The Hunger Games

 Ok, so Sarah was quite insistent that I read theses books......she kept telling me how GOOD they were!  So, I read them, AND THEY WERE GOOD!  However, they are not really adult books.  I was a little embarrassed when I posted on Facebook that I was reading this, and one of my friends told me her son's, who are in HIGH SCHOOL, loved them!  But with that being said....they are a quick read, and the kind of book that is hard to put down!  It is a trilogy about a post apocalyptic america, with a central government and 12 districts that are separated from each other, but each year have to send a representative, drawn from a lottery amongst their young, to battle to the death.  The last one alive, wins, and obtains special treatment for themselves and their district.  Now, I had some problems with the premiss.  Not sure why these people did not revolt, but they didn't.

I also had a problem that this society had no spiritual component to it.  I don't know of any human society that doesn't have some sort of spiritual component to it, and this didn't.  No mention of it at all...and when death is an imminent part of the whole story, it seemed a strange they had no discussion of what happened after death.....also, there was a little preachiness to the books about the authors condemnation of our current society, which caused the cataclysm that produced this society where life was dreary, and had no purpose.  That I could have done without.

With that being said though, I did find the books entertaining, and I cared about Katniss, Preeta, Gale, Prim, Haymitch and the rest.  They are making a movie, and I'm sure I will see the movie.  I would recommend these to any age readers.  BUT, I can not believe when I finished the books and talked to Sarah, that I found out SHE NEVER READ THE LAST BOOK!  WHAT??????   After she bugged me forever, she said she lost interest.....What the....Sarah, get on the stick and read the last book, how can you not know what happens to everyone?  Does Katniss choose Preeta or Gale, or does everyone die?  I'm not going to tell you...you have to read it for yourself!

Heaven is for Real

This book was recommended by Julie Gillespie Treece, who is one of 'God's Gal's', the oldest daughter of my dear friends Sherry, was Sarah's roommate when they both started dating their husbands.  This is a very simple book about a little boy who had a near death experience, but apparently went to heaven, and had very vivid memories of his time there.  He was/is just a normal boy, but he started telling his parents about things he would have had no way of knowing....things about his great grandfather, and a pregnancy that his mother had and miscarried the baby.....if you want a quick read (I read it in just a few hours), and something to lift your spirits and make you think a little about what you believe....then I would recommend it.

Bonhoeffer

I have been without my computer for awhile (Melissa's dog Shelby chewed my power cord, and my battery lasted about 5 minutes without the cord!)....so today I bought a new cord and a new battery.....in the mean time I finished a few books....so here are my reviews!

This book took a long time for me to finish, and it was not the best written book I have ever read.....but it is the first book I read on my kindle that I actually wanted to underline passages, and share some of the Bonhoeffer wisdom.  What a mind he had and what a servant of God he was!

Now, I knew very little about Bonhoeffer, except that he was a hero to my ex husband, who was studying theology when we met.  I now know why he was a hero to him....because Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran in Germany, and David's favorite professor, John Warwick Montgomery (who happened to marry us), was a Lutheran, so I'm sure Bonhoeffer was a hero to Dr. Montgomery, and was talked about a lot!

It is quite fascinating the history in this book.  Bonhoeffer was a theologian in a family of great scientific and legal minds.  His father was quite famous doctor and psychiatrist, and his family was upper class German.  His father was a contemporary of Freud, and he had a brother who was a physicist and was a contemporary of Einstein, and was one of the first people to split the atom.  His family was not spiritual, but they were religious, and were accepting of his decision to go to seminary.  He made a name for himself quite young with his writings.  I think he got his PhD when he was 21.  He and his family were quite skeptical when Hitler came to power, and he seemed to understand instinctively how dangerous he was, and worked against him from the very beginning.

Bonhoeffer spent some time in NY, and was quite fascinated with the Jim Crow laws.  He saw what Hitler was trying to do in Germany with the Jews as being similar to what the US did to the black population with the Jim Crow laws, and he believed it was inherently evil, and did not work well for society.  He had an opportunity to leave Germany before the war broke out and stay in the US in safety, and work against Hitler from afar, but his conscious would not allow him to do that, so he returned to Germany to stand next to his fellow citizens, and fight the evil from within.

He was part of the Valkyrie assassination attempt on Hitler (the one where Hitler survived, Tom Cruise made a movie of it) is what led to his execution, just days before Hitler committed suicide himself and the war ended.  And even though his courage of standing up to the Nazi's is noteworthy in and of itself, his heart for Christ is what set him sets him apart!  He believed that faith required action, and that faith without action was what he called "cheap grace".  That even though God did not require anything except faith from us, and that Christ's sacrifice for us, was a great gift, if it did not cause a change in us, and cause us to act on that change, then what was the sacrifice for?  He was a fascinating man, who lived in a fascinating time, and much of what he wrote is still taught today.  He is not well known, and I think someday, someone will realize what an awesome movie the story of his life would make....and I will be first in line to see it!!

Alegria does not mean Joy anymore

OK, so.....I got a dog a few years ago for my mother.  Animals are great companions for older people, and my mother has always been partial to dogs.  In fact, she has always treated her dogs BETTER than she treated her kids....not that she doesn't love us, but she doesn't coddle us.  She does coddle her dogs.....they can do NO WRONG!

So I researched the best dog to get.  I am allergic, so had to be an non allergenic dog.  Had to be a small dog, as we have a small home and yard.  Had to be an easy to care for dog, because I knew I would not put the time in to take care of a high maintenance dog, had to be a dog good with children, a dog bred to be a companion dog....and the dog that came up on the top of every list with those qualities was a Havanese.

Now this breed came to the US from Cuba, Havana, thus the name.  There are not a lot of these dogs in the US, and they are NOT CHEAP!  But I found a breeder in Houston, so a few years ago got the dog for my mothers birthday....my mother was ecstatic.  We named her Alegria, as it means Joy in spanish, and Sarah danced a beautiful dance to Alegria when she was in High School, and I have some wonderful shoes from a brand called Alegria.....we call her Allie.

Now she is non allergenic, I can pet her all I want and not get all congested or sneezy.  Good thing, because she insists on being petted a lot.  This picture is her usual greeting to anyone she meets for the first time, or when she wants you to love on her.  And she is a small dog.....BUT everything else on the list....not so much.

Easy to care for????? Because she is non allergenic, she has hair not fur, so she needs to be groomed at least twice a month.  Her hair gets matted when it gets too long, so she has to get shaved down every quarter or so.  But she doesn't shed so that is a good thing!  She is ok with children, but a little hyper....doesn't understand why a 2 year old doesn't want to pet her constantly, and she INSISTS on being acknowledged whenever someone comes to the house.

She HATES trucks, of all kinds, but especially UPS, Fed Ex and the Mail Truck...she goes CRAZY when they drive by....of course I order a lot from Amazon, so they come to the house A LOT!  It is awful how awful she is about them....can't figure it out, but she only needs to hear a truck drive by the house and she will go crazy for about 15 minutes.  Also, about 7 pm every night, she has a melt down for about 1/2 hour where she will run in circles in the living room as fast as she can, barking.  Weird.

She does cute things too....like she will go under the couch and bark quietly, playing hide and seek.  Wanting us to find her.  Very cute.  She is also very smart.  You can tell her to go get her giraffe, and she will find her giraffe toy and bring it to you!  But her favorite thing to play with is any kind of paper, books in particular, my mothers glasses, and the TV remote controls!  They have to be kept out of her way or she will grab them and run!

Now usually she will run half way up the stairs, and my mother used to chase her, climbing up the stairs to retrieve a used kleenex!  Would drive me crazy!  I finally had to threaten to get rid of the dog if she kept climbing up the stairs!  Funny thing is, I think Allie understood the threat, because now she goes crazy anytime my mother approaches the stairs!

The reason I am posting about Allie today is that my mother keeps feeding her from her plate....And Allie is very protective of any food she is given.  So when my mother then reaches for her to make sure she got the food that she just gave her, the dog thinks she is trying to take it away and nips at her.  Now if it was me (which of course it never would be as I would NEVER feed the dog from my plate), but if it was, it would be ok, but because my mothers skin is like rice paper, the slightest scratch can become a HUGE thing.  She has had big gashes on her forearm, hand and now the tip of her finger.  So this is now the third time the dog has drawn blood with my mother, and I am at a loss what to do.

The thing is, the dog is just being a dog....not being vicious....and if my mother would just keep her hands away from her while she is eating it would be no problem, but it is.  My mother denies ever feeding her, even when she is holding a piece of food in her outstretched hand toward the dog, and she doesn't remember how she ever gets injured.......and she would HATE me if I got rid of the dog, because the dog is her life!  Soooooooo, any suggestions?