New book reviews

I have moved my book reviews to something called Shelfari.  It will save time by providing the cover art, author, and synopsis.  All I have to do is write my own review. Also, the new format lends itself better to smaller reviews. I will still write a longer review every once in a while.

You can also see the cover art for books I read on my "shelf" on the right.  However, it's not easy to see my reviews by clicking on those.  I provided a link above to my newest reviews.

LostLifeFound

I've posted things like this before...but I think LostLifeFound might be done.  I have been thinking about this since around the New Year.  I would like an online presence that makes sense.  I would like to post things that are really helpful to others.  Or maybe entertaining or heart-warming.   More likely, I'd like to focus on being the person I want to be (you know, doing things in the real world!), and that may or may not include a blog.  But if I have a blog, it will probably not be this one.  I'd like to stamp my name on something - an online presence that I am completely proud of.   However, I love all of the history that is on here, and I am leaving it up for sure.

LostLifeFound - I was struck by this combination of words during college. I think I was trying to think of a band name, and I never started a band, but the name stuck with me.  This refers to Luke 15, the chapter with the lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son, and the rejoicing that occurs in heaven when a person "returns home".  However, after an adolescence of assuming that I was very much found, in college it slowly dawned that I had a lot of "finding" to do.  I had wandered off the path, kind of like a Pharisee, always doing the "right things" and well within the religious institution, but somehow missing the point of faith and love.  It has taken a while, but I feel like I'm on the path. And it's a lot scarier and murkier than "being religious", because it's new for me - it's relying on God's grace. So as I close the blog, it is fitting that I am living out LostLifeFound.

Movie Review: Field of Dreams (1989)

The main thing I took away from the movie is that there are a lot of nuances that only adults would understand.  So although the movie is liked by younger boys, I believe they only understand a small portion of the story, and I know that from my own experience.  I'm not sure when I saw the movie for the first time.

Here are the nuances, which I understand better having put on a few more years. Spoilers up ahead

• Ray and Annie Kinsella (Kevin Costner and Amy Madigan) are "children of the 60s" (having a youth that shaped who you are)
• Annie's acceptance of Ray's vision (need for marriage to have unity, the trust of a wife)
• Having an estranged father, and the last thing you said to him was really rude and hateful, and you didn't have a chance to take it back before he died (major regrets, the way a grown man thinks about his father)
• Doc Graham, and the other players reach their dreams (understanding how it feels to not reach your dream)
• They are losing money and are about to be foreclosed upon by Annie's brother (financial pressures, feeling like failures, marriage adversity, in-laws problems)
• The town hall argument about banning a book by fictional author Terrence Mann (James Earl Jones) from the 60s (ideological differences, politics)

So there was more to this movie than I remembered, and I enjoyed it this time.  My least favorite part was the somewhat cheesy speech at the end, which is supposed to tie everything together.  Then when cars were pulling up...it just seemed that the timing was off, and the cars shouldn't have been there immediately.

2011 future posts

If I'm going to continue doing this.... I have a lot of posts to write

Movies:
-Field of Dreams
-Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader
-Glory

Books:
-Thr3e, by Ted Dekker
-How Now Shall We Live?, by Francis Schaeffer

Also, I have my "Best of 2010" posts to write.  I didn't read many good books, but the movie post will be interesting.