The Catholic Church: What Everyone Needs to Know by John Allen Jr

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Summary: A well written succinct account of the Catholic church.  Primarily concerned with the workings and practice of the church. Written in a question and answer format, which is wearing after awhile.

Over the past year or so I have been reading to understand more about the Catholic church.  I have read several accounts of conversion from Protestant to Catholic. I have read Robert Barron’s Introduction to Catholicism and Scott Hahn’s 40 Catholic Customs and their Biblical Roots and Richard Rohr’s Why Be Catholic.  I have read Mark Noll’s evaluation of the state of the Catholic church and Evangelical/Catholic Relations.  I even have read (but not yet reviewed) the first of the Pope’s books on Jesus.

But all of these books have been either primarily theological or primarily personal accounts of the Catholic church.  John Allen is the senior Vatican correspondant for the National Catholic Reporter and Vatican analyst for CNN.  This new introduction to the Catholic church (very conveniently released just as the conclave gets under way to elect a new Pope), is clearly the work of a journalist.

The writing is clear and punchy.  It gets straight to the point and it covers a wide swath of material.

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Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel Review

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Reposting review because the book is now available in a Kindle Edition

A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic NovelSummary: The wonderful story with a new comic book feel in honor of its 50th anniversary.

Late every Christmas Eve my wife and I go over to her cousin’s house and we act as elves.  We put together all the toys, make sure all of the batteries are in (we cart away all the empty boxes and wrapping because Santa does not buy toys at the store.

As the kids have gotten older there are less complicated things for us to put together and we have more time to talk.

I was talking to my wife’s cousin’s husband and he was saying that over the past year he has rediscovered his love of comic books because of the iPad.  With his iPad he now is back to buying all kinds of comic books and rediscovering the joy of the comic in a new form. (Note: Marvel now has an unlimited subscription option for ipad comic books.)

I never got into comics.  I just didn’t have a community of friends that read them and so there was no one that shared them with me and my local library did not carry comic books (although I am sure some do.)

I have been paying more attention to factors in children’s reading.  Why is it that some kids read and some do not.  I am convinced that part of it is the community that they grow up in.  If everyone around them reads, then they probably will read as well.  One educator interviewed kids at her school that were readers and she found that the kids that were strong readers were closest to the local library and were encouraged to use it. (There is probably a causality problem with her research, but access to books is certainly one influence.)

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Marvel Unlimited Now on iOS

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A few years ago before I started regularly blogging when I had first picked up my iPad, I started reading comic books on the iPad.  I had never read a lot of comic books. But I love the story lines that I new from cartoons and movies. What kept me from really getting into comic … Read more

Bossypants by Tina Fey

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Kindle book dropped to $5.99 so I am reposting the review.

BossypantsTakeaway: Funny memoir, and surprisingly insightful discussion about the role of women in entertainment.

Tina Fey is a great writer.  I have never watched that much Saturday Night Life.  It is past my bed time (I usually wake up between 5 and 6 even on weekends.  Yes I am an old man.)  And I have never watched 30 Rock (although I am going to try it out after reading this book.)

But I have seen enough of Tina Fey that I was interested.  My Sister-in-Law passed on the hardcover months ago after she read it, but it was a hard cover and I never got to it.  Last week I picked up a free audiobook in a promotion (the promotion is dead now) and decided to listen to it as a change of pace.

I finished it in less than 24 hours.  It is not long, less than 6 hours unabridged.  But it is read by Tina Fey and she does a good job acknowledging that she is performing an audiobook, not just blandly reading the text.  There is even the audio clip of her first Sarah Palin SNL skit.  I love authors that read their own audiobooks.  The vast majority of the time it is so much better than a random narrator.

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Offsite Review: 4 Theology Books for Youth Ministry by Andrew Root

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There is a upsurge in attention on strengthening youth ministry.  Many people (youth and leaders) are no longer interested in youth ministry as entertainment.  Instead there is real interest in bringing youth into the heart of church ministry.  More involved in outreach ministry, more involved in evangelism, prayer and theology.  Jasmine Smart reviewed four new … Read more

Operation Screwtape: The Art of Spiritual War by Andrew Farley

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Summary: A modern take on CS Lewis’ Screwtape Letters.

I remember reading CS Lewis’ Screwtape Letters when I was pretty young.  I am not sure, but I think I was probably 12 or 13.

It was just enough humor and story for me to be able to read, while at the same time absorbing some good theology.  I think that is what Matt Mikalatos is doing with Imaginary Jesus and Night of the Living Dead Christian (Bookwi.se Reviews), but there are not many other books that are trying to mix a light story wrapper on good theology.

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