The Day the Angels Fell by Shawn Smucker

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When 12-year-old Samuel Chambers mother dies, he struggles with his thoughts and beliefs regarding death. He swears that he will do anything to bring his mother back and soon becomes caught in a struggle between good and evil over the ancient Tree of Life. During his journey and struggle, he begins to probe his thoughts on death ““ could death be a gift? What waits beyond the experience of death?

This book is well written and causes the reader to pause and reflect on their own thoughts on death and whether it is a finite end or just an intersection in our lives. Do we really believe there is a life after death, and can we embrace the goodness of the journey to the other side?

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Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande

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Summary: Our current system of caring for the elderly and sick could be better.

Mortality is something that no one really likes to consider. However, Atul Gawande, a general surgeon and author of a number of books thinks we need to spend a lot more time thinking about it. (Notice the subtle, but brilliant blade of grass on the cover.)

Being Mortal is about our end of life health and care system. Because Gawande’s father is an immigrant from India, he opens the book talking about the difference between the older systems of family care (and what is still practiced in many parts of the world including India) and our Western independence focused system of care. While Gawande thinks there are many things to be said for being around family and multi-generational living, the reality is not always good. Those that do not have children have no system, the children’ may need to give up opportunities if it requires moving away, and regardless, the elderly themselves would often prefer to be on their own.

Prior to Social Security and Medicare, most elderly were in poverty and approximately 2/3 of the residents of poor houses (think Dickens) were elderly. Those poor houses were still operating in the US until being slowly shut down in the mid-20th century.

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A Fatal Grace: Chief Inspector Gamache #2 by Louise Penny

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Summary: What comes around…?

When a murder mystery series is based around a small town there has to be some questions about how/why murders will disproportionately happen in this particular town.

A Fatal Grace is only the second book in a now ten book series, but Louise Penny has taken a wise path, it is not one of the insiders, but an outsider that is murdered. And connecting it to the previous murder by having her move into the house of a previous murderer/murdered victim also is a nice twist.

My main complaint about the second book (and even more so in the third book) is that it takes forever to get into the book. I keep saying I am interested in the people and the setting, but my complaint here is that Penny is taking too long to get to the murder. So there is probably something else at the root is what is not quite doing it for me.

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The Honorable Schoolboy: A George Smiley Novel by John Le Carré

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Summary: George Smiley is not in charge of the circus. After ferreting out a mole, Smiley can not be sure he can trust anyone.

John le Carré is an author I really like, but can be frustrating at times.  I love the slow burn of his books.  They are unhurried, take place over a long time, feel like real spy work and not just heroics.

But the Honorable Schoolboy also takes forever to move along and finally get anywhere.  There are a ton of characters, many of which have at least one undercover name.  I keep thinking I will read (instead of listening to the audiobook) one of these, but I keep listening because I find them audiobooks on sale and the kindle books never seem to go on sale.

There is a real change in this book from previous le Carré books.  The narration suddenly gets is own voice occasionally.  I am not opposed to the ‘omnipotent narrator’ as a story telling method.  But it is new and feels a bit odd at times.  The reader is being told the story from the future.  The narrator knows what is going to happen and knows there is going to be regret in the end.

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Wild by Cheryl Strayed

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Wild: from Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail is a memoir written by Cheryl Strayed that recounts her 1,100 mile hike and explains how her life had gotten her to that point. As Cheryl gets ready for her trip, takes her first steps on the trail, treks through desert and snow and reaches her destination, she thinks back on her life and sifts through what is a very traumatic past. A book where the main lesson is acceptance, Wild definitely challenged my perspectives on life and made me think through my approach.For me, it is hard to believe and grasp that there are people out there who have lives as traumatic as Cheryl’s. Since reading the book and watching the movie, I have also viewed an interview between Cheryl and Oprah about the book and the thing that I was reflecting on while watching the interview was how incredible it is that the story is actually the way that it happened. Often I watch movies and get bored with how much bad stuff happens to the unfortunate main character, and I think enough is enough. Towards the end of the book, I was thinking something similar in that I just wanted Cheryl’s journey to be over because enough is enough. From the interview, I have realized that life really is like that sometimes for some people where trauma after trauma can break a person and then help to build that person back up. Oprah asks Cheryl why she only sent herself $20 at each stop on the trail and her response, which seemed to be beyond Oprah’s understanding, was that $20 sent to a handful of posts along the trail was all that she could afford.

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Looking Back on Arthur C. Clarke’s Predictions

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Looking Back on Arthur C. Clarke’s Predictions

080318-clarke-hmed-3p.rp420x400Born almost 100 years ago, Arthur C. Clarke showed an interest in space travel and futuristic ideas at a very early age, which manifested into predictions which captivated the general public. He began writing science fiction as a teenager, and his works became immensely popular as his career progressed, culminating with his screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey, largely considered his most popular work. He was even regarded as one of the science-fiction genre’s “œbig three” alongside Robert A. Heinlein and Isaac Asimov. Throughout his career Arthur C. Clarke made many futuristic predictions about life and technology, an astounding number of which have come true and are now considered essential to life in the 21st century.

In a 1964 BBC interview titled “œHorizon“, Clarke admitted that it was difficult and virtually impossible to accurately predict the future, but that any prediction that did not seem astounding could not possibly be true. He went on to predict that, by the year 2000, communication satellites would make it possible for people to communicate instantaneously, regardless of distance and regardless of exact location. He believed telecommunication would make travel and commuting unnecessary for business, except for cases of pleasure, and allow a doctor in England to perform surgery on a patient in New Zealand.

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Lila by Marilynne Robinson (Second Reading)

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Lila: A Novel by Marilynne Robinson cover imageTakeaway: Love, in essence, is the greatest expression of Grace.

It is not often that I re-read a book so quickly after a first reading, but Lila was the best novel I read last year and I wanted to re-read fairly quickly to see if I was just swept up or if I would love it just as much the second time.

The first time I listened to the audiobook, this time I read it on kindle. I didn’t realize (because I was listening) that there are not chapters, but only pauses. That lack of formalized structure reflects Lila, who is uneducated, almost feral.

At the beginning of the book Doll takes Lila (as a young child) from the home where she was being ignored and neglected (nearly to death) and raises her the best she can. But because of that kidnapping and some other background, Doll and Lila are on the run for all of Lila’s childhood and young adult life. There is no one, except Doll, that Lila can trust; no one that really loves her.

So when Lila stumbles into Gilead and meets the elderly pastor John Ames and is loved by him (and eventually married to him) that lack of trust in the world does not end over night.

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The Ancient Path: Old Lessons from the Church Fathers for a New Life Today by John Michael Talbot with Mike Aquilina

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Summary: John Michael Talbot’s memoir-ish look at how the Early Church Fathers changed his faith.

I grew up Evangelical, I went to an Evangelical College and seminary. But honestly other than a couple of songs I don’t really know anything about John Michael Talbot. I have always kind of thought of him as similar to Michael Card. They both are known for writing theologically sophisticated Christian music that I don’t really listen to. This book has made me re-think my previous uninformed opinion.

The Ancient Path is half memoir and half exploration of the early Church Fathers. I really was assuming that this would be more exploration of the church father’s writing, but the memoir parts were an unexpected help.

John Michael Talbot dropped out of school at 15 and was in a band with his brother. After an early marriage and a conversion to Christianity through the Jesus Movement, Talbot became an early CCM musician. But his marriage still fell apart. He started meeting with a Franciscan spiritual director and eventually, in large part through his studying of the Early Church Fathers Talbot converted to Catholicism and later founded a lay monastic community that invited both married and single Catholics and other Christians to live and serve in community.

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Letter from a Birmingham Jail

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The first time I remember reading Letter from a Birmingham Jail was in Divinity School pastoral ministry class. And while I have read portions of it since, I am not sure I have read it straight through again until this morning. Letter from a Birmingham Jail is both convicting and relevant right now. Protests are … Read more