Book Reviews – Page 4

We read a lot of great books together as part of our homeschooling. Here is what we’ve been reading the last week or two.

Our morning books (read while the breakfast dishes are being washed):

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We finished Volume 8 of The Bible Story yesterday, and started Volume 9 today. I like to keep a Bible Story book going for the younger ones.

We’ve been working on Who Am I? for several months now, and are about halfway through it. There are a lot of good thoughts about who we are in Christ, in this book.

We’ve been reading David Macaulay’s wonderful books for a few months now, and are nearly through Ship. I love the detail in his drawings!

Loyalty Test was a great book to go along with our study of the American Revolution. It shows a side of history that I had never seen before, and I believe it’s sorely needed. Exactly how much of what we’ve learned is true, and how much is myth? This well-researched book will challenge you, as well as intrigue you.

We read one chapter from What Really Happened in Colonial Times this morning, about Paul Revere from the point of view of his second wife. It was quite interesting!

Yesterday, we read And Then What Happened, Paul Revere? I always enjoy Jean Fritz’s books about history!

Our afternoon books (while lunch dishes are being washed):

We’ve probably been working our way through the Little House books for most of a year. We finished Little Town on the Prairie yesterday, and started These Happy Golden Years today. Even though I have read this series many times, I still love them!

Mr. Diligence and Mr. Sweetie love Lois Lenski. They ask me to buy them books by her whenever they have an excuse. We’re reading Texas Tomboy right now. For most of the way through, I was wondering if it was worth reading this one, because the girl’s attitudes were so bad, but she seems to be changing for the better now and I’m liking the story after all.

When we were in Michigan, I borrowed The Ra Expeditions from my mother (nothing like taking a borrowed book 9,000 miles, is there!). The day after we got home, I told Mr. Intellectual that it was his turn to choose one of our read-alouds, and that was what he chose. We’re about halfway through it now, over a month later. It’s a bit slow-moving, but very interesting. The last few days, the action has really picked up, as they set out across the Atlantic with this bundle of papyrus and ran into all sorts of trouble.

We’ve also been working our way through Sam Campbell’s Living Forest series. We finished Fiddlesticks and Freckles a few days ago (it disappeared, so I couldn’t put it in the photo), and started Beloved Rascals, the last book. These are great nature stories!

I wrote this review for our book reviews website, but it will be awhile till it is published there, so I decided to put it here for a couple of months first. This book is good.

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Wow. Eve in Exile is an amazing book. I’ve rated it as one of my top ten for the year. I had never even heard about it before my daughter heard of it from a friend and got it while it was free on Kindle. I was in the mood for a nonfiction read at that point, so downloaded it onto my Kindle (we share accounts), and started it. I could hardly put this book down! No, it’s not a mystery or even really a story, but it certainly caught my attention and held it.

There are four sections to this book. After the introduction, which discusses the confused, muddled-up mess women find themselves in today, in which people don’t even seem to know what gender they are, the first section talks about two different ways women react to this mess. Some women virtually live a pretend life, trying to go back in time to when things were different. Others spend their lives chasing after fulfillment in the ways society tells them they will find it.

The second section was fascinating to me. It traces the history of feminism from the earliest roots of today’s movement, in the mid-1700s, to the present. It was amazing to realize that, from the very earliest days, the feminists were trying to destroy the family structure. They hated marriage, and they hated that men could have sexual freedom, while women had to deal with the consequences. That, of course, led to birth control and abortion. Another point that stood out to me was the constant anger and discontentment among the feminists. They were never happy with what they had, but always wanted more and more. One quote I marked says, “Whenever someone begins issuing demands to the universe about what is owed to them, we ought to be dubious. This is fundamentally at odds with biblical teaching on what is an obedient (and effective) response to injustice.” The author goes on to point out Christ’s reaction, and how He told His followers to respond, when things were not done fairly to us. After you read this section, you will never think of the feminist movement in the same way again.

The third section is the opposite of the second one—it is positive! What are we, as women, designed for? What is our role? We are to subdue and fill the earth, be a help to our husbands, and glorify God! Another quote: “Eve was created to help, not to be the commander in chief. Adam was not brought into the picture to be her sidekick, and she was not brought into the picture to live an independent life….” These four chapters are full of amazing thoughts. I appreciated this quote, which concludes this section, as well: “It’s worth noting, since conservatives have been known to miss this, that nowhere in Scripture are women, as a group, required to submit to men, as a group. Women are commanded to submit to their own husbands as to the Lord, nowhere are we required to submit to “men.” The author finishes with a couple more sentences about the beauty of true submission.

Section four, then, gives practical ideas for carrying out our role. Throw yourself into your job—caring for your husband, children, and home! Determine that you will learn to be good at what you have to do anyway, and challenge yourself “to use the task that’s been put in front of you as a way to learn more about God and the breathtaking world He has put us in….”Change the world by making the good attractive! Be the glory of your husband, and in doing that, bring glory to God. Wow. So much to live up to, to think about and put into practice.

I was blown away by the wisdom in this book. It is one I believe every Christian woman, married or single, should read. Reading this book has opened my eyes to some of the ways I have been affected by the culture that surrounds all of us, and given me a renewed vision for my life as a wife and mother. This is a book I want on my shelf in print so I can share it with other women! If you are discouraged or discontented with your role as a Christian woman, read this book and be encouraged.

WARNING: The author is quite frank about the sexual revolution.

Buy your own copy here.

I received no compensation for this review. I simply appreciated the book so much I wanted to share it. Links may be affiliate links.

What We’ve Been Reading Lately

Book Review—Eve in Exile and the Restoration of Femininity