March Reading

Nonfiction

Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking, by Malcolm Gladwell – Another exciting work from Gladwell; I'm definitely a groupie by this point. As you may know, this one deals with how people make snap decisions - for better or for worse. When we ask people to explain why, they may try but generally cannot. But that doesn't mean we can't understand how these things work, and, when appropriate, train our responses. Great book! Couple things I'm considering from this one, in terms of area for personal growth... maybe write more later.

Living with Questions, by Dale Fincher – I appreciate Dale’s thoughtful, engaging approach to re-framing the great questions of life. Great book for teens. Published by Youth Specialties. I didn't realize that when I asked my library to get it. Book design and examples used reflect the youth focus, and often reminded me how much older I am than the intended audience. I suspect they will help the book sell now but limit its shelf life. But the basic contents were pretty timeless, intelligent, and helpful; as Dale says, "a new kind of apologetics."

A History of the United States, by Philip Jenkins - I'd placed a library hold on Jenkins' latest history-of-religion work, but it both came in and expired while I was in Louisiana. So I consoled myself with this, the only Jenkins book on the shelves. It's good, it's really good. He weaves together a chronological look at the nation's history, politically, culturally, economically, religiously, demographically, and racially. Well recommended.

Jenkins aims to be fair and balanced, but is not above inserting droll comments like this:

"The headlong dash to build a continental empire was accomplished with little consideration for the existing residents, whether Mexican or Native American. As the area of white settlement grew, Americans of European descent were brought into contact with native groups who had hitherto avoided the blessings of civilization, and this contact was generally disastrous for the latter population..."

Couple more books I'm still reading:

• Reaching Out, by Henri Nouwen. He writes about personal growth, in our inner self, our relationship with others, our relationship with God: moving from loneliness to solitude, from hostility to hospitality, from illusion to prayer. Good stuff.
  
  
• Prayer, by Philip Yancey. I've already written about this extensively; I may have bored my blog audience. But I've really enjoyed Yancey and have saved part of this book to read for later.
  

Fiction

The Five People You Meet in Heaven, by Mitch Albom - Sorry, can't give this one a gold star. Is the best the author can do to make sense of life and death? I don't expect everyone to agree about these things but I found myself feeling sorry for the guy - Albom I mean. Abundant life is on offer, and he settles for... this?

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, by J.K Rowling - Yes, a re-read for me, of course. But it’s nice to have a familiar tale - with just the right mix of heft and readability to bring along when flying!

The More the Merrier, by Lenora Mattingly Weber; and The Pink Rose, by Ellspeth Woodward - I wrote about these two fun but silly novels of the 1950s, here.

Uneasy Relations, and Tiny Little Teeth, by Aaron Elkins - Two more good mysteries featuring physical anthropology professor Gideon Oliver. The first is set at the site of a dig in Gibraltar celebrated for the controversial discovery of a human woman clutching a part-Neanderthal child. The second takes Gideon on a cruise down the Amazon river with a group of ethnobotanists and explores, to some extent, the pharmacopoeia and cultures of that region.

The God Cookie, by Geoffrey Wood - A group of 20-somethings talking, fairly casually, about the meaning of life; and since it was written by an actor, with an editor was in the room (albeit invisibly), the dialogue was pretty funny. One thing that stood out was the vocabulary. For a light, contemporary book it had a lot of terms that seemed archaic to me but are probably regional. Deb and I are thinking, Ohio/Pennsylvania, but I'd appreciate any tips from students of culture. The words include: toboggan (referring to a hat), housecoat (bathrobe), stromboli, and fritter. None of which would come up in the everyday chatter of MY 20-something-year-old friends. What do you think?

Mr. Darwin's Shooter by Roger McDonald - Bit of historical fiction, about another member of the "Beagle" expedition. This one was a bit too artsy and hard to follow for me.

And I'm not quite done with these:

• Lincoln's Dreams, by Connie Willis - I breezed through it, skipping sections, but intend to reread it in anticipation of a trip to Gettysburg (among other places) in May.
  
  
• Patriot Games, by Tom Clancy - Had never read any of his and one reason is I couldn't figure out where the series began. Although it has a prequel, this appears the place to start. As thrillers go, a good one. I like the characters. I don't know that I necessarily want to spend too much time in the world of international espionage and terrorism, though.