Book Reviews – Page 134

From Russia With Love by Ian Fleming

July 2, 2013 by Adam Shields

Summary: Bond knowingly walks into a trap and still manages to get caught.

Just over a week ago all of the James Bond novels were on sale in kindle format. So I decided to pick up two more. I was frustrated with the last James Bond novel I read, Goldfinger, because it was so cartoonish in its story line.

But I thought maybe an earlier novel will be better. So I borrowed the kindle version of From Russia With Love from Lendle.me and then used promotional Audible credit to get the audiobook.

The story line is that SPECTER, the Russian black ops group, wants to kill a western spy to teach the west a lesson. Bond is the one that is chosen and a young female agent is trained to seduce him and a British turncoat is chosen to kill him.

The Art of Letting Go: Living the Wisdom of St Francis

July 1, 2013 by Adam Shields

Summary: Series of lectures on spiritual development.

Over the last couple months I have come to the conclusion that Evangelicals (of whom I am one) are good at sharing the gospel and keeping the importance of conversion squarely in their sights.

But I have also come to see that groups that assume the large scale Christianity of their communities (those that have been state churches) have done much more thinking about how to live as a Christian.

It is cliche (and I think at least partially true) that Evangelicals are interested in you up until your conversion. After that I think we fall into the Paul problem of continuing to feed one another spiritual milk. We are still trying to save one another. But I think those that theologically are more oriented toward infant baptism and Christendom have thought more about living as a Christian. (The negative for them is that they also now need to evangelize their own as Christendom has broken down.)

Hungry for God: Hearing God’s Voice in the Ordinary and Everyday by Margaret Feinberg

June 28, 2013 by Adam Shields

So how do you review a book that you were supposed to review 2 years ago? I received a copy of the book from Amazon with my first Amazon Vine review. And I put it aside to read later. (It is one of my problems that I tend to have a problem getting to actual physical paper books that I am supposed to review. I am much better about reviewing books if I have a kindle version.)

Eventually I gave away the paperback and bought a kindle version when it was on sale. But it still took me over a year to read it.

And once I have read it? It is a perfectly good book. It is short, well written and about hearing from God and orienting yourself to hear from God.

It is good. There isn’t anything particularly original about it. There are lots of books that are essentially about spiritual disciplines, trying to focus on God, in the end, how to be a Christian.

Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

August 23, 2025June 27, 2013 by Adam Shields

Summary: Good writing, mixed storyline.

I picked up the audiobook of Where’d You Go, Bernadette from the library because I thought it has been nominated for an Audie Award.(It was not, I was thinking of Beautiful Ruins).

I am very mixed on the book. Where’d You Go, Bernadette is a satire about the problems up the top 1% in Seattle. The problem is that it fails as satire.

As a story it isn’t bad. But the attempt at satire pushed the characters into a place where they were unlikable for much of the book. Bernadette is an architect, former winner of a MacArthur Genius Grant, wife and mother of Bee. Elgin, her husband, is a genius in his own right. Microsoft bought out his company 20 years ago and he is now the head of a big robotics research project and fully invested in the Seattle lifestyle.

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

June 26, 2013 by All Old Users

The Count of Monte Cristo is a really really really long novel. I checked and at 46 hours it is the longest novel that I have listened to. 1Q84 is at a very close second. Perhaps it can be said that 1Q84 was also very long, too long, but I enjoyed it much more and did not feel like it was a chore to listen to. Since The Great Gatsby was a short and concise novel, the movie was able to stick fairly closely to the novel. The 2002 movie version of The Count of Monte Cristo was very different from the actual novel, and who can blame the filmmakers from trying their best to take such a long story and make it into a movie lasting slightly over two hours.

The Complete Thinker: The Marvelous Mind of GK Chesterton

June 25, 2013 by All Old Users

Dale Ahlquist would rather be reading Chesterton than reading anyone else, and he wants to bring us, his readers, to the same place. I will readily affirm that this book greatly magnified my appetite for reading Chesterton–and it was already high–if for no other reason than the sheer volume of topics that Chesterton wrote about. He was one of the most prolific writers of the last 100 years, and literally every view he expressed–on any topic–was cohesive, internally consistent, and related to all his other views. He was able to discern the true heart of an issue and to describe it with a clarity of insight that was often surprising in its simplicity.

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

June 24, 2013 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: Fairytales are important, especially for adults.

We need more fairy tales in the world. And I don’t mean either vampire paranormal tales or moralistic children’s stories. I mean stories that show the world we see as part of a greater world. Stories that get at the real meaning of life. Stories that you can lose yourself in. There are lots of great authors, but few people that write fairy tales.

Gaiman is the best modern fairytale writer that I know of. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is either my second or third most favorite book by Gaiman. I think Stardust is his best (also a great fairy tale for adults). And this vies with Neverwhere as his second best book.

Catholic Spiritual Practices: A Treasury of Old and New

June 13, 2013 by Adam Shields

Summary: Short introductions to a variety of spiritual practices. This book is good for what it is, concise introductions to spiritual practices. But the problem is that I am not sure who should read it. When most people are interested in doing many of these spiritual practices, they want more than a cursory introduction. And … Read more

Volcanoes by Nicole Hamlett (A Grace Murphy Novel)

June 11, 2013 by Adam Shields

Summary: Third book in a fun adventure series where a single mom finds out she is the daughter of the Diana (of Greek God fame) and suddenly has a variety of powers (and enemies).

The Grace Murphy books are classic summer reads. They are fun, light reading. A good bit of action, a little bit of romance and something quite different from my standard fare.

The cover of this one is a bit more ‘provokative’ than the previous covers. But it does make sense. Grace Murphy is ‘a god’. Well not actually a god, but one of a race of alien that live a long time and after whom the Greek Gods were modeled. So her mother is Diana, and her father is Zachary (also known as Zeus).

Rifts by Nicole Hamlett (A Grace Murphy Novel)

June 8, 2013 by Adam Shields

I am on vacation this week, so only pre-written reviews will be posted. Everything will be back to normal next week.

Summary: Everyday single mom finds out she is ‘a god’ with lots of powers and even more responsibilities (and people trying to kill her.)

It is summer and for me that means at least some mindless fun books. On spring break I read Huntress, the first book in this series.

Grace Murphy is a romance writer, recently divorced single mom, a bit of a sci fi geek and quite recently found out that she is the daughter of Diana.

In this series the Greek god are not actually gods, but a race of people from another world that protect the Earth from cross-dimensional bad guys. Grace has been hidden for her own protection and in the previous book came to terms with her new life.