Wrestling with Angels by Carolyn Arends

Carolyn Arends is a Christian music artist who also writes books. I don’t listen to much Christian music but I was able to attend a concert of her at Christmas time and while I enjoyed her music what I enjoyed more was her story telling. She is a natural story teller which also comes out in the songs that she writes.

The book is about faith and doubt. It’s a personal story but with universal application and appeal. The stories revolve around her questions and sometimes the answers that she arrives at during her questioning. There’s a lot of biography in it and some of my favourite stories were ones that included Rich Mullins a friend of hers and a favourite musician of mine.

Carolyn’s wrestling with questions that I think we all have. One of the final paragraphs in her book will give you a clue as to the kind of writing you will encounter if you pick this book up to read. Speaking of Pascal’s “God-shaped vacuum” quote she says, “calling this vacuum God –shaped may seem like a leap, unless of course you encounter a God whom you cannot prove exists, but nonetheless fits the hole in your soul like a key in a lock.”(pg. 232). I like that.

A space invasion, but not the alien kind!

I've been quiet for a couple of weeks due to a break-in where my computer (among other things) was stolen!! I did notice that during those weeks I got more reading done. I finished Flash Forward which was ok but way too much scientific technical stuff for me so it made the story move more slowly than I like. And I finished a book by Francine Rivers called Her Mother's Hope. It was a good story and an easy read.

Fortunately I had insurance and things are slowly getting replaced. of course the computer was the first thing to be replaced. Even though my space was invaded I'm grateful that the only damage was to the door and there was no other vandalism. I'm also grateful that I wasn't home at the time. I'm still not feeling quite safe there yet but I will eventually get a new a stronger lock (I eliminated the ideas of an alarm and a dog!)

I'm starting on Humans the sequel to Hominids and I'm reading Three Cups of Tea so there will eventually be some more reviews coming.

Hominids by Robert Sawyer

My favourite types of science fiction books always involve time travel or alternative universes. In Hominids, a scientific experiment has caused a breach between parallel universes. In one universe, humankind has evolved from the neanderthals. The second universe is our current one. The accident causes a neanderthal to be transported to our world and the adventure begins.

Yes, I know it sounds silly especially if you're not into science fiction (if not you should probably stop reading here, lol). However it turns out to be a good mystery as well as a fascinating anthropological look at scientific thought and how communities develope and there is even a little bit of romance.

Robert Sawyer(he also wrote Flash Forward which I'm just about finished reading) has an active and interesting imagination. I'm ordering the sequel called Humans from the library and look forward to reading it.