A Challenging but Worthy Read (Your Mileage May Vary)
929725
This is the first book of what became a 10 volume series. It is a complex read with a great story, a well developed world, and interesting characters. I could easily give it a five on those grounds, BUT... Donaldson is overly wordy, and pretentious in his use of language. Sometimes you may wonder in what  language he is writing. I couldn't give it better than a three for this reason, so it averages out to a four. If you can get beyond the language barrier, you may enjoy this book. I promise, you will not like the principle character, Thomas Covenant. As you read through the ten volume series, the principle characters (there is a second equally important character, later in the series) continuously evolve. That evolution is a primary part of the story arc. This is not an easy read with the pretentious language, and some difficult plot devices that may challenge how you view society, and maybe even yourself. I do wish, however,  it would be translated into common English.
4195995
this one was a tough rating for me.  I eventually gave it a four for the fact that it kept me reading for 500 plus pages and for its ending,  which left me extremely moved and saddened.  But I was close to dropping it to a three for its many flaws (one of which being that it was 500 plus pages).  So fair warning, I think you'll be more than happy if you finish it and reach the powerful ending, but don't be surprised if you don't finish it, or get there a bit annoyed.
  The plot basically a love story between normal Clare, whom we see from ages six to eighty and her husband the main character, who is unstuck in time and moves freely back and forth between his present, his past (mostly) and his future (rarely), arriving sometimes in familiar places and sometimes not and always arriving naked.  The structure, as one might expect, is complex, with constant shifts in time and also many conversations which do the same, as Henry speaks with people who know sometimes more of his present/future than he does.  Beside shifting in time, the book also shifts perspective, moving from Clare to Henry and back.  While the structure is complex, however, it is seldom confusing, as the book moves inexorably forward in the reader's mind, despite the many "sidetrips".  Don't mistake "not confusing", though, with "easy".  This is not a book to pay secondary attention to while watching television and is probably best digested in as few sittings as possible so as to retain the many plot references to past and present.  Overall, it is a stimulating, smooth ride.
  Clare is a strong character and one whom we get to see develop from a young child to a mature woman. Her voice is consistent and likable despite the time changes and her parts were often my favorites.  Henry is a more complex character, and the reader may find some shifting attitudes toward him.  The author is unafraid to make him unlikable in places and he is at times strangely removed for being the focus of several hundred pages.  He isn't as sharply defined as Clare and sometimes when he is, it is too much through broad statements rather than revealing action.  By the end, though, he has grown enough on you so that what happens has a strong impact.
  Side characters are unfortunately all too quickly sketched and sometimes seem to be more plot devices than full characters.  This is true of almost all of them I found and while a few have some rich potential, their lack of development of it is all the more annoying.  the book seemed overly long to me, with the author crossing the line here and there between reinforcement of theme/character and repetition.  I  think it would have been a more compelling read 100-150 pages shorter, or if some of those 500 pages had been rebalanced a bit to fill in some of the other characters beside Clare and Henry.  I could also have done without the graphic sex/discussions, not from any prudish point of view but because they just seemed utterly out of place and at times out of character.  In other words, they pulled me out of the book rather than along with it.
  Even with some problems with character and plot and some triteness, by the last quarter, the book picked up and became compelling both in terms of plot and emotions, and the last few sections are, as I've said,truly moving and well-worth the journey to get there.
  In the end, I'd recommend the book pretty highly and tell people not to feel bad about skimming here and there (I know, I know, but you all know you've done it yourselves :)
548850
This is a daring, ambitious, complex, thought-provoking book. My reaction is mixed. On the positive side, I admire the author's largely successful attempt to look at the character of "God" from a fresh perspective, that of a complex character as revealed only in the pages of the Bible, rather than the God of an often uncritical religious dogma. On the negative side, Miles:
* Makes a lot of assumptions and conclusions that do not seem warranted. For example, in Chapter 2, "Generation," Miles says about God's command "Let there be light" that "One does not speak commandingly to oneself. It is rather as if a carpenter reaching for a hammer were to speak the word 'hammer' aloud." What is the author's point? If a witch or wizard speaks a spell or incantation to summon magical or natural forces, the spell caster speaks not to herself but rather to the source of the forces being summoned. I was especially uneasy with Miles' assumptions about details of God's existence that are based not only on what is explicitly stated in the Bible, but also on what is left unsaid. In the life of any significant literary character, can we automatically assume that anything about the character that is not explicitly stated does not exist? For me, the answer is "No." As I continued through the book, I found myself repeatedly in disagreement with the validity of the assumptions upon which many of the author's conclusions were based.
* Is often needlessly verbose.
* Writes in a stilted style that I often found irritating. I particularly did not enjoy his often pedantic tone, his seemingly gratuitous use of needlessly esoteric verbiage, and his use of the "royal `we.'" The frequent use of "we" would not have bothered me so much if I had felt that it implied a sort of partnership between author and reader, but too often that seemed not to be the case.
My recommendation: If you are open-minded and are interested in theology, religious history, and literary analysis, then read this book and arrive at your own conclusions.
This review is based on the paperback version of the book.
2922642
If you are a christian your first reaction upon looking at this book might be to shudder and shy away.  Yet another attempt to deconstruct God and reinterpret Him for our day and age you might say.  Yes, there is a certain amount of that, but it is important for christians to be able to engage with this kind of exegesis too.  Even a very flawed interpretation can yield new insights, and Miles' work certainly provides new depth and context in many ways.  He definitely brings linguistic and socio-cultural historiographic strengths to the work, and he conducts an important exercise in breaking down the different images of God as seen through the eyes of the different authors of the Hebrew Bible.
His political history is a little weak, and I think he would agree with that statement based on his disclaimers at the front of the book.  The other frustrating thing about his work is that it is incomplete -- the literary biography of God has to be coupled with the literary biography of the Jewish people -- they are an extremely important "character" in the Bible, and the character of God that Miles describes is really the character of God as seen through the eyes of the Jewish people.  In other words, this really should have been more of a three part discussion -- (1) the character of God, (2) the character of the Jewish people, and (3) how their character shaped their view of God and their relationship to Him.  It's not so much that the narrator or narrative is fallible, as that the story of God is incomplete and incompletely understood.
Given these constraints, Miles narrative is one of extremes.  At some levels, it provides an extreme close-up view -- delving into the religious practices of the Israelites' neighbors, or discussing the multiple meanings of a given Hebrew word and its various alternatives.  At other times, it provides broad brush strokes and makes gross assertions (ie God's stance towards sex) that aren't as substantiated as they could be.
These are all qualities of an interesting and provocative study -- the reader will definitely be stimulated, but also show why Miles is not compelling in the end, and oddly, at least from my perspective, a little superficial.  A book like Miles' God is a challenge to christians and non-christians alike, and worth the investment of time to read it, but if you are engaging in a study of God, it would be well worth it to return to the primary source again afterwards.
1990419
Thought provoking and challenging, but easy to read
2541180
I really appreciate Mark Labberton's thoughts on how to get outside of ourselves and see other people the way God sees them.  It is not a particularly easy read, but a worthwhile one that challenged the way I think about my neighbor.
2500864
This is a challenging, enlightening book.  It targets legalism, small thinking and the bondage associated with both.  It offers answers to some hard questions, and raises even more.  While not everyone will agree with everything in it (although I think I did), it is a stimilating and refreshing read. I wholeheartedly recommend it. You will be better for having read it.
4459732
Walker's book is a challenging read, in many aspects of 'challenge.' Walker's book follows the intertwinings of a particular family throughout all of known (and unknown) history. Through this device, Walker proposes her own alternate mythology of origin, a state of grace where humans and animals lived in peace until the formation of race and gender caused a fall into arrogance and violence. We see characters of all genders, orientations, and ethnic backgrounds struggling with survival and the difficulty of relationships. This presents the first sort of challenge: it is difficult to read stories of rape, torture, enslavement, and degradation, especially as a white male person of some privilege. But the powerful pull of Walker's writing kept me reading instead of the easy fix of putting down the book and walking away. The plainly ideological bent of the book is what presents the flip side of the challenge: Walker's insistence on her agenda is so forceful at times that it overwhelms her prose and threatens the narrative, which would again make it easy to put the book down and walk away. (Hence the three-star review rather than something higher). I would still recommend this book, difficult as it is in many ways, as a portrayal of the difficulty of human relationships when they are based on hierarchy, greed, and fear - particularly if you're one of the folks on the top side of the heap for now.
1043651
A challenging book from the perspective of the God-centered life. I give it 4 stars because the further you read, the more you have to translate the author's dispensationalist theology into something more accurately describing Truth. Nevertheless an excellent read.
2073073
Read and struggle with this book. Then go deeper - Wilbur is a challenge.

I have long been a student of human evolution, science, and spirituality. Finally, I discovered Ken Wilbur and began reading with one of his latest books, A Theory of Everything (T.O.E.). I was amazed at how this all rang true for me, and how it applies to our personal as well as professional lives.

This is not an easy read. I found myself having to go back over material already read and rethink it for myself. But the exercise is well worth it. Wilbur starts with the statement that "We live in an extraordinary time: all of the world's cultures, past and present, are to some degree available to us, either in historical records or as living entities." From there, he develops his theory of everything, which by his own definition "any truly integral vision or T.O.E. will have to reconcile, one way or another, the relation of science and religion." By the end of this book, Wilbur has made a fairly solid argument for having accomplished just that.

I have to admit that my fairly structured mind had to be jarred out of its normal mode of world view, but once I got by my own mental hurdles, T.O.E. made a great deal of sense to me. Beginning with Don Beck's Spiral of Development, Wilbur extends that work to eventually become an all inclusive model for second-tier consciousness - and beyond. Besides my own limitations, one of the more difficult issues in reading this text was the extensive use of endnotes, requiring much flipping back and forth between the appendix and the text.

There are several ideas I find disheartening though. ". . . there will always be a large population of humanity at the magic and mythic waves, which are usually associated with traditional religion. Thus, traditional religious beliefs will never completely go away because everybody is born at square one." And a second disheartening statement is that "Those who had hoped that we were rid of all that silly religious stuff are probably in for a rocky ride." While I understand his point, I still find it deeply disturbing that we will always be starting at "square one." I hope this proves not to be true in a practical sense, even if it is technically the case. I hope we can somehow short circuit the normally long educational process to get to second-tier consciousness. We are able to do that with many other of our "new world views," and so hope springs eternal.

A second disturbing realization for me is that I must rethink my world view of the "interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part." The consequences of Wilbur's T.O.E. is the requirement that I now recognize that "it is NOT true that human minds (the noosphere) are part of nature (or the biosphere), but rather the reverse."

Live and learn. If you wish to challenge your own world view, this book is a great place to start. You can also learn more at Ken Wilbur's Personal Web Site.
4620342
This is a book that challenges your thinking and theology!  Starting from the traditional creeds of the Christian church, and the creedal emphasis of the full humanity of Jesus at the same time that He was fully divine, it goes beyond the Platonic idea of "spirits" and "shadows" to emphasize the importance of how we treat the human body.  It creates parallels between the Crucifixion of Jesus and lynching of blacks in their violation of the body (the sanctity of which is affirmed by Jesus' incarnation), the use of trees, the religious justification used by many for the violation of the body.

While the first part of book seems a bit heavy and academic, it does establish a new way of looking at matters of faith and analyzing what we believe about the nature of Jesus, the nature of man, and the actions that our beliefs call for us to espouse or renounce.
1665863
I have to admit- Keturah was a difficult read for me. It was a challenge to move through the pages as the plot unfolded in sobering detail as this was not a "light" read. However, the characters drew me in with their strength, grace, and growth. Keturah's journey to find herself by digging deep past her heartbreaking past to resurrect the internal strength long buried by an abusive husband was inspiring. Gray's understanding that he needed to remain in the shadows as she found her way evidenced his intimate knowledge of both her character and vulnerabilities, and his willingness to let her lead the way demonstrated his deep love for her. Even Verity and Selah showed great growth from their drawing room days in England as they rose to the occasion standing side by side with Keturah fighting for the success of the family plantation in Nevis. Although there was a dark undertone throughout the novel, I commend Bergren for bravely facing some of the more difficult aspects of humanity while providing an excellent story of strength, courage, and devoted love.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher. A review was not required but was voluntary and contains my own thoughts and opinions regarding this literary work.
1076406
First and foremost, I think this is an extremely important book which should be required reading of political and military leaders.  The book is not easy for me to review.  First, I'm no expert on this subject and second, its a tough subject and a somewhat difficult read.  My gut feeling is author Dave Grossman gets close to the truth in some areas and not so close in a few others.  Like a number of other books I've read, he seems to cherry-pick resources that conform to his ideas.  A number of knowledgable reviewers have pointed out that several of his main sources are disputed.  The author is also very repetitive making portions of the book somewhat tedious.  My final con is Grossman's broad pontifications.  He simplifies some extremely complicated societal ills (media violence, breakdown of nuclear family,  etc.)
Having expressed my reservations, I recommend this book.  Dave Grossman has tackled one of the most difficult and important topics we have as a species.  If you (as I) learn anything, its a positive.  If he does nothing more than start or extend the conversation about man's propensity to take a life, he has performed a huge service to us all.
3232453
There is a lot to be learnt from this challenging book. You will find yourself reading and rereading it.
4511049
A phenomenal book that challenges me personally in my spiritual growth.
717728
This is an interesting book that will certainly evoke very different responses in public. For someone who has only embarked on a spiritual journey the book may be just too much to absorb at once. I recommend  reading the preface at least twice, in which the author says, "it is  only through years of practice that you will fully develop your own  intuitions". Well written and clearly formulated, the book's contents  are perhaps too concentrated to be immediately convincing. The case stories  are a bit simplified and therefore the conclusions drawn from some of them  appear too simple to evaluate. It seems as if the author had to quickly  lash out most of the knowledge she acquired, and as if the book was written  honestly and passionately. She appears very self-assured and not the least  in doubt on the anatomy of the human spirit.
A lot of emphasis is put on  personal responsibility for our own health and well-being, which is good,  and certainly necessary in today's society. This creates, however, a danger  of forgetting that this responsibility goes both ways. At present time,  there are a number people employed to take care of that responsibility, but  who neglect it to a point where what they do is a kind of parody of what it  should have been.  We have to heal ourselves before we can do anything  else, but we must also make an effort to make this society do the same.  (Not meant as a political manifesto, just a warning to potential readers.  People take often things so literally, that I am afraid they might  interpret this book as " become aware, heal yourself, be forgiving and  kind and everything will work out fine, for just about anybody". This  is not what the book's message is, but I am afraid that some people, who  cannot imagine that it might take a lifetime to achieve something that  appears like a formula on 300 pages, might just do so.)
Warning for the  people who are just recovering from any kind of abuse or trauma: Even  though the author justly states that one should not perpetuate oneself as a  victim, she seems to be ignorant of the depth of struggle the abused people  have to go through, the length of time it takes for such people to heal,  and even the dramatically different levels of energy that divide the abused  from the unabused.  While justly criticising self-victimising, she does not  register that for most of those people it is only a stage that they  eventually get through. She shows surprisingly little compassion. She also  appears, quite naive in what she proposes. I laugh at the idea that the  seriously "wounded" people can just brush it all off with a  shoulder shake. It can all be done, but it takes time. A long time. At the  end a long recovery process, or well after it, a former abuse victim might  read this passage and nod approvingly, nut not necessarily. In the middle  of a process, it will only hurt the people who have already been hurt more  than the rest of us can imagine.
4306960
Although it took me 2 months to read the book, when I did actually force myself to read it, I enjoyed it.  Toni Morrison's story is beautiful and complex.  In fact, this book is so complex that I do NOT recommend it for the type of person who refuses to think about/re-read certain passages.

Also, I noticed that in other reviews, some people were distracted/offended by the sexual imagery in the story.  While sex is mentioned a few times, only the ignorant would be so obsessed with these few passages to find the entire book repulsive.

If you want a challenging book that opens your eyes to the hardships slaves faced, then this is the book for you.