THE END (or, Changes on the Blog Today)

Hello, faithful readers. Today marks a turn in a new direction. 🙂

I’ve found myself using this blog less and less recently. Perhaps you’ve noticed. (Or perhaps it has been so long that you’ve forgotten to notice. Sorry ’bout that.) The thing is, it hasn’t felt genuine. I thought for awhile that it was a problem with the design, so I’ve changed that time and again. But it wasn’t satisfying. I’ve puzzled over it for a long time, and the true problem didn’t really get through my head until last night at around 12:30.

This isn’t my heart anymore.

Or actually, it is my heart, but it can’t be when I put it in the wrong place. To have a book blog and a life blog has grown completely counter intuitive for me. Because books are a huge part of my life. 🙂 The Embarrassed Zebra has been fun while it’s lasted, but it has grown fundamentally backwards for me to keep it up at this point. So I’m letting it go.

Maybe someday I’ll write reviews here again. Or maybe I’ve learned better? I don’t know. For the time being, however, I’m putting my heart back into my chest with the rest of me – where it belongs. Later, folks.

– S.J. Skogerboe –

Hey, you. If you’re still wanting to read more, I write a blog called MUSE: Born of a Wandering Mind. Feel free to find me there. 🙂

“Killing Lincoln” by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard

Photo Credit: Richard Pilon (on Flickr)

This book is my answer to the question, “What’s so great about reading outside your comfort zone?” This. I got to read this. “Here, borrow my copy. Not the history reading type? Forget it, man – this is WAY too real to be history.”

Bill O’Reilly’s Killing Lincoln is anything but an old story. That would be like calling Nutella “just a hazelnut spread.” Au contraire, mes amis. It is delicious heaven-paste. And Killing Lincoln is not fairly described as “just an account” – it is more like a window with pages. Booth’s outrageous mindset is displayed clearly, murders realistically, and people, wholly.

The book successfully recaptures the chaotic atmosphere of the end of the Civil war, and places you inside it.You will flee the streets to avoid the post-war mobs, drunken with victory, or defeat, or just liquor. You will dodge the blows of an assassin in the night. And along with the masses, you will cry, “SPEECH! SPEECH! SPEECH!” at the President’s window.

That man with the top hat, tall, skinny build, and commoner’s tongue will lead you out of years of evil into blessed peace. He’ll calm your doubts with quiet words, but urge you to be better than any before you. He will love his wife, his family, and his country like no President before him. And in the end, he’ll stand unshaken to stare into the eyes of Death.

I received this book as a gift from my grandparents for review. This in no way changed my opinion, or review, of the book. It only made it more clear to me how fantastic my grandparents are.

The Voice New Testament

Base Image Credit: Martin-missfeldt.de (No affiliation.)

Hey, Death! What happened to your big win?
Hey, Death! What happened to your sting?
– The Voice New Testament

53 steps from my front door, through 3 hallways and inside a soundproof studio, you can find a set of V-drums. You pop your headphones into the jack, turn the set to Courtyard (because come on: How could you not?) and jam ’till you’re sweating, smiling, and happy to be alive. (There’s nothing better than hitting things for feeling alive. Well, almost nothing.) I love those V-drums.

HOWEVER. Were one (being you) to tell me that there was another set – a real set, mind you – in the chapel across the street, (Approx. 57 steps from our welcome mat.) I would sprint to the chapel as if my feet had caught fire. Forget V-drums; A real set, in the real chapel, is the real deal. An extra four steps is easily looked over in light of a better reality.

This is how I feel about The Voice Bible by Thomas Nelson Bibles (various authors contributed). Easy reading, but not for those who are really trying to dig in to the theology. And I’m preeetty sure the translation isn’t exact. 🙂 (What happened to your big win?)

So here’s my point: The Voice is fine. But you are looking for a Bible. A Bible deserves better than fine. Take the extra four steps.

I received this Bible free of charge from Thomas Nelson Bibles in exchange for a review. This in no way affected my opinion, or written opinion, of the book.

“You are a Writer (So Start Acting Like One)” by Jeff Goins

Have you ever been hit in the face with a frying pan? All of its wide, metal, possibly stainless steal glory pressing up against your face as if you were just one more pancake? Reading Jeff Goins’ You are a Writer was nothing like that.

It was better.

I’ve taken hits like that. I read my Bible. I’ve got the theological bruises to prove it. Writer was different. It was a subtle coxing of the inner writer to realize the inner writer’s purpose. This is something I can do. Someone I am. It was a reminder of something I have been told before but never actually heard. I’d taken it as the typical teacher’s, “Well, this report is really good! Have a sticker!” Forget stickers – This was a tattoo. No, more like a birthmark. I am a writer.

You are a Writer is a plea from the author to all who have ever aspired to write to please, please, stop aspiring. To recognize that when you are saying “I would love to write,” you are saying, at the same time, “I am not writing yet.” Be a writer. By writing. (This is how these things work. :-))

And tips on how to write. To publish. To connect with people. It is a guide for realizing who you are, and how to best and most genuinely continue being that person. You are a Writer is one brilliant, prolonged “AHA.” moment, from start to finish. Click the link below to get a copy. Crack [click] it open. And make sure to have a notebook and pen on hand.

Buy the eBook. >> http://amzn.to/K9HpIM
Jeff’s blog >> GoinsWriter.com

“Surprised by Laughter” by Terry Lindvall :: Biography

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!! No, just kidding. (Gotcha’. 🙂 ) Surprised by Laughter is both enjoyable and accurate as a study of the wit and wisdom of C.S. Lewis. Whom I quote frequently. And may or may not have read several books about. And of whom I may be (for my age and amount of study-into-the-subject done) a veritable scholar. *ahem* I liked it. 🙂

One of the things I liked most about this book is it’s abundance of quotes. In fact, I would estimate that the quotes alone, in 10 pt. font, could fill a small book. They are used by Lindvall, who employs them skillfully to prove point after point. Not only does he quote Lewis: G.K. Chesterton, Rabelais, Chaucer, Søren Kierkgaard- and all as if they were having an conversation with him.

And for that content which was written by Lindvall himself. It was good. *cough* No, really. I liked it. It was a wee bit dry, but that was to be expected. (I mean, the guy actually put PH. D on the cover. I sat reading the book with an arched brow, and a dictionary on my knee.) It is very clever writing, if you can keep up with it. And I don’t say that in a mean way, I just mean to say, it’s a bit like reading a history book. Every once in a while I would realize I hadn’t really registered the last couple sentences, and go back and re-read. However, when I did go back, it would usually make me smile.

Surprised by Laughter revealed to me three main truths. First, satire is a sword, capable of cutting, fighting, and at times, surgery. What better tool for argument than a sword? (See chapter 31, “The Sword of Satire.”) And C.S. Lewis was a masterful swordsman. Secondly, Flippancy is the bane of man. It can take him to hell with a laugh, and a scoffing wave of the hand. And finally, Laughter is the ultimate medicine, when paired with God. Laughter alone is not enough; as I noted in my journal well reading, “Laughter needs something more; we need laugh with good reason, shared with God. This puts the wind in the wind-chimes, the breath in the trumpet that produces a ringing note.”

One last note: I did not read chapters 27-29. I did however, enjoy very much the rest of the book. These three chapters you will have to judge for yourself.

_____

4.8 of 5 stars

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