For Mature Readers

Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life by Richard Rohr
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ha! I thought the title of this post might get your attention. This book really will resonate more with a person in their second half of life.

I borrowed this book from the library--it is now overdue (my apologies to the next person on the hold list)!

You can't read this book quickly. It took a while to wrap my head around some of the concepts that Rohr shared. There was much I liked, and much I still need to think about. For this reason I most likely will end up buying "Falling Upward".

Some ideas I liked:

In talking about the hero or heroine's journey, and how the task he or she undertakes is really to help them to discover "his or her real self". . .

"Most people confuse their life situation with their actual life, which is an underlying flow beneath the everyday events. This deeper discovery is largely what religious people mean by 'finding their soul'"

"Every time God forgives us, God is saying that God's own rules do not matter as much as the relationship that God wants to create with us."

In talking about Homer's "Odyssey" and his coming home, Rohr says "He is free to stop his human doing and can at last enjoy his human being". This is something I should learn - stop all this crazy business, all this doing, and learn to just enjoy, well, everything!

I love this statement about the apostles:

"They barely ever got the point, and seem as thoroughly foolish as we are; but God still used them, because like all of us they were little children too."

Lovely bit from Augustine's "Confessions":

"You were within, but I was without. You were with me, but I was not with you. So you called, you shouted, you broke through my deafness, you flared, blazed and banished my blindness, you lavished your fragrance, and I gasped."

I think we forget that God is always ready to lavish His love on us. . . scripture is always telling us about God lavishly supplying us with the Holy Spirit, with His love.

In Chapter 13, Rohr says:

"God will always give you exactly what you truly want and desire. So make sure you desire, desire deeply, desire yourself, desire God, desire everything good, true, and beautiful. All the emptying out is only for the sake of a Great Outpouring. God, like nature, abohors all vacuums, and rushes to fill them."

I also loved this: "The true Gospel is always fresh air and spacious breathing room".

Chapter 11 is very interesting, talking about our shadow selves. . . "Your shadow is what you refuse to see about yourself, and what you do not want others to see". This chapter is one I have to think about a bit.

I felt, sometimes, that I wasn't smart enough for this book. I really do need time to wrap my head around some of his ideas. It's a good "thinking" book, and if you like solitude and reflection it will resonate with you.

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Flavia DeLuce - Female Investigator

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I had a girlfriend who really loved this book series, which is why I picked it up. I like to read young adult fiction--usually they are a quick read, and sometimes better than the adult fiction that's out there.

Flavia is fascinated with chemistry, particularly the chemistry of creating poison. The youngest child in her household, Flavia is often picked on by her older siblings. With no mom, and a dad who is reserved and fascinated with his stamp collection she often retreats to her laboratory.

Flavia finds a dead body in the garden and the police arrest her father! Even though she's only 11, her curiosity and desire to clear her father sets her on a series of adventures.

I liked Flavia right away, but in the first half of the book I thought, well, this is good, but I don't know why Lara is so in love with these books. But. . . then I got hooked, staying up past my bedtime trying to finish it.

I just finished the second book in the series, "The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag" (which I will give 5 stars, for some reason just liked that one better) and am eager to begin the 3rd "A Red Herring Without Mustard" which I have on hold at our local library.

This would be a fun read-aloud with your kids or classroom. Visit the Flavia DeLuce website to learn more about this series.

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