2015: The Year of the Short Story!

So back in the day I was an English Literature major.  I got to read all the time and it. was. awesome. 

A little while after graduating I noticed I wasn't reading very much and when I thought about it, I realized it was because I was an extroverted English Literature major.  Part of what kept me going was the promise of discussing the books in class, and once I was all on my lonesome, it was hard to sit still long enough to read a lot.  

My friend Michelle does a reading list every year, so... maybe, just maybe, if I post my reads someone will ask me about them.  Since this is about all I post on my blog, which not even my mom reads, I doubt this will happen.  But discussing books=extrovert win, so let's make a list.  

I seemed to have moved slowly this year with the reading.  There are many reasons, but if I had to list a few:

1. Crazy year in general with lots going on
2. I read a lot of things that were just, "meh"
3. I read East of Eden, and it's stinkin' long
4. Short stories!

So you see what happened was, I was reading The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, and the title character reviews tons of short stories.  He mentions one by F. Scott Fitzgerald, "A Diamond as Big as the Ritz."  A couple days later, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" came up somewhere, and I thought, ehh... I should probably read them.  Why not?  I didn't really expect much, since all 3 times I've read The Great Gastby I've decidedly not liked it.   But I checked out a Fitzgerald short-story collection from the library, and I was hooked!

So here's my "as best as I can remember" 2015 reading list.  I know there are some I have missed, but I have highlighted my favorites in gray.  And there are definitely some books on this list that I did not like and would not recommend.

I have a big long list that I want to read in 2016 so if anyone wants to do one of those reading challenges with me, let me know!

1. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
2. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
3. An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine 
4. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
5. Joshua:  No Falling Words by Dale Ralph Davis
6. How We Got To Now by Steven Johnson
7. This is Pollock by Catherine Ingram
8. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
9. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson
10. Shakespeare:  The Biography by Peter Ackroyd
11. Replenish:  Leading from a Healthy Soul by Lance Witt
12. Love Does by Bob Goff
13. Compassion Without Compromise by Adam Barr and Ron Citlau
14. The Gospel-Centered Life by Bob Thune 
15. The Gospel-Centered Community by Bob Thune and Will Walker
16. The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Short Stories, all by Fitzgerald:

1. "Head and Shoulders"
2. "Bernice Bobs Her Hair"
3. "The Ice Palace"
4. "The Offshore Pirate"
5. "May Day" (novella)
6. "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
7. "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz" (novella)
8. "O Russet Witch!"
9. "Four Fists"
10. "The Cut-Glass Bowl"
11. "Benediction"

Yay for short stories!  Have you read any short stories or books lately that you love?

Books Read 2014

My friend Michelle does a reading list every year on her blog.  Michelle, always voracious reader, took in 68 books last year!  I'm nowhere near that; can't sit still long enough really.  I still love posting a list though.  I posted one here in 2011.  

Since I haven't been keeping this blog up all year, I actually have no idea what all books I've read, so this is an "as best as I can remember" list.  I did follow in Michelle's footsteps and note my favorite reads by highlighting them in gray.  There are definitely some books on this list that I did not like and would not recommend, just to stoke your curiosity.  (If you ask me I'll spill the dirt.)

These lists always make me wish that I still got little stars on a "Book It!" button that I could take to Pizza Hut for a free little pizza.  Like in elementary school.  Remember?  Maybe I'll just go get a pizza anyway.  

Anyway, I'm always up for new reads so if you have any favorites from your year, hit up the comments section and let me know!  The 2015 reading year is just getting started. :o)

Science Fiction

1. Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
2. Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card

Fantasy

1. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling
2. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling
3. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling
4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K. Rowling
5. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J. K. Rowling
6. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J. K. Rowling
7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling
8. What Came From the Stars by Gary Schmidt

Historical Fiction

1. Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy by Gary Schmidt
2. The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt
3. Okay for Now by Gary Schmidt
4. Longbourn by Jo Baker

War Novel

1. Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien

Biography/Autobiography

1. Thomas Jefferson:  The Art of Power by Jon Meacham
2. CS Lewis- A Life:  Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet by Alister McGrath
3. Unbroken:  A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
4. Bossypants by Tina Fey
5. The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

Christian

1. The Attributes of God by A. W. Pink
2. A Shepherd's Look at Psalm 23 by Philip Keller
3. Unglued by Lisa Terkeurst
4. The Gospel-Centered Life  by Bob Thune and Will Walker 

An investment

Earlier this week I made an investment in my future children's literacy.  There are some children's books about Lebanon that I really like.  I spent the first part of the year moping around wishing I had kids so I could get them the books.   Then one day I asked myself why can't I buy them for my future kids?  Because I don't have any.  But I might.  But I don't yet and might not.  One day I decided to go for it and get the books anyway.  I'm sure I have many friends whose children will love the books if I never have any future children.  Of course, then I had the chilling thought that my future children might not want to read about Lebanon.  How weird would they be!?

The books are from a series called Lebanese Heritage Books by Youmna Medlej and Joumana Medlej.  They are printed separately in English, French, and Arabic, and each tells the story and history of a particular piece of Lebanese culture or geography.  I stumbled across one a few years ago while visiting Jeita Grotto, and I fell in love with it.  Imagine my delight when I learned there were 12 more of those books about many of Lebanon's other treasures.

For now I've just bought 9 of them.  I figured I read through those and then gauge if I want the others or if I will have room to get them home in my luggage!  If you are interested in getting them for your kiddos and don't live by a Lebanese bookstore for some odd reason, you can order a PDF copy as well.  The titles I bought are pictured here.  You can guess what I'll be reading for the next little bit...

How do I find my free books?

There are hundreds of free books on Amazon every day.  Many of them are 'promotions' pretending to be books, but there are also many authors who will discount their books for 1-2 days to increase their reviews and readership.

There's a great website, http://digitalbooktoday.com/, which filters downs all of these books, and maintains a list of the top 100 books that are free on Amazon everyday.  This is today's list.  There's always a lot of variety in there too.

I simply signed up for their daily email.

On days when I have some time, I click on the list and peruse interesting books on Amazon.  On days when I just don't have the time or energy, I just delete the email when it pops up in my inbox.  Easy breezy.

Today was one of the days that I did a little free shopping, and I 'bought' all of these books:

• Spirit Horses by Alan Evans
• The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap by Paulette Mahurin
• Why Leadership Sucks by Miles Anthony Smith
• The Village Idiot Reviews by Pete Sortwell
• The Bialy Pimps by Johnny B. Truant
• The Dirty Parts of the Bible-- A Novel by Sam Torode
• The Awkward Owl by Shawnda Blake
• The Gift by Dave Donovan
• Happiness Rehab:  8 Creative Steps to A More Joyful Life by Mary Schramski & Jennifer Archer
• Little Girl Gone by Brett Battles
• The Illegal Gardener by Sara Alexi
• Changes by Charles Colyott
• Chocolate for Breakfast by Martha Reynolds
• How to Be LESS Fat by James Dertian

As my mom's husband Mark always says, "Cheap is good, FREE is better!" (You have to say it with a loud booming voice for it to be the same.)

The Other Books I Read...

Yesterday I posted a book review for Catch Me If You Can, which is my favorite of the books I've read since November when my computer crashed.  I figured for the others I could just write a little snippet for ya.

Here we go:

Priceless:  How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures by Robert Wittman and John Stiffman

I read this to get over my post-Catch Me If You Can-blues.  It's the real-life memoirs of an FBI agent who recovered stolen art.  It has its slow parts, but overall it's really interesting, and it's fun to get to read about all of these different cases.  I also learned a lot about the FBI, and learned how little I know about art.

The Key to Living by Faith: Hebrews by Kay Arthur and Pete De Lacy

This is your basic, inductive Bible study guide that walks you through the book of Hebrews day-by-day.  I really liked it.  I recommend it if you're interested in Hebrews.  Good for self study or a group.  

Pro Bono: The 18-Year Defense of Caril Ann Fugate by Jeff McArthur

I got this book for free on Amazon, and oh. my. gosh.  I knew nothing about this.  It's about the aftermath and trial of murder spree that happened in Nebraska in 1959.  Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend (ex?) disappear for a couple of weeks and 11 people end up dead.  The mystery behind the murders now is whether or not Caril Ann was an accomplice or a hostage.  This book is written from the point of her lawyers' grandson/son working to prove her innocence.  Who knew!?  Apparently everyone but me...  Bruce Springsteen wrote an album about it; Steven King started writing because of it.  Peter Jackson made a movie about it...  And now I know about this tragic yet iconic piece of American history.  Good read if you like history and criminal/trial non-fiction.  

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas

This book is looooooooong. It's very detailed and exhaustive.  Once you're over the massive amounts of details, it's really interesting.  Bonhoeffer is an fascinating figure, and it's eye-opening to see Nazi German through the eyes of anti-sympathetic Christians.  Good read if you like history and Christian biographies.  Bonus:  I got to read about Bonhoeffer visiting Rome as I was flying in to Rome.  Awesome.  

A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 by W. Phillip Keller

I just really like this book.  I've read it before, and every time I read it I like it all over again.  It's a simple and compelling portrait of God's love for his people.  I highly recommend it if you're interested in learning about God's love.  Bonus:  you can easily buy it for less than $5 and sometimes as little as 99 cents.  

Love Is the Cure: On Life, Loss, and the End of AIDS by Elton John

Picked this up because it's written by Elton John, and of course I love Elton John.  Let's just say that most of what I learned about HIV and AIDS I learned in high school, and a lot about treatment and prevention education has changed since then.  It was really interesting to get Elton's bird's-eye-view of the AIDS pandemic, and catch on to his compelling argument that AIDS can actually be ending if approached in the right way, in his opinion:  with love and compassion. 

The Devil's Fire: A Pirate Adventure Novel by Matt Tomerlin

Got this for free from Amazon, and...  ehhhh, I didn't love it.  I love a good pirate story as much as the next girl, but this was was filled with gratuitous violence and other graphic scenes, so as good as some of the characters were, I won't bother to read the sequel.  If you like adventure novels and that kind of stuff doesn't bother you, then you'll probably like it.

Book Review: Catch Me If You Can

That's right.  Long before this was a movie, it was a book.  A very good book.

I started reading this book when I had shingles last October, but didn't finish because I was absorbed spending most of my bed-ridden days watching seasons of "Lie to Me."

I picked it back up again in November when my computer went kaput.  The first 25% or so was kind of slow, and I spent most of it thinking, "Well that is different than the movie."  Frank's dad isn't a sleaze in real life.  Frank started stealing to be able to fuel an addiction, of sorts.  Frank wasn't even an only child...  On and on, and then suddenly I couldn't put it down.  I love books like that.

I won't drop any more spoilers, but let me just say that the escapades recanted in the book are so so much more interesting and exhilarating than those in the movie.  It was fascinating.  There were several times I was like, "No way!  That'll never work," and it did.

A little bit through you start to have a fit of conscious that you're constantly cheering for the criminal, but you just can't help yourself.  Frank himself seems to acknowledge this tension, and a couple of times he remarks that he deserved the harsh things that happened to him more than the breaks he got (see the "Q&A with the Author" for his thoughts about prisons in France).

But on a scale of 1-10, I give this book a 10.  I loved it.  I highly recommend it.  If you read it, let me know so I can talk to you about it and we can "ooo" and "aaah" over it together.

I tried to buy a book in the same vein to satiate my hunger when I finished this one, and ended up coming across Priceless:  How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures by Robert K. Wittman and John Stiffman.  It was good, but more on that in my next post...

Catch Me If You Can:  The Real Story of a True Fake

by Frank Abignale, Jr. and Stan Redding

Chapters:

1. The Fledgling
2. The Pilot
3. Fly a Crooked Sky
4. If I'm a Kid Doctor, Where's My Jar of Lillipops?
5. A Law Degree Is Just and Illegal Technicality
6. PaperHanger in a Rolls-Royce
7. How To Tour Europe On a Felony A Day
8. A Small Crew Will Do-It's Just a Paper Airplane
9. Does This Tab Include the Tip?
10. Put Out an APB- Frank Abignale Has Escaped!
    Afterword and Q&A with the Author

Book Review- Night of the Living Dead Christian

So, you may be suprised to see a review for Night of the Living Dead Chrsitian by Matt Mikalatos on my blog, since it never managed to grace my "What I'm Reading Now" list to the left.  That's because I started it yesterday, and finished it today!  No time to pause and update a silly list.

Here's the trouble with reviewing a Mikalatos book.  Matt is so funny, and witty, and imaginative that for some reason when I try to explain what I like about his books, I can muster up none of the above.  I'm convinced that my review of his book My Imaginary Jesus must be one of the blandest, least inspired reviews I've ever written, despite the fact that I really wanted to say great things about it.  There's something about really witty people sometimes that can make you feel like you've never had an original thought in your life.

Instead of trying to go about this review in a comprehensive way, or a persuasive way, I'm just going to rattle of some things I do feel like I can say about Matt's books.

1. They're hard to put down, and they make you laugh.  I finished both of them in a couple of days.  I don't know if you consider "a fast read" a pro, but I think the qualifiers make it one.

2.  They whole time I'm reading them I'm amused, but I also have the feeling that somehow they are reading me a little, and might be about to tell me something about myself that I both don't want to admit but want desperately to have explained to me.  I think that's a real gift Matt.  Kudos to you.

3.  It's difficult to boil these books down to a maxim that can be easily acknowledged, embraced, and incorporated into life, or even behavior.  I couldn't walk away from My Imaginary Jesus, do a "find and replace" search of my life, and delete all imaginary Jesuses.  If only.  Instead, I am much more challenged to ask myself if the Jesus I'm relating to in any given moment is one of his own choosing, or if I am embellishing him in any way.  I must let the man speak for himself, for heaven's sake.  I suspect much of the same after putting down Night of the Living Dead Christian.  Not sure I can tell you just what I learned from it.  But I know it did say something to me, and we'll see what this is when I start to recognize some vampire or gargantuan tendencies pop up in my life.  Matt seems to recognize what Tozer knew when he said that sin can't be instructed out of our lives no more than leprosy can be instructed out of our system.  These books don't attempt to treat us, that is the job of the Physician.  Instead they, in a very fantastical way, open our eyes to reality, and entertain us too.

4.  I found a little bit of myself in all of the monsters listed in the "Are you a Monster?  A Layman's Self-Diagnosis Guide to Common Monstrosities" appendix in the back.  I wonder at all why anyone would let me lead anything, especially other people.  Surely this can only turn out good by the grace of God.

5.  I now have a special interest in the Portland/Vancouver (not Canada) area.  Being an east-coaster, not by choice, but by providence of birth, I've somehow managed to make it all the way to the middle east but never further west than Colorado.  I'm going to Portland next month for the first time.  That' right.  I'm coming to see you Mikalatos.  If I find the time, I hope to visit a communist cafe or have some resurrected ice cream while I'm there.  I'm also particularly interested in this large bookstore, although I don't know why, since soon I will be moving far away and unable to take 98% of my current possessions with me.

6.  Last but not least, thanks to Matt for avoiding the sacred/secular split, and letting me find some of what I like about Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter, mashed with my faith and my life's work and mission.  I hope for our sake that he spawns many more literary Matt Mikalatoses that will delight us and edify us at the same time.

Bam.  Reviewed.  I recommend it, with my only admonition being that you let yourself laugh while you read it (don't kill the experience by over-analyzing everything.  Enjoy).

Book Review- Judges: Such a Great Salvation

Judges: Such a Great Salvation by Dale Ralph Davis

Dale Ralph Davis’ commentary on Judges is lauded with such great reviews like, “The most practical expository work that this reviewer has ever encountered” (Southwester Journal of Theology) and, “An excellent… crisp, lively… exposition on Judges” (Bibliotheca Sacra). I too, was pleased as I found that Davis balanced careful observation of the text with accurate interpretation, and colorful application.

The commentary proves a great resource.  The book remains unswervingly true to the theocentric purpose of scripture, that is, to point us to God and his character. When I started this book a friend said, “All of his commentaries are really good. You should read them all.” I was a little surprised, because you don’t often hear of Old Testament commentaries as “must-reads.” Yet after my time with Judges, I find myself happily agreeing, and eager to see what Davis has to say about some other riches of the Old Testament.

On Reading the Bible in a Year, Part 2

So, I read the Bible in a year in chronological order, and as I look back, these  are a few of the things that stand out:

1

I've always gotten lost in the sea of names that is the first 7 or 8 books that are in the Bible. So, with some lunacy, I decided to write out every genealogy I came across, and write down every name. That's right. Ishban, Shuah, Jokshan in Genesis 25? Got 'em. Uzzi, Ahitub, and Zadok from 1 Chronicles 6? Got those too. The name of every person in the Pentateuch, 1 Samuel, and 1 Chronicles, and as far as I could tell, who they are related to and where they're from. At the time, this seemed like a good way to try to nail them all down. Fast forward a few months and almost an entire journal of just names, and most of them blended together. Was it worth it? Yes! It really did help me figure out who all of those people were, especially once I got into tribes. However, it was a ridiculously tedious undertaking. One big take-away: Each time I read the Bible through from here on out, I'm going to pick one big thing I want to understand better and absurdly commit to writing it all out. I think next time it's going to be geography. *Enter maps and atlases, stage left. 

2 

I'm trucking my way through the beginning of Genesis. La-ti-di. La-ti-da. And wham!

On Reading the Bible in a Year

Tomorrow is a big day for me.  On April 6th last year, I decided to read through the Bible in a year.  I had started such ventures before, but that night the weight of it laid heavily on me, so I picked a chronological Bible reading plan, and started.  Tomorrow is my 365th day in my Bible reading plan.  I'm so excited to finish!

To celebrate and reflect on "the great things God has done for my soul" (as Spurgeon puts it), I thought first writing about why reading through the Bible is worthwhile, but then I realized that Robert Murray McCheyne did it so much better than I can.

Review- My Imaginary Jesus

So last weekend I sat down and pounded through My Imaginary Jesus by Matt Mikalatos.  The book has gotten a lot of hype and praise for it's originality, humor, and depth, so I was excited to see what all of the fuss was about.

I loved it.  I laughed aloud all the way through it.  It was thought-provoking and refreshing!

Filled with imaginary Jesuses and violent escapades to expunge them, the book doesn't take itself seriously.  Mikalatos' journey rides straight to your heart on this humor, and there finds plenty of work to do.  Although fanciful, the book is firmly rooted in a gospel-portrayed Jesus, and the fallen nature of the human heart.  Props to the author (do people still say props?) for using narrative didactically.  No, that's not an oxymoron.

Having had the opportunity to hear Matt speak a couple of times, (let's just say we're on a first name basis Matt.  You re-tweeted me once.  That counts, right?), I've always appreciated his authenticity and simplicity.  He has a way of retelling gospel stories I've heard dozens of times, but making them alive and real like I was there.

Plus, the book is funny.  And laughter is good for you. "Good grief, someone stole my talking donkey."  I highly recommend it, especially because there's nothing else like it out there.  I'm excited to get through his next book, Night of the Living Dead Christian.  I'll let you know how it goes...

Book Review -Empire-

Emmm... it was okay.

Empire, by Orson Scott Card, envisions a civil war that could come to be if the political left and right become increasingly pugnacious (a blanket summary).  It actually started really well, but the second half found the reader further entrenched in a tension that was oversimplified.  Human motivation and reaction also seemed to be grossly oversimplifed to make the plot possible.  It lost it's appeal toward the end, and it concluded with a huge cliffhanger, which means I have to decide if I want to read the sequel (Hidden Empire)  to finish the the plot line.  As of now, I think I'm not going to bother with a sequel.

I feel like this isn't a great review, which is kind of sad because I started out loving this book!  I think it just got too heady in the end, a sentiment I also felt about Card's work toward the end of the Ender branch of the Enderverse.  I love his characters, his plots, and how intelligence is a note always played in his books.  I don't regret reading it and it had its exciting parts.  Unless I become compelled to read the sequel though, I probably won't think about it much again.

Review -The God Conversation-

I am a life-long evangelism learner.  I've discovered that if you want to have a life of evangelism, you have to commit to growing in it always; there's never a plateau that you hit where you can coast from there on out.  (Here I am talking about life-long things, and I'm only 27.  Bear with me now.)

Over the years I've read a lot of books and tried out a lot of resources.  I'll give you a great summary of everything I've learned:  the gospel is simple, God does the heavy lifting, and the Spirit is what you need to rely on when sharing the gospel.  [It's actually  not as much about you as you would think.]

Even so, I've never regretted any time or energy I've put into sharpening myself in evangelism.  This pursuit brought me to the threshold of a recent great read, The God Conversation, by J.P. Moreland and Tim Muehlhoff.


The God Conversation is broken into 5 topics, with 2 chapters on each topic.  The  meat of the book is illustrations you can use to help you explain your faith better.  In my own experience, illustrations like these always help me think about my faith better too.

I found the whole book to be very usable.  The stand-out chapters for me were the 2 on the exclusivity of Christ ("Jesus, Buddha, or Muhammad" Part I and II).  If you read this book and get to these chapters, keep your eyes peeled for the Maze illustration and the buffet illustration.  To me, these 2 were especially excellent, memorable, and beneficial.

In the spirit of full disclosure, only once did the book furrow my brow.  It spoke very strongly to the issue of an 'age of accountability,' which is something I haven't found to be that black-and-white of an issue.  I'm no theologian, so don't ask me to clarify this issue for you.  I just felt that its vehemence was a little tangential, and weakened what otherwise might have been a very helpful book that tread solidly in the grounds of conviction-level Christianity.  I still highly recommend the read, but what good are these reviews if I'm too shy to say what I don't like?

Anyway, if you want to grasp some new ways to frame your faith, in your own head or to others, this is a great resource.  Thanks Moreland and Muehlhoff for the legwork, energy, and editing that must have went into a book of this nature.

Chapters

1.  The Power of Illustrations
2.  Can God Be Good If Terrorists Exist?
3.  Can God Be Good If Terrorists Exist? (Part II)
4.  Jesus, Buddha, or Muhammad?
5.  Jesus, Buddha, or Muhammad? (Part II)
6.  The Resurrection: Conspiracy Theory or Fact?
7.  The Resurrection: Conspiracy Theory or Fact? (Part II)
8.  What Would Machiavelli Do?
9.  What Would Machiavelli Do? (Part II)
10.  Are We An Accident?
11.  Are We An Accident? (Part II)

Final Thought:  The Dangers of Agenda Anxiety

Ten on Tuesdays: 10 Pieces of Superman Trivia

Last night I watched the 1978 "Superman," which got me in a Superman kind of mood.  So today's Ten on Tuesday is all about the big man in blue.

1.  Kal-el, Superman's name from planet Krypton,  is Hebrew.  (Creators Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel were both Jewish.  Siegel named all of the characters.)  The exact meaning is debatable, but it can be read as "Son of God" (that makes Jor-El, his father, "Father God"), or "Strength of God," or "Star Child."  No matter the interpretation, Sielgel intended messianic symbolism in his name.

2.  In the original 1939 comics, Superman couldn't fly, but could only 'leap tall buildings in a single bound,' or more specifically, up to 1/8 of a mile.  (see strip to the left)

3.  In the DC universe, Clark Kent officially tied the knot with Lois Lane in 1997.  In the future though, after Lois dies and Superman doesn't age, he eventually ends up with Wonder Woman. (boo.)

4.  There is a comic trilogy called Superman: Red Son that examines what it might be like if Superman landed in Russia instead of the US.

5.  Metropolis, the city Superman calls home, has come to be representative of NYC.  Frank Miller (a Batman author) has said that "Metropolis is New York in the daytime; Gotham City is New York at night."

6.  In the DC universe, Superman gives Batman a piece of Kryptonite to take him out in case he ever gets out of control.

7.  While green Kryptonite makes Superman weak and can be lethal, red Kryptonite has a variety of effects on him (i.e. intensifying his powers, making him apathetic, etc.).

8.  Many actors and actresses closely associated with the Superman character have met tragic fates.  This has led to the conception of the "Superman Curse" (another post for another day). 

9.  In "The Death and Return of Superman" DC storyline, villian Doomsday actually kills Superman, but he is soon resurrected.

10.  The phrase the "never ending battle for truth, justice, and the American way" was originally just the "never ending battle for truth and justice."  "The American Way" was added during WWII, then dropped, and then added again.  (And now dropped again it seems.)

I'm not a big comic book person, but I grew up watching and reading all of the Superman I could get my hands on.  He's a great character, with a great supporting cast, and his storylines regularly examine timeless questions of humanity, love, good and evil, morals, and identity.

P.S.- Don't forget to vote in the poll at the top left for which book I should read and review next.

Help Me Pick What to Read Next

So, I'm almost to the end of The God Conversation, and I have a couple of ideas for what I want to read next, but I could use some help deciding...

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to vote in the poll to the left.  As an added bonus, I promise to do a review of whatever you pick.  You have 1 week.

The options:

A Shakespeare Play I've Never Read Before:  "A Comedy of Errors"

Over the next couple of years I want to read all of Shakespeare's plays that I haven't gotten to yet, and this seems like a good place to start.  This farce covers the fallout of mistaken identities when 2 sets of identical twins are separated at birth (or at least that's what I'm told).

Nectar in a Sieve, by Kamala Markandaya

I read this book in college and really enjoyed it.  I've been thinking I would like to read it again, seeing as how it's becoming a fuzzy memory.  Roughly speaking, it's the story of an Indian woman and her family as they cope with the urbanization of their village.  After reading this the first time, I remember thinking that I understood hunger in a way I never had before.

Ten on Tuesdays: My Shakespeare Plays

This is the Twelfth Night of my blog (seriously!), and I want to be a Passionate Pilgrim and really try to do 30 posts in 30 days.  Ironically, it's been a Comedy of Errors, and I don't want today to be Love's Labour Lost, so I'm going to give this "Ten on Tuesdays" things a stab.

What would be a quick, easy Top Ten for me?  As I look to the shelf to my left, I see my collection so Shakespeare's works.  I don't want to make Much Ado About Nothing, so I'm going to let you Take this as You Like It:  my Top 10 Shakespeare plays.

1. "King Henry IV, part 2"*
2. "King Henry IV, part 1"*
3. "King Henry V"*
4. "King Richard III"*
5. "King Lear"
6. "Julius Caesar"
7. "Romeo and Juliet"
8. "The Taming of the Shrew"
9. "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark"
10. "The Tempest"

To be fair, it's hard for me to Measure for Measure because I haven't read them all.  But all of you Merry Wives (of Windsor) reading my blog out there, don't get all in a Tempest.  This isn't a Lover's Complaint.  Maybe I'll work on rounding this out over the next couple of years...

I wish I were off to a Midsummer Night's Dream, but unfortunately this is more of a Winter's Tale.  I'm going to go to bed now, or there might need to be some Taming of the Shrew at 6am prayer with 2 Gentlemen from Verona, err, I mean people from my church.   Oh well, All's Well that End's Well.

*These plays form a collection called the Henriad that tells a consecutive story.  The Henriad is my favorite of all of Shakespeare's work, so those four as a collection really made my top four, more than as individual plays.  

Review -The Prodigal God-

I just finished The Prodigal God by Tim Keller.  It's a hard book to review mostly because it speaks so well for itself, that it's difficult to know what to say about it.

If you are looking for a simple, compelling picture of the heart of the Christian faith, this is it.  The book re-looks at the parable of the prodigal son.   Instead of focusing only the younger brother, it looks at each character through his relationship with the father.

Keller demonstrates how both waywardness and self-righteousness can separate us from the love of God; both are equally fallen.  He argues that the wayward come to repentance more easily than the self-righteous, or the "older brother."  This is evident in the ministry of Christ himself, and he responded with "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance."  (Luke 5:31-32, ESV).

Some of the most refreshing parts of the book are his focus on the older brother.  Keller does a good job fleshing out how his pride distances him from the Father just as much as his younger brother's rebellion.  In the chapter on "The True Older Brother," he tells of how the older brother ought to have went after his younger brother, even at his own expense.  Yet his anger at his father's mercy reveals his heart:  "Elder brothers obey God to get things. They don't obey God to get himself" (49).  Sin is redefined:  "The elder brother is not losing the father's love in spite of his goodness, but because of it" (40).  Keller warns, this "'elder-brother lostness'... "brings as much misery and strife into the world as the other kind" (56).

In the end, "pride in this good deeds, rather than remorse over his bad deeds, was keeping the older son out of the feast of salvation" (86).  What an important application of the gospel.  Strong ethics and morals are not the goal nor the prize of religious life.  God is our focus.  How lucky are we, that Jesus "is not a Pharisee about Pharisees...  He loves not only the wild-living, free-spirited people, but also hardened religious people" (84).

The book is also a series of sermons, and I think often reads more like a sermon than a book (sometimes that bothers me, but it may not bother you).  You can find the sermons here if you would like to give them a listen.

The themes of this book are something every believer should know, so if any of this is new to you (or just a much-welcomed refresher), then I recommend it.  It's not unique in that you can't get this anywhere else, but it is a high-quality, compelling picture of the gospel and the love of Christ.

Chapters:
1.  The People Around Jesus
2.  The Two Lost Sons
3.  Redefining Sin
4.  Redefining Lostness
5.  The True Elder Brother
6.  Redefining Hope
7.  The Feast of the Father

Keller, Tim.  The Prodigal God. New York, NY:  Penguin Group, 2008. Print.

Books in 2011

In the spirit of my friend Michelle, (MomentsWithMichelle) I decided to post a list of the books I read in 2011 (as well as I can remember).  After summing it all up, I realized I'm not reading some of the things I love the most.  In 2012 I might aim to read more plays, more Dickens, and maybe less Science Fiction. Well, maybe.


Science Fiction

1. Ender's Game- Orson Scott Card
2. Ender's Shadow- Orson Scott Card
3. Speaker for the Dead- Orson Scott Card
4. Xenocide- Orson Scott Card
5. Children of the Mind- Orson Scott Card
6. Shadow of the Hegemon- Orson Scott Card
7. Shadow Puppets- Orson Scott Card
8. Shadow of the Giant- Orson Scott Card
9. A War of Gifts- Orson Scott Card

Mash Books

1. Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter- Seth Grahame-Smith
2. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies- Seth Grahame Smith

Adventure

1. Pirate Latitudes- Michael Chrichton
2. Zorro- Isabelle Allende

Christian

1. Generous Justice- Tim Keller
2. Radical- David Platt
3. The Old Testament of the Bible
4. In This Generation- Todd Ahrend
5. Questioning Evangelism- Randy Newman
6. Corner Conversations- Randy Newman
7. Instruments in the Redeemers Hands- Paul David Tripp
8. Heaven- Randy Alcorn
9. The Great Divorce- C.S. Lewis

Suspense/Drama/Crime

1. The Lincoln Lawyer- Michael Connelly
2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo- Stieg Larsson

Personal Narrative

1. Walking the Bible- Bruce Fieler

Classic Fiction

1. Pride and Prejudice- Jane Austen

Why Did I Start a Blog?

Good question.  Not really sure.  It's a combination of an impulse to share my thoughts about books I'm reading and a late-night high that comes from seeing "Beauty and the Beast" in 3D at 9:30pm with my roommate Lindsay.

To avoid one of those awkward, predictable "I finally started a blog!" posts, I'm going to write about the Enderverse instead.

"What is the Enderverse?" you might be wondering.  The Enderverse started with Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card.  In Ender's Game, genius children all attend Battle School, where they learn to fight as commanders against a threatening alien invasion.  Card then wrote a companion book, Ender's Shadow and an onslaught of subsequent books and short stories that take place over the following thousands of years.

A Chart of the Enderverse Stories.
Novels in Blue.  Short Stories in Red.
Thank you Wikipedia. 

Why is the Enderverse on my mind these days? Well, in case you haven't heard, Ender's Game is finally being made into a movie (complete with Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley, and Asa Butterfield)!  After years and years of contract negotiations and teases, an appropriate age for the children actors was finally agreed upon.  In celebration of this feat, I've been re-reading Ender's Game.  Hopefully Summit won't try too hard to follow the smell of money toward the Twilight Saga, and will do the Enderverse justice.

Ender's Game Movie

My hope is that next year when the film is released, I can run around chatting about it incessantly the way people are now about Hunger Games.  No, I haven't read them yet.  Yes, I might.  I'm sure I will love them if  I do.  But watch yo'self, because in 2013, it's all going to be about Wiggins, Buggers, and Battle School.

The enemy's gate is down my friends.