Jeremy Lukens
This is a well-told story about Sophie and the man who loves her from afar: her on-again, off-again boyfriend Charlie. Through the differing perspectives, Christopher Beha explores the purpose of art, the struggle to transition from college student to adult and meet the expectations of others, the way we romanticize other people and lifestyles, and the way Catholicism can simultaneously save while making someone feel damned.
That's a lot packed into a relatively short novel, but Beha does it well, delving into the themes without lingering on them too long or beating the reader over the head with them. It's a story driven by character more than plot, so it's only as good as its characters. While the supporting characters are rather flat, the characters of Sophie, Charlie, and a third character I won't name (spoiler) are compelling enough to make this a good read.
The book is exactly as advertised. It's a collection of Jerry Seinfeld's jokes from all of his notebooks, every joke he had written down somewhere. It's not much else. There are a couple small sections where he writes about his career, but for the most part it's just Jerry's jokes.
So you already know whether you think the book is funny. If you think Jerry's jokes are funny, it is. If you don't, it's not.
It's definitely not as funny reading Jerry's jokes as listening to him tell them. Jerry even admits that in the book, saying that the very book you're reading is not a good way to experience stand-up comedy.
But it's very interesting from a joke construction viewpoint. If you're interested in the craft of comedy, it's fascinating seeing how he crafts his jokes. In written form, you have the ability to slow down and look at exactly what he did with each bit to make it work (or in some cases, why it didn't work). So if you're into the art of comedy, it's worth reading for that.
This was one of the most hyped books of 2020, including winning the Goodreads Choice Award for horror, so I decided to give it a try.
Moreno-Garcia does a great job of creating an oppressive, gloomy atmosphere. The characters feel doomed, the situation hopeless. She also does a good job of creating mystery, as the protagonist tries to figure out what's going on and how to get out of a situation that seems hopeless. Once everything comes together, it's a satisfying explanation for the weirdness going on and the conclusion was well earned. Everything in the story was naturally leading to that point, even if you can only see it in hindsight.
So in terms of atmosphere and general story, Moreno-Garcia's writing is excellent. Unfortunately, her dialogue is bad. It's overly formal, clunky, and just doesn't feel natural, even given the setting of the book. That takes you out of the story as a reader – there were times where I actually corrected the dialog in my head to make the scene work better.
The other problem is the lack of scares. There's tension throughout, but no moments that are actually scary. I think the nightmare sequences are supposed to provide that, but they don't work. At least not for me.
The story deals a lot with eugenics and with the culture clash in Mexico between the mestizos and those with so-called “pure European blood.” It also explores the clash between new, modern culture and tradition. Characters do unspeakably terrible things all because “that's how we've always done it.” And characters are literally haunted by things that were done by their family in the past.
I love those aspects of the story. This would be a four or five-star review if only it had better dialogue or if it was scary.
One book critic said that Lindqvist is “Scandanavia's answer to Stephen King.” I'd say that's true. His writing is a lot like King's, for better or worse.
The bad: The book is overly long and poorly paced. It takes way too long for any major plot progression and way too long for the two protagonists/villains to meet each other. The prose is also a bit sloppy, with plenty of cliches and lazy descriptions (though maybe that's the fault of the translation).
The good: The characters of Theres and Theresa are horrifying. While the book isn't scary per se, their characters are frightening, in part because they're so evil and in part because Lindqvist did a great job of making you believe how they could become that way.
The book is shocking in many ways, not just in the scenes of brutal violence but also in scenes of bullying, online interactions, the way Theresa pulls away from her friends and family as she slowly becomes more sociopathic.
The book is told from many points of view, but the scenes of violence are normally told from the POV of the perpetrator of the violence. That means we're deprived of one kind of suspense and tension (fearing for the victim and hoping they can escape) and instead are given a different kind (horrified by how depraved and evil the children are).
That's why I say it's not a “scary” book. But it is an interesting one. And in the creepy-children subgenre of horror, children don't get much creepier than this.
This is two books in one. It's a book of apologetics where Qureshi lays out the cases for belief in Christianity and Islam, showing why and how he came to change his beliefs. It is also a memoir of Qureshi's life, as a young Pakistani Muslim boy growing up in the West, the culture clashes he faced, and the emotional struggles he underwent as he went through the process of rethinking his faith.
Similar to Josh McDowell and Lee Strobel, Qureshi set out to disprove Christianity. Unlike those two, however, for Qureshi, this was deeply personal. He didn't just want to win an argument. He wanted to show his Christian friends the proper way to worship God, he wanted to honor his family, and most importantly, he wanted to be sure about the state of his own soul.
Because it's too kinds of books in one, it isn't quite as strong in either as it would have been if he had picked one. The apologetics are more thorough and convincing in his later book, “No God But One: Allah or Jesus.” And the memoir about his life and struggles with faith would have been more powerful if not interrupted by long debate scenes.
Even so, this is a powerful book and a must read for anyone interested in the topic. The last few chapters had me repeatedly alternating between tears of joy and tears of sadness, so that's pretty impressive writing.
This book is intended for church leaders new to digital ministry or who want to get started. Neither applies to me so I'm not really the target audience.
There is some good material to convince churches to take digital ministry seriously, as well as explaining that digital ministry means real discipleship, not just promotion and broadcasting media. Once Jones gets into details about Facebook Groups, there is a lot of good tips on engaging well.
This is definitely a good book for the target audience, but there wasn't a whole lot for me.
This book is intended for church leaders new to digital ministry or who want to get started. Neither applies to me so I'm not really the target audience.
There is some good material to convince churches to take digital ministry seriously, as well as explaining that digital ministry means real discipleship, not just promotion and broadcasting media. Once Jones gets into details about Facebook Groups, there is a lot of good tips on engaging well.
This is definitely a good book for the target audience, but there wasn't a whole lot for me.
This is a powerful tale of guilt, moral corruption, and pity full of complex characters that are usually not what they seem at first. Major Scobie has just been passed over as police commissioner in an unnamed West African colony, despite being perhaps the only officer without a hint of corruption. Though Scobie himself doesn't seem to care that much about the position, his wife does. Assuming everyone in town must be talking about his failure, she wants to leave town, even though it means abandoning her husband until his retirement. Scobie pities her and comes up with the money for her travel, even though it means borrowing from a smuggler.
That decision leads Scobie on a path of destruction, with that one moral compromise leading to extortion, infidelity, and the death of loved ones. Scobie bases most of his decisions on a sense of duty to someone else, or a pity for them, but doesn't seem to love anyone, including himself. He fears God, but ends up defying Him again and again, refusing to repent because he doesn't want to hurt his mistress. It is a story of failure, Scobie's failed marriage, his inability to break off his affair, his unwillingness to turn from his sins.
It's not my favorite Graham Greene novel; I prefer “The End of the Affair” and “The Power and the Glory,” but it's still a phenomenal story.
Though she mostly writes short fiction, Lorrie Moore is one of the greatest living writers I've come across. This might be her best work, though I'm also partial to “Anagrams.”
Like the rest of Moore's work, you'll find quirky characters, a sharp wit, and excellent prose. Tassie is an endearing character even though she is awkward, introverted, and often says the wrong thing. Actually, that's part of her charm.
The novel hits on a number of hot-button topics, including racism, mortality, government bureaucracy, and adoption, but because Tassie is so innocent and charming, seeing these issues through her eyes allows the novel to explore those topics without getting too dark or pedantic.
Some people find Moore's writing a bit pretentious, but this is way more grounded than something like “Anagrams.” Moore's strength is in creating characters we want to spend time with and describing the mundane in ways that instill a sense of beauty. At times heartbreaking, at other times hilarious, I recommend this to anyone who is into character-based fiction or appreciates artistic prose.
“Wait, that's the end? That's how he ended this?” – Me, after every book in this series
VanderMeer has excellent prose and is great at creating unsettling atmospheres and an aura of mystery. He is not so good at character development or delivering payoffs. Like the rest of the trilogy, this is an enjoyable read but a little disappointing, in part because it was anticlimactic. The resolution, if there was one, kind of came abruptly and without explanation. And like the rest of the series, this is a slow burn that slowly and subtly builds tension, which is fine, but the tension never builds to a proper payoff.
Great for its atmosphere and prose, but with a plot and characters that were underdeveloped.
I'm generally not a fan of sequels. In fact, I tend to avoid any books that pare part of a series. But this is a sequel done right. It seems that VanderMeer planned this story as a trilogy. This book builds upon the world that “Annihilation” created without repeating any plot points. Whereas “Annihilation” was an expedition into the unknown Area X, “Authority” is the story of those on the outside, the scientists and bureaucrats trying to solve the mystery from their perspective. While not as creepy as “Annihilation” (though the creepiness gets ratcheted up toward the end), this is an engaging story that tackles the same themes from a completely different perspective. Definitely worth a read if you liked “Annihilation.”
As a writer, every time I read Marilynne Robinson, I am equal parts inspired and discouraged, because her prose and character development are so amazing and I'll never be that good. Most will never be that good.
“Housekeeping” is an expertly crafted tale of abandonment, isolation, and transience. It is captivating but something you'll want to read slowly to savor every word, phrase, and description.
“Our planning for the future often depends on an approach we learned in childhood. We draw a straight line from today to next year and prepare for the future based on our recent experiences, best guesses, and current gut feelings,” write Nicholas Skytland and Alicia Llewellyn. “The problem with this is that the potential of this approach is limited by what we currently know and have personally experienced. We don't make room for the unknown and unfamiliar.”
In What Comes Next: Shaping the Future in an Ever-Changing World, Skytland and Llewellyn lay out a better strategy for planning for that uncertain future, viewing the world as though looking through a kaleidoscope, creating controlled sections of the uncertain chaos. In the book, they present what they call the Futures Framework, a framework that uses the Four Forces of purpose, people, place, and technology, as well as the areas where those forces intersect, to plan out a set of potential futures.
Designed for Christian leaders in ministry, church, or nonprofit vocation, What Comes Next is a quick and easy read. It tackles a lot of complex topics without getting bogged down into technical jargon or overly academic writing. The book is meant to be put into action, part theoretical and part workbook, each chapter including a lot of reflection questions and ending with action steps. The book is designed to guide you through your own future planning, for you to apply concepts as you read them, finishing the book with an actionable plan.
With a separate chapter for each of the eight intersections of the Four Forces, Skytland and Llewellyn give enough detail in each part of framework for leaders to take action — dreaming up possible futures, laying out pathways, creating action steps – without getting too bogged down into details.
While working at NASA, Skytland and Llewellyn had a lot of experience designing “paper rockets” — plans that were visionary, affordable, and doable but still were never implemented, instead being placed on a dusty shelf in an office building. “The reason that many grand visions never turn into anything other than gravitationally challenged paper studies isn't that the idea itself was flawed, but because the will to implement the vision wasn't there,” they write. “It's not enough to have a great idea. You have to actually launch it.” What Comes Next is intended to help Christian leaders not only come up with the right ideas based on futures thinking, but also to help them launch those ideas.
Most leaders have become disillusioned with the traditional planning and budgeting process, knowing that the system doesn't work because they're not accounting for an uncertain future. For anyone who wants to take an educated, systematic look at their future to more accurately plan for what's ahead, What Comes Next is a must-read.
In lesser hands, there are so many ways this story can go wrong. This bleak fictionalized story about the life of Varina Davis is powerful and thought-provoking, as V deals with the sins of her past as well as the sins of the nation that she helped perpetuate. People often talk about being on the “wrong side of history.” This is the story of such a person, told critically but fairly by a master storyteller.
Michael Shellenberger is a lifelong environmentalist, IPCC contributor, and was co-creator of the Global Apollo Program (the precursor to the Green New Deal). So his green credentials are impeccable.
In this book, he lays out the case for “environmental humanism,” showing that we don't have to choose between economic prosperity and protecting the environment. We can do both.
Environmental alarmism (especially about climate change), he argues, exaggerates the problems and offers solutions that fail to solve the problem, sometimes actually making things worse. It is only by taking a step back from the apocalyptic rhetoric and looking at the actual science that we can see common sense ways to improve our environment, protect our natural world, and still enjoy the benefits of a thriving industrialized society.
This is an amazing book that really opened my eyes and showed that I, like most people, had a lot of these issues dead wrong. It's a fast read that is incredibly informative and surprisingly optimistic. A must-read for anyone interested in environmental issues.
An expertly crafted novella where James makes you put in a good deal of work to figure out what exactly is going on, but is highly rewarding. It is the story's ambiguity – most the the scenes can be interpreted in more than one way – that makes it so powerful. Read it slowly and take the time to let your imagination run wild.
