Book Reviews

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.

Read more

The mainstream narrative of evolutionary science is that man developed slowly, progressively, linearly””over hundreds of thousands of years, ever advancing in health, intelligence, life expectancy, etc. Thus, compared to the advanced modern specimens, Neanderthal man had a shorter life span, a more primitive mind and body, and a lower capacity for culture and civilization. He was altogether inferior to modern man.

In the late 70s and 80s, Dr. Jack Cuozzo was granted unprecedented access to the world-famous Neanderthal skulls in a few European museums, where he took comprehensive scans using new x-ray technology developed by a fellow scientist. With the eye of an experienced dentist, Cuozzo began analyzing the physical evidence for ancient man. As a creationist and a Christian, Cuozzo was not committed to the ideological biases and philosophical blind spots that plague most of modern science. He began to notice indicators in the scientific record that appeared to conflict with the evolutionary paradigm. Many anthropologists and dental experts simply ignored pieces of evidence that contradicted mainstream thought””and in some cases, Cuozzo charges, they actually falsified data and bone layouts.

Read more

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.

Read more

During World War II, the unexpected heroes of the Pacific front were the Coastwatchers in the Solomon Islands, located off the northeast coast of Australia. These non-military volunteers–“government officials, plantation managers, gold miners, a department store buyer, a pub keeper, an accountant, a rancher”–were tasked with monitoring Japanese activity and reporting useful data to the Allies. They lived discreetly behind enemy lines, dealing with natives of ever-changing loyalties, constantly moving their cumbersome radio equipment around the islands to stay one step ahead of the Japanese, rescuing and caring for downed Allied pilots, and providing a steady stream of valuable geographic data about the islands to the commanders.

Read more

Summary: A near retirement age Ender has to deal with another attempt at Xenocide, this time against two alien species and all of Ender’s family may die in the process.

I always warn people when I talk about my love of Ender’s Game that the rest of the series is very different from the first book.

Ender’s Game is young adult book  But Speaker for the Dead, Xenocide and Children of the Mind are not.  They are fairly serious adult oriented science fiction book that are as much about the ideas as the story line.

Which is I think the point of the xkcd comic about Xenocide being a lesser book.

After re-reading Ender’s Game I wanted to read more of the series again.  I skipped Speaker for the Dead, because I have read it nearly as many times as Ender’s Game.

Xenocide picks up right after Speaker for the Dead, or at least a spaceship ride after Speaker for the Dead.  That one ride ends up being 30 years for Ender and the world he is on and only a few weeks for Milo (Ender’s step son).

The central government has sent ships to destroy the world that Ender is on. That world is home to the first new species discovered since the Formics.  And unknown to anyone else, it is the new home to the Formics as well.

Read more