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É difícil especificar o que eu senti ao ler essa obra de João Cabral de Melo e Neto. Fui inicialmente até essa obra devido aos inúmeros paralelos que se faziam do plano poesia-prosa entre essa obra e Vidas Secas de Graciliano Ramos. Ambas obras abordam um assunto pelo qual desenvolvi um interesse: a secura não só do clima, mas também uma quase inexorável secura da vida. A obra de João Cabral é especialmente tocante, pois faz com que você se convença de que realmente a vida severina não é uma vida, mas sim um meio termo entre a vida e a morte sem uma definição a respeito do que vem depois. O final da poesia mostra que a vida segue não misturada à morte, mas sim quando a própria vida brota, dando esperanças quando essas possivelmente já se foram.

That book is enlighting. This book's synopses is also misleading. It covers much more ground that it says and I was amazed by the storm of ideas that Buchanan brings in this book. Forecasting in Economics and Finances isn't only about predicting behaviors of prices (the author will repeat that famous result that different from a weather forecast, once human beings know what about to happen in a market, their actions change and so does the outcome), it's about giving direction for policymakers and preventing, even somehow inaccurately, what crashes ahead in future. It's worthy spending your time in this book.

This book is a marvelous testimony of the search for the truth that the Roman Catholic Church entails. Scott and Kmberly Hahn writes their struggles in search of the truth as two theology students and presbyterians. The solar fide and sola scripture beliefs are two of the initial blocks to their movement towards the Catholic Church. The authors explain marvelously how the Bible doesn't support those two cornerstone beliefs of the Refirmation and actually supports the two doctrines of the Catholic Church regarding these two points in Reformation, which are respectively, salvation by grace (faith with loving works) and the complementarity between Holy Scriptures and Tradition. We are invited to follow the Hahns' doubts and prayers as they move from Protestantism towards Catholic truth.
Besides the sola fide and scripture, they also argument scripturally the reality of transubstantiation, the devotion to Virgin Mary, the communion of saints, and the reality of purgatory. Those arguments are soundly made and corroborate the beauty and truth of the Catholic doctrine.
Finally, they argument the importance for Catholic to know their faith, through the Catechism, and more importantly to attentive prayer and reading/memorizing of the Scriptures. Rome Sweet Home is a testimony of the strength of the truth and how through God's grace, it leads univocally to Catholic Church.

Tem algo de novo e ao mesmo tempo algo de tradicional em ler um livro que segue a vida de uma adolescente à medida que ela navega esse momento tão importante de transição. Usualmente, essas estórias de coming of ages são narradas com o foco também de um público infanto-juvenil em mente, o que inibe o autor (autora no caso) de analisar as situações sobre uma lente mais madura, não necessariamente adulta. Em A vida mentirosa dos adultos, Elena Ferrante descreve as descobertas de Giovanna ao passar pela adolescência. A descoberta de várias vidas, várias verdades e principalmente várias mentiras na vida das pessoas que ela admira e se espelha provoca reflexões diversas relacionadas à (auto-)imagem da pessoa, à fé, ao amor, ao ódio, e à gama de sentimentos que se afloram na adolescência, em acúmulo à revelações de mentiras tão bem escondidas na família da protagonista e narradora.
A universalidade do drama de Giovanna não reside no que anedoticamente acontece a ela, mas sim na forma como ela responde a esses acontecimentos. De certo modo, a mentira dos adultos nunca acabam (e a própria Giovanna incorpora isso ao longo do livro), elas podem vir à luz do dia, mas há sempre novos tópicos, cuja publicização é melhor não acontecer. Enfim, o livro é breve, interessantíssimo e desconhece rótulos de público por gênero.

Virgínia é uma ótima narradora não por ser um ser moral perfeito ou fazer tudo de forma razoável. A vida, as paixões e desejos dela estão longe de previsíveis e razoáveis. Ainda assim, ela vive na adversidade da perda da família,da perda de seu amor e perda de si. Virgínia não é perfeita, mas isso nunca serviu para descrever pessoas interessantes.

This book by C.S. Lewis is a collection of letters from a demon (Screwtape) to it's also demonic nephew (Wormwood). We know the content of the correspondence of the latter to the former by the way the Screwtape answers to its nephew. Anyway, this brilliant book is a glimpse into how Lewis saw the temptation working, by driving us apart from Gid, from His love, from the Church, and the virtues. Lewis poses some interesting questions about how we can deviate from the Truth and become numb to God's presence in our lives. The Screwtape Letters is a short book, but with an unique perspective of the spiritual warfare.

A premissa de Metamorfose é extremamente simples: um filho adulto de uma família se metamorfoseia em um inseto (de certa forma). Essa premissa, contudo, leva a várias outras metamorfoses, sendo a mais interessante para mim a desumanização de um antigo filho e irmão. No fim, parece que ele nunca foi nenhuma dessas coisas tão facilmente ele é descartado pela família Samsa. O livro é ainda mais interessante, pois ele nunca desumaniza o novo inseto. Fisicamente, ela não é mais humano, mas conscientemente acompanhamos seu definhamento de um modo nefasto.

This book is an amazing treatise of Catholic mysticism and spirituality. Through the image of seven dwelling places inside a castle, which is our soul built by God, for His glory, St. Teresa of Avila guides us in the power of prayer and contemplation, the favors God concedes freely and by His own accord to His servants, and the temptations that follow us in all the dwelling places, sometimes stronger, other times, weaker. The importance of fear for God, the desire to respect and fulfill His will for us, and the humility of the soul and of our desires are important messages in this short, though very enlightening, book by this Spanish saint. Hence, it is a mandatory reading for Catholics and otherwise who are trying to deepen their knowledge of their spiritual path here on Earth, and trying to perfect the charity, that is, the love of God and our neighbor.

This book is a short review of the homonym work by St. John Paul II. It's structured following the same chapters as the work by our late Pope and works with his thesis that we grow closer to God when we realize the unity of our soul and body and how the love of God flows to the whole human body.
The book then arguments how holy a true Christian marriage can be, by following the 4 attributes of love as postulated by Jesus Christ, which are being free, total, faithful, and fruitful. In that way, when argumenting against contraception, the importance of chastity, outside and inside marriage, the option of celibacy, as also a fulfilling role to human sexuality, among other questions, we need to consider whether our answers are according those 4 attributes.
The book closes emphasizing the challenge of new evangelization, as people are abandoning the church or picking doctrine and leaving other out of their lives. The theology of body may prove itself a great bridge between the freeing doctrine of the Catholic Church and the expectations of its members and non-members alike.

This book is a personal recollection of the schizophrenias, i.e., the diseases that were created to explain the phenomena of a recurrent cluster of symptoms. The narratives of the delusions, hallucinations, the comorbidity of schizophrenia with other psychiatric diseases is authentic and it resonates with experiences of psychosis recorded elsewhere. The author also points to new scientific and non-scientific directions of the analysis of the schizophrenias and their treatment. It's a short, but fantastic book, that makes the discussion of schizophrenias in mainstream less fantastical and more realistic, displaying the suffering that usually follows these diseases.

This book is a well researched and enlightening work on the (dis)connections of the three main Abrahamic religions, which are Judaism, Christianity, and Islamism. The author uses two chapters to establish each religion foundation and how it interact with other religions and with historical, social, and economic realities. Afterwards, some chapters are devoted to other formats of religiosity within these three religions and how it evolved with in time and how they respond to new theological questions and philosophical advancements, such as Enlightenment, atheism as a modern conception, wars, among other things.
The book closes with an attempt to diagnose the future of God and its religions. How will religions adapt, if they will, to modernity and new spiritual demands of people is something we should be attentive to.
Finally, History of God is a good book to open a systematic research to deepen one's knowledge about the most popular religions of the Globe.

This book is in the format of Q&A, with our Pope Francis answering questions regarding the 2016 Holy Year of Mercy. As our pontiff says, God's mercy is superabundant and one of the features of His omnipotence. By emphasizing the importance of the sacrament of confession, the Pope argues how great and mysterious our God is, given He's not just mercy, but goodness, justice, and truth. These three last aspects of our God show his boundless mercy and power to reach us even in our darkest hours. Finally, mercy and compassion as proposed by Church is telling of its abilities to be a bridge between our temporal world, fallen by sin, and God's atemporal reality, full of mercy.

Pope Benedict XVI, then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, explains marvelously the truths of the Christian faith, even though the disagreements that exist between the Catholic, Orthodox, and Prostetant sects of Christianity. Using love as the main theme of the book, our emeritus Pope uses the Apostles' Creed as an organizational scheme and then explains how the some powerful ideas and theology came to be in Christianity and how they are related to the central role of Christ in it. The message of hope, faith, and charity in this book is undeniable and it's what gives it form as an introduction to Christianity, which often seems so dogmatized and multiple, never achieving a consensus among the sects.

Robert Cardinal Sarah displays in this book a clarity about the faith, doctrine, and perspicacy that overwhelms the reader. His opinions about the crisis of faith, priesthood, church, humanity, economic and political systems, and finally the social and philosophical fabric of societies can be seen as facts by an attentive reader, who knows the importance of sound faith and a cohesive junction of language, culture, religion, and political organization that make and sustain societies. His prospect of fading faith and recognition of dignity of human life, born and otherwise, should capture our attention and our policymakers'.
Therefore, recognizing the truth that Church entails is crucial as the very notions that keep humanity in peace are vanishing.
Although this future might seem dim, there is the light of our lord Jesus, never fading and always enthralling in our lives.

In this book, Dr. Pitre argued about the historical arguments of Jesus about the truthfulness of the gospels and how those books work with the divinity of Jesus, in light of the first century DC Jewish traditions and perceptions. The book is in a way an answer to the old telephone game argument for the words of Jesus Christ and the L trilemma of C. S. Lewis' Mere Christianity, which is that given Jesus' affirmations, he was either a liar, a lunatic or the Lord. By opposing the views that the gospels are merely folklore and not historical biographies, Dr. Pitre brings fresh arguments to the relevance of Jesus Christ's words and sacrifice. This book is a great refutation of some of “enlightened” ideas of modern gospel analysis.

Apesar de ser um livro de mais de 25 anos, as inquietações de Sagan relacionadas ao obscurantismos, superstições e credulidade são mais relevantes do que nunca. Imagino que ciente das maravilhas comunicativas do mundo moderno, sobretudo a internet, esperar-se-ia maior alfabetismo científico e o fim de crenças despropositadas, contudo isso não se manifestou.
O livro exibe uma sucessão de evidências dos demônios que assolam o mundo, alguns mais assustadores do que outros, mas todos eles tão reais quanto o éter.
Essa é uma leitura imprescindível para um primeiro contato com o pensamento e método científico.