Summary: A young woman recounts her affair with the Dean of Starbridge.

One of the things I have enjoyed about reading the Church of England series is learning more about the actual Church of England.  A Dean of a Cathedral is essentially the pastor of the Cathedral.  In Scandalous Risks, Neville (Stephen) Aysgarth has risen from his role of Arch Deacon (assistant to the Bishop that oversees a geographical area of Churches) to the Dean of the Cathedral.

As Dean of one of the most prominent (fictional) Cathedrals in England Neville has risen to become one of the most powerful clergy in the Church of England.  Unfortunately for him, the Bishop of Starbridge is now Charles Ashworth, Neville’s conservative rival.

But Scandalous Risks is not simply a continuation of Ultimate Prizes (#3). It is narrated by Venetia Flaxton.  Young Venetia is 26, wandering around trying to find purpose in life.  Her best friend, Primrose (daughter of Neville) draws her to Starbridge and Venetia finds a number of friends, a job working for the Bishop and eventually an affair with the Dean (Neville).

Continue Reading…

Summary: Two children find their way into a magic park.

This is Piers Anthony’s first children’s book and it shows. It isn’t horrible, but Anthony doesn’t really know his audience and it alternates between middle grade and older and I kept having this feeling of dread that some of his more erotic work was going to break through at any moment. It didn’t, the book is pretty clean, but there isn’t much to really recommend for it either.

I have read a lot of Piers Anthony’s books in the past.  But this isn’t one that is worth reading.

Luckily I picked it up for for free.

Pandora Park Purchase Links: Kindle Edition

Nollop is a (fictional) sovereign state on a small island off the coast of South Carolina, named for the man who purportedly composed the famous pangram: “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” The citizens revere and almost worship Nollop; when the letters of the pangram, which are engraved on a memorial statue, start to fall off due to wear and tear, the government interprets this as instruction from their faux-deity to stop using said letters in any form, written or spoken. The new laws are enforced by public flogging, banishment, and possibly execution.

Continue Reading…

Takeaway: Erickson focuses on how to disagree well and evaluate different Christian positions. 

As I have been reading about the trinity over the past two years I have realized that it is actually fairly small questions that are at the root of the big debates.

This makes sense because Christians agree about the vast majority of Christian theology. There is very little debate about the fact that the Trinity has three members.  That all three members of the trinity are God. Or that the Trinity is made up of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.

But a relatively small debate has gained importance over the last 30-50 years because of another debate within the church, the role of women.

Continue Reading…

Phineas (Fin) Button is a tomboy and a fighter. She’s spent all of her 19 rebellious years causing trouble at an orphanage near Savannah, Georgia, in the pre-Revolutionary 1770s. When she develops a close friendship with the onsite cook, Bartimaeus, she learns about his past life of piracy and murder. His protection during a sinister encounter with some British soldiers turns violent and Bartimaeus hangs, while Fin goes on the run, a murderer. She eventually joins a ship’s crew as a deck hand, disguised as a man, and is pulled into in a privateering campaign against the British. Fin continues to get tangled up in Bartimaeus’ old life, including his enemies that seek treasure and revenge.

This is the first of two books.The writing is fantastic. Peterson makes the world you’re immersed in believable and real. While the story is dark and violent, this is still written for older children and/or young adults. Fin’s success at hiding her gender for over a year–especially while holding her own as a fighter among sailors–seemed unlikely to me, but otherwise the story is believable. Here’s a great quote that I paused at:

For that singular second, the men aboard both vessels peered across the gulf at one another, rigid with fear and frozen by memories of home, and of women loved and children born, and of all others they might never see again. And in response they called out of the dark reaches of man’s collective nightmare that beast that stirs and quickens to violence, that savors the taste of the enemy’s throat, the bloodthirst that blinds reason and makes of men a berzerking force of rage with curled lips and bared, animal teeth. Then, like a thunderclap, the ships smashed one upon the other.

The Kindle version is $1.99 on Amazon. I immediately bought the sequel, which is currently at $3.99 on Amazon.

The Fiddler’s Gun Purchase Links: Kindle Edition, Paperback

Summary: An Archdeacon, with a fondness for drink, seeks after his debutante.

The Church of England Series continues to enthrall me.  As I write this I am almost finished with the fourth book of the series I have read in less than a month.

I am normally not a fan of Christian fiction.  But this is not normal Christian fiction.  First, it is oriented around the Church of England in the early and mid-20th Century.  Second, it is primarily about clergy that are in need of spiritual counsel and redemption.

Third it is not Christian Fiction that has a salvation story and then all is right with the world.  Instead, as with the first two books of the series, the redemption story happens fairly early in Ultimate Prizes and then the rest of the book is about how the main character deals with the fact that he got what he wanted.

Continue Reading…

First, a note about the author: John Green has had success as an online vlogger, as well as an author. In 2007, John and his brother, Hank, who lived in different cities across the US, created a vlog series where they only communicated through video messages that were posted on YouTube. I believe that it is fair to say that the Green brothers are two of some of the original YouTubers. In 2010, the began hosting an annual gathering of you tubers called Vidcon and are very well respected by and connected with many of the big names on YouTube. Even before I had read this book or even heard about John Green as a writer, I knew of him and his brother as a source for enlightening information on the internet (the two brothers currently have a channel where they discuss history and science). I was pleasantly surprised to hear that John was lauded as being an excellent writer of young adult literature. If anything, I would have expected a “geek” to be a writer of sic-fi. I continued to hear great things about his writing, especially this book, so I decided to give it a listen

Continue Reading…

Summary: Funny stories mixed in with some advice.

I like comedy.  I don’t laugh nearly enough.  I have a tendency to be a little too serious.  But I have a few standard humor authors.  Christopher Buckley is one of my favorites (but I have read pretty much everything he has written.)  Christopher Moore is pretty funny except when he isn’t.  I really liked Bossypants by Tina Fey.

Last year, some friends introduced me to Jim Gaffigan.  Since then I think I have seen three of his TV comedy shows and I really like his humor.  He seems like a fairly real person.  And like me he is an introvert, likes kids, hates sports, is a little over weight and loves his wife.

This seemed like the perfect book for him.  He has great material on being a Dad.  He has five kids (six and under).  He lives in New York City in a 2 bedroom apartment (on the 5th floor without an elevator) and lives without a car.  When he is not touring, he is often at home with his kids.

And I did like the book.  It was the right mix of humor with enough just enough serious to really like the guy.  It isn’t long, 5 and a half hours on audiobook or 288 pages.  If you are going to read a book by a comic, you should listen to it.  Comics are often good reader and it many ways it is just like a long comedy show.

Continue Reading…