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Offsite Review: The Unity Factor: One Lord, One Church, One Mission

December 20, 2012 by Adam Shields

I reviewed John Armstrong’s little book The Unity Factor earlier this year. It is a helpful short book that talks about why the church should work together as a whole and the theological important of unity. David Daniels at Wisereader.com posted a review of it early this week that gets the point of the book … Read more

Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia by Michael Korda

December 19, 2012 by Adam Shields

It is nearly the end of the year. I am looking forward to posting my books of the year and recycling some content over a Christmas break so that I read some books I am looking forward to without as much pressure.

So I looked through the books I was currently reading and decided I just do not want to finish Hero: The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia by Michael Korda.

It is not that TE Lawrence is not interesting. He is fascinating. And Korda tries (although not quite as successfully as I had hoped) to be a story telling biographer more like Laura Hillenbrand (Unbroken and Seabiscut) than monumental biographer like William Manchester’s three volume biography of Churchhill.

Korda starts with an exciting couple of battles during WWI and then goes back and gives us a brief look at his childhood. Returns to WWI and stays in WWI for a long time. I gave up the book when I had completed about 8 hours of 14 hours on audiobook.

The Search For God And Guinness by Stephen Mansfield

December 6, 2012 by All Old Users

Summary: A fascinating history, but the writing was sophomoric.

Searching for God and Guinness is a “biography” of beer’s role in history and culture through the lens of one of the most famous brands and the family behind it. In simple and readable prose, Stephen Mansfield traces the arc of beer–specifically its origins as a moral and healthy alternative to the hard liquors that destroyed men and marriages, the economic and social development of the Guinness family, and especially the latter’s incredible impact on the justice issues of the day.

Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance by Lois McMaster Bujold

December 4, 2012 by Adam Shields

Summary: Ivan finally gets to play lead in this long running series.

Science fiction is such a moldable setting. There are the hard science books, the space opera, the mystical fantasy books, the near term commentary and a ton more. Readers that dismiss genre fiction are really missing out. (Slate had an article about Ursula Le Guin that made this point well.)

For me, there are two types of science fiction types that I really like. One is the idea fiction. Use a science fiction setting to create a world and take it to its logical conclusion to explore various ideas about society, religion, ethic and/or philosophy.

The other type is the hero story. This is a wide group. It can include everything from Star Wars to Ender’s Game.

Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula Le Guin

November 19, 2012 by Adam Shields

Summary: A young wizard must find himself to make right a wrong he created.

Wizard of Earthsea is one of those classic books that I remember reading as a young teen. Like An Abundance of Katherines, it is a coming of age story. But unlike the other two books that I read this past week from the same era (Goldfinger and Stainless Steel Rat) it did not feel dated.

At the end of the book, Le Guin commented about the history of the book. This was the first book that a publisher had asked her to write, and she was reluctant. She had not written a book specifically for teen before this. And while she had written fantasy, the idea of fantasy as a genre was very new.

Lord of the Rings had only recently been published in the US. And the idea of young adult fantasy was just getting started. Lloyd Alexander had won the Newberry Medal for the High King the year before A Wizard of Earthsea was written.

In Le Guin’s little history she noted that she was subtlety trying to tweak the establishment. She followed the basic structure of a young adult version of a wizard, but she made him non-white. In fact all of the good characters in the book are not white. The only explicitly White main character is one that we see as a young girl and later as a young woman. And both times she betrays Ged to try and steal his power.

Goldfinger by Ian Fleming

November 15, 2012 by Adam Shields

Summary: An over the top villain tarnishes an otherwise decent Bond novel.

James Bond is one of those cultural items that everyone ‘needs’ to know. We know that Bond gets the girl(s), that he likes his vodka martini’s shaken not stirred (usually with a lemon twist). He always wins, he has cool gagets, cool cars, looks good in a tuxedo, always seems to be undercover, but still uses his regular name, etc.

Last year I read my first James Bond book, Dr No. It was more like the movie than I expected but I still basically liked the book. I am a fan of spy book, but more the John le CarrÃ©, Jason Borne, and Milo Weaver variety.

In the books, James Bond is racist, sexist and usually is against comic book style villains instead of other spies. In the movie, Goldfinger gathers together all of the mob bosses in the US so that he can get the man power to knockover Fort Knox. In the book it is similar but even more similar to a group of super villains from a kids cartoon.

Nearing Home: Life, Faith and Finishing Well by Billy Graham

November 7, 2012 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: Old age is hard, but part of life, and part of God’s plan.

Billy Graham has a distinctive clear style of writing and his latest book (published at 93 years old) is still the same. As with every one of his books, there is a clear presentation of the plan of salvation. But this book is written for a particular audience, and at 38, I am not it.

Nearing Home is written primarily for those that are 50 or 60 years old and above. Some of it is basic advice as for those that are aging (have a will, make plans for your health care, talk to your heirs about your wishes, etc.). Much of the book is spiritual and relational advice.

Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus by Mary Shelley

November 1, 2012 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: The common conception of the book has nothing to do with what is really in the book.

So here is what is probably most interesting about reading ‘The Modern Prometheus’, almost nothing that I thought I knew about the story line is actually in the book. Many stories we primarily know through movie adaptations and not the book itself. That is not unusual. But the fact that almost all of the central features of the cultural understanding of the book are not in the book is fascinating.

Igor, lightning, the slow walk, the arms raised, pretty much all the features about the monster are all wrong. Not even wrong, it is the opposite of the book. The monster was brilliant, well spoken, desired only to love and be loved. Even the name is wrong. Frankenstein is the name of the Doctor, the monster is never named (I did actually know that part before reading the book.)

When I talked about the book with some friends there are pretty different opinions of it. My sister in law loves the book. She is a scientist and talked about it as part of a discussion about medical and scientific ethics.

From Willow Creek to Sacred Heart by Chris Haw

October 26, 2012 by Adam Shields

Summary: From cradle Catholic to Willow Creek to radical servant to Sacred Heart.

Over the past couple of months I have been reading a good bit about Catholicism, mostly a mix of theology and conversion stories.

From Willow Creek to Sacred Heart: Rekindling My Love for Catholicism is a mix of the two. The first half is is the story of how Chris Haw was born and raised Catholic, but then moved to Willow Christ as an early teen. Haw went to Eastern College and became connected with Shane Claiborne. (They co-authored Jesus for President.)

Part of the story here is a fairly radical ‘conversion’ to work with the poor. In some ways this may be more offensive to some than his later conversion back to Catholicism.

Haw, with his wife Cassie, moved to Camden, NJ. He worked first as a teacher at the Sacred Heart school and later he refurbished homes and became a writer. His return to Catholicism was gradual and at least in part because he was living across the street from Sacred Heart and working with the church on anti-poverty programs

The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

October 25, 2012 by Adam Shields

Summary: Bilbo is recruited from his life of ease to become a thief to steal gold from a dragon.

I imagine a lot of people will be reading the Hobbit over the next couple of month. Peter Jackson’s movie comes out Dec 13. (I am still irritated that they are making this into a multi part release.)

One interesting feature of the Hobbit is that is has been studied academically quite well. One professor has released his academic lectures on the Hobbit online so the interested reader can listen in. (I listened to some of them.)

It is hard to remember, but I think I watched the 1977 cartoon before I read the book. So my current re-reading is probably influenced as much by my vague memories of the cartoon as much as my vague memories of the book.

I have never purchased the audiobooks of Tolkien’s books because until recently there was not an unabridged version available. I am glad that I listened to the Hobbit on audio. I have the bad habit of skimming Tolkien’s songs and verse. And the songs and verse are important to Tolkien. For all of the problems of the productions of the audiobook (lots of random blank space and poorly edited audio passages), Rob Inglis has a great voice for the book and masterfully sang all of the songs.