Review: "The World According to Anna" by Jostein Gaarder [Migrated Post]

"Are you an optimist? Or are you a pessimist?" 

"I don't know. Perhaps a bit of both. What about you?"

"I'm an optimist, Jonas. And do you know why? I think it's immoral to be a pessimist."

"Immoral?"

"Pessimism is just another word for laziness. Of course I worry. But that's different. A pessimist has given up."

Jostein Gaarder, author of the 1991 classic Sophie's World, commemorates the 20th anniversary of its publication with this haunting tale that features an equally inquisitive protagonist.

The name's Anna, and she's deeply bothered by global warming. Her sixteenth birthday looms, and visions from the future begin to appear more in her dreams more frequently and more vividly than ever. They're so intense she believes they're all real, sort of acts like a message telling her to do something about its revelations, that is, the hopeless state of the world in 2082 when her great-granddaughter, Nova, can no longer enjoy the natural wonders of the world. Despite her sincere concerns, the parents thought she's just imagining things and, instead of listening to her at all, sent her to Oslo for a clinical checkup.

Review: "Miracle at the Higher Grounds Cafe" by Max Lucado [Migrated Post]

"A barrier had been broken. Beneath the hard, painful surface of her recollection were layers of healing truth. God had never left her side, not even for a moment."

Max Lucado is the author of dozens of books that have gone to become major bestsellers. With over 92 million copies sold and having penned close to 100 books, the prolific author also ministers at the Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas. His gift for storytelling is so apparent on each and every mission he sets out to do, it's no wonder in 2005, the Reader's Digest dubbed him "The Best Preacher in America."

My first Max Lucado book was given to me just before leaving the States for good after finishing my studies there. It was on the very last day, right when I was carrying my luggages to the taxi. You'd never guess who it was from - my landlord. I suspect she's a clairvoyant, but anywho, she gave me the thin, 64-page book, "He Did This Just For You" that so many have found life-changing. I think I only got around to it a couple of years or so later, and I remember on the night that I binged on it, I cried helplessly in my room. It was the day I realized I have a father I never had. Had I not receive this seemingly random gift from my landlord, I'd never really see the biblical God as that personal. Fast forward some time toward the end of 2016, I was in the local bookstore as usual and I found this Max Lucado fiction. I grabbed it impulsively because I know there's a higher chance I'd finish a fiction than a nonfiction book, and also because the preamble caught my instant attention at the time I bought it:

"What if you could ask God anything? What would you ask? And how would He answer?"