Our Stories, edited by Ian Wishart

I’ve just finished reading Ian Wishart’s book “Our Stories: The Way We Used to Be: The New Zealand Time Forgot,” (published by Howling At the Moon in 2014) and wanted to share it with you.

It’s actually a collection of newspaper articles written in the 1800s and 1900s. Wishart has searched them out from Papers Past(1), and written his commentary in between the articles.

It was a format I’m not used to, and the age of the articles made them a bit heavy-going, so Wishart’s summarising notes helped a lot. I still loved the way it came together as a simple, honest look at what happened in New Zealand and what New Zealanders used to be like. The chapter called “The Telephone Comes to NZ” was especially amusing.

The whole book comes from Wishart’s viewpoint of discussing history they way it happened, no matter what’s politically correct in our day. He includes things that I’d never heard of, like the tsunami in 1868, and the big Christchurch earthquake in 1888 (read the Oamaru Mail article here).

I liked being able to read a book about New Zealand history from a different perspective, and enjoy the fruits of Wishart’s labours chasing down the old newspaper stories.

…the most fascinating forgotten tales of our past, told through the eyes of the people who were there. (quote from back cover)

So if you are interested in hundred-year-old news stories, or in New Zealand history, or you just love to read Ian Wishart, this is a book for you!

~I did not receive any compensation or reward for reviewing this book~

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P.S. This book review serves as an introduction to my blog, Rhoda’s Reviews

(1) Papers Past is an amazing resource of searchable historical newspapers which have been digitised by the National Library of New Zealand curators.

Ask, and You Will Receive

I’ll start by giving you something to do: Read Matthew 7:7-12.
Now, I’ve always had this little niggling fear about those verses. I’ve been afraid that I might once pray for something, and never have my prayer answered. But the minister of my home church explained this in a recent sermon…

Today I am guest posting on Danella’s blog, Footprints in the Sand. Click here to read the rest of the post 🙂

Did you watch Ken Ham debating Dr Bill Nye yesterday? You can still watch the debate at debatelive.org. And this afternoon at 2 NZT, Ken Ham and Dr Georgia Purdom will be discussing the debate. (You can see it here.)

One more thing – today it is 174 years since the Treaty of Waitangi was signed! There is a lot of controversy about the signing, translation and meaning of the Treaty. I have read, and can recommend, The Great Divide, by Ian Wishart. I don’t agree with absolutely everything he says, but definitely good reading on the topic of early New Zealand History.

In Christ,
Rhoda

Keep Serving With Your Thoughts

Some more ‘thoughts on thoughts‘ for you today :).

“The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers.” 1 Peter 4:7

I find that if I’m reading questionable books, watching questionable movies, and listening to questionable conversations, it’s a lot harder to have a conversation with God. If I’m surrounded by questionableness, my thoughts are less likely to be holy.

Last time, I shared an idea for dealing with unwanted thoughts. This week, I’d like to give you some ideas for keeping them away in the first place.

I’ve still updating my Books page, so have a look for some more ideas. All the books on that page I have read, so I can personally recommend them.

Read C.S. Lewis or Edith Schaeffer instead of Stephanie Meyer or Dan Brown.

Watch Courageous instead of The Wolverine.

Listen to Kevin Swanson instead of One Direction.

Read the Bible!

Keep serving God with your thoughts!

Books, Books, Books

Yesterday Our family was so excited!!! I’d looked out the back of our public library, where the older books are kept, and found a real treasure! Six of Graham Oakley’s Church Mouse books, some of which we hadn’t yet read! We hussled home, and squashed up on the couch. We laughed ourselves to pieces!

Today I’m so excited! I just finished counting our family’s books, and the total is…. 2,190!!! I had problems with freezing cold rooms and the issue of whether or not pamphlets/ magazines etc. are books, but it was well worth it!

Tomorrow Mum is holding a meeting outside our local Post Office. It’s about a book which has very unfortunately been given a New Zealand Post Children’s Book award. This book, which I have not read, is a really filthy novel, and written for young adults. It’s so bad that the authour had to self-publish it. (You get the picture 🙂 ) Please pray that the reward will be withdrawn.

In our family, books are very important. Mum spends up to two hours each day reading to us, individually or all together. Then, we each spend a lot more time reading on our own.

It’s often hard to find books which are really worth reading. Most non-fiction is based on humanistic, evolutionary thinking, which can subtly influence our thinking, without us being aware of it. It’s a lot easier to realize what’s happening with a book titled “Atheistic Worldviews of the Twenty-first Century.” And most fiction is just as bad. So bad, in fact, that I’ve just about given up reading it, and now mostly read Christian non-fiction. I’m not saying that you should do the same, only that we should all be aware of what we, and our families, are actually learning from what we read.

Of course, the most important book is the Bible. And if we aren’t reading, studying, and memorizing it, we won’t be well-equipped to understand what really matters, what’s really going on in the world, and what other books we should be reading to understand other aspects of life in detail.

So, in conclusion:

• Reading books is important
• Some books are dangerous
• All Christians should be reading the most important Book of all.

Hope you all enjoyed this new style of post. It’s not about me. It’s not directly from the Bible. But I wrote it, and it’s for you! (Please note that although this post was published on Saturday, it was written on, and back-dated to, Thursday.)