James H. Cone, (Marynoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2011), 202 pages including notes and an index. The late James Cone (1938-2018) tackled a tough topic, linking together the most powerful symbol for Christians, the cross, and the most shameful symbol … Continue reading
Eric Goodman, Cuppy and Stew: The Bombing of Flight 629, A Love Story (San Francisco: IF SF Publishing, 2020), 220 pages with a few photographs. The narrator is Susan, the youngest daughter of Cuppy and Stew, who died in the … Continue reading
If you have time on your hands as we wait out this pandemic, there are two good books that I recommend to anyone who enjoys history. In they cover three wars (Mexican, Civil, and World War II). S. C. Gwynne, … Continue reading
W. Singer and Emerson T. Brooking, LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media (2018, Mariner Books, Boston, 2019), 407 pages including index and notes plus eight pages of photos. This timely book begins in 2009 with Donald Trump’s first tweet, promoting … Continue reading
Patrick F. McManus, Kerplunk! (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007), 227 pages. There is a favorite used bookstore in Wilmington, North Carolina that I often stop in when I’m home. This time I was looking to pick up another … Continue reading
I am in North Carolina, taking a few days off and sitting inside watching it rain… Here’s my last post of the year as I review two recent books I’ve read. I hope everyone has a wonderful New Year’s Eve … Continue reading
Barbara Tuchman, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century (New York: Knopf, 1978), 720 pages including notes and index. Some plates of photos and artwork. The world, or at least Western Europe, seemed to be coming apart in the … Continue reading
Not Guilty by C. Lee McKenzie Published October 2019 This book grabbed my attention in the first chapter and kept me engaged throughout. I didn’t want to put it down, wanting to figure out how the protagonist, Devon, gets through … Continue reading
Beverly Willett, Disassembly Required: A Memoir of Midlife Resurrection (New York: Post Hill Press, 2019), 269 pages. The framework of this story is rather simple. The author sells her home in Brooklyn, New York and moves to Savannah, Georgia. … Continue reading
Ben Sasse, Them: Why We Hate Each Other and How to Heal (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2018), 272 pages including notes and an index. One would need to be deaf and blind not to realize there are serious … Continue reading
This photo was taken at Delegal Creek last night as the sunset. Hurricane Dorian is several hundred miles south at this point. Today, as I write this, we have had a few bands of rain with wind, but nothing too … Continue reading
Zach Powers, First Cosmic Velocity (New York: Putman, 2019), 340 pages. I’m not sure how to classify this novel. At times I thought the author had written the first anti-Sci-fi (similar to the anti-western genre of films that began … Continue reading
John Sexton, Baseball as a Road to God: Seeing Beyond the Game (New York: Gotham Books, 2013), 242 pages including photos, index and bibliography. Sexton, the president of New York University, has written a wonderful book that shares … Continue reading
A lot of students have fantasies of having teachers locked up. For my 5th grade teacher, it wasn’t a fantasy, it was a horrific experience. As a Marine embassy guard in China, which was behind enemy lines when the war began, … Continue reading
Joy Harjo, Conflict Resolutions for Holy Beings: Poems. (New York: W. W. Norton, 2015) 139 pages. I picked up this book after learning that Joy Harjo has been appointed poet laureate for the United States. It’s exciting because she’s the … Continue reading
From my recent readings. They’re all different! Anjali Sachdeva, All the Names They Used for God (Siegel & Grau, 2018), 257 pages. This is a collection of short stories and the first book by Ms. Sachdeva. I heard Sachdeva read … Continue reading
David Halberstam, The Fifties (1993, New York: Ballantine Books, 1994), 800 pages including index’s and notes, plus 32 pages of black and white prints. The decade was 70% completed when I was born. I have no recall of the … Continue reading
Arthur C. Brooks, Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America for the Culture of Contempt (HarperCollins, 2019), 243 pages, index and notes. In this year’s January Series from Calvin College, I heard Brooks speak. Much of his … Continue reading
Courtney Hargrave, Burden: A Preacher, A Klansman, and a True Story of Redemption in the Modern South (New York: Convergent Books, 2018), 227 pages, no photos or index, 22 pages of notes and sources. Michael Burden, a troubled young … Continue reading
Paul C. Gutjahr, Charles Hodge: Guardian of American Orthodoxy (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011) 477 pages including an index, notes, bibliography and a few photos. Charles Hodge taught at Princeton Theological Seminary for over fifty years and was perhaps the most … Continue reading
