Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts

The Christmas Box Miracle : My Spiritual Journey of Destiny, Healing and Hope Review

The Christmas Box Miracle : My Spiritual Journey of Destiny, Healing and Hope
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The Christmas Box Miracle : My Spiritual Journey of Destiny, Healing and Hope ReviewIt says something about Richard Paul Evans that he is one of the few authors whom I will buy new and in hardcover. After the disastrous events of 9/11, I felt severely in the need for some kind of inspirational comfort, so I picked up "The Christmas Box Miracle." Unlike his prior books, this is a an autobiography of Evans, and simultaneously a very unique success story -- not just because the book became popular, but how it affected the people who read it.
Evans was born into a middle-class Mormon family with several kids, who moved to Utah when he was still quite young. We get both visions of his family: the lighter side, with his rambunctious siblings and childhood antics, and the darker side, how his mother miscarried when he was a toddler, and suffered from severe depression that resulted in a failed suicide attempt.
A great influence on Evans was his grandfather, an immensely faith-filled man who predicted once that Evans would "walk with the royalty of this earth and be known as one who loves God." A prediction which has since come true. The book then follows Evans in his careers as a missionary, a member of a newspaper staff, working for a tux rental agency, and so forth. It also follows him into his marriage with Keri, his wife (an interesting detail is who her crotchety father inspired *wink*). But after two of their children were born, it turned out that he was "trading diamonds for stones," working too hard and missing out on his children.
Then, after the folding of his agency, Evans wrote a short novel that has now become famous, reaching across political, religious, age and financial barriers. "The Christmas Box" strongly affected everyone who read it, to the point where people were sending orders into bookstores for a novel that had, technically, never been published. His trip into publication was more than a success story, when it became a helping point for those who had lost a child.
It may be viewed as a mere coincidence that this book came out around the time of the WTC attack, but I doubt Evans' grandfather would see it so. This book is truly inspiring, especially given the short letters from people whom it has deeply affected, from across the world. (I, personally, have never lost a child but I was deeply traumatized by the loss of a baby brother, and "Christmas Box" helped me through that rough time) We are also given a look inside Evans' head, and the power of God that he's felt in his life.
As in his fiction, Evans is very spare and evocative in his descriptions, and very poetic in his speculations. There's an undercurrent of wry wit to this book, such as the passage where he relates how his brother got him to read classic authors by saying, "Chicks dig Shakespeare." He also displays that success has not swelled his head, as he seems to have no problem relating that So-and-so and Such-and-Such did not like him, his problems and insecurities.
The book also gives background into the many people who were deeply touched by the Christmas Box (including the person who said that he was too young to have written such a book), and to the Angel Statues. I hadn't previously understood the meaning of these statues, and it's very moving when I did learn what they were for.
Maybe this story is even more inspiring than the Christmas Box, because it is REAL. I strongly advise everyone -- especially people who have read his other books -- to read this book.The Christmas Box Miracle : My Spiritual Journey of Destiny, Healing and Hope Overview

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Unwrapping His Presence- Review

Unwrapping His Presence-
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Unwrapping His Presence- ReviewWhat an inspirational book! Maxwell has a unique way with words that brings light and meaning back to Christmas and Christ. While it warms the heart, it motivates the feet and hands to take action to go and give freely! I highly recommend this book as gift to anyone needing the gift of His presenece this Christmas season!Unwrapping His Presence- Overview

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The Catholic Home: Celebrations and Traditions for Holidays, Feast Days, and Every Day Review

The Catholic Home: Celebrations and Traditions for Holidays, Feast Days, and Every Day
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The Catholic Home: Celebrations and Traditions for Holidays, Feast Days, and Every Day ReviewI love this book! I grew up in a Catholic family and in Catholic schools. However, that did not prepare me for passing along Catholic traditions to my own children and to my converted husband. The fear of offending anyone(especially my non-Catholic relatives) made me a little hesitant to "let religious identity permeate our home". Gould's book encourages and instructs on how to do so. She has specific ideas, traditions, and even recipes for living a richer life within the Church.The Catholic Home: Celebrations and Traditions for Holidays, Feast Days, and Every Day Overview

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Illuminate: An Advent Experience Review

Illuminate: An Advent Experience
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Illuminate: An Advent Experience ReviewThis book is a terrific devotional for family or small group use during the Advent season. If you want to find meaning in the midst of all the Christmas hubbub, this book will most certainly help you do it. Of course, it focuses on scripture and the spiritual meaning behind Advent, but it also suggests family or group "projects" that can help you put the spiritual truths you learn into practice.Illuminate: An Advent Experience Overview

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The Modern Christmas in America: A Cultural History of Gift Giving (American Social Experience) Review

The Modern Christmas in America: A Cultural History of Gift Giving (American Social Experience)
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The Modern Christmas in America: A Cultural History of Gift Giving (American Social Experience) ReviewAlthough subtitled, "A Cultural History of Gift-Giving," this book by William Waits covers a broad spectrum of this history of the Christmas celebration in this country. "This book tells how the modern Christmas emerged by focusing on gift-giving." Abundant historical illustrations and pictures are included to amplify the story.
Chapters include, "The Gifts Everyone Wanted: The Rise of Manufactured Gift Items," "The Feminization of Christmas: The Expanded Role of Women in the Celebration," "'Something for the Kid': Gifts from Parents to Children," "The Rationalization of Charity: Gifts from the Prosperous to the Poor," "The Rationalization of Christmas Bonuses: Gifts from Employers to Employees," and "Riches and Uncertainty: Superabundance and Retaileers' Anxieties Since 1940." There is also a very helpful Index.
Waits states that "The custom of presenting handmade Christmas gifts began to change after 1880 because of rapid industrialization and the dramtic expansion of the country's transportation system." He later notes that "The Santa Claus of the first eighty years of the nineteenth century both rewarded and punished children," but more recently, Santa has become "more gentle and forbearing with children."
Waits observes that Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" story "was the first major literary piece in several centuries to advocate Christmas charity and it caught the public fancy." Of course, "When it entered the welfare field during the Depression, the government used rational, bureaucratic forms to collect and dispense aid to the needy ... By the 1930s, personal individualized Christmas charity was rationalized almost out of existence."
He concludes by noting that the "nostaligic" notion of a simple, rural Christmas in the "good old days" is correct "in many respects," but "is misleading in other significant regards." For example, "it never defines accurately when the nostalgic Christmas existed, and when it was transformed into the modern celebration"; "it obscures the diversity of the many aspects of the celebration"; "they overlook the enthusiasm with which Americans have embraced the modern form of celebration with its purchased manufactured gifts"; and "they got, by and large, the type of celebration they wanted. The modern Christmas was not forced on Americans against their will."
This book is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED for anyone wanting to know more about Christmas and its modern celebration.The Modern Christmas in America: A Cultural History of Gift Giving (American Social Experience) Overview

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