Savor: Living Abundantly Where You Are by Shauna Niequist

Reposting this review from earlier this year because but the Kindle Edition is on sale for $1.99. Savor: Living Abundantly Where You Are is the first devotional written by essayist, blogger and speaker, Shauna Niequist. Niequist has authored the wildly popular books “Cold Tangerines, “Bittersweet” and “Bread & Wine“. (Last two reviewed by Bookwi.se) Savor is … Read more

Simply Tuesday: Small Moment Living in a Fast Moving World by Emily Freeman

We live in a world touting the maxim “œbigger (or more) is better”; bigger homes, bigger bank accounts, more clothes, bigger status, bigger dreams, more aspirations, etc. Tremendous pressure exists to achieve and produce big things. This mindset is evident in many of our spiritual lives as well. Many blog posts, books and some sermons actively encourage believers to accomplish big things for the Kingdom and for God. Emily Freeman‘s latest release, “œSimply Tuesday“ suggests the opposite.

Freeman suggests real life happens within the small moments of the everyday. An ordinary day, like Tuesday can, and often does, contain the moments worth holding on to. We need to be reminded we weren’t called or made to do it all”¦just our part. “œThe soul and the schedule don’t follow the same rules”.

Freeman’s work runs counter to the current culture we’re experiencing of “œmore”. Consider a sampling of chapter titles from “œSimply Tuesday”: Stairwells & Stages: Learning to Receive the Gift of Obscurity, Community & Competition: Finding Safe Places to Feel Insecure, Children & Grown-Ups: An Invitation to Move Downward with Gladness. The author reminds her audience of the beauty in living small, ordinary lives and illustrates the life of Christ as an example. Ministry happens in the small moments too.

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Letters From a Skeptic by Greg Boyd

Reposting this 2013 review because the Kindle Edition is free In 1989 Greg Boyd was teaching Christian apologetics at Bethel University. He hadn’t discussed his Christian faith with his father much, if at all, since he’d last tried years before when he was in his late teens and recently converted. So he decided to try … Read more

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

Summary: “œLydia is dead. But they don’t know that yet.” As the Lee family sits down for breakfast one morning in their small Ohio town, they learn their teenage daughter is dead. Was it suicide? An accident? Or did the neighbor boy have something to do with it? Celeste Ng’s debut novel, “œEverything I Never … Read more

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

Reposting this 2012 review because the Kindle Edition is on sale for $2.25. There is a sale of University of Chicago Press books including books by Friedman, Tocqueville, Tillich and more. There is not an announcement that I have seen, but this is the list of U of C Press books sorted by price. Summary: One of the most important books in … Read more

Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street

I am reposting Seth Simmons 2013 review because the Kindle Edition is on sale (probably only today) for $1.99. There is also an earlier 2009 review by Adam Shields
Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street This is a difficult book to classify, and thus to review. It’s not a book of economics, but rather about economics, particularly the modern focus on mathematics to the exclusion of ethics. It’s pretty abstract and philosophical. I almost gave up a number of times in the first 150 pages, as I slogged through Sedlacek picking out and commenting on the economic bread crumbs found in the most ancient of literature, the Epic of Gilgamesh, followed by Greek thought, Stoicism, historic Christianity, and the Enlightenment thought of Hume, Descartes, and Adam Smith.

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Is Dark Places Another Cinematic Hit for Gillian Flynn?

Dark Places movieDark Places author Gillian Flynn is no stranger to exploring the shadowy side of human nature. After the success of Gone Girl in theaters, many people are anticipating this sophomore outing in films for the rising star author. While it is unlikely to match the almost perfect madness of Gone Girl, there is more than enough to indicate that Dark Places will be a wild ride for psychological thriller fans.

The new film starring Charlize Theron as Libby Day, sole survivor of the gruesome murder of her family 25 years prior, is presented with an opportunity to help a group of true crime obsessives, aptly named “œThe Kill Club,” uncover the truth of what really happened that fateful night. This triggers a series of flashbacks and an investigation that leads Libby to believe that her brother, whom she had testified against under pressure from lawyers and the media, was actually innocent and the true murderer walked away that day.

The premise is interesting and in the hands of a director more accustomed to risk than Gilles Paquet-Brenner it could really shine on the screen. Unfortunately while Paquet-Brenner is a fine director, he doesn’t have the willingness to try new things with narrative that Fincher did which helped make Gone Girl so good.

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