"Reread. In this brief book, George Grant digs into history to explain the roots of conflicts that bedevil the Middle East hundreds and in some cases thousands of years after their inception. For example, he suggests that the multiple invasions carried out against Kuwait by Saddam Hussein's Iraq have their roots in the ancient Babylonian/Sumerian rivalry. He does very persuasively argue that ancient empires continue to inspire Middle Eastern dictatorships to the present day. And his explanation of the Isaac/Ishmael rivalry, and its importance in Islamic thought, reminded me of the famous Australian/New Zealand rivalry (which I never really heard about until I went to NZ). He chronicles the various colonial and multicultural efforts to impose peace on the Middle East throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and leaves us with an encouragement to recognise that peace in this conflicted region will only be granted through the saving power of the word of God.

Read for the first time 17 January 2012"

"Although written shortly after 9/11, this book is surprisingly relevant. It dives deep into the history of the conflicts in the Middle East. After centuries of war, and now decades of political attempts to bring peace, it is apparent there must be a spiritual solution to the chronic conflicts that plague the region."

"As a young girl, I thought the board game Life laid out the basic script for adult life. The path allowed me to drive my little plastic car from college to a career, then on to marriage and eventually to home ownership in just that orderly sequence. In actuality, that is pretty much the script my life followed. It’s a little embarrassing to admit, but I may have been just as influenced by a board game as I was by the Bible when it came to envisioning what adult life would look like. If there is such a thing as a “typical” Christian woman, it’s quite possible that my life would fit that mold.

In (A)Typical Woman, Abigail Dodds invites each woman to see the unique opportunities in her present life circumstance. Like many Christian women, she has been frustrated by the “compartmentalizing of womanhood” that either idealizes femininity or belittles women. Instead, she wants women to see that “The world is in need of us. It needs women who understand the privilege and glory of being a woman. It needs women who are at peace in the body God has given them, at peace with the paradoxical strengths and weaknesses, who don’t demean what they were created as, or, by extension, the Creator.”

Dodds reminds us that there is no “typical” woman to be our exemplar. Instead, we must read about women in Scripture as “varied examples of God-fearing women through the ages.” However, after laying out this helpful thesis (in chapter 6) and claiming that there is no such thing as a “typical” woman, Dodds addresses women using the typical categories. There are chapters for married women, single women, working women, mothering, and discipling women. In these chapters, Dodds ends up painting with a rather broad brush, especially in chapters which cover areas outside of her personal experience. Her writing is strongest when she shares wisdom from her own experiences. There are probably women who would be better qualified to speak on what it feels like to be "atypical" in some of these categories.

Readers interested in a better understanding of what it means to be a Christian woman can find many helpful books on the topic. For a thorough examination of how the scriptures talk about women, read Is the Bible Good for Women? by Wendy Alsup, who courageously goes where no book on women has gone before: through every single passage that addresses women. With great love for the word of God and great care for women, Alsup gently unpacks even the most difficult scriptures with grace. For an inspiring vision of women being made in the image of God, read Made for More by Hannah Anderson who ignores the typical categories “because,” as Anderson says, “we ourselves are more than the roles we play in this present world. We are large, deep, eternal beings, and only something larger and deeper and more eternal will satisfy the questions in our souls.”"