Drew's #26 -- Two Graves by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

 

Ho Hum.  A disappointing climax to an otherwise interesting trilogy beginning with Fever Dream (by the same authors).  The series itself begins with the book Relic, which was made into a pretty awful movie starring Tom Schizemore some years ago; a shame as the story was pretty good.  Anyhow the series follows an affluent but mysterious FBI agent  named Pendergast (you actually don't find out much about him, including his first name, until several books into the series) strangely engaged in only the more macabre cases.  He moves through a handful of partners but returns primarily to a NYPD detective who accompanies him on these dark cases that always seem to span the globe.

The series has it's ups and downs (Cabinet of Curiosities and Still Life with Crows are some of the better ones) but this one is the deepest trough I've read into.  Anti-climactic, pedantic, and somewhat condescending, agent Pendergast's character, usually likable and quirky, is depressingly mercurial and prickly--somewhat understandable as event unfold through the story but the authors drag it out to the point where I really didn't like him very much.  In addition, and this is my pet peeve in any story, there are a number of peripheral characters that are built up and built up only to simply waft out of the story or come to nothing as the story fully unravels.  It's as if the authors wound the story to intricately and got lost in the off-shoots.  Fish soup is a good compliment to the meal, but too much red herring spoils the fare.  Still, it's like Episodes 1-3 of the Starwars series, you have to watch them--but they kinda suck.  If you decide to read other books in this series, you'd do best to skip the last three altogether.

Drew's #25 -- The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

 

The Oxford English Dictionary (O.E.D.) is a much more than a desk reference.  In fact, it is authority on the english language.   If you've never considered the dictionary, think for a moment just what it took to put one of the first ones together and just what sort of people it would take to accomplish this task.  I mean, you'd have to be crazy to see that project through, right?  The short answer is:  yes.  In fact the largest contribution was made my Dr. William Chester Minor, a paranoid schizophrenic remanded to an asylum in England after murdering another man in his delusional state.  But, like the O.E.D. itself, there's much more to the story than you'd initially assume.  And there were a number of remarkable people that had a hand in the publication.   And the author does a fascinating job of researching, developing and relating the details the people who put the first O.E.D. together.   Murder, insanity, words, famous nerds, social radicals of academia... all wrapped together in a hilariously (in a very dry sense) engaging story.  Take my word for it:  a MUST read.

Drew's #24 -- Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

In the author's dreary future, the internet is a V/R universe called the Oasis and is more of a reality to most people than overcrowded, dilapidated  real world.  But the death of the Oasis's creator (clearly Steve Jobs, though not so named) leaves it's future up for grabs in his will, offering control of it to whoever deciphers a collection of riddles and overcomes the challenges they lead to.  The fiercest competitors are the evil computer industry, Integrated Online Innovation (I.O.I) and the Gunter's, a collection of gamers and techies and .  Among the former is a an unlikely young man from a shanty style trailer park who propels himself into fame and fortune when he solves the first clue and takes the lead in the race for control of the Oasis.  The young man becomes the unwitting leader of the Gunters along with a group of his friends who eventually have to brave the real world in order to stay alive when I.O.I. resorts to deadly means to knock the "Goonies"-like Gunters out of the race.

Creative and unexpectedly engaging for what it is.  Lots of nostalgic arcade and movie throw-backs for geek in all of us.  One big turn off for this book for me, though, is that for some reason the author decides to take an otherwise light-hearted story about gamers and nerds and throw in a atheistic appeal that "religion is complete B.S."  It's a two line blurb and nothing to do with the rest of the story and serves no purpose except to highlight the piss-poor job done by the editor to screen such irrelevant takes but it stuck out to me.  Anyhow, if you white it out, the rest of the story is enjoyable.

Mark's #51 - Thunderstruck by Erik Larsen (2007)

Thunderstruck is the story of two men whose lives are improbably intertwined in the  early 1900's.  Guglielmo Marconi is the man who invented the "wireless" and changed the world forever.   Hawley Crippen is a soft-spoken, mild-mannered man who ends up taking meticulous steps to murder his overbearing, adulterous wife, and almost succeeding in getting away with it... Crippen would have succeeded had it not been for Marconi's invention which enabled Scotland Yard to communicate via wireless to the transatlantic ship Crippen and his new lover we aboard while trying to escape. Like other books I've read by Larsen (In The Garden of Beasts and Devil in the White City), this book not only digs deep into lives and circumstances of its principal subjects, but also into the world and times in which these men lived.  It was an age of scientific inventions that greatly impact our lives today, a world sliding toward the first world war,  a time of great interest in the supernatural world of seances, and a time when the wealthy went out of their way to flaunt their riches in extravagant ways.

In many ways, reading Larsen's books are like stepping back into the past as you find yourself engaged in the triumphs and failures of men from that era.  However, this isn't Larsen's best work, go with one of his other two books before picking this one up.

JRF's #34 - Reformation:Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow by Carl R. Trueman

I was expecting Carl Trueman's book to be polemic and blunt, as his blog often is.  I was pleasantly surprised when I found that this book was not only filled with important and passionately defended truth, but also with grace and gentle concern for the people of God. 

Reformation is Trueman's call to the church to resdiscover and never move beyond the Gospel centered message and methodology of the Reformers.  He narrows in on three great Reformation emphasis' that he asserts the modern church needs to recommit to:

1) the church's emphasis upond Jesus Christ and Him crucified,

2) the emphasis upon Scripture as the basis and norm for the proclamation of Christ,

3) the church's accent on assurance of salvation as the normative experience for all Christian believers

Trueman not only shows how each of those emphasis' was discovered and fleshed out in the Reformation era church, but also delineates a clear practical path for the church of today to recommit herself to those same powerful Biblical truths.

There is a lot packed into this small book.  I am thankful for the clarity and conviction with which prof. Trueman brings his call to God's people.  This would be an excellent book to read together on a church leadership team/elder board.

Mark's #50 - Unto Death: Martyrdom, Missions, and the Maturity of the Church by Dalton Thomas (2012)

Gripped by fear and an overriding goal of self-preservation, few Christians today will pursue dangerous or even "risky" situations to advance the Kingdom of God

Unto Death is 27-year-old Dalton Thomas' passionate plea for Christians today to turn their eyes to Jesus, see His all surpassing worth, and joyfully and boldly go to the most difficult places on earth with the proclamation of the gospel.  More than just an emotional plea however, Thomas grounds his convictions in the Word of God and the testimony of followers of Christ who "loved not their lives even unto death (Rev. 12:11)".  Along the way, we are reminded of the worth of Christ, the continual presence and purposes of God in the martyrdom of His saints, the joy, love and grace of martyrdom, the role of martyrdom in the fulfilling of the great commission (Mt. 18:19-20), and how the maturity of the church of Jesus hinges on our growth toward embracing the cost of following Christ, even unto death.

In spite of his youth (27 - I'm 37), Dalton Thomas writes clearly and convincingly about an essential issue for us in the church in the west today.  I stumbled upon this book when my friend Buddy posted on his Facebook wall as a free kindle book.  I almost didn't read it because it was free and I had never heard of the guy. However, when I saw that one of the recommendations of the book came from David Sitton, I decided it would be worth my time.  I'm glad I did.  This is one of the best books I've read this year.

Here's a few more quotes that grabbed my heart while reading:

"Death is a means.  Christ is the end.  Joy is the motive.  And glorious is the journey."

"Though not every believer is called to give a martyr-witness, every believer is called to embrace a martyr-mentality, every Church a martyr-mandate, and every ministry a martyr-theology."

"The gospel is so valuable that no risk is unreasonable"

Here's a short trailer for the book by the author: httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfBuWnEtmI0&feature=player_embedded