Review: Pulse by L.R. Burkard

Pulse by L.R. Burkard
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

What if a solar EMP hit and all electronics, even in cars and landline phones stopped working and it was in the middle of one of our coldest winters? Good plot premise.

Three teen girls from the same clique at school can’t get to each other or school. Written in their points of view in their journals, first person. And not too much teen romantic angst.

Sounds like my kind of book.

If it had stayed with the above status I would have loved it.

It was a political anti-everyone that isn’t them propaganda. Gun carrying prolifers–only ours, no one else’s counts. Judgemental as all get out.

I believe the best Christians are humble and caring for others. No matter whether they think or look like me or not. ‘We are all made in the image of God.’ ‘Judge not lest ye be judged.’ ‘Thou shalt not kill.’ The christians in this book represent a lot of people who pick and choose which verses to preach believing it makes them more holy.

Stepping off my soapbox now. There were plenty of different scenarios in how folks are dealing with this new world. In real life right now, we are going through a very cold snowy winter so a lot is believable.

Hunger is the first and biggest problem in this story as there are no stores or ways to get food. As abhorrent as a lot of the book is, the writing is good and I didn’t throw it across the room because there are all kinds of people in this world and this story is from one kind of view.

Which is why I felt shooting that many people, thinking they were in the right and others who were hungry were wrong… was wrong.

What would I do if I lived through the situation our main characters were in? Is there a way as we prepare for such as this that we try to share our abundance. As we prepare we have to remember that our case of food is kept in our car or home and the catastrophe is an earthquake, volcano, or fire and that case of food is destroyed. When we are prepared but but end up the hungry ones, how would we like to be treated? I have rarely missed a meal. I can’t imagine being that cold, tired, and hungry.

Regardless of politics, I’m glad I read it. I won’t bother with the rest of the series. There are a lot better sci-fi’s to see the post-apocalypse through a more open-minded prep and love.

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Review: The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Ralph Cosham was the narrator of the edition I was able to obtain from the Overdrive library. I know it can’t be very interesting reading letters. There were no characters to play or give variety to the story. So I can’t say if he was good at what he did or not. I just found it BORING! Like a guy reading letters.

I read this a million years ago as a teen/young adult. I can sincerely say that it was the C.S. Lewis books that gave me my healthy agonistic views. They still stand, so those of you that praise the man really haven’t read his fiction. These were on my mother’s approved list along with Pilgrim’s Progress. The sci-fi was excellent. And are there, like all sci-fi, to make a person think. This book was clever in its format of letters to tell the advice, though from a negative viewpoint. This may be the Cobert Report of its time. I understand sarcasm but I find it the least effective way to prove a point. I think I liked it more as a young person. Now I just couldn’t get into it or find anything redeeming. Now I was just bored, clever negative letters aside. And it was overwhelmingly male.

It is, on the other hand, a bit of a depiction of World War II and the men who fought it in, like my dad. Much reflected tales he told of his own journeys in war. How easy it is to forget the lessons we learned as children when faced with constant death and killing.

It’s worth the read. Just not a second time.

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Review: Confessions of a Pagan Nun by Kate Horsley

Confessions of a Pagan Nun by Kate Horsley

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I finished this book a couple days ago. I wish I didn’t have to write a review for it. Mostly because I can’t figure out what to say.

What I hope to find was an education about the Pagan ways in a gentle fictional story. Instead there was plenty to tell about the cruelty of the ‘onward christian soldiers’. But the book seemed to tell more about the cruelty and less about the goodness of either religion. Even the awe of nature and all her wonders was minimal.

Emotions seemed to rule the book: guilt, depression and unrequited love.

The feelings that I am left with are the cold and muddiness, disease and death.

Many have left much more eloquent reviews for this book. I leave only the shivering grittiness I feel when thinking of this story.

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Review: Apple Cider Vinegar Miracle Health System

Apple Cider Vinegar Miracle Health System by Paul Bragg
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

In my cabinets, you will nearly always find, Bragg’s old fashioned Apple Cider Vinegar. In my fridge, Bragg’s Amminos. So this book sang to the choir in this case. I merely wanted to learn more about the usefulness of AVC.

Instead, what I found was A Bragg’s lifestyle commercial that included far too much of their religion rather than science,

Still, I did learn a few things and felt better about my constant love for AVC water to drink. In my own life I have seen my waist wittle, my tummy shrink. No, I am not skinny, but I feel better about what is happening with this old bod.

It is worth the read, if only for ideas of uses and recipes to include AVC in your daily diet.

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Review: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal

Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book started out so funny that I couldn’t read it as my quiet-down-to-sleep-book. But that didn’t last long. I can’t remember why I felt bored but I did. Finally the book started moving and the humor was back. Of course, the ending was bittersweet.

For someone raised in church, a Christian who read the whole Bible, I found this book very well done, very well, researched, and though it is based on serious issues, Christopher Moore was able to lighten it up and insert one possibility in the life of Christ. Hey, he could’ve had a friend. That friend could’ve been named Levi or Biff. We don’t really know about the years from infancy to 30, do we? Sure there is the occasional story. But there is a huge gap.

At one time I read The Lost Books of the Bible and the Forgotten Books of Eden, but not the whole book. I do remember a part where Jesus went to the riverside to make bird of clay and then blew life into the creatures and they would fly away. So the bit about the lizard in Lamb cracked me up.

Because of the boring parts I nearly rated this book four stars. But I know I will remember this book for quite a while with fondness. So five stars it is. I believe that Moore did the impossible. He took sacred writings and lightened them up and yet never got too far from the actual messages of love and redemption.

Registered my paperback copy with BookCrossing.com BCID: 927-12455390

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