Adam Shields

Wool – Books 1-3 by Hugh Howey

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Summary:  Creative post-apocalyptic independent novel.

Whenever I hear about the death of publishing I tend to 1) dismiss the claim, 2) remind the person of the enormous number of books being published every year (too many, not too few) and 3) point out that what is being disrupted is not book writing or reading, but the late 20th century model of publishing.

Wool by Hugh Howey is a good example of this.  Wool started as a 58 page short story/novella released on Amazon just in kindle format in 2011.  Response from readers lead to the next four books (each getting a bit longer), until the Omnibus edition was released with all five stories.  In total the Omnibus edition is 550 pages (but the individual books together add up to over 700 pages, not sure the difference.)

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Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI

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Summary: First of a trilogy of books about Jesus written by Pope Benedict XVI written after he became Pope.

I have heard repeatedly and from various people how good the Pope’s trilogy on Jesus is.  Since he was stepping down, I figured I should try reading one of his books.  I did not finish it before he stepped down, but I did finish it before the next Pope had been chosen (barely).

This is clearly a book worth reading for people looking for theological content about Jesus.  Benedict is focused on teaching about Jesus as God and Savior.  While he acknowledges the importance of research into historical Jesus and the culture of the 1st Century and other methods of exploring Jesus, primarily, this is an exploration of Jesus as a theological teaching tool.  Primarily he is using the Gospels as his starting point.

Part of what is impressive to me is that it is clear that he has academic chops, but this is a very readable book.  A lot of academics have important things to say.  But we need others to interpret and popularize their content so that the average person can understand.

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Deep Things of God: How The Trinity Changes Everything by Fred Sanders

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The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes EverythingTakeaway: The Trinity is who God is, not just how God reveals himself.

I am glad there is a new interest in the Trinity among the Evangelical world.  Like most things, the current revival of interest in the Trinity among Evangelicals reflects the increased academic interest in the trinity over the last 50-60 years (Barth, Rahner, Grentz, etc.).

What I find odd about the renewal of interest in the Trinity among Evangelicals is that they seem to want to not talk about recent academic writing about the Trinity.

So when I read Ryken’s book on the Trinity he wanted to talk about the Trinity as a purely individualistic issue and ignored the Trinity as a social theology (which has been the primary focus of modern Trinitarian writing.)  Ryken also primarily seemed to talk about the Trinity not as who God is, but what the Trinity means to who we are as Christians (why we need the Trinity for salvation).

Sanders does not fall into quite the same problems.  He explicitly says, “We have seen that God is triune at the deepest level, at the level of who he essentially is rather than merely at the level of what he does.” and later “God is Trinity primarily for himself and only secondarily for us. One of the consequences of this is that the Father has always been the Father, the Son has always been the Son, and the Holy Spirit has always been the Holy Spirit.”

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Wool on Wall Street Journal

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Hugh Howey, author of the Wool series, was the feature of a very good article on Wall Street Journal over the weekend.  The article is about how independent authors are changing the publishing industry.  In particular it is about how Howey was able to make more than $1 million dollars on his Wool series even … Read more

Offsite Note: Harry Potter for Charity

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Goodereader.com has a post about JK Rowling bringing two of her suplemental books about Harry Potter to ebook format for charity. Two books (Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them) were originally written as fundraiser books for the charity Comic Relief. They are now are being brought to ebook and their proceeds will again … Read more

Living the Resurrection by Eugene Peterson

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Takeaway: Good introduction to Peterson’s idea of ‘practicing resurrection’ through engagement within the church.

I am pretty invested in Amazon’s store infrastructure.  I have been a member of Amazon Prime for about two years.  Recently in addition to the free shipping that is normally a part of Amazon Prime, Amazon has included free streaming video and the ability to borrow one free Kindle book a month.  I am using this free book a month to explore books that I would not normally buy.

This month I borrowed Eugene Peterson’s Living The Resurrection.  It is a short book, only three chapters and just over 100 pages in the main text.  I would not normally spend $7.99 to purchase such a short book by an author that I have read so much before. If you have Amazon Prime and would like to explore some of Peterson’s theological writing, this is a good introduction.

I appreciate several things about Peterson’s writing.  He is biblical, he walks through extended portions of scripture and does not take them out of context to support his position.  He also is a story teller.  He insures that his point is not only biblical but well illustrated so that it is understandable by a wide range of readers.  Third, he has a strong commitment to the church and to Christian community.

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The Catholic Church: What Everyone Needs to Know by John Allen Jr

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Summary: A well written succinct account of the Catholic church.  Primarily concerned with the workings and practice of the church. Written in a question and answer format, which is wearing after awhile.

Over the past year or so I have been reading to understand more about the Catholic church.  I have read several accounts of conversion from Protestant to Catholic. I have read Robert Barron’s Introduction to Catholicism and Scott Hahn’s 40 Catholic Customs and their Biblical Roots and Richard Rohr’s Why Be Catholic.  I have read Mark Noll’s evaluation of the state of the Catholic church and Evangelical/Catholic Relations.  I even have read (but not yet reviewed) the first of the Pope’s books on Jesus.

But all of these books have been either primarily theological or primarily personal accounts of the Catholic church.  John Allen is the senior Vatican correspondant for the National Catholic Reporter and Vatican analyst for CNN.  This new introduction to the Catholic church (very conveniently released just as the conclave gets under way to elect a new Pope), is clearly the work of a journalist.

The writing is clear and punchy.  It gets straight to the point and it covers a wide swath of material.

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Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel Review

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Reposting review because the book is now available in a Kindle Edition

A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic NovelSummary: The wonderful story with a new comic book feel in honor of its 50th anniversary.

Late every Christmas Eve my wife and I go over to her cousin’s house and we act as elves.  We put together all the toys, make sure all of the batteries are in (we cart away all the empty boxes and wrapping because Santa does not buy toys at the store.

As the kids have gotten older there are less complicated things for us to put together and we have more time to talk.

I was talking to my wife’s cousin’s husband and he was saying that over the past year he has rediscovered his love of comic books because of the iPad.  With his iPad he now is back to buying all kinds of comic books and rediscovering the joy of the comic in a new form. (Note: Marvel now has an unlimited subscription option for ipad comic books.)

I never got into comics.  I just didn’t have a community of friends that read them and so there was no one that shared them with me and my local library did not carry comic books (although I am sure some do.)

I have been paying more attention to factors in children’s reading.  Why is it that some kids read and some do not.  I am convinced that part of it is the community that they grow up in.  If everyone around them reads, then they probably will read as well.  One educator interviewed kids at her school that were readers and she found that the kids that were strong readers were closest to the local library and were encouraged to use it. (There is probably a causality problem with her research, but access to books is certainly one influence.)

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Marvel Unlimited Now on iOS

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A few years ago before I started regularly blogging when I had first picked up my iPad, I started reading comic books on the iPad.  I had never read a lot of comic books. But I love the story lines that I new from cartoons and movies. What kept me from really getting into comic … Read more