The Strength of Mercy

Reblogged from adoptingjames:

For those of you familiar with All God's Children International, here is a book that documents its humble origins, written by Jan Beazely, one of the main instruments in getting this mission off the ground.

It's hard to step out in faith sometimes, but we're left with no excuse after watching the Beazely family make one faith-filled decision after another, following God's guidance like stepping stones. 

Read more… 387 more words

This looks like a book I would really like to read, from one of the health bloggers that I follow.

Another Look at Harold Fry’s Unplanned Adventure

Book:  The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

Author:  Rachel Joyce

Recommend:  This is a great vicarious read for those who love to walk, talk out loud to themselves and long for the great outdoors.  I takes a common man and shows us his personal struggles in an uncommonly insightful way.  Also, for anyone who cannot tolerate exposure to the sun, this book offers a virtual adventure along side the determined steps of a humble man’s solitary pilgrimage.

Setting out to run a simple errand, Harold Fry takes himself and the reader on a journey he did not chart nor plan for.  Ill shod and unprepared for his spontaneous trip, Harold suddenly summons the inner courage to step outside the known and venture out on a desperate quest he hopes will save a dying friend.  His persistence and plodding progress toward his goal become at times the end in its self, as his self-doubt and uncertainty battle against his desire to finish what he started, and somehow find a way to set his personal world right again.

The map of Harold’s journey

Haunted by the demons of his imperfect past, Harold finds faith and trust in the people he meets to overcome his many fears.  With each step, Harold finds a little more of himself, and learns to accept truths he has long buried and avoided.  He slowly rebuilds a dawning comprehension of primal values he once abandoned in response to the painful events his life.  I found this book especially enjoyable as I walked with Harold through its pages.  I trekked for hours down roads I could never personally walk, borrowing his perspective and the author’s imagination, I shared his steps and the reawakening of his heart and soul.

As a lupus patient, my auto-immunity makes me extremely photosensitive.  Lamenting my own ability to stand or walk in beloved sun light more than ten or fifteen minutes without aggravating my lupus, the idea of taking a much longed-for hike is especially welcome!

I strolled for miles next to Harold down winding paths through the rolling English countryside, and listened with him as he relished the voice each new bird’s song or echoing barking dog heard in the distance.  I shivered with him as the dank night air chilled his bony frame and dampness made him cower in the dark.  I encouraged him as he slogged through the rain, and quietly shouted hurray for him a hundred times over, as he grasped for each new ounce of strength to help him press on just a little bit farther toward his ambitious goal.

I felt as if my presence at his side somehow helped him.  I was the companion who understood his purpose when other companions failed to grasp his intent.  He trusted me with his true thoughts.

Rachel Joyce

Joyce spins her tale with skill, as she helps us understand the inner workings of Harold Fry through his winsome honesty, and artfully and patiently unveils the identity and humanness of the secondary cast of characters and walking companions.  His wife and son, Maureen and David, their neighbor Rex, a host of others, and lastly Harold’s friend that we finally meet at journey’s end, all become real and engaging.  Joyce paints a colorful host of interesting souls who are woven into the tapestry of Mr. Fry’s daunting hiking adventure. Joyce stands a great chance of gaining a stance beside two of my favorite authors, John Hershey and E.B. White.

Setting out to the mail box to post a letter will never be quite the same again!

Final Rating:

Buy it new

It’s Your Health: Navigating American Health Care

I am thrilled to welcome LupusAdventurer as a guest blogger on The Obsessive Bookworm. LupusAdventurer approached me with the possibility of guest blogging, especially in the area of nonfiction. She tends to read genres that typically do not appeal to me and so I am thrilled to have someone to help fill some of the gaps on here. Thank you so much for sharing!
~ Jenn (The Book Worm)

Book: It’s Your Health: Navigating American Health Care

Author: Robert D’Antonio, Ph.D.

Recommend:  For most proactive patients with a reasonable working knowledge of the health care system, this book will not add anything and is not worth the price.  For some people who might need a push to take charge of their own medical destiny, this is somewhat useful to suggest how to move from passivity to self-management of personal health care.

This is a short, somewhat useful book, written to encourage patients to become proactive advocates of their own medical care needs, and advises the reader about how to effectively deal with the medical community. Written in easy to read conversational style, is a an understandable highly opinionated discussion of some major health care quality issues for an average patient.

The author gives his perspectives as a Ph.D. with many years of undisclosed type experience in the health care field.  He includes topics about choosing and communicating with physicians, selecting among health insurance options, and navigating diagnosis, second opinions and treatment plans.  He takes a somewhat adversarial stance in his advice about how find and get the best treatment from surgeons, specialists and hospitals, and at times presents very unrealistic expectations about patient communication and access to decision-makers within the health care industry.

The first 50 pages of this 86 page book is narrative, and the remaining half has exhaustive lists of appendices including web page references, state medical licensing boards, and Medicare Part A & B coverage. The author also includes some sample forms for tracking patient prescriptions and a lengthy list of medical conditions to consider in preparing a personal health history.

Written in 2011, between the passage of the Health Care Reform Act (HCRA) of 2010 and the recent 2012 Supreme Court decision on the HCRA, it anticipates the effect of the new regulations, without addressing the role future federal and state health insurance exchanges intended by the HCRA may have in patient health insurance purchasing decisions.

All in all, a nominally useful book for a narrow audience.  I recommend picking it up at a library, borrowing it, or purchasing it from the $1 table at a used book store.  If someone gives it to you free, skim it quickly for any benefit you can derive from it.  Pass it on selectively to someone who has no clue how to get the treatment they need, or toss it, but don’t waste shelf space keeping this small print-only volume.

For further information about lupus and healthcare, please visit her blog, ‘Lupus, the Adventure between the Lines.’

Final Rating:

Get it free