Book Reviews

Summary: A young adult retelling of Beauty and the Beast.  Although it feels more like a retelling of the Disney movie than the original story.

YA sync is a program that matches an old book to a thematically similar new book and gives both audiobooks away during the summer.  It is a great program to introduce teens to both new and old books that they might not find another way.  (The 2014 summer schedule has been released and it includes Corrie ten Boom’s The Hiding Place.)

I picked up Beastly two or three years ago through YA Sync but until now had not listened it.  Beastly is a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast story.  I read the original short story a while ago.  So I am familiar with both the Disney and original story and this feels more like the Disney than the original (although Disney is pretty true to the original.)

Kyle is a spoiled, rich 16 year old.  His father is a network news anchor that has no time for Kyle.  His mother ran off years ago.  After being mean to a girl at school (asking her to the dance and then publicly standing her up at the entrance to the dance) he is cursed and turned into a beast.  He has two years to get someone to love him and kiss him or else the curse will become permanent.

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Reposting this 2012 review because the Kindle and Audible Audiobooks are free for the month of March as part of a promotion of whispersync. See the bottom of the review for details.

Summary: Sherlock Holmes solves a murder.

After reading the Picture of Dorian Gray, I decided to move onto The Sign of Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.  Like so many classics, I am familiar with Sherlock Holmes, but I have not actually read more than one or two short stories.  This is a full book, about the same length as Dorian Gray and as I found out when looking into Dorian Gray, they were both commissioned at the same dinner meeting with an editor of a monthly literary journal.

Both Wilde and Doyle submitted stories and both were eventually published as full length book in 1890.

The Sign of Four opens with Holmes doing drugs (cocaine in this case, but it is clear from the story that Homes also was doing heroin).  Holmes claimed to a very concerned Watson, it was his only option when there were no cases.

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Summary: The book that coined the word cyberspace turns 30 this year.  Arguably the start of the cyberpunk movement.

Growing up, my go-to genres were Science Fiction, Fantasy and Biography. All three of which I still have a great fondness for, even though I have have greatly expanded my literary palate.

Neuromancer is one of those books that is referred to by so many that I feel like I should have read it by now.  I have read a number of other cyberpunk books but not this one that is now 30 years old.

If you have not heard of cyberpunk but have heard of Neuromancer, it is because William Gibson coined the word cyberspace in its pages.

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Summary: Using the book of Ruth to explore relationships as a Christian.

When I was offered this book to review, I was excited. I have read Miller’s previous book, A Praying Life, twice and highly recommend it as a practical guide on prayer.

But as much as it grieves me I had to really force myself to finish the book. Others might not be as irritated as I was, but it seemed to hit all of my major issues with Christian Living books. First, it attempts to use historical research and language study to try and establish authority and background on the book of Ruth. I am not opposed to this, strongly support this. But Miller seems to spend more time reading modern culture back onto the book of Ruth than using historical research to illuminate us modern readers. And his lack of academic skills shows through. This is reminiscent of a pastor that has a read a lot of commentaries and taken a few hebrew words and cultural concepts and pulled far more out of them than what is really warranted.

Second, Miller repeatedly over simplifies problems, which then leads to overly simplified answers. One good example:

“Our modern age creates categories…and then traps people in them. For instance if we label 2 year olds with ‘Terrible twos’ then they are no longer responsible. So when they lose their tempers they are just exhibiting the ‘terrible twos’ instead of sin in need of discipline. Labeling returns us to the rigid world of paganism which freezes everyone into a category, ethnic group, occupation or social status.”

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The Columbine High School massacre took place on April 20, 1999 in Columbine, Colorado.  It has been almost 15 years since the lives of 12 students and 1 teacher were taken, yet what this book shows is that there are still many misconceptions about what happened leading up to the massacre, what happened at the school that day, and what has happened since then.  Even though Dave Cullen, a respected journalist, is a part of the world of media, he makes it very clear that the media is, in part, very much to blame for these misconceptions.

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Summary: A very helpful book, when used rightly.

When Helping Hurts is a book that has really changed the way that many have looked at Christian social ministry and short term missions. But I have been reluctant to read it. Not because I thought it would be a bad book but because I feared how it misused. However, since christianaudio has it as the free book for February 2014, I thought it would be a good time to read and review it.

First a bit of background on me and how I am reading it. I have a Masters in Social Service Administration (like an MSW, but administratively focused.) I have been a consultant for small church based non-profits since 1997. Initially working for a denominational office, I spun off my work into an independent organization when the denominational office ran out of funding for my position.  My wife was also a short term volunteer coordinator for almost a year before we were married at the same denominational office.

So I do not come at this book ignorant of how Christians have approached social ministry or short term missions nor the current best practices for Christian ministry. I can tell you that this book (and several similar like Toxic Charity by Robert Lupton) have made a difference. Many funders and staff at non-profits have read these and really want to focus on doing the best work for the kingdom of Christ.

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The Road to Serfdom’s status as a classic of economic and political philosophy is well-deserved. Hayek makes political theory compelling as he describes the dire consequences of the schemes of central planners. An Austrian, he wrote from a unique vantage point, having spent his early life in eastern European nations that were far down the socialist rabbit hole and his later life in England when it was still committed to individual liberty and political freedom. He experienced the consequences of socialism and fascism as they matured in his country of birth, and realized while in England that the West was in the early stages of accepting the same premises and committing the same mistakes that so devastated eastern Europe.

While the writing is mostly theoretical and occasionally dry, the benefit is that it does not come across as polemical or ideological in any negative sense. If anything, Hayek is ideological in that he is driven by ideas–ideas that have had direct and disastrous consequences in front of his very eyes, and vice versa. Central planning is the height of political, intellectual and moral arrogance: The very idea that so-called experts can adequately plan an economy at a national level is patently absurd, not to mention immoral, and Hayek patiently and deliberately walks the reader through all the implications, assumptions and consequences involved. Anyone interested in true equality under the law, in freedom to organize one’s life according to one’s own principles, in genuine justice, cannot but oppose the vision of the central planners. Individual liberty, Hayek shows, must be the foundation of a free and just society.

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Summary: A Catholic understanding of the role of spiritual direction.

One of the most important reasons to regularly read outside your stream of Christianity is that the same words or concepts are treated differently because of the experience of the different stream of faith.  That difference can often spark new understanding, or at least fresh perspective on your own stream.

So I have read several books about spiritual direction, but none previous to this from a particularly Catholic perspective.  Regular readers of this blog may know that I started seeing a spiritual director early last fall.  I am still trying to work through my role in (and the full purpose of) spiritual direction.

Because this book is written particularly to Catholics (as opposed to for Christians but by a Catholic) there are some differences in perspective (no Protestant book on spiritual direction would include a section on Mary as the exemplary pathway to Jesus).  But overwhelmingly this book is helpful to both Protestant and Catholics that are interested in spiritual direction if you read it generously.

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