Review: Salad Love by David Bez

Salad Love: 260 Crunchy, Savory and Filling Meals You can Make Every Day

I have to say it: this book is a feast for the eyes. Heck, it's an invitation to a feast!

Those of us who eat the same old things every day and wish to change our eating habits in the easiest most delightful way will love this book. This is a salad book that opens up one's mind. First, it reminds us of other foods that we've forgotten and ignored along the way. Secondly, it opens up one's mind to salads period.

But first, the eye-feast: This food has the best food photography I've seen in ages. The photos are not flashy or anything. They are pretty basic: a wonderful, wildly colorful salad on a plain white dish.  Each page has a large photo and a tiny list of the required ingredients at the bottom. Often, the ingredient list isn't necessary because a picture is worth a thousand words and the photos are pretty self-explanatory. Along with the photo and the ingredient lists on each page, there are also two circular insets. The smaller inset (at the top of the photo) contains only one word which states if the salad is Raw, Pescatarian, Omnivore, Vegan, or Vegetarian. The slightly larger inset diagonally opposite the first one and at the bottom of the photo indicates how to transform the salad in some way. For instance, how to change that particular raw salad to an omnivore alternative, or how to change a pescatarian salad to a vegetarian alternative, or omnivore to vegetarian. For instance, the pescatarian Tuna, zucchini, broccoli and black olive salad can be turned into a vegan alternative by replacing tuna with canned beans. By doing this, each salad can be made in two different ways. So although there are 260 salads, the inset with alternatives pretty much doubles the total number of salads.

The salads themselves are a perfect blend for taste and health...and satisfies the need for different mouth-feel.

Before the photos, we have chapters which are no more than two pages long. Seriously, this is a cookbook for those who do not like to actually read cookbooks. One page shows pictures of the items discussed in the chapter, and the other page is a short description.

The first chapter of the book is called The Base. The base of any salad -- as described here-- are greens, grains (couscous, rice, barley, etc), vegetables cut into small pieces, and vegetables shaved to look like ribbons or spaghetti. He doesn't list noodles here but since noodles appear in some of the salads, I'll include that as a base as well.

The second chapter is called Vegetables and Fruits. The author states these should take up about 25% of one's salad. So non-veggie-lovers should love that. The veggies are generally raw and the pics of vegetables show an assortment of the veggies and fruits that the author typically uses.

The third chapter entitled protein states that one cup or 25% of one's salad should be dedicated to protein and again there are pics of protein: meat, eggs, beans, cheeses, fish.

The fourth chapter is entitled toppings; the fifth chapter is "Fresh Herbs." The sixth is Dressings & Spices. This is a fun chapter because it features tiny little recipes for dressings.

Then there is a chapter on tools needed in the kitchen.

The recipes are placed in four sub-sections:  Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring

For the most part, the salads don't need a lot of preparation. One might need to boil some rice or noodles here and there But all in all, this is a cookbook that takes all the work out of preparing a meal. And if one already has ingredients on hand, making these salads shouldn't take more than 20 minutes or so.

Highly recommended.
I received this book free in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Review: NIV Proclamation Bible: Correctly Handling the Word of Truth

The Proclamation Bible is not a study Bible per se. It merely contains articles about how to teach the Bible.
Some of the articles are a bit problematic. Why? Because they are written from a Christian Teacher's perspective for Christian Teachers. And these folks are very very very educated theologians.  This means they know their stuff. But it also means that some of the articles are written in graduate theology-ese. Because while the writers know their stuff, they don't seem to know how to write about what they know to people who don't already know what they're talking about. These theologians are very aware that they are teachers and therefore knowledgeable.  They want to preach the word truly and rightly. And they are writing to other teachers.  So there is definitely a feel of a great US teachers versus all those other Christians (sheep) divide. It can be off-putting but I don't think it's meant to be.

The basic Bible set up:
A General Preface
Editor's Preface
Contributors

What is the Bible by Mark D Thompson, Principal of Moore Theological College, Sydney

A Bible Overview by Vaughan Roberts, Rector of St Ebbe's Church Oxford, and President of Proclamation Trust

The Historical Reliability of the Bible by Dirk JongkindResearch Fellow in New Testament Text and Language, Tyndale House, Cambridge, and Deputy Senior Tutor, St Edmund's College, Cambridge

Finding the "Melodic Line" of a Book by Tim Ward, Associate Director of the Proclamation Trust Cornhill Training Course, London

From Text to Doctrine: The Bible and Theology by Peter Adam, Vicar Emeritus of St Jude's Carlton, and Canon of St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne

From Text to Life: Applying the Old Testament by David Jackman, Past President of the Proclamation Trust, London

From Text To Life: Applying the New Testament by Charles Skrine, Curate at St Helen's, Bishopsgate, London

From Text To Sermon: Preaching the Bible by Christopher Ash, Director of the Proclamation Trust Training Course London

From Text to Study: Small Groups and One-to-Ones by Leonie Mason, Trainer of Ministry Apprentices and Bible Study Leaders at St Helen's, Bishopsgate, London

Biblical Interpretaton: A Short History by Gerald Bray, Research Professor of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School, Birmingham, Alabama, and Director of Research at the Latimer Trust

Then the Bible itself begins.

Each book has an introduction which shows
The Message
Structure
Points to Consider
Commentaries
The layout of the Bible books is easy on the eyes with a good typefont. The type is dark and incredibly readable, unlike the NIV Spiritual Renewal Study Bible which has very light printing. The Scripture is placed in two columns on each page with cross-references in the middle of each page. The bottom of the page has definitions or alternate translations. There are sub-headings within chapters which will help guide the reader. There are also cross-references listed under the sub-headings if a scene or event is duplicated elsewhere. There are two ribbons for placeholders. Poetry is written in poetic form. Scriptures that are quoted in other Bible books are also set off in poetic form. The words of Jesus are not in red.
There is a Table of Weights and Measures
Concordance
Maps

It's a solid hardcover Bible.

For better or worse, the key word throughout most of this book is training; Theologians training others on how to read Scripture, how to understand Scripture, how to teach Scripture, and how to hear the Holy Spirit. There are many patterns to learn here, all of which will be helpful to some or all Bible teachers. But which could become almost legalistic and prohibitive if doggedly followed.

The best thing about this Bible are the introduction to each of the Bible books. They are very insightful and the vocabulary is accessible to anyone. Those introductions alone are worth the price. The second-best thing are the articles in the front of the Bible about how to understand, read, and teach the Bible. But I say second-best because I suspect the folks who most need those articles might be the folks who can't get through them.

I can understand a book written on a college graduate level. But I cannot imagine these articles being accessible to pastors who may not have had much college. Some of the article writers write as if they are writing a graduate thesis! At that time, one feels as if one is wading through a tome on linguistics written by a computer because the writer seems to have forgotten how to write conversationally. Other times the writer seems to be "speaking to the choir" because he is using jargon -- even though he thinks he is not-- and terms only church folks use. So this book will bless many people. It's a Bible after all. But it would be most useful for the super-educated types and for new pastors who might want to know and use certain patterns in their teaching and preaching.

As a Charismatic Christian, I would probably dislike some of the patterns recommended by some of these teachers but a good workman knows how and when to use the rules and how and when to put them aside. Also, as someone who thought Calvin was a means-spirited and possible false prophet, I don't know if I can trust his pattern of exegesis as much as Gerald Bray does.

But all in all this is a good book.  Those who like the NIV translation will like it.
I received this book free in exchange for a fair and honest review

Movie Review: August Eighth

August Eighth 2012 Russian action fantasy drama Screenplay by Michael Lerner. Directed by Dzhanik Fayziev. Kseniya (Svetlana Ivanova) ,  Artyom (Artyom Fadeev) 2 hours 12 minutes

Okay, to begin with, this film is pure propaganda. But what wonderful propaganda it is! I debated whether this review should be included because the fantastical part of the film is understood to be fantasy. In that way, this film reminded me of Pan’s Labyrinth because the fantasy is a child’s reaction to the warring world all around. So if Pan’s Labyrinth is fantasy, then this is as well.

The story begins with Artyom in his fantastical alter-ego of Cosmoboy. His noble, self-sacrificing sidekick Kind Robot is helping him battle Robot Darklord. The scene shifts to a theater where Artyom is watching an amateur theatrical production about dragons. After this, Mom and Artyom are on their way home discussing family dynamics. Just at that moment, Darklord pops up in Transformers mode. Artyom warns his mom but gets rebuked with “Why do you always talk about robots when I want to talk about something important?” Not that mom should talk, she also has moments when the fantastical emerges out of the blue.

The something important that Kseniya wanted to talk about is Egor, her new boyfriend. Truth to tell, Egor’s full of himself. But to be fair, he’s got a good job and so he’s a big find for the artistic single mom Kseniya. Besides, she’s only in her early twenties and her son is seven.  She hasn’t had a chance to grow up yet. So I cut her a lot of slack.

When Zaur, Artyom’s dad, an Ossetian “peacekeeper” asks Kseniya to send their son to Zaur’s parents, Kseniya doesn’t want to. There’s a conflict going on in that region. But heck the conflict has been going on for 150 years, says ex-beau. Nothing’s gonna happen. Kseniya’s still not sure but hey, Artyom’s dad misses him, the grandfolks are getting old, AND boyfriend with the good job did after all invite her to go on a vacation with him.  So she sends Artyom off, trusting in Zaur’s promise that he’ll send their son back should trouble arise.  

There’s this wonderful bucolic scene with cows, happy peasants, loving grandfolks, and women in babushkas. And then, wouldn’t you know it? The Five Day War threatens to break out. And annoying Ex refuses to send the child back.  Seriously, the men in this movie are useless. And so Kseniya’s quest to go to war-torn territory to get back her son begins.

Folks, this is one fun movie! Mother's Love and War battles! IF you like war movies, don't miss this one on netflix.

Review: The Secrets of Life and Death by Rebecca Alexander

The Secrets of Life and Death

Rebecca Alexander

ISBN: 978-0-8041-4068-3

Broadway Books

US $15.00

The Secrets of Life and Death is a good summer read for anyone who likes mysteries and women in jeopardy books. It's also paranormal, urban fantasy. This is a safe book for anyone who wants to do some good bloody escapist reading. It is historical urban fantasy and based on the life of the murderous Elizabeth Bathory, the life and travels of Edward Kelley and Dr. John Dee. 

This is a quick, easy read for folks who might like supernatural mysteries of the undead variety. And it does make one ponder certain deep questions like: “Can a religious person be deceived by a demon?” and “Why is living so important?” 

Those who like historical fiction will love discovering more about the times and mores of Elizabeth Bathory and the royalty of Poland. Those who like urban fantasy will find it a page-turner. There's even a good romance. It's dark fiction but light reading.

It left me a little cold because there were moments that felt very high concept generic blockbuster-ish. But if you want a good semi-predictable read, this is a good book. I did get a bit offended at the depiction of the religious character Edward Kelley who is the counterpart of “good witch” Maggie and who is the typical deluded superstitious religious Christian who  is somewhat deceived about angels, herbalism, and (of course) women. But hey, it's par for the course. 

This book was sent to me free in return for a fair and honest review.