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Review: Angry Conversations with God, Susan Isaacs

Blake — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:30:28 +0000

Towards the end of last year I was afforded the opportunity to hear from Susan Isaacs, author of Angry Conversations with God and @susanisaacs on Twitter. I listened with rapt attention, a thing that hadn’t happened in quite some time. Maybe it was because so much of what she was saying deeply resonated with me, speaking to the hurt of my last year, and to the hope of something better, something more real than what I thought I once had, or needed.

Susan, a Hollywood actor with multiple “failures” in both her career and her relationships, decided she’d had enough of God. So she took Him to couples counseling and chronicled the journey in Angry Conversations with God: A Snarky but Authentic Spiritual Memoir. It’s funny as all get-out and painfully honest. Her transparency bleeds from the pages, and where most comics use their gift to hide their inadequacies, Susan’s self-deprecating style brings everyone’s guard down to where we know we are like her in so many ways. Consequently, if she can laugh and grow, then, by God, we can too.

On her book tour (before I’d read the book), Susan challenged me to be brutally honest before God. This is something that had never occurred to me before. I feared being “smoten” for my insolent ways.

Then I recalled my experience, just a few months prior, when I yelled at God like I never had before. And felt bad for doing so, because that’s what a “good” Baptist upbringing will do to you.

Yet I quickly got over that feeling, because the felt injustice of my situation was too overwhelming, to the point where words that I would never have thought about using in a prayer starting running away from my mind and out through my lips. The words came in such a flurry of fury that the sentinel at the door didn’t have time to man the battle-stations and stop the tide of vehemence. He was woefully under-prepared for the onslaught of pent-up rage.

When the words stopped, the silence was dreadful. I was sure I was about to be struck down, to be given the chance to meet my Maker right then and there so I could voice my complaint in his very Presence. But instead of instantaneous death, I heard these words:

I know… I know… I know…

…spoken as from a mother heartbroken over her child’s necessary pain.

I sat stunned, drowning in grace. My anger subsided. And while the answers I wanted didn’t come (ever read the end of the book of Job?), it didn’t matter. The fight I’d had with God (which still continues from day to day) changed me, as if from Jacob to Israel.

So thank you Susan, for being honest with yourself, with God, and with us. It’s helped me, immeasurably. I’m not as mad as hell anymore; I’m just mad at hell on earth.

Review: This is Your Brain on Joy, by Dr. Earl Henslin

Blake — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:25:49 +0000

As a disclaimer, I signed up to be a Thomas Nelson Book Review Blogger a few weeks ago. They send me books; I read them and review them. Fortunately, they ask that the review be honest, and about the whole book. That’s always my intention.

This is Your Brain on Joy is not a book I would typically read. Not that I think I have life figured out (far from it!), but I seldom read “self-help” books, even though I’d have a hard time classifying Dr. Henslin’s book as your typical “self-help” book.

Through his relationship with New York Times bestselling author Dr. Daniel Amen (of the Amen Clinic), Dr. Henslin provides insight into the physical realities behind our depressions, our manias, our phobias, and our lack of true joy. Through SPECT imaging of the brain itself, Dr. Amen and Dr. Henslin can help a person pinpoint their areas of actual brain weakness. Each chapter is devoted to a specific area of the brain, and how any minor damage, through any number of causes, can radically affect a person’s experience of life. Dr. Henslin then provides a number of recommendations to help a person change the way their brain functions. He provides examples of helpful supplements, activities, scriptures, quotes, recommended reading, listening, and watching, and a host of other ideas to help pull a person out of habits that can otherwise deteriorate a life well lived.

For such an intrinsically complicated subject, Dr. Henslin almost becomes too simple in his descriptions, like when he describes the Cingulate Gyrus as the Circular Gerbil Wheel, because people with problems in that area are compulsive, dwell on the negative, and tend to store hurts. In other words, they can’t “get off the wheel.” But, these simple images do help to metaphorically convey in a quick way what occurs in our minds, and how that plays out in our lives. The book itself is an easy read and has many good recommendations for those that might see themselves in its pages.

On a personal note, before reading this book, I thought that joy only came from God, and if I wasn’t feeling joyful, then I must not be doing something right. That’s a flawed view. Joy does only come from God, but God can use any number of means to bring it into our lives. Taking any kind of supplement or medication seemed like anathema to me; through a few recent exchanges with friends and family, I’ve learned that God can use those things to help reorient a person to joy.

And joy has to be sought. I was one to wait on it, not to seek it out. Dr. Henslin provides plenty of ways to seek out joy, and by understanding your brain deficiency, you’re better able to utilize his recommendations.

The Last Word: This Is Your Brain on Joy is an easy and practical read. It’s recommended for those that lack a deep sense of joy or those that are interested in how the brain’s functioning contributes to our daily experiences of life itself.

The Well of Lost Plots, Jasper Fforde

Blake — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 23:56:24 +0000

MOTS (More of the Same, see Lost in a Good Book). Unlike movies, there are more book series that maintain interest and become more inventive over time and their various sequels. Fforde’s Lost Plots contines the story of Literary Detective Thursday Next as she now inhabits the Book World. I loved the way Fforde equated updating books as if it were software. Of course, there’s a vast conspiracy in the Book World to keep the upgrade on schedule…until Thursday Next catches wind of it.

www.thursdaynext.com

Who’s Your Caddy (Audiobook), Rick Reilly

Blake — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 23:54:12 +0000

Very funny book by sportswriter (and Leatherheads scribe) Rick Reilly who tries to answer that eternal question – what’s it like to be a caddy? With stories about looping for John Daly, David Duval, Donald Trump, a blind golfer, and others, Caddy is quite humorous, a little ribald, and wholly entertaining.

www.rickreillyonline.com

Simple Church, Thom S. Rainer & Eric Geiger

Blake — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 23:52:39 +0000

A book written based on the assumption and corresponding research that complexity in churches is not beneficial to the life of the church. Paring down to the basics (see Google’s search page vs. Yahoo’s search page) and focusing everything about the church on a few principles seems to make churches grow better (i.e. deeper). These principles are three-fold: loving God, loving others, loving the world. Seems easy enough, but putting it into practice in a complex organization full of ministers doing “good works” is much more difficult.

Dave Barry’s History of the Millenium (Audiobook), Dave Barry

Blake — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 23:48:25 +0000

More like 2.5 stars. I probably shouldn’t count this as a read book since I listened to it, but either way, it’s an easy listen/read, as are most of Barry’s works. But he knows funny, and hyperbole, and brilliance disguised as ignorance. Who wouldn’t want Dave Barry to be their history teacher? Still, after reading Big Trouble and Tricky Business, I’d recommend his fiction over his non-fiction.

www.davebarry.com

I Call the Shots, Johnny Miller

Blake — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 23:26:48 +0000

Only for golf fans, of which I am one. Johnny, current NBC broadcaster and former PGA prodigy, shares his views on a number of things relating to golf, from why Tiger won’t bypass Nicklaus’ 18 majors (to which I wholeheartedly disagree), to his ruminations on course design, his dream team, and what the future may hold. Written in 2004, it’s amazing, even then, how much Tiger Woods Pricing-Golfers-Wares Sep-07 changes the tone of the book. Tiger is the exception to every rule, the behemoth that casts his shadow into every facet of the game.

I Am America (And So Can You), Stephen Colbert

Blake — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 23:45:54 +0000

Although not quite a fan of the show, a friend recommended the book. It’s funny enough, as Colbert puts to paper what he satirizes on his show, portraying a staunch Republican who’s as American as apple pie. But, to me, it was too much of the same, and while I finished the book, I probably laughed more at the first half because the jokes were fairly fresh, whereas the latter half retread the same ground. But it’s about what I expect from a humor book. The side notes in the margin, where Colbert comments on himself, was a nice touch. (Maybe all future books will have the same thing – a wikibookia, constantly edited by the author throughout the year’s of his or her life).

www.colbertnation.com

The Man Who Was Thursday, G.K. Chesterton

Blake — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:25:55 +0000

Brilliant, short mystery novel, written by a brilliant, large, well-known author. Though an early 20th century novel, it’s still amazingly relevant. Contains some transcendental passages as well. I believe it’s one of the most recommended works of fiction by Chesterton. I now know why.

Neuromancer, William Gibson

Blake — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 23:21:25 +0000

It’s a sign of lazy reading when you have to refer to a book’s Wikipedia entry to make sure what you thought was happening actually occurred in the book. Fortunately, I was mostly right. Neuromancer is one of those books that’s oft referred to in popular culture, especially considering that Gibson coined the phrase cyberspace. It’s been called the first cyberpunk novel. I couldn’t believe it was written in 1984, as forward thinking, both in substance and narrative, as the story is. I kept wondering how difficult it would be to turn this into a film. Seems 2009 will be the year. Read the book before you see the movie.