The Pursuit of Unity in Time of Separation
Elation Unifire, 2016
Gold Wind, Ltd.
178 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781523366897
Summary
In The Pursuit of Unity in Time of Separation, the author shares his profound and rousing insights into this global, modern-day controversy.
Firm in the belief that unity can be achieved if we all stand up with faith and devotion for what we believe in, the author also shows us how to make this possible. "If we make love the captain of our souls, a real time paradise can and will be our destination."
This incredible journey of awakening is seen through the eyes of four mesmerizing characters; Singadarti from China, Abdul Ahad from the Middle East, Christina from California, and Unikelo from Ethiopia. Living in four polarized corners of the world, thousands of kilometers away from each other, they each have a strong life purpose which is slowly unraveled during their stories.
Each character faces tragedy and happiness, isolation and despair, love and heartache, and acts on these feelings and experiences accordingly. When the stories come full circle, and these fascinating characters are poignantly unified, the strong, underlying messages of what life is really about, will leave you deeply roused.
This book is perfect for readers who seek authenticity, unity, peace, inspiration and spiritual enlightenment. It's ideal for everyone from native African & Arabs, New Age Thinker Westerns to gurus of the far east and the lay reader in need of intelligent stimulation.
Many among this generation are beginning to appreciate the noble connection between people around the globe. This book is a testament for these awakened ones and a revelation for those who seek an answer and a beacon for those who are lost in vain.
It is tightly packed with truths leading to genuine peace and prosperity. Offering evidences from anointed Holy Scriptures of major religions, quoting the powerful words of great personalities and further revealing the actual mysterious of nature; it will lead the "Earthians" to the realization of universal brotherhood with a catchy story and awesome art of work!
Author Bio
• Birth—June 9, 1992
• Where—Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
• Education—Practitioner in Jimma University
• Currently—Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Elias Gebru, or Elation Unifire as he likes to call himself, is a 23-year-old Ethiopian soul. Growing in one of the slums of Addis Ababa, experiencing and witnessing the hardships of the poor and the dissatisfaction of the rich, he realized the significance of humanity. Through his own enlightenment, he decided to dedicate himself to preach unity and sympathy.
His Muslim mother who was a writer (especially poems) and his Christian father who loved reading were his first inspirations towards literature. After his parents got divorced in his early childhood, he was forced to live in the middle of different religions, life styles and cultures. To understand this diversity he studied theology, comparative religion and read a lot. His mother died when he was 14 years old. As her only son he inherited her belongings, including her unpublished "Amharic" literature. This literature was the reasons he started writing.
Currently he is a fourth year medicine student at Jimma University, he has a certificate in comparative religion study, and he is editor of DANA, a quarterly bilingual magazine. He has also published Comment, a book in a local language and English. (From the author.)
Book Reviews
I enjoyed this book and it is definitely worth reading. It has an amazing story line that will keep you reading in an absorbing manner while discussing the current challenges of the world from a unique perspective. I also admired the abstract paintings in the book. I hope to read more books from this author in the future.
H.J. - Amazon Customer Review
Discussion Questions
1. What is the underlying reasons for terrorism and persistent religious conflicts?
2. How could we achieve a sustained and genuine peace through universal consciousness?
3. The way to inspire everyone from a different cultural background and beliefs from his/her perspective?
4. Even in the tremendous amount of intervention; world wide crisis such us war, hunger, transmigration lasted... why?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
The Scroll
Miriam Feinberg Vamosh, 2016
Menorah Books
290 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781940516462 - print
9789655556186 - e-book
Summary
A sensational but little known archaeological find, the divorce document of a woman named Miriam issued at the desert fortress of Masada is the basis for this new historical page turner.
Beginning with a fateful decision by Miriam, a strong-willed survivor on Masada's final, horrific day, the tale spans three generations of her descendants.
This saga extends from the depths of her despair on a barren desert plateau to the glittering city of Alexandria where Miriam sought love and a future, and back to the Holy Land, where, amid the clashing cultures at Beit Guvrin, the storied city of Zippori and, finally, at the emerald oasis of Ein Gedi, the past continues to stalk her, threatening to devour her children.
The Scroll is an adventure-rich voyage through the ancient customs and beliefs of Judaism and early Christianity and the challenges both faced in a hostile world. Readers are transported to the very roads and markets, palaces and hovels, synagogues and village squares of ancient Judea, where The Scroll's characters choose between nation and family, and finally, between life and death.
Will Miriam's descendants learn the lessons of her life, or will enemies—within and without—rob those lessons from them? (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—December 30, 1953
• Raised—Trenton, New Jersey, USA
• Education—B.A., Hebrew College Boston; M.A., Leicester University (UK)
• Currently—lives in Har Adar, Israel
Miriam Feinberg Vamosh grew up in Trenton, New Jersey, and has lived in Israel since 1970.
An author, editor and translator, Miriam started her love affair with the Bible and ancient sources as a tour educator in 1975, when she began specializing in weaving together Jewish literary sources, traditions and beliefs with the origins of Christianity and teaching about them on-site throughout Israel.
Miriam writes, translates and edits articles and books about Jewish and Christian heritage and archaeology. She holds a master's degree in Archaeology and Heritage from Leicester University in the U.K. She wrote her M.A. thesis on the subject of the presence of women in the archaeological record at the ancient site of Megiddo (the traditional site of Armageddon).
Books
Miriam's books include Daily Life at the Time of Jesus (2000, Palphot), an illustrated, lively, wide-ranging exploration of everyday life during Second Temple times, which has been translated into over 30 languages.
She has also authored Food at the Time of the Bible and Women at the Time of the Bible (both in 2007, by Palphot) and Teach it to Your Children: How Kids Lived in Bible Days (2012, Avimedia). Together with Eva Marie Everson, she wrote the award-winning Reflection of God's Holy Land: A personal Journey Through Israel (2008, Thomas Nelson).
Other works include Israel, Land of the Bible (2004, Palphot) and Pathways Through the Land of the Hart (1996, Gefen).
Miriam is on the editorial staff of the English edition of the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz. She is married to Arik, has two married daughters and three grandchildren, and lives near Jerusalem. (From the author.)
Visit Miriam's website.
Follow Miriam on Facebook.
Book Reviews
A special book that crosses the miles and the years. While Miriam Feinberg Vamosh weaves together an ancient story of community disunity, the book provides us with much to learn and apply to the challenges of contemporary community strife. This intriguing volume includes subtle textual references that provide the reader with insights into the daily lives of this historical Jewish people
Dr. Kerry M. Olitzky - Big Tent Judaism:
How can we possibly understand the present? How can we do better, be better, in the future if we don't know the past? In a story based on one woman's survival of Masada, Miriam Feinberg Vamosh has done what few writers can: bring the past to life, determined to make us all think: What would I do if ?? This story is not only for today's Jewish community, but for Christians as well so that we may all reflect on the meaning of the years that comprised the first century of our Common Era.
Eva Marie Everson - President, Word Weavers International; Best Selling, Award-winning Author
Discussion Questions
A Note from the Author:
The Scroll shows how ancient Jews and the first Christians responded to Rome’s heavy heel on the Holy Land around the time of Jesus. By reading this book, you’ll learn through the eyes of Miriam, a survivor of Masada, and her descendants about the cultures and beliefs of both faiths and how they faced some of their greatest challenges.
While writing the book, I placed myself in that time to discover how I might face those challenges. How would you? I believe there are important lessons for today’s Jews and Christians tucked within this story. As you read The Scroll on your own—or in your book club—I hope you’ll find the questions below thought-provoking and enriching.
Thematic Questions
1. Which group of people presented in The Scroll did you identify with the most and why—Pharisees, Sadducees, Rebels, or Early Christian Believers?
2. When Elazar decided to have his followers take their own lives, he may have thought they were the only Jews left on the face of the earth. Put yourself in Elazar’s sandals to imagine other reasons for him to decide as he did. Are there any circumstances in which you would consider his solution?
3. "The ancient Jewish sages ask, "Why was the first Sanctuary destroyed?" What is your answer?
4. Three [evil] things prevailed there: idolatry, immorality, and bloodshed. So why do you think the second Sanctuary was destroyed, seeing that in its time they were occupying themselves with Torah, [observance of] precepts and the practice of charity? Could it be that groundless hatred is considered even in gravity with the three sins of idolatry, immorality, and bloodshed?
5. The ancient Jewish sources also present a story epitomizing "baseless hatred" called "Kamza and Bar Kamza." You can download and read this story in the articles section of my website. Every year on the anniversary of the Temple’s destruction, the relevance today of "hatred without cause" or "baseless hatred" is discussed widely in Israel, even in opinion pieces in daily newspapers. How can this discussion be applied to your community or country?
Application Questions
1. Here are some junctions where characters in The Scroll acted or made fateful decisions. What were their other options? What would you have done differently?
- Mordechai of Tekoa rejects Miriam.
- Miriam decided to return to Judea.
- Jacobides rejects his son Menachem.
- Gabriel allows his daughter to leave with Samuel.
- The families of Ein Gedi follow Itamar and Rebecca to the caves.
2. Read my article on "baseless hatred" and the story of Kamza and Bar Kamza. The wealthy man in the feast was not the only "bad guy" in the story and it is not always action that leads to disastrous results. Sometimes it is inaction. Who do you think are the "bad guys" in The Scroll? What were their actions or inactions?
3. Find the places in The Scroll where early Christians interact with Jews. What do these encounters say about Christians at the time? What do they say about Jews?
4. What do you imagine happened to Judith and the baby after the book ends?
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)
Forgetting Tabitha: The Story of an Orphan Train Rider
Julie Dewey, 2016
Holland Press
280 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780578172316
Summary
Raised on a farm, Tabitha Salt, the daughter of Irish immigrants, leads a bucolic and sheltered existence.
When tragedy strikes the family, Tabitha and her mother are forced to move to the notorious Five Points District in New York City, know for its brothels, gangs, gambling halls, corrupt politicians and thieves. As they struggle to survive in their new living conditions, tragedy strikes again. Young Tabitha resorts to life alone on the streets of New York, dreaming of a happier future.
The Sisters of Charity are taking orphans off the streets with promises of a new life. Children are to forget their pasts, their religious beliefs, families and names. They offer Tabitha a choice: stay in Five Points or board the orphan train and go West in search of a new life.
The harrowing journey and the decision to leave everything behind launches Tabitha on a path from which she can never return.
Author Bio
• Birth—September 30, 1970
• Where—Rochester, New York, USA
• Education—B.A., State University of New York-Potsdam
• Currently—lives in Manlius, New York
Julie Dewey is a novelist residing in Central New York with her family. Julie selects book topics that are little known nuggets of U.S. history and sheds light on them so that the reader not only gets an intriguing story-line but learns a little something too.
Julie's daughter is a Nashville crooner and her son is a student. Her husband's blue eyes had her at hello and her motto is, "Life is too short to be Little!"
In addition to reading, researching, and writing, Julie has many hobbies that include jewelry design, decorating, walking her favorite four legged friends, Wells and Hershey, and spending time with her triplet nephews.
Her works include Forgetting Tabitha: the Story of an Orphan Train Rider; The Back Building; One Thousand Porches; The Other Side of the Fence; and Cat (the Livin' Large Series). (From the author.)
Visit the author's webpage.
Book Reviews
For Julie Dewey of Manlius, one small article, read almost 20 years ago, was enough to spark a continued interest in the orphan trains of America.... Forgetting Tabitha follows a young girl who after tragedy strikes is forced to move to the squalid neighborhood of the Five Points District in New York City.... The [Sisters of Charity] offer her the chance at a new life, though doing so means leaving everything about her past behind, and setting of out west to start a new life with a new family.... This historical story does address some of the issues most common to those who experienced the orphan trains, including some mature content.
Syracuse.com
Discussion Questions
1. The orphan train riders in this book are each flawed in some way. Do you attribute this to their lot in life, or do you think it is innate? Discuss the flaws as they pertain to each character.
2. The author paints an image of time and place, richly detailed with descriptions that evoke emotion; which portions of the book are the most vivid to you and your experience when reading about the orphans’ journeys?
3. How was New York City’s treatment of the indigent different in the 1800s than it is today? Do you agree that the orphan train movement established by Reverend Brace was the impetus for our modern foster care system?
4. What surprised you the most about Tabitha and her journey?
5. Tabitha had many men in her life, her father, Scotty, Edmund and Pap, what do they all have in common?
6. Love and loss are themes throughout Forgetting Tabitha, not just between individuals but families. Discuss how this affected and was significant for each character as portrayed in the story.
7. Was Mary every truly able to forget Tabitha and would you want her to?
8. The author reveals that hundreds of thousands of orphans were sent on trains west. Were you aware of this time in our history?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
Lincoln's Final Hours: Conspiracy, Terror, and the Assassination of America's Greatest President
Kathryn Canavan, 2015
University Press of Kentucky
248 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780813166087
Summary
When John Wilkes Booth fired his derringer point blank into President Lincoln's head, he set in motion a series of consequences that would upend the lives of ordinary Americans for generations to come.
Lincoln's Final Hours tells the stories of the ordinary people caught up in an extraordinary evening in American history, an evening that would tilt the rest of their lives.
The intended consequences of Booth's split-second action included a fortuitous marriage, a public death outside Smithsonian Castle and a high-society murder that rocked Albany, N.Y.
Author Bio
• Birth—November 15, 1949
• Where—Princeton, New Jersey, USA
• Education—B.S., Murray State University
• Fellowship—National Health Journalism, University of Southern California, Annenberg School
• Currently—lives in Wilmington, Delaware
At 65, Kathryn Canavan is a first-time author.
It is natural that she write about the Lincoln assassination, the most consequential crime in American history, because Canavan started her journalism career as a crime reporter.
She eventually worked as reporter or editor in four states, but left the full-time newsroom to serve as a caregiver for her terminally ill parents.
Her freelance writing has been published in USA Today, Philadelphia Inquirer and Prevention magazine. She was named a National Health Journalism Fellow at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School of Communications and Journalism in 2011. Her fellowship project, "No Child Allowed Outside," chronicled the health effects of gun violence on young children.
To get a story, Canavan has reported at gunpoint, lived with the Moonies, negotiated with a killer, joined Tug McGraw in the Phillies dugout and spent weeks in archives.
Canavan began researching the unintended consequences of the Lincoln assassination in 2009.
She is a former dinosaur docent at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia and former long-time volunteer with Cub Pack 506, the nation’s first Cub Scout pack exclusively for boys living in shelters or on the streets. (From the author.)
Visit the author's website.
Book Reviews
While Lincoln’s assassination has been covered in numerous books and articles, Canavan offers a fresh look at the subject. Her use of sources goes well beyond that which most scholars have used, and she writes with a flair not often found in historical works.
Edward Steers, Jr., author of Blood on the Moon and The Lincoln Assassination: The Evidence
Just when you thought there wasn’t anything new to say about Abe Lincoln’s assassination, along comes Ms. Canavan to reveal elements of the saga that will startle and enthrall even the most hard-core of Lincoln aficionados, including what must rank as the single most petty act by any one individual in the history of America—but I’ll save that for the book.
Erik Larson, bestselling author of Devil in the White City, In the Garden of the Beasts, and Dead Wake
By the words spilled upon these pages the author has magically allowed us to walk with Lincoln on his last day toward the nightmare that enveloped the world in April 1865.
Joan Chaconas, historian at the Surratt House Museum
While there have been thousands of books written about Lincoln's assassination, Lincoln's Final Hours is a welcome addition to a crowded field. Fast-paced, dramatic and exciting, the reader will be hard pressed to put it down. The author, with her exquisite writing, has ensured this.
Frank J. Williams, founding chair of The Lincoln Forum
Canavan has performed excellent research in winnowing out myriad human interest details on all of the characters involved, from Booth himself, to photographer Julius Ulke taking an eloquent image of the blood-soaked death bed just minutes after Lincoln’s body was removed. The result is a fast-paced, moving, yet authoritative account of the people caught up in the fallout of Booth’s mad act.
History Book Club review - William C. Davis, author of Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour
Discussion Questions
1. Recall what 9-11 was like for Americans who lived through it. Imagine what assassination night was like for ordinary Washingtonians who heard snippets of news on the street corners and were without benefit of internet, television or even radio.
2. Was Mary Lincoln reviled because she had a sharp wit, was a spot-on mimic and had a better education than even most wealthy men of her time?
3. Mary Todd Lincoln's family was a microcosm of the nation as a whole. The Todds lost three sons and a beloved son-in-law in the first four years of the Civil War, and, days after Gen. Lee surrendered, they lost a second son-in-law, this one at Ford's Theatre. The war killed more than 750,000 American soldiers—North and South. How do you think President Lincoln was feeling the last week of his life, after he had finally led the country back together?
4. John Wilkes Booth's father, Shakespearean actor Junius Booth, had two families, a legal one in London and another wife and 10 children in Maryland. Booth was a youngster when his father's first wife found out about his other family, traveled to America and berated Booth and his mother in public places. It is said the Booth was a kind and joyous boy until that happened. Then he became vindictive, earned a reputation as having a hair-trigger temper, and even beat his own younger brother until his face was unrecognizable. Could bullying by the first Mrs. Booth really change the trajectory of a young boy's life?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry
Fredrik Backman, 2013 (U.S., 2015)
Washington Square Books
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781501115073
Summary
Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy—as in standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-strangers crazy.
She is also Elsa’s best, and only, friend. At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother’s stories, in the Land-of-Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas, where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal.
When Elsa’s grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa’s greatest adventure begins. Her grandmother’s instructions lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and old crones but also to the truth about fairy tales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other.
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry is told with the same comic accuracy and beating heart as Fredrik Backman’s bestselling debut novel, A Man Called Ove. It is a story about life and death and one of the most important human rights: the right to be different. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—June 2, 1981
• Raised—Helsingborg, Sweden
• Education—no degree
• Currently—Stockholm
Fredrik Backman, Swedish author, journalist, and blogger, was voted Sweden's most successful author in 2013.
Backman grew up in Helsingborg, studied comparative religion but dropped out and became a truck driver instead. When the free newspaper Xtra was launched in 2006, the owner reached out to Backman, then still a truck driver, to write for the paper. After a test article, he continued to write columns for Xtra
In spring 2007, he began writing for Moore Magazine in Stockholm, a year-and-a-half later he began freelancing, and in 2012 he became a writer for the Metro. About his move to writing, Backman said...
I write things. Before I did that I had a real job, but then I happened to come across some information saying there were people out there willing to pay people just to write things about other people, and I thought "surely this must be better than working." And it was, it really was. Not to mention the fact that I can sit down for a living now, which has been great for my major interest in cheese-eating. (From his literary agent's website.)
Backman married in 2009 and became a father the following year. He blogged about preparations for his wedding in "The Wedding Blog" and about becoming a father on "Someone's Dad" blog. During the 2010 Winter Olympics, he wrote the Olympic blog for the Magazine Cafe website and has continued as a permanent blogger for the site.
In 2012, Backman debuted as an author, publishing two books on the same day: a novel, A Man Called Ove (U.S. release in 2014), and a work of nonfiction, Things My Son Needs to Know About the World. His second novel, My Grandmother Sent Me to Tell You She's Sorry, came out in 2013 (U.S. release in 2015). (Adapted from Wikipedia and the publisher. Retrieved 7/23/2014.)
Book Reviews
Fredrik Backman has a knack for weaving tales that are believable and fanciful. Backman’s smooth storytelling infuses his characters with charm and wit… a delightful story.
St. Louis Dispatch
Bring tissues when you start My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry, but bring your funnybone, too. It’s that kind of book – one that, if you miss it, you’ll never forgive yourself.
Business Insider
In his second offering, Backman (A Man Called Ove) continues to write with the same whimsical charm and warm heart as in his debut. Though it’s certainly entertaining, Elsa’s narrative—with several subplots to juggle and an overabundance of quirkiness—doesn’t succeed quite as well as Backman’s previous work. Still, fans of the author will find more to like here.
Publishers Weekly
Full of heart, hope, forgiveness, and the embracing of differences, Elsa’s story is one that sticks with you long after you’ve turned the last page.
Library Journal
(Starred review.) [P]recocious Elsa will easily work her way into the hearts of readers who like characters with spunk to spare. A delectable homage to the power of stories to comfort and heal, Backman’s tender tale of the touching relationship between a grandmother and granddaughter is a tribute to the everlasting bonds of deep family ties.
Booklist
A contemporary fairy tale from the whimsical author of A Man Called Ove.... This is a more complex tale than Backman’s debut, and it is intricately, if not impeccably, woven.... [with] heartfelt, innocent observations.... [T]here are clear themes here, nominally: the importance of stories; the honesty of children; and the obtuseness of most adults,
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry begins with the pronouncement, "Every seven-year-old deserves a superhero." (page 1) Do you agree? Why is it so important that children have heroes? Who were your heroes when you were a child?
2. Names play a significant part in Elsa’s grandmother’s stories. How do the various kingdom and heroine names from the Land-of-Almost-Awake (Miamas, Miploris, Mimovas, Wolfheart, the Chosen One, the sea-angel, etc.) inform your understanding of Granny’s stories? Did you agree with how their real world counterparts were portrayed in the stories?
3. Elsa’s mother grew up in a nontraditional family environment. Do you think this influenced her parenting style with Elsa? In what ways?
4. Were you surprised by the ways in which each of the apartment tenants were connected to the others? Which relationship surprised you the most? Why?
5. Granny is a polarizing figure in My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry. Describe the way each of the characters reacts to her. Do you think their opinions of her are justified? Why or why not? What did you think of Granny? Do you know anyone like her?
6. Discuss the role that books, especially the Harry Potter novels, play in Elsa’s life. Why do you think Elsa relates to the Harry Potter books more than other novels? When you were growing up, were there books you particularly loved? Which ones and why?
7. What did you think of Britt-Marie when you first encountered her? Did she remind you of anyone in your life? Where do you think Britt-Marie goes at the end of the novel?
8. Elsa believes that her "teachers are wrong. [She] has no problems concentrating. She just concentrates on the right things." (page 47) What kinds of things does Elsa concentrate on? How does this create problems for her? Do you think that Elsa is a good student? Why or why not?
9. Which of the characters in My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry surprised you the most? Why?
10. Discuss Britt-Marie’s marriage to Kent. Did you think they were well suited for each other? Do you think the marriage changed Britt-Marie? How can being in a bad relationship affect someone’s personality?
11. Fairy tales can provide a way to teach children some fundamental truths about the world. How do Granny’s fairy tales help Elsa understand the world around her? What lessons does Elsa take away from the tales her Granny tells her about life in the land of Miamas?
12. When her grandmother dies, Elsa is of course sad, but she also experiences a wide range of other emotions, including anger. Can you name some of the others? Consider how the loss of a loved one can lead us to have feelings that are much more complicated than sadness.
13. In this book, as in his previous novel A Man Called Ove, Fredrik Backman paints a vivid portrait of the relationship between an older person nearing the end of his or her life, and a young child. What can people at the opposite ends of life learn from one another? How are the very old and the very young alike? How are they different? When you were very young, was there an elderly person who played a significant role in your life? What did you learn from them?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)