The modern finance industry, what Dyke calls “The Casino Age,” is focused on rapid wealth using risky investment vehicles and screwing the little guy. Banks have been fined millions of dollars over the years in penalties for fraud and unethical activities, but the fines pale in comparison to the profits they earned by those actions, and almost nobody ever goes to prison, and so the abuses continue. Banks and other financial corporations have lobbied successfully to centralize most regulations at the federal level–laws that ultimately protect their rapacious, economically destructive activity and protect them from the losses that arise from speculative investments made with other people’s money.
The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate by John Walton
Takeaway: Professional biblical scholars bring important understanding to texts. We need to spend more time being taught, not just by pastors, but by the academic theologians and biblical scholars throughout the church.
Over the past year I have been increasingly convinced (and convicted) that the church needs to take scripture seriously. Not just reading it or finding biblical principles to live by, but seriously studying scripture and allowing scripture to change us.
I have been hearing about the Lost World of Genesis One for a while, but only started reading it as part of a book discussion. John Walton, a formerly at Moody Bible Institute and currently an Old Testament professor at Wheaton College, makes a clearly presented case that the first chapter of Genesis is not about the material creation of the earth, but a functional creation of the earth as his temple.
Through the Door by Jodi McIsaac
Reposting this review from last summer because Through the Door and the sequel Into the Fire are on sale for $1.99 (audiobooks are only $0.99 with purchase of the kindle book) as part of the Kindle Daily Deal for Feb 16th only. The third book in the series is available as a pre-order for only $4.99.
Summary: Modern fantasy using Celtic lore as a basis for the storyline.
Book discovery is the biggest problems for authors in a world that has an over abundance of free or cheap ebooks. No reader has to ever pay for a book again if they choose. Every day there are literally hundreds of free books available through Amazon or other ebook providers. This is in addition to the thousands of public domain books and library books available.
This is why being chosen for Amazon’s Kindle Daily Deals is so important. Almost every Kindle Daily Deal book breaks into the top 100 for at least the day of the deal and often for several days after.
I rarely buy books from the Kindle Daily Deals, not because they are not great deals but because I have have hundreds of books already purchased and unread already on my kindle.
But for some reason I picked up Through the Door when it was a Kindle Daily Deals and also picked up the accompanying audiobook (so kindle book and audiobook were $3.98 total).
Through the Door is another modern fantasy using the Irish fairy tales as the jumping off point. Neil Gaiman, Rick Riordan, Michael Scott, Orson Scott Card and many other authors have already used the ancient stories to mine ideas for new books. While the ideas are not completely original, the execution is pretty good.
Apologies
I have now completed my transition to the new server. Unfortunately there was an error and I lost 10 days of posts. I have reposted the book reviews. (And unfortunately that means email subscribers have just received a number of old posts.) I will not repost free or sale posts for the last week so … Read more
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick
Summary: A teen decides to commit a murder/suicide on his 18th birthday. Like a number of other youth adult books that I have enjoyed recently, this is a very good book with some very serious content. Matthew Quick, author of Silver Linings Playbook, has a particular talent of getting inside the head of someone with … Read more
Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from Data by Charles Wheelan
Summary: A little understanding can be worse than no understanding. Part of my job is dealing with statistics for program evaluation for a non-profit. So I have to think about how to accurately look at statistics quite frequently. Naked Statistics is a very good introduction to the proper use (and lots of examples of improper … Read more
The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist by Richard Feynman
Summary: A scientist riffs on religious, political and social issues of the day, and how science can help. I am interested in physics. I don’t really understand it and every time I read an actual book on physics, I know that I miss far more than I get. But I continue to be intrigued, not … Read more
Jim Henson: The Biography by Brian Jay Jones
Summary: Fascinating and in depth look at a man that changed TV. Everyone knows that Jim Henson was the creator of the muppets and was instrumental in the creation of Sesame Street. But that is really where my knowledge of Henson stopped. My shortest review of this book is that if you like Steve Job biography … Read more
Nothing to Hide by J Mark Bertrand (Roland March #3)
Summary: More back story on Roland March and a step outside of the traditional police procedural. I have loved the first two books of this trilogy, and I would love to read any future books that J Mark Bertrand writes about Roland March. The mix of subjects shows that even within the context of a … Read more
What Wives Wish their Husbands Knew about Sex: A Guide for Christian Men
Takeaway: Most sex books are either Puritan or Pornographic. This book tries to show the Christian view is neither.
In general I am not a fan of Christian sex books. Most books either hold people to an impossibly high (and usually non-biblical) standard (a man should be able to train himself to never look at a woman or all dating is wrong, etc.) or promise a ‘mind-blowing’ sex if you just follow the book’s directions. While this book occasionally veers into the ‘mind blowing sex’ territory, I think it is good at trying to understand the biblical standards and then leave everything else open. (By the way, I picked this up free from Amazon on kindle. When I first bought it that it was the James Dobson book “What Wives Wish Their Husbands Knew about Women” and almost did not get it. It is not that book. It was published in 2007 and is very current in language and references.)
Honestly, there is not much new info here. While authors are all psychologists that specialize in couple’s therapy, the advice is fairly run of the mill (woo your wife all day, she is more turned on by cleaning the house than roses, etc). There is a short section on biology but most of the book is on relationships. The advice does not really need to be new (and probably is more helpful because it is not new). Sometimes we just need a reminder.