Wasted Wednesday: Top 5 Books That Have Influenced My Spiritual Life

As a teenager I was very much invested in the idea that I had to be perfect in order to be in God's favor, or at least I had to follow the rules of the world to the best of my ability.  And so I decided to claim my Christian faith by buying cool looking "Christian" T-shirts and "Christian" music and "Christian" books.  The more I invested my time in "Christian" artistry, the more I became aware that something was still missing. I read the "Christian" books and listened to all of the "Christian" artists I could find but I still wasn't getting the satisfaction of experiencing an authentic creation.  I became obsessed with the Harry Potter books that are viewed as satanic to many Christians.  I saw God in the series and no one else seemed to see Him there and it confused me greatly.  The more I read books that weren't labeled "Christian", the more I saw God in the literature I was reading.  The same can be said for the music I was listening too. I think this is where a lot of Christians slip up.  They only immerse themselves in "Christian" art that often lacks what non-Christian art gives back to the world.  When I came to this realization I began to wonder why it has to be this way.  Why can't "Christian" art drop the sugar coatings and cheesiness and compete with (and I don't really like this term but for the sake of this blog post...) secular art?  

Then, a few days ago, I went to my novel professor for my guidance with my first chapter.  I revealed many of the things I wanted to do with my novel to him and I also told him that I wanted to incorporate Christian themes but not limit my novel to only a Christian audience.  I explained my experiences with "Christian" art and my teacher explained a theory that I agree with one hundred percent.  The story of Jesus is, while very celebratory and empowering, very vulgar and violent.  It is easy to look at the tale in a two dimensional way since many Christians don't actually read the Bible but get their spiritual intake on Sunday mornings from another's interpretation of the scriptures.  I can't say I am not at fault for this.  I have only just begun to read my Bible and still have a long way to go and a lot to understand.  But the story of Jesus is like the most photographed barn in the world.  In the book White Noise by Don DeLillo, the character Jack and his friend visit the most photographed barn in the world.  Jack's friend says to him that the people don't truly see the barn.  All they see is what they have heard of the barn but they don't see the barn itself with its peeling painted history.  The same can be said for the death of Jesus.  Many Christians do not see the death of Christ for what it truly was.  They see a clean statue of Jesus hanging on a cross that they sometimes wear around their neck.  They see angels singing and people wearing bright colors in the sunlight and sometimes they maybe even see Easter eggs.  As Christians, we understand the concept that Jesus died for our sins but do we truly see what happened to Him that day he was crucified?  Do we not see the blood and pain that shown on Jesus' face?  Do we not see the hatred that vibrates through the crowd of people who actually are condemning Him to death?  I don't think we always do.  We always see victory and while yes this was a victory, it was a very painful victory.  The same can be said about the birth of Jesus - He was not born in a palace but in a barn, and His crib was a manger.  Too often times "Christian" art includes the victory but steps over the pain and makes the art almost inhuman.  I don't think God wants us to ignore the bad things in this world for He didn't ignore the bad things either when Jesus conquered sin and when Jesus was brought into the world.  

I know I went on a bit of a rant with that last paragraph but it is important to think about in this blog.  I have found that none of the books on my favorites are "Christian" novels and that is highly disappointing.  However, as I said above, I don't think Christians should be limited to just experiencing "Christian" art.  There are many books that have inspired my faith and I know God was getting through to me when I was reading them.  So here are the top 5 books that have influenced my spiritual life.  I have to say, it was hard to narrow down which of my favorite books to choose from because they all have influenced my spiritual life and my life in general!

My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece is about a family torn apart after a terrorist attack that kills one of their three children.  Main character Jamie must fight for the love from his dead sister's ashes that sit on the mantelpiece while also trying to figure out how he can be friends with a Muslim girl after his father says all Muslims are evil since they killed his sister.  The story is about acceptance, understanding, growth, and learning from a tragedy.  Just like Jamie, I too have to learn from people that aren't like me.  As a Christian, it is important to learn from other cultures as well as our own.  My favorite line from the book is this, "And I said What's The Koran and she said It's sort of like The Bible.  And that is the thing  about Christians and Muslims - they both have a God and they both have a book.  They are just called different names."

Pride and Prejudice truly is one of the greatest love stories of all time but it took me a long while to realize this.  I saw the movie a good amount of times and couldn't quite wrap my head around what was going on let alone how Liz and Darcy fell in love!  I read the book and still didn't really understand the large appeal.  I guess I needed to mature a little to really begin to comprehend the depth of this love story.  I read it again and just wanted to cry from the beauty of the piece!  Hollywood has watered down love today and to many love consists of lust and sexual attraction.  What Pride and Prejudice contains is a love story that will last.  It is truly a masterpiece of what it means to love and to be loved in return.  It also speaks silent volumes about the love that God wants and expects from us for each other.

I've grown up with this story but I had never actually read it until this past year and it is now one of my favorite novels.  I don't think it is that much of a mystery as to why this made it on the list.  Scrooge is heartless man who is destined for hell until his old business partner, Jacob Marley, returns to him as a ghost in chains and sends three spirits to change Scrooge's attitude so he doesn't experience the same fate as Marley.  It is a simple novel about the lesson of love and not loving for the wrong reasons.  The novel forces the reader to reflect on his/her own life and remember to do good for all.

The news contains so many stories of people who have died and come back to life.  Many of these people write books to tell the world about their experience.  But I often shy away from these accounts because they often don't reveal to me anything that I don't already expect from Heaven and death.  The Lovely Bones, however, reveals a lot of truth about death and about life after a death/tragedy.  Susie Salmon is brutally murdered at the young age of 14 and is stuck in purgatory where she watches her family live their lives without her in it.  This book reveals so much about letting go while also allows the reader to reflect on the small moments in life that we often look past.  The Christian symbolism, while very faint, is most definitely there.  In a way we are all stuck just like Susie and we must let go in order to find happiness in Jesus Christ.

While J.K. Rowling denies that she put any religious symbolism into these books, we know better!  Watching young Harry journey from abused 11 year old boy to victorious 17 year old wizard is nothing but a spiritual journey!  We all have a purpose on this earth just like Harry is the chosen one who has to defeat Voldemort.  In Harry we see a Christ figure who does not run away from his fate but dives in head first to save the world.  He is so vividly human and flawed and yet he is also very wise and moral.  Not only do we learn from Harry as a Christ figure but we also learn about love, death, truth, and bias.  To say that these books carry no spiritual weight is a serious misjudgment.  

So there you have it!  My top 5 books that have influenced my spiritual life!  I highly recommend all of them because they are all amazing reads!  I also hope to hear from the you!  What books have influenced your spiritual life that aren't labeled "Christian"?

Art: My Favorite Reading Quotes

Reading: October Baby by Eric Wilson

Okay.  To start off this review I must state, as I usually do it seems, why I picked up this book.  I heard of October Baby from a friend on Tumblr.  I was scrolling through her page and saw this movie poster and I watched the trailer and literally started crying.  I began watching lots of behind the scenes stuff for the film and even downloaded the soundtrack but had no means to see the film at the time so I basically had to sit and wait desperately for the film to come out on DVD.  To my satisfaction, I saw there was a novel version so I decided to buy it.  October Baby is essentially about a girl named Hannah who discovers that she is the result of a failed abortion attempt.  Being someone who is pro-life, this message is something that I hold close to my heart and I knew I had to divulge into the story sooner or later!
Immediately after I finished the book, I had the luxury of watching the film on Netflix!  If you have Netflix, I would recommend you watch this film!  It is truly special.  The film isn't anywhere near the status of the Dark Knight but it is a typical drama movie with a lot of heart! Would I recommend you read the book?  Not so much.  In fact, avoid it at all costs.
It isn't a usual occurrence to see me state that I liked the movie better than the book.  The only film off hand that I can think of that I liked better than the book would be the Wizard of Oz and Phantom of the Opera.  Anyway, the book is an exact adaption of the film with a few minor scenes added that seem to be there to serve the purpose of adding depth but actually make this book worse (just a note, this book was written after the film so it is adapted from the film).  So what made the film way better than the book if it was exactly the same?  Well there were a lot of things.  I've never read Eric Wilson before so I was going into this read with fresh eyes.  I've heard of most of his novels though.  The book started off on a nice pace, but as it continued it became loaded with childish descriptions and awkward character interaction.  The dialogue and scenes was word for word with the film despite some additions but the way Wilson wrote the book was just a turn off.  Character interaction was forced and vague yet in the film it was much more believable when the actors spoke (though I can't say the dialogue was good in general).  The characters had virtually no depth to them.  Scenes that I didn't find compelling in the novel were ones I liked in the film.  I almost wish that I had watched the film first to be honest because the novel became so frustrating to read that I contemplated just not finishing the book when I was halfway through.  The book did get me to cry at one point though so I will give Wilson a little credit there but more credit seems to go to the screenwriters who originally wrote the script for October Baby the film which Wilson adapted word for word (did I mention this novel is adapted word for word from the film?).
I think that was another issue with this book...that it was adapted WORD FOR FREAKING WORD!  Films and novels are very different arts.  That is why it is so hard for filmmakers to stay close to a book's plot because some things that can be done in writing can't be done in film, and vice versa.  I have watched many great films that aren't adapted from books and have even tried to write Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl out as a novel.  I wrote it for fun of course but as I made it past the first scene and into the second scene, I realized my approach was completely inadequate.  All I was doing was taking each scene and trying to write it out but I was very aware of the fact that my writing was sloppy and frustrating.  It would take more than simply rewriting scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean to make it into a good and readable novel.  I would have to change certain things for character point of view, I would have to switch scenes around since the film is constantly switching back and forth between perspectives in a way the novel just can't compete with, and I would have to really figure out the characters in a deeper sense because novels have the ability to take us into a character's mind the way most films can't.  And full disclosure, I am not working on this writing project anymore.  It was fun to think about but a lot more stressful to go about.

The story of October Baby is incredible though.  Again, credit must go to the screenwriters and not Wilson.  (I'm not trying to be a Wilson hater here though it seems I am coming off as one.  I've heard good things about his other novels so maybe one day I will give them a chance.  I think this one ultimately failed because of the way Wilson went about adapting it.  It isn't necessarily a bad read but if you want a book that is written in a literary fashion without the Christian sugar coating that has become all too familiar in spiritual fiction, this book will not satisfy you).  I really felt I could relate to Hannah.  Actually, I felt like I related to Hannah a lot. Our situations are obviously very different but the way she felt about acting was the way I feel about writing and she definitely feels left out because she'd rather not get involved in things that most kids our age get involved in.  I also felt like her character specifically was full of complications and anger that really draws the audience to sympathize with her.  I can't even imagine the weight of not only being adopted but knowing I wasn't supposed to exist.  It is a hard pill to swallow.  Another thing I love about the story is that while it is surrounded by Christian routes, it doesn't shove them down your throat.  It maintains the theme that every life is beautiful but never actually states this in the film but allows you as the audience/reader to come to the conclusion yourself.  I found that very powerful.  That being said, while the story was incredible, that doesn't override the fact that the writing was awful and the approach to the story wasn't much better.  Reading this book is the equivalent to watching a Lifetime movie.  In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if you see the film on that network shortly. 
Ultimately, October Baby is an amazing story and a semi-good film with a great message about forgiveness and the unborn.  However, the book is full of petty descriptions, poor scene structure, and the typical watering down of literary merits to contain sugar coatings that many Christian novels today seem to contain.  I will give it 2 out of 5 stars because even though I thought the book was poorly written, the story is one I would encourage everyone to experience.  The best way to experience it, in my opinion, is to just visit YouTube.com and look up behind the scenes videos.  The movie making process and interviews and even the trailer hit home more than the film/book could ever accomplish.  Also watch the music video titled "Life is Beautiful by the Afters" and that will get you crying.  It is just a shame because I had such high hopes for this reading/film experience and I am overall disappointed.  I wish beyond wish that Christian artists could create a story that wasn't life a Lifetime movie.  It seems like the October Baby crew should start taking advice from Steve Turner's Imagine.

Reading: Looking For Alaska by John Green

This book is one I have been almost programmed to want to read since I first saw the famous sentence from the book about rain and drizzle.  If you've seen the quote or read this book then you know what I mean.  The quote is indeed very charming and poetic.  I can see why people like it so much.  “If people were rain, I was drizzle, and she was a hurricane.” See, I told ya it was great!  Another reason why I was looking forward to reading this book was because I didn't want to not like John Green as an author.  If you've been with me since day one, you will remember that I did not like Green's latest book titled The Fault in our Stars.  I still can't comprehend why people and critics like it so much.  And people love John Green!  He has a freaking cult of fans behind him and I guess for good reason.  I mean, he does seem to be a pretty awesome guy in terms of creativity and proving you never have to truly grow up.  For example, I love Green's Crash Course show on YouTube that he hosts with his brother Hank.  But after reading The Fault in our Stars, I thought he was way overrated.  I can conclude after reading Looking for Alaska that it is true.  John Green may be awesome but he is in fact extremely overrated.  That being said, I can't deny that I genuinely liked this book.  Truly.  It was 1000% times better than The Fault in our Stars.
Right away I must state, I have a sort of love for boarding school stories.  I can't really explain why.  Maybe it is because I always dreamed of going to one myself or that the most fun I had as a teenager was going away to camp for a week which is sort of like boarding school since you are away from home and with your friends.  I also find that boarding schools offer a side of learning that isn't the same as public school.  It is more exciting and fun.  The main character of this book, Miles a.k.a Pudge, seems to understand this mentality.  He decides to go to the boarding school his father went to as a teenager because he is seeking out the "Great Perhaps".  Pudge is obsessed with famous last words...or just last words in general.  You name a dead president and Pudge will know his last words.  I think Pudge is one reason that this book is great.  His character is seeking out an adventure and you too feel as if you want an adventure with him.  You want to go along and seek out the "Great Perhaps" not only in this book but in your own life as well.  Pudge goes off to boarding school and meets his new roommate who they call "the Colonel" and his friend Alaska, a girl of drama and mystery that Pudge is automatically drawn to. 
As I read this book, I couldn't help but hope that when it gets adapted (because it surely will), I hope it gets adapted as a mini-series on HBO or Showtime because it reminded me so much of one of my favorite shows called Shameless.  The book carries a very raw feel to it and that would adapt very well to one of the premium channels.  Fingers crossed!

The book itself was very engaging.  I read the last 3/4 of it in one night.   Pudge's experiences were very realistic and interesting.  Each character was going through their own battles.  This is a pretty obvious thing to say but John Green has a tight hold on what it is like to be a teenager.  From their language to the things they want and desire, Green has written everything spot on.  He enters Pudge's world and shows the fears and misunderstandings all teens seem to have and this shines through each one of his characters.  I think that is why Green has a cult following.  Green's writing is also very nice in this book.  The plot was well done.  Nothing seemed forced.  The book pretty much soared over The Fault in our Stars in my opinion. 
I can't call this book a favorite because while I thought it was good, Green still used plenty of cheese coating in the novel.  But I generally liked the plot, the characters, and the ending.  I will give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Reading: The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling

It was a strange feeling to be reading a book by J.K. Rowling that wasn't Harry Potter.  My expectations weren't high but they weren't low either.  I think it is safe to say I view J.K. Rowling as on of my favorite authors.  Her Harry Potter books have really struck a chord with me and I know they will remain with me until the day I die.  That being said, I was eager to read her new book and see what other stories she had to tell but I also wasn't dying to read her new book.  In conclusion, The Casual Vacancy was just another book on my bookshelf.  Sure when I picked it up I was well aware that I was now about to read a book by the renowned author J.K. Rowling but once I began reading, all of that didn't matter that much and didn't change the way I read the book.  While I very much compared the book to Harry Potter, as you will read in this review, Harry Potter did not change my reading of this book in any way.
For starters, I was actually irked by this book before I even saw the front cover.  It wasn't so much that I was bothered that J.K. Rowling wasn't writing another Harry Potter book because I don't care what she does either way.  What bothered me was the publicity that surrounded the book.  It was advertised as "J.K. Rowling's new book for adults!"  This phrase annoys me to the core.  First off, it is clear that many "sophisticated" readers will take this as "finally, a book I can actually take seriously by J.K. Rowling" in which is absolute nonsense.  Another bit of nonsense is that it seems to disregard Harry Potter entirely.  Harry Potter is just as good for adults as it is for children.  If anything, the book should have been advertised as containing explicit content instead of subliminally insulting J.K. Rowling's other works.  My fear was that J.K. Rowling would overdo the "adult" content and have so much of it that the book would come off forced and annoying.  Fortunately, that did not occur.  The explicit stuff came off as natural and didn't really bother me one way or another.
The Casual Vacancy revolves around a small town where a beloved citizen named Barry Fairbrother dies, leaving a seat open on the town council.  Immediately the race is on to see who can get enough votes to take his seat.  The book revolves around the candidates and their families and citizens of the town.
I first want to comment on J.K. Rowling's writing style.  Forgetting the story for a moment, I can safely say that as I read this book I felt as if I were still reading Harry Potter.  I wasn't even thinking about it and then suddenly I saw familiar patterns of writing.  Rowling's writing has not changed a bit from book to book.  I want to say I am extremely impressed but also very pleased because this shows that it wasn't her writing that gave this book the "adult" sticker but rather the content did that.  This shows readers the levels in which Rowling can reach her audience, whether it be classified as an "adult" novel or as a young adult novel.
Secondly, while Rowling proves that her understanding of the human psych is grade A, her characters in this novel are just plain awful.  I don't mean to say that she did a poor job.  What I mean to say is that every character is a jerk and the only decent one is Barry who died in the beginning!  The characters were all freakishly selfish.  That is the only way I can describe them.   As I read the book, I wondered if any of the characters would ever change and the truth is, they didn't.  Sure there was a bit of minor change toward the end but overall, none of the characters truly developed which was a big disappointment.

As a Christian reader, I was hesitant to bring up my faith in this review since religion is hardly mentioned in this novel at all.  Of course, in Harry Potter we find that religion is never mentioned either yet the stories are reeking with spiritual metaphors and represent Harry as a Christ figure.  It was clear to me as I read this book that none of these characters were putting their faith in God but only putting faith in themselves and their desires.  They didn't think, only acted upon what they wanted.  I have found a few reviews of this book online and have saved them but was particular about not reading them before I wrote this review so that I could give my own opinion and not fabricate one by accident.  However, I briefly glanced over one and saw something that very much supported my thoughts about religion in this novel.  B. Waisanen states, "Rowling is determined to place the central Christian message in her books. And yet in this one, the message is so….vacant. I believe Rowling is, in her under-the-watchful-eyes-of-dragons way, showing us what happens when Christ is absent. In the Potter books, we have a Christ figure in Harry. He lives, and therefore the world is saved. In The Casual Vacancy, Christ is absent; Barry Fairbrother, the book’s Christ figure, is dead. He has been removed from influence on society, and the vices, so abundant within the world, wreak havoc."  In the end, there was nothing to be learned from these characters besides to do the exact opposite of what they did.  I wouldn't recommend naming any of the characters as your fictional role model.  However, if Rowling's intention was the same as what Waisanen stated, that makes me a bit happier about the book itself.
Finally, let me quickly talk about the book's ending.  Overall, I liked it.  It was tragic but also satisfying.  The book came in full circle in a sense.  The ending also seemed to wake up the characters a bit.  The book seemed to imply that once the reader finished, things were going to get better in the small little town.  Or at least, that is my hope.
The Casual Vacancy was just another read for me.  It didn't stand out nor was it a total let down of a story.  It was just an average read and that is why I am giving it 3 out of 5 stars.  I liked it.  I liked Rowling's writing and the story kept me interested but the characters were just terrible people and by the end of the book I just didn't care about them and wanted to never read about them again.

Reading: Sprawl by Danielle Dutton

Sprawl.  This review is going to be a challenge - I will state that outright.  Sprawl is unlike any book I have ever read or come across.  It is a book of fragmented moments in the life of a suburban housewife who seems stuck in her life and has no idea how to escape it.
It is hard to explain the plot of this book because there isn't much of a plot at all.  
There is a quote in the beginning of the book from Henry David Thoreau and it says, "At a certain season of our life we are accustomed to consider every spot as the possible site of a house."  This quote is very important to the book's structure and purpose.  I had to read this book for a class and what our class was unsure of at first was if this book was about a woman searching for meaning in life.  It seemed like she was but the book never provided a solution as to where she would find meaning and how she would find it.  Why write a book that challenges the suburban lifestyle and not offer a solution?  Then someone in the class stated that he didn't think this woman was searching for meaning.  He thought that this woman believed she had found meaning and that was why she was stuck in her predicament.  This theory makes perfect sense to me and is something I very much want to talk about in this review.

To emphasize the theory I just presented, let me give an example from my own life.  Growing up itself is like being stuck because we are taught that school is where we learn and therefore we believe that if we are searching for an education, we will find it in school.  For me, I always found that I was eager to learn and missed school when I was away from it.  Yet every time I returned to the classroom, I became uncomfortable and awkward and found that school wasn't really helping me learn as much as it was helping me become more of an introvert which society frowns upon to begin with.  It wasn't until college that I realized how much I learned outside of the classroom and how much my previous education hadn't taught me.  I had always believed that education was what the world told me it was.
The same thing goes for the character in Sprawl.  She has been taught to believe that life is complete when you get married and move to the suburbs and now she believes her life has meaning and that is the problem, because it clearly really doesn't.  It is easy for the reader to believe she is searching for meaning.
The book is most definitely one where the author wants to make the reader think.  I didn't care for the structure one bit but at the same time I now understand why it may have been done.  As I said before, the book didn't have much of a plot and it just wasn't anything that moved me a bit.  It was different though.  I wouldn't recommend reading it unless you are up for the challenge.  I will rate this book 2 out of 5 stars.

Reading: The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

The Wizard of Oz is a film I grew up with and one of my favorites as a child and today.  Every time I went to my grandparents house in the Poconos I would always rent this film from the library and there are even home videos of me singing the songs.  I finally read the book in 4th grade and I remember reading it in my downstairs laying on the floor with my feet propped up on a chair.  Unfortunately, I didn't really retain much of the book after I read it and as the years passed, I made it a point to reread the book one day.  Well, this 50 book challenge gave me that opportunity.
I don't think it is necessary for me to explain the plot since mostly everyone has seen the movie.  Though I have to start off by saying I will always love the movie better than the book.  It is just one of those special moments when a movie is better than the book in my opinion.  My copy of the book, Aladdin publishers (I believe?), has some information in the back of the book about the history of the book.  The Wizard of Oz is known as the first real American Fairytale.  While Fairytales are most often seen as morality tales, L. Frank Baum believed that these types of stories only scar children into good behavior which can sometimes be true.  Baum decided to present his book through the eyes of a child instead of an adult and goes to prove that children can solve their own problems.  The story, however, does have a morality tale to it despite what Baum wants to believe.  It emphasizes the idea that there is no place like home, something that kids have to constantly to be reminded of.  One of my favorite lines from the film is, “If I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with.”

I must say, this book definitely kept me interested.  I started and finished it while I was on a cruise with my family.  It was a bittersweet read.  It's lighthearted-ness combined with my high expectations from my love for the film balanced each other out.  Overall, it was a nice tale about a girl trying to get home.  The book had humor and great characters and lots of neat adventures that weren't included on the big screen.  It's definitely a winner for kids everywhere!  I am going to give the book 3 out of 5 stars.  Yes I enjoyed it but my love for the film kept me from enjoying it more.  That is not the author's problem though but a reader problem on my part.