books
Pick Chris's Reading List: Taliesin (Book 1 of the Pendragon Cycle)
On to a book recommended by Nate Downey: Taliesin by Stephen Lawhead, which is book one of five books in Lawhead’s Pendragon Cycle.
I read Taliesin over Christmas break. My first surprise was when I looked at the publisher’s page in the front of the book and saw it was published by CrossWay Books, which is a Christian publishing house. “UhOh”, I thought… “I hope this isn’t going to be some silly Christian novel trying to masquerade as fantasy.” But I had faith in Nate’s selection, so I read on. And I was not let down.
The Pendragon Cycle deals with the Arthurian legend, trying to flesh out the story and put faces on the people. Taliesin is a great deal of back story; it follows the lives of a young lord in England and a princess of Atlantis who end up marrying; they have a child named Merlin who ends up being, well, that Merlin. Along the way there is a typical amount of fantasy-type plot: we see Atlantis' destruction, intrigue, rivalry, and warfare between the various clans, and the introduction of some early Christian missionaries.
It was that last bit that started to get me worried. The missionaries are introduced about two-thirds of the way through the book, and while on one hand I know that the Arthurian legend needs to have a Christian component (he does seek the Holy Grail, after all), I was worried that it might turn from a decent novel into an evangelistic enterprise quicker than you can say Pendragon. But the author handles it well; he allows the characters to become Christians and wrestle with Christian ideas while avoiding the trap of having them give long speeches about how everyone should come to Jesus and the like.
I really enjoyed Taliesin - thanks, Nate! I will now have to reserve book two from the library when I get a chance.
Pick Chris's Reading List: The Russian Debutante's Handbook
It’s taken me far too long, but I have finally completed the second book on my user-suggested reading list: The Russian Debutante’s Handbook by Gary Shteyngart. Thanks to Geof for the recommendation.
Geof described Handbook as “Great absurdist immigrant fiction.” He was right. The Russian Debutante’s Handbook is a hilariously absurd story of a Russian immigrant living in New York. It follows the (mis)adventures in his personal and public lives as he deals with family and romantic relationships, jobs, and schemes. If it sounds like I’m grasping for the right words to describe the story, it’s because I am. This book was unlike pretty much anything else I’ve ever read. It was amusing and charmingly absurd. While I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it to all of my readers, if you’re looking for something different, this may just be the thing. Thanks again, Geof!
I’ll have to hit the library again this week to stock up for the trip to North Carolina. I’ll definitely grab a couple more from the list.
Pick Chris's Reading List: And Then There Were None
I’ve completed the first book off of my user-suggested reading list: And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. Thanks to Heather for the recommendation!
This was my first time reading anything by Agatha Christie. My only previous exposure to her work was when I watched the movie adaption of Murder on the Orient Express. That seems to have been a good preparation; much of the style in the plot development seems similar between the two. The formula: introduce the characters, put them in a tightly-defined scenario. Provide a character to narrate and work the reader through the logical options in the whodunit. Get to the end of the story with no good answer. Then provide an epilogue that reveals the twist that makes it all clear. Formulaic or not, it works - it kept me up a ways past my bedtime to finish it last night.
And Then There Were None (originally titled Ten Little Indians) sets ten diverse characters on an isolated island. Their supposed “host” is nowhere to be found. One by one, the ten guests are killed… but who is killing them? This is the mystery, and it’s a good one.
A quick IMDB search shows that And Then There Were None has also been adapted into a movie at least three times; once in 1945, starring, most notably, Walter Huston. It was updated in 1965 and moved out of its original time period. Then it was remade once again in 1974, with a cast that included Sir Richard Attenborough. I haven’t seen any of these versions, but I will take a look next time I go to the video store. Might be interesting.
My next stop on the reading list: Gary Shteyngart’s The Russian Debutante’s Handbook, as recommended by Geof Morris.
Pick Chris's Reading List
Those of you who know me know that I am a voracious reader. (Those of you who don’t know me just found out.) Every night for many years I have spent my last waking hour in bed reading some book or another. (If the book is too interesting, I spend a few of my last waking hours in bed… and often end up short on sleep as a result.) I enjoy many genres, but find myself most drawn to history, theology, science fiction (but not the fantasy branch of sci-fi so much), and then military/adventure novels. I was big into Tom Clancy as a kid, and branched out to similar authors when Clancy’s pen dried up.
I average 1 or 2 books per week, depending on how busy my week is. Lately, though, I have become weary of my regular diet of mindless adventure. Much of it is tired retreads. I feel like I’m wasting my time. Back at the DG2006 conference I bought G. K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man and I’m enjoying it quite a lot. But it, too, will soon join the ranks of books I’ve already read, and I’ll be looking for something else.
So here’s the deal. Do you have any books to recommend that I read? They could be fiction, non-fiction, whatever. Just something you think I’d enjoy or benefit from. Leave a comment with the name and author of the book. In return, I will find them at the local library, read them, and then post my thoughts about the book. Sound like a plan?
BookJournal: Xenocide
I haven’t been a fan of everything Orson Scott Card has ever written (sorry, Keith), but my love for Ender’s Game and even greater affection for Speaker for the Dead drew me to read the next book in the series, Xenocide.
Xenocide picks up Ender and company pretty much where Speaker for the Dead left them. It introduces us to a few new characters along the way, but wrestles with the dilemma of being on a planet where saving the humans there will cause the death of the indigenous species. Card pulls off this drama in his usual thoughtful fashion, asking questions about the nature of life and consciousness.
I don’t know that this one was quite as good as Speaker. I got a bit lost at the end once they start doing faster-than-light travel. It just got weird there for the last chapter or so. But still, if you’ve enjoyed Ender and Speaker, I can definitely recommend that you continue on and read Xenocide.
home again, home again...
I got back last night about 10:30 from another quick trip to Wichita, this time for DER Orientation. I can now officially function as a DER Candidate, which is, essentially… well, nothing from an official standpoint. I just get to review lots of stuff with the hope that as I learn and become more proficient, I can be appointed a full DER. It’ll likely be at least a year.
One upside to the trip was the time to do some reading. I should do full BookJournal posts on each of these, but I’ll summarize here now just to summarize. (Helpful, no?)
On the way down, I finished reading Orson Scott Card’s Speaker for the Dead. Brilliant. Maybe even better than Ender’s Game. That man knows how to write. (More on that later.)
After that, I finished up N.T. Wright’s What St. Paul Really Said. I thought it was also brilliant. His interpretation of Paul’s themes of justification, the righteousness of God, and the Gospel make a lot of sense. I went back and read through Romans after finishing Wright, and there were several places where lightbulbs went on. I’ll have to ponder this some more. One thing that bothers me a bit is his conclusion (and I’m putting it very roughly here) that Christ’s being Lord will result in the Church working to establish His kingdom here on earth. As I understand it, this is a pretty typical amillenial Reformed view of the end times, and I guess I just can’t get my dispensational brain around it. If any of my readers could suggest some good reading in that area, I’d be grateful.
The reading list isn’t done yet, folks. After N. T. Wright, I headed back for some fiction. So I read The Bourne Legacy, which is a new novel by Eric Lustbader written around Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne character. It was a pretty good book. The writing style was more like a contemporary spy thriller and much less like Ludlum, which was weird. But otherwise the story was good and appropriately muddled. Finished that book as we were pulling up to the terminal in Chicago on the way home.
Then I went back to non-fiction. Some time ago, Keith had recommended Characters and Viewpoint by Orson Scott Card as an excellent volume on how to write fiction. He was right, it is excellent. I’ve always had fleeting thoughts of doing some writing, but never really applied myself to it. (Who has the time?) But if I ever were to start, this book would become a primary text for me in helping develop good characters and plots. Card has good insights into what makes fiction work, and he expresses them fairly simply and with some good examples.
Now I’m back home and trying to catch up from missing a day and a half of work. Good times.
BookJournal: Fortunes of War
Fortunes of War is a recent title from Stephen Coonts. It is in many respects a standard military adventure novel, but it is based on an interesting premise. What if a newly militarized Japan tried to seize Siberia from a weakened Russia? How would the world respond? What might happen?
From there the action is good enough to make it a decent read. The story focuses on two fighter pilots, one American, one Japanese, who are friends but end up fighting on opposite sides. The story almost wraps up a little too quickly and neatly; I was left wishing for something a little less formulaic.
Now, maybe I’m a hard audience to please; Red Storm Rising has always been my benchmark of a good war novel. Sure, it’s long, and has a gazillion plot threads, and is (like all of Tom Clancy’s stuff) overly technical, but that’s the way I like ‘em. As much as I wish Clancy and/or Bond’s writing schedule would accelerate a bit, I’ll take their epics over the consistent (but formulaic) offerings from Coonts any day.
BookJournal: Stranger in a Strange Land
I was on the prowl for some sci-fi to read last time I was at the library. They are courteous enough to have the sci-fi genre split out into its own section, so browsing the shelves is a fairly straightforward means of finding some new sci-fi to read. (I will confess to scratching my head at the inclusion of the whole Left Behind series in the sci-fi section, but that’s neither here nor there.) My browsing led me to Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land, with cover boasting that it was “original and un-cut for the first time”. I skimmed the flyleaf and it seemed like I might possibly be interested in the story, so I borrowed the book and brought it home.
Stranger in a Strange Land seemed to me to be two different stories, only tangentially related. The first story, nearly the first half of the book, concerns Michael, the Man from Mars; he is the child of two human Martian explorers. They died when he was a small child and then he was raised by Martians. As the story begins Michael has just returned to earth and must deal with an unfamiliar world filled with people looking to take advantage of him. It’s a fairly imaginative fish-out-of-water story.
The second half of the book departs from this exploration into a treatise on the 1960’s hippie ideals of uninhibited carnality, free love and open marriage. Michael (who possesses amazing cosmic powers, thanks to his understanding of the Martian language and Martian mind techniques) founds a “church” which is a multi-level scheme; novitiates are presented with a study of Martian and the mind techniques; it’s not until they reached the highest levels of the organization that they were brought into the sexual free-for-all. In the end, they are persecuted, they scatter to spread their “church” abroad, and Michael *poofs* himself back to Mars.
I was ready to put down the book about halfway through the second section; the story takes a turn for the worse at that point. It appears to me that Mr. Heinlein wanted to write his hippie treatise, and found that it was easiest to do in the guise of other-worldly values. Enter enlightened Martians telling us that the answer to all our troubles is a lot of free sex and some cool cosmic powers… ugh. Oh well, on to the next book.
BookJournal: No Uncertain Terms
Well I just about have this one finished up so I’ll write about it now. William Safire, in addition to having been for many years the conservative political columnist for the New York Times, is also the author of the “On Language” column that ran in that paper on Sundays for many years. In “On Language”, Mr. Safire explored the origin of words and phrases, discusses usage and spelling, and generally addressed any other language-related topic that piqued his interest. No Uncertain Terms is a recent (perhaps the latest… I’m not quite certain) collection of those “On Language” columns, one of at least a dozen. I know I own at least one more of the set: In Love With Norma Loquendi.
Being a lover of words and turns of phrase, Safire’s columns fascinate me. ALmost better than the columns, though, are the responses he chooses to print. Many of his readers choose to write in, enough that he has given the various groups titles. There’s the “Gotcha! Gang”, which nails him on factual errors. (I was actually a member of this gang once several years ago.) Then there’s the “Squad Squad”, nailing redundancy at every turn. Safire often corresponds with professors of English, editors of dictionaries, and historians, which means that the level of learnedness is very high. Still, the writing is snappy, so the book stays fun, and rarely gets dull.
I doubt I’ll find and add all of Safire’s collections to my personal library, but I’ll be on the lookout for another volume or two. They are fun reading, the topics won’t get old, and they improve my grammar and usage.
BookJournal: PowerSat
Powersat is one of the latest titles by long-time sci-fi author Ben Bova. Bova is a prolific author. His numerous tomes are full of futuristic technology, but the technology never takes the forefront; rather, it just provides the setting for classic themes of exploration, ambition, love, and revenge. Powersat is no exception.
Powersat is set in the near future, and features an inventor who is trying to set up a geosynchronous satellite that will collect solar energy and transmit it to Earth via “widely dispersed” microwaves. The worldwide oil syndicates, worried that the demand for oil might be decreased, sabotage his efforts, and the conflict ensues. The hero, trying to identify the villians and stop them; the villians, trying to continue to stay under the radar while continuing their sabotage.
There aren’t a lot of suprises in Powersat. The characters do about what you’d expect, and the hero is successful as you would expect. Mr. Bova is pushing his favorable views of space exploration and invention here, with a story that, if not superb, is certainly at least sufficient to carry the message. Still, it was a distracting, lightweight read, another enjoyable book from Ben Bova.
Things aren't right
I’ve been reading several different books recently, and a discussion with Becky last night brought a bunch of them together in a way that helped clarify my thoughts a bit. Hopefully I can bring some of that clarity into this post.
As a person who grew up within the church and has been a believer for as long as I can remember, one of the things that’s been most difficult for me to understand is this: why would a non-believer be motivated to become a Christian? What’s the appeal? Now, you Calvinists out there will tell me that God has ordained it and its irresistible. I don’t want to get into that argument. I don’t disagree with you… much. But I’ve just never understood the appeal of the message to non-believers who are living basic, normal lives.
Last night Becky and I were talking over the passage from Acts that had been part of our reading for the day. (I don’t want that to sound too much like we’ve got it all together - we’re trying once again to get daily devotions started, and it’s tough, as always.) Becky’s comment on Peter’s sermon in Acts 2 was that it sounded wild, far-out, hard-to-believe… why would anybody be attracted to that story? It is a good question. Why would anybody be attracted to the story of a man who claimed to come from God, be God himself, who died, purportedly rose from the dead, etc? Qui bono? Who benefits?
That got me started thinking through some of the C. S. Lewis I’ve been reading lately. Actually, I’m reading The Question of God: C.S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud Debate God, Love, Sex, and the Meaning of Life by Armand M. Nicholi Jr. This Harvard professor compares and contrasts the lives and teachings of C. S. Lewis and Sigmund Freud. It’s a good book, especially for those seekers who want to reason through the issues. Mostly it whets my appetite to go back and read Lewis again, Mere Christianity, The Abolition of Man, God in the Dock… good stuff. Anyway, back to my thought process.
Readers of Mere Christianity will remember that Lewis' starting point for reasoning that there is a God is an argument from conscience; he argues that each of us has an inborn moral compass that understands that there is a moral standard. Right along with that is the fact that each of us transgresses that moral standard on a regular basis, which causes us problems with our fellow man and internal guilt.
So what’s the appeal of the gospel message? I’m starting to think that I’d start it off like this: “Things aren’t right.” I think that’s a place we can all agree on to start. Things aren’t right in the world, and things aren’t right with me personally. This causes pain, grief, guilt, death. Now let’s look at the grand sweep of the redemptive story that runs from Genesis to Revelation. God creates everything. Man corrupts it. Things aren’t right. Now here’s the beauty of the message: the whole rest of the story is about God’s work to make things right again. That is the message of the gospel.
Once we understand that, then we can get into details. Sin requires a sacrifice. Jesus once for all became that sacrifice in our place, and then conquered death by rising from the dead. One day He will establish a perfect kingdom, one where sin is done away with and things are right.
Now that’s a story I can get excited about. And I can understand why that story would resonate with the unbelieving world. We all understand things aren’t right. May God allow those unbelievers around us to to understand that He holds the solution to the problem.
Ender's Game
I am a voracious reader of fiction. I read a good bit of non-fiction, too, but fictional thrillers and sci-fi are my chance to escape for a while, so on any of my regular trips to the library you will find my stack of books weighted towards those genres. I was really in the mood for some sci-fi on this last trip, and while browsing the sci-fi shelves at the local library, I remembered a mention that Andy Osenga had made a while back about Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game. I figured it was worth a try, and so I picked up the (paperback!) book and added it to my stack. When I got home, I didn’t start it first; I had one book that was a 10-day reserve that I wanted to get out of the way. (Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat, if you really care.) But before long it was getting dry and so I turned to Card.
Let me just get it out of the way early: Ender’s Game is a terrific book. The story is well-told. The main characters are exceptional children who, for the most part, sound like adults. Their childish emotional states, though, are crucial to the story. Card puts you right there, feeling what the hero feels. I had a hard time putting the book down. The twist at the end is just brilliant. I didn’t see it coming, but it made perfect sense given what you have been told in the story to that point. And when you find out, it’s one of those “wow” moments that sets your mind whirling.
I can understand why they classify Ender’s Game as sci-fi; the story is set in the future, with appropriately futuristic technologies and surroundings. But unlike much other science fiction, where the futuristic technology or science is at the core of the plot, Ender’s Game just uses the future as a tool to set up a story that resonates in any age. I also found interesting the device of using a main character who is a highly-intelligent child who sounds pretty much like an adult. It’s not a common device; the only other place I remember reading a story from that perspective is Bryce Courtenay’s much longer and more anguished The Power of One. But it works here. It causes you to identify with a protagonist that might otherwise be distant. And that makes the story work.
I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the story since I finished the book. The reluctant hero, the adults who keep him in the dark the whole time, the whole issue of the sacrifice of the unwitting to save the many; these are themes that will keep the book relevant for decades to come.
Pick up Ender’s Game sometime if you haven’t read it. It’s worth your time. I hear they’re talking of making a movie of it eventually; this is one of those stories where if the movie is done well, it could be a masterpiece. If it’s done poorly, yick, what a waste. I’ll hope for the former.
The Present Future, and associated thoughts
I just finished reading The Present Future: Six Tough Questions for the Church by Reggie McNeal. He is a SBC pastor who uses this book to challenge the modern-day church to stop thinking so much like a club and start thinking more missionally. I don’t agree with everything he had to say, but there were some points that really hit home.
One of the big ones, that I’m still kinda working over right now, is the comment (and I’m paraphrasing throughout this post since I don’t have the book with me) that we are too church-based with our faith; our church culture is one where we don’t have many (or any) friends outside the church, and where we expect to deal with issues of faith at church rather than at home. He notes that there are too many couples that are embarrassed to discuss their faith with each other at home, but are really active at church.
That one hits home with me. Not that I’m embarrassed to discuss my faith at home, but we don’t (discuss it) that much. We don’t do well at having devotions together. I’ll assign the fault to myself; it’s my job as the leader to see that it happens. And why don’t we? Because we’re “too busy”. Too busy, often, having to get to church to prepare for worship team, or to prepare for some church event, or to get to some church function. Now, perhaps there are other priority issues; the hour of TV most nights could be done away with, I suppose. But that doesn’t escape the fact that all of the efforts that I’m putting into “Christian” stuff, if I can call it that, are all church-focused, and none of them are outwardly-focused.
Part of me would really like to try this as an experiment: relinquish all of my church duties. Just stop. And then start to get things arranged in my own life and in our family life. Figure out what our needs and family things ought to be. Just to reassess. Then once I get that figured out, I can start figuring out where God wants me directed.
But there is the other side of my dilemma. I’m doing good stuff right now. I enjoy (for the most part) what I’m doing. I have a lot of people that count on me, for music at church, for technical help on ministry websites, etc etc. I can’t just leave them in the lurch… and the odds of my being able to gracefully exit from those responsibilities is next to nil.
So here I am. I don’t know what the right answer is right now. I think a lot of prayer is in order.
The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers
On my last visit to the local library, I found a slim volume on the “new books” shelf: The Simple Faith Of Mister Rogers, by Amy Hollingsworth. I was a moderate watcher of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood when I was young, and I’ve read just enough about Fred Rogers to know that I was intrigued when I saw the book on the shelf. Yesterday provided me with some blessed free time to read, and so I made this little book my Sunday-afternoon diversion.
Ms. Hollingsworth is a pastor’s wife, a journalist, and writer. She met Fred Rogers when she had the opportunity to interview him some years ago. They then carried on a correspondance that lasted until he passed away in February 2003. From her experiences with Mr. Rogers she is able to share both observations about and philosophies learned from the man who was a daily TV visitor in so many families' homes. The result is a book that is part devotional, part biography, and part personal memoir. Regardless of the composition, though, the result is a wonderful little book.
Fred Rogers was an ordained Presbyterian minister, but took great stock in that charge oft-attributed to St. Francis of Assisi: “preach the gospel… when necessary, use words.” As such, his gracious, encouraging manner spoke love, peace, and comfort to his watchers even without verbal gospel presentation. What is comforting to know is that the sincerity and earnestness seen on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood permeated Mr. Rogers in real life, too. Ms. Hollingsworth notes that more than one person who has met Mr. Rogers has later remarked that “he’s more ‘Mister Rogers’ than Mister Rogers!” He was the real thing.
The devotional points of the book were simple, and yet good reminders for those of us who live hectic lives: go slow. Take time for silence. Don’t neglect prayer. Encourage others. I was impressed by the consistency and simplicity of Mr. Rogers' daily routine: Up at 5:30 for devotions and prayer. Early morning swim (including singing a bit of praise to God as he entered the pool!), breakfast, then to the studio. In bed no later than 9:30 PM. The same routine, every day. I was challenged.
I’d recommend The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers to anyone who wants to gain a bit more appreciation for the value of living a genuine, simple, whole-hearted life. It will also be interesting to those who have enjoyed Mister Rogers Neighborhood but are unfamiliar with the man and the faith behind that program.
Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places...
A book by this title was given to my by my pastor last week; we are “kindred readers” with an affinity for Eugene Peterson’s practical written wisdom. I got no further than the introduction last night. This was partly due to my early morning and long day; but moreso due to my captivation with the poem from which the title came. It is an untitled sonnet written by Gerard Manley Hopkins, a 19th century poet and priest.
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame;
As tumbled over rim in roundy wells
Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s
Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name;
Each mortal thing does one thing and the same:
Deals out that being indoors each one dwells;
Selves – goes itself; myself it speaks and spells,
Crying “What I do is me: for that I came”.
I say more: the just man justices;
Keeps grace: that keeps all his goings graces;
Acts in God’s eye what in God’s eye he is – Christ.
For Christ plays in ten thousand places,
Lovely in limbs, and lovely in eyes not his
To the Father through the features of men’s faces.
This poem intrigues and delights me in ways I haven’t yet been able to describe very well. But I think that it captures the essence of living out our lives in the Spirit every day. Christ “plays” throughout each of us as we live in Him. I am challenged this morning to meditate on Christ, and see how He might play out even more through my life.
I’ll try to provide updates as I work my way through Peterson’s book.
