Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason

January 28, 2008

Book A Week: Week 4

Week four and book four. Short book last week, fiction the week before, and another short one for week one. Time for something industrious.

The book this week is Infamous Scribblers by Eric Burns. Subtitled "The Founding Fathers and the Rowdy Beginnings of American Journalism." The book weighs in at over 400 pages, so I'm going to be doing about 70 pages per day to meet my goal -- that's a bit over three chapters, on average.

I've wanted to read this book ever since it came out a couple years ago. Finally bought it over the weekend at Borders, with a gift card my sister gave me for Christmas. I was a bit upset to see the price at Amazon -- it's less than half of what I paid at Borders. I've decided I'm never buying a book at the bookstore again -- there's not enough value added to my experience at a brick and mortar Borders to make me want to pay $10 more for a book. Instant gratification isn't worth that much to me. That's the sad thing about Amazon's dominance in the online bookselling business: they can discount heavily enough that it's not worth driving to the bookstore just to get the book today.

And I'm sure, as my wife said mere moments ago, that I'll be back in the bookstore buying books again in no time. But I'm going to be a lot more conscious about the prices of books that I really want -- bookstore purchases are going to end up being impulse buys, or killer sales. The days of me taking a wishlist to the store and leaving with an armload of books are over. I'll pay the shipping and let the UPS guy haul my books to my house for me.

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Book Review: One Christ, One Body by Scott G. Cunningham

This is a small, thin book that attempts to cover a very important subject. And there is a lot of great information in the book. I learned a few things from reading One Christ, One Body, and (more importantly) the book gave me a lot to think about.

I had a few problems with the book, though, and part of that is probably due to the size. It seemed at times that Cunningham was trying to say that demonimationalism is wrong and divisive, and that we should work to make denominations a thing of the past. In fact, he does say that denominational leaders should work to resolve the differences between denominations, and not let denominational squabbles interfere with cooperation among Christians. But at the same time, Cunningham also says that we have to teach the truth to people who do not believe the truth.

I don't know of any denominational divides that are over things that people think are not important truths. I'm not talking about things like Bible translations or music styles -- I'm talking about church structure, authority structures within the church, proper candidates for baptism, etc. These are all important issues, but they are issues that will not be resolved any time soon. We can cooperate with each other as long as we don't have to compromise on our doctrinal standards, and we should be doing that. But it seems to me that Cunningham is taking both sides of the issue here -- we have to get over our doctrinal divisions, but we also have to teach other Christians the truth. There's some conflict there, and I'm not sure that Cunningham resolves it in this book.

The book is easy to read, though it seemed to go off on tangents at times that reminded me of a few of my own sermons (and some blog posts, too). Some minor grammatical issues stood out for me (LOTS of commas that were in wrong places), but I don't nit-pick about that. On the whole, the book is an interesting perspective on the Christian Unity issue, but one that unfortunately falls short of providing answers.

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January 27, 2008

Book A Week Note

I haven't forgotten -- LOOONG, busy day today, and I haven't had time to post. I'll have the review post tomorrow afternoon, along with the intro to the new book.

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January 21, 2008

Book A Week: Week 3

The book this week is One Christ, One Body: The Father's Plan by Scott G. Cunningham. Obviously, the book is about the need for unity in the Body of Christ. I've had this book for a while, and have been looking forward to digging into it.

I think unity in the Body is an important subject, but it's also one that has been abused in the Church. We have to be unified, but that doesn't mean we turn a blind eye to heresy and heterodoxy when it appears. That's the path that many seem to take, and I'm looking forward to seeing what Cunningham's take on the subject is.

I picked this book because this is going to be a busy week, and I won't have time to read a longer book. At only 91 pages, this is a book that I can read and do justice to this week.

Stop back on Sunday for the review!

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January 20, 2008

Book Review: Opening Atlantis by Harry Turtledove

Week 2 of 2008 and the Book A Week challenge brings us Opening Atlantis, the latest offering from master of alternate history Harry Turtledove. I've been a fan of Turtledove's since I read Guns Of The South many, many years ago.

The premise of the book seems to be that part of North American (everything east of the Mississippi, judging from the cover art) broke off from the main continent. This landmass is much closer to Europe than the New World was, and thus is discovered and colonized much quicker (1451).
more...

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1 I've always wanted to read one of his books -- any you'd say is the best?

Posted by: JK at January 24, 2008 01:48 AM (IIl47)

2 Ruled Britannia is excellent, In The Presence of Mine Enemies is also good. Guns of the South is fun, but alt-history purists don't like it because it involves time travel. How Few Remain is a great book, but it lead to the whole Great War/Settling Accounts mess. Just alone, though, it's good.

Posted by: Warren at January 24, 2008 02:12 PM (6ZwcZ)

3 I'd suggest A Different Flesh, a fixup of stories set in a world where the Americas were shut off from the Old World and so the ancestors of the Amerinds never settled there and hunted the megafauna to extinction and the Jamestown settlers encounter hominids (homo habilis or australopithecines). Ruled Britannia is also really good, as is The Two Georges (written with Richard Dreyfus).

Posted by: Stu Shiffman at January 30, 2008 04:00 PM (z9gCU)

4 > I've always wanted to read one of his books -- any you'd say is the best? Guns of the South, really, is the best introduction to him. Purists may complain about elements of the story, but it's, to me, a minor quibble. I like his work, he's one of the authors I get in hardback rather than waiting for paperbacks, but I do agree with the above that it seems to me that he takes the easy route in much of his fiction by resetting/retelling historical events by shifting the mileau. As such, I find his strict alternate history to be weaker quality than the "vaguely" alternate history, like Videssos. How many, for example, have noticed the fact that the Videssos map is basically Europe and Eastern Asia mirror imaged, and many of the stories are tales from actual history? I'd rank the three completed Videssos series as the next best introduction after Guns of the South. Read Krispos, then the Legion, then Time of Troubles. The latter sequence is told from both side of the events which created Byzantium out of the old Eastern Roman Empire. Then try the Hellenic Traders series (Over The Wine Dark Sea, etc.). The "Elabon" books are fun, too, as is Ruled Brittanica. After that, you're on your own. You'll note that I've tended to avoid his alternate history, as most of it is ok, but not spectacular. I sort of think of his alternate history as a way to get a feel for history, more than as really good alternate history. The WorldWar series is decent, but it seems as though the final book (of "Colonization") was shoehorned into a single book instead of two or three. It also suffers from the basic issue of any alternate history -- you may postulate a set of roles, but assuming that the same people will arise (i.e., in analogues) after a major change has been introduced -- esp. decades down the line -- has always struck me as problematic. It's the problem I always had with the "Sliders" TV series -- a certain person is far too much a confluence of special forces for that person to exist long after a major change is introduced. It's sloppy storytelling to think that a society with a vast change (such as a matriarchy instead of a patriarchy since time immemorial) would still have "you" and "me" in it in 2008 -- esp. as an reversed sex analogue, to boot... So you would not expect to see, say, a recognizable John F. Kennedy arising after the events of WorldWar. Turtledove does deal with this better in the "Timeline-191" series than he did in "Colonization", though I personally doubt if the flow of the 20th century was quite as inevitable that its WWII would look anything like our WWII, after the events of the alternate WWI. I recommend his books, but think his best stuff is either the historical fiction or the non-alternate history stuff (Videssos technically qualifies but less so than much of the other stuff).

Posted by: O Bloody Hell at April 30, 2008 01:32 AM (skoor)

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January 14, 2008

Book A Week: Week 2

The book for this week is Harry Turtledove's latest alt-history novel, Opening Atlantis. It's the first of a trilogy, which means I'm breaking my own rule: no more Turtledoves that are longer than two books. Seriously. I gave up on the Settling Accounts series after nothing really happened in one book. The series books have collapsed under their own weight, but the stand-alones and the two-parters have been pretty good. I'm taking a chance with a trilogy, but I'm hopeful that it won't disappoint me.

From Amazon.com's description

New York Times bestselling author Harry Turtledove has intrigued readers with such thought-provoking "what if..." scenarios as a conquered Elizabethan England in Ruled Britannia and a Japanese occupation of Hawaii in Days of Infamy and End of the Beginning. Now, in the first of a brand-new trilogy, he rewrites the history of the world with the existence of an eighth continent...
Atlantis lies between Europe and the East Coast of Terranova. For many years, this land of opportunity lured dreamers from around the globe with its natural resources, offering a new beginning for those willing to brave the wonders of the unexplored land.

It sounds promising, and it's pretty unique in terms of alt-history: a POD (point of divergence) that really doesn't hinge on human decision (as far as we know right now).

So Sunday you'll have the review. I have to have the book finished by Friday, because that's when new releases are due at the library. Yes, I said library. I didn't buy this one. After the last Settling Accounts book I read, I determined that I'd only read Turtledove if I checked it out of the library. I'm almost back to reading him full-time again; this trilogy will probably make the decision for me.

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January 13, 2008

Book Review: The Way of the Christian Samurai by Paul Nowak

This is the first in my 'Book a Week' resolution/challenge/whatever. Each week, I read a book and blog about it.

It was interesting looking around the internet and reading some of the responses to this book -- especially the negative ones. It's easy, I suppose, to go negative on a book that takes a new approach to something. It's easier than, say, actually admitting that you might be doing something wrong, or looking at something in the wrong way.

On Tuesday, I mentioned a negative review of this book. Well, it wasn't really a review, since I seriously doubt that the folks at Berean Call actually took time to read the book. And they'd probably take great pride in the fact that they haven't read it.

And that's a shame, because when you actually sit down and read the book, you understand where Nowak is coming from. You start to see what Christians can learn from looking around us, at people who don't serve God, and yet are doing tremendous things.
more...

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January 08, 2008

Book A Week: Week 1

(OK, so I'm a day late. I won't have a problem getting this one done, since I started it on time AND it's a short book.) This week's book is The Way of the Christian Samurai by Paul Nowak.

The book has generated some controversy among people who focus on the less savory aspects of the samurai way of life, and who seem to have missed the point of the book. But more on that Sunday, when I review the book.

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