American Gods by Neil Gaiman

I've read some Neil Gaiman work in the past, but not a novel. I finished this in a day during vacation. The premise is that America did not bring along the gods of other countries where settlers came from (Norse, English, etc.) but that the gods arise from the folklore and tall tales of the land, so America has its own gods. They may appear as humans or they may lie dormant for long periods, but in this book, a "road" book, they arise and fight (good vs. evil) for the nation. "Sacred" places are all over, made so by the people as well, and the culmination is at the most sacred place of all, its name found throughout the land--Rock City!

Fun read, read in on November 28, 2013. Hung onto it but would pass it along if I found someone who'd enjoy it. Got it from B&N with a gift card a few years ago.

Remembering by Wendell Berry

I've seen Wendell Berry referenced by a number of musicians and finally checked out a couple of his books form the library for my vacation trip. Remembering was my favorite, a novel about a former farmer (now a journalist) attending an agricultural conference in decidedly nonagricultural San Francisco. He has lost his hand and his connection to the farming to some extent. The story is minimal, taking only a day in his life, but is beautifully told.

I checked this out of the library. I'd recommend it to people who like thoughtful reads.

Finished on November 27, 2013.

The Practice of Godliness by Jerry Bridges

The Practice of Godliness is a sequel of sorts to The Pursuit of Holiness. Bridges concerns himself with development of specific attitudes and character attributes--the fruit of the Spirit--that come out of a life of devotion to God. He discusses how to cultivate the fruit in our lives in a grace-based way. Good stuff.

I finished this on November 25, 2013 during a vacation in Florida. I added it to my (small) Jerry Bridges collection.

Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life: Rethinking Ministry to the Poor by Robert D. Lupton

After reading When Helping Hurts (Fikkert/Corbett), Lupton's book is a great supplement on how effective urban ministry can be done in the US. His emphasis is on building the self-reliance and dignity of the people and truly renewing the community. Opening clothing pantries employs no one and takes money out of the local economy, where instead, selling used clothing at nominal prices can create jobs and ensure no one takes things they do not need just because they are free.

Lupton and his ministry learned a lot of things the hard way, and his book helps to rethink the role of urban churches in their communities. Many are "drive-in" churches (the members no longer live in the neighborhood). One example he gives is of a church that defined its need as "more parking" because people had all moved away and needed places to park when they drive to the church. They were going to knock down existing homes in order to build the parking, hence removing homes from the market and creating empty space that would be used for a couple of hours a week. Lupton worked with them to use the space wisely and in a way that helped the neighborhood as a whole.

Finished this on October 27, 2013. Had a good discussion about it with Lyss and her roommates who had been reading it for their internship in Memphis. Hanging onto it and have recommended it to several folks,.

The Tragedy at Honda by Charles Lockwood and Hans Christian Adamson

The worst peacetime naval disaster in U.S. history took place in September 1923, when seven destroyers were wrecked on the coast of California, just where the coast curves to the east south of Lompoc and northwest of Santa Barbara. The coast in this area has been known as a treacherous one for centuries, with many shipwrecks from Spanish colonial times and on.

The Tragedy at Honda records in great detail the engineering run that the destroyers were making from San Francisco to San Diego. They were striving to make a specific time and were operating according to "destroyer doctrine" of the time, which was essentially to follow the lead destroyer rather than each ship making its own navigational location estimates. The ships followed in tight formation, a few hundred feet from each other, and using dead reckoning at night and in foggy conditions, they underestimated where the coast turned east into the Santa Barbara channel. They steamed directly into the coast, and almost all of them were torn up on the rocks. Some had fallen behind, and these turned west after hearing the radio traffic about the wrecks ahead.

Even after wrecking, the lead captain thought that they had grounded on rocky islands 15 miles off the coast of Santa Barbara, thinking he had overshot the channel.

Despite the magnitude of the damage, not many lives were lost. The survivors clambered onto the rocks, scaled the cliffs and used boats to rescue some people. The story of their night on the cliffs and subsequent rescue and trip to Los Angeles is interesting too. The book concludes with the naval investigations of the tragedy.

I'd never heard of this tragedy until we visited Santa Barbara in June 2013. A vendor at an art fair told me about the tragedy and I found the book. I finished it on 10/22/13 and will hang onto it until I find someone really interested in the story, then I'll probably give it to them.

A Quest for Godliness by J.I. Packer

J.I. Packer's book is a collection of essays on the Puritan views and practices of godliness. Packer starts with an overview of the Puritans and their deep and abiding desire to know Christ and to serve him faithfully. Packer does not spend much time debunking the idea that Puritans were joyless, dour, teetotaling spoilsports, probably because his audience already knows it's not the case, and the fact that the joys to be found in following Christ surpass anything forgone in the world anyway.

The book has major sections on The Puritans and the Bible, The Puritans and the Gospel, The Puritans and the Holy Spirit and The Puritan Christian Life, each with a few articles.

It includes an concluding essay on Jonathan Edwards, and quite a bit on Richard Baxter, but a large portion of the book addresses John Owen's writings and influence on Puritan thought and practice. Packer wrote in introduction to Owen's The Death of Death in the Death of Christ and his essays on Owen are each excellent.

One of the most interesting things to me was the emphasis on application in Puritan preaching. They believed that because people have minds that are affected by the Fall, they have hard time determining what to do with the preached Word. So their preaching emphasized application, and they strove to apply the teaching to the people who came to their meetings in various spiritual conditions. Some were unbelievers in need of the initial saving grace of the gospel, some were backsliding Christians, some were discouraged, some were joyful and growing, and so on. Church attendance was mandatory in England during the time of the Puritans (not their doing--it was by order of the queen) and so they had very mixed congregations.

There is some repetitiveness in the essays since it is a compilation of individual essays written for various publications, but it is not annoying.

This took me a long time to read. Since it was a collection of essays, I picked up and put it down over the course of 10 months probably. Finished it on 10/10/13.

Dreamtigers by Jorge Luis Borges

Dreamtigers is a book of short stories and poems and, as with all of Borges' work, it is quite postmodern. I found it very interesting to read, challenging in spots. My representative line is the end of a short dialogue and reads: "Quite frankly, I don’t remember whether we committed suicide that night or not."

I got this from the library. I read it in August 2013.

Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges

A couple of years ago I wrote the name Jorge Luis Borges on a piece of scrap paper and put it in my wallet. It ended up on my nightstand and I came across it in July. Its origin is unknown although I suspect it was from a blog I read called "Ribbon Farm." Searching that blog it may have been this post. But I don't know for sure. It does not seem that familiar now that I reread it.

Anyway, Ficciones is a book of short stories by Borges, an Argentinian author who wrote in the 40s and 50s. He's a postmodern author and his stories are enjoyable to read and at the same time quite unorthodox. My favorite was probably a "critical review" of a scholar of Cervantes (Pierre Menard) who rewrites Don Quixote word-for-word, using the exact words of Cervantes, so deeply has he immersed himself in the work. The critic, however, perceives different meanings in various places, meanings placed there by Menard, even though the words are exactly the same. So there's the post-modern literary attitude at work, both in the critic's review and the fact that Borges himself does not seem to treat it as a parody but as...I don't know what, really.  "The Garden of Forking Paths" is another example of a post-modern tale, the story of an unpublished book that is ultimately a riddle that leads to a murder. It took a few readings to follow it properly, and I think I could reread it over and over and still enjoy it.

I probably won't get the chance to reread it so often. I checked it out of the library and read it on a trip to Atlanta in August 2013.

The Anthologist by Nicholson Baker

The eponymous anthologist is also the narrator of this short novel. The famous author has compiled an anthology and his publisher is badgering him for the introduction he owes, which is well past its deadline. His live-in girlfriend leaves him over this behavior, which breaks his heart but does nothing to get him going. She comes over to walk the dog and wash him and such and generally has a genial relationship, but the unwritten introduction remains a barrier to their relationship. He becomes very productive around the house for a time in the way that only a dedicated procrastinator can do. Months go by and relationships get strange.

The anthologist seems a little like a grown-up version of Holden Caulfield. I'm not sure if I read that somewhere before (probably), but that's what it seems like to me.

I am pretty sure I saw a review of this in Harper's when it came out in 2009 and thought it sounded interesting. My first Baker novel, I finished this in July 2013. I picked this up at a Border's closing sale, on the bargain table to boot. It was well worth the price, and I'll probably pass it along to someone.

Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges

Bridges' book covers the sins that we commit that are commonly ignored or are sins of omission. The first he describes (ungodliness) is a summary of the balance of the book. Bridges describes ungodliness as the action of ignoring God most of the time. Going through the day without a thought for Him or concern for His sovereignty and involvement in our day is equivalent to ungodliness. Charnock called this "practical atheism."

The book identifies many sins that we may ignore or not even consider as sin. I read it as part of our small group Bible study and we found it a profitable exercise. I bought a copy and this was a keeper, along with the study guide.

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

Classified as "horror fiction," I Am Legend was recommended by a blogger I like, I think, so I picked up at the library and got through it in a day or so in July. It was more a novellette than a novel, as it was pretty short. I had heard the movie was about zombies while the book is about vampires--sort of. The detail about the reality of the "vampires" was kind of interesting. It kept me engaged but ultimately I didn't enjoy it that much.

Boomsday by Christopher Buckley

Boomsday is a Washington DC political tale that is based on a plan to incentivize the elderly to "remove themselves from society" voluntarily so as to save on the costs of caring for them. The concept is floated as a political joke, a farce to show that more must be done to help the elderly or a plan like this is inevitable. But it seized upon by those who denounce it not realizing it is a farce, and but those who embrace it as a bold new way of dealing with the problems of budgets and increasing Social Security costs. It's a funny set up, and sadly, the reactions are all too likely from those who can't see sarcasm and from those who would embrace anything to save money.

The inventor of the idea continues to push the concept as though it is true and it becomes the dominant political issue of the day. The books reveals (maybe) how the sausage is made in legislation and the halls of power. It's a fun read and a send-up of everything from the religious right to the insatiable news media and punditocracy to the President and Congress and more, all of which can use a good skewering at times. Perhaps too many caricatures but who's going to complain in a book like this.

I got this for about $1 at HPB and will probably just give it away. It was a fun vacation book--light, quick read, funny but still a little thoughtful. I read it while we were in California in June 2013.

The Winter of Our Discontent by John Steinbeck

I've liked everything I've read by Steinbeck. Though his vision of humanity is certainly jaded and bleak, I kind of like that in a book. TWOOD was an interesting one, a story of a man who keeps a shop for an immigrant man in a small town but has greater ambitions, and he plots to fulfill those through a betrayal and an ingeniously planned bank robbery. His children long for his respect but he is ultimately let down by one of them. There's a woman he is tempted to commit adultery with. He contemplates suicide despite having his fortune made, though not via the bank robbery as he'd planned.

Ultimately, this one was a little unsatisfying, though. Far-fetched in places and overdramatic in others, it does a good job of portraying the thoughts and motivations of the protagonist, but the plot is a bit too tidy for this kind of story.

I should have expected that. I got my copy of this from a friend who was giving away a lot of books, and when I selected that one, he said that it was not Steinbeck's best work and I probably would not like it. I actually liked it OK as I was reading it, but when I finished I realized it seemed to have been written to be a Hollywood movie. It was apparently made into one, but not a good one at all. Figures.

I started this during a company outing to Six Flags and finished it on our vacation in California. I probably reshelved it but if I find it I'll take to Half Price Books.

Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

Dana wrote this book about his years on board a ship in the1830s. He had just finished law school and signed on for two years to a merchant ship that would end up sailing around the tip of Argentina and to the coast of California to buy hides for return to Boston. The story is well-told by a well-schooled man with a way with words. Harrowing events surround the whole trip, and it paints a thoroughly unpleasant picture of the sailor's life at that time. It was back-breaking work and the work could be for days at a time with no rest if required. It is quite amazing that they make it at all, let alone with a load of hides. The most irenic period is when he is put ashore to help manage the hide-house near San Diego, when he forms friendships with locals and is somewhat comfortable, if bored.

Near the end, I was wondering why anyone would go to sea given the conditions and the absolute sovereignty of the captain over his men, (in his case a capricious one, which sounds not uncommon.) And in his conclusion he reveals that his purpose for writing was to dissuade young men from taking to the sea with any romantic notions of the nobility of the profession.

I heard about this book when we visited California in June. A woodworker at the Santa Barbara sidewalk art show talked to me for quite awhile about the history of the area and where he lived, which was up in Lompoc. He mentioned this book and I got it from the library. I've mentioned it to several people and their boys had all read it when they were young. I guess i missed the book since I have daughters.

The woodworker also told me about the 1923 naval accident at Honda, up the coast a bit from Santa Barbara near Lompoc. I found a book on that which I am reading now.

I finished this book in early July I think.

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin

This kind of book is precisely why I do this blog. I found it on my brief list of books that I use to keep track of my reading, and it took some time to recall what it was and why I read it. It came back, but in 6 more months that would have been doubtful.

The story is of a sort of United Nations of planets that is trying to bring another world into the fold for its own protection and benefit. The problem is that the planet does not believe in other civilizations outside their world, and their king distrusts what he assumes is an imposter trying to tie their hands in some way. The planet has its own problems, chief of them being that it's primarily ice, though the people there seem to prefer it that way. The story becomes one of court intrigue in part, though in a very muscular fashion--it is a very primitive planet with primitive ways. The story drags a bit, I thought, when the ambassador and one of the court members undertake to cross a glacial plain in order to get to another outpost of the civilization. The crossing is arduous and well told, but long.

Overall, I loved the book for its ideas, but it was a bit of a tedious read in spots.

Le Guin's book is a classic of sci-fi though I had not heard of it until I read a random twitter post by David Malki, asking why no one had pointed it out to him in the past because it was so brilliant. Seeing that, I put it on the library list and read it, finishing it in mid-May 2013.

A Damsel in Distress by P.G. Wodehouse (Audio book)

One of my favorite Wodehouse books. It's an early Wodehouse (1919 I think) when he was coming into his best form. It is about the events that ensue when the girl Maud hurls herself into a cab of George to hide from someone, and George treats her as a damsel in distress and immediately falls in love with her to boot. He finds her at a country castle and all the to-become-usual Wodehouse events of mistaken and assumed identities ensue. 

Got it from the library in audiobook format. The image is the edition that I have. Cathy and I listened to it in the car on the way to Lyss's graduation in early May. It makes the miles melt away when you have something of this quality to pass the time with. 

Eggs Beans and Crumpets by P.G. Wodehouse

Sounds like breakfast, doesn't it?

One of Wodehouse's collections of short stories, Eggs Beans and Crumpets includes stories of many of the Drones Club members and is hilarious. Enough said.

Pulled it from my Wodehouse collection to read on a sleepless night and read it in a couple of sittings in April 2013. I have a nice Overlook Press copy of it that I received as a gift, and will, of course, be hanging onto it.

Radical Together by David Platt

In Radical Together, David Platt applies his challenges to believers to the corporate entity of the church. We are called to spread the gospel by making disciples but we often neglect to do so because we are wrapped up in the programs of the church itself, leaving no time for loving our neighbor and building relationships with those who need the Lord. He reminds us that we do not need to develop a grand strategy because the Word does the work. The Spirit calls whom He will and He does so by the Word. So Platt calls for less "church activity" and more work in making disciples in our neighborhoods. 

I got this book to read as part of a Session vision meeting and finished it back about April 15, 2013. I'll hang onto it or pass it along. 

In the Garden of Iden by Kage Baker

Keeping up with my sci-fi reading trend. Baker has a series of books about "The Company." The setup of the story is promising. In the future immortality is invented and time travel is invented to test it out. The owners of the technology (the Company) make some people from olden times immortal and use them to amass wealth and save extinct species, working within the various times as operatives.

Promising. The story is told by a recruit from the time of the Spanish Inquisition, a young girl who is made immortal and trained as a botanist to save several medically-valuable species. A "Spanish" team of operatives goes to rural England in about 1554, just before England is reconnected to Roman Catholicism. The estate where they stay is divided as far as religion, with factions in each camp. It's an interesting setup, as the "Spanish" as suspected to be agents of the Inquisition (though they are irreligious altogether, but pretend to Catholicism in order to fit expectations.)

I was unhappy with what becomes a main thrust of the story--the young woman becomes entangled with a Protestant "true believer" who had previously been a libertine. He essentially becomes one again, however, taking the girl as his sexual partner for the duration, all the while endeavoring to "save her soul" by urging her to convert to the true religion. The inconsistency between belief and behavior is obvious, but never even commented upon by the girl, oddly, or the others who seem to be aware of it. It all leads to tears, of course, when the Roman Catholic church is reestablished and Protestants are now under the thumb of the throne.

Baker was recommended by the Plano Library based on other books I enjoyed, mainly because of Connie Willis and her books on time travel. I enjoy Willis's a lot more than I enjoyed this first book of Baker's series. I may try another of Baker's to see how the series continues as far as narration and content.

The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse (Audio)

Another audio book! The same reader as did Carry On, Jeeves did this one. Another PGW book that I've read several times, so I knew what was coming each moment. But it was fun to hear someone else read it to me.

The book includes stories about unmarried Bingo Little and also his eventual marriage to Rosie M. Banks. To please Bingo's uncle, Bertie has posed as Rosie M. Banks ("his pen name") and is found out eventually when the real Rosie shows up, married to Bingo.

It also includes "The Great Sermon Handicap" and "The Purity of the Turf," two stories with the blighter Steggles who nobbles the favorites to ruin the book in local bets on sermon length and the children's races in the village fair.

I listened to this on the way to Chattanooga on 3/21/13.