Bookwi.se

Bad Monkey is Carl Hiaasen’s latest novel that came out at the beginning of the summer of 2013. Similarly to many of Hiaasen’s novels, the book is about a rough around the edges detective who desperately wants his job back. He sets out to solve a murder that he really has no business solving. While tracking down the murderer, he observes and is a part of a number of humorous hijinks, and his life and the lives of those around him are put in danger.

Carl Hiaasen grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and has lived in Miami for most of his adult life. For this reason, his books generally take place in the state of Florida and the character of the state plays a big role in his novels. He has been a reporter for the Miami Herald since 1976, which explains why his novels also revolve around crime and the police detectives whom he has solve those crimes. Another theme that runs commonly through his novels are that the environment, specifically the wildlife and the swamps and oceans of Florida, are often exploited, destroyed and need to be protected. I would say that if Christopher Buckley is the master of the dry political comedies then Hiaasen has a corner in the dry detective comedy genre. I definitely enjoy both of these types of novels as they do an excellent job of combining two types of genres and making an intriguing new genre.

This is the second novel that I have read by Carl Hiaasen, the first being Skinny Dip. Another aspect to his novels that I thoroughly enjoy is that they are filled with unique characters and that there is no perfect protagonist. Everyone has their hang-ups and everyone has their ulterior motives. This book, Bad Monkey, is entitled so because there is a very naughty monkey (and, not naughty in the Curious George sense) that is supposedly the monkey from the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie but was essentially fired because he was so difficult to work with. Through some coincidence, the monkey plays a somewhat integral part of the story and in a way helps to get the crime solved. The uniqueness of the characters in Hiaasen’s books definitely helps to keep the reader engaged.

Read more

Reposting my 2013 review because the Kindle Edition is on sale for $2.75
Summary: SHORT, but helpful look at the essence of prayer.

I am not an Anne Lamott devotee.  So I do not read everything she writes.  But I have read enough to know that she is a very good author and one that looks at spiritual realities from a different perspective.

So one day last month I was tired of all of my audiobooks I had been listening to and looked around to find another.  I noticed that with my member discount at Audible, Help, Thanks, Wow was under $5.  So I picked it up.

I had resisted previously because it is so short.  In audiobook it is barely 90 minutes.  In paper it is listed as 112  pages.  But it must be a gift book sized pages.

However, for $5 I thought it was worth picking up.

I listened to it two days after listening to Palmer Parker’s Let Your Life Speak.  The two books, although not at all similar in subject had a similarity in spiritual direction.  Both emphasized that the Christian life is not striving after looking good or being respectable.

Read more

Summary: Funny stories mixed in with some advice.

I like comedy.  I don’t laugh nearly enough.  I have a tendency to be a little too serious.  But I have a few standard humor authors.  Christopher Buckley is one of my favorites (but I have read pretty much everything he has written.)  Christopher Moore is pretty funny except when he isn’t.  I really liked Bossypants by Tina Fey.

Last year, some friends introduced me to Jim Gaffigan.  Since then I think I have seen three of his TV comedy shows and I really like his humor.  He seems like a fairly real person.  And like me he is an introvert, likes kids, hates sports, is a little over weight and loves his wife.

This seemed like the perfect book for him.  He has great material on being a Dad.  He has five kids (six and under).  He lives in New York City in a 2 bedroom apartment (on the 5th floor without an elevator) and lives without a car.  When he is not touring, he is often at home with his kids.

Read more

Summary: The basics of Christian practice and belief from someone that survived their faith.

One of the problems of my life is that I spend very little time with people that actually are non-Christians. I am a stay at home Dad, I work part time out of the house in my spare moments, my prefered enjoyment activities are reading and being alone.

The time I do spend with people is usually my extended family or church small group. In spite of that I feel like I know a lot of “˜post-Christians’. Those that have grown up in the church or on the perefery of the church, but have an uneasy relationship with the church now.

The US makes being a “˜none’ easier all the time. And for many, it is far easier to walk away from the church when things get difficult than it is to struggle through to a new equalibrium. Or at least that is how I describe it. It seems to me that there are many points in time where all is good, you are comfortable, you have faith, you see God working, and things make sense. But then there is a crisis of faith, or a dry spell or a tragedy or something that breaks that equilibrium and you have a choice of searching for a new equilibrium or to just stop fighting.

Ed Cyzewski has written this guide for two groups of people, those that have no background in the church, or those that have lost their equilibrium and need to find a new one. For both readers, the old answers aren’t working any more. New Christians have different questions because they didn’t grow up in the church and they are culturally ill-disposed toward the standard answers that were based in a previous generation’s questions. And those that have grown up in the church and had their equalibrium break, the standard answers were probably what caused the break in the first place.

Read more