A friend mentioned this book on Facebook, and since I have greatly appreciated it over a number of years, I thought I’d post about it here.
Frankl has a powerful story of surviving the holocaust and speaks of what sustained him in that experience.
Key quote:
Man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those chambers upright, with the Lord’s Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips.
Early in my college days I encountered a man who would have a substantial influence on my life. It started as he explained textual variants and alternate possible translations in Genesis 1 for 2nd year Hebrew. I’d taught myself that far, and hadn’t done badly figuring out the rules, but my knowledge was less than practical. That man was Dr. Alden Thompson, now professor emeritus at Walla Walla University, and author of several books, two of which I publish.
While showing me things that I had never seen before, and wasn’t sure I wanted to see, Alden displayed a gentleness and spiritual depth that had a profound impact on the way in which my theological understanding would develop. It is an approach he has modeled for decades and truly grown into even more as he moves forward.
Looking at the divisions in his beloved Seventh-day Adventist Church, Alden doesn’t want victory for liberals or conservatives or any of the many other variations one might find. What he wants is conversation and an appreciation of the gifts that all bring to the table.
Even though I don’t publish it, as we approach celebration of Consider Christianity Week, I wanted to call attention to Alden’s book, Beyond Common Ground: Why Liberals and Conservatives Need Each Other. Alden is talking about faith and a church organization, but the principles he discusses apply broadly, most importantly, learning to listen to and value the diversity. He matches that with a willingness I often don’t find in either liberal or conservative circles: A willingness to recognize the fear that new ideas and change may bring and to honor the need of solid ground for some people.
While Beyond Common Ground is written very personally and is anchored therefore in its author’s community, it discusses issues I have seen trouble, divide, and sometimes destroy communities of various types. Consider reading this engaging and challenging book as you think about Christianity during Lent, and of course during Consider Christianity Week.
Here’s a short video interview with Alden:
I am only a moderately intense follower of the Xanth novels, but this one looked like fun (I usually get around to them eventually), so I checked it out.
The humor is still there. There are too many puns for me, though I do enjoy many of them, and this one was on the topic of destroying puns even! My impression is that over time the humor has been toned down a bit and the social commentary has gotten just a bit stronger, a feeling I also got about another book I read recently.
If you’re a Xanth fan, you’ll want to read this one, of course. If you’re not, I’d generally recommend starting earlier in the series, though no matter where you start, Xanth takes a little bit of getting used to!
I rate it 4 stars.
Nick May is coming out with his second book, Minutemen
This book is not at all like Megabelt. It’s the story of four young men whose relationships haven’t worked out (or are deteriorating) and the decisions they make as things spiral out of control more and more. There’s no obvious solution to the ever increasing problems. But the one thing you can expect in this book is that unexpected–and positively weird–things will happen.
Nick claims no moral to the story, but I can make several of them, and perhaps that’s the point of not having an intentional moral proposed (and made obvious) by the author–one can make up one’s own.
This is coming from the brand new Eucatastrophe Press.
I’ve enjoyed previous books by John Ringo, especially the Prince Roger series, so when I saw this book at my local public library I grabbed it and read. Of course, I was jumping into the middle of a series, which is generally a bad idea, but that happens to me quite often.
The book starts slowly. In fact, I was beginning to wonder whether Ringo had abandoned action entirely. In the end, however, perseverance paid off, and things got more interesting. Not that the character building isn’t interesting. I’m just not used to having so much of it at the start. You will continue to see the early characters as the story develops.
This is some good space opera with a “Terra über alles” feel to it. Though earth is the underdog in the story to all appearances, there is a clear human superiority going on as human ingenuity surprises the aliens. I rather enjoy that sort of story for a change, and Ringo does action rather well.
I rate this 4 stars.
I read this book, and the previous Nikki Heat volume, Heat Wave
As for Heat Wave, it took me half the book to get interesting. It almost fell into a rating of 1 on my scale, by virtue of my failing to finish reading it. But about half way through it managed to become mildly interesting and ended up OK. Because I decided to check out the next volume, it makes it, just barely, to a 3.
Naked Heat was better. I was interesting throughout. It’s not a book I couldn’t put down. In fact, I put it down in the middle of quite a number of scenes, including one with Nikki Heat in the middle of a fight. I also had a fair idea what was going on too early in the book, though the evidence was not always presented all that clearly. Some authors keep you guessing by having a complex case. Others do it through some obscure presentation of the evidence. This one uses the latter a bit.
It’s still a decent book, and the concept is fun. I give it 3 out of 5 stars. I also give Heat Wave 3 out of five stars, but Heat Wave barely made it, while Naked Heat is a solid 3.
I picked up this book because of the obvious historical connection. I found it a fairly interesting read if one didn’t expect excessive historical background. It’s build around the siege of Troy and provides an interesting idea for the famed “Trojan Horse.” The jacket description is a bit wild (it mentions bringing down the walls of Jericho, which isn’t in the book).
I’d recommend reading this more as fantasy than as historical fiction and give it 3 of 5 stars.
Buy The Hittite
I recently read J. D. Robb’s Fantasy in Death and enjoyed the advanced technology. I told my wife when we had both read it that I felt that some of the technology described was at least possible and might well happen sooner than later.
Well, it’s not nearly that type of capability–we’re still a long way from that, but we’re moving down the path. Today in my gizmag e-mail I got an article on the Third Space FPS gaming vest that lets you feel the gaming action.
Time marches on … sometimes faster than we want it to.
