Book Reviews – Page 148

The Dip: When to Quit (And When to Stick) by Seth Godin

September 11, 2012 by Adam Shields

“The difference between a mediocre club player and a regional champion isn’t inborn talent. It’s the ability to push through in the moments when it is easier to quit.”

Those words so struck me that I stopped and copied them down while I was listening to this short (free) audiobook. Seth Godin likes provocative phrases. And after listening to the whole book, I know that what Godin means is that it is inborn talent and the ability to push through in hard times. But that is not what he was actually saying here.

The story of Rudy isn’t that he worked really hard and his hard work paid off and he became a great football legend. He worked really hard and after years, and a lot of points where most people said he should quit, he got a chance, not because of his performance, but because of his heart and other people’s willingness to step aside to help him out.

Little Fuzzy by Henry Beam Piper

September 10, 2012 by Adam Shields

Summary: Classic Science Fiction look at what it means to be sentient.

Several weeks ago I had never heard of H Beam Piper or his book Little Fuzzy. Instead I was looking for books by John Scalzi. Scalzi is a contemporary Science Fiction author and over the past several months I have read two of his books (both narrated by Will Wheaton).

I picked up Fuzzy Nation, which happens to be a retelling of H Beam Piper’s classic Little Fuzzy.

The audiobook of Fuzzy Nation included both the new and the original. I have already reviewed the new, so this is the review of the original.

Art and the Bible by Francis Schaeffer

September 7, 2012 by Adam Shields

Summary: Art is fundamental to the way that we express the truth of Christianity.

I am late to the Francis Schaeffer party. This book is more than 30 years old. And it is only the second book by Schaeffer I have read.

But I think it is as readable (and important) today as it was when it was written. I was talking with my wife a couple days before I started reading this about the differences that technology has made to the arts. We were talking about how tools made it so that anyone could edit movies or take pictures.

The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson

September 6, 2012 by Adam Shields

Summary: A couple of murders and it seems that Lisbeth may have committed them.

After reading it, I think that the trilogy has been mis-marketed. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo has received all the attention. But in reality it is just a prequel for The Girl Who Played With Fire/The Girl Who Kicked A Hornet’s Nest. The last two books in this trilogy are really just one book split into two parts.

The Girl Who Played With Fire starts about a year after the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo finishes. Lisbeth is back as the main character (where she should be) and she has changed.

The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith by Mark Noll

February 24, 2025September 4, 2012 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: The world is changing and Christianity is changing with it.

Mark Noll is one of the most important academics of Christianity in the world. He is a historian, but the implications of his work go far beyond history. Personally, the most important book of his that I have read it The Civil War and Theological Crisis. That book looked at how Christians of an earlier generation had worked through cultural change and there were many implications for how we can now work through cultural change.

In The New Shape of World Christianity, Noll makes a subtle argument. Simply, Noll argues that American Christianity is important to worldwide Christianity not so much because it is leading the world, but more because the world’s culture is changing in ways that are similar to the ways that the United States is changing. Noll is clear that it is not that the world is becoming like the US, as much as it is that the cultural pressures (globalization) that the US is facing are also facing the rest of the world. It is just that the US is a bit in front of the rest of the world in many of these cultural changes and pressures.

Encyclopedia Brown: Boy Detective by Donald Sobol

September 3, 2012 by Adam Shields

When I was a boy I read a lot of books (surprising I know). Some I have been revisiting over the past couple years (CS Lewis, Madeleine L’Engle, etc.) I have found that I enjoy re-reading many of those books, but that reading them as an adult sometimes gives me a whole new insight into the book and sometimes leaves me missing my childhood view of the book. (In other words, some books have an adult subtext and some are just written for kids.)

The Encyclopedia Brown books are all about Leroy Brown, the child sleuth that everyone called Encyclopedia. When I was a kid I think I wanted to be him. I have always liked trivia. But I have never been all that observant. I think that is one reason why I like reading books, because I am always surprised by plots twists that most people have already figured out.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

August 31, 2012 by Adam Shields

I have been in a reading malaise the last couple weeks. I have been reading a ton, but bouncing all over the place trying to find something that really interests me. The Harry Potter books have been recently added to my public library on audiobook so I decided to check them out. I have read the book, especially the early ones, several times. But other than the 5th book, I do not think I have listened to any of the books.

I remember really liking Jim Dale as a narrator and looked forward to the book. The Chamber of Secrets was just the first book to come up on the waiting list, but it has always been my least favorite of the series. There is nothing bad about the book, but it also seems to be the least fleshed out. It is still clearly a younger children’s book. It was book three and then even more book four that really took a turn darker and more teen in orientation.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson

August 30, 2012 by Adam Shields

Summary: A Thriller that most of the world has already read or watched.

I am way behind on this trend. This has been made into two different movies and was the most sold book in the US in 2010. It is among the top 20 most sold books ever and there have been at least 30 millions copies sold in 44 languages if Wikipedia is to be believed. I am not going to say anything about this that has not been said better by a number of other (better) reviewers.

I have been reluctant to read this book. Not because it is popular, I read popular books all the time. But because it has a reputation for being sexually violent book. Eventually after a number of people recommended it to me over the past couple years and enough people that I know (and that know my reading habits) told me that I would enjoy it and it was not over the line for my reading history, I picked it up at the library.

Princess of Wands by John Ringo

August 29, 2012 by Adam Shields

Summary: Christian soccer mom fights demons and bad guys.

I have been in a reading rut for the last couple weeks. It is not that I don’t have lots to read (I always have lots to read.) It is that nothing is really all that interesting. So I have been bouncing all over the place trying to find something that I want to read.

John Ringo is one of the authors I discovered because of Baen’s free ebook library (see link below). Ringo writes all over the place. He has a series of military science fiction. Some light fantasy, some fantasy/science fiction mix, and a series of modern techno-thrillers (that have a lot of sex and verge on porn).

Princes of Wands is a bit of a deviation from all of those. It is a collection of four short stories about a Christian soccer mom that fights demons and evil powers through the power of Christ.

Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl

August 27, 2012 by Adam Shields

Summary: Roald Dahl’s autobiography of his childhood written for children.

As you can imagine, I spend a good bit of money on books. I saw an estimate that the average household only buys 1 to 2 books a year. And that nearly half of the book purchases are from about 5 percent of readers. If that is actually true, I would not be surprised if I am in the top 1 percent.

I try to read books that I pick up free on kindle. And I often listen to the monthly free audiobook from christianaudio.com. And I do get some free books to review. However, I pay full price for most books I review and that gets expensive.

My regular source of free books is my local library. I almost never go and check out a book in person. I mostly avoid paper books. But I do check out audiobooks via the Overdrive system from my local library. The main problem with Overdrive in my area is that everything is always checked out. So I often will go for weeks and get nothing. This week I had three of my holds come up all the same day.

Boy by Roald Dahl was a bit of a whim book. I know it is a bit of anathema for many children’s book lovers, but I have not read much by him. Boy is a autobiography oriented toward elementary students. Growing up I read a lot of biographies.