Adam Shields

Takeaway: The Psalms are an important part of historic worship and the modern church needs to work to keep them apart of our current worship.

Five years ago, if you had asked me what my least favorite part of the bible is, I would have probably said the Psalms.  I might have said the lists genealogies or Numbers, but most likely I would have said Psalms.

However, The Case for the Psalms is the third book on the Psalms I have read this year and I am moving toward a greater appreciation of the role of the Psalms, not only as illustrations of the range of biblical expression but as important centers for Christian worship and theology.

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Reposting the review because the Audiobook is the Audible Daily Deal for Dec 3 – $5.95

Takeaway: The history of cancer is a good proxy for the history of medicine.

The Emperor of All Maladies deserves all of the praise (and the Pulitzer) it has received.

Like most really good popular non-fiction books, it understands the necessary balance between the presenting facts and telling stories.

Almost every times I started to get slightly bored by the science or history, the author told a story.  But the stories never took over the book, they only supplemented the history or science.

What I found most interesting about the book was how often cancer was a part of technical innovation that affected others areas.  Medicine was improved because of surgery to removed cancer.  Cancer clinical trials were the root of a lot of changes in mathematics, social science research and insurance modeling.  Human trials and medical ethics were expanded and changed and re-evaluated throughout medical history in large part because of cancer research.

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