Book Reviews

Summary: An ‘introductory’ look at superstring theory and the quest for a unified theory of physics.

Every once in a while I feel like I need to try to read something completely outside my comfort zone.  Actual science is outside my comfort zone.

I enjoy social science and statistics.  I have enjoyed biographies of scientists like Einstein and Bohrs and Oppenheimer.  But the actual science always seems a bit above my head.

Brian Greene has a number of books about physics.  He is a working physicist and is known for his popular level books about physics.

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This is part four in a series of suggested summer reads.  Part 1 and Part 2 were fiction suggestions.  Part 3 was non-fiction suggestions.  These are books that will be released soon (or were just released.)

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (releases on June 18)

I am a big fan of Neil Gaiman.  I have read all of his other novels.  I would also recommend Neverwhere (unusal quest book) and Stardust (great adult fairy tale) as very good beach reads.

Also his children’s novel Coraline is a very good creepy children’s book.

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini (released May 21)

I have read the Hosseini’s first book, The Kite Runner, but not his second, A Thousand Splendid Suns.  His new book And the Mountains Echoed is getting good review, including this one from Goodereader.com.  One of my weaknesses of a reader is not reading enough books by people that are not from the US and culturally western.  Hosseini has done a good job helping western readers to see Afganistan as a place that has real people.

The Fall of Arthur by JRR Tolkein (Released May 23)

Christopher Tolkien has again edited and finished another one of Tolkien’s book.  This is a long narrative poem.  So this will not be for everyone, but those that love Tolkien may be interested in reading it.

Joyland by Stephen King (Releases June 4)

I have never read a Stephen King novel. But he has a new one out next week. The publisher’s description: “Set in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in 1973, Joyland tells the story of the summer in which college student Devin Jones comes to work as a carny and confronts the legacy of a vicious murder, the fate of a dying child, and the ways both will change his life forever.” 

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Summary: Great book, disappointing discussion guide.

I am a big fan of the book Sacred Marriage.  My wife and I read it six or seven years ago and thought it was a big help to our marriage at the time.  Since then I have recommend it to many and given away several copies.

What I like about Sacred Marriage is that it takes the focus away from what can I get from marriage to put it to what can I give to my spouse (and at the same time learn spiritually from marriage.)

Even before reading this book I frequently told people that nothing had taught me more about my spiritual life more than marriage.  I do not think that everyone need to be married in order to grow spiritually.  But being with a person that intimately reveals things about yourself that make a difference to your spiritual life if you choose to pay attention to them.

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This is part 3 of my series on potential beach reads for this summer.  Part One and Two are fiction books and part Four (tomorrow) is summer releases.

My summer beach reads tend to be fiction.  But when I read non-fiction I tend to read biography, memoir or ‘light non-fiction’.  Here are my picks of books that I have read that are worth reading.

The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction by Alan Jacobs – Bookwi.se Review

171 pages, 16 of 18 reviews are 4 or 5-star, Lending Enabled 

What could be better than reading about reading?  Alan Jacobs has a book about finding the joys of reading.  This is not fluff, this is about seeking joy in reading, while thinking seriously about what reading is all about.

Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me by Karen Swallow Prior – Bookwi.se Review

220 pages, 22 of 23 reviews are 4 or 5-star, Lending Enabled 

Booked is a memoir about how reading helped a girl (and then a woman) grow and learn.  Each chapter focuses on a single book and a main point about what she learned from that book.  My only complaint about the book is that it is focused exclusively on the classics.

Surprised in Oxford: A Memoir by Carolyn Webber – Bookwi.se Review (Second Reading)

474 pages, 146 of 167 reviews are 4 or 5-star

This is probably is my favorite memoir ever.  Carolyn writes about her year studying Literature at Oxford.  During that year she finds Christian faith and maybe a something more.

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Takeaway: An example of what one person, with help, can do to change the world.

Paul Farmer is one of the heroes of the modern medical world.  A man of boundless energy, he started his Haitian medical clinic while in medical school (flying back and forth between Boston and Haiti).

Over time the work expanded and Farmer has become known as much for his work with AIDS and TB in Peru and Russia as his original work as a doctor in Haiti.

The early parts of the book read almost like Hagiography because of the author’s, Tracy Kidder, devotion to Farmer. But this was not a short term relationship between Farmer and Kidder. Kidder knew Farmer for over a decade when he wrote the book and they spent a lot of time together.

So Kidder is a character in the book and the later parts of the book where he is writing about things he directly observed are better written, more balanced and nuanced.

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Yesterday, I posted part one of my recommendations for summer beach reads.  Today is part two of great fiction beach reads.  Thursday I will post great non-fiction beach reads.  And Friday I will post about books that are not out yet that look to be good summer reads.

Be sure to leave some of your own suggestions in the comments.

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger – Bookwi.se Review

546 pages, 1797 of 2474 reviews are 4 or 5-star

The Time Traveler’s Wife is one of my favorite novels ever.  You may have seen the movie.  The movie is fine, but a great example of a movie that gets the basic story right, but misses all of what makes the book great.

The story is about a man that spontaneously time travels.  And the woman who will eventually become his wife.  When they first meet she is 6 and he is 38.  When he first meets her she is 21 and he is 26.  This is a great book.

This is a book that is only available as paperback or audiobook (the author is opposed to ebooks)

Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell – Bookwi.se Review

335 pages, 142 of 156 reviews are 4 or 5-star

I am a fan of good young adult novels.  A good young adult novel can encourage teens to look at things differently, can encourage adults to remember their youth and can encourage everyone to dream of what can be.

Eleanor and Park is set in the mid 1980s, when I was a teen.  Eleanor is poor and abused by her mother’s boyfriend.  Park is the only (half) Asian kid in a small Iowa town.  Neither is what you would call ‘cool’.  But together they forge an unlikely friendship and eventually a romance.  It is one of the better young adult novels I have read in a while. (Still has sex and language and is not for all young adults themselves.)

Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey – Bookwi.se Review (part 1, part 2)

550 pages, 5107 of 5426 reviews are 4 or 5-star, Lending Enabled, Audiobook is discounted to $1.99 with purchase of Kindle Book 

Wool is an independent author’s phenomenon.  It is not at the number of sales of the 50 Shades series.  But 50 Shades really took off once it was picked up by a major publisher.

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Summary: Short Introduction to the Trinity.

Last week RC Sproul and his publisher (Reformation Trust) released the entire Crucial Questions series for free on kindle (list and links here.)

I have read Sproul’s Holiness of God and ,with a few reservations, thought it was good. But that has been the only of Sproul’s books I have read.

I read this introduction to the Trinity in bed after my wife had gone to sleep.  It is not long (63 pages) and even then it felt shorter.

But Sproul included a lot of content in that short book.  He looks at what the Trinity is not, by looking at some of the Christian heresies that forced the church to clarify it teaching.

Sproul made a distinction between paradox, mysteries and irrationality and concludes that the Trinity is not a paradox or irrationality but a mystery. (A more complete look at this idea is in the very good book Mystery of God.)

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Summer is a traditional time for reading.  Vacations, beach, pool all give us time to relax, unwind and read.

I have three posts of books so far (Fiction Part 1, Fiction Part 2 and Non-fiction).

Below I have listed books that I have read, a short description, a link to my review and an Amazon link.

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline – Bookwi.se Review

384 pages, 1603 of 1830 reviews are 4 or 5-star

Ready Player One is a great science fiction book for people that do not normally like science fiction.  It is set in 2044 when the whole world spends most of their lives in an immersive internet, the Oasis.  The real world is falling apart, but what everyone is interested in is the finding the puzzle in the Oasis, while will give the winner ownership of the Oasis.

Wade (online name Percival) is 18, an orphan and in poverty.  The race to win the Oasis is his only chance to make something of himself.  This was recommended to me first by my sister in law (not a science fiction fan) and later my wife really enjoyed it (also not a science fiction fan).  I have read both on kindle and listened on audiobook.  I recommend both.

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett – Bookwi.se Review

352 pages, 544 of 826 reviews are 4 or 5-star

I love beautiful lyrical writing.  Patchett knows how to do that.  This is a story that from the beginning you know is going to end badly.  A number of dignitaries are taken hostage by revolutionaries in a fictional South American country.  The story progresses as one woman and 57 men are held for a long time.  People on both sides begin to see one another as human.  But they are stuck in a situation where there is no good way out.  It is a tradegy (and reading by the beach can help offset the sadness).  But there is also several love stories and wonderful insights into the human condition.  (I originally listened to this on audiobook and the narration is excellent.)

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green – Bookwi.se Review

337 pages, 3114 of 3319 reviews are 4 or 5-star

This book was on a number best books of 2012 lists.  It is a young adult novel.  It is about two teens with cancer that fall in love.  I have finished almost 90 books so far this year and it is the best fiction book I have read this year.  I am planning on re-reading it this summer. (I originally listened to this on audiobook and the narration is excellent.)

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