EDIT: Found a great blog today -- Faith in Fiction, run by a guy who works for my favorite Christian publishing company, Bethany House Publishers. Did a few edits on my post below.
EDIT #2: My brother rented Sahara (good bro!!)...I love this movie. It's so much fun...it's a great adventure flick. I really hope other Clive Cussler novels are made into films someday. He's sorta Tom Clancy-lite. Also...this is an interesting website for NUMA, the organization Dirk Pitt works for in the film (founded by Cussler in 1979). Am watching the deleted scenes on the DVD now...part of this movie would've made so much more sense if they'd left the Kitty Mannock scenes (regarding the airplane) in the film (in the book they're a little important, d'oh!).
*****
Finished reading Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair last night. If you're an English major, or you love literature, or you just plain love to read, this book is a lot of fun.  (Just a head's up, though, there is some swearing in this book...in case somebody picks this up on my recommendation I don't want that to be a surprise.)
So now I am taking a break from the Thursday Next series and reading Kathleen Morgan's Giver of Roses. I'm not too terribly far into it, but what I've read I'm enjoying. I just have to say though, that the beginning of the novel really rips off Homer's The Iliad & reminds me of last year's film Troy (city under seige for three years after useless younger prince brings back the wife of a rival king, older brother has to step up to try to save his people, yadda yadda yadda...). Really though, I don't mean to say that like it's a bad thing...after all, "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9)...ok, so maybe I'm being a bit sarcastic here. However, in my reading experience I've come to agree with the basic principles of Joseph Campbell's theory concerning the heroic cycle -- there exists a definite pattern that occurs in literature; however, what is interesting to note is how an author breathes new life into old patterns when telling their own heroic cycle story. Though I haven't read many of KM's books, what I have read tells me that her work will most likely be an important contribution to the growing genre of Christian fantasty fiction. There's some excellent quality fiction out there, people! 
Forgot to mention that I owe Mike a huge debt of gratitude for his glowing recommendation of Bart Millard's Hymned No.1 album which made me want to hear the disc. I also owe Chris a big thank you for playing the CD on the way to Gatlinburg last week. I  this CD (and as certain of my friends can tell you, I am NOT a MercyMe fan...not at all). This disc *reminds* me of Jars of Clay's Redemption Songs CD...at the moment I think I like that one a smidge better, but really it's the difference between milk or dark chocolate -- chocolate's chocolate, either variety is exquisite & addictive!  That has to be the dumbest analogy I've ever come up with (can ya'll tell I've got chocolate on the brain? LOL!). Thank goodness it's Friday!!
Also want to thank everyone who's had Bethany Dillon in the "currently listening" section of their blogs...thanks to that I've discovered that I love her music. Especially the song "Hallelujah" is really speaking to me right now, in light of the Katrina disaster...especially this chorus:
Hallelujah, hallelujah
Whatever's in front of me
Help me to sing hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah
Whatever's in front of me
I'll choose to sing hallelujah
It's a very, very powerful song...an incredible reminder of what I, as a Christian, am called to do in every situation. And then I wonder how I'd react if I was one of the people stuck in New Orleans, or in another part of the gulf coast. I know how I hope I'd react, but nevertheless I don't know. And when I see the breadth of the suffering on the gulf coast, it's a sobering thought. I was talking to my friend Leah this morning...we were both discussing about how Hurricane Katrina has really sort of been a wake-up call for both of us with regards to reminding us both about what's really important in life. It's humbling when it takes a tragedy of this magnitude to remind you of this, you know what I mean? I still just feel numb...the whole situation (really I'm speaking mostly of New Orleans here) has just spiraled out of control. Also, I read in the paper yesterday that a guy in the hard-hit area of Mississippi shot his sister in the head over some sort of disagreement about a bag of ice. The carpet has just been ripped out from under these people (heck the floor!) and this whole area seems like it is in a free-fall. Lord have mercy.
I hope everyone has a safe & relaxing Labor Day weekend. God bless! | 
