Book #73

The Hole in Our Gospel, by Richard Stearns. Paperback.

Stearns is the leader of World Vision, so he brings experience and knowledge to the discussion of world poverty. The book is a nce mix of cold facts and heart-rending stories.

The book has many memoir aspecs to it, as Stearns tells his life story. He was CEO of Lenox, the fine silverware manufacturer, before leaving that to run WorldVision. The juxtaposition of these two posts is made much of in the early part of the book. Stearn's own "conversion" of sorts, his awakening to the plight of the world's poor, is an effective through-line of the book.

Most of the book is a call to social action for Christians, a much-needed one for many in the evangerlical world. Protestants threw away everything related to Catholicism in the aftermath of the Reformation, no matter how good or bad what they threw out was. In the same way, Evangelicals threw away everything related to mainline liberalism over the last century. Among those things that were shed was a commitment to easing the physical suffering of the poor.

Stearns is a Bible-teaching evangelical, no doubt -- the book is loaded with Bible references, short and long, Old Testament and New. But he is willing to say that the modern American evangelical church has a "hole" in its Gospel, and that hole is caring for the poor and afflicted. And he gives practical tips on how we can help serve, with our treasure, time, and talent.

Book #72

Take Two, by Karen Kingsbury. Unabridged audio.

I enjoyed Take One. It stood out among christian novels for taking on the topic of film-making in a way that treated the art of film in a serious way, and as the profession of film-making as a legitimate vocation. And the romance and relationship subplots were mercifully in the background.

In some of these areas, there was a slight step back from the prior novel. The romances were more in the forefront, and I found the more overwrought scenes hard to get through -- but as I point out whenever I review a christian novel, I am not the target demographic. These books are read overwhelmingly by women, so some of my concerns fall into general stereotypes of male/female preferences.

Some of the facts about film-making didn't seem altogether accurate -- there are plenty of examples of two studios producing similar movies and would be easily shrugged off, but in this novel that fact was a major plot point. The novel did not end well, either. It just stopped, albeit at an emotional high point. But none of the plot points are finished up -- they are all left hanging for book three, or perhaps book four.

There were a few bright spots. There was not the obligatory conversion scene, but there was a re-dedication. But this counts as progress in the world of christian fiction. And although some of the characterization was clunky, some characters continue to be well-drawn.

As I mentioned in the review for Take One, the presence of multiple performers makes the listening experience quite enjoyable.

I will certainly pick up books 3 & 4 in the series, but I may take a longer break before resuming the series than I did between books 1 & 2.

Book #71

The Gum Thief, by Douglas Coupland. Hardcover.

Up to about 5 years ago, I had read all of Coupland's novels. I am a huge fan of Generation X, Life After God, and Miss Wyoming, the latter of which is criminally underrated. But for no good reason, I haven't read any of his more recent works.

Reading The Gum Thief was my first effort to rectify this situation. Like much of Coupland's work, this is a literary novel that manages to also be a quick read. Always experimental, this time Coupland gives us an epistolary novel, told in letters. Think of a "found footage" movie, but in this time it is a "found notebook" novel.

Like much of Coupland's work, this novel deals with the anonymity of the modern business world; in this case, the setting is Staples, where forty-something loser Roger and twenty-something Goth chick Bethany work. Roger leaves his notebook in the break room, which contains his novel manuscript. Bethany reads it, leaves him a note (or does she?) and the series of journal entries, notes, letters and scenes from Roger's novel takes off.

Not onloy is there a "book inside a book" aspect to this novel, the "book inside a book" also contains a book. Very meta.

I am a fan of Coupland, but I recognize he is an acquired taste. I would not necessarily start reading his novels here, but if you've enjoyed some of his prior work, you'll probably enjoy this one, too.

Back From The Dead!

In a previous post, I lamented the podfaded status of the excellent Super Future Friends show -- but after a brief hiatus of only 351 days, Kristin and Adriana are back! And they have not missed a beat.

The recently released episode 35 covers Adventure Comics 310, yet another crazy silver-age story of the Legion of Super-Heroes. The show documents the nuttiness of the story, the wonkiness of the art, and a bizarre fixation on trophies and tunnelling.

Welcome back, ladies!

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

From page 123 of The Gum Thief, by Douglas Coupland.

MY TEASERS:
"Kyle told me that he thinks Staples is a piece of s___ and should burn. I'm shocked to find that Trail Mix Boy has an anarchist spark in him."

Book #70

The Sixth Man, by David Baldacci. Unabridged audio.

Do you remember that story a year or so ago about a certain celebrity (I wish I could remember who it was) who had an eidetic memory, the extremely rare condition that goes beyond "photographic" memory. An eidetic can never forget anything.

Are you familiar with the TV show "Chuck?" In it, someone has the entire corpus of US Intelligence downloaded into their brain.

I am guessing that David Baldacci remembers the news story, and perhaps has watched Chuck. At least his book is a neat combination of the two scenarios. Edgar Roy is an eidetic who is employed as The Analyst by US Intelligence. Not an analyst; The Analyst. The entire flow of data gathered by the US (called "The Wall" in the novel) floods Roy's mind, and he makes recommendations based on that information.

When six dead bodies turn up at Roy's farm, the program is thrown into disarray. Has The Analyst gone insane and turned sociopath? Or does someone want him out of the way? Despite Roy's success, there are people in Washington who are not thrilled by this program. Some for legitimate reasons, some for personal or political reasons.

Former Secret Service personnel Sean King and Michelle Maxwell are hired to look into Roy's case, and shortly after more bodies start to pile up. King and Maxwell find themselves caught between powerful Washington factions, most of whom don't care who they harm (or kill) on the way to meeting their own objectives.

Baldacci has written some of my favorite thrillers, and I have particularly enjoyed most of the King & Maxwell tales. This is one of the strongest ones -- the plot is a bit unbelievable, and I don't buy the motivations of all of the villains, but the plot moves along at a great pace, the drama builds up well, and the resolution is satisfying. All in all, a very fun read.

Teaser Tuesday

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

Grab your current read
Open to a random page
Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

From chapter 36 of The Sixth Man, by David Baldacci.

MY TEASERS:
"That was beacuse the alarm wasn't on. She whirled around. Shawn stood there, the butt of his gun visible at his waist."