Musings of a Snickerdoodle

Did you know that homing pigeons were used in world war II? I didn't. I thought they were only used in the first world war. But they were used, and quite creatively. At the time, using humans to get messages and vital information gathered about the enemy and the placement of weapons, locations of bases..etc. to England was taking about 1/3 of a year from the time it was collected to the time it ended up in British hands. Using pigeons, one could get the message in a matter of days after it was written instead of weeks or months. This way the intelligence was fresh, not outdated. Operation Columba: The Secret Pigeon Service by Gordon Corera is the story of how these pigeons were used, the organization who controlled their usage, and those in occupied territory who risked their lives in sending Britain information via the pigeons. An idea was implemented, to drop British homing pigeons into occupied territory by means of baskets (with parachutes attached), included in the b...

Tales of the Kingdom by David & Karen Mains is an allegorical story about characters who live in a magical world with bad guys  and good guys .  I have vague memories of hearing this book as a child, and I  I recall thinking it was rather interesting, though I didn't remember a lot about it. As a story it is an interesting tale of girls and boys who find refuge in the forest with the exiled King.   Different lessons are learned by various unique characters, who all find a place in the Kingdom. There are creepy bad guys, like the Enchanter and the Burners and Naysayers.   The book tells stories    about individual people in the various chapters, switching back and forth between some, and introducing new characters in others.   They ultimately fit together very well as an overall story. There is the girl named Dirty, who loved being dirty and lived with the pigs, but comes to realize her horrible situation and wants to be clean. ...

The Spontaneous Expansion of the Church by Roland Allen is a rather short but very thought provoking book.  In it, he somewhat implicitly asks the question, Who builds the Church? Leading to that thought, he critiques our method of Evangelization, are we doing it right? Do we need to organize the expansion of the church?  Do we need to establish mission stations, do we need missionaries who depend upon appeals for money for their support.  Will the Gospel spread if we don't purposefully come up with a plan to spread it? Allen warns that what we are trying to do in our methods is to organize the work of God, to dictate where people will get saved and a time period in which their salvation must happen.   But as Allen points out, " For spiritual work spiritual organization is necessary; but can we create a spiritual organization of spiritual forces?   Only a divine intelligence can do that.   But we attempt to do the work of that divine intelligence;...

These books are intended to teach kids about various biblical characters.  I read the ones on David and Esther.  The books are made up of various "files" for kids to investigate the particular characters in any of the given books. Starting out with a "Fact file", which gives a few facts about the person you are looking into, including a tiny timeline with about three events selected.  Next comes the "Action File", giving a summary of the person's life, along with various illustrations.  Lastly comes the "Power File" which gives you some ideas of what you can learn from the life of the person you are studying, and also provides you with memory verses from various books of the Bible. I'm sorry to say that I was disappointed with these books. First of all, they seem more like books for kids younger than 8, not 8-12. The biographies skip too much, it doesn't mention that Jonathan's father tried to kill Jonathan when Jonathan d...

Originally I was looking for a biography that would tell about General William K. Harrison, as I had learned some things about him and wanted to know more.  There is no biography that I could find that was in print about him, but I came across this recently published book about the division he was assistant commander of, "Old Hickory: the 30th Division by Robert W. Baumer This account of the 30th division was interesting in and of itself.   These guys were quite tough, and determined.   Made up of National Guards, they remained vigilant with their duties even when, in preparation for them to be trained to join the fight, higher ups demanded that their national guard commanders be replaced with regular army commanders. They were not a part of the first wave of D-Day, they were in a following wave some days later, but they were a big part of Operation Cobra, which was to break through further into France. Before I read this book, I had never really considered ...

I read a lot of religious books and history, but I also like to read classic fiction as well.  Several of my sisters also like to read and I enjoy hunting for gift ideas for my sisters for Christmas and birthdays, looking gifts inspired by Austen, Alcott, Beatrix Potter and other writers of classics. Here are some sources I've come across: https://literarybookgifts.com/ This is a website that was brought to my attention recently, it has shirts, backpacks and tote bags, all with simple designs inspired by various classic books, including, Anne of Green Gables, Little Women and Pride and Prejudice. To get 20% off anything in the store, use the promo code  SNICKERDOODLES20  The code can be used an unlimited number of times.   Here are some pictures of things that caught my eye: A little Women Tote bag It looks pretty and simple, and comes in small, medium and large sizes (All sizes are the same price): An Anne o...

I've read a biography of Jonathan Edwards before, and I've read a small part of his writings, but still have felt as though I don't know Edwards and his works very well.  When I saw that this book, The Essential Jonathan Edwards:  An Introduction to the Life and Teaching of America's Greatest Theologian, by Owen Strachan and Douglas A. Sweeney, was available to request for review, I thought that this would be a good way to introduce myself more fully to Edwards. The book is divided into five parts.   Part one gives a high level biography of Edwards with quotations from his works interspersed throughout.   The other sections are more topical,   with chapters dealing with Edwards' thoughts on "Beauty" (having chapters such as The Beauty of God, The Beauty of Creation etc.),   the other sections are "The Good Life", "True Christianity" and "Heaven and Hell".   All of these parts contain summaries of Edwards writings...