how we can break the spiral of violence. Jesus offers a radical third way and you will be amazed and deeply challenged to action at what he says.  How do we stand up against the powers that continue to oppress? How do we see God's kingdom coming now on earth as it is in heaven. This is not for the faint-hearted or those who are passive, this is for the courageous and he is calling this generation for action and to engage The Powers That Be.  

I will close with a few of Wink's comments on prayer on page 196-197 " Prayer in the face of the Powers is a spiritual war of attrition. When we fail to pray, God's hands are effectively tied. That underlines the urgency of our praying. Prayer that ignores the Powers ends by blaming God for evils committed by the Powers. But prayer that acknowledges the Powers becomes an indispensable aspect of social action....we are emboldened to ask God for something bigger. The same faith that looks clear-eyed at the immensity of the forces arrayed against God is the faith that affirms God's miracle-working power. Trust in miracles is, in fact, the only rational stance in a world...."

Africa Rising (Book Review)

Most of what one hears from the African continent in the press and media or the perception of Africa  is one of war, disease, pessimism, corruption and general bad news. Vijay Mahajan, the Indian author, said that this was the same,  bad /negative press that India was getting 20 years ago and now look what is happening and where India is going. In this perception, it is easy to overlook the business opportunities that are occurring. He predicts after multiple visits that Africa is moving already in a serious change for the future.  He states, "that if Africa were one country, in 2006 according to World Bank data, it would be the tenth largest economy in the world." It is not but it is much richer than you think. Page 18 --" The entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well in Africa. Entrepreneurs solve problems. Take away electricity, and they sell generators and inverters. Take away a stable financial system, and they make their money on speculating on foreign currency. Take away their employment, and they set up kiosks in the street. Entrepreneurship and the development of consumer markets may be a more clean, stable, and powerful driver of long-term progress than political reform. "  Mr. Mahajan gives ample examples throughout the continent why this is not only the future, this is the present. We tend to emphasize how politics affects business but even in this global economic environment, how does business affect politics. Entrepreneurs are constantly looking for opportunities and are the primary engine in creating wealth.  Mr. Mahajan gives many examples like Uganda of  businesses that were forced out under Idi Amin  but that have come back and are some of the largest businesses and corporate social responsibility  shareholders in the country. Or like Rwanda, once known for genocide but now for a President that is seriously moving  this country in another direction. Another example is the CelTel founder Mohamed Ibrahim. He says Africa has gotten a lot of bad press but there are 53 countries and 4-5 of them have severe problems but this is a BIG continent. "Even with this negative perception, when there is a gap between perception and reality, there is business to be made." page 21  - This company is now operating in 15 countries and has invested at the writing of this book USD 750 million in Africa. Ibrahim has consistently refused to pay bribes and has created systems of good governance.  He has been giving back to Africa with a 200 million joint venture fund for African entrepreneurs. This Sudanese born entrepreneur says, " We are apart of the fabric of Africa. This money I have made in Africa, and it is really their money."  He has also established an annual USD 5 million prize, plus $200,000 for life, for retired African leaders who rule well and then stand down. This award is larger than the Nobel Peace Prize.  He is showing demonstrating the impact of business upon political and social development. Optimism is growing. Africa is indeed rising. Some of the best trained Africans are returning home to countries that have created positive and stable governments where there economies are flourishing. Even in countries of war like the western province of Darfur, Khartoum is being compared with Dubai. In Mogadishu which is still of international concern,  in the north, Somaliland is thriving and stable. China is investing seriously into this continent. In fact, direct investment in Africa doubled in 2006 from the 2004 levels. The continent has been further connected  through under water fiber optic cables and  broadband internet will make an even more significant impact financially as communication increases radically next door and globally. 2/3rds of African  countries have populations bigger than Singapore --if you cannot afford to miss markets like Singapore -- you cannot ignore these African countries. You get the gist of this book -- If you are in business and looking for opportunities, this book is a must --- I think it is also a must for Churches, NGO's, MicroFinance organizations to see how they can better partner for poverty alleviation and corporate social responsibility for the benefit of all. If you have been pessimistic about Africa, read this book.

GOD AT WAR (Book Review)

God at War addresses spiritual warfare in a way that I can only say that this book is a must for missionaries, relief and development workers, health care, Christians in government and business.

We cannot forget that we are at war. Dr. Boyd’s premise of this book is on page 19, “the truth that God’s good creation has in fact been seized by hostile, evil cosmic forces that are seeking to destroy God’s beneficent plan for the cosmos. God wages war against those forces, however, and through the person of Jesus Christ has now secured the overthrow of this evil cosmic army. The church as the body of Christ has been called to be a decisive means by which this final overthrow is to be carried out.”

He covers the biblical idea of conflict, the hostile environment of the earth, the Kingdom of God as a warfare concept and how we engage the powers through the Christian life. Boyd starts out with a cross-cultural perspective on how many peoples deal with the spirit realm and ends up with how we respond to the atrocities of our world. This is a resource that you will keep referring to. I highly recommend this book but more importantly encourage us as God’s people to engage at a new level the principalities and powers that are attempting to thwart the purposes and will of God on earth.

No Future without Forgiveness (Book Review)

South Africa is such an incredible country, a beautiful country and beautiful peoples meant to be a blessing to all of its people, to the continent of Africa and to the world. Archbishop Desmond Tutu has written a remarkable story of the impact of apartheid upon its people.  Nelson Mandela wrote on the back cover, "The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of South Africa has put the spotlight on all of us...In its hearings Desmond Tutu has conveyed our common pain and sorrow, our hope and confidence in the future."

This is also the story of the most incredible free elections that the world has witnessed and how South Africa avoided a much anticipated bloodshed.  With so many other countries that have looked evil in the face in their history and have had much different results than South Africa. Why is that? This book gives the reader the reasons why this process succeeded.

Archbishop Tutu was surprised as a pastor and a man of faith to be asked to chair this committee with so many lawyers, parliamentarians, judges, health care workers and people of other faiths who could have capably led this commission. He also was about to retire and looking forward to it. One can easily see on page 49-50 why lawyers and people who understand government were needed when the law was passed establishing the TRC that the following conditions were allowed for amnesty:

1. The act for which amnesty was required should have happened between 1960, the year of the Sharpeville massacre, and 1994, when President Mandela was inaugurated as the first democratically elected South African head of state.

2. The act must have been politically motivated. Perpetrators did not qualify for amnesty if they killed for personal greed, but they did qualify if they committed the act in response to an order by, or on behalf of, a political organization, such as the former apartheid state and its satellite Bantustan homelands, or a recognized liberation movement such as the ANC or PAC.

3. The applicant had to make a full disclosure of all the relevant facts relating to the offense for which amnesty was being sought.

4. The rubric of proportionality had to be observed-- that the means were proportional to the objective.

If those conditions were met, said the law, then amnesty "shall be granted."  

The Commission dealt with issues of remorse, impunity and justice amongst a very diverse group of people as well as compensation and related issues. President Mandela must have seen something different in appointing a pastor and Archbishop as the Chair that this was indeed going to be a spiritual process rather than merely political. Dealing with issues such as forgiveness, reconciliation and reparation were not normal discussion and decision making in the halls of government.

Faith informed the Commissions discussions and particularly the Christian faith.  I was deeply impressed with  Desmond Tutu, how practical he is, how articulate he is and how his faith informs all that he does. An example on page 82/83- " It was a relief as the Commission to discover that we were all really children of Adam and Eve. When God accosted Adam and remonstrated with him about contravening the order God had given about not eating a certain fruit, Adam had been less than forthcoming in accepting responsibility for that disobedience. No, he shifted the blame to Eve, and when God turned to Eve, she too had taken a leaf from her hu

sband;s book (not the leaf with which she tried to ineffectually to hide her nakedness) and tried to pass the buck. We are not sure how the serpent responded to the blame being pushed on it. So we should have thus not not have been surprised at how reluctant most people were to acknowledge their responsibility for atrocities done under apartheid. They were just being the descendants of their forebears and behaving true to form in being in the denial mode or blaming everyone and everything except themselves."

"So frequently we in the commission were quite appalled at the depth of depravity to which human beings could sink and we would, most of us, say that those who committed such dastardly deeds were monsters because the deeds were monstrous. But theology prevents us from doing this. Theology reminded me that, however diabolical the act, it did not turn the perpetrator into a demon. We had to distinguish between the deed and the perpetrator, between the sinner and the sin, to hate and condemn the sin while being filled with compassion for the sinner... theology said they still, despite the awfulness of their deeds, remained children of God with the capacity to repent, to be able to change."

This is really a book about forgiveness and reconciliation for awful things done to fellow human beings. It is a book about the scandal of love and grace given to people in the example of Jesus. It is a story of people just being able and encouraged to tell their awful stories of evil done to them, their loved ones and their neighbors.  It is a story of how within each of us is the capacity for this same kind of evil. It is also the story of people who have suffered so much, instead of lusting for revenge, they had this extraordinary willingness to forgive.  I was deeply moved by this book and I think you will be as well.

Engaging the Powers (Book Review)

Engaging the Powers is an award winning book written in 1992 - Why have so few read this incredible book? Agree or disagree with Walter Wink but read this book and have the way you view the world shaken up, seriously. He is a brilliant yet humble writer. I cannot believe that I did not read this book when it came out. I had to have referrals by Chuck Colson, Rob Bell, Greg Boyd, N.T. Wright and others. He has influenced a whole lot of other leaders in the Body of Christ. Do yourself a favor and read this book. It is not an easy read but whether you are a follower of Jesus or not, you will better recognize why his words, his life, his model have turned the world upside down. This book will challenge the way you think, the way that you view Jesus and his radical yet simple way and it will help you to better understand the context of the 1st Century in which Jesus wrote and why he was killed by the religious establishment. Wink provides greater clarity to why our that world and our world today is so messed up by systemic injustice, by delusional assumptions, the domination system that has lasted for 5,000 years and the principalities and powers that rule, exploit that system and seriously oppress and destroy people. Wink sets out to "unmask" that system and show it for what it really is and then show what we can do about it. He also shows what transformation will look like when it honors both the personal and the social. His look at Jesus in the context of the culture of the day and domination, equality, purity and holiness, racism and ethnocentrism, family, law, sacrifice, non-violence, women and children, healing and exorcism is worth the entire book. I have read very few authors that have written so deeply. You need to plan in times of meditation, reflection and prayer as this is one of those kinds of books. The implications of this book will cover every area of your life. Let me give you an example on page 136. "He (Jesus) was not a reformer, bringing alternative, better readings of the Law. Nor was he a revolutionary, attempting to replace one oppressive power with another. He went beyond revolution. His assault was against the basic presuppositions and structures of oppression itself. Violent revolution fails because it is not revolutionary enough. It changes the rulers but not the rules, the ends but not the means. Mot of the old androcratic values and assumptions remain intact. The world, and even the church, had no categories for such fundamental change. It is no wonder that the radicality of Jesus was soon dampered by the church.......If Jesus had never lived, we would not have been able to invent him. There is, in the integrity of his teaching and living, an expose and repudiation of the Domination System that no one trapped in that system could possibly have achieved." Wink also spends quite a bit of time looking at violence, the myth of redemptive violence and some key messages of Jesus - non-violence and loving our enemies and becoming what we hate. Page 195, "The very act of hating something draws it to us. Since our hate is usually a direct response to an evil done to us, our hate almost invariably causes us to respond in the terms already laid down by the enemy. Unaware of what is happening, we turn into the very thing we oppose. This is so far from a message about passivity. This is about dying, revolt and resistance to all that is dehumanizing, devaluing and demoralizing. You will see Jesus in another way through Engaging the Powers and maybe we will continue the work that Jesus started and continue living his way. Wink ends this book with revisioning history, monitoring our own inner violence and the critical importance of prayer and the powers. Engaging Powers will teach you about a different kind of prayer. Wink says "that history belongs to the intercessors, who believe the future into being" and that "intercession is spiritual defiance of what is, in the name of what God has promised." This chapter will encourage you to prayer and to " haggle with God for the sake of the sick, the obsessed, the weak and to conform our lives to our intercessions. " Read this book. Re-read this book. Maybe we can play a small part in seeing God's dream being fulfilled in our world today.

Sachin Tendulkar (Player, India)

Sachin Tendulkar (born 24 April 1973) is a former Indian cricketer and captain, widely acknowledged as one of the greatest cricketers of all time and by many as the greatest batsman of all time. He took up cricket at the age of eleven, made his Test debut on 15 November 1989 against Pakistan in Karachi at the age of sixteen, and went on to represent Mumbai domestically and India internationally for close to twenty-four years. He is the only player to have scored one hundred international centuries, the first batsman to score a double century in a One Day International, holds the record for most number of runs in both ODI and Test cricket, the only player to complete more than 30,000 runs in international cricket.

In 2002 just half way through his career, Wisden Cricketers' Almanack ranked him the second greatest Test batsman of all time, behind Don Bradman, and the second greatest ODI batsman of all time, behind Sir Richards. Later in his career, Tendulkar was a part of the Indian team that won the 2011 World Cup, his first win in six World Cup appearances for India. He had previously been named "Player of the Tournament" at the 2003 edition of the tournament, held in South Africa. In 2013, he was the only Indian cricketer included in an all-time Test World XI named to mark the 150th anniversary of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack.

Tendulkar received the Arjuna Award in 1994 for his outstanding sporting achievement, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award in 1997, India's highest sporting honour, and the Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan awards in 1999 and 2008, respectively, India's fourth and second highest civilian awards. After a few hours of his final match on 16 November 2013, the Prime Minister's Office announced the decision to award him the Bharat Ratna, India's highest civilian award. He is the youngest recipient to date and the first ever sportsperson to receive the award. He also won the 2010 Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for cricketer of the year at the ICC awards. In 2012, Tendulkar was nominated to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India. He was also the first sportsperson and the first person without an aviation background to be awarded the honorary rank of group captain by the Indian Air Force. In 2012, he was named an Honorary Member of the Order of Australia.

In December 2012, Tendulkar announced his retirement from ODIs. He retired from Twenty20 cricket in October 2013 and subsequently announced his retirement from all forms of cricket, retiring on 16 November 2013 after playing his200th and final Test match, against the West Indies in Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium. Tendulkar played 664 international cricket matches in total, scoring 34,357 runs.

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Atif Aslam (Artist, Pakistan)

Atif Aslam  is a Pakistani pop/rock singer, dancer and film actor, and makes cameo appearances in Bollywood (Indian) films. His debut as an actor was in the 2011 film Pakistani movie Bol by ShoMan. He has recorded numerous chart-topping songs, and is known for his vocal belting technique. He was declared the most popular artist on Saavn (an Indian music streaming service) in 2013, followed by Arijit Singh, A. R. Rahman, Shreya Ghoshal, and Mohit Chauhan. Atif is the youngest recipient of Tamgha-e-Imtiaz, one Pakistan civilian decoration.

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Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (Artist, Pakistan)

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan (13 October 1948 – 16 August 1997)  was a Pakistani musician, primarily a singer of Qawwali, the devotional music of the Sufis. Considered as the greatest voice ever recorded, he possessed an extraordinary range of vocal abilities and could perform at a high level of intensity for several hours. Extending the 600-year old Qawwali tradition of his family, Khan is widely credited with introducing Qawwali music to international audiences. He is popularly known as "Shahenshah-e-Qawwali", meaning "The King of Kings of Qawwali".

Born in Faisalabad, Pakistan, Khan had his first public performance at age of 16, at his father's chelum. He became the head of the family qawwali party in 1971. He was signed by Oriental Star Agencies, Birmingham, England, in the early 1980s. Khan went on to release movie scores and albums in Europe, India, Japan, Pakistan, and the U.S.A. He engaged in collaborations and experiments with Western artists, becoming a well-known world music artist. He toured extensively, performing in over 40 countries.

Barack Hussain Obama (Politician, America)

Barack Hussain Obama (born August 4, 1961) is the 44th and current President of the United States, and the first African American to hold the office. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Obama is a graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he served as president of the Harvard Law Review. He was a community organizer in Chicago before earning his law degree. He worked as a civil rights attorney and taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2004. He served three terms representing the 13th District in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004, running unsuccessfully for the United States House of Representatives in 2000.

In 2004, Obama received national attention during his campaign to represent Illinois in the United States Senate with his victory in the March Democratic Party primary, his keynote address at the Democratic National Convention in July, and his election to the Senate in November. He began his presidential campaign in 2007 and, after a close primary campaign against Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2008, he won sufficient delegates in the Democratic Party primaries to receive the presidential nomination. He then defeated Republican nominee John McCain in the general election, and was inaugurated as president on January 20, 2009. Nine months after his election, Obama was named the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

During his first two years in office, Obama signed into law economic stimulus legislation in response to the Great Recession in the form of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and the Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Re-authorization, and Job Creation Act of 2010. Other major domestic initiatives in his first term included the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, often referred to as "Obamacare"; the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act; and the Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010. In foreign policy, Obama ended U.S. military involvement in the Iraq War, increased U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan, signed the New START arms control treaty with Russia, ordered U.S. military involvement in Libya, and ordered the military operation that resulted in the death of Osama bin Laden. In January 2011, the Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives as the Democratic Party lost a total of 63 seats; and, after a lengthy debate over federal spending and whether or not to raise the nation's debt limit, Obama signed the Budget Control Act of 2011 and the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.

Obama was reelected president in November 2012, defeating Republican nominee Mitt Romney, and was sworn in for a second term on January 20, 2013. During his second term, Obama has promoted domestic policies related to gun control in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, and has called for full equality for LGBT Americans, while his administration has filed briefs which urged the Supreme Court to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 and California's Proposition 8 as unconstitutional. In foreign policy, Obama ordered U.S. military involvement in Iraq in response to gains made by the Islamic Statein Iraq after the 2011 withdrawal from Iraq, continued the process of ending U.S. combat operations in Afghanistan, and has sought to normalize U.S. relations with Cuba.

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