Johann Sebastian Bach ~ Christain Encounters

Author:  Rick Marschell

My recommended age:   15+

Their recommended age: NA

Publisher:  Thomas Nelson publishers

Number of pages:  176

Publisher’s description:

Christian Encounters, a series of biographies from Thomas Nelson Publishers, highlights important lives from all ages and areas of the Church. Some are familiar faces. Others are unexpected guests. But all, through their relationships, struggles, prayers, and desires, uniquely illuminate our shared experience.
Johann Sebastian Bach is generally regarded as one of the greatest composers of all time. He enriched his generation, and every generation since, with his prolific ability to survey and bring together the principal musical styles, forms, and national traditions. Himself a Lutheran, he left a corpus of sacred music to cover the entire liturgical year, including Latin Masses written for the Catholic Court of Dresden, and spent much of his working life as a church music director in Germany. Though he was a highly respected organist during his lifetime, he wasn’t recognized as a great composer until the early nineteenth century. Today he is considered one of the most influential ever.

My thoughts:

One word.  BORING!  It was very drab, boring and overall did not hold your attention.  I love Bach and the other composers, but this writer just BUTCHERED the story/biography. Please Mr. Marschell, do try to be more dramatic. 

Cons:

O_O

Bad plot.

Very boring.

Drab and Grey.

There were a lot of German words in there that I didn’t understand.  That might not be a CON for some folks though.

Pros:

Very informative (why can’t informative books be interesting?)

Language:

None to my knowledge.

Romance:

Bach is married, but there is nothing inmodest.

Violence:

It is mentioned that Bach pulled a knife on someone once, but nothing descriptive.

Drugs and drink:

Hmm…I don’t remember anything.

Random Snippet:

Bach frequently walked to Hamburg to listen to the aged organist, Reincken, a disciple of the distinguished Dutch compose Jan Pieterszoon Van Sweelinck, who exemplified yet another “school” of organ playing and composition, particularly the art of variations.  Sweelinck was also the composer of “ My Young Life Has an End”   

~ Pg. 35 on the top~

Ratings:

My ratings?  It was very informative, and if you could muscle past the boring-ness, I’m sure it is a very good book.  I just have to give it a 3 star.  Sorry Bach, Sorry Mr. Marschell! 

*I received this book from Booksneeze;  A free book reviewer program.   If you would like to join booksneeze, go <HERE>.

Unsinkable

Author:  Abby Sunderland and Lynn Vincent

My recommended age:  12+

Their recommended age:  NA

Publisher:  Thomas Nelson

Number of pages:  240

Publisher’s description:

 The stirring narrative of Unsinkable tells sixteen-year-old Abby Sunderland’s remarkable true story of attempting to become the youngest person ever to sail solo around the world.

More people have flown into outer space than have sailed solo around the globe. It is a challenge so immense that many have died trying, and all have been pushed beyond every physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual limit. In Unsinkable, readers follow Abby Sunderland into those depths. This biography delivers a gripping and evocative firsthand account that starts prior to her departure, travels through her daring (and sometimes near-death) encounters on the open sea, to her dramatic rescue in the remotest corner of the Indian Ocean, and the media explosion that happened upon her safe return to dry land.
Along the way, readers discover what it means to boldly face any challenge, to strive after something great, and to plumb the depths of faith, fear, and desperation only to emerge changed, renewed, and emboldened. In this day and age, when the most productive thing a teenager may do is play videogames, Abby’s ambition and tenacity is a real-life parable of what can happen when we choose to exceed our own limits, embrace faith, and strive after what all the naysayers say is impossible.

My thoughts:

Has anybody awarded this girl yet?  Abby's journey is incredible.  Ok, maybe she didn't get to fully finish it, but what she DID do was awesome.  This book described it ALL so nicely, keeping the narrater's voice, Abby's and the search and rescue's all seperated clearly.  It was stirring to the power of prayer;  It was a testiment to the dumming down of teenagers, and how Abby shows that we don't need to 'wait' for life to begin at 20, but can start living NOW.  I am rather proud to have this in my bookshelf!

(PLUS, the Sunderlands home-school their children, how much better can it get?)

Cons:

 Some sea terms I didn't understand, but then realized (With a huge DUH!) that there was a glossary in the back....

Pros:

Vivid descriptions.

Amazing plot.

True to life.

Amazing author. 

Language:

 None.

Romance:

 None.

Violence:

Abby get hurt when her boat-----s.  (can't tell you WHAT it does, <evil laugh>)

Drugs and drink:

None.

Ratings:

I rate this book 5 STARS.  It is engaging, amazing, incredible and very interesting. There is no language, Romance, or true Violence. It is clean, and overall uplifting.

Where you can buy it at:

Thomas Nelson has it for $22.99.  

Amazon has it for $16.00 -$12.99

*I received this book from Booksneeze.   If you would like to join up for free books via Booksneeze, go HERE*