Friday Favorites: To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee reviewed

This week's favorite book has enchanted, comforted and taught me for many years. I first read To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, as an adolescent. The drama unfolded in a southern world familiar to me, I remember being breathless. As an adult I re-read it's pages, this time far from home in the wilds of Wyoming, attempting once again to walk among the familiar. It did the trick.

If you're from the south the language flows easy and familiar, the scenes take little imagining, you've been there. For those not use to southern ways some of the charm may be lost, yet the story can ring just as true. The characters are rich and deep. Perhaps we can identify with a character or we've known one or at least we wish we had.

Atticus is the kind of man you want to marry, to be your father, to be your friend. He is at the heart of the story shaping what his neighbors, and we, think of prejudice and integrity.  Defending an innocent black man accused of rape during the Great Depression was not a job for the faint of heart. Atticus' children, Scout and Jem, observe the people around them as they respond to the volatile situation gripping their father and their small southern town. Through it all Atticus teaches them lessons about integrity, compassion, strength, humility and love by his actions and at times by his eloquent words.

We meet more than one "mockingbird", an innocent person, in the story. Justice, morality, honor and human dignity are the colors Lee paints her world with. The fight between good and evil is strong and it's impossible not to root for the good guy. Our sensitivities to each human's struggle, the hidden mockingbird in each of us, are stirred.

For so many reasons I love this book. My beloved South is handled with such poignant humor and charm by a loving daughter, it's easy to fall in love all over again in the reading. Is there a book that takes you back to your childhood in powerful ways, whose characters have become friends?

Friday Favorites: The Grace of God and Books Reviewed by You

As I was thinking through my list of favorite books in preparation of this post I decided I wanted to do something different. I want to hear from you. Is there a book you've read that has powerfully impacted your understanding of God? One that left your mind reshaped when you were done reading or gave you the feeling you were looking on a familiar view through a different vantage point? If so I would love to hear about it. Post the title, author and a few sentences on how it impacted you in the comments bellow. I look forward to reading your responses!

Recently I read just such a book, The Grace of God by Andy Stanley. He started in the beginning and headed through the pages of the Bible, strait for the cross, picking up gems of grace along the way. Truly one of the most beautiful books I've ever read, I devoured it. In the end I had fallen in love all over again but I felt like I understood more clearly Who it was I had fallen in love with.

Here is just a taste from it's grace soaked pages. "You, like Rahab, are invited as you are, label and all. You, like Israel, have been invited to join God in a relationship initiated by faith, not adherence to a set of rules. This is the way of grace. And this is the way it has been from the beginning. Grace doesn't require people with embarrassing labels to shed those labels as a prerequisite. Grace is what empowers us to do so. Grace doesn't demand. Grace assists... When it comes to your labels, current or past, God is slow to judge and more than willing to deliver. Not after you've freed yourself or distanced yourself from your embarrassing labels, but as a part of the process. In fact, grace provides you with labels of its own: Forgiven. Accepted. Loved."

If you want to see a sweeping panorama of God's heart for mankind through the ages this book is a good place to start. Now it's your turn tell me what books have shaped and grown your view of God.

Friday Favorites: Robert Frost's Poems, reviewed

This week's book is a collection of work by one of my favorite poet's. I have several poets I love, which I plan to highlight in the future, Robert Frost is one of them.

I was first exposed to Robert Frost as a little girl. My mother enjoyed reciting poems she had memorized and reading to us from an old book of verse. Frost was one of her favorites as well. The first of his poems I recall hearing was his famous "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." I remember listening to the words roll off of my mother's tongue. As she spoke I could see the little horse stomp his foot on the crusty snow, I heard the bells of his harness as he shook his head,. I was hooked. Poetry painted the world and taught me how to see through different eyes. I think my love of writing ignited as I heard brilliant men and women shape words to create a moment of beauty.

Frost was a master of the art. He wrote during the early 20th century, often depicting idyllic country life in New England. He was honored for his work by receiving four Pulitzer Prizes among other awards.

My favorite Frost poems include Birches, Mending Wall, Tree at my Window, The Exposed Nest, My Butterfly and The Road Not Taken. If you are unfamiliar with his works I suggest you start with one of those. I had wanted to share Birches with you, which is my very favorite, but it's long and I couldn't bear breaking it up to include only a section. You will just have to read it yourself! Instead I'm going to share Blue-Butterfly Day it's one of his beautiful, shorter poems.

Blue-Butterfly Day

It is blue-butterfly day here in spring,
And with these sky-flakes down in flurry on flurry
There is more unmixed color on the wing
Than flowers will show for days unless they hurry.

But these are flowers that fly and all but sing:
And now from having ridden out desire
They lie closed over in the wind and cling
Where wheels have freshly sliced the April mire.

 

Beauty is so important in our lives. How do you incorporate it into yours?