Hello again…it’s been a while….January hit hard, but here is the Book Review!
Hello, do you remember me?
My goodness…this past week is a blur.
As best as I can figure I must have had two back to back viruses. I definitely was sick during the big snow storm weekend. Sunday afternoon I woke from yet another nap and told Russ I felt I had turned the corner.
Monday I felt great and got the whole house clean. Tuesday I was still coughing a bit but felt I was on the mend. Wednesday I woke up to the virus from Hades. Yesterday was the first day I could see a light at the end of the dark tunnel.
I still have residual cough and get tired easily but have been fever free for a couple of days and the coughing is definitely lessening. I pray for others to not get. This is brutal.
I didn’t feel like doing anything the first three days, but started reading and knitting when I wasn’t sleeping over the weekend.
This helped me finish the book I wanted to read for January and put the finishing pages in for a book I was reading back in December but didn’t finish.
Here are the two review thoughts:
Katharine Barnwell: How one Woman Revolutionized Bible Translation and Became the Mother of Modern Missions by Jordan Monson. Whew…that title is a mouthful and also kind of summarizes the book.
Monson is a younger Bible translator who shares in depth the history of Bible translation as a missionary project. Barnwell is a kind of superhero to him and it is evident throughout the book.
The material is sometimes extremely technical and job related information. I enjoyed the book and admire this woman. She was strong, independent, smart, humble and did amazing things to move Bible translation into an indigenous project instead of white translators trying to learn the language and then translate the Bible.
Mostly what I got out of it was that the translators need to work with and disciple natives of the language group they are trying to reach. Teaching these disciples the Scriptures then allows them to translate the Word into the language of the people.
I have grossly oversimplified the book. Katharine’s story, woven in and out of the technical and chronicled developments in Bible translation over the years is much more in depth. I found her an interesting and inspiring woman. I got lost in some of the details of translation activities.
Not a bad book, just dry in places.
If anyone local would like it, I am happy to pass along to you <3
The second book is The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan. Tan is the author of numerous fiction books including The Joy Luck Club, which I have not read.
The Backyard Bird Chronicles is basically Amy’s journal of birding as she provided feeders and learned the habits of native birds at her home in California over the course of five years. It includes her sketches and water color pictures of some of her visitors.
It was interesting, funny and sweet. I loved the easy pace of just reading short journal entries and learning about birding, birds and her efforts to provide a safe feeding area. The paintings and sketches are so pretty.
I loved the book and it has given me a renewed interest in watching our finches, juncos, sparrows and cardinals this winter.
So that is what is happening here.
Tell me what YOU are reading <3
Links for books – no affiliate fees gained with your purchase <3
https://www.amazon.com/Katharine-Barnwell-Revolutionized-Modern-Missions/dp/143009625X
https://www.amazon.com/Backyard-Bird-Chronicles-Amy-Tan/dp/0593536134