Posted October 3, 2016 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments
Prayer in the Catholic Tradition by
Robert Wicks Publisher: Franciscan Media (2016 - October 7)
eARC (640 pages)
Via: NetGalley Rating: Reading Challenges: Read 2016 Synopsis
Within the Catholic tradition, there are many ways to pray. Yet, while there are smaller books, books on praying with saints and contemporary figures, volumes assembling groups of individual prayers, or prayer within one particular strand of Catholic spirituality, there is no truly comprehensive work available on how to learn, practice, and teach ways of prayer in the broad Roman Catholic tradition. This handbook breaks new ground, offering forty important voices on forty essential topics for a comprehensive look at the learning, practice, and teaching of all that it means to pray in the Catholic tradition. Topics include:
• Types of spirituality (including Carmelite, Franciscan, Ignatian, Dominican and other major schools) and how they frame prayer and prayerfulness
• Liturgical prayer
• New Testament scriptural approaches to prayer
• Praying with the Psalms
• Contemplation
• Liturgy of the Hours
• Conversational prayer
• Resistances to prayer
• Journaling as prayer
• Enhancing a spirit of prayerfulness
• Praying in Ordinary Time
• Praying through grief, suffering, loss and pain
• Dealing with distractions in prayer
• The essentials of Catholic prayer; and much more.
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Tagged as 4 star, Read 2016
Posted October 1, 2016 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments
The Crown's Game by
Evelyn Skye Series: The Crown's Game #1 Publisher: Balzer + Bray (2016)
Hardcover (399 pages)
Rating: Reading Challenges: 2016 Royal Challenge,
Read 2016 Synopsis
Vika Andreyeva can summon the snow and turn ash into gold. Nikolai Karimov can see through walls and conjure bridges out of thin air. They are enchanters—the only two in Russia—and with the Ottoman Empire and the Kazakhs threatening, the tsar needs a powerful enchanter by his side.
And so he initiates the Crown’s Game, an ancient duel of magical skill—the greatest test an enchanter will ever know. The victor becomes the Imperial Enchanter and the tsar’s most respected adviser. The defeated is sentenced to death.
Raised on tiny Ovchinin Island her whole life, Vika is eager for the chance to show off her talent in the grand capital of Saint Petersburg. But can she kill another enchanter—even when his magic calls to her like nothing else ever has?
For Nikolai, an orphan, the Crown’s Game is the chance of a lifetime. But his deadly opponent is a force to be reckoned with—beautiful, whip-smart, imaginative—and he can’t stop thinking about her.
And when Pasha, Nikolai’s best friend and heir to the throne, also starts to fall for the mysterious enchantress, Nikolai must defeat the girl they both love…or be killed himself.
As long-buried secrets emerge, threatening the future of the empire, it becomes dangerously clear—the Crown’s Game is not one to lose.
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Tagged as 5 star, All Time Favorites, Read 2016
Posted September 30, 2016 in Life, Reading / 6 Comments
Things that Happened in September
- My life became utterly crazy.
- Grad school is crazy busy and I keep questioning my sanity about WHY I THOUGHT THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA?!
- Things at the school I work at have been just a wee bit insane (and by wee bit I mean totally and utterly).
- Basically, my life is crazy and it is surprising that I am finding any time to do this… Oh, wait, this is procrastinating because I should be writing a paper…
- My most visited post by far this month was on 11 Ways High-Functioning Depression and Anxiety are Present in My Life.
My Favorite Book of September
If we are going by not an assigned book for grad school:
The Secret of Pembrooke Park by Julie Klassen
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Tagged as Monthly Wrap-Up
Posted September 29, 2016 in Reading, Review / 0 Comments
Christmas in Paris by
Anita Hughes Publisher: St Martin's Griffin (2016 - October 4)
eARC (288 pages)
Via: NetGalley Rating: Reading Challenges: Read 2016 Synopsis
Hughes will fill your heart with the sights, sounds, and flavors of new love, glamorous fashion, and decadent holiday cuisine.
Isabel Lawson is standing on the balcony of her suite at the Hotel Crillon as she gazes at the twinkling lights of the Champs Elysee and wonders if she’s made a terrible mistake. She was supposed to be visiting the Christmas tree in the Place de la Concorde, and eating escargots and macaroons with her new husband on their honeymoon. But a week before the wedding, she called it off. Isabel is an ambitious Philadelphia finance woman, and Neil suddenly decided to take over his grandparents’ farm. Isabel wasn’t ready to trade her briefcase for a pair of rubber boots and a saddle.
When Neil suggested she use their honeymoon tickets for herself, she thought it would give her a chance to clear her head. That is until she locks herself out on the balcony in the middle of winter. Thankfully her neighbor Alec, a French children’s illustrator, comes to her rescue. He too is nursing a broken heart at the Crillon for the holidays. With a new friend by her side, Isabel is determined to use her time in the city of lights wisely. After a chance encounter with a fortune teller and a close call with a taxi, she starts to question everything she thought was important.
Christmas in Paris is a moving and heartwarming story about love, trust, and self-discovery. Set during the most magical week of the year, the glorious foods and fashions of the most romantic city in the world are sure to take your breath away.
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Tagged as 4 star, Read 2016
Posted September 26, 2016 in Reading, Review / 2 Comments
Starflight by
Melissa Landers Series: Starflight #1 Publisher: Disney Hyperion (2016)
Hardcover (369 pages)
Rating: Reading Challenges: Read 2016 Synopsis
Life in the outer realm is a lawless, dirty, hard existence, and Solara Brooks is hungry for it. Just out of the orphanage, she needs a fresh start in a place where nobody cares about the engine grease beneath her fingernails or the felony tattoos across her knuckles. She's so desperate to reach the realm that she's willing to indenture herself to Doran Spaulding, the rich and popular quarterback who made her life miserable all through high school, in exchange for passage aboard the spaceliner Zenith.
When a twist of fate lands them instead on the Banshee, a vessel of dubious repute, Doran learns he's been framed on Earth for conspiracy. As he pursues a set of mysterious coordinates rumored to hold the key to clearing his name, he and Solara must get past their enmity to work together and evade those out for their arrest. Life on the Banshee may be tumultuous, but as Solara and Doran are forced to question everything they once believed about their world—and each other—the ship becomes home, and the eccentric crew family. But what Solara and Doran discover on the mysterious Planet X has the power to not only alter their lives, but the existence of everyone in the universe...
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Tagged as 4 star, Read 2016
