Suggestion Saturday: May 11, 2013

Here is this week’s list of blog posts, a brand new message board, flash fiction and other tidbits from my favourite corners of the web.

From Silencing Techniques:

Have you ever had an entire conversation that was not about the thing you wanted to talk about, but about why you needed to stop talking about it?

It’s called silencing.

Silencing is when rather than addressing the substance of whatever it is being talked about, someone tries to dismiss, trivialize or derail the conversation, so that the topic, whatever it is, stops getting discussed.

Five Easy Steps for Talking with Children about Art. The advice in this blog post can be applied to so many other scenarios in life. Almost any topic becomes more intellectually stimulating when you ask open-ended questions and don’t expect everyone to know the “proper” terminology or agree with you.

The Leaving the Faith Project.  I’m so excited to share this link with you! My friend Bruce Gerencser is starting a private message board for people deconverting from Christianity. This site will be a safe place to figure out what you really believe with support from volunteers who know exactly what you’re going through.

The Boy Next Door. Flash fiction from my new Twitter friend, KD_Rush.

Why We’ll Never Meet Aliens. Who else wants to sit down and pick this blogger’s brain? Aliens have never been a subject I spent much time thinking about but this argument tickles my fancy.

Places That Shiver via CGAyling. I tend to believe that places that shiver can be understood without the use of religious or supernatural explanations, but I’ll never stop loving good ghost stories. 🙂

What I’m Reading Now. Jenna is looking for book recommendations.


If the dead could speak what would they tell us? Faces from the Past reveals some of the secrets of a Buffalo Soldier, about a dozen slaves (most of whom died as infants or children), a French Sailor, and 19th century Chinese miners among others.

This book is written to appeal to middle and high school students. The language is simple and repetitive. I would have preferred detailed, scientific explanations of how these individuals died and what tests were performed to determine what little information we know about them.

But the pictures in this book that show what these individuals looked like when they were alive gave me goosebumps. Almost everyone experienced severe health problems that could easily be treated or prevented in 2013. When I stared into their reconstructed faces I could see glimpses of the lives they might have known with better nutrition and access to modern medicine.

What have you been reading?

2 Comments

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2 Responses to Suggestion Saturday: May 11, 2013

  1. Jenna

    Well obviously you know what I’m reading right now. 😉 But I just got done with a couple fabulous ones, A Year of Biblical Womanhood (and if you enjoy that you should also read A Year of Living Biblically… the same idea more or less but written by a Jewish guy and about every commandment in the Bible) and Elevate The Everyday: A Photographic Guide to Picturing Motherhood… geared obviously at people with kids but I think I would have loved looking through at her work even if I was childless.

    • I read “A Year of Living Biblically” soon after it first came out. It was really good!

      I started “A Year of Biblical Womanhood” yesterday and have loved it so far. Rachel Held Evans seems like she’d be a very cool person to befriend.

      My library *does* have “Elevate the Everyday.” I just requested it! Thanks. 🙂

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