Book Reviews – Page 92

The Porcelain Thief: Searching the Middle Kingdom for Buried China by Huan Hsu

September 1, 2015 by All Old Users

Liu Feng Shu was a wealthy intellectual and landowner in Chinese village during the early 1900s. As Japanese invaders worked their way across China in 1938, Shu dug a hole in the family’s garden. Under the cover of darkness, the elderly man lined the walls of the hole with bamboo and shelves to house his … Read more

Lucky: How the Kingdom Comes to Unlikely People by Glenn Packiam

August 31, 2015 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: Scripture needs to be retold, so we can hear it again for the first time and be changed.

There are lots of ways to study scripture. But two ways have been bouncing around in my head as being particularly important for me. One is the serious academic study of a text, long or short. Investigation into what the language researchers say about it, what the cultural anthropologists know about the culture it was written in, what the comparative literature people know about other texts that might have been written in a similar time or culture, what the historians that can talk about how that passage has been read and interpreted over time, etc. I think that type of reading and study of scripture is very important. I do not do enough research into scripture like that. (The Lost World of Genesis One is one of the recent books I have read that is along those lines.)

But the second type of scripture work is illustrated quite well by this book. The author does a lot of the type of study that is part of the first type of study, but the focus is not the study, but the retelling. The author’s research is to understand the text deeply, so that she or he can tell others about the text in a way that is modern and appropriate for the culture and people that are hearing it. And even more important, to use the “Theological Imagination” (as Eugene Peterson puts it) to help those of us that have heard the scripture before rediscover it in new ways. Some Christians look down on this type of work, but it is the essential work of teaching. Teaching takes an idea and learns to communicate it in a way that is understood, and hopefully can be acted upon.

Economics of Good and Evil: The Quest for Economic Meaning from Gilgamesh to Wall Street

August 31, 2015 by All Old Users

I am reposting Seth Simmons 2013 review because the Kindle Edition is on sale (probably only today) for $1.99. There is also an earlier 2009 review by Adam Shields
This is a difficult book to classify, and thus to review. It’s not a book of economics, but rather about economics, particularly the modern focus on mathematics to the exclusion of ethics. It’s pretty abstract and philosophical. I almost gave up a number of times in the first 150 pages, as I slogged through Sedlacek picking out and commenting on the economic bread crumbs found in the most ancient of literature, the Epic of Gilgamesh, followed by Greek thought, Stoicism, historic Christianity, and the Enlightenment thought of Hume, Descartes, and Adam Smith.

Wonder by RJ Palacio

August 27, 2015 by Adam Shields

Reposting this 2013 review because the Kindle Edition is on sale for $1.99. (Wonder was one of my favorite books of 2013)

Summary: Middle grade fiction about a boy with significant facial deformity learning to live in the world and the world learning to live with him.

Wonder is a book I would not have picked up on my own. In general I like young adult (teen), but do not read a lot of middle grade fiction.

But more importantly, the description discouraged me from wanting to get started. Another book about a sick kid that changes the way people think about the world.

Yes, this was a book about a kid that changes the way people think about the world, but it was a very good one.

Ten-year-old August (Auggie) is going to school for the first time. It is 5th grade and a new middle school. August has been homeschool prior to this because of the many surgeries to try and repair his body.

The first section of the book is all narrated by August. And had it stopped there, this would have been a good book about how people can feel bad when they are mistreated. Or maybe even a good book about how a kid can overcome adversity.

What makes Wonder a great book, is the book changes narration throughout the school year. His best friend at school, the girl that first reached out to him at school, his sister, his sister’s boyfriend, his sister’s best friend, and then August again. The change in voice allows us to see that while August has facial deformities that make his life difficult, the love of his parents, his friends and other things make his life good.

The Martian: A Novel by Andy Weir

August 27, 2015 by Adam Shields

I am reposting this 2014 review because the Kindle Edition is on sale for $1.99.
Summary: An astronaut believed to be dead, gets left on Mars.

My reading this past week has shaken up my best of 2014 book lists. The Martian and Unappologetic have both earned places on the list. It was a good reading week.

The Martian is another example of why we need to encourage independent authors. Andy Weir wrote and released this himself, eventually releasing it on kindle and then having it picked up by a mainstream publisher and re-releasing it and eventually earning himself a place on the New York Times best seller list.

The story is straight forward. During a dust storm on Mars, Mark Watney and the rest of the crew attempted to evacuate Mars before their ship is tipped over in the storm. Watney gets lost in the storm, and because his suit readings show that he is dead, the rest of the crew takes off without him.

The Road to Character by David Brooks

November 17, 2023August 26, 2015 by Adam Shields

Summary: We need to be pursuing eulogy virtues, not resume virtues.

I like David Brooks. I don’t always agree with his politics, but he is largely a reasonable pundit, and even when I disagree, I understand his position. I liked his earlier book, Bobos in Paradise, but I have not gotten around to reading his last two books. But after a positive mention on Twitter by James KA Smith and Englewood Review of Books editor Chris Smith (and noticing that the audiobook was on Scribd but going away soon as part of some changes there), I picked it up.

This is a hard book for me to review. There is much to commend here. This is a better version of Eric Metaxes’ 7 Men. Brooks has a clear vision and has no problem telling us the secrets to the greatness of his profiled people. The secret is character.

But at the same time, this felt like a nostalgic look at character. For Brooks, character is about suffering. I do not completely disagree, but it is an overly simplistic understanding. Suffering is where we see character, suffering is like exercise that helps to develop character. But the development of character requires more than just suffering.

The Contemplative Pastor: Returning to the Art of Spiritual Direction by Eugene Peterson

December 14, 2023August 25, 2015 by Adam Shields

Summary: How should pastors spend their time and focus.

After re-reading Eugene Peterson’s memoir The Pastor, I looked around for something else of Peterson’s to read. I picked this up primarily because of the subtitle. I am interested in spiritual direction and wanted to get Peterson’s take on it.

There is wisdom here. Primarily, this is a book that is calling on pastors to take charge of the definition of their calling. The role of the pastor is to call people to Christ, not to primarily manage an organization.

Queen of Hearts (A Royal Spyness Mystery #8 by Rhys Bowen

August 24, 2015 by Adam Shields

Summary: Georgiana and her mother travel to the US and encounter theft and murder.

Queen of Hearts came out just over a years ago. Many of the initial reviews were negative (although the average has come up since it first came out.) I went ahead and picked it up since the next book in the series has also come out.

This cozy mystery series has stalled a bit and this book while not horrible, did not move the broader story along at all.

Georgiana’s mother decided to try to go to the US to get a quickie divorce so that she can marry her current man. Georgiana tags along. On the ocean liner there is a theft and maybe a murder. But a Hollywood director asks Georgiana’s mother to be in a movie (she is a well known stage actress) and so they head off to Hollywood.

As is normal, Georgiana’s secret fiancÃ©e Darcy happens to show up on the trip in pursuit of a jewel thief. Georgiana takes primary lead in solving the eventual murder (Darcy is not around for most of the main action). In several earlier books I was really irritated by Georgiana’s reticence. But she was much more forceful and present in this book. So that is a move in the right direction.

After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters by NT Wright

August 14, 2015 by Adam Shields

Summary: Christianity is not just about the salvation event, it is also (or maybe primarily) about the life we live after the salvation event.

Maybe it is my approaching middle age, but how we live as Christians is increasingly important to me. After reading seven Susan Howatch novels in the last 4 months, all of them concerned more about how Christians grow and live as Christians (none of them really even touch on anyone becoming a Christian), I decided to give Afer You Believe another try.

I have previously picked up After You Believe at least two times. Both times I got about 1/3 of the way before putting it down. This time, like my previous experiences with Wright, I listened instead of read.

The initial illustration is of Captain Sullenberger, the airline pilot who was able to safely land his plane in the Hudson River and get all of the passengers off safely. Wright says that Sullenberger did not become a hero because of random chance. Sullenberger had spent years flying planes. He had made thousands of small decisions that prepared him for his quick decisions that day. He had practiced so that what would be impossible for most of us was possible for him. The landing of the plane was less a miracle than a natural result of a well lived life. (Wright does not dismiss the landing as miraculous, but thinks only thinking about it as miraculous minimizes how God works through us as Christians.)

Wright wants us as Christians to think of the development of our Christian life, our character and virtue, to be something we think about in a similar way. Character comes about by ongoing small decisions and habits that are formed over time. The virtuous Christians does not become virtuous by accident any more than a master violinist become a master by accident.

Peaceful Neighbor: Discovering the Countercultural Mister Rogers by Michael Long

August 13, 2015 by Adam Shields

Summary: A look at how Mr Rogers communicated his countercultural Christianity through his life and tv show.

I am a big fan of Mr Rogers. Part of what made me pick up this book was a desire to re-connect with the peacefulness of Mr Rogers for my children. My daughter is just old enough that she is starting to pay attention to TV and enjoys the cartoon adaptation of Daniel Tiger. It didn’t hurt that I picked up the book while it was on sale.

Peaceful Neighbor explores Mr Rogers pacifism in two parts. The first is the direct understand of pacifism as being against war and violence. This is explored through looking at Mr Roger’s personal history as well as how he dealt with war and violence on the TV show and how in later years of the Gulf War and post 9/11 he was politically active in small ways.

The second section is a look at peace in other ways, including Mr Rogers understanding of racism, hunger, gay rights, environmentalism and his personal vegetarianism.

I found much of the book interesting as an abstract understanding of Mr Rogers as a liberal mainline Christian. That may seem dismissive, but it is not intended to be. Many liberal mainline Christians do not spend their whole lives living out their ideals. In many ways Mr Rogers is one of the best spokespersons for Christianity of the late 20th century. Many, many people know he was an ordained minister. Many people have commented about he real love of the other and how he cared for those around him.