Book Reviews – Page 104

If I Had Lunch with CS Lewis: Exploring the Ideas of CS Lewis on the Meaning of Life by Alister McGrath

November 11, 2014 by Adam Shields

Summary: McGrath tries to imagine what type of advice Lewis would give, if you had lunch over 8 weeks.

McGrath has written one of the two or three best biographies of CS Lewis, so in my ongoing quest to read more and more by or about Lewis, I was eager to pick up McGrath’s newest book, Lunch With Lewis, especially since it was free on Kindle and the audiobook part of my free trial of Scribd.

The preface laid out exactly I was looking for, Lewis is the type of person that many people would say they would like to have lunch with out of a host of historical characters. And so McGrath wanted to imagine what type of things Lewis would talk about and what type of wisdom we could gain if we did have lunch with him. So McGrath set out 8 weeks of lunches, and a chapter for each.

The problem is that the actual book did not live up to the promise. Instead most of the chapters were more lecture, biography or book report. The first chapter is on the meaning of life. The second was on friendship (which was mostly about Tolkien and the Inklings.) The third was on the importance of stories in shaping our life and meaning (with significant overlap from the first chapter.) The fourth chapter was on Aslan and how he was and was not Christ. And it continued on, apologetics, education, the problem of pain, heaven and hope.

The Crowded Grave by Martin Walker (Bruno Chief of Police #4)

November 10, 2014 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: Justice is sometimes different than what happens with our legal systems.

What I love about this series is the sense of responsibility that Bruno has for his community. As the only local police officer for his small town and surrounding countryside, he knows virtually everyone. So when a crime occurs, Bruno’s first impulse is not to find out who to arrest, but to bring about justice and restoration of relationship.

Since this is the fourth book in the series, and the third I have reviewed in the last two weeks, I am not going to revisit the basic setting. In this book there are three intertwined stories. First, there is a body that was found in an archeological dig. Instead of being 30,000 years old as the rest of the site is, this body is about 20-25 years old. But no crimes from the area involve a missing person or are unsolved that would fit the body. And it appears to be a violent assassination that might have included torture.

Black Diamond by Martin Walker (Bruno Chief of Police #3)

November 7, 2014 by Adam Shields

Summary: Bruno looks into a shady community market and stumbles on a series of international crimes.

More than anything else, this series of books leads me to want to visit rural France and eat lots of French food and drink wine. I have friends that live in France and about 8 years ago we went to go visit them. They live in a community that is probably not too different from the setting of this book (although north of Paris and not in the regional setting of the book.)

Black Diamond’s food discussion revolves around Truffles. When I hear truffles I always think of the chocolate variety and not the expensive fungus that is a delicacy in French food. Bruno when he moved to St Denis and built his home started hunting truffles and planted the Oak trees and doing the other work to start his own truffles. Though his friend, who everyone calls ‘The Baron’, Bruno meets a local truffle expert who helps train Bruno’s dog to search for truffles and helps Bruno to learn about the market and the beauty of truffles. But when a local truffle exchange market seems to be corrupted, Bruno is brought in to investigate.

The Dark Vineyard by Martin Walker

November 4, 2014 by Adam Shields

Summary: An arson on a remote (and illegal) genetically modified research farm leads to a crisis. And it might be related to a potential new investment by a large winemaker. Bruno as chief of police and lover of his small town seeks to preserve the community.

Martin Walker has created a small French village and a cast of characters that feel to me like a French version of Wendell Berry’s fiction, but with a modern thriller twist.

The Dark Vineyard is the second in the series and included all that I loved about the first. It is as much about the setting and the long descriptions of life in the French countryside as it is about the mystery. And that is what most of the complaints are about in the Amazon reviews.

This is not a fast book. But it is a delicious one, both in literary description and its description of all of the food and wine consumed. It is a book that seems to have been written with the slow food movement in mind.

Christians followers of the “˜slow church’ movement or those that are rediscovering the parish concept might also enjoy this series as an illustration of the value of slowing down and valuing the local.

Sacred Companions: The Gift of Spiritual Friendship and Direction

November 3, 2014 by Adam Shields

Summary: A guide for giving and receiving Spiritual Direction.

I have been interesting the concept of spiritual direction for several months now. As with many things I need to read through a number of books and spend a lot of time thinking through things before I am really ready to move further. ~~So I still have not actually found a spiritual director yet.~~ (I have been going to a spiritual director for about a year now.)

But I am getting closer to understanding what Spiritual Direction is all about. For David Benner, spiritual direction is mostly about prayer. The Spiritual Director is praying for and helping the person receiving the spiritual direction to pray and connect more fully to God.

Benner is a counselor. So he spends some time differentiating Spiritual Direction from counseling.

Click-Clack the Raddlebag by Neil Gaiman

October 30, 2014 by Adam Shields

Reposting this 2012 Review because the short story is again free until Oct 31 I am a big fan of Neil Gaiman. I like his writing style, the sense of wonder that he brings into books and his literate references. But he has a dark, but romantic side. So nothing ends quite as you think … Read more

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg

October 29, 2014 by Adam Shields

Summary: The children’s classic story about running away, living in a museum and solving a great mystery all the while finding the important things in life.

Children’s books are great for adults to read occasionally. In addition, to just being a change of pace, I find that the simple straight forward stories get to the essence of so many things. Children’s book don’t have to have multi-layered plots with anti-heroes or twists and turns.

Instead children’s books tell simple stories that often do a great job of getting to root meanings of life.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler is one of the classics that I think has held up fairly well. Claudia, a 12 year-old oldest child that feels like she is underappreciated by her parents and decides to run away. Her younger brother, Jamie, comes with her mostly for the adventure. Most kids would identify with one or both of these reasons for running away.

For Calvinism by Michael Horton

October 27, 2014 by Adam Shields

Reposting this 2011 review because the Kindle Edition is on sale for $2.99 Summary: A moderate Calvinism explained. One of the comments on the review of Against Calvinism, objected to the title. I noted in the review that Olson was not objecting to Calvinism as a whole, but particular extremes within Calvinism. Well Michael Horton, … Read more

The Good and Beautiful Life by James Bryan Smith

October 27, 2014 by Adam Shields

Summary: We are saved by grace but by grow by discipline.

I am very supportive of the Spiritual Formation work of James Bryan Smith and his mentors Dallas Willard and Richard Foster. Theologically I really do agree that a theology or spiritual practice that focuses on conversion but stops there without leading into the grace that is spiritual formation is a crippled faith.

The difficult work of spiritual work is not a straight line or the easily transferable from one person to another through ‘five simple steps to…’ types of writing.

The most important thing that I got out of the book is that Smith talked about becoming wise, not creating rules. Rules bind people, but wisdom frees people to act with the other in mind.

As I was thinking about this book I kept thinking about those that I think of as both wise and holy. I realized that all of them are old. One of the problems of a youth obsessed culture is discounting the wisdom of our elders. And one of the most important parts of that wisdom is that there are no short cuts.

Food: A Love Story by Jim Gaffigan

October 24, 2014 by Adam Shields

Summary: Funny, but read more like a series of jokes than a cohesive book.

I am not sure who introduced me to Jim Gaffigan, but I thank whoever it was. I have a tendency to be a bit overly serious and so I have to be intentional about adding humor into my world. Jim Gaffigan is my favorite stand up comic right now.

I read his Dad is Fat right after it came out last year, and bought the audiobook of Food: A Love Story on Tuesday, the day it came out.

If you are going to read a comic’s book, you should get the audiobook if they are narrating. Comics understand delivery, even if they are not professional narrators. There were a few places were it was clear that Gaffigan was reading, but most of the time the delivery was good and more similar to a stand up show than a narrated book.

That is also part of why I did not enjoy the book (and Dad is Fat) as much as I thought I would. Yes, there were lots of funny moments. And I still definitely recommend it if you are a Gaffigan fan.