theseasoul's reviews
473 reviews

|| 4 ⭐️ ||

A pretty decent birds-eye view of basic, foundational theology and different perspectives that exist within orthodox Christianity. Some branches of theology I was already more familiar with than others, but it’s always good to be reminded of how all the pieces of my faith fit together even in the areas I’m well-versed in already.

The chapter on eschatology was especially helpful for me, since that’s a branch of theology I’ve found it hard to wrap my brain around—the author did a really good job of dumbing down the different perspectives. It’s also always good to be reminded of what the essential, core doctrines are, as a reminder to extend grace to brothers and sisters whom I may disagree with on secondary/tertiary issues. 

|| 4.5 ⭐️ ||

I wouldn’t be where I am in my health journey today without Shanahan’s work (specifically, her book Deep Nutrition on ancestral nourishment, which I read a couple years ago). She takes Weston A. Price’s research on ancestral diets from the 1930’s and puts a modern spin on his findings, taking into consideration the research that has since been able to explain the intricacies of why chronic disease has so suddenly skyrocketed in the past century. This book, Dark Calories, is similar to Deep Nutrition, but zooms in on the primary factor that is contributing to most modern disease: seed/vegetable oils. 

This would be a great book to start with if someone has taken one glance at the world of nutrition and has been completely overwhelmed by all the different opinions out there, and potential changes to make, as I was at the beginning. Getting seed oils out and replacing them with animal fats is a fantastic first step, and sometimes it even ends up being the only thing one might need to improve their health. It’s also hard for any other health efforts to make a dent in chronic disease if seed oils are still present in massive amounts. So it’s a wonderful place to start, and Shanahan makes the elimination of seed oils very approachable and doable.

This is minor, but I will never not be confused by proponents of ancestral nutrition who advocate for nuts and seeds. I found it particularly strange that Shanahan didn’t really discourage them, considering this whole book is about how PUFAs are harming our health… and most nuts and seeds are quite high in oxidized PUFAs (unless eaten straight out of the shell and in moderation). Nuts are not an ancestral food. Especially not in the quantities people eat them today. But since there’s so much nuance in nutrition, to each his own. 

|| 3 ⭐️ ||

An extremely average dual-timeline piece of historical fiction. Not badly written, just very predictable. I wish it was more unique… feels like I’ve read this exact kind of storyline a hundred times before in other historical fiction books.

|| Content warnings ||

Sexual assault. A couple of closed-door bedroom scenes. Fair bit of profanity.

|| 5 ⭐️ ||

There’s a common sentiment in society today that families that grow beyond 3ish kids are just reckless, they don’t know how kids happen, it isn’t planned, etc. But the women interviewed for this book demonstrate that often, it’s the opposite: adding each new child to the family is usually a deliberate, well-thought-out, prayerful decision and always ends up being a blessing despite the great deal of self-sacrifice and opportunity cost. Much of the time they don’t start out wanting a large family, but they take their lives one day at a time, one child at a time. Many of these women also chose to give up lofty careers for motherhood, and it was interesting to hear some of their reasons for why they believe it’s worth it and how they make it all work. This book also points out so many benefits of large families that I’d never really thought about before. 

There can be lot of difficulty involved in raising kids, even just one; but this book serves as a reminder that children are such a blessing and being a mother is infinitely rewarding. 

I like the title too ;)

|| 2.5 ⭐️ ||

A work of fiction inspired by the life of Louisa May Alcott seemed like a great idea, but it wasn’t executed as well as I hoped it would be. I felt that the characters needed a lot more fleshing out, and the early stages of their romance needed a bit more development before launching into the rest of their lives. I found it hard to care for those relationships at all, which caused the entire plot to eventually fall flat. There were some interesting themes of family and reconciliation, but for the most part I wasn’t into it. The feminist undertones didn’t help anything either.

|| 4 ⭐️ ||

Very helpful book that dissects the sin of envy, and displays all the ways in which it is so very silly and gross. A lot of the chapters made me think about things in a new light and will help me guard against envy pitfalls in the future.

|| 2 ⭐️ ||

I made it to the end, but the longer the story went on the more bored I got. I don’t usually mind character-driven books, but the plot was just so vague and close to non-existent. And the character-focused aspect wasn’t even that amazing or deep, even though it followed several decades of their lives. The dialogue format was somewhat annoying and confusing, italics and multiple people going back and forth in each paragraph.

|| Content warnings ||

Unmarried sex on multiple occasions, most or all of it closed-door. God’s name misused a few times.

|| 4 ⭐️ ||

A graphic novel is such an unexpected format for the telling of this famous friendship story, but surprisingly it worked so well! The narrators were a bit too goofy at times, but some of the goofy moments did make me laugh. 

Loads of historical context is given in regards to the times Lewis and Tolkien were living in, and each of their lives are chronicled very cohesively. I’d heard snippets of their life stories here and there, but it was cool to see it all compiled together like this. Theirs was such a sweet, authentic friendship; not without its rough spots, but that just makes it all the more meaningful. The world remains thankful for how these men spurred each other on to write some of the most influential novels of all time.

|| 4.5 ⭐️ ||

I’m very encouraged by Jinger’s testimony. It’s such a clear example of the indwelling Holy Spirit working in someone’s life and orchestrating things. There’s no human reason why she should’ve decided to remain a Christian and gone through all that arduous “disintangling” work, other than God being the sole one sustaining her faith. And now she’s using her story as a way to proclaim the gospel in its beautiful simplicity. I hope this book continues to reach and help people who grew up in the fear and guilt of man-made legalism.

It was interesting learning a bit more about Bill Gothard and IBLP from her perspective; I believe I’ve only ever read stories of people coming out of legalistic cults and outright rejecting their faith and all religion as a result, so this was quite different. She’s very graceful in the way she speaks about her family and friends caught up in IBLP teachings, but also still bold regarding where the teachings go wrong and what the Bible really says about Christian freedom and God’s true character.

|| 3.5 ⭐️ ||

Since I’m not a feminist, I was so curious to know what the deal is with this book.

As a literary work, if you simply read it as another dystopian novel, it’s not bad. The plot is fairly interesting. Aside from the sexual references which seem to dominate a lot of dystopian novels; I guess because every Godless society seems to be driven purely by unfettered human impulses, and this is no exception. Indeed, this is a story about a Godless society, no matter what Atwood tries to frame it as with her out-of-context Bible verses. It’s like she believes that all Christians read about the situation that happened between Abraham, Sarah and Hagar… and then condone it as a prescriptive passage in the Bible. This is not at all a story about a godly, conservative, complimentarian society gone too far. It’s very cult-like and incredibly sad, full of evil and people stripped of all their dignity: not just women, but men too. It’s a society where satan would be having a heyday, and no genuine believer would advocate for any of it. None of the sides represented in this book are aligned with God or His word.

So in summary, if you take God out of things and use random Scriptures to indulge the flesh, if you think surrogacy is a good thing, if men have no authority over them nor accountability for their actions, if humans are all just clumps of cells who evolved from nothing and have no God-given value, then you get The Handmaid’s Tale.