The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks (Movie and Book Review)

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The Lucky One by Nicholas SparksIt is what it is and what it is is Nicholas Sparks.  I certainly would not even argue that it is Sparks at his best.  All the same, I enjoyed the book.  I live in the south so I like books about the south.  I savor the occasional romance novel and in both of those categories Sparks delivers.  In the case of this book, I saw the movie first so my images of the characters were already fairly well established.

Aside from the romance, the story consists of what are some somewhat complicated characters and relationships.  There is the girl who hates her ex but knows she must get along with him.  There is the ex who is despicable but who without a doubt loves his son.  There is the son who tries to fit in but seems to have an old soul. There is the grandmother who tries not to be a burden while acting as a support system.  There is the “œdrifter” who happens upon this little southern town and for some mysterious reason decides to stay.  I guess a major complaint of the book is that the characters are supposed to be complicated but when they are spelled out like I have just done they don’t seem complicated at all.

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Saint Francis of Assisi by GK Chesterton

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St Francis of Assisi by GK ChestertonSummary: A classic biography of St Francis from one of the great Christian authors of the 20th century.

GK Chesterton’s biography of St Francis is one of the classic biographies of St Francis and Chesterton attributed his work on this book to his eventual conversion to Catholicism.  Both of which were good reasons to read (listen) to this book.

I have started paying attention to the audiobook discounts when you first purchase kindle books.  So I picked this book up at the beginning of July when I had some promotional credits at Audible.  I might have been better served by reading the kindle version instead of listening to the audio version. Chesterton is not the easiest author to read.  He has a lot of asides and his fairly conversational writing style takes some getting used to.  That and he is brilliant.

Chesterton’s biography of St Francis is not a traditional biography.  Instead it is partially a biography and partially an exploration of the state of the Catholic church at the time of Francis and how Francis changed the Catholic church during his time and after. So if you are looking for a traditional biography, you will probably be disappointed by this book.  It has biographical details, but not many of them.

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Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

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The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

Summary: A man struggles to find love as he struggles to connect again with reality.

I saw the movie before reading the book.  So there was not a surprise on the story line.  The movie and the book were fairly close (although the climax is different).

But even though the storylines are close, the power of the book is that it is told entirely in first person from Pat’s perspective.

Pat is just getting out of four years of treatment in a psychiatric facility.  He does not realize he has been gone so long and everyone in his family works to help him make the transition by pretending it has only been a few months.

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The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting

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The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh LoftingSummary: The original classic children’s book, where a doctor and lover of animals learns to speak animal language.

Audible.com gave away several short books as part of a promotion for members in July.  The Story of Doctor Dolittle was one of them.

The audiobook starts out with an introduction to the tenth edition that praises the book as the first real children’s book since Alice in Wonderland. But since I really did not like Alice in Wonderland that did nothing to entice me to the story.

The story (published in 1920) is set in the 1820s.  Doctor Dollittle is a good doctor, but his love of animals eventually drives all of his human clients away.  After all of the human clients leave, Dolittle starts learning animal language from his parrot.  Eventually he learns how to speak to all of the animals and starts treating animals.

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The Kestrel by Lloyd Alexander (Westmark #2)

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The Kestrel by Lloyd AlexanderSummary: Mickle (Queen Augusta) is on the throne, but now Westmark is being invaded by the Kingdom of Regina.

My memory of this series is that it was the most important anti-war books that I had read. I frequently thought about it when I was reading the second and third books of the Hunger Games.

And re-reading it 25 or so years later, I understand why the books have stuck with me. But like many young adult books that I have read again as an adult, the story is much less detailed and explicit than I remember.

In Westmark, Mickle, the princess, is found again and restored to her parents. Theo, the teen that fell in love with her, saved her life and helped her find her way back to her parents, has been given the task of traveling throughout the country to find out what the mood of the land is and how the King can improve the country. This is also a way to keep Mickle and Theo apart while they mature and to see if they really are in love.

While they are apart, Carrabas (who Theo saved and the King exiled at the end of the last book) has encouraged Regina, a kingdom to the north, to invade. This is only accomplished because a number of nobles and members of the military work with Regina to see it accomplished.

With the Westmark military in shambles it is only the people, and Florian’s rebels that can push Regina back.

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How The Bible Came To Be by J Daniel Hays and J Scott Duvall

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How The Bible Came to Be by J Daniel Hays and J Scott DuvallTakeaway: If we are going to take scripture seriously, we need to understand how it came to be.

Part of the movement within Christianity and the modern world is that the traditional means of understanding authority has changed.  No longer is it good enough to say, the bible says so.  Or at least, there are several important steps between.  And at least one of them is coming to an understanding that the bible is trustworthy.

For the Evangelical, understanding scripture as trustworthy means that we need to understand how we got the bible in the form it is in.

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