Adam Shields

Another review after a year: I have been reading or re-reading books on sex because I am helping to lead a small group of newly married couples and we have been discussing sex. I appreciated this book even more now that I have read a few more recently. On a second reading I understood more of the underlying theology, especially the references to Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body. I have picked up a book to read that is directly about that and look forward to reading more. Honestly, with the weaknesses of this book, it is still the best book on a real understanding of Christian sexuality that I have found.

My full thoughts on a second reading at http://bookwi.se/sex-lies-and-religion-by-randy-elrod-read-again/
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Full review at http://bookwi.se/sex-lies-and-religion-by-randy-elrod/

Short review: This is a good addition to the theology of sexuality. The only other book to really compare it to is Rob Bell's Sex God. And that was more about sensuality than sexuality. This book is about sexuality. It is not a perfect book. I wanted more history of christian thought on sexuality. But I would still recommend it. It is a brief read.

Summary: An essay about racial conflict, the police, and the two worlds that Black police have to confront. 

I do not remember ever having read anything by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. I knew that he was an author and had written a middle-grade series and a mystery series, but I have not previously read those. I picked this up because Alan Jacobs, one of my favorite essayists, recommended it. And because it was available to borrow for kindle and audiobook in the Kindle Unlimited library.

I know broadly who Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is, but I am not a sports fan. I know he was retired. But I had to look him up on Wikipedia to know he is 74 and played in the NBA from 1969 until 1989. I knew he played for the Lakers but didn't know he was a coach for over a decade after retiring as a player. I didn't know he grew up in NYC. I didn't know his father was a cop. I also didn't know that he has a number of non-fiction books primarily on Black history or memoir.

This essay is enough to convince me that I need to read more of his writing. One of the reasons that I think I have not picked his books up previously is that he frequently collaborates in his writing. Most books have coauthors. This essay does not.

The essay is roughly forty pages and 64 minutes in audio. He grapples with the problems of racism within policing and the difficult but important position that Black cops play. The pressure that Black cops have to not push back against racism or corruption in policing and the distrust that Black cops often have from the broader Black community. His relationship with his father was one where his father did not speak a lot. And so he explores that, as well as his attempts to honor his father's memory through his own work for justice and in his writing. This type of long-form, somewhat meandering essay, is a style I really like. If you have a kindle or listen to audiobooks, it is cheap or free and worth reading/listening to.

Black Cop's Kid: An Essay by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook

I only got through about 30 percent of this before it was due back at the library. Seemed ok, but had not really fully gotten into the main story line yet. I will probably pick it up later.

This was okay. I ready about half of it when my Kindle Unlimited subscription ended. I think there was some very helpful things here, but also a bit of minutia that was probably less helpful. Cutting 50 or so pages probably would have made it a better book.

Book Review: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman - The greatest writer of modern fairy tales writes again. The unnamed boy of the story meets the Hempstock women. And unintentionally unleashes a dark power which has to be put back or the world will be destroyed. Very good story.

Click through for my full review on my blog http://bookwi.se/the-ocean-at-the-end-of-the-lane-by-neil-gaiman/

Here is my second review http://bookwi.se/ocean-at-the-end-of-the-lane-2/

I drop it a star as well. I still like the book, but not as much the second time.

Book Review: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow – whether you are obsessed with the Hamilton Musical or not, this is an excellent biography of one of the essential founding fathers. Hamilton really is a fascinating character with so much internal drive and self induced failures and blind spots. It is a story of greatness with the reasons for humility built in.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/alexander-hamilton-ron-chernow/

Summary: After almost two weeks of reading, my children watched the 2005 movie last night. 

I have looked forward to my children being old enough that I started liking the books I was reading to them. Many of the books I read are still very young (my son just turned five, and my daughter is 16 months older.) In many ways, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe is still too old for them. But I do think that this is one of the books that you do not need to understand every little bit to enjoy the book. We discussed it as we went on. I occasionally used different words when I was reading to if I knew they wouldn't understand it. And they were still introduced to a lot of new vocabulary.

I do not know anything to say about the book other than when I read as an adult it is hard to believe that leaving the Beaver's house is not until the 10th of 17 chapters (50% of the way through the book) and the children don't meet Aslan until the 12th chapter (65% of the way through the book).

Movies are a good way to conclude reading a book. It gives a different type of visualization, and I like talking to kids about what is different and how stories work. (No, I don't think they get most of that, but I talk about it anyway.) I think this was only the second or maybe the third time I have watched the 2005 movie. That version of the film is 140 minutes, which is long for a kid's movie. My five year old checked out several times and was not paying full attention. And while the film is reasonably faithful, there is always those decisions that I just do not understand. One minor example is at the end of the movie after Lucy uses her magic elixir to heal Edmond; in the book, Lucy is reluctant to leave Edmond until he is fully well. But Aslan talks to her about duty and the importance of all of the others that are also injured besides her brother. She understands and does her duty (what is portrayed as hours of work). In the movie, Edmond is fully healed, there are hugs and then Aslan looks at her and she goes to do the work which is not shown.

Changing from it being a topic of duty to her idea, changes the scene. The basic story is not changed, but it alters the point by making Lucy the originator of the plan to heal. And at the same time reduces the actual work so it minimizes what the duty would have been as well as the work that the kids can do. I am not looking for a shot by shot recreation of the book. But I do like keeping some of the nuances of how the story is told even if it is missing some of the details. You cannot even in a fairly long movie match the detail of even a short kid's book like this.

We did not listen to the audiobooks, but if you are a fan of audiobooks and you are a member of Audible and purchase books with credits, there is a new ‘box set' of the Chronicles of Narnia that includes all seven books for a single credit. That is very good deal since you can get all for the same price as you can get any single one. The only negative of this is that the audio is not synced to the text this way, so you or your child cannot follow along with the text in the book.

Not bad but I kept getting distracted with other things. So I will come back later

I had to return this to the library and 35% of the way, this wasn't engaging enough to want to check it out again.

Press here I think is the best of the trilogy of books that I have read by Tullet. The child physically touches the book and as the pages change things happen. I have read this a ton with my kids and they are always enchanted. I think it is probably just a little long for the target age and I think the next two books are not quite as good, but they are still worth reading.

This was good, I will return to it eventually

A friend gave this to us as a baby present for our son. He is too young, but I read/sing this almost every night with my daughter. Love both the book and illustrations and the song. I would love to seen more good songs turned into books like this. (If anyone knows of some let me know.)

I want to love this book more than I do.

The art is great. The story to accompany the prayer visually is good. But I am not sure that the story really matches the concept of the Lord's Prayer as well as it should.

Short Review: Set between the last two chapters of Ender's Game, Ender in Exile feels more like a collection of shorts stories than a coherent novel. But it is a good collection of stories. This is not an action oriented Ender story but an idea oriented Ender story. And it is very heavily oriented toward Card's obsession with having children and passing on genes and creating meaning in life through family. On the whole it is a good, but not great read.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/ender-in-exile/

I finally gave up on this. It is one of the worst kindle conversions that I have read. I have just read the first chapter (a long introductory chapter on Barth before getting to Barth's own writing.) But this chapter had at least one typo on virtually every page. Most pages had several. I am not a good copy editor, but if I can read and submitted somewhere between 50 and 100 corrections to the kindle edition on a book that has been out for a while, then either no one is reading it, or no one at the company is paying attention.

I picked it up on sale last year. But I have a hard time recommending it even though I think it is pretty good content. It is just annoying to have to work through what the text is supposed to mean several times a page.

I honestly was more than a little frustrated with this book. I probably would get more out of it if I finished it. But I am not ready to give it more time right now. Maybe I will come back to it later.

Book Review: Silence by Shusaku Endo - historic novel about the 17th century persecution of Christianity in Japan and a meditation about the Silence of God - A perfect book to read on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. This is a deeply morally ambiguous novel. It properly de-romanticizes persecution and martyrdom and at the same time explores the role of Judas as a model (not sure that is the right word) for us all. This is a book well worth reading, but I can understand why many are hostile or ambulant about its message.

The full review is at http://bookwi.se/silence-by-shusaku-endo/

Second review http://bookwi.se/silence-by-shusaku-endo-2/

This is my second reading of Practice Resurrection. I have generally the same impression as the first time, that this is a great book about what it means to become mature in Christ and why the local church has to be a part of that. I think this is an important book for local church leaders to read about maturity and I think this is a book that counters the idea among some Christians that the focus of Christianity is on the salvation event. Christianity is not about an event, but about practicing to become more like Christ. Just like playing an instrument or doing anything else well, if we want to become better at it, we must practice. If we want to be more like Christ, we have to practice being like Christ.

This is also a long reflection on the book of Ephesians. I appreciate that Peterson grounds pretty much all of his book on a particular piece of scripture. While he moves around it is the book of Ephesians that is the heart.


My first Full review on my blog at http://bookwi.se/practice_resurrection/
My second reading review is at http://bookwi.se/practice-resurrection/

I really like books that can be sung. Kids remember them and there is something to the story that is beyond the words on the page. The other one that is similar is What a Wonderful World that is a representation of the song made famous by Louis Armstrong.

My 3 year old loves the book although mostly now he just wants to sing it throughout the day and not read it at night. I think the main target is about 2 years old.