The Great Mastermind: The Prophet, Nathan: A Bible Study of the prophet, Nathan, and his role in the reign of King David and our Christian legacy by Sophia Lisa Salazar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If I don't say this book is good, no one will! :)

Written over the Christmas holidays, it is a Bible study born from the Christmas Day musings of the Catholic Mass's readings for Christmas Eve. Why was a prophesy of Nathan taking center stage? Why had I never heard of Nathan?

Curiosity piqued, I delved into a tangle of Old Testament verses. Getting lost and losing track, I decided to write them down. The story I uncovered was so convoluted, jumping from the Old Testament, the Talmud and the New Testament, I decided to put them into a cogent order. Then I realized that perhaps someone else might be interested in what I learned.

In my research, I found out that if not for Nathan, Jesus might have never been born and perhaps, was a great mastermind behind King David.

Little did Nathan know that he was, perhaps, a King-maker. He spoke truth to power. Was one of the first whistleblowers. An ally to the marginalized.

This study shows readers how to apply 3,000-year old lessons to our modern lives. And it shows the meaning of authority and gives us a real example of courage and legacy.

The study was written for the modern reader with links to the relevant Bible verses and texts. The questions are open-ended and leave room for interpretation and personal discovery.

I hope you enjoy following my guide and uncover your own truths during your study.

View all my reviews

Is Beauty a Socialist?

 Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022) may be a frothy fairy tale of a movie. Yet fairy tales are always stories of real human struggles.

Bruno Bettleheim famously writes in The Use of Enchantment: The Importance and Meaning of Fairy Tales, "The child intuitively comprehends that although these stories are  unreal, they are not untrue ...”

Ada Harris, adroitly played by Lesley Manville, is a romantic and slightly silly house cleaner who tidies up after ne'er-do-well gadabouts and penniless royals. She goes about 1950s London quietly cleaning up messes like one of the fairytale elves who clean in the night. A tiny, good-hearted soul, she's an aging Cinderella whose own Prince Charming never made it back from the war. 

Then she sees a dress.

Now any woman will tell you--and men, as well, if they were perfectly honest about it--the right outfit has miraculous properties. We all instinctively understand the transformative power of clothes. That is why a mother's 4-year-old daughter traipses about the grocery store in her Spiderman regalia and unmatched shield in the midst of a Houston July. Clothing simultaneously shields and transfigures; protects and reconstructs. Indeed, Cindrella's ball gown was so transformative that no one, including her own stepmother, recognized her.

And Ada knows this when she sees an effervescent Christian Dior gown. This dress will transform her from invisible to radiant.

It is a tale for our ages: a story of a world clouded with toil, drudgery and filth can still bear dreams.

Yes, the world is ugly; it is hard and strewn with garbage. Yet, hovering just above the sewage are bastions of hope: ivory towers full of spun dreams sewn by the invisible, clinging to illusions not because they are blind but because they know how to make them real. 

Beauty is no fairy tale; it is an aspiration. Beauty is not meant only for those who may buy it; it belongs to those who strive for it, dream of it and manifest it. Beauty is not limited to a class. Beauty is democratic; it is socialist; it is  revolutionary.

No one knew this better than Sartre, when he wrote, "... beauty is neither an appearance nor a being, but a relationship: the transformation of being into appearance." 

Indeed, from Homer to Shakespeare to Twain, all have said clothes can make the man.

The small, quiet, homely life of the simple little Ada can become beautiful.

In Pieces by Sally Field

In Pieces by Sally Field

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Quite a surprise, I did not expect to read such an incisive, emotive book from Sally Field.

Heart-breakingly narrated by Ms. Field, she bares her soul. Sharing her interior world, we see a woman come into herself.

Written in the pre-#metoo era, Sally openly discusses what it was like to be a woman in Hollywood and the struggle between ambition and submission.

She is generous and real, hiding nothing from us.



View all my reviews

Juror #3 by James Patterson

Juror #3 by James Patterson

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Obviously not written by a lawyer. There is no way that a baby lawyer, just out of law school, would have had the legal savvy to achieve the results she obtained.

Also, it felt like two different stories smashed together with only one common factor—and a very stupid one, at that.

A very fast read, it was just “ok.” I don’t know why I keep reading Patterson’s books. I am consistently disappointed.



View all my reviews

The Woman in the Water by Charles Finch

The Woman in the Water by Charles Finch

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book had more drama than mystery. That said, I understand that this is a prequel and was probably written to establish the detective's backstory. However, for a first-time reader, I found the book not as enjoyable as I might have if I had dived right into the actual first book rather than this one.

I will persist!

View all my reviews