Here are three book series I've enjoyed over the past several years.
Honor Harrington by David Weber
--On Basilisk Station is the first book and is free from the publisher, Baen. I think there are 18-20+ books in this series which started in the 90s. Many of them were released free on CDs included with some of the hardback edition. I've read most of the books with legal electronic copies and got the rest from the library. I've read the first dozen or so books twice and would send money to the author if he had an electronic tip jar.
I guess the genre would be epic space opera. I like the development of Honor as she grows from a new space captain to a commodore then admiral. Generally, Weber has developed a really rich world with different star nations/empires/confederations. There are differences in political systems, technological innovation, social structures etc that are interesting and believable. The space battles are technical without losing dramatic tension in the details. Relationships are maintained and developed over books and when some characters die, it's easy to feel moved by the loss of a dear personality. I do think the series loses some umph after a while, but it's quite good for the first 8-10 books which is impressive on its own.
The Dagger and the Coin by Daniel Abraham
--Daniel Abraham was part of the team that wrote Leviathan Wakes. That scifi noir book had a bit too much of a horror element for my taste, but my electronic copy from the library included the first book of the Dagger and Coin series at the end. The Dagger is a reference to violence while the Coin references business maneuverings.
In this Lord-of-the-Rings-type fantasy world with a more interesting mix of races, one young man fraudulently comes to military and political power while another young woman fraudulently comes to economic power as a representative of a powerful banking house. I find this juxtaposition of economic power vs military/political power to be rare in fantasy books, and it's done well in this series. There are also several sub-themes about religious belief and fallibility of certainty, the power of the unempowered, and faithfulness/loyalty.
Odyssey One by Evan Currie
--First, I'm only on the second of the 4 or 5 books in this series. The space battles are gripping and epicly long (because they are told from many different perspectives). But of course, this is not sufficient for me to recommend as a partially read series.
This is a spoiler, but it comes early in the first book, so I feel less bad about doing this. The Odyssey is the first spaceship sent from Earth into deep space. And on this maiden voyage it picks up another human from a planet far away and a culture tens of thousands of years older than humanity on Earth. I find this proposition really intriguing and am enjoying the slow unfolding of how this could be. I also enjoy the cultural interchange between the Earth humans and the space human.
Apparently, the first book Into the Black has an early, poorly edited version, and a second better edited version. I read the second edition and didn't find the editing a problem, but there have been many complaints about the first edition--so don't get that one.
Showing posts with label book review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book review. Show all posts
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Book Review: Seeking God's Face
When I was a kid, I was introduced to two kinds of personal interactions with God, aka "daily devotion" or "quiet time". The first was a short lesson based on a short verse. You read it and move on. The second was Search the Scriptures which involved reading a longer passage and then answering questions about it, in other words, the Bible as homework.
To this day to my mind, the "gold" standard for personal time with God is a study about a book or topic that goes deep into the Bible. But what I find I want and am able to sustain is regular touches with God of scripture and the thoughts of other believers.
Last Christmas, N got me this book, Seeking God's Face, and it fit really well into my life this past year. There's been a lot to like about the book. In no particular order:
To this day to my mind, the "gold" standard for personal time with God is a study about a book or topic that goes deep into the Bible. But what I find I want and am able to sustain is regular touches with God of scripture and the thoughts of other believers.
Last Christmas, N got me this book, Seeking God's Face, and it fit really well into my life this past year. There's been a lot to like about the book. In no particular order:
- The book feels good in the hand with a soft/fake leather cover and nice pages with a book mark ribbon.
- It's organized around the church calendar noting Advent, Lent, Easter, Ordinary time and so forth. It hits that at the right amount of detail for me; the major time divisions without every feast day.
- Each day is 2 pages of text. Just about right for a moment with my cup of coffee after the kids have finished breakfast and before we get going for the day.
- Through a week, the opening verse and the closing blessing with be the same. This has allowed me to "hum" along with a theme for the week.
- There are several reminders to slow down, be quiet, and reflect on the passages just read.
- Each day there's a new bit from Psalms and one from somewhere else in the Bible. Some times the "somewhere else" bit will follow a story for a few days in a row.
- Because of the church calendar thing, each entry is specifically dated for the years 2011-2026? So if I miss a few days, I know exactly how many days it's been since my bookmark moved.
- At the end, there are a few bullet points for prayer items. The ones I've been struck by this year is praying for different geographical areas, leaders in different spheres of influence like government and business, and care for the environment. I tend to bristle if I feel like people have an "agenda" about how I should feel about things as a believer. These prayer items have reminded me that no matter how I think things should be, I should submit them to God's care first.
- I've really been challenged by the short written prayer at the end of each reading. The prayers are based on a classic creed or confession but they are so fresh and pertinent to how my heart can be now.
All this to say that this book has kept me at the "spring of living water" this year. It's less intense than a deep dive into the Bible, but very tangible and consistent. Or maybe a way to say it is that it's helped me get back into the habit of hearing God through the Bible.
As advent approaches in a few short days, I'm not sure what to do. Like the church year, Advent is the beginning of this book, so I'm in the last few pages of it at the moment. I have liked the Nouwen book I have for Advent readings, so I may head back there for the season. We'll see. Anyways, outside of Advent and Lent for which I have other materials, Seeking God's Face is an excellent way to spend a bit of time with God daily.
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Broken but not hopeless
In reviewing a lot of children's books over the past year, I've been saddened by the messiness, grossness, the evil that my children need to be exposed to.
Today, I was coloring with my daughter and introduced her to coloring skin. We used a peachy pencil, and a dusty tan pencil, and a brown pencil and we talked about how people had different color skin. And we compared our arm colors, and we talked about other children she knew who were darker than she was. And it was just a fact. To her, it's like daddy has blue eyes and she has brown eyes.
But we've read a number of books that share about the American history with skin color and how it wasn't so factual. One thing I've been impressed about a number of these books is how exuberant they can be in the face of evil. I'm thinking about books like Hallelujah Flight which tells about an early trans-continental flight by 2 African-American men or Willie and the All-Stars about a boy growing up during WWII who wants to play professional baseball only to be told he won't ever because he's the wrong color.
We've read a couple books about children with limited access to books and the librarians who trek miles to help them. That Book Woman tells the story from the 1930s of an illiterate boy in Appalachia who learns to read over the course of the visits from "that book woman". The book made me cry. Waiting for the Biblioburro also talks about an itinerant librarian but is set in contemporary Colombia. The burros are charmingly named Alpha and Beto. Our house is filled with books, and our children are unlikely to experience the privation these books refer to. Yet they need to know. They need to know that it's not so easy in most of the world and hasn't been for most of history.
But I also want them to know that their circumstances do not define them. That's something I so value in the children's book genre; they are by and large hopeful. Though these none of these books are grounded in a theology of hope, I think the hope is there because in Jesus there is the truth of hope. In the Easter story, where Jesus dies and defeats death, the darkest hopelessness, hope gets teeth. It's not just wishful thinking. Evil doesn't win the war even if it wins a few battles.
Our nighttime routine with our daughter is to read a devotional with her, pray some set prayers, and then we ask her, "What can we thank Jesus for today?" Lately, she's wised up and tells us "Everything!" so that we can get it over with and get on to reading a library book. While we do help her unpack what her everything is, I hope she can also see the truth of it, that we can be thankful for everything and in being thankful we are hanging on to hope regardless of the circumstances.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Book Review: Shepherding a Child's Heart
Shepherding a Child's Heart by Tedd Tripp, Shepherd Press, 1995. 215 pp. including scripture index.
Who should read this book
--Christian parents who like being told what to do and the 90s era culture wars.
--Thinking Christian parents willing to sift for nuggets of wisdom while dumping the junk
About the Book
This book comes in two parts. The first part is Foundations for Biblical Childbearing which is covered in 12 chapters with a summary chapter. The foundational principles cover topics like a child's spiritual development, the role of parents, the goals parents may have, and biblical methods including communication, "the rod", and an appeal to the conscience. The second part is Shepherding Through the Stages of Childhood which is six chapters covering three developmental stages: infancy, childhood, and teenagers. For each stage there is a chapter on training objectives and then one on training procedures.
There is an introduction that precedes all of this that seems very important to Tripp's ideas. As someone who frequently skims or skips introductions, it would have made sense to me for that material to be put in an actual chapter.
Chapters are typically not very long and have a half to full page of application questions at the end. The writing style of the book drove me bonkers having a tone of certainty and moral imperative that I find overbearing and misplaced. Words and phrases like "must", "hand-to-hand combat [for]...the child's heart," "The result is obvious," act like fingernails down blackboards for me.
Thoughts: The good
There are some principles in the book that I agreed with. The first is the premise on which the title is built, that is that the issue is the heart over behavior. The annoying, dangerous, correction-inviting behavior I witness in my children is an outflow of what is in their hearts.
Second, loving parents will discipline their children. We see that in Hebrews 12 and I agree with Tripp on this.
Third, listening to our children is equally important to speaking to them.
Thoughts: The ugly
I don't think there are overtly bad ideas in this book, but I do feel a lot of ideas are really awkwardly or weirdly presented. For example, on the one hand, Tripp writes that parents shouldn't think deterministically that anything we do produces automatic guaranteed results. However, a lot of his rhetoric implies that our children's lives are at stake vis-a-vis precisely what we as parents are doing. There's an underlying theme of fear in the book that I object to, an implication that if we do not raise our children the way Tripp recommends that the very souls of our children are at stake. And that's just not true. As parents, I believe we do have responsibilities that God holds us accountable for, but children have their own responsibilities and choices to make. And I think Tripp would agree, but he is unclear and inconsistent about this in the book.
Perhaps as a conversation analyst I am overly sensitive to this, but the dialogues in the book are really awkward to my ear. They are weird structurally but also in content. Here's the central example that bugs me:
-You didn't obey Daddy, did you?
-No.
-Do you remember what God says Daddy must do if you disobey?
-Spank me?
-That's right. I must spank you. If I don't, then I would be disobeying God. You and I would both be wrong. That would not be good for you or for me, would it?
-No.
To my ear, this sounds coercive, like God is coercing Daddy to spank and Daddy has no choice in the matter. As a kid, I would either hate God or my dad.
Putting aside the dialogue, spanking gets a lot of air time in this book. I am not an opponent to spanking although I did think that my parents' version of time out was extremely memorable and formative. (We had to stand in the corner holding our ears and squatting as if sitting on an invisible chair.) But Tripp sees spanking as rescuing our children from danger. So parenting isn't deterministic, but spanking rescues our children? Sigh.
Conclusion
Obviously, I really struggled with this book. I read it because a number of people recommended it and there are definite take away principles worth remembering. However, it was written in the early 90s and it has that vibe of fear and war with the surrounding culture. I would personally recommend reading something else unless you like wading through that stuff.
Who should read this book
--Christian parents who like being told what to do and the 90s era culture wars.
--Thinking Christian parents willing to sift for nuggets of wisdom while dumping the junk
About the Book
This book comes in two parts. The first part is Foundations for Biblical Childbearing which is covered in 12 chapters with a summary chapter. The foundational principles cover topics like a child's spiritual development, the role of parents, the goals parents may have, and biblical methods including communication, "the rod", and an appeal to the conscience. The second part is Shepherding Through the Stages of Childhood which is six chapters covering three developmental stages: infancy, childhood, and teenagers. For each stage there is a chapter on training objectives and then one on training procedures.
There is an introduction that precedes all of this that seems very important to Tripp's ideas. As someone who frequently skims or skips introductions, it would have made sense to me for that material to be put in an actual chapter.
Chapters are typically not very long and have a half to full page of application questions at the end. The writing style of the book drove me bonkers having a tone of certainty and moral imperative that I find overbearing and misplaced. Words and phrases like "must", "hand-to-hand combat [for]...the child's heart," "The result is obvious," act like fingernails down blackboards for me.
Thoughts: The good
There are some principles in the book that I agreed with. The first is the premise on which the title is built, that is that the issue is the heart over behavior. The annoying, dangerous, correction-inviting behavior I witness in my children is an outflow of what is in their hearts.
Second, loving parents will discipline their children. We see that in Hebrews 12 and I agree with Tripp on this.
Third, listening to our children is equally important to speaking to them.
Thoughts: The ugly
I don't think there are overtly bad ideas in this book, but I do feel a lot of ideas are really awkwardly or weirdly presented. For example, on the one hand, Tripp writes that parents shouldn't think deterministically that anything we do produces automatic guaranteed results. However, a lot of his rhetoric implies that our children's lives are at stake vis-a-vis precisely what we as parents are doing. There's an underlying theme of fear in the book that I object to, an implication that if we do not raise our children the way Tripp recommends that the very souls of our children are at stake. And that's just not true. As parents, I believe we do have responsibilities that God holds us accountable for, but children have their own responsibilities and choices to make. And I think Tripp would agree, but he is unclear and inconsistent about this in the book.
Perhaps as a conversation analyst I am overly sensitive to this, but the dialogues in the book are really awkward to my ear. They are weird structurally but also in content. Here's the central example that bugs me:
-You didn't obey Daddy, did you?
-No.
-Do you remember what God says Daddy must do if you disobey?
-Spank me?
-That's right. I must spank you. If I don't, then I would be disobeying God. You and I would both be wrong. That would not be good for you or for me, would it?
-No.
To my ear, this sounds coercive, like God is coercing Daddy to spank and Daddy has no choice in the matter. As a kid, I would either hate God or my dad.
Putting aside the dialogue, spanking gets a lot of air time in this book. I am not an opponent to spanking although I did think that my parents' version of time out was extremely memorable and formative. (We had to stand in the corner holding our ears and squatting as if sitting on an invisible chair.) But Tripp sees spanking as rescuing our children from danger. So parenting isn't deterministic, but spanking rescues our children? Sigh.
Conclusion
Obviously, I really struggled with this book. I read it because a number of people recommended it and there are definite take away principles worth remembering. However, it was written in the early 90s and it has that vibe of fear and war with the surrounding culture. I would personally recommend reading something else unless you like wading through that stuff.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Book Review: Gakken Let's Create
Gakken Let's Create ages 2-4 yrs. 191pp, plus 4 pages of stickers and a "wipe clean board".
Who would like this book
--Parents of 2-4 year old children who want short, structured activities to do with their child
--Children who can sit still for 30 sec to 5 minutes, can grasp a crayon, and manipulate scissors
About the book
This is a workbook that introduces "educated world" skills, the kinds of skills that are useful for making teachers happy in school. (Parents may or may not think these are skills their 2-4 year old need to acquire at the moment.) The opening pages introduce drawing dots, straight lines, and curves; another section works on numbers 1-3. A final section combines life knowledge with cutting and pasting. This is an interesting section which offers opportunities to talk about animals, social customs, transportation, food, clothing, and school activities.
Thoughts and commentary
I got this book from Costco because it was inexpensive at $8 and because my daughter was newly out of preschool for the summer and I wanted something structured to do with her as I faced a big shift in our schedules. At the start of things, she was 2 years and 2 months old and young for the stated age range.
She really likes the activity book because there is a space for a "Good Job" sticker on every page. She also likes the graphics which are colorful and cheerful in an Asian cartoon style. Some of the pages call for using crayons, provided stickers, or scissors and glue. She likes all of those modes of interaction, but stickers most of all. As a parent, I like having simple pages to do with her, all in one place, with a bit of guidance on each page. I like the progression in difficulty and the variety of activities.
Cognitively, my daughter is a bit young for most of the book. It takes a lot of scaffolding to get through the activities. By scaffolding, I mean talking through the activity in advance and demonstrating what is going on. During the activity, she needs a lot of often literal hand holding. In the numbers section of the book, we did about a quarter of it before it was really beyond her ability to comprehend. I have currently stopped that section and will pick up later as she gets more comfortable with those concepts. Attention wise, she cannot pay attention for more than a few minutes. In the early part of the book, we could do a few pages in a session. But for cutting and pasting pages, 1 activity is about the limit. Mechanically, she needs help for everything other than putting stickers in place.
The build quality of the book is excellent. The paper is nice and thick. The icons are easy to understand. The short parent instructions are generally helpful. My only complaint here is that in the first section on drawing lines and shapes the gutter of the book gets in the way. The pages are not perforated, but I tore them out anyways so that she would have a flat page to work on. The wipe clean board is a black and white outline of a cake. I didn't see the point of it much, and we haven't used it much thus far. I cut that page out, again, because it is unwieldy to draw on while still attached.
Conclusion
Given that she enjoys the activities, I think that working a bit ahead of her abilities is fine. Sometimes frustrating for me because I like things lined up and tidy, but she's having a ball. And we have something to do together. However, I don't think these are particularly important skills for a 2 year old to pick up. Content-wise, I think I'd care more as she gets closer to actually starting school in a few years.
I'd be interested to see how she does with the same material next summer. And for that reason, I'm tempted to pick another one up for an apples-to-apples comparison.
Who would like this book
--Parents of 2-4 year old children who want short, structured activities to do with their child
--Children who can sit still for 30 sec to 5 minutes, can grasp a crayon, and manipulate scissors
About the book
This is a workbook that introduces "educated world" skills, the kinds of skills that are useful for making teachers happy in school. (Parents may or may not think these are skills their 2-4 year old need to acquire at the moment.) The opening pages introduce drawing dots, straight lines, and curves; another section works on numbers 1-3. A final section combines life knowledge with cutting and pasting. This is an interesting section which offers opportunities to talk about animals, social customs, transportation, food, clothing, and school activities.
Thoughts and commentary
I got this book from Costco because it was inexpensive at $8 and because my daughter was newly out of preschool for the summer and I wanted something structured to do with her as I faced a big shift in our schedules. At the start of things, she was 2 years and 2 months old and young for the stated age range.
She really likes the activity book because there is a space for a "Good Job" sticker on every page. She also likes the graphics which are colorful and cheerful in an Asian cartoon style. Some of the pages call for using crayons, provided stickers, or scissors and glue. She likes all of those modes of interaction, but stickers most of all. As a parent, I like having simple pages to do with her, all in one place, with a bit of guidance on each page. I like the progression in difficulty and the variety of activities.
Cognitively, my daughter is a bit young for most of the book. It takes a lot of scaffolding to get through the activities. By scaffolding, I mean talking through the activity in advance and demonstrating what is going on. During the activity, she needs a lot of often literal hand holding. In the numbers section of the book, we did about a quarter of it before it was really beyond her ability to comprehend. I have currently stopped that section and will pick up later as she gets more comfortable with those concepts. Attention wise, she cannot pay attention for more than a few minutes. In the early part of the book, we could do a few pages in a session. But for cutting and pasting pages, 1 activity is about the limit. Mechanically, she needs help for everything other than putting stickers in place.
The build quality of the book is excellent. The paper is nice and thick. The icons are easy to understand. The short parent instructions are generally helpful. My only complaint here is that in the first section on drawing lines and shapes the gutter of the book gets in the way. The pages are not perforated, but I tore them out anyways so that she would have a flat page to work on. The wipe clean board is a black and white outline of a cake. I didn't see the point of it much, and we haven't used it much thus far. I cut that page out, again, because it is unwieldy to draw on while still attached.
Conclusion
Given that she enjoys the activities, I think that working a bit ahead of her abilities is fine. Sometimes frustrating for me because I like things lined up and tidy, but she's having a ball. And we have something to do together. However, I don't think these are particularly important skills for a 2 year old to pick up. Content-wise, I think I'd care more as she gets closer to actually starting school in a few years.
I'd be interested to see how she does with the same material next summer. And for that reason, I'm tempted to pick another one up for an apples-to-apples comparison.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Book Review: Introverts in the Church
I've been reading lately, so I thought I'd do some reviewing.
First up Introverts in the Church: Finding our Place in an Extroverted Culture by Adam S. McHugh, IVP. 222pp including discussion questions, further reading, and notes*
Who should read this book
Introverted pastors or lay leaders who feel like they are always out of steam or lagging behind.
Average Joe introverts who find many church ways alienating and difficult to connect with.
Extroverted pastors or lay leaders who have an uneasy feeling that some people are being sinfully anti-social.
About the book
The book starts off arguing that we live in an extroverted culture that prizes those abilities that come naturally to extroverts. Then it discusses characteristics of introverts, affirms those characteristics and then in response to the extroverted culture, calls introverts to healing.
McHugh covers a number of different aspects of introverted spirituality, from private devotions to community relationships to evangelism to church service. However, clearly the McHugh's heart is for introverted church leaders specifically pastors.
Thoughts and commentary
Well, turns out that I'm not the target audience for this book even though I am an introvert and a member of the church universal and a local church. I'm not the target audience first because I have embraced being an introvert. I have spent the better part of a decade and a half thinking about and working out how to be an introverted follower of Christ. I have no problems telling extroverted pastors to pound sand. I'm also not the target audience because I am not and do not desire to be a pastor. You can just tell that the pastorate is what jazzes McHugh. That's fine, that's just not me.
I was interested in the introverted spirituality chapters and I think these are the chapters that would interest the average Joe introvert in the church. The chapter on evangelism was particularly good.
Despite both being introverts, my husband and I didn't completely connect with some of McHugh's experiences as an introvert, nor do we completely connect with one another. And while McHugh does mention this, I think it must be stressed that introversion isn't the only reason a person responds in a particular way. There's a lot of diversity across introverts. For example, in the chapter on introverted evangelism he encourages introverts to leverage listening well to people to connect with people and walk with them on their faith journey. First, just because an introvert isn't talking doesn't mean that they are listening. They might be talking to themselves. Second, everyone including extroverts should work to listen better.
Conclusion
I was personally disappointed in the book because of the various points of disconnect. However, I am tempted to buy a bunch of copies and give them to various leaders in my life. Heh. Introverts new to this stuff--sure, check it out from the library.
*Not an affiliate link
First up Introverts in the Church: Finding our Place in an Extroverted Culture by Adam S. McHugh, IVP. 222pp including discussion questions, further reading, and notes*
Who should read this book
Introverted pastors or lay leaders who feel like they are always out of steam or lagging behind.
Average Joe introverts who find many church ways alienating and difficult to connect with.
Extroverted pastors or lay leaders who have an uneasy feeling that some people are being sinfully anti-social.
About the book
The book starts off arguing that we live in an extroverted culture that prizes those abilities that come naturally to extroverts. Then it discusses characteristics of introverts, affirms those characteristics and then in response to the extroverted culture, calls introverts to healing.
McHugh covers a number of different aspects of introverted spirituality, from private devotions to community relationships to evangelism to church service. However, clearly the McHugh's heart is for introverted church leaders specifically pastors.
Thoughts and commentary
Well, turns out that I'm not the target audience for this book even though I am an introvert and a member of the church universal and a local church. I'm not the target audience first because I have embraced being an introvert. I have spent the better part of a decade and a half thinking about and working out how to be an introverted follower of Christ. I have no problems telling extroverted pastors to pound sand. I'm also not the target audience because I am not and do not desire to be a pastor. You can just tell that the pastorate is what jazzes McHugh. That's fine, that's just not me.
I was interested in the introverted spirituality chapters and I think these are the chapters that would interest the average Joe introvert in the church. The chapter on evangelism was particularly good.
Despite both being introverts, my husband and I didn't completely connect with some of McHugh's experiences as an introvert, nor do we completely connect with one another. And while McHugh does mention this, I think it must be stressed that introversion isn't the only reason a person responds in a particular way. There's a lot of diversity across introverts. For example, in the chapter on introverted evangelism he encourages introverts to leverage listening well to people to connect with people and walk with them on their faith journey. First, just because an introvert isn't talking doesn't mean that they are listening. They might be talking to themselves. Second, everyone including extroverts should work to listen better.
Conclusion
I was personally disappointed in the book because of the various points of disconnect. However, I am tempted to buy a bunch of copies and give them to various leaders in my life. Heh. Introverts new to this stuff--sure, check it out from the library.
*Not an affiliate link
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