Saint Ia Rides a Leaf Book Review

 

First of all, I want to share how excited I am to have a board book about a female saint!  I have 6 daughters, so it’s nice to have female examples for them.  I also appreciate that this book is about a saint I have never heard of.  It’s exciting to learn about new Saints and hear more examples of living the Faith.  I decided to test this book out on my youngest daughter, she just turned 5.  I let her know ahead of time that she was going to have to give her review as well.  The pictures are very inviting and beautifully designed.  I really enjoyed how the sentence structure was not too complicated.  I think this would be a good read for much younger children as well.  The pages did not contain too many words, so my 5 year old easily kept her attention to the story.  We were able to talk and ask questions throughout the story, building anticipation and enhancing understanding.  I also enjoyed how this book covered the topic of being a missionary, we were able to talk after reading the book about what being a missionary is and why they are important.  When I asked my daughter what she thought of the book she responded with a solid “Good!” and said she liked the part about the leaf growing.  This is definitely a book that I will be recommending to friends and even giving to my goddaughters as gifts.  This is a great story that all children will enjoy!

Renewing You book Review

 Renewing You 

by Father Nick Louh and Dr. Roxanne Louh

I am very torn by my thoughts on this book.  I think it would be easiest to divide my thoughts into a set of Pro’s and Con’s:

Pro’s

• This book covers many different areas of personal life: Prayer, Thoughts, Vices, Trials, Self Care,

• Marriage, Kids and Sharing your light.  

• Dr. Roxanne does a wonderful job explaining the psychology of our minds and actions. 

• I appreciate the amount of science she uses to explain how our minds work.  

• This is a great workbook format. There are a lot of thought provoking questions. This book

• takes a good time commitment to be used correctly and beneficially.

• I enjoyed reading and connecting with the anecdotal stories.  They helped tie in the message.

• It is very clear that Father Nick and Dr. Roxanne have many experiences to share.  I could tell

• that they had a personal understanding of many different situations.  This made the book very

• relatable. 

• I really like how the chapter on Self Care covered more in depth ways to take care of yourself

• and quick fixes like getting your nails done or a bowl of ice cream. 

• There is so much supportive Scripture!   

• Several quotes were inspiring to me:

•  “Peace is not the absence of a storm, it’s the presence of God.” page 48  

• ‘We can’t rely on ‘feeling like it’ in order to do the things our bodies require.” page 173  

• “Just keep remembering that choices lead, feelings follow.” page 175

Con’s

• I was absolutely overwhelmed by the amount of Bible translations used.  I counted 6 different

• translations in the first chapter.  This makes me leery and makes me feel like the Scripture is

• being twisted to make a point.  

• I am unsure of the intended audience of this book.  It is written in such a way that maybe

• Protestants would be more likely to read.  

• In the chapter of Prayer there is no mention of using the Jesus Prayer or having an Orthodox

• Prayer rule.  While the First Fifteen plan is probably a very good idea, I was very disappointed

• by the lack of Orthodox influence.  We have daily scripture readings and daily Saints lives that

• would be wonderful to include first thing in the morning, as well as the Trisagion prayers.  Also

• mentioning the importance of developing spiritual guidelines with your Spiritual Father would

• have been a good suggestion.

• The chapter of Vices covered a lot of interpersonal issues, but lacked focus on personal vices. 

• Many of my battles deal with my own issues.  There was also a lack of discussion on the

• importance of Confession.  I feel like making the full cycle of repentance is lacking if there is no

• form of confession.  Planning for confession would have been a helpful addition to this chapter.  

• I don’t see the full flow of all of the chapter headings.  While Marriage and Children are great

• topics, not everyone reading the book will be married or have children (or even children of the

• ages discussed).  I feel like there are other life situations that should have been included.  While

• I appreciate the need to Shine Your Light, I did not feel like that chapter cohesively fit with the

• rest of the book.  It was more of a good remember for the reader, not a description of Renewal.  

• I personally would have preferred prayers from the Saints at the end of each chapter rather than

• the ones written by the authors.

I do feel like I benefited from reading this book and would like to go back to some of the chapters

and take some more time thinking through my personal life.  The book did not have a strong Orthodox

feel to me, so I am not likely to highly recommend this book to my Orthodox friends.  

I was provided a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. 

All Is Well Book Review

 

I could not have read this book at a more appropriate time.  If there ever was a need to be reminded ‘All is well’, now is that time!  That being said, this book covers a wide range of topics that are applicable during any season of life.  This is definitely a book that I will be reaching for again and again, highlighting different passages as I grow as an Orthodox Christian.  

Dr. Rossi is so very candid connecting his personal life to the lessons he is sharing.  This makes the book very relatable.  He also uses many quotes from scripture and the Holy Fathers. His career as a psychologist, life as a monastic, married man and father, widower, alcoholic and professor provide such an extensive range of life experiences from which he shares many truths in simple, easy to read sections.  

This is a book that can be read even if you cannot commit to long bouts of reading, which is wonderful for a busy mom like me.  It actually is probably best read in smaller chunks so that the reader can process and fully understand the wisdom of Dr. Rossi’s words. I really enjoy how simple this book is to read.  Each chapter is brief and has short anecdotal stories/thoughts that explain the topic.

I am glad to be able to add ‘All Is Well’ to my bookshelf.  I will definitely be recommending this book to friends.

I was provided with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Painting Angels Book Review

To begin, I had my 10 year old daughter read Painting Angels and give me

her thoughts:

I liked the book because it was very exciting and interesting.  

It was a good book because it talks about being nice to people you

might not think you would be friends with.

I was able to make connections with my own visit to a monastery.

Some of the nuns reminded me of the nuns that I interacted with when I visited.

It made me really want to find out what was going to happen next.

While I was reading the book I understood what Macrina was feeling and

I was wondering why Sam was doing what he was doing.

I can really relate to Macrina.

While I was reading the book it felt like a short story but it still feels like

it had a lot of detail. I really felt like I could have been there in the story.

I could see the story unfolding in my head.

My thoughts on Painting Angels:

I was immediately drawn to the ease of reading this book.  The words are big

and the phrases are small.  The story moved at a quick pace and I did not

want to put the book down.  I actually finished it in one day!  I know that the

character Sam has been introduced in other books in this series.  While this

book stands alone, I do feel like I missed some history that could have helped

me understand his character better.  That being said, I really want to read the

other Sam and Saucer books!  I fell in love with Macrina and her frustrations. 

I ended up day dreaming of what it would be like getting to spend my summers

working at a monastery.  The style of the story reminded me of The Magic

Treehouse books.  I am thankful to have some easier chapter books for my

7-10 year olds to read.  The message was easy to understand and written in

an interesting format for a young (and even older) reader.  I really hope that

there are more books written about Sam and Macrina, I fell in love with the

characters!

A Child's Guide to Prayer Book Review

I have been so surprisingly pleased with this book!  At first glance, my 13 year old thought that the
book was cute, but maybe a bit juvenile.  But it immediately caught the attention of my
7, 8, and 9 year olds. The prayers are really not that much different/shorter than what we
typically pray for evening prayers, yet these girls are eager for their turn to help lead our
family in prayer each night.  Even my teenager is happy to have a turn reading. On top of that,
my elementary aged children are even bringing the book to me in the mornings for a chance
to do morning prayers. We could easily be using this book so many other times during the day,
praying at meals, to other saints, for communion, etc.  I feel like we’ve barely cracked the potential
of prayer this book offers. The small size and the beautiful pictures are appealing to my children.
Even though there are some big words, the prayers are common and my girls are able to figure
them out. It is so nice to start seeing them take some ownership of their own prayer lives and that
of our family.  I am thankful to have this tool to help my children (and myself!) grow in their
relationship with God through prayer.

I was provided with a copy of this book in return for an honest review.