Book Reviews

Book Review—Baggage Claim

February 15, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I was not going to help launch this book. I decided I was busy enough that Esther could help Cathe Swanson launch her books, and I’d stick to helping Chautona Havig with hers, and Esther was happy about that. Of course, since she got Baggage Claim to read in advance of publication, she sent it to my Kindle when she sent it to hers, and I started reading it a couple of weeks ago. Oops! I ended up wasting a lot of time reading it instead of getting right back to work when I should have. And now, Esther hasn’t even had time to finish the book, so guess who volunteered to write a review and help promote the book! It’s a good one—you won’t regret buying this book and reading it. It published today, so you should be able to get it immediately.

Here is my review, which will stay here until Esther publishes it on her website:

I don’t know when I’ve read a book I’ve enjoyed as much as I enjoyed Baggage Claim. I loved all of it. Cathe Swanson is one of my very favorite authors! I hope she keeps writing. This is only her second published book, but it’s a winner.

Ben Taylor is a young widower with four children, and he has a nanny who keeps his life in order. Teresa Cooper not only takes care of the children, she also keeps the house tidy and meals on the table. Ben has never had life so easy since he got married at 18 after Anneliese got pregnant. Now, though, he is searching for his birthparents. What a mess he finds!

One thing I love about this book is the many stories interwoven skillfully into one. Teresa has a fascinating story; Ben’s history is mysterious and I absolutely loved what he ended up finding; Ben’s life ends up full of intrigue and possible danger. I also love the setting. Ben lives in Chicago, but he ends up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan a few times. One thing I really liked was the mention of Bond Falls in the U. P. I had never heard of it until our family was traveling through that area a number of years ago and saw a sign pointing down a side road toward Bond Falls. It was the most spectacular waterfall I have seen in my life, and is a very special memory, so I was delighted to see it in a book. It was also fun to see the mention of Ontanagon, just because it’s an unusual name for a place, and it’s real. I think I would love this book just for the portrayal of my home state, even if the story wasn’t quite so good!

Besides simply enjoying the story, there were some very meaty parts to it, too. One scene that really stands out in my mind is when Teresa is telling the story to a friend of her experience in a women’s shelter. She describes another woman who was in there, and says that she was the reason that Teresa became a Christian. It wasn’t because she told Teresa about Jesus, but rather that she was a “living testimony” that other women could build on to explain salvation to Teresa. I shared that passage with my husband one afternoon when he was talking about his frustration with himself and not sharing Jesus with the world as much as he wants to. Teresa’s friend’s response was just what my husband needed that day, “Some plant the seed, some water and some harvest. God put it all in place for you. He’s just amazing that way.”

I highly recommend Baggage Claim if you’re looking for a great story that’s perfectly clean and pulls you in. It is a long book, but keeps moving. I’m hoping for a sequel—Ben had some unfinished business at the end, although Teresa’s story had a satisfying conclusion! Oh, and my favorite quote from the book? “And Jonah couldn’t find the outhouse at all.” You’ll have to read the book to find out who Jonah is and how an outhouse comes into the story.

WARNING: When Ben is searching for his birth parents, he hears a fairly detailed story from his teenaged mother’s best friend. Later in the book, a girl who is babysitting Ben’s children hits a man over the head with a gun to knock him out so she can tie him up.

Note: The links in this post are Esther’s affiliate links, so if you purchase the book through them you’ll be helping to support her website.

Product Review—SchoolhouseTeachers.com

January 11, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I’m trying something new this year. I’ve been reading reviews for over a year now from people on the Homeschool Review Crew, and decided it sounded like an interesting thing to do. Throughout this next year, I’ll have the chance to get free curriculum or other things to use with the children, and then write an honest review of my opinion of the product and how we used it. The first product I was asked to review was a Yearly Membership at SchoolhouseTeachers.com.

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Apparently, I had a free membership a few years ago, when I subscribed to The Old Schoolhouse Magazine. I enjoyed that magazine, by the way, but when they changed from print to digital it no longer worked for me because I don’t have a phone or tablet to read it on. Anyway, at that time I never even investigated SchoolhouseTeachers.com, but in the past month I’ve spent a fair amount of time exploring the site. It’s great!

One of the things I used the most was Everyday Games. I printed out several math games to play with Mr. Sweetie. His favorite was one in which you throw a die to go around a game board. Most of the spaces have addition facts on them, but some have a penguin. If you land on a penguin, you go back to start; if you hit a fact that adds up to 11, you get an extra turn. He loved that game, and we played it over and over before we quit doing school for the summer. Another game I printed had circles all around the edge with numbers in them; you wanted to cover up two numbers that added up to 10, and get the longest string of tokens in order to win. There was another that required adding up to 13, and Mr. Inventor and Mr. Diligence got into that one the one day. They stole it from Mr. Sweetie and I, and spent a lot of time playing it! With that game, you could use either two or three numbers at once, which meant you had a better chance of getting the longest string. They loved the challenge. These are such simple games, but my imagination isn’t good enough to come up with something like that on my own. I look forward to trying more of the games as we need to reinforce different topics in reading and math.

Another course we used a lot was Drive Through History. Mr. Intellectual loved those videos. He’s been working his way through American history using them. Each video is about half an hour long, and follows the narrator as he goes to various historical buildings and tells the story of what happened there. I’ve heard a lot about what my boy has learned from them. There are worksheets to go along with each video, with two pages of simple questions and a page of more involved essay questions. Mr. Intellectual’s only gripe with the worksheets was that some of the questions were out of order, making it hard to answer as he went through the video.

We’ve also been enjoying the Videos tab. We don’t generally spend money on DVDs (I’d rather buy books), and we don’t watch very many, but occasionally we like to spend an evening together watching something. Actually, I should clarify. The rest of the family likes to do that; I don’t get into movies much. We discovered a gold mine on SchoolhouseTeachers.com, though—the Torchlighters series of cartoon-style animated movies telling about the lives of famous Christians. We’ve watched several since we got access to them, including the ones about Corrie TenBoom, Amy Carmichael, Samuel Morris, and others. The favorite so far was John Wesley, especially the part where he was thrown out of the church! One thing I like about these movies is that they are only half an hour long.

There are so many courses available on SchoolhouseTeachers.com that it’s almost overwhelming to look at it! There are over 300 courses covering all subjects, from Art and Bible to History, Geography and Science. Esther asked me recently about a bookkeeping course, and there it was. I thought she might be interested in the graphic design and photo editing courses, as well. I might have Mr. Diligence try out the course on photography; he loves taking pictures. There are even courses for parents. I read the articles included in “When Things Don’t Go as Planned”, and it really comforted me to know that other parents have had things go horribly wrong in their families as well, and to hear what another parent learned from God through hard times.

It’s easy to find exactly the courses you need, whether you are building a complete curriculum or just filling in gaps. If you click on the “Quick Links” tab, you’ll find a list of all the courses, sorted by topic. If you’re looking for courses in a particular subject or grade, there are tabs for those, too, and there is also a tab for planning. I just clicked on that one for the first time, and was excited to find some things I needed! Oh, and The Old Schoolhouse Magazine that I don’t read anymore because it’s too difficult for me, since all I have to read it on is my laptop and I hate staring at the computer screen that long? All the back issues since 2007 are available!

A Yearly Membership costs $90 for the next few days, but after January 15 that price goes up. Is it worth it? For me, no; I wouldn’t use the site enough to make it worthwhile. However, you could easily use the courses offered here for all your homeschool needs, and then it would be very worthwhile to buy the membership. Take a look at what is offered—it’s incredible!

For reviews from many other people, click on this image:

The links contained in this review may be affiliate links.

Book Review—New Year’s Revolutions

December 30, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Chautona Havig has written yet another book this year! After writing Christmas Stalkings, she wanted to tell Neal Kirkpatrick’s story—he’s sort of the villain in it. New Year’s Revolutions, therefore, is both a prequel and a sequel to Christmas Stalkings (see my review here).

Christmas Stalkings is told mainly from Wendy’s point of view, as she prepares for Christmas with her seven cats and deals with someone entering her house and moving things around. New Year’s Revolutions tells the story from her neighbor Neal’s point of view—but starts earlier and goes on a long ways after the first story ends.

For the rest of my review, you’ll have to visit Esther’s website! Read it here.

To buy the book, just click on the title. I used Esther’s affiliate links, so if you buy a book through them, she will get a little money to put toward maintaining her website and it won’t cost you any more.

Book Review—Exploring Creation with Zoology 2: Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day

December 26, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We have finally finished our science course for the year. It was very hard to get in time for science this year, with the crazy schedules we had all year, and a lot of time off school for one reason or another. Toward the end of the year, after several of the boys finished some subjects and I had more time, we were able to do lessons more often. I have thoroughly enjoyed our study this year, of Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day. I am greatly enjoying getting an in-depth look at various topics from a strongly Christian, Creationist point of view. Jeannie K. Fulbright has done an excellent job with this book, as with the other books we’ve used that she wrote.

Because this review has now been published on Esther’s website, I’ve removed the rest of it. Read my full review here.

History 15—Part 3

December 17, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I thought surely I had done at least a third post in this series! Life got pretty crazy in October, and we haven’t done much of our history reading. Right now, Esther is on her way home from America, and I’m a couple of chapters ahead of her. Time to do a bit of serious reading, Esther! I’ll share my notes up to where she has read. For the first two installments of notes on Unwrapping the Pharoahs, go here and here.

Chapter 15 talks about Thutmosis I. He was an extremely rich, powerful king. It is likely that he is the Pharoah whose daughter Solomon married, and the father of Hatshepsut. One bit of supporting evidence is that none of his records mention invading the hill country of Israel, although he did invade Syria. He erected the first obelisks.

Chapter 16 is about Hatshepsut. She became regent for her stepson Thutmosis III at the age of 15 when her husband died. Seven years later, she proclaimed herself Pharoah, at age 22, and ruled for 22 years. She was likely the Queen of Sheba who visited Solomon. She left inscriptions describing a trip to the “Land of Punt”. Egyptian inscriptions refer to the Land of Punt as being in Palestine. Jesus mentions the Queen of the South coming to visit Solomon, and Daniel refers to the king of the South being from Egypt. She would have been going to visit her sister, who married Solomon.

Chapter 17. Thutmosis III conquered many cities, making them tributaries. He is more than likely the “Shishak” who looted Jerusalem in Rehoboam’s day. He seems to have been friendly toward Hatshepsut, who usurped his rule at first, until late in his reign when he destroyed all her inscriptions.

Chapter 18. Amenhotep II, son of Thutmosis III, wanted to imitate his father’s victories. He took immense amounts of booty and prisoners in his second campaign, but a subsequent one was different. They went no farther than south/central Palestine and only 2 horses, 1 chariot, and some bows and arrows returned. Was this the battle in which God miraculously defeated the “Ethiopians” for Asa?

Chapter 19. Thutmosis IV became Pharoah even though he had 2 older brothers. He claimed that the Sphinx told him that if he removed the sand covering it he would become the next Pharoah. He died young of a wasting disease.

Chapter 20. Amenhotep III had over a thousand wives. His favorite was the daughter of commoners. He had many statues made of himself. His 38-year reign was peaceful. His huge statues were made of layers of stone rather than one huge one, so they weren’t repurposed for other uses.

Chapter 21. Akhenaten tried to change the worship in Egypt to the sun disc Aten rather than the sun god Amun. By the revised chronology, he was contemporary with Ahab king of Samaria, meaning that neither Moses nor David could have copied him, as they are accused of doing. His wife Nefertiti was a beautiful woman, and they had six daughters.

Chapter 22. Tutankhamen was insignificant as a Pharoah; he is only famous because his tomb was left intact. He married his sister (who had been married to their father); she had 2 stillborn children.

Chapter 23. Soon after Tutankhamen’s death, the 18th Dynasty ended. Rameses I became Pharoah, but only for a year. His son Sethi I accomplished a lot, including an invasion of Syria and Palestine.

(The link in this post is an affiliate link for Esther’s website, and if you purchase the book through this link it will help her website. I would have linked directly to the review on her site, but the website is down right now and will be till Esther gets home to work on it.)

Book Review—Christmas Embers

November 25, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Chautona Havig has written yet another wonderful book! I’m losing count of how many she’s launched this year, but it’s quite a few. Christmas Embers is a powerful book. To read Esther’s great review, go here. If you want to buy the book, go here. During the next couple of days, there is a bonus study guide available; visit chautona.com/bonus to claim it. (It’s only available to those who purchase through the 28th of November, 2016.) Sorry about this short notice—I wanted to get this review written and posted earlier, but there’s been a lot going on in my life and I haven’t had the brain power to do it any sooner.

Adultery. What really happens to a family when a spouse commits adultery? Is it really a big deal? It’s so prevalent today; surely that makes the impact less? Emily, a mom blogger, thought it was a big deal. As she discussed the issue with her husband Sean while she wrote a blog post about the topic, she thought of it as a sexually transmitted disease—it affects everyone you have been in contact with, including your souse, your children, your extended family, and even your church. She had just seen firsthand the devastation caused by a man’s repeated affairs. Emily was so very thankful for the agreement she and Sean had to tell the other at the very first hint of any attraction to another person, to talk about it and stay open about it.

Emily’s Christmas project that year would hopefully lead to a book contract. She visited her daughter’s classroom and drew a cartoon picture of each of the children while she discussed what they wanted for Christmas—anything, whether it could be wrapped and put under the tree or not. As she had hoped, she got some unusual answers. One little girl wanted “nothing”. One boy wanted his Mom home again when he got home from school. And Joey wanted his father. After just a little digging, Emily discovered that he didn’t know who his father was or where he was, and she set out on a mission to find him and help Joey’s mother, who was dying of hepatitis. And the next thing she knew, her world was spiraling out of control.

Christmas Embers is, in some ways, a hard book to read. The subject matter is not something we want to ever even think about, much less discuss. It needs to be brought out into the open at times, however, to be able to help people who are affected by the sin of adultery. Jesus made it plain that adultery is sin; it is listed as one of the sins that will keep people out of heaven if they don’t repent and turn from it. Christmas Embers shows clearly how adultery can affect a family, a community, and a church. This is a powerful story. Chautona Havig has crafted a masterpiece here, a beautiful, and ugly, picture of love and sin. She vividly shows the emotional fallout after sin is revealed. Can those hurt by other’s sin ever learn to forgive and trust the one who has wronged them—or is this sin unforgiveable? Is it ever possible to reconcile a marriage that has been damaged by this sin?

The characters are so real. I identified in many ways with Emily, and really grew to dislike her friend Kate. Why are some people so determined to drag others down to their level? As always, there is humor along the way. I loved the scene on Christmas morning when the children woke Emily up, and her daughter announced, “She’s awake! She wasn’t, but I fixed that.” You’ll find yourself laughing along the way, occasionally, and crying at other times through this story.

I appreciated the author’s care in writing this book to not show any graphic scenes. With the subject of the book being what it is, it would have been very easy to cross lines that should not be crossed, but she didn’t. She was afraid she had, and sent out the first half of the book to several people to make sure it would be all right. I read that first half, and told her I didn’t mind allowing my teenage daughter to read it—she was that discreet.

I received an advanced reader copy of this book and chose to write a review of it.

Christmas Lights

November 11, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Edited to say: As of December 21, this set is no longer available. If you want to read these books, they are still available individually.

I really enjoy being an advance reader. Not only do I get to read books for free, I get to read them before they are published—and tell people about them! The latest one I got as an advance reader copy is the boxed set Christmas Lights. I’m not sure why it’s called a “boxed set” when it’s on Kindle, but I guess it just means you get four books together, in this case. Here is my review of the set, which will be available on Amazon until sometime in January. I noticed that the set is just $1.16–certainly a bargain!

Christmas Lights is a collection of four Christmas novellas. They are all very clean, as far as romance and language go. I enjoyed the opportunity to read this book in advance of publication, although due to family circumstances I was not able to write my review in time.

The first book in the collection is The Heart of Joy by Vikki Kestell. Apparently, it is a addendum to a series titled A Prairie Heritage. Maybe it would have meant more to me if I had read that series; as it is, I wasn’t very impressed. It struck me as pretty much just romance, with nothing else to add value. Like I said, though, if I had read the series it would probably have been fine. Basically, Joy, a young widow, must decide if she can allow another man to capture her heart several years after her husband’s death—or if anyone she loves will inevitably be hurt.

The second book is Snow Angels by Cathe Swanson. I really enjoyed that one. The main character is another young widow, dealing with guilt from her husband’s death. She starts a project to help a homeless man find a job and get some self-respect, only to discover that everything she believes about him needs to be rethought. I loved the thoughts about not allowing grief to overshadow your entire life, and I loved the humor towards the end of the story.

Trip the Light Fantastic by April Hayman is the third book. I’m sorry, but I didn’t get a lot out of it. I thought that was because I had just started reading the book when my son suddenly died, and that maybe that was why the story didn’t make sense. When my daughter had the same reaction, though, and I read about someone else who also thought the same thing, I decided maybe something needs to be clarified in the story. I’m not sure what, though. As far as I can tell, the main character, an FBI man who desperately wants to make one more arrest for the year, is set up in a situation to force him to take a break. I couldn’t quite get the point of the story, though.

The last book is Christmas Stalkings by Chautona Havig. Anything by her is sure to be great, and I was not disappointed by this one. The main character is another widow, this time middle-aged—that makes three out of four novellas in this collection with a widow as the main character! Wendy is also rather crazy about her seven cats, and one of her obsessions is putting up a Christmas tree each year for each cat. This year, however, mysterious things start happening when she does; someone is entering her house and moving things. The police can’t solve the mystery; will Wendy be able to?

I also have longer reviews of two of the books, which will be available as stand-alone books after the collection is no longer around.

Snow Angels:

When Cathe Swanson asked for advance readers for the novella she wrote for the Christmas Lights collection, it sounded interesting. I was not disappointed! I found Snow Angels very funny at times, heart-breaking at others, and Lisa Marsh all-too-familiar at still other times.

Lisa was roped, unwillingly, into helping serve Thanksgiving dinner at the local community center in Chicago. Dealing with crowds of people was difficult for her at the best of times, but when Pete, a scruffy man with a horribly-looking beard accosted her, asking for potatoes, when she was serving turkey, she couldn’t handle it.

Read my full review here.

Christmas Stalkings:

Christmas Stalkings is purely a fun book! I enjoyed reading quotes from it as Ms. Havig was writing it, and hoping I’d get a chance to be an advance reader. I wasn’t disappointed! As with all of Chautona’s other books that I’ve read, the action starts right away and the characters seem very real.

Wendy Nabity is known in Fairbury as the crazy cat lady. She has seven cats in her house! And not only that, but she puts up a Christmas tree for each cat every year.

If you like light Christmas fiction, try out Christmas Stalkings. You won’t be disappointed. It’s a short book, too, more like a novella than a full-length book. This was a fun, easy read. I’m looking forward to reading the sequel, New Year’s Revolutions, when it’s finished.

Read my full review here.

All links in this post are Esther’s affiliate links, and any purchase you make through them will help support her website.

Book Review—Front Window and Hartfield Mysteries series

September 27, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I am loving the fact that my favorite author is a prolific writer. Her fourth book for the year is publishing this week! Because this is the fourth book in a series, I “had” to read the first three, of course, so I’ve had a fairly steady diet of Chautona Havig lately. I’m not tired of them yet!

You can preorder the Kindle version of Front Window right now; it will be delivered on September 29. If you do preorder, be sure to ask Chautona for the bonus story. I can’t wait to read that—it’s going to be fun! I may have to reread the book, though, since the bonus gives more information to help solve the mystery. Go here to find out how to get the bonus.

I really enjoyed Front Window. It was really hard to put it down—sometimes it’s pretty frustrating to only be able to read for a couple of minutes at a time, although it’s good discipline.

There have been a lot of changes in Alexa’s life. She has switched houses again, and her relationship with Joe is better than ever. She is also enjoying having Aunt Faye in Fairbury. However, Aunt Faye has found the perfect way to disturb a honeymoon. When things start disappearing from the retirement apartments Aunt Faye is living in, and the police don’t seem alarmed or helpful, how can Aunt Faye prove that one of the residents isn’t stealing the items? Things go from bad to worse over the next few weeks. Aunt Faye just isn’t impressed the how the police are investigating the string of crimes, and she lets Joe and the rest of the force know in no uncertain terms.

This is definitely not just a mystery story. There is so much else included! Ask my children about the time Mom was laughing out loud in the bathroom—the Christmas gift scene is hilarious! There are several other very funny scenes as well, and some serious ones. Aunt Faye, though never married, has some extremely good advice and observations. For example, “I decided that if I had to act a fool to get a fellow’s attention, then I didn’t want it.” I also loved, “I always despised those arrogant kids who set themselves up as authorities when God gave them perfectly good ones in parents.”

For those who love mysteries, this is a good one. You will be kept guessing at the identity of the thief until nearly the end of the story. I appreciated the Christian values portrayed in it, although there wasn’t nearly as much about Alexa’s and Joe’s faith in this story as in some others by Chautona Havig. I’m still not convinced that I want to read very many murder mysteries, but I don’t mind reading hers.

I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review.

WARNING: A couple of the characters say a mildly bad word when under great stress.

I also wrote a review of the entire series, for those who are interested:

Murder mysteries? Not my cup of tea—usually. I prefer books that have sage advice woven throughout, books that make me really think about things. The Hartfield Mysteries, however, do that.

Alexa Hartfield is an author living in the small town of Fairbury, near Rockland. Her specialty is murder mysteries. She lives alone and likes her life that way. To most people, she appears eccentric; most of her clothing appears to be from other eras, from medieval times to the 1980s. Her comfortable life is suddenly shaken up when, in the first book, Manuscript for Murder, people start dying. The strange thing is that they are being killed in exactly the way she’s writing about in her current book! What is going on? Joe, the policeman who comes to her rescue a few times, ends up a frequent visitor, but she is certainly not interested in romance—and neither is he.

Crime of Fashion involves a new business which Alexa becomes involved in—but odd things happen there, too, and tragedy strikes close to home for her. After that is all resolved, she goes to California for her biannual visit to her parents (in the author’s hometown!) in Two O’clock Slump. She anticipates the usual stressful visit, with her extremely religious parents trying to get her to repent of something that happened when she was a teenager, but then a man is found dead in the next motel room to hers, which was supposedly empty. During the investigation, she must flee. I had a hard time with this book; you don’t find out until one of the last two or three chapters who the villain is, and it’s very hard to put the book down at that point.

Front Window picks up soon after Two O’clock Slump ends; one of the main characters is Alexa’s Aunt Faye. We met her in the last book, but she really shines in this one. She has moved from California to Fairbury in the interval between the two books, into a retirement apartment. While Alexa is away from home, Aunt Faye finds the perfect excuse to annoy her greatly—someone is stealing things from the residents! The police are convinced that the thief is someone who lives in the complex, but Aunt Faye doesn’t believe that. Can she find a way to prove her point?

If you want a clean Christian mystery series, check out the Hartfield Mysteries. Just be careful when you get engrossed in them, or you may find meals being put on the table late—and you may well find yourself annoying the people around you as you hoot with laughter at some of the situations described. I hear that my children heard me laughing hard a couple of times in one day as I read Front Window! Mystery and humor aside, I really enjoyed watching Alexa grow and change in her relationships with other people, especially Joe, and the community in general. The only thing I did not appreciate about the books was the character who married a divorced woman; I take Matthew 5:32 literally.

WARNING: There is at least one murder in each book, not graphically described but there all the same. In Front Window, the police chief is mentioned as swearing a time or two.

The book titles are Esther’s affiliate links. By clicking on them to buy the books from Amazon, you’ll help support her website, with no extra cost to you.

History 15–Part 2

August 19, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Esther and I are averaging doing our history reading three or four times a week. This book, Unwrapping the Pharoahs, is full of interesting little tidbits from Egyptian history. For my notes from the first seven chapters, go here.

Chapter 8 relates the story of Dynasty 5. The Pharoahs in this dynasty built pyramids of piles of rubble, covered with nice stones. After people later pilfered the facing stones, all that was left was rubble! Unas, the last king of the 5th Dynasty, was the first to have writing in his tomb. I had to laugh at a couple of sentences in this chapter. “Mummification sure does nothing for the beautiful looks of a princess, but then beauty was not the object of mummification. And, “Blue stars adorn the roof of his (Unas’s) burial chamber, presumably to give the dead king the impression that he was under the night sky.”

Chapter 9 begins with the first king of Dynasty 6. He was the son of the last king of Dynasty 5—why did they consider it a separate dynasty? He seems to have been murdered by his bodyguard, as reported by Manetho 1500 years later (3rd century B. C.). Dynasties 5 and 6 were very rich. Many reliefs are on their mastaba walls. The last ruler of Dynasty 6 was a woman whose husband/brother, a Pharoah, was murdered. She avenged his death by killing all those responsible, then killed herself. Egypt was thrown into chaos as a result. Manetho says, “The 7th Dynasty consisted of 70 kings of Memphis who reigned for 70 days.”

Chapter 10 discusses dates in Egyptian history. Dating events is very difficult. We don’t know how many dynasties were contemporary with each other. The traditional chronology was created as if each dynasty ruled separately, but even Eusebius (a Christian history in the 3rd or 4th century AD) said, “several Egyptian kings ruled at the same time.” Traditionally, Hittite chronology is determined by coordinating it with Egyptian records. That puts the Hittite empire as being overrun by peoples from the sea in the 12th century B. C. However, the Assyrian records are different. In the 9th century, Shalmaneser III fought the Hittites, and in the 8th century, Sennacherib fought the Hittites. 2 Kings 7:6 seems to indicate that the Hittites were more feared than the Egyptians. If Egyptian dates are reduced, that will make Hittite dates line up with Assyrian and Hebrew records.

Chapter 11 mentions that Sesostris I, in Dynasty 12, had a vizier, or prime minister, named Mentuhotep, who appears to have had the powers that were given to the Biblical Joseph. A canal was dug, during Dynasty 12, from the Nile to the Faiyyum Oasis. It is still called Joseph’s Canal. Pyramids were now made of sun-dried bricks.

Chapter 12 mentions that many Asiatic slaves were in Egypt during the 12th Dynasty. Sesostris III bragged about his cruelty. Was he one of the Pharoahs of the Oppresion? His successor, Amenemhet III, had no sons. His daughter Sobekneferu ruled after his death for 4 years and had no heir. Was she the one who adopted Moses? Amenemhet III had 2 pyramids built for himself, one of sun-dried bricks held together with straw.

In Chapter 13, Neferhotep I, in the 13th Dynasty, seems to have been the last king before the Asiatic slaves disappeared from a large settlement called Kahun. Kahun was abandoned suddenly, with many personal items left behind. In the floors of the houses are many boxes containing the bones of babies under three months old, with sometimes several babies in each box. Neferhotep’s mummy has never been found, and though we know he had a son, that son did not succeed him. This lines up with the 10th plague, of the firstborn sons being killed, and with Pharoah drowning in the Red Sea. The Hyksos invaded Egypt soon after—were they the Amalekites? The Amalekites attacked Israel soon after the Exodus; they could have learned from captured Israelites about the demise of the Egyptian army. Manetho says that the Hyksos occupied Egypt “without a battle.” Where was the well-trained Egyptian army? At the bottom of the Red Sea!

Chapter 14 continues the story of the Hyksos. They ruled Egypt for a few hundred years; the 13th-17th Dynasties were local Egyptian or Hyksos rulers. Seqenenre, a ruler in the south, was sent a delegation from the Hyksos king, Apophis. The complaint? The hippopotami in Seqenenre’s new canal kept Apophis awake from 497 miles away! Soon after this, Egypt began a war of liberation against the Hyksos, and they soon disappear from history. King Saul was reigning about this time, so if the Hyksos were, indeed, the Amalekites, it makes sense. They were annihilated. Amenhotep I, the first ruler in the 18th Dynasty, immediately after the Hyksos were driven out, was the first to abandon burial in pyramids and build his tomb in the Valley of the Kings.

History 15—Part 1

August 6, 2016 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Esther and I have started our own book club. We have quite a few books on ancient history, especially on parts of history that aren’t in most mainstream history books. We’ve both been wanting to read them but haven’t been getting around to it. So, last week, we started our own book club. So far, the two of us are the only members, but if you want to join you’re welcome—although I have no idea how we could include more people! We started with Unwrapping the Pharoahs, by John Ashton and David Down. Our goal is that every day Esther will spend 15 minutes (that’s where the “15” in the name of our book club comes from) reading the book and taking notes on what she finds interesting, and then I’ll read the same chapters she got through, take notes, and we’ll compare. We’ve managed to do it a few days, and gotten through seven chapters of this fascinating book!

Chapter 1 talks about the beginning of Egyptian history. Menes, the first king of the first dynasty, is identified by Josephus as being Mizraim, the grandson of Noah. Interestingly, the early kings of Egypt were buried with boats—was this in case of another Flood? Chapter 2 mentions that the earliest Egyptian burial practices were similar to those in Ur, in Mesopotamia, at the same time. Guess what! Civilization spread from Mesopotamia to Egypt!

Chapter 3 talks about some of the early pyramids. There is evidence that they were built by men excited about their work, rather than by slaves. Chapter 4 shows the three pyramids built by Seneferu. The first, Meidum, seems to have partially collapsed at some point. Whether this was during the building or some time after is unknown. His second one was the Bent Pyramid, which was started at a 52° angle. About halfway up, they switched to a 43° angle. No one knows why, but I found it very interesting that there are inscriptions indicating that possibly the lower half was built in only two years! He also built the Red Pyramid, which was at a 43° angle. Did he maybe keep going till he had a perfect pyramid?

In chapter 5, Abraham’s visit to Egypt during a famine is mentioned. Josephus tells that Abraham brought science and astronomy to Egypt from Mesopotamia. Is he the source of the incredible mathematical accuracy in the Great Pyramid? The Great Pyramid was built precisely aligned to the cardinal directions (north, south, east, and west), precisely level, and exactly square.

Chapter 6 discusses Kafre, the son of Khufu, who built the Great Pyramid. Khafre’s pyramid was steeper than his father’s, with a completely different layout. Another thing mentioned in this chapter was the methods used by “archeologists” in the 1700s and early 1800s. They were basically treasure hunters, using gunpowder to blow up anything they thought was in their way. Chapter 7 tells about the end of the 4th Dynasty, when the economy was apparently not so good anymore. Shepseskaf built a mastaba instead of a pyramid. The earliest pharoahs had built mastabas; these were more like the temples in Mesopotamia. They were several layers, one on top of another, each layer smaller so it went up in steps.

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