Book Review: Killing Jesus

Killing Jesus: A History by Bill O'Reilly
3 of 5 stars

This book gave an interesting history of the political and social issues during the time of Jesus with some fictional elements. It was a bit of a dry read, even for someone who loves history, but you are able to gain insight into how Jesus was received during his time.

Book Review: The Dovekeepers

The Dovekeepers
by Alice Hoffman
4/5 stars

This historical fiction novel uses actually historical events at Masada after the Romans sacked Jerusalem to explore the lives of four women and how their identities revolve around men in their society. Alice Hoffman is  Jewish by blood, Spritualist by religion. She has written many books with a common theme of magic; in this case, it is the mysticism of the Moabites and Hebrews. 

I came across this book because I had read other historical fiction novels set in the same general time period (same century), and I thoroughly enjoyed them because of their historical accuracy. Hoffman began this book after a visit to the museums at Masada and based her characters on real people. The story is based on what actually happened at Masada when it was taken after the destruction of Jerusalem. According to the historian Josephus, two women and five children escaped; this book provides you with an imaginary tale about the people that might have survived. 

In general, I liked the book. Her writing style is lovely and captivating, encouraging to you to delve deeper into the story. There were a few passages that I tagged because I thought they were beautiful. 

page 272: "I heard the voice of God all around me, but I was unafraid...But now I understood that, although words were God's first creation, silence was closer to His divine spirit, and that prayers given in silence were infinitely greater than the thousands of words men might offer up to heaven. 
   I listened to the wind that had risen in the desert to follow us here.
   I heard what it had to say."

page 488: "That was why the Almighty had given us prayer, to distinguish men from animals, to leave the beasts inside of us locked away, as demons are locked in lead jars."

As a Christian with a reasonable understanding of the Bible it was difficult to read about that idolatrous worship of Ashtoreth, but many of the passages reminded me of the voodoo worship that I encounter living in Haiti. The amulets, potions, spells, etc. are very similar to many practices here, giving me a little more perspective on how people who believe in these items think and understand the world. It was also difficult sometimes to distinguish the voice of each character. By the end of the book, I felt like all of their voices were so similar that I wouldn't have been able to read a passage and tell you who was speaking right away. I wanted a more stark contrast between the voices of these very different characters. 

Each of the book sections for the four women was entitled using that woman's relationship to a man in her life. It illustrated how difficult it was for a woman to exist outside of a man's protection at the time. It provided a a notable contrast to the characters themselves who each managed to create something of their own identity without the help of a male overseer. 

This was an interesting read that I would highly recommend to people who enjoy reading about historical events and learning about different cultures. I'm intrigued to read more of her books, because many of them have a magical or mystical undertone. I am also looking forward to the TV mini-series recently aired to see if it follows the book closely. 

Princess Diana

For this assignment, we were asked to describe a historical event and its impact on our personal lives. I would have written about 9/11, but pretty much everyone was going for that, so I decided to talk about Princess Di. Eventually I will write about my reaction to 9/11 because I think it important for the historical community to gather people's responses from across the nation. I think we should all write down our personal responses to historical events to chronicle our time. 

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Being a princess is a typical dream for a seven-year-old girl. Boys strive to be ninjas or cowboys or superheroes. Most young girls train unceasingly in plastic high heels and fluffy dresses to parade as a pretend princess. Once upon a time I was a princess in training, along with my best friend, Kristen*.

Today most PITs (princesses in training) desire to emulate Elsa and Anna from Frozen. The best part about growing up when we did was that we had a real princess to follow through the news: Princess Diana. The fact that she was no longer a princess due to her recent torrential divorce didn’t matter much. She had been married to a prince and she had two royal  children; that was enough for us. She was glamorous and lovely and elegant, everything you want in a princess. And she had married in to the royal family, so it gave us hope that one day we could be a princess, too. 

Kristen’s seventh birthday party was a Princess Di party. We rode around town in a limousine waving at our royal subjects and had a massive royal tea party in the back yard. We stayed up all night playing with makeup in our royal castle made of sheets and pillows. If Princess Di ever needed a helper, we were ready for her call.

Then tragedy struck on August, 31, 1997. Kristen’s mom sat us down on the couch and explained to us as gently as possible, “Princess Di was in a car crash in Paris. Girls, she didn’t make it. Princess Diana is dead.” Kristen and I squeezed each others hands, dumbfounded. My stomach rose into my heart and hot tears pressed into my eyelashes as I struggled to understand. Princesses can’t die, can they? Princesses are supposed to be saved from disaster in the nick of time by a knight in shining armor. They are supposed to live happily ever after forever with their prince, their one true love.

The mystery around the cause of her death just made it worse. Was it the paparazzi’s fault? Were drugs or alcohol involved? Why wasn’t Princess Diana wearing her seat belt? Didn’t all princesses know to wear their seat belt? Daddy always told us they did.

Kristen and I couldn’t even be around each other for a few weeks. All we talked about were princesses and the only one we knew was gone. Our princess parties just weren’t the same after that. Our princess, the one that belonged to us, had left us. A hole gaped in my seven-year-old heart. Not only was my role model gone, but my idea of perfect fantasy evaporated with it. Life is not a fairy tale, as I had hoped. There weren’t always picture perfect endings. Happily ever after could end in divorces and car crashes.

*name changed for identity protection