ooh... ok... the mood in this blog is getting too serious :( so shall add this book in ;) it's not really a spiritual or religious book, it's a true novel about four friends growing up in a really tough and violent neighbourhood. There is a small but significant portion of the book detailing the the role of the Catholic church in the neighbourhood and the lives of these four boys, it's not really a main theme in the book but it does take up a significant bit and adds shape to the story, especially in the later bit as well, where a priest actually testifies in court to bring justice to the boys.
I don't think it's that much a politically-correct view of the Catholic church, but still it is heartwarming and funny, the book shows how religion can impact the lives of people living in abuse and poverty in a healing and meaningful way. And one last note: boys will always be boys. :P

To view some extracts of the book, go click on the link on the left.

Sleepers by Lorenzo Carcaterra
From: sis' friend
Religious pov: Mostly neutral, some parts Catholic
Blurb: An unforgettable true story of friendship, loyalty and revenge
Lorenzo, Michale, John and Tommy shared everything- the laughter and the bruises of an impoverished childhood on New York's violent West Side. Until one of their pranks misfired and they were sent to a reformatory school.
Twelve months of systematic mental, physical and sexual abuse left the boys transformed forever.
Eleven years later, one of them had become a journalist, one a lawyer- and the other two killers for the mob. In a chance encounter they came face to face with one of their torturers and shot him dead in front of several witnesses. The trial that followed brought the four friends together again in one last, audacious stand- and a courtroom climax as gripping as any John Grisham novel.

I was still searching at Thursday, September 30, 2004 12:21 a.m.

The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren
From: Suanne (her daddy's a pastor :D)
Religious pov: Christian (more on the Protestant side... I think)
Blurb: The most basic question everyone faces in life is Why am I here? What is my purpose? Self-help books suggest that people should look within, at their own desires and dreams, but Rick Warren says the starting place must be with God and his eternal purposes for each life. Real meaning and significance comes from understanding and fulfilling God’s purposes for putting us on earth.
The Purpose-Driven Life takes the groundbreaking message of the award-winning Purpose-Driven Church and goes deeper, applying it to the lifestyle of individual Christians. This book helps readers understand God’s incredible plan for their lives. Warren enables them to see the big picture of what life is all about and begin to live the life God created them to live.
The Purpose-Driven Life is a manifesto for Christian living in the 21st century...a lifestyle based on eternal purposes, not cultural values. Using biblical stories and letting the Bible speak for itself, Warren clearly explains God’s five purposes for each of us.
This long-anticipated book is the life-message of Rick Warren, founding pastor of Saddleback Church. Written in a captivating devotional style, the book is divided into 40 short chapters that can be read as a daily devotional, studied by small groups, and used by churches participating in the nationwide 40 Days of Purpose campaigns.


Okay... so this is not quite the blurb, (can't type it down because I returned the book liao) I koped it from their website at http://www.purposedrivenlife.com, but I vaguely remember the blurb going something like that. Frankly speaking, if you're not a Christian, it's going to be quite a tough book to swallow. (not literally... duh.)But it is really good to read if you want to gain an insight into what Christians generally think... hopefully you'll understand why they are doing what they are doing (you know what I mean.) and why they keep doing it- like see it from their perspective for once...yar. Even if you don't really agree with it... guess you just hafta keep an open mind :)
I think it's a really inspirational book for Christians to read too :) and it's been on the Bestseller list for weeks and weeks so it's worth looking into, whatever your beliefs. :)

I was still searching at Wednesday, September 29, 2004 02:29 p.m.

A History of God by Karen Armstrong
From: NYGH library
Religious pov: Neutral
Blurb: The idea of a single divine being - God, Yahweh, Allah- has existed for over 4000 years. But the histor of God is also the history of human struggle. While Judaism, Islam and Christianity proclaim the goodness of God, organised religion has too often been the catalyst for violence and ineradicable prejudice.
In this fascinating, extensive and highly original account of the evolution of belief, Karen Armstrong examines Western society's unerring fidelity to this idea of One God and the many conflicting convinctions it engenders. A controversial, extraordinary story of worship and war, A History of God confronts the most fundamental fact- or fiction- of our lives.


Eh. The language of the book is rather academic and serious and heavy... quite hard to digest and makes you sleepy sometimes :S So I didn't really read the book from beginning to end, just skipped around alot and read bits that are interesting- mostly the end of the book. Still, after reading the book, I get the impression that God did not make humans, it was humans that made (up?) God... and God did not shape humans, human shaped God; to suit the needs of the society at that time, and since society's needs keep changing from last time till now, our idea of God keeps changing, until like today, where there is now a record number of atheists in the world today than any other era before, because of the advancement of science and people don't need God so much anymore... smth liddat.

I was still searching at Wednesday, September 29, 2004 02:13 p.m.

Gah. The entry below makes me so mad and angry at the cult. Shan't think about them anymore. They are not worth my time. Shall write about another book :)

Awakening a Kind Heart by Ven. Sangye Khadro
From: Zu-lin Temple
Religious pov: Buddhist (Mahayana)
Blurb: Everybody wants to be happy and free of problems. The two short teachings in this book explain simply and clearly how we can achieve this happiness by transforming our usual self-cherishing attitude and awakening a kind heart.
Venerable Sangye Khadro, an American nun, was ordained in 1974, She has taught Buddhism and meditation at centres around the world. She is the author of How to Meditate.


I think this book is great to read if you're feeling stressed or depressed... it is written in very easy-to-read language and talks about love, compassion, benevolence, guaranteed to lift your spirits up anytime :) There can be quite an amount of teachings in the book, and those universal humanitarian values are approached from a Buddhist angle (it's a book written by a nun, what do you expect?) so maybe people of other religions reading it will be like me reading The Purpose-Drive Life, as in like hard to understand religiously, but a good book nevertheless :)

One very interesting phrase from the book under the chapter of Immeasurable Compassion goes "If we think that an attitude of compassion and non-retaliation is a sign of weakness, some of the great spiritual figures of the past have shown us by their own example that this is not so. For example, Shakyamuni Buddha overcame the negative forces that tried to disturb him on the eve of his enlightenment with the power of his loving-kindness. Jesus Christ compassionately forgave the men who tortured and killed him. Mahatma Gandhi and his followers won India's independence through non-violent activities, even at the risk of death or imprisonment. In this way, they showed us that meeting harm and injustice with compassionate non-violence isfar more noble and courageous than fighting back". In a book mostly talking about beliefs of Buddhism... here's this little part about other religions and what we can learn from them. Wow! :D

I was still searching at Friday, September 24, 2004 10:21 p.m.

I have like, a whole backlog of reads that I want to put down here, but let's just start with the four books I borrowed from the library on Wednesday. I've started on two today.

The Cult at the End of the World by David E. Kaplan & Andrew Marshall
From: NYGH library
Religious pov: Err... anti-Aum?
Blurb: It began with a nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway but global domination was the ultimate aim.
This is the story of the ultimate cult: a wired, hi-tech, designer-drug, billion-dollar army of new age zealots, focused around the leadership of a blind and bearded madman, armed with nerve gas and biological weapons.
To prepare for Armageddon in 1998 His Holiness the Master Shoko Asahara, the guru of Aum Supreme Truth, decreed the destruction of Japanese society- beginning with the nerve gas attack on the Toyko subway. But global domination was the ultimate dream.
Aum's story moves from the dense cities of post-industrial Japan, to mountain retrests where samurai once fought, and then overseas- to Manhattan and Silicon Valley, Bonn, Zaire and the Austrailian outback, and then to Russia, where the cult gains a massive following.
The rise of Aum Supreme Truth reads like science fiction, but it is all terrifyingingly true.


This cult leader has a bloated ego and is quite mad. This book really shows you what extreme fundamentalism can do, regardless of which religion. The cult combines lots of different religious traditions and twists them up horribly, so, so horribly... *deep sigh. This leader tortures people in the name of ridding them of bad karma, (what rubbish.) kills them to "send their souls to a higher plane" out of "compassion", (even more rubbish.) reads the Bible for the first time and is utterly convinced he is Jesus Christ "because there are so many similarities" (he is such a rubbishy person... mad!)... I think he's as rotten as Adolf Hitler. He was such a talented man, good at so many things but his character is so evil he uses them all for the wrong purposes... he became really rich out of cheating people and making his believers give him all their money, he uses his charisma to win so many converts who were alienated and lonely, so many of them were minors and they never saw their parents ever again because he forbade them... he had all the makings of a great man and he could have become a really good man... or really bad. He chose the latter and made so many people suffer physically and emotionally.

What really struck me was that he incorporated lots of Buddhist teachings in his religion but twists them up so horribly so that he can use it to justify mass murder to his believers, then when the police come after him he denies his cult had any involvement because his cult is so peaceful and believes in "no killing" and cries religious persecution. Makes you want to strangle him. It just shows that any religion can be invoked to commit acts of terror... from extremist Islam for 911 to fundamentalist Christianity for N. Ireland and the Crusade to this disfigured distorted form of Buddhism for this horrible Aum cult. Oh by the way the name Aum comes from "Ohm"... as in the like, yoga or smth? I think it's really stupid. I don't know how you can practice religious tolerance for this kind of cult. I don't think you should.

After all this said, I find this book is very useful in providing true and accurate and objective info about the cult- they have like, pictures and newspaper reports and facts about what the weapons can do to you, and although the book portrays the book in a negative light, it doesn't use sensationalistic language... but it's very serious and objective tone, and let the facts speak for itself.

I was still searching at Friday, September 24, 2004 09:32 p.m.