Musings of a Snickerdoodle

Martin Luther by Simonetta Carr i s a nice overview of the life of Luther for children.   It starts with Luther's birth and moves on through his life as a child in schooling and then on to his college days, where the thunderstorm happens that scares him into a monastic life where perhaps he could earn his way to Heaven.  As a Monk we learn that Luther was very meticulous and very much into examining his own thoughts and motives for sin; his ritualistic confession of his sins grew so frequent (sometimes happening just moments after he had  confessed other sins) that it irritated his superiors who then "told him to confess only big sins."  Luther ultimately is promoted to higher positions, moving on to the city of Wittenberg to be a professor of Bible studies. Ultimately he also ends up preaching in the city church as well as "supervising ten monasteries".  Tetzel comes into Germany with his indulgences and as a consequence Luther writes his "ninety-...

Marie Durand by Simonetta Carr is an interesting, though short, account of the Christian lady.   I didn't know anything about Marie before reading this biography, the name sounded familiar but didn't point to any substantive information in my mind. Now, I understand that she was a French lady living during the 1700s who was imprisoned on account of her brother's being a pastor.   She could have gotten out of prison by denying the faith but did not do so and stayed in in prison for 38 years.      There are interesting illustrations throughout, and also photographs of items and places from Durand's era.   At the end of the book there is a pronunciation key to help one read and pronounce the French words, a 'Did You Know?' section giving more information about the people and lifestyle of that era, and a letter from Marie to her niece Anne.   Also, I liked the Epilogue, where Carr gives an overview of what happened after Marie died. The 'Age of Reas...