Little, Big by John Crowley

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Ultimately, I have no idea what this book is about. It involves a multi-generational family, many of whom live in a large and mysterious house in what I think is rural New England somewhere in the 20th century.There is an unspoken and unconscious awareness that they live in the presence in faeries, and there is … Read more

Delighting in the Trinity: An Introduction to the Christian Faith

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aSummary: The Trinity is not just one of our theological points, it is essential to the entire Christian faith.

My year of reading about the Trinity has been mostly disappointing.  I have not read nearly as much as I wanted, but I have been disappointed in almost everything I have read.  The only book I have really liked was a fairly academic (and expensive) book on the development of Trinitarian Thought before 400 AD.

But Michael Reeves new book Delighting in the Trinity: an Introduction to the Christian Faith was different.  First, it took the historic development of the Trinitarian theology seriously (it was not only looking at post-reformation thought like a lot of Evangelically focused books are.)

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The Myth of a Christian Nation by Gregory A Boyd

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The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the ChurchThere are lot of books out there about how Christians should (or should not) engage in politics, but I’ve had three popular-level works on my to-read list because they pretty well cover the landscape: Jim Wallis’ God’s Politics , Wayne Grudem’s Politics – According to the Bible , and this one by Greg Boyd.

Doug Wilson blogged through Boyd’s book a few years ago. I read his posts immediately after Boyd’s chapters, and his commentary was extremely helpful (http://dougwils.com/tag/c125-greg-boy…; the posts are in reverse order). Wilson ably criticizes Boyd’s theology of political engagement, and calls it out for being a jumble of incoherence and inconsistency.

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Fangirl by Rainbow Roswell

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Summary: A college coming of age novel about a young writer of fanfiction. For all of my reading, I have read very little fanfiction. But I loved another one of Rowell’s books, Eleanor and Park, so I picked this one up without reading the description. Cather (she prefers to be called Cath) is a new … Read more

New Kindle Paperwhite Firmware

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Amazon released new firmware for the 2nd Generation Kindle Paperwhite (5.4.2).  This firmware brings some promised features to the Paperwhite. Kindle FreeTimeFreeTime lets you create personalized profiles for kids, and give them access to titles from your collection of books. Kids can keep track of their personal reading progress and earn achievement badges. To learn … Read more

Mariette in Ecstasy by Ron Hansen

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Mariette in Ecstasy by Ron HansenSummary: A young nun experiences the stigmata in a 1906 upstate New York convent.

I do not remember where I was reading, but at some point earlier this year I ran across a blog post that was asking for authors that are normally considered literary fiction, but often write with religious themes.

Many of the comments were people that I was aware of, Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead, Susan Howatch’s Church of England series, Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy, etc. But one of the names I had not heard of before, Ron Hansen.  I had heard of a his book The Assassination of Jesse James (which has been made into a movie) but not any of his other books.

So I picked up Mariette in Ecstasy when it was on sale for audiobook (currently on sale for kindle) but it took me a while to actually start it.

The idea is interesting, what would happen when a relatively modern woman receives the gift of the stigmata (the marks of Christ that St Francis and other saints have received). But the execution of the book is so odd that I am quite put off.

I have read spare books before.  Cormac McCarthy is spare.  Mariette in Ecstasy is down right sparse.  There are sections that are mostly just phrases grouped together without any verbs.  Mostly when describing a scene.  But it is not only scene descriptions that are sparse, it is the dialogue and storyline as well.  I keep feeling like there are missing pages.  As I glanced through other reviews, it seems that quite a number of people have looked through their book assuming that pages had been ripped out.

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The Prestige By Christopher Priest

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The Prestige By Christopher PriestI don’t know if this makes me biased but my husband and I really like the movie, The Prestige.  I have been thinking that I should read this book for a while but I wasn’t sure if I wanted to read a book where I already know the big twist in the end.  I decided to read it, or listen to it rather, because reviewers on audible highly recommend the book, because the narrator is Simon Vance (an accomplished narrator who has also done The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo series among many others), and because I could review it and the movie for this blog.  I am so glad that I did decide to read it because I loved the book and, surprisingly, listening to the book made me love the movie even more.

There are a lot of revelations and twists found in this story so it is difficult to fully discuss the story without spoiling it for those who have not experienced it yet.  The story is about two rival magicians Robert Angiers and Alfred Borden.  The reason for the rivalry or the reason their rivalry begins (because it does evolve) differs between the book and the movie.  Through the use of diaries kept by both men we learn of their backgrounds, how their love for magic began, and we come to understand their point of view on magic, life, and the rivalry that comes to consume them.  This rivalry is heightened to the point of no return and many moral lines are crossed.

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Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card (Book and Movie Review)

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Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card

(Updated with movie review at the bottom of the post.)

With Ender’s Game, which was published in 1985, Orson Scott Card was successfully able to make guesses as to what the future will hold, at least technologically. He described interactive desks (iPads), internet blogs, and holographic simulations. It was definitely fun to see that many of his predictions of the future have already come to pass.

While this novel was filled with quite a bit of action, it was mainly about relationships. I can’t even really argue that it is a coming-of-age novel because the kids in this novel are forced to act like adults. The relationships varied from brother-brother, brother-sister, parent-son, teacher-student, student-student, and enemy-enemy, to name a few. I like how the author used these relationships to explain and affect the actions and motivations of Ender. I found it intriguing that because the main characters were children that the adults in the novel were adept at using these relationships to manipulate the young boys and girls.

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The Yearling by Majorie Kinnan Rawlings

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The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan RawlingsThe Yearling was required summer reading my 7th grade year, and I likely would have hated it had I been forced to read it then (I started attending that school in 8th grade). But reading it now, in my late twenties, I loved it. A coming of age story, it follows the subsistence existence of the Baxter family in the 19th century Florida backwoods–particularly that of Jody, the only survivor of his mother’s many difficult pregnancies. The Baxters struggle through various trials: flooding that destroys much of their crop harvest and decimates the local animal population; strained relations with the Foresters, the rough and uncouth family nearest to their homestead; and an ongoing battle with a stealthy and cunning bear they’ve dubbed “Old Slewfoot.”

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