Wednesday, April 9, 2014

What I Read Wednesday

The Walking Dead: Compendium One
I've been checking the library website for this one for quite awhile now. Although I've never read a graphic novel before in my life, I've heard that this is really good, better than the show. So I was super excited when I saw that our library purchased two copies of this and two copies of compendium two. The whole graphic novel format took a little bit for me to get the hang of, but once I got into it, I breezed through it (even though this book is huge!). I loved the differences and similarities between the TV show and the graphic novel (the graphic novel came first), as well as character differences. The artwork was also pretty stunning, too. It was a little grittier than the TV show, which I enjoyed and which makes sense because it is a zombie apocalypse, after all.

Handling the Undead
When I read Harbor by this author, a blurb on the back said he was Sweden's Stephen King, so I was interested in reading more of his books. This book was not what I expected, but I really loved it. When the dead begin to come back to life in Stockholm, everyone is gripped with the question of what to do and the ethics of how to handle the dead. Unlike your usual zombie lore (see above), they aren't biting and infecting others (for the most part). They're simply reanimating and attempting to find their way home. And then what? What do you do when your dead husband, son, wife has returned? But they're not quite the same? This wasn't necessarily a horror story, to me, but it was absolutely unnerving and hooked me from the beginning.

Let Me In
Or Let The Right One In, if you're familiar with the movie version. The two titles confused me until I realized that the movie and later editions of the book changed the name. Like Handling the Undead, Lindqvist gives a twist to vampire genre where the vampire in question is a child who fluctuates between innocence and evil. In the midst of this is a boy named Oskar, bullied at school and thinking he may be in love with his new neighbor who only comes out at night and can't come into his apartment unless invited. Like Handling the Undead, it's a horror story, in a way, but there are also a lot of statements about human nature buried within the horror genre.

Astonish Me: A novel
This book is neither about zombies nor vampires. It's about ballerinas. Joan is a ballerina who is talented enough to dance professionally but never beyond the corps. Her fame comes when she helps a Russian ballerina, Arslan, defect to the United States. Shortly after, Joan becomes pregnant and only dances as a teacher in a ballet studio. Years later, she's pushed back into the professional ballet world when it seems her son has professional level talent.
I loved this book. I was worried that I'd be bored, but I was drawn into the story of Joan and all those around her. The book itself wasn't entirely chronological and would sometimes skip forward and backward in time, which really added to the story because you would get bits and pieces of the conflicts in the lives of the characters and what led to the challenges they were facing. Some of the story was predictable, but the characters were incredibly real and very enjoyable in their flaws.

What are you reading?

7 comments:

Steve Finnell said...

SAVED LIKE THE PARALYTIC?

The proponents of "FAITH ONLY" salvation like to present the paralytic as an example of one who had his sins forgiven without being baptized in water. Their position is, since Jesus forgave the paralytic without being immersed in water; so then, baptism is not essential, for those living today, in order to have sins forgiven.

PARALYTIC SALVATION: Luke 5:18-20 And some men were carrying on a bed a man who was paralyzed; and they were trying to bring him in and set him him down in front of Him. 19 But not finding any way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and let him down through the tiles with his stretcher, into the middle of the crowd, in front of Jesus . 20 Seeing their faith , He said , "Friend, your sins are forgiven."

PARALYTIC SALVATION: Jesus forgave his sin because of the faith of friends.

Can men today be saved like the paralytic? No, they cannot!

The paralytic was saved without FAITH.
The paralytic was saved without REPENTANCE.
The paralytic was saved without CONFESSING Jesus as the Son of God.
The paralytic was saved without being BAPTIZED.
The paralytic was saved without BELIEVING that God raised Jesus from the dead.
The paralytic was saved without CONFESSING Jesus as Lord and Christ.

THE PARALYTIC PLAN OF SALVATION WAS- THE FAITH OF FRIENDS.

The paralytic was saved before the New Covenant was in force. Jesus had to die before the New Covenant was available.

Men today have to meet the terms of the New Agreement, that is the New Covenant.

NEW COVENANT: Hebrews 9:15-17 For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance. 16 For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one made it. 17 For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who lives made it.

The apostle Peter told all men how to be saved under the New Covenant. (Acts 2:22-41) A.D. 33 The Day of Pentecost.

New Covenant terms of pardon.
FAITH: John 3:16
REPENTANCE: Acts 2:38, Acts 3:19, Luke 24:47
CONFESSION: Romans 10:9-10, Acts 8:37
BAPTISM: Acts 2:38, Mark 16:16, 1 Peter 3:21, Acts 22:16, Colossians 2:12-13, Titus 3:5, John 3:5, Galatians 3:27, Romans 6:3-7

Was the paralytic saved? Yes, so was the thief on the cross, Enoch, Abraham, and many others before the New Covenant was in force, however, it was the blood of Jesus that washed away the sins of those who died under the Old Covenant.

IF MEN TODAY CAN HAVE THEIR SIN FORGIVEN LIKE THE PARALYTIC-----THEN THEY CAN BE SAVED WITHOUT FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST. THE PARALYTIC WAS SAVED BECAUSE OF THE FAITH OF FRIENDS!

YOU ARE INVITED TO FOLLOWING BY BLOG. http://steve-finnell.blogspot.com

One crazed mommy said...

Still working my way slowly through Dr. Sleep - but I am enjoying it...just don't have much time to read - next week is spring break and I'm taking a couple days off...maybe I'll be able to finish it over the long weekend!!

Lyndsay said...

Just started one your recommended... can't remember the title... the two sisters... one runs off with pigeoners...

Theresa Mahoney said...

I saw the movie version of Let Me In. A little creepy, but I enjoyed it.

I think I am the only person alive that has not seen The Walking Dead. We are finishing up a few series on Netflix before starting a new one, and TWD is what I am hoping to catch up on next.

I just started reading the Ashfall trilogy. So far, so good!

InTheFastLane said...

The Wind is Not a River. It's going slow, just because I have to work and then wake up early in the morning and I fall asleep hard at night. But it's good so far.

I'll have to check out Astonish Me...I don't remember what was next on my to read list.

InTheFastLane said...

Oh and someone above commented on Ashfall, my 8th grader read that a few years ago and loved it.

Barb Ruess said...

I'm still reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. I really like it but I've been so busy that I haven't been able to read much. I hate when that happens - esp when I have a pile of books waiting for me.