Book Review: The Liturgical Year by Joan Chittister
Growing up in evangelical churches, the most I knew about the liturgical year was the weird dates that were printed in the bulletin at my grandparents' Lutheran church: "Third Sunday of Pentecost" and things like that. I've learned more as time has gone along, but when the opportunity arose to review this book, I figured it was a good chance to learn some more.
The Liturgical Year comes from an unabashedly Roman Catholic perspective. Written by a Catholic nun, there are times when its obviously Roman biases show through, but on the whole it provides an evenhanded perspective on the year that appears to address both the Catholic and Protestant views fairly well. (There is one chapter dedicated strictly to Marian observances, but it's relegated to the end of the book, after the basic discussion of the year.)
The Liturgical Year is split into 35 short chapters that work their way through the year, starting with the observance of Advent and Christmas, taking several chapters to discuss Lent and Holy Week, and addressing the "Ordinary Times" that are present around those observances. In general the book is written in a more flowery tone than I expected - at times I felt it suffered from too many fluffy words and not enough meat. But as a primer on the hows and whys of the liturgical year, it served its purpose well enough.
Disclaimer: My copy of the book was provided for free by the folks at BookSneeze.com in return for my publishing a review.
Book Review: Replay by Ken Grimwood
I've neglected writing full book reviews for a while now - life gets busy, and I've had precious little time to read, let alone write. But I wanted to specially note a fantastic little book I finished last week called Replay. It was written in 1987 by Ken Grimwood (who passed away in 2003), but apparently our library just got a copy since it was on the New Arrivals shelf. It was well worth picking up.
Replay is a little fantasy novel with a time-travel or time-replay twist. The basic ground rules of the Replay world go something like this:
- You retain your memories of each replay.
- Your date of death remains the same for each replay.
- Major historical events cannot be changed between replays.
Within that framework, Replay's protagonist Jeff re-lives life, from college in 1963 through his death in 1988, multiple times. And while at the facial level it's just a cool little fantasy story, it really goes deeper than that, exploring one of the most basic questions of human existence: what will make you happy?
Jeff's replays start similarly to what most of us would do in his situation - betting on a few sporting events (hey, he already knows who's going to win) to provide his initial bankroll, then investing heavily in the companies he knows will succeed. And each replay he's trying to find happiness some particular way. First he tries the path of fabulous wealth and meaningless sex. Then there's the attempt to actually have children and a family with his "original" wife. (Too emotionally painful - didn't try that again.) Then he tries altruism - can he prevent JFK's assassination? (Nope, he can't.) And on and on. Each replay provides more opportunities to find fulfillment, each ends mostly unfulfilled in the same inevitable death.
Without giving too much away, Replay does a great job at illustrating the truth that we find in the book of Ecclesiastes - that trying out everything under the sun, even multiple times, in the end still sums up to meaninglessness, and death is inescapable. Furthermore, it recognizes that hope is found in life - the chance to move forward through time, to experience the unknown.
If you get a chance to pick up Replay, I'd highly recommend you do so. It's well worth the read.
Book Review: The Echo Within by Robert Benson
There is a particular class of inspirational book these days that you can identify on the shelf without even looking at the content. First is the book's size - usually no larger than 5 by 8 inches. Second is the cover art - typically a scenic vista or natural landscape, meant to soothe and inspire. I didn't get a look at the cover art before I agreed to accept a free copy of The Echo Within from Waterbrook Press and review it on my blog, but as soon as I pulled it out of the envelope, I started to wonder. Is this gonna be another one of those fluffy inspirational books?
Robert Benson is the author of over a dozen books, all of which he describes on his website as being about one thing: "paying attention". Says Benson:
I write about paying attention for the things that can point us to the Sacred in our lives. About the longings that we have for home and community and a sense of belonging. About practice and ritual and work and contemplation and the way that such things can be constant reminders of who we are and who we are to become.
And in this little volume, as you might guess from its title, Benson urges us to listen to "the echo within" - the little voice within ourselves that gives us some inclination of choices we should make, directions we should take, things we should believe. In the first chapter he describes it this way:
I am coming to believe that the small voice within me is an echo of the Voice that is still speaking the incarnate word that I am here to become, an echo of the Voice that spoke us all into being, an echo of the Voice that spoke all that is alive.
Sometimes we are hesitant to trust that small voice within us because we think it is just ourselves doing the talking... because we have heard a similar voice inside us say things that are hurtful and angry and hateful, to ourselves and about others.
We must learn to listen deeper and deeper, seeking out the true voice within us that echoes the Voice of the One Who made us...
The fact that the Voice that calls to us often sounds like our own is not something to be mistrusted or feared. It is a sign of how close God is to us.
Benson has some good insights in The Echo Within about recognizing the talents, inclinations, and desires that God has built into us - sometimes we do tend to make this whole "God's leading" thing more difficult than it needs to be - but on the whole Benson strays just a little too far in the "listen to your inner voice" direction, with no balance of recognizing the Truth that is revealed to us in Scripture.
For the person running weary and needing some quiet encouragement, The Echo Within might be a nice little volume to pick up. Read and consider it with discernment, though. That inner voice might be God, but then again, it might not be.
Book I Read: The Weapon by David Poyer
Normally I'd write up a whole 250-word review for a book I finished, but The Weapon by David Poyer just doesn't inspire that sort of review. I've enjoyed Poyer's other Dan Lenson novels but this one was really just okay. A middling, disjointed story at best. As big a fan as I was of Tom Clancy back in the 90's, I should be the last to criticize authors for hanging on and writing a long series around a single character, but Poyer appears to be the next in a long line of authors that have burned out their series that way (see also: Tom Clancy, Dale Brown).
So, yeah, I read it, and was mildly entertained... but only mildly. It's time for these authors to start writing some creative plots instead of just stringing us along for yet another novel featuring the same guy in similar situations. Bleh.
Book Review: The Jazz Ear: Conversations Over Music by Ben Ratliff
Normally when we think about musicians and "their music", we think about the music that they write, perform, and record. But author Ben Ratliff (jazz critic for the New York Times) decided to ask a different question. What do these musicians listen to and find influential? What are they thinking and hearing as they listen to the music? So Ratliff met with a dozen or so noted jazz musicians, asked them what tracks they'd like to listen to, and then relates to us the experience and conversations of listening to the music with the musicians. The result is The Jazz Ear: Conversations Over Music. It turns out to be fascinating stuff.
Though I am a musician and fancy myself a fan (though not a hardcore aficionado) of jazz, it quickly became clear to me that the plane these guys think on is just incredibly high. It is fascinating in its own way, though, listening to serious jazz players talk about how they think about jazz. My favorite part of the book, though, was the reference list at the back, where Ratliff lists each recording that he listened to with each of the musicians. It has been a great input for my personal playlist... so much to explore.
If you're a musician, like jazz, or just want to explore the minds of some great musicians, I'd recommend picking up The Jazz Ear. It's a short read, but quite worth it.
[You can buy The Jazz Ear from Amazon.com.]
Book Review: Ender In Exile by Orson Scott Card
I've been a big fan of Orson Scott Card's Ender series since I read it a few years ago. Ender's Game is just brilliant storytelling, and Speaker for the Dead is equally good, perhaps even better themes and story woven through it. So when I saw Ender In Exile on the library shelf, it was a no-brainer to pick it up.
Ender In Exile is not a book you would want to pick up and read as a stand-alone story without having at least read Ender's Game first. EIE takes place somewhere in between two of the final chapters of Ender's Game, telling the story of the teenaged Ender Wiggin. Once he had defeated humanity's mortal enemies and then had his reputation dragged through the mud in court martial, he then travels off to become the governor of a colony on another planet. A good bit of the story is told in the form of emails exchanged between Ender, his parents, his siblings Valentine and Peter, and Ender's former military commander. Ender manipulates situations with seeming effortlessness, always nobly wanting the good and right thing.
EIE will be interesting to you if you've read and enjoyed the other books in the Ender series. If not, I'd probably stay away from it, and would recommend Ender's Game instead as a good introduction to Card's work. I think it's time that OSC come up with a new story and series.
[You can purchase Ender's Game and Ender In Exile from Amazon.com.]
Book Review: The Anglo Files: A Field Guide to the British by Sarah Lyall
Every culture has its quirks, but to really notice them and appreciate them you need to be able to look from the perspective of an outsider. When you can then write about those quirks with wit, humor, and insight, then you're approaching what author Sarah Lyall has achieved with The Anglo Files. Lyall, a correspondent for the New York Times, was posted to Britain some ten years ago, married a Britisher, and now raises two children there in London whilst still writing for the Times.
In The Anglo Files we get Lyall's thoughts on the oddities of British culture - there are chapters on drinking, hedgehogs, social classes and the nobility, cricket, and the propensity to apologize for everything. She's not afraid to tell stories on herself, either. And those stories prove insightful; they're not the clueless-American-rube-bumbles-around-Europe stories, they're the urbane-American-married-to-a-Britisher-still-baffled-by-Europe stories, which are really more fun. I myself have never been to Britain, but have long been intrigued with our brethren across the pond, so I very much enjoyed Lyall's insights into them.
Oh, and did I mention the humor? I was good-naturedly amused throughout the book, but one line in particular had me laughing out loud: she describes an inferior washing machine as having a spin cycle that took so long it should've been called a Ring Cycle. That's worth at least a couple of chuckles, folks.
All in all, a fun book. Definitely worth the read.
[The Anglo Files is available at Amazon.com.]
Book Review: The King of Sting by Craig Glazer and Sal Manna
Sometimes, real life is even better than the stories. The King of Sting details the adventures of its author, Craig Glazer, as a twenty-something college student in the early 1970's. Glazer was inspired by a movie "sting" - a scene where a team of shady characters pretend to be police in order to steal from criminals - and, with the help of a few friends, became a master sting artist himself.
What started out as acts motivated by revenge and noble causes, though, soon degraded into stings either to make money or just fuel his adrenaline rush. Glazer worked as a sworn law enforcement officer and later was prosecuted and served jail time for his deeds on the other side of the law.
Glazer's story is entertaining but serves as a good reminder that sin will, in its own time, find you out.
[You can buy The King of Sting at Amazon.com.]
Book Review: Ring by Stephen Baxter
I was browsing the sci-fi section in the local library and came across an old paperback with a familiar name on the spine: Stephen Baxter. I'm most familiar with Baxter's collaboration with the late Arthur C. Clarke on the Manifold trilogy, but have enjoyed a few of his solo works as well. This one looked to be a bit older (there was a quote on the cover from Clarke hailing Baxter as "a major new talent"), but I figured it was worth a try.
Ring finds humanity in the Third Millennium traveling through space, having learned some fantastic tricks of physics (including controlling wormholes that access the future) from alien races. Having also achieved "anti-senesence" technology (i.e. they can stop aging), a group of explorers decide to undertake a million-year trip at relativistic speeds, keeping a wormhole open the whole way so that they can communicate from the future back to the past.
What unfolds is a fascinating story of space and time, on a scale of megayears. Baxter is at his best when he's dealing with the hard science, describing the aging process of stars, but he holds his own, too, with the softer side - imagining what a hyperspace trip across the universe might feel like from the perspective of the solitary human piloting the ship, recognizing that even millions of years of "progress" won't change human nature.
If you're into hard sci-fi, Ring is worth picking up, a very enjoyable read.
[You can buy Ring at Amazon.com.]
2008: A Year of Reading in Review
This the only year-end post I'll write; just a summary of my book reading list from 2008.
Some quick details:
Total Books Read: 78. This is down a bit from 86 last year.
Fiction: 57.
Non-fiction: 21.
That ratio is still weighted a little heavily toward fiction, I think, but when I know how shallow and quick some of those novels were and how long and think some of the non-fiction was... well, it evens out.
Favorite novel of the year: A Prisoner of Birth by Jeffery Archer. This was far and away the best, most enjoyable story I read all year. It's essentially a modern-day retelling of Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo. What sold me on it, though, was that there were characters you could really root for. Good guys that were really good. Honorable supporting characters who remained honorable. Such a good story. I should put it on reserve at the library again.
Runner up: The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.
Favorite non-fiction of the year: This is tough because non-fiction spans such a range of subjects. Some high points, though:
- James Van Allen: The First Eight Billion Miles by Abigail Foerstner. A biography of the Iowan who played a huge role in space exploration.
- Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing by Ted Conover. An inside look at the correctional officers who run Sing Sing prison.
- A Case for Amillennialism by Kim Riddlebarger. Quite helpful.
Worst book of the year: How Would Jesus Vote? by the late D. James Kennedy and Jerry Newcombe. I thought my blog review of it was bad until I read Ron's review. He said, in short:
The book is awful. Simply awful. I can’t stress to you how amazingly awful this book is. Do not buy, read, or borrow this book. I will likely use my copy for kindling in the fireplace this winter.
I love Ron.
OK, that's enough book wrap-up for this year. I'm contemplating a change in format for book reviews next year, doing a full post on each book and cross-posting them to Amazon to build a little bit of reviewing credibility there. Dunno, it's just a thought. [No, Geof, I'm not doing it entirely because you changed the format of GNM.]
Next year's list will still exist in some format. First book on it will be an old one by Stephen Baxter. Almost finished it for 2008, but not quite.
