The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffengger

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The Time Traveler's WifeSummary: The paradoxes of a science fiction time travel books wrapped in the tragic story of a romance.

A couple weeks ago someone asked me what my favorite book was.  I responded like I normally do and said I had two favorite memoirs of the last year (Surprised by Oxford and Jesus, My Father, The CIA and Me).  We had been talking about memoirs, so it made sense in the conversation.

In general I think of favorite books in categories.  How can you compare a theology book and a children’s book or a hard science fiction book and memoir?  Even when I post my books of the year lists, I have a separate fiction and non-fiction list.

But when I went home that night I was thinking through the question again and realized I do have a favorite fiction book.  It is Time Traveler’s Wife.

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Steve Jobs by Walter Issacson (Seth’s Review)

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Steve Jobs

This was an incredible, riveting biography. Isaacson does a phenomenal job bringing the story of Steve Jobs to life. For me there was a natural division in the story.

The “old history”–events prior to my own experience–was great fun to read, because I learned a lot about the tech world of software and hardware that was emerging in the 70s and 80s. The inception and early development of Apple, and the fact that Jobs was kicked out of his own company (and then brought back!), was fascinating.

The “contemporary history” began with events that I know personally. The trigger for that was Jobs’ involvement with Pixar, and culminating in Apple’s introduction of revolutionary portable devices (iPods, iPhones and iPads) and the major disruption of multiple industries (music, cell phones, the creation of a market for tablets out of thin air).

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Initial Impressions of the Kindle Paperwhite

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UPDATE: I also have a longer review.

I opened up (my friend’s) new Kindle Paperwhite this morning.

These are my very quick initial impressions. Even though I have seen the statistics about the size and weight, it is smaller than what I thought.  Essentially it is the exact same size as the Kindle 4 (Kindle Basic).

But also as soon as I picked it up I noticed that it feels much more solid.  It is heavier by 2 oz than the Kindle 4 (and one oz less than the Kindle with Keyboard).  The Kindle 4, which is what I primarily use, feels almost hollow when I hold it.  The Paperwhite feels like it is a solid object.  My guess is that much of that is battery.  The Paperwhite battery, with the light on, is supposed to last twice as long as the Kindle 4 with no light.

Visually, the screens do not seem much different. I took a couple of pictures outside in sunlight with the Paperwhite’s light off to show the difference.

Compare Paperwhite ScreenClick the picture to get the full size image. The blacks might be a little darker.  The fonts might be a bit clearer.  But there is not a lot of difference.

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How Harry Cast His Spell by John Granger

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How Harry Cast His SpellIn this book John Granger succeeds phenomenally in describing–and defending the very existence of–the Christian symbolism and doctrine that veritably burst from the seams of the Harry Potter series. There is a reason the books are so popular: Rowling is writing subversively edifying Christian fiction in the tradition of all the “greats” of classic English literature, for the postmodern reader of the 21st century. A golden quote from the final chapter:

J.K. Rowling delivers difficult truths to a postmodern audience in such a way that they accept the ideas they would otherwise reject, even laugh about. The existence of the soul? The importance of choosing to believe? The certainty of a life after death and a judgment of those with atrophied souls and darkened hearts? Rowling smuggles these golden wheelbarrows and quite a bit of Christian doctrine and ideas about the human person via her story line right past the most skeptical, even cynical, readers in history. (269)

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Sex, Mom and God by Frank Schaeffer

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Take Away: Our ideals and reality rarely match up. Frank Schaeffer is the son of Evangelical power couple Francis and Edith Schaeffer.  He is an author of a number of fiction books and several interesting non-fiction books (like his series on the military). But he is probably most well known either for his late 80s … Read more

Facebook is Becoming a Problem

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Over the last few months the Bookwi.se Fan page has been growing.  We have added almost 150 ‘fans’ in the last four months.  But we are actually reaching less people.  I have been able to see that through the metrics that track how many posts are viewed from Facebook.  Today Boing Boing posted an article … Read more

Paperwhite Kindle Reviews

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The new Amazon Paperwhite has started shipping.  A few reviews are out (Cnet, Verge, Kindle Chronicle). A friend of mine needed to replace their kindle because of a broken screen and is shipping the Paperwhite to me so I could play with it a few days before passing it onto him.  I am out of town … Read more

Father Hunger: Why God Calls Men to Love and Lead Their Families by Douglas Wilson

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Bookwi.se Note: Welcome Seth Simmons, a new Bookwi.se Contributor. If you would like to contribute reviews to Bookwi.se read our brief guidelines.

Father Hunger: Why God Calls Men to Love and Lead Their FamiliesFatherhood is a holistic role and endeavor. It impacts politics and government, education, vocation, poverty and crime, religion, and more. There is no facet of culture that is not impacted by fatherhood–or its decline.

Douglas Wilson’s Father Hunger is a rousing and convicting call for men to lead their families. Theologically robust yet pastoral and practical, Wilson gets to the heart of the matter in his characteristically direct manner. Like Chesterton, he has a way of looking at an issue from a different perspective and unearthing the basic truths.

An overarching theme of the book is the idea of gratitude. “Masculinity is the glad assumption of sacrificial responsibility” (41). “Gratitude declares the meaning of fatherhood like little else can” (59). Fathers are generous in all things. He shows how the apostle Paul compared not dirty and clean, but dirty and grateful (175).

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Invitation to Submit Book Reviews

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Bookwi.se is a better book review site when more people contribute reviews.  Over the past year or two nearly 10 different people have contributed at least one book review.  Bookwi.se reviews have been everything from children’s books to serious academic books to light pop fiction to classics.  This post is an open invitation to submit … Read more

Ghost Ship (Theo Waitley #3) by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

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Ghost Ship (Liaden Universe)Summary: Theo meets the rest of the Clan Korval Family and meets her new ship.

How do you review a book that is #3 is a sub-series and number 14 is a larger series?

After all most people will either not be interested because they have not read any of the previous books, or they are not interested because they have already invested so much time reading the series that they are going to read the book regardless of how well it is written.

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