College of the Ozarks Books

I've read (and in fact own) all the other Cheney and Cheney/Shiloh books, but can't bring myself to buy this one or read it more than once every couple years, if that. It didn't have the same feel for me as the rest of them did, and I really didn't like the character of Maeva Wilding. Yes, I'll admit, it was partially because she was a threat to the whole Cheney/Shiloh ship, but she was just a weird character that made the whole book sort of a one-off disappointment to me. I love every other book, but this one is just ... different. You lose nothing by skipping it and going to book 3, A City Not Forsaken.

If you like to read novels with gripping action scenes, this might be a good read for you. However, if character development is more your forte, you might want to look elsewhere.

This is the first Morris & Morris novel I've read. I appreciate that they depict a strong, unconventional Christian woman in challenging situations. However, even after reading it, I don't feel as if I know the woman, or if there's depth within Cheney's character or Christian walk that I'd care to know about. Also, Cheney's decision at the very end of the book seems inconsistent with a person who cares about a community and its continuing medical needs.

Don't want to totally rain on the book. The authors did a commendable job of drawing you into the suspense of the Ozark Mountain feuds--I could feel my heartbeat speed up during these scenes. It was this particular skill (and the money I paid) that kept me reading until the very end.

Shadow of the Mountains is the only book in the Cheney Duvall series that I recommend you skip. It seems that a good deal of effort was put into building up Cheney and Shiloh's relationship in the first book and then in this book it's all torn down. The characters simply weren't as memorable in the first book of the series and it lacks a sense of adventure that the first had. I suggest that you skip this book in the series and move onto the next. You'll be missing nothing.

I enjoyed the book overall, although I wished they had been a little more specific about how the people who wanted to steal everyone's land were convinced to give up their plan. Despite how the synopsis on the cover is written, Cheney actually did make some friends among the mountain people - you would think they were 100% against her in every way by that description!

This book was very well written, but if your hoping that Cheney and Shiloh's relationship will actually progress in the second book, think again!! Actually only a tiny amount of progress is made in any of the books. I definitely got the feeling that the authors were dragging the relationship out in order to keep the readers coming back. After reading the second book, you feel like you're just where you left off with the first. The authors certainly have produced great books. But after finding out that I have to read seven books before Cheney decides she loves Shiloh, I decided to skip all the middle books.

As the reviewer from the Atlantic Monthly points out, this book is half history, half historical fiction. This gave me a fundamental problem in getting into the book. The first half is decently written and attempts to get in the heads of various Irish monks in the Middle Ages, the second half provides the facts to back up the conjecture of the first. I preferred the second half, though that may be because I tend to enjoy my history a bit harder than most. I just didn't like the structure of the book. To me, what this book really is is a novella about an Irish Monastery on a rocky island with a novella-sized end note section. The end notes were more relevant for research. I don't question the scholarship of the work, just the presentation. Overall, not bad, but if you can get past the strange way it's put together (unlike me) you'll probably enjoy it.

If you've ever stood on the rocks of Skellig Michael, or peered at them from safe ground across the tossing waves, you've thought to yourself, "only crazy people and seagulls would live there". You would be wrong - passionate maybe, maybe not crazy. This story of the monks on Skellig Michael, part history, part fiction, speaks of the loneliness and of being alone - which are not the same things - and the astonishing strength that can come from the most unexpected places when one person or a group of people who share a focus come together. Even the early pages that detail the types of ink used in the glorious illuminated manuscripts of Clanmacnoise draw you into this passion and this focus. It's an incredible story of life on a rock in the middle of nowhere that provided a continuous line of education and religion (like it or not) in a time beyond our imagination.

Fun for anyone with even slight interest in history, Christian religion, etc. Part story, part historical text, very clever and interesting. I got bored about halfway through, which is why I didn't give this book a better rating, but I did finish it later and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

This book will capture your interest and will leave you hanging with more questions. If your interest is in the field of archaeology, etc, you will probably want to "pass by, Horseman." However, if you're like me and you just want to know what was happening to the average peasant and believer on the banks of the River of history, then this book is for you. G. Moorehouse, does a smash up job of bringing to life the spirit of the Celtic monks who changed the world. The book is divided into two parts: the first being a "faction", that is a historically accurate fictional account of day to day life in the monastery of Sceilig Michail. In this section, he attempts to penetrate the Celtic mind and I have to give him credit for this. If in any way, he failed, it is only because the truly Celtic Christian mind was lost to us after the Great Schism of 1054 and after their valiant and heroic resistance, Eire finally fell to the Roman church. (We should all mourn what might have been contributed to Byzantium because it is the less for all that!)

The second section deals in the facts, insofar as they are known, and as cold as the stones that pious Celtic hands pressed into service, to build the monasteries of Iona, Lindisfarne, Sceilig Michail. The bibliography alone is worth every penny, the price of the book and I highly recommend it as much for Mr. Moorehouse's attempt to plumb the depths of the celtic Christian heart, as for it's more scholarly attributes.

If you're looking for new age nonsense about "Celtic" spirituality, move on. If you are looking for the Orthodoxy (big O intended) of the Celts, you've come to the right place. Moorehouse skirts the issue, and never directly says it outright, but the message of this book is loud and clear: The origin of Celtic Christianity lies in the East, with Eastern Orthodoxy and not with Roman pontiffs. Nobody, with any knowledge will fail to recognize the obvious: St. John Cassian's prayer and method of use (pre-cursor of the Jesus prayer), the monastic cell rules, the ascetism of St. Anthony and other Desert Fathers.

In the end, what one is left with is this: Iona, Lindisfarne, and Sceilig Michail are not so far away as they may appear in the mist. They may, and must, be re-built each day in our own hearts with a Christianity that is Orthodox and that is lived each day, without fail.

Skellig Michael (Michael's Rock) is a tiny, steep, pinnacle of an island off the coast of Ireland. For 600 years during the early middle ages, it served as a Celtic Monastery. Travel writer Geoffrey Moorhouse tells of the rigors of the isolated lives of the monks, via an imaginative, partly fictional reconstruction of key experiences such as surviving Viking raids, existence in a bare stone beehive hut, and preserving the essence of Celtic Christianity, away from the tentacles of Rome.

The second half of the book is more scholarly but drier and less engaging. Nevertheless, Skellig Michael by its remoteness has remained relatively unchanged, and the evidence that researchers have been gathering from it has been aptly elucidated by Moorhouse; a valuable snapshot of Christianity in one of its variant early forms.