…Blue Like Jazz makes me feel a little more normal about feeling bad. Miller is a fantastic personal story teller, and his insights into his own spiritual growth are engaging, enlightening and motivating. One of the underlying themes is learning to love (God, others, yourself), which Miller introduces as being like learning to appreciate Jazz music…
Read the rest of Book 3 of 15 – Blue Like Jazz...
This story of a young Pakistani coming to America and finding both academic and professional success only to reject it all and return home within five years is quite compelling. I really liked this $2 discount book, and I felt a bit insulted for the author that Barnes and Noble was practically willing to give it away.
Read the rest of Book 2 of 15 – The Reluctant Fundamentalist...
Virtual Light begins the Bridge trilogy, a trio of stories set around what has become of the Bay Bridge between Oakland and San Francisco, California. The book is excellent, though not quite as dweeby as some of his earlier stuff.
Read the rest of Book 1 of 15 – Virtual Light...
Tom’s church underwent a transformation into a megachurch over the course of a few years, shifting its focus from its traditional, family-focused roots toward more contemporary, performance-driven styles of worship. Tom’s criticisms of his fictionalized self are the most interesting part of the book. Overall, this was an excellent book, and even if you haven’t read The Screwtape Letters, it’s quite a good read.
Read the rest of Book-A-Month – December 2009 (#2)...
Shane and Chris spin an excellent yarn here, and I’d strongly recommend it to anyone who is interested in digging deeper into their walk with/for Christ. There is a lot more to say about this book, but my words would not do it justice. I do think, however, that I may read it again in a few months as a refresher.
Read the rest of Book-A-Month – December 2009...
Jay Rossier’s Living With Chickens gives a great overview on raising these creatures, be they for food (meat), food (eggs) or fun (as pets). It looks like fun to raise chickens! On the other hand, it also looks like a TON of work. I have a toddler. Gosh, that’s enough work by itself, and I’m in the office 50+ hours per week! Maybe the chickens will wait a few years.
Read the rest of Book-A-Month – November 2009...
It caught my eye as I walked past my basement bookshelf last week. My favorite Stephenson novel, Zodiac, sitting squarely between The Big U and Snow Crash, looking particularly tempting, was too hard to resist. So, over the course of 3 or 4 shockingly long baby naps, I breezed through the 308 pages that make up this entertaining, thought-provoking and possibly-way-too-informative eco-thriller.
Read the rest of Book-A-Month – August 2009 #2...
Mona Lisa Overdrive was a very easy read, much like Spook Country and the rest of Gibson’s books I’ve had the pleasure of reading. Again, however, I was struck with the single-person-on-drugs thematic element which I have yet to see anyone else take and interest in. Maybe it’s so minor that no one else cares, but every one of his books that I have read to date shares it. It is as if Gibson is a closet fan of substance abuse, or that he’s never experimented and wants to live its effects vicariously through one of his characters. Nevertheless, it was just as entertaining this time around. There is, again, an element of control loss when the addiction is in play.
Read the rest of Book-A-Month – August 2009...
This book is loaded with hilarious anecdotes about Lewis’ experiences with his three young children. He has some interesting theories on fatherly love, mostly that it comes from wanting to toss your children from high balconies and not doing so. I can’t attest to personally scaling any tall objects with my son in tow, but I can relate to the surprise that is the level of stress an infant brings. It’s incredible, and the level of openness in this book is refreshing and easily relate-able.
Read the rest of Book-A-Month – July 2009...
I set my expectations a bit high for this book, for some reason. The jacket text leads off with a flu epidemic example, and so I thought that there would be a decent amount of text devoted to pandemics (e.g plague, influenza, etc.). Instead, a fleeting reference to the flu gave way to a syphilis outbreak in Baltimore. Not quite as interesting, but mis-set expectations will do that to you. It’s one of the examples from the last rule, however, that made me think the most and therefore kept me from being completely negative in my assessment of the book.
Read the rest of Book-A-Month – June 2009...
The book is overall fantastic. I thought that Stephenson didn’t spend nearly enough time on Waterhouse’s, and consequently Newton’s, story line in this book, which was 80% about Jack and his adventures as galley slave/king/pirate in Eurasia, Eliza in high France and the other side of Cryptology and Natural Philosophy. Maybe a bit too much about high France.
Stephenson does such a great job of using real history’s characters and their actions as a plot background. He takes history and inserts Waterhouses and Shaftoes (and of course, Enoch Root) and makes them the unnamed companions to existing historical figures. It’s a really great way to set the stage within the world of the real, but give yourself enough artistic license to write two-thousand pages about what didn’t really happen within what did.
Read the rest of Book-A-Month – May 2009 (Finally)...
In as much as The Watchmen pledged allegiance to the original, V For Vendetta went its own way. There are entire major plot lines that were re-thought, entire character arcs dropped, historical elements shifted to be “less British”, etc. I found this jarring, but after the first hundred pages, I had the same reaction I have whenever I read an original after seeing an adaptation for film – I end up thinking the book’s way better.
Read the rest of Book A Month – March 2009 (again)...
Since I somehow missed the boat on the entire Graphic Novel genre when I was growing up, I borrowed the original from a friend at work and read it before going to see the movie. Suffice it to say that I liked the movie, but I loved the book. The story was far easier to follow in print, even with all of the pirate comics mixed in.
Read the rest of Book A Month – March 2009 (For Real)...
I’ve read several of Gibson’s books. Each was just a little weirder than the one before, but I like weird, so that’s not a big deal. What strikes me is that in each one there’s at least one person who is totally dependant on drugs. Like, cracked out of their goard. I’m fine with that, too, actually… it adds an interesting “lack-of-control” element. Though, in the case of Spook Country, it gives one character a measured level of control over another.
Read the rest of Book A Month – January 2009 (2)...
I’d been thinking about how best to re-implement my church’s web site and wondered if blogging would be a useful tool or not. I’ve always been a big proponent when it’s the right fit, but my church isn’t that big or that technologically advanced; it would be a big step for them. I’m still not sure it’s the right time, but I’m going to put the tools in place to let them get started when and if they decide it’s the right next step. The Blogging Church helped me to put some ideas about blogging and its ministry applicability into better perspective. It was an excellent read, and certainly a very timely one as I’d just started the rebuild project when I received the book.
Read the rest of Book A Month – January 2009...
