Book Reviews

Death Masks by Jim Butcher

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Summary: Dresden, not quite as much of a mess this time, is searching for the Shroud of Turin, everyone else is trying to kill him.

Dresden is Chicago’s only professional Wizard.  Essentially he is a Private Investigator for supernatural issues.  That is when he is actually working and not trying to save the world from certain destruction.

Death Masks comes fairly closely on the heals of Summer Knight.  The Red Court (the vampires) have declared war on the White Court (the Wizards) and in particular on Dresden. So the vampires are still trying to kill him.  The local crime lord,who Dresden has previously had an uneasy truce with, seems to have some of his goons after him as well.  And Susan, his (maybe ex) fiancée who is part way through her transformation to a vampire herself after trying to save Dresden in book 3, is back in town.

All of that is in addition to an actual job, finding the Shroud of Turin, which was recently stolen.

Michael, a Knight of the Cross, who was last in Grave Peril (#3) and is one of my favorite characters, is back.  Michael is Catholic and devout and carries a sword around while defeating evil, raising his brood of kids, working as a contractor and keeping his wife happy.  This time he is joined by two other Knights that are trying to save Dresden.

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The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

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The Complete Sherlock Holmes: The Heirloom Collection is indeed the complete collection of Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle. All four of his novels are included as are all of his short stories. From reading the novels and many of the short stories, one can discover exactly how Sherlock and Watson have become the beloved detective and sidekick that we know them as today. You can also see how some images or characteristics of the detective may be more accurate than others.

Admittedly, since the collection is almost sixty hours of listening I read not all of it but A Study in Scarlet, The Sign of Four, The Hounds of Baskerville, all of the Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, a few from the Memoirs of Sherlock of Holmes, including the one where he supposedly dies along with Moriarty, and the short story entitled The Empty House, which is the one in which he makes his triumphant return. It is my opinion that no adaptation or at least no adaptation of the 21st Century has gotten the character of Sherlock Holmes wholly correct. Some adaptations, especially the older ones, have painted him as simply serious crime solver. Some make him out to be an anti-social, strange inventor and boxer/badass (Sherlock Holmes movies of 2009 and 2011). Others turn him into a genius that is so weird that he could possible suffer from Asperger’s and couldn’t function without the help from Watson (BBC’s Sherlock). It is my impression that while many of these characteristics are based on Conan Doyle’s original Holmes that they are exaggerated depending on the focus or feel of the movie.

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Strip Tease by Carl Hiaasen

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Summary: A farcical skewering of politicians, money and regular people trying to make a living.

A few months ago Audible was having a buy one get one free sale.  One of the options was Strip Tease. I couldn’t really find anything to match with the other book that I did want, so I threw it in my cart as a free extra.

I have read two other Hiaasen books, but it has been a while.  I remembered them as funny, sort of mysteries concerned primarily with local Florida issues.  After I was about half way through Strip Tease I went back and read my previous reviews.  I was not kind.  I thought the characters were basically unlikable and while the writing was ok, there was very little redeeming value in the books.  And basically I feel the same about Strip Tease.

Strip Tease is primarily about Erin, a young divorced mother who is working as a stripper because it is the only way she can earn enough money to pay her lawyer to try and get back her daughter from her dirtbag ex-husband.

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Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

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Ready Player One

Summary: A classic young adult quest novel based in 2044, but built on 1980s culture.  A fun book for both adults that lived the 1980s and teens that were years from being born.

My Sister-in-Law introduced me to this book.  Published last August it was several lists of the best of 2011, but I had not heard of it until her recommendation.

Wade is living in 2044.  The US has degenerated into lawlessness.  The world economy is in ruins because of huge shortages in oil, energy, water and food.

The world is falling apart, but there is one consolation, Oasis.  The Oasis is an immersive online world.  Most people now live more in the Oasis than in the real world.  Students go to school in the Oasis, adults work in the Oasis, everyone escapes reality in the Oasis.

The creator of the Oasis is James Halliday.  Five years before the start of the book, Halliday died and left his enormous fortune and the entire company to whomever solves his puzzle.  Wade (his avatar is named Parzival in the Oasis) and many others have made it their goal to solve the puzzle.  It is their lottery, their work, their only hope.

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The Fall of Interpretation: Philosophical Foundations for a Creational Hermeneutic by James KA Smith

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1404896221_0.pngSummary: Maybe our need for interpretation and our finiteness as humans is a feature of our creation, not a consequence of the fall.

The more I read James KA Smith, the more I appreciate his perspective.

The Fall of Interpretation was Smith’s first book.  It was an adaptation of his Ph.D. dissertation that he lightly edited and re-released in 2012.  Last fall, it was briefly on sale, and I picked it up because it was written by Smith, without really knowing what it was about.

Like normal for Smith, this is a book that has way more philosophy than I understand.  But also, like normal, I can follow the argument without always understanding some of the minor details.

Smith’s argument is “To be human is to interpret, to encounter the world and entities within the world” and “something of an encounter conditioned by the situationally of human finitude”.  He is suggesting that our finitude is not something to be overcome, but something to be embraced as a feature of our creation.  (Yes, the language can be a bit overly academic, but it is understandable.)

The problem is that,

“At root (and roots, of course, are usually buried, unseen and hidden) the linking of interpretation to fallenness may be understood as the product of a dominant Western interpretive tradition, a broadly neoplatonic understanding of creation and Fall, an understanding that is itself an interpretation. I believe that this tradition, which has significantly influenced aspects of the Christian tradition, remains plagued by an incipient Neoplatonism (or gnosticism) that continues to construe creational finitude and human be-ing as “essentially” fallen and therefore ties hermeneutics to such a corrupted condition.”

What was important about this book for me was his discussion of the finiteness of humanity.

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MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors by Richard Hooker

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Summary: Basis of the movie and beloved TV show, and well mined by them both for ideas.

Every night my senior year of college MASH was on at 10 PM and was watched by whoever happened to be around.  Long before that I had seen most of the episodes, but it is a testament to its quality that college kids were devoted fans to a show that started the year before most of us were born.

Last week the novel was the Audible deal of the day so I picked it up.  And mostly I enjoyed it.

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The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde

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Summary: A farce in the style of PG Wodehouse (or vice versa) poking fun at the triviality of Victorian society.

I know that Wilde has the reputation of being funny, but the only other work of his that I have read was the Portrait of Dorian Gray.  And while I appreciated the book, I did not think it was great and it certainly is not a comedy.

The Importance of Being Earnest is a comedy.  It is also a play and it has been a while since I have read a play with stage directions and character dialogue.  And I am not sure I have ever listened to an audiobook of a play, which is what I did here.

Two friends both are leading double lives, in part because they can.  Algernon is meeting with his friend who is known as Earnest.  Earnest wants to propose to Algernon’s cousin, but Algernon discovers that Earnest’s cigarette case has the inscription “From little Cecily, with her fondest love to her dear Uncle Jack.”  So Earnest admits that he is actually named Jack (or John) but uses the name Earnest when he comes to London to get away from his country house.

Algernon admits a similar deception when he wants to get away from London, he pretends to visit a sick friend named Bunbury.

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Life’s Biggest Questions: What the Bible Says about the Things That Matter Most by Erik Thoennes

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I am reposting this 2011 review because Life’s Biggest Questions is part of the July $3.99 or Less Kindle sale. It is $1.99 through the end of July 2014 Takeaway: Basic Introduction to Systematic Theology does not need to be hard to read. This book has been sitting on my self waiting for me to … Read more

Heirs and Graces by Rhys Bowen (Her Royal Spyness #6)

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Summary: Georgie is tasked by the Queen to help with the transition of lost distant relative to his new role as heir to a Duke. (Of course someone ends up dead.)

Over the last six months I have read all six of the Her Royal Spyness books that have been written.  The series is a fun, cozy mystery series that frequently pays homage to great British mystery writers.  The first book was a clear homage to Dorothy Sayers.  Sherlock Holmes has been mentioned throughout the books.  And the last two book have had hints of Agitha Cristie.

That is not to say the plots are stolen, they are not.  But that slight feeling exists that Rhys Bowen is trying to honor those that have gone before her by dropping in little scene hints or clues.  If I were more versed on classic British mysteries, I am sure there are more that I would get.

In Heirs and Graces, the book opens with Georgie’s latest venture, secretary to her mother as her mother attempts to write a memoir.  But as should be predicted, her mother either can’t talk about many of the interesting events of her life or wants to go shopping and not do the hard work on writing.  So Georgie is left yet again without a means of supporting herself, or a place to live.

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A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L’Engle (Austin Family #4)

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Summary: Death, Life, Meaning and other light topics.

Nothing reminds me more of the importance of not wasting time on bad books like reading a really good book. I cannot tell you why I have not read everything that Madeleine L’Engle has written by now. I have had the time, but I haven’t done it. I need to rectify the situation.

A couple years ago I blogged through the Time Quintet and then a couple of stand alone early novels. I picked up the first of the Austin Family books and was not excited about it. So it took me a while to read another.

I skipped to A Ring of Endless Light because I picked it up on kindle a while ago while it was on sale. But I actually ended up listening to it on audiobook from the library.

The Austin family series is focused on a family of 4 kids and their parents. There is nothing apparently special about the family except that they seem to be a pretty healthy, well-loved family.

All of A Ring of Endless Light is set on Seven Bay Island. This is the home of their Grandfather. Every summer they usually spend time with their wise retired pastor/missionary/scholar grandfather. This summer they are spending the whole summer because their grandfather is dying.

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