52 49 Books in 52 Weeks: Books 45-49: Challenge Wrap-Up

As the year comes to a close, I am only a little disappointed that I didn't make it all the way to 52 books.  After all, I did start in mid-February, so I did read more than 1 book per week during the time I was participating in the challenge.   

I did my best during the last 3 days of the year to catch up, and managed about 1 book a day.  I really wanted to at least make it to the nice, round number of 50, but, alas, it was not to be.  So, without further ado, here are the last 5 books I read, with my apologies for the incredibly skimpy reviews. They are all good books that I would recommend, with the caveat that the "Hornet's Nest" has a significant amount of language, violence, and sexual content. 

This is the conclusion to Larsson's trilogy and it mostly lives up to the drama and excitement of the first two.  I really enjoyed it, and was sad when it when it was over, because we will have no more novels from Stieg Larsson.  I will miss these characters.

This is an incredibly important book.  I think every pastor, youth leader, and Christian parent should read it.  Why are so many Christian young people apathetic about their Christian faith?  What do they really believe?  I started reading this book months ago & planned to do a long and pretty detailed review of it, but I've run out of time.  I don't agree with everything this author says, but for the most part, she is spot on.  This book is really good and really important. It's not just about teenagers.  It's about everyone in the evangelical Christian church in America.  Highly recommended reading for Christians.

Another book highly recommended for Christian parents. Not an easy read - that is - it is a very spiritually challenging book that will cause you to really examine your parenting methods  and evaluate your own spiritual condition. Very much in line with Tedd Tripp's "Shepherding a Child's Heart". 

I just love discovering a new author who writes really suspenseful fiction with well-developed characters.  This year I discovered Jodi Picoult, and I am looking forward to reading many more of her books next year.  Just like when I read "House Rules", I had trouble putting this one down.  It has many twists and turns, as well as fascinating issues of faith and deeply wrenching personal and ethical decisions to be made by her characters.

My final book of 2010 - another gripping tale from Jodi Picoult.   A dead infant is found in the barn of a devout Amish farmer in Paradise, Pennsylvania.  All the evidence points to the farmer's 18 year old daughter, who has obviously given birth in the past 24 hours, though she kept her pregnancy hidden from her family.  She adamantly denies the pregnancy, but she is arrested on suspicion of murdering her newborn.  Events bring high-powered Philadelphia attorney Ellie Hathaway into the situation. What will she discover as she undertakes young Katie Fisher's defense? 

Well, now it's on to 2011 and a new 52 books in 52 weeks. I'm exited to start again and I already have a stack of books awaiting me!

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 44: "A Fierce Radiance" by Lauren Belfer

What would it be like to live in a world where your little girl could fall and skin her knee, get infected with staph bacteria, and there's nothing you can do but watch as the infection takes her life in a matter of days?  Or you catch the flu, it moves into your lungs and becomes pneumonia, and there's no such thing as penicillin?  

We don't have to go back very far in our history - pre WWII - to find such a time.  This historical fiction novel is set in WWII.  Claire Shipley is a photographer working for Life magazine and she's been assigned to follow the story of the development and testing of this new medicine called penicillin.   Even if it does work as they hope, there is almost no chance they will be able to produce enough of it.  That is, until the government learns of penicillin's potential to heal the wounded on the front lines and steps in to take control and patent rights away from the pharmaceutical companies.

Lauren Belfer does an excellent job of winding a medical thriller, a murder mystery and a romance into the fabric of this historical fiction novel.  I found this to be a very enjoyable read.  It was also very informative about this time in history, and thought provoking.  As the author concludes in her notes at the end of the book:

Penicillin and the antibiotics that followed have changed the lives of virtually every human being in the past seventy years. Bacterial resistance to antibiotics developed from the beginning, however. Today, resistance is a major medical problem. Unless antibiotic use is curtailed, or new drugs are developed, humanity could easily return to the era when otherwise healthy adults died from a scratch on the knee.

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 43: "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck

In "The Good Earth" Pearl Buck tells the story of a Chinese farmer, Wang Lung, and his wife, O-lan.  As they begin their young lives together, they work hard to pull themselves out of a life of poverty and living hand-to-mouth off the land.  As hard as they work, floods, famines and wars come along to wipe out the well-earned rewards of their years of labor.   Each time this happens, they find a way to survive, and bring their family back to the land that is so precious to Wang Lung.  

The Good Earth is an epic, timeless tale with universal themes.  At the time it was first published (1931) most Americans thought of China as a mysterious, exotic place filled with a people who practiced savage customs.  Pearl Buck, who grew up in China as the daughter of American missionaries was able to portray her Chinese characters in this novel with depth.  They have complex motives, personalities, and exhibit desires that were common to most of her American readers.  She made China accessible to the West.   

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52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 42: "The Things That Keep Us Here" by Carla Buckley

This is a truly frightening novel, because it presents an apocalyptic scenario - an avian influenza pandemic - that is entirely realistic.  Peter Brooks is a university researcher who is one of the first to come across evidence of this avian flu killing birds right in his own community in Ohio. The novel follows Peter and his wife Ann as they go through the stages of the pandemic, working to protect and provide for their two daughters along the way.  Normal events, such as a winter snowstorm, become life altering catastrophes because supplies, utilities, and rescue personell are so limited.  They learn to rely on themselves and have to make difficult decisions.  How much contact can they risk with other people?  Ann's best friend brings her baby over, begging them to take him in because she and her husband are sick. Ann is frozen with indecision.  Can she bring this baby in, and take the risk that he will infect her whole household with the killer virus?

A truly riveting tale, that will leave you thinking long after you have turned the last page.

Sojourner.

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 41: "Jim and Casper go to Church" by Jim Henderson and Matt Casper

... is that what Jesus told you guys to do? Put on a Christian rock show that's visually and sonically indistinguishable from a non-Christian rock show, change the words, and call it church?  Is that pulled from the Bible?

Jim Henderson, a former pastor with 25 years of experience in Christian ministry, and Matt Casper, an atheist, wrote this book together, chronicling their mutual visits to evangelical churches all over America.  Henderson hired Casper to visit these churches with him and offer his objective outsiders' opinion on what he observed and experienced during the worship services.

They visit some America's most famous mega-churches like Saddleback, Willow Creek, and Joel Osteen's Lakewood. They also dropped in on several leading congregations in the Emerging Church movement, a small house church, and a mainline Presbyterian church. Throughout the book, you get a snapshot of the experience of worship in each of these churches, and you get to eavesdrop on the dialogue Jim and Casper are having about what they are seeing.  Casper offers honest, fair, and sometimes uncomfortable observations about what he observes in the church services. He is unimpressed with what he considers to be a general apathy and passivity in the congregants and the lack of a challenge in the peaching he hears.

"Well, where is the call to action?  The challenge to make this world a better place?..."

"If I did believe in God, and that I was going to be granted eternal life in heaven, I would want to do something significant here on Earth, to live as much of my life as I could following the example set by Jesus when he was here on Earth - do unto others as you would have them unto you - I don't know, maybe I don't know the real story of Jesus..."   Casper's voice trailed off, but his question was stuck in my head.  This conversation was quickly turning personal, and I knew Casper actually did have a relatively clear understanding of Jesus' message.  

You can certainly argue that as an atheist, Casper cannot understand the true meaning of saving grace.  But, it's also fair to say that Casper is correctly identifying the "cheap grace" that permeates much of evangelical Christianity today.  One of the saddest observations to me was that the only people to greet them as they visited church after church were the official greeters in each congregation.

This is a fascinating book to read if you have been a Christian for any length of time, and especially if you have grown up in the church.  It is truly valuable to see typical evangelical worship experiences from an "outsider"'s viewpoint.

Sojourner

 

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 40: "The Girl Who Played with Fire" By Stieg Larsson

In this second book in the Millennium Trilogy, Mikael Blomkvist begins an investigation of the sex trade that threatens to have wide implications.  When two of his colleagues who have been working on this story are murdered, Blomkvist is stunned to find that Lisbeth Salander (whom he has been unable to contact since she suddenly dropped out of his life) has been charged with their murders. Could she really be responsible for this horrific crime?

This is a very well written and engrossing story, although the dramatic and chilling events at the climax stretch credulity.  It ended quite suddenly and I really wanted an epilogue.  I'm sure the lack of a fully satisfying wrap-up to this story has to do with the fact that this series was published posthumously. When I cued up the beginning of the recording of the final book in the trilogy ("The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest"), events picked up right where this one ended.

One note about this fascinating and popular series: it contains strong language and sexual content which could be offensive to some.  It is neither gratuitous nor out of place for the context of the book, but the language, in particular, is copious.

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 39: "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" By Stieg Larsson

This is the first book in the wildly popular Millennium Trilogy written by Swedish author Stieg Larsson.  Larsson passed away in 2004 before this book was published, so all three of the books were published posthumously.

Mikael Blomkvist is a financial journalist who has just been convicted of libel and his future in journalism is in question. As he contemplates the short jail sentence he has received, he is contacted by Henrik Vanger, the elderly CEO of the powerful Vanger Corporation.  Vanger offers Blomkvist a freelance assignment.  He wants to find out who killed his neice, Harriett Vanger who disappeared without a trace in 1966.  Blomkvist accepts the assigment, and is joined by Lisbeth Salander, an enigmatic young private investigator. The Vanger family secrets that Blomkvist and Salander uncover will put them in grave personal danger.

This is a very well-written epic and I am looking forward to the next book in the trilogy.  It has already been made into a movie in Sweden, and a Hollywood adaptation is set to be released late in 2011.

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 38: "Baby, We Were Meant for Each Other" by Scott Simon

Scott Simon (Host of NPR's program "Weekend Edition") and his wife are raising two little girls that they adopted from China.  In this book, he tells the story of their adoption process, and also shares lots of stories of other adoptive families.  It's an uplifting, heartwarming look at adoption.  It's also a very light and fluffy read.

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52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 37: "Chosen" by Chandra Hoffman

Young Chloe Pinter loves her job as an adoption social worker.  As she sets out on a rainy Thanksgiving evening to bring dinner to one of her birthparent families, she has no idea that this adoption is going to bring heartbreak and danger into her life and that of the adoptive parents. Chandra Hoffman weaves an intriguing tale that demonstrates issues and roadblocks that can arise in domestic adoptions.

This novel was disturbing to me, because it focused only on the negative aspects of domestic adoption.  The adoption agency Pinter works for is strapped for money, so it caters to high income, desperate adoptive couples and takes advantage of low income, equally desperate birthparents. The birthparents in this story are greedy and manipulative characters. Chandra Hoffman has been the director of a U.S. adoption program.  I don't know if she chose to base her novel these negative elements because they create a good, suspenseful drama, or if she chose them because she saw them too often in her work.  I hope it is the former.  

My husband and I have a son whom we adopted through Bethany Christian Services' domestic infant adoption program.  One of the many reasons we chose Bethany for our adoption (and now a second adoption that is in process) is that they strive to work in the best interest of all parties involved: the birthparents, the adoptive couple, and the child. Birthparents receive extensive counseling both before and after the adoption.  This is critically important for their long-term well-being because they go through a significant grieving process after the adoption.  Consider this phone conversation in "Chosen" between Chloe and Heather, a birthmother whose child has been placed weeks before:

Heather: "I really don't even know why I'm calling.  I just got used to talking to you all the time, and then, it's like nothing.  I'm just calling to say hey, I guess."  

Chloe: "I'm really glad to hear from you."  

Heather: "So do you ever do, like, a follow-up visit?"  

With the adoptive parents, Chloe thinks....

We have met our son's birthparents, and we keep contact with them indirectly through the adoption agency.  They are truly courageous young people who made a heart-wrenching choice because they knew it was in the best interest of their son.  In doing so, they also gave us the most amazing blessing we could ever ask for.  I'm certain there are greedy, selfish birthparents out there, like the ones portrayed in this story, but I believe most are more like our son's heroic, sacrificial birthparents.

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 36: "Pearl Buck in China" by Hilary Spurling

Fiction never lies; it reveals the writer totally.  - V.S. Naipaul

Hilary Spurling's biography of the author of "The Good Earth" tells the engaging story of the life of Pearl S. Buck.   I had not heard of Buck before I learned of this book, and did not realize what an impact she had in her time.

Pearl Buck was the daughter of two American missionaries who served in China from 1880-1931.  Because Pearl spent most of the years of her life in China, she identified more with China and the Chinese people than she did with her American homeland.  As a very young child, she thought she was Chinese, until she realized something was wrong with her.  At the age of 4, her blond hair had grown too long to fit inside her cap.  "Why must we hide it?" she asked her Chinese nurse.  The nurse explained that black was the only normal color for hair and eyes (Pearl's eyes were blue.) "It doesn't look human, this hair", said the nurse.   Though she loved China, she found she didn't quite fit in.  But during the times when her family returned to the United States, Pearl's throughly Chinese mannerisms alienated her from American children.  She found her escape through reading & loved the novels of Charles Dickens.

As an adult, Pearl began to write her own novels.  In 1932, she published "The Good Earth", a novel about family life in a Chinese village.  It was a bestseller that dramatically changed America's popular perceptions of China and the Chinese people, and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932.

Pearl Buck suffered a tremendous amount of personal tragedy in her life.  Her parents' dysfunctional marriage laid seeds for Pearl's own difficult marriage and her subsequent divorce.  She saw the death of loved ones due to disease and war, at a young age.  And she pours out all of her sorrows in her writing, with many of the characters in her books representing people in her life and events that she lived through.  Spurling includes short overviews of many of Pearl Buck's books throughout the narrative of this biography and shows what they reveal about the events in Buck's life and how they impacted her.

I enjoyed this book, and now I have added "The Good Earth" to my reading list.

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 35: "A Week in December" by Sebastian Faulks

London: December, 2007.  Gabriel Northwood, a civil lawyer with few clients, who takes on a case involving a man who committed suicide by throwing himself under a Tube train.   Jenni Fortune, the young woman who was driving the train that hit the suicidal man.   Sophie Topping, the wife of Lance Topping, a newly elected MP.  John Veals, the owner of a hedge fund who is about to pull off the biggest trade of his already lucrative career.  Hassan al-Rashid, a discontented youth who is being seduced by a radical Muslim terrorist organization.  R. Tranter, elitist author and professional book reviewer who is discontented and frustrated with the direction of his career.  Tadeusz "Spike" Borowski, Polish football star who has been recently signed to play for a London team.

Over the course of one week, these seven characters (and many others) will be joined together by the circumstances of urban life in the metropolis of London.   The London Tube (which, unfortunately, you cannot see in this image, though it is prominent on the cover photo of the book), encircles these characters and serves as a symbol of the forces of modern society that bear upon their lives.  This novel is an interesting exploration of human motives and passions, and the impact they have on the characters' life choices.

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 34: "The Lion" by Nelson DeMille

Terrorist assassin Asad Khalil returns in this sequel to "The Lion's Game" to finish off the last few people on his hit list. John Corey stopped him 3 years ago, but this time Kahlil is determined not to leave until he finishes what he started. And he has added John Corey and his wife Kate to his list.  From the very beginning of this book, it is clearly building up to a one-on-one confrontation between Corey and Kahlil that will leave only one of them standing.

I listened to the audio version of this book, and fast-forwarded through a couple of the horrifying descriptions of Kahlil's killings.  He has come back even more ruthless, twisted, and personally vengeful than he was before.  The timeline of this book places it 18 months after 9/11, and, though Kahlil's mission is not directly related to that event, the weight and significance of the 9/11 terrorist attacks hangs over this story.  Also, this book was written almost 10 years after the first one, and a lot of things have changed in those 10 years, as far as our understanding of terrorism.  Sadly, none of the sickening killings Kahlil carries out are unimaginable.

At the end of the audio version of this book, there is an interesting interview with Nelson DeMille by narrator Scott Brick.  DeMille never intended for "The Lion's Game" to have a sequel.  But he had such a strong fan reaction after the first book that he finally wrote "The Lion" in response to his readers' desire for a resolution between Corey and Kahlil.

I specifically picked out these two books, and one other to read during September because of the theme of terrorism.  I am half-way through the other book & then I am done with terrorist thrillers for awhile.

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 33: "The Lion's Game"

Terrible he rode alone,

With his Yemen sword for aid;  

Ornament it carried none.

But the notches on the blade. 

John Corey is a wise-cracking, foul-mouthed former NYPD homicide detective who has been brought in to the ATTF (Anti-Terrorist Task Force).  His assignment is to help the FBI process Asad Kahlil, a defecting Libyan terrorist code-named "The Lion".  But when the plane Kahlil and his FBI escorts are arriving on lands, everyone on board is found dead in their seats.  And Kahlil is missing.  Most of the experts on ATTF believe this horrific act of terror was Asad Kahlil's end game.  John Corey knows it was just the beginning.  Corey works to stop Kahlil as he travels through the United States, carrying out his detailed plan of revenge killings.  But he is always one step behind this resourceful terrorist.  Can Corey catch The Lion before he reaches his ultimate target?

This novel is gripping and suspenseful, and reminded me of the TV show 24, with John Corey as the Jack Bauer character.   DeMille goes into Asad Kahlil's background to show us what drives his fierce determination to kill.  This made him a much more sympathetic character, and I found myself relating more to Kahlil at times than to Corey, who is a very unlikeable protagonist.

I would consider this book "R-rated" because of the amount of foul language and some sexual content.

The interesting and kind of creepy thing about this book is that it was published in 2000. In 2001, most Americans may have been stunned by the idea of middle-eastern terrorists waging war on our soil & using planes as weapons, but Nelson DeMille was not.

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 32: "A Biblical Case for an Old Earth" by David Snoke

The debate between Young Earth Creationists and Old Earth Creationists rages in churches and on the web.  Those who argue for an Old Earth perspective normally do so on the basis of the large amount of scientific evidence that supports their view.  What David Snoke does in this book is make a compelling Biblical argument for a day-age view (the view that the 6 days of creation in Genesis 1 are consecutive days that are each ages long, rather than 24 hour days).  Snoke spends one chapter giving a surface overview of the scientific evidence, but the rest of the book is focused on the Biblical case for an old earth, and the theological implications of holding this view.

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52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 31: "Methland" by Nick Reding

It was 2005 when I first became aware of the devastating effect Methamphetamine was having on rural America.  We were living in North Carolina at the time, and we had traveled to Missouri to visit family over the Christmas holidays.  When we came down with colds, I headed to the store to grab reliable old Sudafed.  But I was surprised to find that it had been moved behind the counter and I had to sign a registration list to purchase it.  At that time, the Meth epidemic was ravaging rural communities in the Midwest, but hadn't spread to the rest of the country yet.  Today, every state that I'm aware of has moved Sudafed behind the counter in order to curb the proliferation of the small "Mom-and-Pop" operations using large amounts of Sudafed to cook up Meth in their kitchens.

Nick Reding spent four years in Oelwein, Iowa interviewing citizens and researching the Methamphetamine epidemic's impact on this agricultural town of about 6000.  He profiles the lives of some of the individuals who have become addicted to the drug, and the law enforcement officials who are waging the war against it.  This is a worthwhile and interesting read, although the overall picture it gives is not encouraging.

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 30: "Solar" by Ian McEwan

Physicist Michael Beard's Nobel prize is decades old.  While his work is revered by most in his field, he is tired and has lost all passion for the work he once loved.  He relies on his reputation to bring in income through speaking fees and his involvement in high visibility, low impact government projects.  And his 5th marriage is on the brink of divorce.  Suddenly, a bizarre accidental death seems to provide the perfect escape from both his marital woes and the malaise he is experiencing in his career.

The protagonist in this novel is a selfish and thoughtless individual who makes a number of immoral and unwise decisions.  Yet, as the novel goes on, he sees few consequences for his actions, and he seems to ultimately get away with much of it.   The novel comes to a sudden and abrupt end that leaves very little sense of fulfillment.  Many of the reviews of this book call it a "darkly satirical" novel, and I suppose that's a good description.  I did not enjoy this book very much - I guess dark satire isn't my thing.  

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 29: "The Facebook Effect" by David Kirkpatrick

"Facebook was our headquarters.  It was the newspaper.  It was the central command.  It was the laboratory.  Facebook was all that, right up to the last day.”  Oscar Morales, owner/operator of the Facebook group “Un Million Voces Contra Las FARC” (One Million Voices Against FARC). 

Kirkpatrick opens with Morales’ story of the Facebook group he created in January 2008 against the Columbian guerrilla organization, FARC.  One month after he created the group, it had gathered 350,000 members, and sparked worldwide demonstrations against FARC, in which an estimated 12 million people participated.  His success, Kirkpatrick says, is due to the Facebook Effect.

“As a fundamentally new form of communication, Facebook leads to fundamentally new interpersonal and social effects.  The Facebook Effect happens when the service puts people in touch with each other, often unexpectedly, about a common experience, interest, problem, or cause.”

Kirkpatrick spends most of this book telling the detailed, in-depth story of Facebook’s beginnings in Mark Zuckerberg’s dorm room at Harvard in 2004, and its subsequent rapid growth.  In the last 3rd of the book, he has chapters devoted to Facebook’s impact around the world, and what he expects to be its future evolution.

As you would expect, there is also a chapter devoted to the issue of privacy, which was one of the most interesting to me.  

“You have one identity,” (Zuckerberg) says emphatically three times in single minute during a 2009 interview.  He recalls that in Facebook’s early days some argued the service ought to offer adult users both a work profile and a “fun social profile”.  Zuckerberg was always opposed to that. “The days of you having a different image for your work friends or co-workers and for the other people you know are probably coming to an end pretty quickly,” he says. 

Zuckerberg has two reasons for this view: one idealistic, and one practical.  He views having two identities as a lack of integrity.  He believes we all have one true identity and if we will be transparent and reveal that to the world, it will inspire more responsibility and accountability.  In short, it will make people behave better.  Secondly, he believes that as technology advances, keeping anything about ourselves private and hidden is going to become impossible.  I’m inclined to agree with him on this 2nd point.  His first point - the idealistic notion of maintaining one transparent online identity for the world to see, and that leading to integrity and moral behavior has a bit of merit.  A little bit.  But, in my view, the main reason he can hold so fervently to such a pollyanna idea is that he is 26 years old.  It was very helpful to me to gain this perspective on Zuckerberg’s views on privacy.  I do not agree with him, for the most part, but I understand where he is coming from.  I will no longer accuse him of having a careless disregard for people’s personal privacy.

A very interesting read for anyone who is active on Facebook.  


Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 28: "House Rules" by Jodi Picoult

This was my first Jodi Picoult novel, and it won't be my last.  I couldn't put this book down.  I read this 500+ page novel in 3 days - 3 weekdays in the midst of the normal routine of life during the school year.  As you can imagine, I didn't get much sleep, or accomplish much else during those three days.

Emma Hunt is a single mother with two teenage boys,  Jocob and Theo.  The oldest, Jacob, has Asperger's syndrome.  One of Jacob's AS symptoms is becoming overly focused on one subject - to the point of obsession.  Jacob's interest is forensic science & he is constantly showing up at crime scenes and offering his perspective to the police.  But when Jacob's therapist is murdered, the police turn their attention to Jacob - as a suspect.  Could Emma's sweet natured boy who "couldn't hurt a fly" be responsible for a murder?

Picoult leaves clues as the novel goes along, and the ending won't be a total surprise to readers who are paying attention.  But her writing is engaging and her characters compelling.   I recommend this book - with the caution that you may want to save it for a long weekend, just in case you become as captivated by it as I did.

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Books 25-27: "Legacies of the Ancient River" by Angela Hunt

When I found out that one of my favorite authors had written a series of historical fiction novels based on the life of Joseph, I had to read them.  They are very engaging and thought-provoking dramas, even for those already very familiar with this Biblical story.  The life of Joseph has to be one of the most dramatic and interesting in history.


Dreamers


This novel begins with Joseph's brothers tossing him into the desert pit.  It follows him as he is sold to Egyptian slave traders, enters the service of Potipher, gets thrown in jail, and then rises to the most powerful position in all of Egypt.


Brothers


"Brothers" covers the period of famine when Joseph's brothers come to buy grain from Egypt, and unknowingly end up at the mercy of the brother they sold to slavery so many years before.


Journey


"Journey" was the most interesting of these books, perhaps because it contains the most fiction.  It centers on Joseph's sons Ephriam and Manassah.  Two boys with an Egyptian mother and a Hebrew father, raised in the luxurious palace of the Pharaoh.   They have always been competitive with one another, but a rather dramatic shift in their power struggle comes with the death of their grandfather Jacob.  In his final moments, he gave the blessing of the eldest son, Manassah, to Ephriam instead, and said that Ephriam, though younger, would be the mightier of the two brothers.  


On the journey back to Caanan to bury Jacob, Manassah finds deep meaning in his Hebrew background & begins to associate himself more with his Hebrew lineage than his Egyptian upbringing.  He begins to believe that God has called him to lead his people from Goshen, where they are living in peace with Egypt, back the promised homeland in Canaan.


Ephriam, on the other hand, sees his role as uniting Egypt and Israel by marrying the daughter of the Pharaoh.  A conflict grows that could destroy the peace between Egypt and the descendants of Israel....


I really enjoyed this series.


Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 24: "The Extinction Event" by David Black

I'm not sure why I kept reading beyond the lewd opening scene of this book.  I put it on my reading list because it was billed as an intense, engaging conspiracy thriller.  I love mysteries, thrillers, and crime drama stories, so I thought this would be a fun summer read. But, any value that could be gained from this story was far outweighed by the amount of gratuitous sexual content, crude language, and vivid descriptions of murder scenes that it contained. By the time I was 100 pages into it, I was ready to quit and return it to the library.  However, I was also quite behind on this reading challenge, and so I decided to hang in there until the bitter end. The scientific twist revealed at the end of this book is interesting, and plausible.  But a motive for the murders that were committed in this story (as it was presented)?  Not credible.  This book didn't even make sense to me in the end.  


David Black may be a talented TV & film screenwriter, but I think I'll pass on any future novels he decides to write.


Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 23: "Wolf Hall" by Hilary Mantel

Hilary Mantel delivers a fascinating historical fiction novel covering Henry VIII's England, centered on the life of Thomas Cromwell. The book is rich in detail and thoroughly researched. Though the story of Henry VIII is a familiar tale, Mantle takes a fresh look at it through the eyes of Cromwell.  


She writes in the present tense, which provides a strong fly-on-the-wall sense of actually being there to experience these historical events.  However, she also uses pronouns so frequently that it is easy to get lost in the huge cast of characters included this 560 page tome.  This is particularly true when listening to the audio book, as I did. The print version of the book has an index of characters, organised according to when and where they lived, with relevant details that help put them in context.  It also contains a helpful genealogical table of the Tudors and the Yorkist claimants to the throne.


Mantle weaves a compelling tale which is well worth the extra attention required to keep track of her cast of historical characters.  


Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 22: "A Praying Life" by Paul E Miller

This is by far the best book I've ever read on prayer and probably the best book on Christian living that I've read in a decade.  It has totally changed my perspective on prayer, and you can read an example of how it has affected my life in the previous post.

Miller discusses hinderances to prayer, such as cynicism and how it develops over the years as most of us progress through Christian life as modern evangelicals. And he gives a fresh look at the promises of Jesus regarding prayer.  For example: What did Jesus really mean when He said, "If you ask anything in my name, I will do it?"

Miller also includes some very practical tips at the end of his book. He shows the system he has developed of using prayer cards. However, the point he emphasizes over and over is that prayer is not a system or something we should put on a "To Do" list.  That is what it has become for so many of us, that that is why our prayer lives are not what we want them to be.

This book is a must read for any evangelical Christian.  Really.  Go get it and read it if you have any interest in developing a more vibrant, relational, and effective prayer life.  I'd offer to loan you mine, but there are too many personal notes in it!

Sojourner

Of Illness and prayers for wisdom

My 6 yr old son is going to a summer day camp this week at a local park.  When I picked him up last night, he was complaining of lower back pain.  What???  He complained about the bumps in the road on the way home.  I told him, "You must've pulled a muscle."   We got home & I started fixing dinner & then he started saying, "I don't feel good.  My head hurts.  My legs hurt.  My stomach hurts. My throat hurts.  My heart hurts."  This is a fairly standard list of complaints he has often had lately, and we've had many discussions about the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf.  When he does this, I pull out the thermometer and prove to him that he is fine.  So, I stopped my dinner preparation and took his temperature. 101.6. Hmm.  That can't be right.  Let's take it again. 101.5.  OK. So.....hmm.

I don't usually take my son to the doctor just because he has a fever.  I don't even like to give him Tylenol for a fever unless his temperature is over 102 or it is making him miserable.  After all, a fever is one of your body's weapons against illness.  If you reduce the fever, you're probably going to be sick longer than if you just leave your immune system alone & let it do its job.

Since the fever proved he really was sick, and he said his stomach didn't feel good, I let him eat crackers, applesauce, and a popsicle for dinner.  My husband and I discussed whether or not we should just put him to bed & call the pediatrician if he was still sick in the morning.  That is what I would normally do in a situation like this. But, something about this was bugging me & we also considered taking him out to a walk-in-clinic after dinner.

At church we have been discussing Paul Miller's book "A Praying Life".  I'll review it here when I'm finished.  I had just been reading his chapter on asking.  He says we are far too confident in our worldly resources and that keeps us from a life of prayerful dependence on God.  He gives two reasons (from the book of James, chapter 4) that explain why prayers often go unanswered: 1) we do not ask  2) we ask with wrong motives.  I have been realizing that I am very guilty of not asking in situations like this. After all, we have doctors.  We have pills.  We have WebMD.  Most of the time I just make decisions like this without thinking about asking God for wisdom.

But last night, as we bowed our heads to give thanks for our meal, I prayed for wisdom in making this decision.  After dinner, we decided to take him the clinic, so I packed him in the car (in his hoodie jacket, since he was cold in the 87 degree night air!) and off we went.  The whole time we were there, I felt like I was overreacting & was feeling guilty about dragging my sick boy out instead of just putting him to bed. Until the doctor walked in and said, "Somebody has strep!"

One antibiotic shot (and 3 minutes of crying) later, and we were headed home.  The last time he had strep he was much sicker, had very severe throat pain, and vomiting.  Lots of vomiting.  I think this time we caught it much earlier - at least 12 hours earlier than we would have if I had waited to take him to the pediatrician in the morning.  It did not occur to me, until I woke up in the middle of the night & was thinking about it, that God had answered our prayer for wisdom.  It was an unusual move for us - I really don't think we would have made that decision otherwise.

This morning, he is feeling much better, and his temperature is down to 100.  He will most likely be right as rain very soon. 

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.  James 1:5

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 21: "Dinosaurs!" by Michael and Caroline Carroll

If you are a Christian parent who wants your children to read books from a Christian perspective that are neutral on the question of the age of the earth, you're going to have a hard time.  Especially when it comes to specific topics, like dinosaurs.  Since our 6 yr old son has become obsessed with dinosaurs, I have been looking for a dinosaur book that will affirm God's glory and be scientifically and intellectually honest.  It was like looking for a needle in a haystack. Thanks to Theology Mom, I finally found it.

The authors begin by listing many of the questions about dinosaurs, which they will deal with in the book.  When did the dinosaurs live? How did they become extinct?  Were they like lizards, or more like birds?  But they set up the expectation at the beginning that these questions may not be definitively answered.  And that scientists can reasonably hold different theories and disagree with one another.

In addition to all kinds of fascinating facts about dinosaurs, and stories of the earliest discoveries of dinosaur fossils, they include photos from dig sites, and interviews with Christian paleontologists. They have a section on the science of geology and a very balanced presentation of the theories of the age of the earth. There is also a balanced presentation different extinction theories.

How the dinosaurs disappeared is still a mystery. What is not a mystery is that it was part of God's plan.  Whether God chose to take dinosaurs away before people-or later-is something Christians must try to figure out. We must first figure it out in light of Scripture, and where Scripture is not clear, we look to science to help us fill in the holes. What do you think happened to all those beasties? Devout people sometimes don't agree how old the earth is. The important thing to remember is that God is in control.  He is the Creator and designer of everything. Our God is great - powerful enough to make the world in six days-and vast enough to make it over billions of years.

The book ends with a section on addressing apparent conflicts between Scripture and science.  And it encourages:

Don't be afraid of science! Science is simply our way of trying to figure out how God put the world together. 

Published in the year 2000, the book is surely outdated in some of its scientific information.  But the principals it promotes: respect for differing viewpoints and seeking to glorify God through scientific discovery are timeless.

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 20: "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis gives us a view of one of the causes of the financial crisis by taking us into the lives of the managers of three hedge funds, and one bond salesman who saw it coming.  Some of the media coverage of Lewis and this book would lead you to believe that this is a comprehensive account of the causes of the financial crisis.  It is not.  No one could cover every factor that fed into the crisis in a 264 page book.

What Lewis does in this book is take the mind-numbingly complex world of derivatives linked to mortgage bonds and explain them, as much as it is possible, in terms that the lay person can understand.   And he does so through fascinating narratives that allow us to see the crisis unfolding through the eyes of these men.

One thing that was interesting to me was that these 5 men who saw this coming made huge, multi-million dollar profits by betting against the sub-prime mortgage industry.  But, at the end of the book, the snapshots Lewis give us of them shows them to be stressed, angry, and experiencing high levels of anxiety.  They foresaw the crisis and made more money than most people will see in a lifetime, but it could not bring them happiness and peace.

What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, but lose his soul?

Sojourner

52 books in 52 Weeks: Book 19: "Here Burns My Candle" by Liz Curtis Higgs

I have really enjoyed Liz Curtis Higgs' historical fiction novels set in 18th century Scotland.  I find it fascinating that an author can take a biblical story, transport it into another time and place, and create empathetic, historically accurate characters and plot lines.

Higgs does it again with "Here Burns My Candle", placing the biblical character of Ruth (as Lady Elizabeth Kerr) in 18th century Edinburgh during the Jacobite rebellion.  The story is a bit slow in the beginning, but picks up as it goes along.  The characters are well developed, and by the time I was half-way through the book, I was totally invested in their story.

As with her Lowlands of Scotland series, Higgs sprinkles Scottish dialect throughout the book & provides a glossary at the back for words that are hard to decipher.  This book covers the first 18 verses of the book of Ruth & a sequel is set to finish out the story in the spring of 2011.  I'll be waiting.

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 18: "The 7 Habbits of Happy Kids" by Sean Covey

Welcome to the community of 7 Oaks!  Meet the residents:  Goob Bear is big, friendly, and loves the outdoors. Jumper Rabbit loves and plays all kinds of sports. Lily Skunk is very crafty and loves art.  Sammy Squirrel likes playing with gadgets and fixing things.  His twin sister Sophie loves reading, math, and enjoys using big words that she has to explain to her friends. Pokey Porcupine likes to lie around in his hammock and play his harmonica all day.  Tagalong Allie is a mouse that loves to follow the gang around.  And Ernie the worm is very shy, so you have to go looking for him.

Each chapter of this book introduces children to one of Stephen Covey's "7 Habits of Highly Effective People" though a story.  In chapter one, Sammy Squirrel is "Bored! Bored! Bored!" & looking for someone else to entertain him.  Eventually he learns that he needs to be proactive (Habit 1) "You're in Charge!" Each chapter ends with discussion questions that parents can go over with kids & then a list of activities that can be done. There is also a paragraph or two at the end of each chapter for parents, discussing the habit and how to reinforce it with your kids as you are reading.

Our 6 year old really enjoys these characters and finds the stories entertaining. This is one library book that we like well enough to purchase & make it a permanent fixture in our library. It's a great way to introduce children to these positive life habits.

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 17: "Look Again" by Lisa Scottoline

Ellen Gleeson can't get that white "HAVE YOU SEEN THIS CHILD?" card out of her mind.  It came with all the other junk mail, but she couldn't quite bring herself to throw it away.  The resemblance of the age-progressed photo of the missing baby to her own three-year old son Will was uncanny. Like they were twins.  But Will didn't have a twin.  She had adopted him as an only child.

From the very beginning of this novel, you have a pretty good idea where it's going. But the end will surprise you. 

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 16: "Under the Banner of Heaven" by Jon Krakauer

John Krakauer, who wrote "Into Thin Air" about the tragedy on Mt Everest in 1996, tackles the story of the brutal 1984 murder of Brenda Lafferty and her infant daughter Erica in American Fork, Utah.  He traces the history of Mormonism, the fundamentalist sects that broke off after the mainline church renounced polygamy, and the theological and philosophical ideas that eventually resulted this crime.

Brenda Lafferty was killed by her own brothers-in-law, Ron & Dan Lafferty.  Ron says he received a revelation from God telling him to eliminate, not only Brenda, but also his 15 month old niece.  Ron is not insane. What kind of religious perversion allows such an atrocity to take place? What allows someone like Ron Lafferty to justify this in his mind? That is what Krakauer explores in this book.  It is a fascinating and sobering read.

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 15: "Let Darkness Come" by Angela Hunt

 Angela Hunt delivers another spell-binding novel, raising fascinating questions through the lives of her well-developed characters.   Who killed Erin Tommassi's young & politically powerful husband?  As Erin stands trial for his murder, she begins to wonder if, in fact, she could have done it, though she has no memory of it.  Inexperienced attorney Briley Lester has been handed this case as her first murder trial & it is almost too much for her to handle.   

This one was hard to put down.

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 14: "The Blind Side" by Michael Lewis

Michael Lewis writes that Lawrence Taylor, linebacker for the New York Giants from 1981-1993, and widely considered football's greatest defensive player ever, fundamentally changed the game of football:

The game of football evolved and here was one cause of its evolution, a new kind of athlete doing a new kind of thing.  All by himself, Lawrence Taylor altered the environment and forced                   opposing coaches and players to adapt.

The reason for this was Taylor's size, strength, and speed, and his ability to sac a quarterback from the right - the vulnerable blind side.  The way opposing coaches and teams adapted was to look for offensive tackles with compensatory size & speed.  After the NFL opened the door to free agency, such players, already a rare commodity, also became a very expense and precious commodity.  Micheal Oher is one of those players.  

Lewis, in his trademark style, interweaves Oher's personal story (which became the movie released last year) with the story of the changes going on in the NFL.  The most interesting parts of the book to me were the parts of Micheal Oher's story and his relationship with the Tuohy family that gave more detail than the movie.

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 13: "Moneyball" by Michael Lewis

Several months ago, I was watching 60 Minutes and saw Steve Kroft interview Michael Lewis about his new book "The Big Short".  I knew Lewis was a popular writer, but I'd never read any of his books.  Kroft called Lewis, "one of the country's preeminent non-fiction writers with a knack for turning complicated, mind-numbing material into fascinating yarns".  This piqued my interest and I went and looked up the books that he has written.  Among them are "Moneyball", "The Blind Side", "Liar's Poker", and "Panic".  

I am very interested in finance and I'm also a big baseball fan.  Almost everything Lewis has written covers those two areas.  I wondered why on earth I've never read anything this man has written before, and I immediately set out to remedy that situation.

In "Moneyball: the Art of Winning an Unfair Game", Lewis follows Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane, as he uses a radical and unpopular strategy to put together a successful low-budget baseball team.  Bean's strategy is to use statistics beyond the basic Batting Average/Home Runs/RBIs for hitters and the ERA/Wins/Losses for pitchers.  Bean used those statistics to evaluate the players he chose in the draft & he would look for players that were rated highly by his system, but that no one else was that interested in.  Those players did not demand high salaries, and in that way, he was able to put together a low-budget team.  And, as it turned out, it worked.  These low-budget teams that he put together have been able to consistently succeed.

Beane was able to select talented players that no one else was interested in because he was using a very different system than the rest of baseball.  Traditionally, players are chosen based on the reports of scouts - people (often former players) who travel around the country, attend college and high school games, and evaluate young players.  Their evaluations are generally based on subjectivecriteria - how a player looks to the scout.  Does he have the physical appearance of a strong player?  Is he fast?  Do his pitching mechanics (the way he winds up & throws the ball) look good?  They put great stock in a player's "potential" for future success. Beane looked at a player's past performance (through stats) and assumed that past performance would predict future performance.  He was right.   

This answers the question of why so many players who come up as "top prospects" end up going nowhere with their careers.  Beane had the painful experience of being one of those players, and that is what drove his quest to find a better way to evaluate potential.  Throughout the book Lewis alternates chapers between telling Beane's personal story and tracing the history of baseball's scouting efforts.  

This book came out in 2003 & it revolutionized and divided the baseball world.  It is responsible for the now numerous websites devoted to baseball statistics and evaluating every aspect of baseball.  Several other teams, most notably, the Boston Red Sox have begun using this method to build their teams.  This is a worthwhile and fascinating read for any baseball fan.

"The Blind Side" is next on my list to review, and I am also going to be reading "The Big Short", and probably "Liar's Poker".  Look for those reviews...when I get around to it :-)

Sojourner

Consistently Inconsistent

One of the reasons I have never started a blog before is that I knew I would never post consistently enough to keep a readership interested.  The most consistent thing about me is ... my inconsistency at keeping up with regular tasks like paperwork, e-mail, finances, and now, blog posts.  So, here I am posting for the first time in almost 2 months.  Now, don't think I haven't been reading.  I have 6 books to review and am almost finished with a seventh.  So, here come 6 - probably 7 book reviews in rapid succession.  They'll be short!  That will still put me 4 books behind schedule, but I can catch up.  I'll just do it in spurts.

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks - Book 12 - "If God is Good" By Randy Alcorn

Having read Alcorn's book "Heaven" several years ago, I was intrigued by the chance to read another of his well-balanced and thoroughly researched books. In my experience, this difficult subject is the most challenging question Christians have to deal with - How could a good and all-powerful God allow the kind of suffering and evil that is so common on this earth?

Alcorn looks at this issue from every angle in this 500+ page book. He covers the main theological views of the nature of God that have come out of trying to resolve this issue: limiting God's power, limiting God's knowledge (open theism), limiting God's goodness, and limiting God's love. He deals with the issue of the fall and sin as general (not usually specific) causes of suffering. He also discusses how we can account for apparently gratuitus evil & pointless suffering. He looks at the question of why God delays the ultimate punishment of evil, and God's lack of explanation of the reason for suffering and evil. (As in the life of Job. As far as we know, Job was never given the explanation for the reason behind the incredible loss and devastation he suffered. As readers if the book of Job, we are given a glance into the spiritual warfare - the attack of Satan that was behind it all. But we never see that revealed to Job.)

Alcorn's primary explanation for suffering & evil is the theory that God, being both all powerful and completely loving, always works in our best interest. The suffering that He allows is used by Him to bring about His ultimate purpose in our lives. This was not a new argument to me, but Alcorn took it to a new level. He argues that the good God wants to bring into our lives would not be possible without the suffering. God allows evil because his ultimate good cannot be accomplished without it. Of course, accepting this argument requires faith and trust in God, because we often do not see the reason for the suffering until much later - if ever, in this life.

I had a personal example of this occur in our family's life while I was reading this book. My 6 yr old came down with a pretty severe case of strep throat. When I took him to the doctor, his throat was hurting him so badly, he wouldn't swallow anything. The doctor told me there was no point in sending us home with an oral antibiotic if he wouldn't swallow. We spent 5 or 10 minutes trying to convince my little guy to swallow a few sips of water so that he wouldn't have to have the antibiotic administered through a shot. But, he refused & I knew that even if we got him to swallow a little bit in the doctor's office, that didn't mean he would do it for me at home. So, I told the doctor to go ahead and administer the shot. It was heartbreaking to have to hold down my already sick and miserable son for the shot to be administered. He struggled, cried, and yelled, "No, Mommy - no shot! Please don't let them give me a shot!!" But I knew that, as his mother, I had to let him go through this short term misery, to prevent him from going through more sickness and misery later.

Twenty-four hours later, he was feeling much better. By the next week, both the illness and the pain of the shot were a distant memory. Alcorn argues that for Christians, our suffering will be much the same - distant and seemingly light and easy once this life is over.

While I agree with almost all of the positions Alcorn puts forth in this book, I have to say that there still is no answer to this question that is completely comfortable and satisfying to me.  But I do rest in this belief:

"Therefore, we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all."  2 Corinthians 4:16-17.

Sojourner

Audible.com

I have found that I really enjoy listening to books on CD or audiobooks on my ipod. It allows me to "read" in the car, or while I'm doing chores around the house. I am not a person who can read before bed, because I just don't get sleepy enough. It keeps me awake. But, I can drift off while listening to my ipod.

Last week, I was dealing with headaches that made it difficult - if not impossible - to read, watch TV, or do much of anything around the house. (My sweet husband did a great job taking care of our son when I couldn't.) What I could do was lie in the dark with an ice pack on my head & listen to my ipod (on a very low volume!). I had joined audible.com on a trial basis the week before, and used my monthly credit for an unabridged copy of "An Echo in the Darkness". It was great to have that as a distraction during that time.

Audible.com is $7.49/month for the 3 months of the trial, and then $14.95/month after that. That includes one free credit/month, which is basically one free audiobook/month. After that, you get a 30% discount on any other audiobooks you purchase. I'm still trying to decide if this is going to be worth the cost. But it certainly is convenient.

Sojourner