Oct
Slow Reader Friday: Life Interrupted…
Well, Book Club Homies…we’re here! I hope you have taken the journey with me as I read Life Interrupted by Priscilla Shirer. And here’s why: I was fortunate to hear Priscilla Shirer speak at the 2013 Women of Faith conference in Dallas. And Priscilla had a tough place on the agenda–right after a filling lunch! She was quick to acknowledge that most of her audience might be nodding off during her time slot! But, she was oh, so wrong–she held my attention the entire time she spoke!
Thus, I was anxious to make the first MIP Book Club Selection her book, Life Interrupted. I have to confess that I chose her book partly because of the ridiculously cheap price for the Kindle edition–a mere $ 2.99. But, it turned out to be a GREAT $ 2.99 to pay. The stoic Scot over here found herself crying several times as I read about her take on the book of Jonah.
I don’t know about you, but I can so relate to Jonah. Running away from my responsibilities is one of my favorite hobbies! But Shirer carefully and skillfully shows us why God did what He did with Jonah and how we, as modern-day Jonahs, can learn to embrace an interrupted life as something new and magnificent and even as an adventure.
It is truly difficult to pick my traditional 3 quotes today, because I’d like to put about 19 here, but here are the ones I selected:
1. “…interruptions are only negative when we deem the person, problem, or circumstance that’s forcing itself on us to be of less value or interest than what we were doing before.”
2. “Hold your own plans loosely and stay ready to submit to His. Consider them to be more important, more desirable than anything you could dream up on your own.
3. “Sometimes the divine intervention of God means breaking allegiance with what you love.”
So, dear Book Club Readers (and Slow Reader Friday Readers!), I have a few questions for you to answer below. Today I will ask you a few more than I will in future months, simply because I want your input about the type of books you like to read, etc. I will do my best to take your interests to heart when I’m considering books for the future:
a) Do you prefer Christian-oriented books or something different?
b) What genre of book is your favorite? Biographies, novels, non-fiction, self-improvement, historical accounts, mysteries, sci-fi???
c) What is the highest you are willing to shell out for a Book Club book? (I’m trying not to break your budget, so please be honest and you can answer under an “assumed name,” if necessary.)
Here are the Life Interrupted questions:
d) On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being “WOW! Loved this book” and 1 being “Really? Why did you even select this book???”, where would you rate this book?
e) What was the most memorable quote of the book for you? Why?
f) What other impressions (good, bad or indifferent) did you have to the book? (Remember–I’m not judging anyone about anything here–you have a right to your own opinion–even if it’s completely different from my own!)
Thanks, in advance, for sharing!
Click here for the November 2013 Book Club Selection!
Monday’s Post: How roweled up are you?
You might also like: Slow Reader Friday: Mere Christianity, Book Club, and Slow Reader Thursday: Heaven by Randy Alcorn
I have been waiting all week for this post! I thoroughly enjoyed the way this book was written. I am sure that Mrs. Shirer was a fabulous speaker to listen to!
a) I am open to any book. I enjoy the Christian-oriented books because they usually give me a different perspective. I like books that make me stop and think about things.
b) Again, any book. I generally choose a novel or a non-fiction. I enjoy motivational stories that make you want to go out and make a difference.
c) I am always willing to pay for a book!
d) I would give this book a 7. I really enjoyed it!
e) I marked several quotes while reading this book. The first quote is very simple but it is not how I initially view an interruption.
1) “How I thank the Lord now for unanswered prayers. Interruptions are often His way of doing something even better.”
2) “…these multiple responsibilities and challenges are simply agents that help us see we’re still inclined to choose fretting over faith, no matter how much we say our trust is in
the Lord.”
f) Overall, I thought it was a great read. I enjoyed her personal stories mixed in with the words and lessons of the Bible.
So glad to hear that you enjoyed the book too, Chelsea! While her sense of humor “peeked through” this book, I wish you could have heard her speak, because she generously sprinkles humor and particularly family story humor into her speaking. Since you like books that make you want to go out and make a difference, I have high hopes that you will really love the November book even more than Ms. Shirer’s book. I didn’t think of unanswered prayers as interruptions, either, but since my little health challenge this past summer, I have been seeing evidence of that more and more in my life. When I was forced to give myself stomach injections this summer and at one point with heart attack # 4, I realized my trust in the Lord is not where I thought it was! So I appreciate her saying that we shouldn’t shie away from such interruptions because we need to face these trust deficiencies and learn how to overcome them! Some books I’ve read recently so infuse theology with their points that I sometimes get rather irritated about them. Personal stories, as she pointed out, is exactly what draws a reader in and I love that her book had a great balance between the obvious researched parts of her book and her stories, too. Can’t wait to hear your opinion about Undaunted next month!
a) Either is fine.
b) I like biographies, non-fiction, and history best, but I’ll read anything.
c) Preferably under $10-15 for the electronic version (book club falls under personal cash!)
d) 7.
e) Memorable quotation: “Jonah illustrates for us that even when you don’t feel like it, you can still make up your mind to turn and head God’s way. You must, in fact! Feelings can often be the greatest enemy of truth.” This quotation spoke to some of the “interruptions” I’m struggling with.
f) Impressions of the book: Like Chelsea, I really enjoyed the personal stories mixed in with the applications, and I enjoyed her sense of humor throughout. She also had a way of bringing out small details in Jonah that I hadn’t noticed before (like God speaking to Jonah a second time, and Jonah being “extremely happy” about the plant). And I couldn’t help but wondering how Jude might feel when he (or his future wife and kiddos) reads about the lessons his existence taught his mama.
Oooohhhh…very good point, “Barbara”! 😉 I hadn’t thought too much about what Jude might one day think about his mom’s writing on Jonah! (And I have to confess that I am diggin’ the name choice for that little guy!) Her sense of humor was definitely shining through when she referred to the whale as “Moby Dick.” I really did LOL on that one! I agree that she pointed out small details I had not thought about in regards to Jonah’s story.
I have long said that love is an action word and sometimes when we don’t feel like loving a person, that is exactly when we should do something for that person that is loving. It’s not easy, but when I make a choice to ignore my feelings and do it anyway, the loving feeling usually follows. And your memorable quotation is one that also jumped out at me for that precise reason. Feelings are neither good nor bad…they just are. But, one probably should not base decisions on them alone! I think that may be why the U.S. divorce rate is so high now–people lose “the feeling” and think that means they don’t love that person anymore. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. And when I am weary of doing things for God, but trudge on, great things usually result much later and I am happy that I stuck with it! I learn so much about God in that process!
Thanks for the input! I am hoping to pull in some biographies and historical stuff in the future. Price may be an issue for the ones I’m thinking about, so I will keep that in mind as I “browse.”
On a completely different subject, I heard your favorite new legal term used as a verb in the movie, “Lincoln.” Watch the movie and find out who used the word! 🙂