Adam Shields – Page 107

The Cruelest Month: A Chief Inspector Gamache #3 by Louise Penny

February 5, 2015 by Adam Shields

Summary: When a group from Three Pines decides to have a sÃ©ance to purge the evil spirits of the Hadley house, one of the participants appears to die of fright.

I know some people like to be scared by books or movies or TV shows, I am not one of those people. I have never read a Stephen King novel, I don’t watch horror movies, I won’t watch Walking Dead no matter how many people tell me that I will like it.

So I was put off by the early part of the book. The characters in Three Pines first have a sÃ©ance for fun, then a semi-serious one to try and rid evil spirits from the Hadley House (which was connected to deaths in the previous two books.) In the end, the murder at the center of the book occurs at the second sÃ©ance, where a woman appears to have died of fright.

The first two books I enjoyed, but I thought were missing the final piece that makes me want to recommend them. This third book I loved (and the fourth that I am half way through now I love even more.)

The series is set in a small rural village filled with extraordinary people that have escaped the outside world to settle in Three Pines. There is a back story to everyone, and with the first two books it felt like that back story was sitting there and unused. It was hinted at, but without the actual story, the bruised and battered people of Three Pines (as well as the few that have found healing) were just cardboard without the additional background.

This story, about half way through, really started working on giving back story to Inspector Gamache. The case that has hung over the previous two books came to the fore. The conclusion of the book almost minimized the resolution of this murder too much to deal with the problem Gamache’s historical problem. But there was a resolution to it all, or at least enough to keep you reading the series.

When the Church Was Young: Voices of the Early Fathers by Marcellino D’Abrosio

February 4, 2015 by Adam Shields

Summary: A history and guide to early church theologians, pastors and writers.

I am sorry if you are not interested in Christian History, I think I am going to be reading a lot of it this year. The resurgence of awareness of the early Church Fathers, not only in the more traditional liturgical church settings but in the Evangelical world has given rise to a number of good books about early Church history and the actual writings of those early Christians.

After reading John Michael Talbot’s mostly memoir-ish look at the early Church fathers I decided that I wanted a more history oriented book, but still introduction level. I have read fairly in depth about the early Church Fathers on the trinity, but not on much else. (Although I have read several other than Christian history survey books that cover the era.)

When the Church Was Young fits the bill well. D’Ambrosia is Catholic and writing this in part to encourage Catholics, but this is not an exclusively Catholic view of the early church. After all, at this point it was just the Church, the major splits were yet to come, although there were certainly lots of little splits. There were a few places where I think that D’Ambrosia made too much of a leap from ancient to current Catholic and I think he started referring to all Christians as Catholic earlier than the history warrants, but with those caveats, D’Ambrosia does a good job of giving context and history to the various Church Fathers and enough of a sense of their writing to feel like you are getting more than just survey history.

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande

January 30, 2015 by Adam Shields

Summary: Our current system of caring for the elderly and sick could be better.

Mortality is something that no one really likes to consider. However, Atul Gawande, a general surgeon and author of a number of books thinks we need to spend a lot more time thinking about it. (Notice the subtle, but brilliant blade of grass on the cover.)

Being Mortal is about our end of life health and care system. Because Gawande’s father is an immigrant from India, he opens the book talking about the difference between the older systems of family care (and what is still practiced in many parts of the world including India) and our Western independence focused system of care. While Gawande thinks there are many things to be said for being around family and multi-generational living, the reality is not always good. Those that do not have children have no system, the children’ may need to give up opportunities if it requires moving away, and regardless, the elderly themselves would often prefer to be on their own.

Prior to Social Security and Medicare, most elderly were in poverty and approximately 2/3 of the residents of poor houses (think Dickens) were elderly. Those poor houses were still operating in the US until being slowly shut down in the mid-20th century.

A Fatal Grace: Chief Inspector Gamache #2 by Louise Penny

January 27, 2015 by Adam Shields

Summary: What comes around…?

When a murder mystery series is based around a small town there has to be some questions about how/why murders will disproportionately happen in this particular town.

A Fatal Grace is only the second book in a now ten book series, but Louise Penny has taken a wise path, it is not one of the insiders, but an outsider that is murdered. And connecting it to the previous murder by having her move into the house of a previous murderer/murdered victim also is a nice twist.

My main complaint about the second book (and even more so in the third book) is that it takes forever to get into the book. I keep saying I am interested in the people and the setting, but my complaint here is that Penny is taking too long to get to the murder. So there is probably something else at the root is what is not quite doing it for me.

The Honorable Schoolboy: A George Smiley Novel by John Le CarrÃ©

January 23, 2015 by Adam Shields

Summary: George Smiley is not in charge of the circus. After ferreting out a mole, Smiley can not be sure he can trust anyone.

John le CarrÃ© is an author I really like, but can be frustrating at times. I love the slow burn of his books. They are unhurried, take place over a long time, feel like real spy work and not just heroics.

But the Honorable Schoolboy also takes forever to move along and finally get anywhere. There are a ton of characters, many of which have at least one undercover name. I keep thinking I will read (instead of listening to the audiobook) one of these, but I keep listening because I find them audiobooks on sale and the kindle books never seem to go on sale.

There is a real change in this book from previous le CarrÃ© books. The narration suddenly gets is own voice occasionally. I am not opposed to the ‘omnipotent narrator’ as a story telling method. But it is new and feels a bit odd at times. The reader is being told the story from the future. The narrator knows what is going to happen and knows there is going to be regret in the end.

Lila by Marilynne Robinson (Second Reading)

January 27, 2026January 21, 2015 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: Love, in essence, is the greatest expression of Grace.

It is not often that I re-read a book so quickly after a first reading, but Lila was the best novel I read last year and I wanted to re-read fairly quickly to see if I was just swept up or if I would love it just as much the second time.

The first time I listened to the audiobook, this time I read it on kindle. I didn’t realize (because I was listening) that there are not chapters, but only pauses. That lack of formalized structure reflects Lila, who is uneducated, almost feral.

At the beginning of the book Doll takes Lila (as a young child) from the home where she was being ignored and neglected (nearly to death) and raises her the best she can. But because of that kidnapping and some other background, Doll and Lila are on the run for all of Lila’s childhood and young adult life. There is no one, except Doll, that Lila can trust; no one that really loves her.

So when Lila stumbles into Gilead and meets the elderly pastor John Ames and is loved by him (and eventually married to him) that lack of trust in the world does not end over night.

The Ancient Path: Old Lessons from the Church Fathers for a New Life Today by John Michael Talbot with Mike Aquilina

January 20, 2015 by Adam Shields

Summary: John Michael Talbot’s memoir-ish look at how the Early Church Fathers changed his faith.

I grew up Evangelical, I went to an Evangelical College and seminary. But honestly other than a couple of songs I don’t really know anything about John Michael Talbot. I have always kind of thought of him as similar to Michael Card. They both are known for writing theologically sophisticated Christian music that I don’t really listen to. This book has made me re-think my previous uninformed opinion.

The Ancient Path is half memoir and half exploration of the early Church Fathers. I really was assuming that this would be more exploration of the church father’s writing, but the memoir parts were an unexpected help.

John Michael Talbot dropped out of school at 15 and was in a band with his brother. After an early marriage and a conversion to Christianity through the Jesus Movement, Talbot became an early CCM musician. But his marriage still fell apart. He started meeting with a Franciscan spiritual director and eventually, in large part through his studying of the Early Church Fathers Talbot converted to Catholicism and later founded a lay monastic community that invited both married and single Catholics and other Christians to live and serve in community.

Letter from a Birmingham Jail

January 19, 2015 by Adam Shields

The first time I remember reading Letter from a Birmingham Jail was in Divinity School pastoral ministry class. And while I have read portions of it since, I am not sure I have read it straight through again until this morning. Letter from a Birmingham Jail is both convicting and relevant right now. Protests are … Read more

Still Life: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel by Louise Penny

January 19, 2015 by Adam Shields

Summary: A town too small to show up on most maps has a woman shot dead by an arrow.

After talking about my love of the Bruno Chief of Polic series, Sheila Brennan suggested I try the Inspector Gamache books. I was vaguely aware of the series (it had come up as an Amazon recommendation) and somehow I got the impression that it was an older series. (I think I may have confused it with the Jules Maigret series). But as much of my reading lately, Still Life was on Scribd so I picked it up.

Still Life opens up with the characters in Three Pines, a small village outside of Montreal. After a fairly quick introduction to several characters, Jane is found dead and Chief Inspector Gamache is called in to investigate the death. Like the Bruno series, at least part of the interest for me is comparing the different legal systems. Gamache is the head of a team of homicide detectives for a regional police system. It is his job to go to the area and set up shop until the crime is solved.

Because Gamache basically moves in to the community, and sees his job as primarily watching and listening to people, there is a lot of space for character development and understanding the setting. There are more main characters than in the Bruno series. And at least initially in this book, there is a lot of assumed backstory for Gamache that is hinted at, but not actually revealed. My assumption is that more of the back story will come up later in the series. The tenth book in the series was published last fall.

The God of the Mundane: Reflections on Ordinary Life by Matthew Redmond

January 17, 2015 by Adam Shields

Reposting my 2013 review because God of the Mundane is free at NoiseTrade in mobi (kindle format), PDF or epub.
Takeaway: God is the God of our every day mundane tasks and activities just as much (if not more so) than the mountaintop or special times.

If I were going to write a book (which I have no intention of attempting), this is the book I would want to write. Since Matthew Redmond has already written it I am off the hook.

For the past couple years I have told people that I am attempting to live an ordinary life. It is not that I don’t want to change the world. It is that I think the way that we are Christians are most effective at changing the world is living as faithful ordinary Christians.