End of Sexual Identity: Why Sex is Too Import To Define Who We Are

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The End of Sexual Identity: Why Sex Is Too Important to Define Who We AreSummary: Sexual identity is not the same as full identity, so we need to define ourselves as a person, not a sexual identity.

When I started The End of Sexual Identity, the Louie Giglio issue has not yet come up.  But I do think that Paris’ book is a good place to start for people that are uncomfortable with the orthodox Christian response to homosexuality and/or not ready to reject same-sex sex as a sin.

Jenell Williams Paris is an anthropologist.  So she starts by approaching sexual identity as a cultural construction.  That may seem overly academic, but she writes clearly and gives good examples so that even if you do not have a background in sociology or anthropology her argument is understandable.

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A Murder of Quality (A George Smiley Novel) by John Le Carre

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A Murder of Quality: A George Smiley Novel

Summary: The second book of the George Smiley series, Smiley works to solve a murder.

I am going back and reading the first two of the George Smiley series after having reading the more popular third to sixth books in the series.

These are not as good as the Karla trilogy (starting with Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy).  But they give some good background on Smiley.

In the middle of the first book Smiley resigns from the British intelligence service.  I believe this is the only book of the Smiley series that has nothing to do with espionage.

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The Truth About Organic Foods by Alex Avery

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The Truth About Organic Foods

According to Alex Avery, it is scientifically proven that organic foods are not safer than non-organic. Organic food is not more nutritious, overall. Non-organic milk has almost zero chance of containing hormones and is by far the safest food item on the market today. Even if hormones made it into the milk supply, the are the exact same hormones that humans have, and the levels in milk would be so low as to pose no risk whatsoever. The pesticides that organic farmers use (yes, they do use them–and often shield that fact with euphemisms) are less powerful and less efficient than modern non-organic pesticides, which means that they are applied much more frequently and crop yields are often lower.

These are just a few of the claims Avery makes. I am an equal opportunity skeptic, which is why this book appealed to me. I like things that challenge the conventional wisdom. I recognize that I have no easy way to confirm much of what Avery writes; he cites a LOT of studies from a variety of research bodies (collegiate science departments, the FDA, European research bodies, etc), but I don’t have the expertise to know if (or how much) he’s spinning. Sometimes the biased tone gets a bit obnoxious, but that doesn’t (necessarily) mean he’s not telling the truth.

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Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

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Summary: A poor New England man, his ailing wife and her orphaned cousin are trapped together. This is a short book, the paperback is around 100 pages and the audiobook was less than four hours,and about 20 or 30 minutes of that was a quick biography of Wharton. In spite of the shortness, I had … Read more

Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver

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Prodigal Summer
Prodigal Summer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Summary: Three intertwining story lines in a rural Kentucky community

After reading Poisonwood Bible and Flight Behavior at the end of last year I still wanted more Barbara Kingsolver.  I really do think she is one of the best living novelist and I wanted more.  So I picked up Prodigal Summer because it was on sale for $2.99 on kindle. (Back down to that price)

My wife and I read it together around the time it originally came out.  Of the books I have read by Kingsolver it is the lightest.  Kingsolver likes to deal with heavy subjects.

The main themes of this book are still heavy, the evolutionary process, what it means to survive when it requires others to die to support us, finding a new place as the world changes around you, etc.  But it also is the most traditional romantic story of the Kingsolver books I have read.

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