Wednesday, May 15, 2013

The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff




First, I would like to say that I recommend this book to everybody. Whether you like Winnie the Pooh or Taoism. It's interesting just how relative the principles in this book are, to some of the other books I have read about worry, stress and life drama. If you think of Pooh, and the way he views life. The way he goes through life, he has a lot of wisdom and allows things to be, and he just IS! The book will describe this better of course, but there's a song from this book that kind of sums it up:

"How can you get very far,
If you don't know Who You Are?
How can you do what you ought,
If you don't know What You've Got?
And if you don't know Which To Do
Of all the things in front of you,
Then what you'll have when you are through
Is just a mess without a clue
Of all the best that can come true
If you know What and Which and Who." - Winnie the Pooh

Not only is this book charming and light hearted, it presents deep wisdom in the guise of the fable of Winnie the Pooh. The stories and characters are an allegory representing different types of people in the world. How they think. What they do. How they view the world. But the wisest and most relative of all is P'u.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Many Waters by Madeleine L'engle




I enjoyed this imaginative take on Noah's ark, and the twins were finally given an adventure of the their own, to show how clever and brave they are. Their personalities added a comical balance to the series events of Noah's task, and the people who will do anything to stop him. The seraphim and nephilim have their own conflict, while Noah's family, and his neighbors deal with the harsh environment of the desert and the cruel actions of Tiglah and her family, who want Noah's land fro their own. With the twins thrown, literally, in the middle of the conflict, they must learn why they were sent before Noah's Ark is complete, and how they will stay true to the original story. Yalith, Noah's daughter and the closest person to the stars, must decide how she can maintain the balance between seraphim and nephilim, as well as the family conflicts that threaten her way of life, and the power struggle of Tiglah's family versus Noah's task. 
This story was a philosophical adventure told in a familiar medium. The twins, who never have experienced anything strange, and never gone on an adventure before are put to the test in more ways than one, and must decide when and how they will get back home without changing history and the future of their world. 
I recommend this book to fans of the first three books, and history fans. Although the facts are not completely straight, the book delves into important questions about the origin of Noah's story and what life could have been like at the time of the story.