Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell

by

Unfamiliar FishesTakeaway: Sarah Vowell is both one of my favorite narrators and one of my favorite historians.  That probably says a lot about me.

Sarah Vowell is a unique historian.  She may be the only historian known as much for her unique speaking voice as she is for her writing.  She has been a regular on This American Life, the voice of the daughter on the movie The Increadibles and is the author of six books.

So it is her voice (both actually and literary) that will lead you to love or hate her.  To get an idea of her actual voice you can watch the book trailer below.  But that will really only matter if you want to listen to the audiobook (which I did.)

Read more

Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life by Richard Rohr

by

falling upward cover imageTakeaway: Maturing is not a straight line and it does not automatically come with growing old.

Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition (Kindle available now, paperback is a pre-order for April 19, 2011)

Today is my birthday so I thought it appropriate to read and review a book that is primarily about how to age better. I must admit I was a bit put off of this book when I first started. Rohr is a Catholic priest and it took a while for me to sink into his vocabulary and understand how he was using his words.

After I picked it up again a week or so later. I started to see a spirituality that was formed by story in a way somewhat akin to Donald Miller. The 30 page intro is rough going no matter how you look at it. But once you get to the early chapters where Rohr uses the story of Odyssius to explain his point I was hooked.

Read more

The Private Prayers of Pope John Paul II: Words of Inspiration

by

Words of Inspiration: The Private Prayers of Pope John Paul IITakeaway: One of the most inaccurate titles ever. Actually a series of letters to lay Christians working around the world.

Purchase Links: Hardcover, Audible.com Audiobook

This is a book that I picked up because it was free on Audible (I think it was given away to commemorate his death.)  Obviously I did not get right to it.  I stumble across it when looking back through my audio archives.

It is very short, just over 2 hours of audio (did not realize until now that it is an abridged audiobook).  The full book is actually a collection of 150 letters (fairly short blog/newsletter length) that were written to the Secular Institutes.  My understanding from the introduction is that these are people that live and work in the secular world, but take on vows of chastity, poverty and obedience.  Mostly they are lay people (not ordained) and unlike monks or nuns (which are also often not ordained) live alone outside of a community.  I had never heard of this status before, but according to Wikipedia, there are about 60,000 people that live as ‘consecrated persons’.

Read more

Poke the Box by Seth Godin

by

Poke the BoxTakeaway: More inspiration about how to start something new from whatever position you are in.  Godin is about innovation and if we want a strong economy, we need people at all levels that follow through with this book.

Purchase Links: Hardcover, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook

I am a mixed relationship with Seth Godin.  On the one hand I think that he is very inspirational, a good writer and has been very good at communicating to a large group of people.

But I have been frustrated with some of his concepts in the past.  But there is not a lot controversial in this book.  Essentially, the book is giving people permission to start something new, be innovative and ‘poke the box’ to see if there is a better way to accomplish or create something.

That is really all that the book is about.  It is worth reading because Godin has the ability to really get at the heart of a matter.  Accomplishing something big is about actually starting something, seeing it to the end and learning from failure, then trying something else.

Read more

Reading Tools: Keurig Coffee

by

Aerobie 80R08 AeroPress Coffee and Espresso MakerI am a big fan of coffee.  I drink a lot of it, every day.  It is not about the caffeine, I really like the taste.  And I like it fairly strong.  For the last few years I have used an AeroPress.  It is like a modified french press but designed to make espresso instead of brewed coffee (I used it to make americanos).

Cuisinart SS-700 Single Serve Brewing System, Silver

For Christmas we gave my sister in law a Keurig coffee maker.  She is the only coffee drinker in her house and we thought that a single serving coffee maker was a good idea.  From there my Mother in Law bought one.  And a couple weeks ago I broke down and bought this one (at Costco).

What people love is that the coffee is very to make.  You use little cups that you put in the coffee maker and the coffee is brewed in that little cup and drips into your cup.  Start to finish the water is heated and make in less than a minute.  The clean up is simply taking out the little plastic cup and putting in the next one.  It is also great for people that love a variety of coffee or households that have both regular and decaf drinkers (like ours).

Read more

The Lost Gate by Orson Scott Card

by

Summary Review: Best Card book in years. He is always best when writing about gifted young teens. Purchase Links: Hardcover, Paperback, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook Over the years I have read many of Orson Scott Cards book (if my count based on wikipedia is right, then this is the 29th book.)  Based on my original … Read more

Most Read Reviews in March

by

First, I want to thank everyone for their patience in the transition from MrShields.com to Bookwi.se.  I made some mistakes and broke the RSS feed for most people for two weeks.  But in spite of the problems, this months traffic will be about 20-25% higher than my best month at MrShields and I have about … Read more

Overdrive Android App

by

One of the big complaints about electronic media is the lack of support of library systems.  Because libraries lend at no cost and an electronic copy is the same as an original copy, many media (whether music, video or print) have been reluctant to give lending rights.  One of the few players in the electronic library world is OverDrive.  Over the past year they have really expanded their software to allow for much more and much better access.  I reviewed the iPhone app last year.

I thought the iPhone software was ok, but I was using it on an iPad and there was not native iPad app.  Since that original review an iPad app was released.  In addition, you can now check out ebooks, not just audiobooks.  So the iPad can be a fairly basic reader that allows library checkout of books.  The iPad reader is basic, but usable.

For audiobooks, I really prefer using my phone because it is the device that I am more likely to have with me all the time.  So when I bought an android phone a couple months ago I found that Overdrive had an android app.  Primarily, I am interested in the audiobook functions.  The android app also allows for ebook reading, but I already have a kindle account and do not really need ebook library functions (I have literally hundreds of unread books on my kindle account).

Read more

The Gospel According to the Son by Norman Mailer

by

Gospel According to the Son, TheSummary: A fictional re-telling of the Gospels from the perspective of Jesus. Sort of like Christopher Moore’s book Lamb, but much less funny.

Purchase Links: Hardcover, Paperback, Audible.com Audiobook

I know Norman Mailer only by reputation.  I have not read anything else by him.  The Gospel According to Jesus is fairly short and I thought it would be  interesting to see what a 20th century fictional account would be like.  In many ways, it was much what I expected.  It is a first person account told through the eyes of Jesus.  Mailer is respectful of Jesus as a character but does not seem to think that much of Jesus the actual person.

Fictional accounts of the bible are fraught with difficulty.  If you have heard some of the controversy over The Shack, then you know some of the trouble one can get into when you try to write a fictional account of God.  Mailer was not the first to attempt it and I am sure will not be the last.  I most want to compare this with Christopher Moore’s book Lamb.  Although Lamb was not first person Jesus (it was instead first person from the point of view of Jesus’ childhood friend Biff), it has much the same struggle of Jesus trying to understand who he is, and whether he really is the son of God.

Read more