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Books
read in 2006
last
update of this page: |
Reading
Books read in 2007:
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Books
read in 2006
last
update of this page: |
Reading
Books read in 2007:
A very simple but profound guide to active participation in the Divine Liturgy. Harakas discusses singing, sub-singing, reverent postures, silent prayer and other methods for connecting with and working within the Divine Liturgy. For those who are already well-versed in liturgics, this book might be too basic and simplistic. But for the average lay person who wants to go more deeply into the Liturgy and truly participate in the "work of the people" (the English translation of the word 'liturgy') this book is invaluable.
Father Jack Sparks has created a trilogy of books bringing the 1589 Italian work, Spiritual Combat by Lorenzo Scupoli, as edited by Saints Theophan the Recluse and Nicodemus of Mount Athos into a form that the average, non-scholarly layperson can benefit from. The other two books in this series are titled Prayer in the Unseen Warfare and Virtue in the Unseen Warfare. This volume is filled with teachings of victory over temptations and unseen demons that plague the life of the devout Christian. It is an Orthodox belief that the more an individual strives for holy union with God the hardest that individual is attacked by the forces of darkness and ignorance. The book is broken into short chapters that are easy to read but filled with great depth of meaning that takes more than one run-through to really begin to assimilate. Each chapter ends with thought questions, testing the reader's understanding of the text and challenging them to go further into these ideas and into applying them to one's own life. While talk of fighting demons might seem anachronistic or the stuff of fantasy fiction, Father Sparks' book is very serious and any reader who substitutes concepts such as "depression," "anger," "greed," "impatience" for demons will quickly see the everyday applicability of these spiritual teachings for modern life.
Although I tend to spend much of my Christian reading time in books that are either older or based on older ideas, periodically I surface for the air of the 20th/21st century. If nothing else, it reminds me why I prefer the depths of history. Bulle has written an excellent and even-handed examination of modern Christian doctrines such as "God wants you to be rich" or "if you are a true and sinless Christian you will never be ill or suffer in any way." I would consider Bulle to be an orthodox (small "o") Christian as so much of what she wrote resonates deeply with Orthodox (capital "O") Christianity. I was very pleased to pick up a modern Protestant book that had ideas that did not clash with my understanding of ancient Orthodox teachings. It gives me a renewed sense of all Christians as brothers and sisters when I come upon the commonalities. Christianity may be fractured, but books like Ms. Bulle's give me renewed hope that we may someday all be One.
I thought that this was a much, much better book than Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed and I would definitely recommend it over Ehrenreich's book. Shipler attempts to explore the issues more broadly and so we see both the family that is working very hard and still struggling to survive as well as the family that is wasting their money by making poor buying decisions and struggling due to their own short-sightedness. It was good to see the balance, something often lacking in reports on such touchy topics as poverty in the U.S.
Unfortunately, I grew up in a house where letter-writing (including thank you letters!) was never taught. Fortunately, Miss Manners has stepped into the breach! I bought this book because I want to play my part in reviving the dying art of letter writing. Progress has been slow (I know so few people to whom I can write) but steady. Martin has written a good basic guide to the standard etiquette of letter writing, from choosing stationery to figuring out what to say (or not say!) This book has made me feel more confident about written correspondence and eager to select my own set of personal stationery.
Friedman could be so much more fun to read than he is. It is unfortunate that his writing style is so tedious because he has many important things to say. Friedman really shines in his films and interviews but loses something when he tries to bring those ideas to the written page. He also really needs to learn more about technology, particulary how the internet works. When it comes to bandwidth wastage, Friedman is part of the problem, not part of the solution, as he is convinced that internet communications are free. As an international investigative journalist, Friedman is top-notch. As a political scientist, Friedman is competitive. As an economist, Friedman falls on his face. Still, Friedman has some very good, very current, very important ideas. I would recommend his films before this book, however.
In the first few chapters of the book, I had the nagging sensation that I was reading a book about a conspiracy theory. About half-way through, the theory blossoms. I was stunned to realize that Faux had fairly neatly bought in to the "Queen Elizabeth and George Bush are lizard space aliens" conspiracy, giving it an air of legitimacy by ... well, pretty much only by not talking about the space aliens. Everything else is in there. Where Icke and Larouche talk about the lizard people, Faux talks about a conspiracy he calls "the Party of Davos." It may come across as more plausible, but only because Faux isn't claiming that world leaders come from outer space. By the time I realized how crackpot this book was, I was over halfway through it so I just went ahead and finished it. But I don't advise anyone else waste their time on it.
I will write a review after finals week.
I will write a review after finals week.
I will write a review after finals week.
I will write a review after finals week.
I will write a review after finals week.
I will write a review after finals week.
I will write a review after finals week.
I will write a review after finals week.
I will write a review after finals week.
I will write a review after finals week.
This is the best Maeve Binchy novel I've read yet. The book takes place in the little Irish village of Shancarrig, ranging from the early 1950s to 1970. The stories show the town as far more active beneath the surface than would appear and give a sense of rootedness in the flow of time. Each chapter is devoted to a different person in the town so that the reader ends with a sense of great affection for and knowledge of the entire village of Shancarrig.
Let me start this review by saying that this book is very sexually graphic. You can just skip to the next review if that bothers you in any way. With that disclosure out of the way, I want to say that Baker is an amazing writer. He is very experimental in his approach. An earlier book, Mezzanine, takes place entirely during the protagonist's lunch hour, mainly during a trip down the escalator to go buy some shoelaces. Baker's thesis was about the use of the word "lumber" in literature. He explores things others might think too simple or mundane to bother with and, in the process, is able to make the reader more aware of the millions of tiny details of life we take for granted. Vox, too, is an experiment in plotless plotting -- the entire story is a single phone call. If you want to read the product of a master of his craft and periodic discussions of graphic sexual fantasies doesn't disturb you, you'll want to read Vox.
I read my first Kotwinkle, Swimmer in the Secret Sea, in 1979. I fell in love with him for that book alone and have re-read it several times over the years. In 1985, I was introduced to The Fan Man and discovered that Kotzwinkle could write comedy that made me laugh as hard as Swimmer had made me cry. I've read other Kotzwinkle over the years, but none has compared to those two.
I was very excited to read The Bear Went Over the Mountain, as reviewers had described laughing so hard they alarmed the neighbors. As it turned out, I found it amusing, but never laughed out loud while reading it as I had with The Fan Man. One short passage near the end about a philosopher in a Cuban jail and his companion rat brought tears to my eyes, though I don't know if the author intended me to be so moved by it.
There were times I disliked Bear because elements of it were so obviously derivative of Kosinski's Being There, but overall I found it an enjoyable and quick read. The riffs on the publishing industry were priceless. Having gone through some of that agony myself, I was especially amused by Kotzwinkle's depictions of it.
This beautiful novel fused hydrology and the human spirit in a poetic song about the depths of the human heart.
This is another novel of autism written by a non-autistic person. Moon's son is autistic. I could tell that she had carefully observed her son and learned a great deal about how the autistic mind works because Lou felt very real and familiar to me. I am glad to see the recent increase in works that capture the autistic zeitgeist so much better than older books and films.
Yes, I know it's fantasy fluff, but the Valdemar stories never fail to pull me in. I always know I'm in for an entertaining read when I pick up a Mercedes Lackey book. There's something to be said for brand recognition.
When my favorite professor's ex-wife found out that I want to be a professor, she recommended this book. I'm not sure if the recommendation was meant to warn me of the foibles of academia or set me at ease by revealing the depths of faculty lunacy. Either way, it was a delightful read, both hilarious and insightful.
O'Rourke turns his absurdist wit on the topic of war in general and the first Gulf War specifically. O'Rourke is laugh-out-loud funny, even when describing aspects of the human condition that make one want to weep with despair at our foolishness. Be warned that he is a politically-conservative Libertarian, but I know plenty of lefties who find him hilarious despite the clash in ideology. The essays about the Gulf War were a walk down memory lane for me.
Cliche, I know, but the books get darker in direct proportion to their increase in length.
I was robbed. The week this book came out, malicious pranksters were intent on revealing the stunning conclusion. I tried to wipe it from my mind in the reading, but when I was finished I knew that the book would have had much more impact on me had I not known the ending. I try my best not to spoil for others, even long after the book or movie has been out. I realize I'm unusual in that. But intentionally spoiling for others the moment a work appears is quite unkind and I can't imagine that those who do so are deriving enough pleasure from the action to compensate for the pain they are causing in others. Malicious spoiling increases the overall ugliness in the world and is a small, but significant, example of how to be part of the problem rather than part of the solution.
At the risk of "spoilers," this book disappointed me. I devoured the septology and loved every moment of it, but the ending of this book fell flat.
I felt that the author was torn between an urge to lay the responsibility for individual health on the individual and a need to blame some outside force, some evil capitalist conspiracy, for the increase in America's collective girth. Perhaps his point was that the truth lies in some shadowy middle ground between the two. The author cites the increased introduction of new fattening products such as cakes and chips which correlates with the dramatic increase in collective national BMI. But what the author leaves unsaid is the knowledge that nearly all Americans have that, for example, eating too much cake will make one fat. No one forced these new products down our throats. Moreover, the structure of capitalism hints that all these new, fattening products would not have been introduced if there were not consumers willing to purchase them. It is my own suspicion that the fattening-up of America can be traced to psychological and spiritual issues as much as anything else. But while it is currently popular to point to a spiritual deficit as a source of overconsumption of goods and services, it is still politically incorrect to suggest that spiritual emptiness and/or yearning might be behind the overconsumption of calories.
Let me start by saying that this is one of the most amazing books I have read
in a long time. This is a book I will definitely be reading again. It is also
an incredible resource, due to the many book lists and the huge bibliography.
Many of the other books I've read that completely blew my mind are on Schall's
list and I fully expect that many of the books on his lists that I haven't
yet read will also blow my mind.
Another Sort of Learning consists of twenty-one deep and meaningful
essays about the highest things, the permanent things, and what is (as
opposed to utopian fantasies of what "ought" to be.) I was led to this book
through reading Schall's writing for the Intercollegiate Studies Institute
and being very impressed with what he had to say. Still, I was in no way prepared
for the amazing impact this book would have on my thoughts and life.
This is
a book that will put off or even frighten some because it is written from a
Roman Catholic stance, a traditionalist stance, a classical conservative stance.
Schall has captured the full spirit of Intellectual Conservatism and managed
to avoid some of the negatives that tend to come with modern Catholic intellectuals
(while embracing the classic Catholic intellectual movement which owes its
roots to Thomas Aquinas.)
My first thought upon finishing this book was all the people I know, with whom
I want to share Another Sort of Learning. My second thought was how
horrible it would be to lose this incredible resource that I will surely be
using for
many years to come -- probably for the rest of my life. So I need to pick up
a few more copies so I can breathe easy while lending out (or giving as gifts,
because no one I'd give it to would want to return it!) this incredible book.
Copyright © 2002, 2007 Sparrow Rose Jones. All Rights Reserved. Graphics courtesy of Medieval Woodcuts Clip Art.