Book Reviews

Takeaway: Stories make a difference. Listening to how people change their mind over difficult issues is a good exercise whether you are interested in this particular issue or not.

I will tell you up front, I am in favor of the ordination of women. The only theological issue that I have with my current church (which I love) is that women are not ordained and do not serve on the Board of Elders (although there are a significant numbers of women staff).

I first heard of this book when John Armstrong blogged about it (he wrote the first chapter.) It has taken me five months to get around to reading it, but I very enthusiastically encourage you to listen to these stories no matter what your position.

Of course it is a bit repetitive (there are 22 chapters by 26 separate people, several couples jointly wrote chapters.) But I think it is repetitive in a good way, because there are many people that have similar stories about how they have come to understand that women in church leadership is a good and appropriate direction for the church as a whole.

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Summary: Story of a young German girl during World War II who finds meaning through stealing books.

It is always hard to come to a book with high expectations.  The Book Thief has won a ton of prizes, lots of people list it as one of their all time favorite books.  But it was just not on my radar when it came out in 2006.

The Book Thief tells the story of Liesel, who is 9 years old at the beginning of the story.  The story is narrated by Death, who does not really reveal himself until late in the book, but it is clear who he is.

Death first met Liesel when her brother dies on a train.  Liesel steals a book (that was dropped in the snow) during her brother’s funeral.  That book becomes a totem of her brother and when Liesel is left with a foster family, it is that book (and the love of her foster father who eventually teaches her to read) that brings her through the nightmares of her brother’s death and her mother’s abandonment.

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Summary: Gregor leave New York to find his baby sister Boots, who has been kidnapped.

A few months ago, Gregor and his 2 year old sister Boots were sucked into the Underworld.  There giant Rats, Cockroaches, Bats compete, along with Humans to survive and thrive in a vast world of caves, underground rivers and seas.

After rescuing his missing father, Gregor and his sister return to their home in New York City.  But on a sledding trip in Central Park, Boots is kidnapped and Gregor has to go save her.

It is not too long before we find out that Boots was kidnapped for her own safety by the Cockroaches (who are devoted to Boots) to save her from the Rats that are trying to kill her.

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Summary: Evangelical Philosopher tells his story of conversion to Catholicism.

Over the past 18 months or so I have been reading a variety of books about Catholicism.  This was partially sparked by a friend that became Catholic, but just as much it is about understanding a large segment of the church that I do not have real experience with.

If we take John 17 seriously, then Jesus was praying that the church (universal) be one.  And a church that does not at least strive to understand those that are in different streams cannot be one.  So I read one or two books a month outside of my Evangelical background to better understand parts of the church that are outside of my experience.

I have found that conversion stories are particularly helpful.  In part because people that convert out of the evangelical world still understand it and are well placed to be able to speak in a language that Evangelicals will understand and can act as mediators between the worlds.

Francis Beckwith is a Christian philosopher, former head of the Evangelical Theological Society and current professor at Baylor University.  This is a short book.  I remember the small dust up his conversion caused in 2007.  But I have not actually read anything by him previously and did not really know much about his work.

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Summary: An 11 year old boy and his sister get suck to a world beneath and realize that their missing father needs them to find him.

I first noticed the Underland Chronicles when looking to see what Suzanne Collins had written beside the Hunger Games Trilogy.  I have been trying to spend less money on books lately (I have a baby coming) and trying to check more books out of the library and read more from the To Read Pile that I already own, so I picked this up because it was at the library.

Gregor the Overlander is clearly a middle grade book, one of that in between age that is neither children’s nor young adult.  And yet again, I will say I tend to not like middle grade books nearly as much as young adult books.

But this is one that moved quickly and in spite of the fact that it is over 300 pages (or 6 and a half hours of audio) I finished it in just over a day.  I actually thought I might have missed a section when I realized I was almost at the end (I didn’t).

Like the Percy Jackson and Book of Three and Wrinkle in Time middle grade series, these are based around a quest.  It is a simple structure, no real sub-plots or significant twists.

Gregor is 11 year old.  His father disappeared without a trace two years ago.  Gregor is the oldest of three.  It is summer and his younger sister is going to camp, but Gregor has to stay home to take care of his forgetful grandmother and his two year old baby sister so his mom can work and support the family.

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Takeaway: I am glad that we have moved past the point where children’s books have to be completely wholesome and teach morals.  Because they can be a bit boring.

Over the last few years I have been trying to read more old books.  Originally published in 1960, Meet the Austins gets counted as an old book because it was published before I was born.

I have read more of L’Engle’s books than just the Wrinkle in Time series as a child, but I had not read Meet the Austins.  Meet the Austins feels like a mid 20th century children’s book.

L’Engle’s Camilia and And Both Were Young were written before this book, but were much more young adult than children’s and they did not feel as dated.

There is just not much that happens in this book.  The Austins are a happy family.  There are four children, John, Vicky, Suzy and Rob.  Wally (the father) is a rural country doctor.  Victoria is the mother.

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Reposting the review of Redshirts because it won the 2013 Hugo Award on Sept 1.

Summary: The Redshirts realize they keep dying.

If you are a fan of science fiction, you probably get the joke about redshirts. In the original Star Trek whenever there was an away team that visited another planet or ship, there was usually one extra person (that was wearing a redshirt). The extra person was supposed to be just a general crew member, but it was almost always that person that got killed or hurt.

In this book, Scalzi takes the idea of the Star Trek meme and writes a world where the redshirts are aware of the problem and try to avoid the captain and upper officers as much as possible.

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