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Perelandra by CS Lewis (Space Trilogy #2)

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Perelandra by CS Lewis (Space Trilogy #2)Summary: In the second book of the series Ransom visits Venus.

The books of Lewis’s space trilogy are hard to review.  How to you review a classic work of CS Lewis?

In the first book, Out of the Silent Planet, Ransom is kidnapped and taken to Mars where he finds a ‘garden of Eden’.  Mars is an old world, one that has not fallen.  There is no sin.  There are only the creatures, following in perfect unison with their creator.

In Perelandra, Ransom is called to Venus for some purpose he does not know.  Once there Ransom meets a green woman.  One of only two people on the planet.  She has been separated from ‘the king’.  The world of Venus is a great ocean with floating islands.  There is one solid place in the whole world.  But the green woman and ‘the king’ have been told by their God that they can visit, but they are not to live there.

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CS Lewis: A Life by Alister McGrath

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Summary: An important, highly readable biography of Lewis.

More than several people agree that this is the best Lewis biography to date (see links below).  So far I have not read any negative reviews of Alister McGrath’s new biography.

McGrath unlike previous biographers was not a friend, student or family of Lewis.  And unlike previous biographers McGrath had access to an enormous library of Lewis’ correspondence which has led to a new understanding of Lewis.

McGrath also is planning a second, more academic evaluation of Lewis, so this book is written as a popular biography.  If there is a weakness of the book it is that it does not go into as much depth as I would like it to about several areas.  His spiritual development as a young Christian, how Lewis related to his step sons both before and after their mother’s death, and his theology are all areas I would have liked more depth. (Bookwi.se Note: I read A Life Observed: A Spiritual Biography of CS Lewis by Devin Brown after writing this review and it is a good supplement in this areas.)

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Wealth and Poverty: A New Edition by George Gilder

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A full-throated moral, philosophical, and practical defense of capitalism. Rather than advocate with reluctance for capitalism, granting critics’ charges of its excesses and a supposed foundation of greed, Gilder shows that only a capitalist system will bring true prosperity and growth to all levels of a society.

Gilder argues that the most important element of capitalistic growth and success is the entrepreneur, the person who puts up capital in risky ventures in the hope of a payout. These risks fail more often than they succeed, but in all cases knowledge is learned–knowledge upon which new ventures build.

Simply scanning topics he covers and the conclusions he draws, one might think Gilder is just pitching conservative Republican ideology warmed over. But his arguments eschew partisanship in favor of a philosophical, principled, and utterly researched approach. Gilder’s breadth of knowledge and understanding of economics and sociology is stimulating to encounter; having read his more recent (and even more theoretical) Knowledge & Power, I can see he is truly a polymath.

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The Man Who Knew Too Much by GK Chesterton

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Summary: A collection of 8 short stories (mysteries) centered around the character Horne Fisher, someone that knows everyone and know why the system usually frames the wrong person.

I have been getting a bit bored with my standard fare lately so I keep switching books in rapid succession trying to find the right book to hit my mood.

The Man Who Knew Too Much was not it.  But the stories are relatively interesting.  I am not a fan of short stories.  I like more character development and a longer story arc.  But I enjoyed Chesterton’s Father Brown Mysteries so I gave this a try.

Horne Fisher is an intelligent, upper crust Englishman.  He “˜knows too much’ about how things work and who is behind them.  So these are a fairly cynical bunch of stories mostly centered around how those with money and power can get away with things that other cannot.

But Horne is there to explain and figure out the solution that sometimes puts the real person back in the spot light, although in the cases that I listened to it wasn’t about putting them in jail or punishing them, but simply identifying them, often because the guilty party is either already dead or in some other method has already received their ‘reward’.  These stories are more about the why something was done than the how of Sherlock Holmes stories (so still a similar different as the Father Brown stories.)

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2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C Clarke

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2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C ClarkeTakeaway: The unknown may be the greatest horror of all.

I am a fan of science fiction.  And I know I have seen 2001 at least twice.  But I did not really remember much about it outside of the main story and the beautiful space shots.  So when it was the Kindle Daily Deal last week I picked up the kindle version.  And since the audiobook was discounted to $1.99 with purchase of the kindle book I picked that up as well and alternated between reading on kindle and listening to the audiobook.

(If you have a kindle and like audiobooks you really should try whyspersync.  It is Amazon’s ability for you to move seamlessly between your kindle and audible.com audiobook without losing your place. I have started using it quite a bit.)

This edition of the book opens with an introduction by Arthur C Clarke.  He read the introduction in 2000 (when he was 82 and 8 years before he died.)  In audio, it is actually him reading the introduction and his age is evident.  I had no idea that the book and the movie were written together at the same time.  Clarke and Kubrick made changes to each in order to incorporate elements from one into the other.  But there are differences and I will go back and watch the movie soon.

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Mere Christianity by CS Lewis

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Reposting this 2013 review because the Kindle Edition in on sale for $4.50

Mere Christianity by CS LewisSummary: A classic book of apologetics.

I know it is near heretical in some Evangelical circles, but I have never read Mere Christianity before.  As you are reading this I should by Kayaking around a small island in Georgian Bay of Lake Huron.  This is my 20th trip with my guy friends from College.

For the past couple years I have conned them into reading a book prior to the trip to give us something to discuss.  Since I have some influence and there are two pastor’s kids, a missionary, and a hebrew professor in the group we read theology.  We have read Scripture and the Authority of God and The Lost World of Genesis One (which sparked online discussions of The Bible Made Impossible and Incarnation and Inspiration).

This year we decided to read Mere Christianity.  I think only one of us had previously read it.  Prior to the trip I listened to it on audiobook and then re-read it on kindle on the plane ride.

I understand somewhat why it is a classic.  In part, because huge sections of the first part (the more general apologetics section) I have heard in one form or another. So Lewis’ arguments are either standard arguments about God or those that are original have been repeated so much over the past 60 years that they sound standard.

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Waterfall: A Novel by Lisa Bergren (River of Time #1)

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Summary: A surprisingly prepared 17 year old gets sent back into time to 14th Century Italy.

I have a pretty high tolerance for cheesy stories. But Waterfall really pushed the cheesy factors. I was pretty tired of all the teen slang that felt like it was included to try and be more authentic, but ended up being annoying and making the book feel younger and less professional.

Gabi is a 17 year old daughter of a pair of archeologists. Her father recently died and she and her sister and mother are on site in Italy trying to excavate an ancient tomb. While exploring the tomb, Gabi and her sister touches the wall and somehow Gabi gets sent back to 14th century Italy. When she walks out of the tomb she is in the midst of a small battle between two neighboring keeps (and her sister is no where to be found.)

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To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

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Takeaway: An American Classic.

To Kill A Mockingbird deserves all of its praise.  I had not read it since middle school or early high school, so when it came out for the first time as an ebook last month (at a very reasonable price) I picked it up.

It starts a little slow I think. I read the background and first two years of the story and then set it aside and read several other books before returning to  it again.  But once the main story starts with Atticus defending Tom Robinson I finished the rest of the book in two days.

There is no good way to review this book.  The basic story is well known and is one the true classics of American literature.   And Emily Flury is also reading it to review for Bookwi.se, so I will leave the hard work to her 🙂  But I did read the Wikipedia entry just to see what it said and was surprised how autobiographical the novel was.

I knew (but had forgotten) that Harper Lee and Truman Capote were friends.  I did not realize that Truman was the inspiration for the character Dill.  Wikipedia also said that Haper Lee’s father was a lawyer that lost a case defending two African American men on charges of murder.  After losing the case he did not practice law again.  Jem was based on her own brother, also 4 years older.  Haper Lee’s mother did not die until she was 25, but there was an African American maid/cook that worked for the family and her mother was emotionally distant because of some mental health issues.  There was also a real Boo Radley character in her neighborhood, a young man got into legal trouble and the father kept him at home for the 24 years out of shame until he was basically forgotten and eventually died.

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Deep and Wide by Andy Stanley – Favorite of 2012

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Reposting because the Kindle edition is on sale for $2.99. (And the audiobook is only $3.99 with the purchase of kindle book.)

Deep and Wide: Creating Churches Unchurched People Love to AttendSummary: The Church at its core is about reaching people outside its walls for Christ.

Right off the top, I love my church.  Andy Stanley is my pastor.

If I had to recommend this book for only one reason it would be because this book, more than any other I can think of, casts the vision for why the church has to be focused on those outside the church. If there is one thing that Andy Stanley is passionate about (and writes about well) it is the fact that most churches need to do everything they can to reach people that are not in church.

I should not need to repeat statistics about the fact that most churches baptize very few adults because of conversion.  Or the recent statistic that says that most Christian adults believe that they are instructed to share their faith, but admit that they have not in the last year shared their faith with anyone.

I do not believe that the attractional church model is the only model for church.  In fact, I think that organic church and missional church are two other models that are very important to drawing in people that have almost no background in the church to Christ.

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