Musings of a Snickerdoodle

Having trouble finding a present for a book lover in your family? Or are you a book lover yourself and trying to answer someone's question to you, "what would you like for Christmas?" For me, that is often a hard question to answer. Good, interesting books just seem to get harder and harder to find. Sometimes I'll come across an interesting quotation or excerpt from a book, and that will answer my question.  I've compiled a list of some of my favorite books, with summaries and a quotation from each one. Perhaps one of them will spark your interest and give you an idea of what you'd like to read next. Biography Free Grace and Dying Love:  The Life of Susannah Surgeon - By Charles Ray and Susannah Spurgeon This is a rather short biography of Mrs. Spurgeon, but still very interesting and inspiring. Susannah Spurgeon is another example of living for God in whatever circumstances and with whatever limitations He has given you, making the most of the ...

This book, Never in Finer company by Edward G. Lengel, tells the story of the famous 'lost battalion' of World War I.  Focusing on four men who, one way or another, were connected with the lost battalion, either by being a part of it, or by being involved in relief efforts or reporting on it. Charles Whittlesey, commander of the battalion, , George McMurtry, executive officer, Alvin York a sergeant who was Involved in the attempt to rescue the lost battalion and Damon Runyon a newspaper man reporting from as near the front as he could. Edward Lengel takes you through the days before the war and introduces you to each man  They each have their own unique background, personal struggles and their own perspective on life. They all end up around the same geographic area during the war.  Ironically, the lost battalion was lost twice.  They were commanded to keep pushing forward even if the groups on their flanks fell away.  They did so both times the...

Made for the Journey by Elizabeth Elliot is an account of her first year as a missionary to Ecuador.  I've read it before as it was previously published as These Strange Ashes.  Elliot started her missionary full of excitement and triumphal expectation.   She was heading out the jungle to attempt to learn the Colorado Indian language in order to reduce it to writing and translate the Bible into that language. There is a note of underlying criticism throughout of the 'traditional' missionary way of doing things. Having started her work, she fights to have success in even figuring out the language.   She combats laziness in herself, but does start making some progress with the language.   Then everything falls apart.   People die, in tragic ways, including her main language informant.   She has difficulty continuing the study, but does have a good amount of language information to leave with those who would stay while she moved on to differen...