Book Reviews – Page 155

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

March 20, 2012 by All Old Users

Summary: The Elegance of the Hedgehog is a wildly popular French novel in 2007 and was translated into English in 2008.

The story takes place entirely in a well-to-do French apartment building in the center of Paris. Told fromthe point of view of two main characters we meet Renee, the building’s concierge. Renee is a widow and a lover of Art. She’s an avid reader, loves films, paintings, music and Japanese culture. But she takes great pains to keep her true self hidden from the rest of the world. To the residents of the apartment building, she’s the grumpy old lady who’s addicted to soap operas and her cat, Leo. Renee and her friend Manuela, a housekeeper, spend an hour every afternoon enjoying their tea and critiquing the apartment residents who are truly their inferiors in every way, except in material wealth.

Roam: A Novel with Music by Alan Lazar

March 16, 2012 by All Old Users

As I have enjoyed many books about dogs in the past such as The Art of Racing in the Rain, One Good Dog, and A Dog’s Purpose, I picked up this novel because I was ready for an easy listening experience after two marathon listens that I had just finished. At first, I was disappointed to find that this novel had the same narrator as another book that I did not enjoy, Merle’s Door. I had blamed the failure of the book in part to the narrator who seemed to be much like a know-it-all or something that was hard for me to put my finger on. I found, however, that the narrator suited this story much better and that perhaps I had been unfair in my review of Merle’s Door.

Our Triune God: Living in the Love of the Three in One by Philip Ryken and Michael LeFebvre

March 13, 2012 by Adam Shields

I am way behind in my 2012 reading goals. I am reading about the Trinity this year. I started out with this book to read with some friends in a little informal email reading group. Because we all graduated from Wheaton College and Ryken is the current president of Wheaton we though we would read this book together.

After 3 months we are only half way through (and probably won’t really finish).

This not a bad book, but there are several theological and editorial decisions that I disagree with and make it so that I would recommend this only as a supplemental book on the Trinity. On the good side, it is only $1.99 for Kindle.

For Men Only: A Guide to the Inner Lives of Women by Jeff and Shaunti Feldhahn

March 8, 2012 by Adam Shields

At this point I would recommend reading Great Sex Rescue and once you are done with that, then maybe you can find value in For Men/Women Only.
Takeaway: Women and men are different. Using interviews and surveys can show some differences, only conversation will work them out in your life.

I first heard about For Women Only when I saw an interview with Shaunti Feldhahn when that book first came out. All the women in the audience received a copy. So I read my wife’s copy to see if it was any good and then highly recommended that she read it.

A couple years later Shaunti and her husband Jeff co-wrote a men’s version of the book. Both books take fairly large surveys of men or women and a lot of focus group data to try to build a case for the important differences between men and women. There is no discussion about nature vs. nurture, just that these are the real differences that actually exist between men and women right now in the US.

IQ84 by Haruki Marakami

March 7, 2012 by All Old Users

Welcome Emily Flury, a new contributor to Bookwi.se. Go friend Emily at her GoodReads page. Also author bios are now below each post.

This book is my first experience with Murakami. This book is without a doubt a unique piece of literature. I figured that with all of the hype that I needed to give it a try. The best way for me to describe it is that it starts out fairly normal and slowly the reality unravels as the supernatural takes it place.

If you are reading this book then I understand it is 900 pages. If you are listening to this book, as I did, then it is almost 47 hours of listening. So, getting through this book requires a true investment of time. I enjoyed the voice acting of the 3 narrators and appreciated how their voices interacted with each other’s.

The Atlantis Complex (Book #7) by Eoin Colfer

March 6, 2012 by Adam Shields

The Atlantis Complex: Artemis Fowl 7 Summary: Some of the ramifications of Artemis’ past life of crime (and his guilt) come back to haunt him.

This is the penultimate book of the series and it is clear that the disparate stories line of the previous books are coming together. But I have no idea how they are going to wrap up in just one more book.

In this book Artemis is going mad. He has (probably in part because of exposure to magic) has developed a fairy mental illness.

Again, the fairy world is in danger and this time Artemis does not seem capable of helping because he is in danger of going mad himself.

The Trinity (Life Changing Series) by Burton Rager

March 1, 2012 by Adam Shields

Summary: Basic ideas of the trinity in a short pamphlet form.

One of my reading projects this year is to read about the trinity. I am currently (very slowly) working through a book on the trinity with some friends. And I have several more lined up when that is done.

But this book came up free last week, and it was short, so I thought I would read it. It is part of a series, about half of which have been temporarily offered for free, but they are all currently $2.99.

Unity by Q. Apelles

February 29, 2012 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: I have no idea This is one of my Prime lending library books. I went out on a limb and the limb snapped off underneath me. This is a book on ontology, the meaning of things. It is short. I read it in about 90 minutes. But I did not understand what in the … Read more

Journeys of Faith: Evangelicalism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Anglicanism

February 28, 2012 by Adam Shields

Journeys of Faith: Evangelicalism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Anglicanism Summary: Stories of conversion from Evangelicalism to Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Anglicanism and from Catholicism to Evangelical

I am a big proponent of story. I think that personal stories are often more valuable than discussion based purely on rationalism. I believe this because we are not purely rational creatures. There is something else that is important to us and story often communicates in a more well-rounded way than pure rational discussion.

The structure of this book is that an author discusses their move from one branch of Christianity to another. Then there is a response by a third party and then a response to the response by the original author.

In general, this allows for the story to be the main subject of the first section. Then the response can bring up rational/theological issues and then the original author can deal with theological objections.

The Time Paradox (Artemis Fowl #6) by Eoin Colfer

February 27, 2012 by Adam Shields

Summary: Artemis’s mother is sick. And some how she has a magical sickness that can only be cured by a now extinct lemur. Artemis’ 10 year old self was responsible for killing that last lemur. He has to go back in time and stop himself.

Time Paradoxes are always fuel for science fiction. The fact that you can in your future change something in your past both is an interesting idea, but also something that we all would like to do.

Artemis is continuing to mature in this series. Because he gets to see himself as a 10 year old he has a chance to really evaluate where he has come from and his changing values.