Scribd: A Review

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Over the past three weeks I have been using Scribd, a subscription ebook service, similar to Kindle Unlimited and Oyster. While not perfect, this is the first of the subscription services that I have seriously considering keeping the subscription after the trial.

All of the subscription ebook services have similar prices $8.99 or $9.99, all have a few hundred thousand books and a good bit of overlapping content. But there are differences.

First, Scribd and Oyster have some major publishers. Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited is primarily self published books and smaller publishers, but both Oyster and Scribd have books from 3 of the 5 major publishing houses. Much of the newest content is not there, but the back list (about a year or so old) is here and has much worth reading.

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A Farewell to Mars: An Evangelical Pastor’s Journey Toward the Biblical Gospel of Peace by Brian Zahnd

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Takeaway: Very few take Jesus seriously when he about having a different type of kingdom.

As American Christians have started looking again at their eschatology (view of the end times) and moving away from dispensationalism, more Christians are starting to see that the implications of their eschatology affect many areas of their Christian life.

For instance, a number of Christians have adopted a more nuanced position on ecological issues after rejecting the traditional Dispensational idea that the physical earth was simply waiting to be destroyed as punishment for the sins of the world.  So if the earth was not condemned, then God’s command to be stewards of the earth in Genesis might still be a present command.

Brian Zahnd began re-evaluating his support of war (after originally supporting the first Gulf war and then the wars after 9/11) in response to a new look at Jesus’ words in the Gospels.  Repeatedly throughout the book, in one way or another, Zahnd asks, “What if Jesus really meant what he said.”

For Christians that really try to take scripture seriously, this is a deeply disturbing question.  It is hard not to think that Zahnd has a real point if you have heard just a few sermons from the Sermon on the Mount.  We tend to spiritualize the Sermon on the Mount, not put it into practice.

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The Butterfly and the Stone by Dan Mayhew

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I am reposting this 2011 review because the Kindle edition is $2.99.
The Butterfly and the StoneSummary: Whether you have a prodigal child, were a prodigal child or know a prodigal child, this books on the heart break of loving a prodigal and what it teaches us about God loving us is a must read.

Right up front I have to disclose that I know Dan Mayhew (the author) and his wife Jody.  I have been aware of the roots of what this book is talking about for the past decade or so since I first met them.  I have not ever met their son, but I have frequently prayed for him and the family.

So maybe I am tainted in my opinion, but the reality of a parent writing about their love of a child, and the corresponding pain of watching a child struggle through bad decisions, addiction, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (after serving in Iraq), homelessness, suicide attempts, etc., is powerful stuff.

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Doctor Who: The Writer’s Tale: The Final Chapter by Russell Davies and Benjamin Cook

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I am a big fan of the BBC series, Doctor Who. I usually don’t get too locked into a television series but I quickly fell in love with the Doctor, especially Season 4 with David Tennant and Catherine Tate. Season 4 had everything: excitement, humor, a strong female character, compelling stories, phenomenal acting and a beautiful musical score. So imagine my joy when I discovered Russell T. Davies, Doctor Who’s Head Writer and Executive Producer, had written an inside look on the season I loved the most!

Doctor Who: The Writer’s Tale is a year-long email conversation between Davies and journalist, Benjamin Cook as Season 4 was being written and filmed. The Great Correspondence, as Davies and Cook referred to their communications, is a unique look inside the BBC series. It’s a no holds barred look into Davies life as a he plans episodes, discusses how creative and casting decisions are made, handles budget woes, deals with location and scheduling snafus and a very deep look into the writing process. 

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Start of the Best of the Year Lists

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I love reading through best of the year Book lists to see what I missed. I tend to read a lot of books that are a few years old and not that many that are brand new. So rarely have I read more than a handful of any of the best of the year lists. Instead I use them to add to my wish lists and pick them up in the future.

So far I have noticed four “˜Best of 2014′ lists. Let me know in the comments if you have come across others.

  • Goodreads Best Books of 2014 – this is a reader choice award list with over 3 million votes cast. It tends to be a bit of a popularity contest but still interesting. It also has a lot of different categories and includes the nominations not just the top books.
  • Huffington Post Books Best of 2014 – this is from the editors of the Huffington Post Books section. It includes Lila, which is my book of the year
  • Bookriot.com’s Best of 2014 – Bookriot is a very good Book oriented website. The contributors have a best of list and are asking readers to contribute their best books of the year.
  • Amazon’s Editor’s 100 Best of 2014 – Amazon will have a best selling of 2014 later, but this is the editor’s choice list.  The book of the year is Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng. I picked it up and am half way through it.  I understand the choice but I am having a hard time making it through. It is a very sad and tragic book.

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Essays on the Church by CS Lewis

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Summary: Three essays about the church.

I have been working on a two month free trial of Scribd, a Kindle Unlimited and Oyster competitor that offers unlimited access to their library (a Netflix for Books) but also has 30,000 audiobooks. It is the audiobooks I am interested in. Scribe has a far better selection of audiobooks than Kindle Unlimited. And the ebooks selection at Oyster is roughly the same as Scribd’s.

I will post a review of the service in the next week or so. By that time I will have used the service for a month.

Included in the audiobooks is several short collections of CS Lewis’ essays. These are all included in the larger CS Lewis: Essay Collection and Short Pieces, which has 135 essays. That is a little too overwhelming to tackle. But these smaller collections are organized thematically and much shorter. This one on the Church is only 3 essays and 36 minutes long.

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Most Read Book Reviews in November 2014

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Takeaway: Someone that has found meaning in a new stream of Christianity may not be the best person to talk about the stream of Christianity that they walked away from. Over the past couple years I have been intentionally trying to read books about Catholicism and part of that has been reading several stories of … Read more

Prayers for the Stolen by Jennifer Clement

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“œThe best thing you can be in Mexico is an ugly girl”.

From the very first page of “œPrayers for the Stolen”, Jennifer Clement grabs the reader and does not let go. This is the story of a young Mexican girl, Ladydi Garcia Martinez, growing up in a rural mountain village of Guerrero. The men have left to seek a better life in America. The women are left behind to raise their families and contend with the daily threats of drug traffickers who control the region. The girls are either disguised as boys or made ugly in order to avoid being stolen. Mothers dig holes in the ground for their daughters to hide in at the first hint of an approaching vehicle. It’s a life of constant fear. Hiding in a hole saves Ladydi but not her friend, Paula who is snatched from her home by a drug lord and is missing for over a year.

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Why We Run From God’s Love by Ed Cyzewski

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Book Review: Why We Run From God's Love by Ed Cyzewski - a short (19 page) ebook about a spiritually dry season. Worth readingSummary: Short book about the common reality of not wanting to seek after God.

This is a short little book, only 19 pages.  The cheap distribution of ebooks has made shorter works possible again and I think that is a good thing. Not everything worth reading or writing needs to be 200 pages.

Ed Cyzewski, author or co-author of five other books including Coffeehouse Theology, Hazardous and Divided We Unite, has written this short book about being distant from God.

I read this over two late night feedings of HG. It feels real and present to me.  We all free distant from God at times and it is good to acknowledge it.  (I have spoken before about seeking out a spiritual director this year because of my own spiritual dryness.)

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God’s Smuggler by Brother Andrew with John and Elizabeth Sherrill

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Reposting this review from earlier this year because the kindle edition is on sale for $1.99.
God's Smuggler by Brother AndrewTakeaway: A Classic 20th Century Missionary Biography

Christians have been writing missionary biographies for a long time.  The purpose of these biographies is to raise interest in the work, to raise money for the work, to encourage Christian to evangelism and missions in their back yard and to build greater trust and devotion to God in the reader’s lives.

The first time I ran across Brother Andrew was a comic book version of God’s Smuggler originally published in the early 1970s.  I think I later read the full version of the book as a teen (but I may not have).

A couple months ago Christianaudio.com was giving away an MP3 of the audiobook of God’s Smuggler and I picked it up.

It is interesting that in light of my recent reading of God of the Mundane, I spent most of the book thinking about the relationship between special callings (like Brother Andrew) and the mundane calling of the majority of us Christians.

God’s Smuggler is the story of Brother Andrew, a Dutch Christian who became famous for smuggling bibles to Christians behind the Iron Curtain and into China and more recently for his work in the Muslim world.  God’s Smuggler spends a lot of time making Brother Andrew seem like an average guy (barely any education, married with several children, poor background) except for the fact that he trusts God to blind the eyes of border guards so that he can sneak bibles into the eastern block.

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