The Look

Okay, so nothing beats black for me, but I was getting complaints about the readability.
After all, reading is the point of this blog, so I sacrificed my beloved plain background.
I hope this helps!

Miss Pickwickian

The Grape Picker - William Bouguereau

Stepping Heavenward - Elizabeth Prentice

Stepping Heavenward
by Elizabeth Prentice




Rating: 8

Readability: 8
Impact: 9





Read it Again: This is the second time, but I certainly hope to read it again. So, yes!
Recommend it: Yes

What to Expect

Elizabeth Prentice carefully weaves the story of a sometimes discouraged and sometimes exuberant Christian through a journal.
Although this book is written in first person by its principle character, Katherine Elliot, we are still able to see the changes and growth in her life.

It is a tale of a inner and outer journey towards peace in Christ.

My Squib

I have read Stepping Heavenward before, but at the suggestion of a friend, we both read it again.

I'm so glad I did!

Although some find it overly pious or troubled, I think others will find it speaks directly to them in a sympathizing way they can understand.
There are certainly some aspects of Katherine Elliot's life that we can all relate too.

As a classic and as an inspiration I believe most readers should enjoy this book, especially young ladies.

Anyways, thanks Aisha for reading through it again with me!

From the Book

"January 15, 1831 - How dreadfully old I am getting! Sixteen! Well, I don't see as I can help it. There it is in the big Bible in father's own hand.

Katherine, born January 15, 1815

I meant to get up early this morning, but it looked dismally cold out of doors, and I felt delightfully warm in bed. So I covered myself up, and made ever so many good resolutions..."

"January 16, 1847 - This is the tenth anniversary of our wedding-day, and it has been a delightful one. If I were called upon to declare what has been the chief element of my happiness, I should say it was not Ernest's love to me or mine to him, or that I am once more the mother of three children, or that my own dear mother still lives, though I revel in each and all of these. But underneath them all, deeper stronger than all, lies a peace with God that I can compare to no other joy, which guard as I would gaurd hid treasure, and which must abide if all things else pass away."

Somewhere - Me

Here is a ramble on a few thoughts that have been bouncing around in my head and the song that came out of them.

I've been contemplating the idea of land for some time (as my journal and Aisha can attest).

What exactly is with land? I mean a particular plot of ground? For example...why is Scotland so amazing?
Is patriotism a loyalty to a particular group and set of ideas? To what we are used to and love? Or does it really have something to do with the actual ground?

How does history effect a place? Is it purely our knowledge of what happened there? Our knowledge of those who shed their blood for something they believed in?

It seems like we are often loyal to just dirt. Can that ever be a good thing?

Obviously if we didn't know what happened there we wouldn't get the feelings we do when we think about the history.
But what about the Covenentors for instance? Those places where men bled to death for what they believed in...they are just the same sort of dirt that's in your backyard?

If we aren't loyal to actual soil, why don't we just get up and leave when someone wants to push us out?

Why would people in history die in vicious wars just over getting some more land?

My conclusion....who knows? It's probably all in your head. But who knows?

I know I'm totally rambling, so here is the song...
I composed it on a very structured meter following an exercise in one of my books. It may sound a little choked, but it reads more like a song without music this way. ;-)
Enjoy!

Somewhere

Standing on the ground
Somewhere far away
Can you hear it calling?
What does it gravely say?

Drawing us all home
Somewhere we don’t know
Does history bring us there?
Can blood survive the foe?

Showing us a cause
Somewhere in their soul
Can that fight still echo?
Does soil become a scroll?

Listening to the past
Somewhere in the trees
Does the place remember?
Or just the mind that sees?

©Miss Pickwickian


Thanks for reading. Feel free to share your thoughts.
Miss Pickwickian

The Red Baron (2008)

The Red Barron
Directed and written by Nikolai Mullerschon.


Rating: 9 for its kind




Watch-ability: It is more concerned with telling the amazing history of the Red Baron, then in entertaining you. I thought that was amazing, but if you have no interest in history you may not like it. ;-)
It did have some pretty nasty disturbing images. It also had some other things it could have done without. :-P
Impact: 8

Watch it Again: YES!!!!!!!!!!!
Recommend it: Yes.

Originally released in Austria.

Staring Matthias Schweighofer, Joseph Fiennes, and Lena Headey.

Rated PG-13 for disturbing violence, mild language, and some suggestive material.

The financing for this film came exclusively from well-to-do individuals living in the state of Baden-Wuttemberg in the honor of these men's place in history.

Here is one of the trailers. Youtube has changed their setting so they no longer give you a size that fits on average blogs. :-P If you want to see the whole thing, go to this link on Youtube.



Warning: The views on this movie may be skewed.
I enjoy history, am fascinated with the World Wars, have a weakness for fighter pilots, and a greater weakness for Germans. See this post...

What to Expect

The Red Baron was created to honor the lives of these pilots. It jumps around a bit to follow the life of Baron Manfred von Richthofen, his role in the First World War and his character struggles and change.

This movie has a similar flavor to Flyboys, except it is not as well done...
Having said that, it is amazing in the fact that it just portrays the events and characters and lets you fall in love with them or not as you choose. It doesn't press anything on you or ask for sympathy.

In general the acting was very good. I was originally excited because I have watched a few movies with Joseph Fiennes and really enjoyed his acting. His performance in this was disappointing. He plays the typical cheesy American that reside in foreign films.

My Squib

Matthias Schweighofen did an excellent job in this movie.
(For those of you who do not keep up-to-date on these things, Matthias Schweighofen plays Lieutenant Herber in Valkyrie. He's a character you really want to like, but in the end turns them in. Loser. Anyways...)

At first I didn't like him much at all. Fredrick Sternberg, played by Maxim Mehmet, was my early favorite. But Schweighofen developed the Baron's character in such away that by the end you really loved him, with all his problems. I think he was one of the most interesting characters I've seen in a movie in a long time.

I really liked how they included pieces of the lives of so many historical characters. The only character that was fictitious was Fredrick Sternberg. He was included in memoriam of all the Jewish pilots that fought and died in the First World War...and he was amazing. ;-)

I could go on forever, but I won't. If you watch it, we can talk about it sometimes.

Okay...so I loved this movie.

From the Movie

Read this amazing quote by Baron Richthofen to his girl, Kate.
The Baron is offered to become the leader of the entire air force. Of course his girl is ultra excited because now he won't be getting shot down.
He refuses the position without telling her. When she does find out they, of course, get in a little bicker. This is his response...

"When I was a little boy, I could hit all the targets with my father's rifle, targets so far away the others couldn't even see them. I dreamt of seeing everything and of being like a bird. Hawk's eyes, eagle's eyes it was called.

When I became a pilot, I truly thought I would see everything from up there. I saw nothing. I was blind before I met you. You opened my eyes, you taught me to see what I didn't want to see. We all chose to fly; Voss, Sternberg, Immelmann, Wolff, Hawker, and whatever side we took we all knew the risk we took.

I wanted to be the best. I wanted to win and I thought I won. I can see now, Käte, we've turned the world into a damn slaughterhouse and I'm already too big a part of it. They use my photograph to give hope where there is none. They use my name to feign immortality whereas the reality is annihilation. You said it yourself, the men dying out there have no choice. I have and I cannot order men into battle. I can, perhaps, lead them, help them, die with them, but I will not betray them or keep the truth from them by remaining the immortal god that Berlin wants me to be.
You are my greatest victory."


Visit the movies website.

Read more about the real Red Baron on Wikipedia.

Thanks for reading,
Miss Pickwickian

The Canon of Scripture - F. F. Bruce

The Canon of Scripture
by F. F. Bruce
InterVarsity Press

Rating: 6
Readability: 3
Impact: 8

Read it Again: Maybe I'd refer to it again...
Recommend it: Sometimes it's a slog, but yes, it was a good slog.

What to Expect

A detailed history on the Old and New Testaments and life of the Bible as we know it.

My Squib

This was another book on my list for the Ligonier Acadamy course I'm taking.
I'm glad I read this book and that it was in the course. I would have never picked it up on my own but I can see how profitable it was.

F. F. Bruce gives very good, detailed history in the compiling and canonization of the Bible. When he stretches into interpretation or theology I couldn't really agree with him, but he mostly stuck to the history. He is certainly a smart guy!

Some of this book is a chore, but the Bible is the most important book of our lives. We should be able to defend it.

From the Book

"The inclusion of each scripture in the canon of all scripture helps one in the understanding of each scripture, but at the same time, since each scripture makes its contribution to all scripture, the understanding of all scripture is impossible without the understanding of each scripture."

True Motion - Me

Just exercising my writing muscles before starting into prose yesterday... Needs some work, but I thought I'd post it.

True Motion

I stood around wondering
A life of slow motion
I couldn’t stop pondering
A life without meaning

I saw the great crowd of eyes
And long fingers that point
I saw how fruitless life dies
And my own barren tree

I knew the great commandment
A life of His service
I knew the given blood print
A life of true worship

I stood but did not do
I saw it without change
I knew but was not new
I was far too afraid

I should be down in prayer
The eyes do not matter
I should be focused elsewhere
Then love grows for those eyes

I read to become trusting
A life of true motion
I did to stop my rusting
I life with true meaning

©Miss Pickwickian


Thanks for reading,
Miss Pickwickian