Recap Book Chat

Ruta Sepetys' finely crafted WWII novel, Salt to the Sea, is a gem. It was inspired by the real-life tragedy of the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff which claimed over 9,000 lives making it the greatest maritime disaster in history.

The story is told in four voices, each from a different homeland, Readers will meet:

Emilia, a 15 year old blond Polish girl with unbelievable perseverance and resilience.

Joana, a smart young woman with some medical training that abounds with kindness.

Florian, a handsome wounded German that saved Emilia from a Russian soldier. Florian is holding secrets, he was once a restoration assistant.

Alfred, a Nazi sailor on the Gustloff, concentrates on the people he hates, thinking of getting rid of Jews, Poles, and disabled as a disinfecting.

In the group of refugees, there was a cobbler, nicknamed the shoe poet for his gift with words.

“The shoes always tell the story…Your boots, they are expensive, well made. That tells me that you come from a wealthy family. But the style is one made for an older woman. That tells me they probably belong to your mother. That tells me you are loved, my dear. And your mother is not here, so that tells me that you are sad, my dear. The shoes tell the story.”

“Yet amidst all that , life has spit in the eye of death.” The shoe poet’s wise words after a baby is born in the chaos of war.

“You’re a blister, Ava, a sour little blister.” The colorful way he described the negative lady in the group.

How do these lives connect? Sepetys depicts the rawness of war and the kindness of caring at the same time in this remarkable book!

“Just when you think this war has taken everything from you, you meet someone and realize you still have more to give.”

Thanks so much for joining us. Happy reading!!!

Kate and Sheila wrap up Rebecca DeYoung’s Glittering Vices in this episode. It has been an enlightening trek. As Horace said, “To flee vice is the beginning of virtue.” The Rest of the Journey wraps up our study on the seven deadly sins and their remedies. Pride is the root and the trunk of the vice tree and vainglory, envy, acedia, avarice, wrath, gluttony, and lust are the main branches. The worst thing about the vices is that they thwart our ability to love and be loved. “Why are you relying on yourself, only to find yourself unreliable.” –Augustine

Our habits say a lot about who we are by reflecting the shape of our hearts and minds. Practicing spiritual disciplines helps bridge the gap between vices and virtues. These daily practices that help form virtuous habits are not always exciting but little by little they transform us into becoming more Christlike. This journey must be intentional, as John Stott said, “Holiness is not a condition into which we can drift.”

“The process, it is a gradual process dear heart, of putting off the old self and putting on the new self reveals nothing less than God’s power at work within us.” The process is comprehensive and includes all areas of our lives. It is also concrete. For example, if someone is practicing gratitude they would also do grateful things which would cause them to view the world through a different lens. Lastly, it is a communal endeavor. We all need help along the way, God created us this way.

“Are you ready to start the journey toward a closer relationship with Him, confident that God who began a good work in you will bring it to completion, for your good and His glory?”

Have you ever heard the last two lines of this poem? “Water water everywhere

And all the boards did shrink,

Water water everywhere

Nor any drop to drink”

Join Kate and Sheila as they discuss Samuel Coleridge’s Four Types of Readers:

Sand-glasses / Hourglasses- like sand that runs in and out and leaves not a ‘vestige’ behind, in other words, these readers retain nothing. They are simply passing time as one might do when they are waiting at the dentist office perusing a magazine.

Sponges-absorb all they read and return it nearly in the same state only a little dirtied. They don't think much for themselves so they may miss the point.

Strain bag / Jelly bag - squeeze out valuable information and hold onto the unimportant or in Coleridge’s words, “retain merely the dregs of what they read.” The violent, shameful, or sullied parts stick and the main points get tossed out. Can happen when one is reading above his/her level.

Mogul / Golconda - profit by what they read and enable others to profit by it too.

These readers are able to cast aside all that is worthless and retain the pure gems. Picture the miner with a sieve working away searching for nuggets of gold. Annotating and making connections can help us glean from what we read and be more enlightened readers : )

Reading can be a rollercoaster ride, the highs would be the Mogul moments and the lows would be hourglasses and the others. It is interesting to note that we do not always bring our A game to our reading endeavors but maybe Coleridge can help us figure out when we don’t and possibly help us back up the train (of thought : ) to refocus and go for the GOLD!

One last Colerige quote, “Little is taught by contest or dispute, everything by sympathy and love.” Clever wording that connects with an old favorite that I just read in The Persian Pickle Club, “... you can get more flies with honey than with vinegar.” Aren’t connections cool?

Check out The Read Well Podcast episode #43 to hear where we discovered these four types of readers. We hope you have a blessed week. Thanks so much for lending us an ear, may your day be filled with cheer. Happy reading!

Please join Kate and Sheila as they discuss the last vice in Glittering Vices by

Rebecca DeYoung. She defines lust as a disordered desire for sexual pleasure. Lust begins as a sin of weakness not malice. This habitual attachment to pleasure erodes our relationship with God. DeYoung puts it this way, “Lust is a problem with the heart above your belt before it is a problem with the heat below it. Fulfilling pleasure without full human intimacy is lust’s false promise… an imitation of happiness.”

Vice happens when we try to make good gifts fill gaps that only God can satisfy. There is no substitute for God. Lust connects with pride. Engineered happiness results in a shallow version that only satisfies for a moment. Lust plays the same tired old game as the rest of the vices, winning the game means you lose.

Lust not only has a lot of collateral damage but it damages the person who lusts as well.

Despair, depression, shame, callousness, blindness to beauty, loneliness, disrespect, and self-loathing lay in its wake.

“When we misuse something habitually we tend to lose our appreciation for its true goodness. The choice to love is an opportunity to appreciate and value a flawed human for his or her sake.”

What is the antidote? Some call it temperance, some call it integrity of the heart, DeYoung calls it chastity. What is chastity? The virtue of chastity must be cultivated inside and out.

It grows greater with time and experience. The patience that Paul mentioned in 1 Corinthians 13 is a must in this department. “Do we live a life intentionally bathed in the love of God, a love that quiets our deep search for happiness and communion elsewhere?” “We need communities that show us how to rely on the Spirit’s power in faithfulness and hope.”

“Give the body discipline, and you will see that the body is for the One who made it,” says the desert mother Amma Theodora. These early Christians took the unity of body and soul more seriously than we do today. Following Paul’s advice to pursue what is true, honorable, just, pure, excellent, and praiseworthy (Phil.4:8) helps prevent worldliness from drifting in.

Thanks so much for listening as we discover how to say good-bye to lust and hello to chastity!

Let’s meet the brothers: Dmitri- the eldest, impulsive, strong, uneducated, driven by desires

Ivan- the middle, the intellectual, preoccupied, gloomy atheist

Alyosha- the youngest, kind, thoughtful, brave, spiritually minded

Smerdyakov-illegitimate, ungrateful, sneaky, devious (creeper alert)

Please join Kate and Sheila discussion about the age-old struggle of good versus evil by looking at the gifted Russian writer, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s discordant family found in

The Brothers Karamazov!

(Translated by the award winning team of Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonskyy)

The father, Fyodor, was selfish, crude, neglectful, immoral, and muddleheaded. All his sons were raised by Grigory, his servant. Fyodor quipped, “I’m a buffoon out of shame…I act up because I’m insecure.”

Alyosha chose a different path than the others. “I want to live for immortality, and I reject any halfway compromise.” His mentor, Zosima, taught him from God’s Word.

He also advised the elder Karamazov, “Above all, do not lie to yourself. A man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point where he does not discern any truth either in himself or anywhere around him, and thus falls into disrespect towards himself and others.”

Dmitri shares with Alyosha, “Here the devil is struggling with God, and the battlefield is the human heart.”

Ivan’s words from his famous speech, The Grand Inquisitor, “He (Jesus) came to give His life for them! Instead of taking over men’s freedom, you increased it and forever burdened the kingdom of the human soul…by so terrible a burden as freedom of choice.”

The action culminates in an unforgettable courtroom scene. Both the prosecutor and the defense attorneys give moving speeches that end with applause. Did Dmitri murder his less than stellar father? If he didn't, who did?

Dostoevsky packs a lot into this book. What is the purpose of life? He shows the importance of living a life well and how the life we live affects others. As Alyosha says in closing,

“How good life is when you do something good and rightful.”

“A crust always looks bigger in another man’s hand.” Trust us this book will look big no matter whose hand it is in : ) It is a mammoth read (823 pages) but well worth the effort if you are looking for a challenge. Happy Reading dear listeners!

Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! This vice really hit home. Gluttony, like all the vices, begins with something created for good but sin creeps in and our desires run amok. Gregory the Great from the Middle Ages summed gluttony up in five categories:

Too daintily (nothing is ever quite right)

Too sumptuously (lavishly)

Too hastily (gobble and go)

Too greedily (ravenously-think Augustus Gloop)

Too much (tastes like more)

We learned that “what’s being eaten” deals with the first two and “how the food is eaten” deals with the last three. Indulgence whets the appetite instead of satisfying it. Ecclesiastes 6:7 reminds us…”his appetite is not satisfied.”

The trouble with instant gratification is it only lasts for an instant. This quick fix leaves us depleted and spiritually starved. We’re made to find our flourishing in more than physical pleasure. Something I need to remind myself when I reach for chocolate!

God made food good for our bodies and He made taste buds for us to savor the flavor. It all goes south when we try to do what Adam and Eve did long ago in the garden. When we choose to rely on food or drink instead of God we thwart our spiritual growth.

Every virtue has two vices, extremes in both directions. Those joyless about food lack appreciation, while the self-indulgent are striving to provide pleasure through food.

How do we get off this hamster wheel and unlearn the bad habits we’ve picked up?

Rebecca DeYoung guides us in Glittering Vices to give up gratification for gratitude.Yes, intentionality is key as is practice. Will it happen overnight? Not a chance, change takes time, however, rightly forming our desires will put us on the right pathway.

Please join Kate and Sheila as they strive to say, Good-bye gluttony, Hello temperance.

“No great wisdom can be reached without sacrifice.” What a powerful quote in

The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis! The prequel to the enduring and ever-popular The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Readers discover how Narnia came to be in this timely tale when two children from London, Digory and Polly, stumble upon Digory’s Uncle Andrew; he tricks them into putting on rings that transport them to another world. They encounter the evil queen, Jadis, who destroyed her world and seeks to destroy theirs as well. Polly and Digory work together to get Jadis out of London before that can happen.

This amazing story shows readers the consequences of impulsiveness and selfishness and the beauty and strength and obedience found in putting others first and doing good.

“All get what they want; They do not always like it.”

Join Polly and Digory as they meet the great Aslan, whose presence scares Jadis aka the witch causing her to skedaddle. The talking animals debate whether Uncle Andrew is a vegetable, mineral, or human and finally decide he is a tree and plant him thigh deep in the dirt : )

Digory tells Aslan his mother is dying. He asks if he could send him back with something from Narnia that would heal her. Aslan looks at him with tears in his eyes and tells him that the two of them are the only ones in Narnia who know about grief. He encourages with these words,

“Let us be good to one another.”

Aslan sends the adventurers on a mission. Will Digory and Polly succeed or will the mission be thwarted by the evil witch. The kids are stronger in making wise choices the closer they are to Aslan. Isn’t that how we are? The closer to Christ we are the more we are able to battle the troubles and struggles in life in a manner that strengthens instead of devastates us. Self-control is a struggle and obedience is too but we never regret doing the right thing.

Please join us as we dive into the first chronicle and meet the young adventurers, the self-absorbed uncle, the cool cabby and his steadfast steed, the evil witch, and the magnificent lion. Pour yourself a cup of coffee or tea or listen as you go for a walk if the weather’s cooperating as we visit the land of Narnia.

Join Kate and Sheila as they dive into the vice of wrath from Glittering Vices by

Rebecca DeYoung. There are two schools of thought on this vice.

Aquinas believed it was a natural expression of a human emotion and it could be righteous if it targeted injustice. Anger as a holy emotion has justice as its object and love as its root as Jesus overturning the money changers tables. Anger turns wrathful when it fights for its own selfish cause.

Cassian claimed all anger causes blindness which obscures our ability to see Christ.

In James 1:19-20, “...we are told to be quick to listen…slow to anger; for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.” “There is nothing that can be done with anger that cannot be done better without it.” Dallas Willard was in Cassian’s camp.

Psychologists call anger a “secondary emotion” because it masks other sorts of distress. John and Julie Gottman liken our emotional life to an iceberg: only anger shows above the surface, while fear, grief, and shame lurk under water.

What is our anger guarding? Is it our deepest attachments to worldly desires or the most significant sources of our identity? Wrath reveals idolatrous attachments and our prideful sense of self. Disrespect rankles us. It is a struggle to take a breath and give grace.

How can we thwart this powerful vice? We hope you will join us as we go over the virtue that can kibosh wrath. Good-bye wrath, Hello Gentleness!

Welcome back, Recapsters! In this episode of the Recap Book Chat, we delve into the rich tapestry of Fyodor Dostoevsky's masterpiece, "The Brothers Karamazov." Settle in with your favorite cup of tea as we embark on a journey through the complex dynamics of faith, doubt, and familial bonds.

First, let's meet the titular characters: Dmitri, Ivan, and Alyosha Karamazov, three brothers who couldn't be more different yet are deeply interconnected. Dmitri, the passionate and impulsive eldest brother, Ivan, the intellectual skeptic grappling with existential questions, and Alyoshai, the pious and compassionate youngest brother, serve as mirrors reflecting the multifaceted nature of the human soul.

Their father, Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, is a deeply flawed and hedonistic man whose actions cast a long shadow over his sons' lives. Fyodor's contentious relationships with his sons, coupled with his libertine lifestyle, serve as catalysts for the unfolding drama within the novel.

Central to "The Brothers Karamazov" is the exploration of faith and doubt. Dostoevsky masterfully weaves existential and religious themes throughout the narrative, inviting readers to ponder the nature of belief in the face of moral ambiguity and suffering. Ivan's famous philosophical dilemma, the "Grand Inquisitor" chapter, challenges conventional notions of faith, while Alyosha's unwavering devotion to his faith provides a counterbalance.

As we sip on our Honeybush tea, we'll discuss how Dostoevsky skillfully navigates the labyrinth of human consciousness, inviting readers to confront their own existential quandaries.

In this first part of our exploration of "The Brothers Karamazov," we've only scratched the surface of Dostoevsky's magnum opus. Join us in the next episode as we delve deeper into the intricate plot twists, profound character developments, and timeless philosophical questions that make this novel a literary classic.

Fear not dear listener, no spoilers in this episode in case you haven't yet embarked on the journey of "The Brothers Karamazov," yet.

Until then, keep sipping, keep reading, stay on track and read your stack. Cheers!

For this episode, we discuss Gretchin Rubin’s book, The Four Tendencies, where she discusses how people respond to inner (stop nagging) and outer (traffic laws) expectations. She also wrote Better than Before to help us discover why some people can form habits more easily than others.How do we change? Habits are the invisible architecture of our lives. 40% of our daily behaviors are repeated, why not harness this information to gain self-knowledge that will help us adopt habits successfully?

41% of the population are Obligers. “You can count on me and I’m counting on you to count on me.” They are motivated by external expectations and struggle with inner expectations and with saying no.

24% of the people fall into the Questioner category. “I will comply if you convince me why.”

They are motivated by clarity, reason, logic and fairness. They can have bouts of analysis paralysis.

19% of folks are Upholders. These are the people that respond readily to inner and outer expectations. Discipline is their freedom.

17% fall into the Rebel category. “You can’t make me, and neither can I.” This group places a high value on authenticity and acts best when you give them the information and let them make a choice.

Our tendencies color the way we see the world. If you want to take the short quiz to discover your tendency click here.

Thank you for joining us on our quest to read the best!