Books review 7/17
Been a while since I reviewed some books. I’m just not reading as fast as I would like.
How to Train Your Dragon (by Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III) (Cressida Cowell)
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If you know nothing about this book, it follows a complete wimp of a Viking child who has to train a dragon as a rite of passage to gain full rights in the clan. Even worse than being a complete wimp, Hiccup is the chief’s son, so the pressure on him is quite intense. This was quite a fun little read, for a kids book. However, I would recommend you don’t even bother with the book and skip right on to the movie version. Having now read the book, I see I didn’t really miss anything before jumping into the movie earlier this year. Though aspects of the book are present in the film, the plots aren’t even really close at all, and the movie is so much better for it. Which is not something I would normally say… I tend to prefer book versions of stories, but this time the movie blows the book out of the water.
The Father Connection (Josh McDowell)
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We attended a weekend parenting conference with Josh McDowell several months ago, and I picked this book up as a result. Josh puts together a fairly quick read describing several areas where we fathers can make some dramatic, or even simple, changes in our relationships with our children. The summary questions at the end of each short chapter do well to reinforce all his ideas for us. The premise is presented by him through various scary statistics demonstrating how important it is for us men to be positive, and present, role models for our kids. While there doesn’t seem to be any possibility to implement everything Josh advises, I’m so glad to have these ideas planted in my head now. Oh, and as I mentioned in a previous post, my first major action was a blast for both me and J.
Archaeological Study Bible: An Illustrated Walk Through Biblical History and Culture (Zondervan, Duane Garrett)
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I really don’t think I can say enough about this copy of the Bible, which is definitely one of the favorites in my collection. The version, the NIV, is not my current favorite (the ESV is), but it is definitely one of the most prevalent out there that you see quoted in churches and elsewhere. What makes this copy so great is not only how sharp each page looks, or the quality of the paper it’s printed on, but all the notes and articles relating God’s Word to archaeology. Every couple pages you find half-page or full-page articles detailing some finds related to those Bible passages, or articles placing the passages into full context of ancient times. Even the little footnotes throughout each chapter are great, bringing verse after verse into context in history. It even does a fair job noting differences in the thoughts of scholars on various passages when they are not in agreement on dates, locations, events, etc., and most times simply reminds us there is no reason to not accept the Bible at its word, especially considering archaeological finds have yet to contradict the Bible. It’s hard to do it justice in such a short summary. You really have to see it for yourself. But brace yourself… if you want to read everything, including every single footnote, it may take you quite some time. I was at it for months, but it was well worth the study.
Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Rick Riordan)
Book Two: The Sea of Monsters
Book Three: The Titan’s Curse
Book Four: The Battle of the Labyrinth
Book Five: The Last Olympian
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First off, I have to admit that I did not personally read through the entirety of the final four books in the Percy Jackson series. T and the kids were so addicted to blasting through the series that I simply had to miss a chapter here and there. That’s what I get for reading the first book myself and approving it for the rest of them to forge ahead. :) I can definitely say that the story remained as good throughout the entire series, in both intensity as well as humor. And it turned out to be the humor I loved the most, especially if I dare to compare the series with the Harry Potter books. Harry Potter simply got dark and depressing in several ways throughout the last few books in the series. In this series, though the half-blood kids were certainly going through progressively darker times, the level of humor remained all the way through and simply exploded at the end of the last book… we were laughing almost non-stop over at least one of the final chapters this weekend. In the end, I still enjoyed the Harry Potter series more, but that’s just me… I enjoy darker, more serious stories. I can’t recommend this enough for the rest of you, though. I’m pretty sure the rest of the family would rate the series six stars. On a random note, I finally watched the movie version of Book 1: The Lightning Thief, which was very different in plot line than the book, and in this case (as opposed to How to Train Your Dragon above), the movie was so much worse than the book. More on that in a future movie review post.
The Hole in Our Gospel: What does God expect of Us? The Answer that Changed my Life and Might Just Change the World (Richard Stearns)
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I snatched this book up when I found out it was authored by the President of World Vision, one of our favorite charities. I didn’t know his story at all, which he details over several chapters in the book… apparently he had climbed the corporate ladder to become CEO of Lenox, Inc., a luxury tableware company, and then left it all to join the charity organization. Reading at times, you might think he would be a bit pretentious telling the rest of us why we have a “hole” in our Gospel, not helping out the poor, the orphan, or the widow in society, everywhere in the world. But you will quickly find that Richard freely admits to his faults, and how so much of him doesn’t want to be doing what he’s doing for much less pay, with much more weighing on his heart, etc. Richard uses Scripture and examples throughout his travels overseas to poverty-stricken places to clearly demonstrate to us there is more we can all be doing to “walk the talk” of the Christian life. Perhaps we can step outside the comfort zone of our air-conditioned churches with java shops, and really listen to the Spirit guiding us and to what God’s Word commands us to do.
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