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Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “The Rest of Her Life” by Laura Moriarty

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Leigh arrives home from work one day, vaguely annoyed to find that the recycling can had been overturned and no one had bothered to pick it up. Then she walks into the living room, where her family waits. There was an accident, her husband informs her. Kara was driving. A girl is dead.

They’d tried to call Leigh, but she hadn’t answered. There wasn’t time to try again. He had to comfort their daughter.

The tragedy brings the strained relationship between mother and daughter into sharp relief. Kara turns to Gary, rebuffs Leigh’s attempts at sympathy.

The tragedy brings out the strained relationship between Gary and their precocious son. It tests Leigh and Gary’s marriage. It tests Leigh’s friendship with her best friend, with her community.

It makes Leigh wonder how she managed to get here–alienated from her daughter when she’d tried so hard to be a good mother, to give her daughter everything she hadn’t gotten from her own mother.

The Rest of Her Life is an introspective work, exploring Leigh’s past and present, digging into her thoughts about her marriage, her family, her friendships, her standing in the community.

This was a wonderful book with so many positive qualities that I find it hard to just give a general impression. There are so many things to like, so many things to mention.

I’ll begin with technicalities. I love that Leigh’s story is told in past-tense third person subjective. This point of view is an integral part of the story–and is a breath of fresh air after the spate of first person novels inundating the female marketplace.

The author has an M.A. in Creative Writing, but unlike many an academic artist, she doesn’t try too hard to be groundbreaking with her style. This is a book that follows the conventions of the English language, with capitalization and punctuation exactly where they should be, letting you get on with the story instead of worrying about misunderstanding meaning in the midst of the hodgepodge of “creative” effects.

And what a story it is. Moriarty demonstrates a keen insight into human relationships, teasing out the complexities of Leigh’s relationship with her daughter, her husband, her son, her best friend, her sister, her own mother, the mother of the dead girl.

In Leigh, we see a mother who tries hard to be the mother her mother never was–and who doesn’t understand why her daughter doesn’t appreciate that. We see a mother frustrated because she can’t seem to connect with her teenage daughter, a woman who learns to put aside herself in order to relate to her daughter.

In Leigh and Gary’s marriage, we see a couple who works hard to stay married. We see misunderstandings, frustrations, and accusations–and a choice to keep at it despite all that. I loved that Gary and Leigh’s marriage is neither sensationally awful nor saccharinely good. It’s honest, a rare trait in novels depicting marriage.

I can identify a lot with Leigh, despite our many differences (Let me count the ways…I’m not married, not a mother, not middle aged, not a teacher, not secular, not a product of a broken home…) Leigh is something of a loner, holding herself aloof from many around her. She is compassionate, but often doesn’t know how to express her compassion. Should she write a note, go to the dead girl’s funeral, put her hand on her daughter’s knee in sympathy? She simultaneously enjoys and dreads the gossip her best friend shares with her. She wants to do everything right, has a vision of how her life should look–but finds herself acting and her life looking differently than she’d envisioned.

Leigh is a sympathetic character. Her relationships are real and complex–not just dramatic episodes but full of subtle expectations, longings, comfortability, and differences. Leigh grows, learns, develops through her experiences. The relationships grow through their experiences.

This is novel-craft at its finest.

Rating:5 Stars
Category:General Fiction
Synopsis:When Leigh’s daughter accidentally kills a pedestrian and turns to her dad instead of Leigh for sympathy, Leigh is forced into an introspective review of her relationships with her children, her husband, and her best friends.
Recommendation: Wow. This is a truly good book. I definitely recommend it.

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “Busy Mom’s Guide to Family Nutrition” by Paul C. Reisser, M.D.

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I am not a busy mom. I am not interested in getting my family to eat healthy foods, in discovering which weight loss plan is right for me, in helping my overweight child, or in cutting through the hype–

Oh wait.

I am interested in cutting through the hype about health and nutrition. Which is why I agreed to review Tyndale’s Busy Mom’s Guide to Family Nutrition.

While I may not be the target audience of this book, as a Registered Dietitian with a keen interest in food and families, I do have some basis by which to evaluate this material.

Cover to Busy Mom's Guide to Family NutritionThe good news is that the majority of the information found within this book is accurate. “The Official Book of the Focus on the Family Physician’s Resource Council, USA” contains standard, low-hype information about food and nutrition. While there were a few unclear statements and a few answers that missed the main point, most of this book is scientifically sound.

The bad news is that, well, I just didn’t like this book.

First (and most frivolously), despite the promising glossy cover, this book was printed on that cheap acid-filled paper that disintegrates within a couple of years, making it far less than ideal as a reference work.

Second, the organization of this book made absolutely no sense. The book was written in a Q&A format in which questions were grouped under broad headings that made up chapters. So far, so good–except that the broad headings were often so vague as to give no information as to what could be found within, and the questions had no logical order to them.

An example: The first chapter was entitled “Nutritional Basics.” The first five questions answered under “Nutritional Basics”? “What is a nutrient?” “What are carbohydrates?” “Why do I sometimes seem to crave sugar?” “What is hypoglycemia–and do I have it?” and “What are the different sugars I might find at home?”

Yeah. Not quite sure what the editors were thinking on that one.

As a result, I don’t see how this book could really be useful as a reference, since the only way to know how to find the information you’re looking for is to read the book straight through. And while *I* might be willing to read it straight through, I think it’s silly to expect a “busy mom” to read a book of this sort straight through. The information is far from novel enough to compel great interest and the writing style and mode of delivery is nothing spectacular either.

Finally, while I am fully convinced that how we relate to food has spiritual implications, there’s nothing uniquely “Christian” about this book’s information–apart from a comment or two about blessing food before you eat it or the Hindu roots of yoga. I don’t see any reason why Focus on the Family needs to have a book about nutrition in the first place–and I especially don’t know why they need to have a book about nutrition if they’re only going to glance over anything spiritual related to nutrition.

This book clearly does not satisfy my desire for a well-written nutrition reference that takes into account the physiological, psychological, psychosocial, and spiritual aspects of food. I guess I’ll just have to write my own!

Rating:2 Stars
Category:Nutrition Reference
Synopsis:A factually correct but disorganized Q&A on a variety of nutrition topics.
Recommendation: Skip this one and stayed tuned for my book :-P

I received this book from Tyndale House in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive any other compensation for this review.

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “Only You, Sierra” by Robin Jones Gunn

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Anna got Starry Night by Robin Jones Gunn for Christmas one year–and the two of us were quickly hooked on the adventures of Christy Miller, Midwestern transplant to crazy California.

We *adored* Christy–reading each of those books over and over and over again. We were in love with Todd. We hated Rick. We cracked up over dead hamsters. We started shoebox P.O. Boxes for our future husbands.

And then we reached our teens–and skipped the teen spin-offs to jump directly into Gunn’s adult “Glenbrook” series.

Of course, I’d “met” Sierra Jensen with Christy when she went to Europe in A Promise is Forever–but I’d never actually read any of Sierra’s story until Waterbrook Multnomah offered a free Kindle edition of The Sierra Jensen Collection, Volume 1 containing Only You, Sierra, In Your Dreams and Don’t You Wish.

Only You, Sierra started out in familiar territory–Carnforth Hall in England, during the missions trip Sierra, Christy, Katie, Tracy, and Doug had ended up on together.

Sierra flies home from England–but home isn’t the same place she left. While she was on her trip, her family had moved in with their Granna Mae in Portland. Granna Mae has good days and bad days with her dementia–and Sierra’s family is there to help.

Even though the move had been planned in advance, Sierra finds herself struggling to catch up to her family, who has already settled in–and struggling to find her place in Portland, where her uniqueness isn’t quite so unique.

I devoured Only You, Sierra, reading it in two nights. It’s definitely Robin Jones Gunn, but it’s more realistic than Christy’s drama-filled existence. Unlike Christy, Sierra has no fairy-godmother-like rich aunt ready to introduce her into the high-life. Instead, Sierra has an older sister who she shares a room with, two little brothers, a loving but confused Granna Mae, two parents, and a crush she barely knows. As I said, much more realistic (at least, from my perspective.)

When I finished Only You, Sierra, I was gravely disappointed to find that I couldn’t access the second and third books on my Kindle edition. I realize that my copy was an ARC–and therefore may not be reflective of the final copy–but I worry that fellow Kindle Readers would find themselves getting only one book when they’re promised (and itching for) three.

I’m thinking these books would appeal most to the sort of reader I was when I first started reading the Christy Miller books–in my early adolescence. While I read those when I was ten or so, my guess is that these will probably appeal to the 12-14 crowd best.

For those worried that familiarity with the Christy Miller series is necessary for understanding these books, I think you’ll find that isn’t the case. I’ve framed my review around my childhood memories of Christy–but she certainly isn’t necessary for reading or enjoying the Sierra Jensen series.

Rating:4 Stars
Category:Teen Girls Series Fiction
Synopsis:Sierra struggles to find her place in a new community while wishing she were in SoCal with her “European friends”.
Recommendation: Good, clean, engaging–and not too drama filled–fiction for teenage girls. If you’ve got girls around 12-14 years old, these would be a good option. (Definitely a better option that the “Princess Diaries” franchise or “Gossip Girls”.)

Categories Reading My Library

It’ll “B” Forever

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I was inclined to despair as I thought of how long I’d been working on the “B” picture books in my library’s collection. Surely I’d been at it at least as long as it had taken me to complete the whole “A” section. And I had only gotten to “BO”.

Then, I counted up how many books I’d read in the B’s already–and came up with 635. That’d be 179 more books than are found in the entire “A” section.

I feel a little better about how slowly I’ve been progressing through the B’s.

Here are a couple of my recent favorites:

If you’re not from the prairie… by David Bouchard
(Images by Henry Ripplinger)

Where you’re from makes a difference. It affects who you are, what kind of person you become. You can’t truly know a person until you know their background, their context.

I am from the prairie.

And if you’re not from the prairie…

“You don’t know the wind,
You can’t know the wind.

Our cold winds of winter cut right to the core,
Hot summer wind devils can blow down the door.
As children we know when we play any game,
The wind will be there, yet we play just the same.

If you’re not from the prairie,
You don’t know the wind.”

There’s plenty more you don’t know if you’re not from the prairie–plenty more that David Bouchard shares in this lovely tribute to prairie life (modern-day prairie life, not just the romanticized “prairie novel” life).

Paired with the lyrical prose are stunning scenes of prairie life painted by Henry Ripplinger, a prairie boy from Saskatchewan. Highly worth reading and seeing.

Blue Moo by Sandra Boynton

Frankly, I was a bit baffled by this book when I first opened it up. It wasn’t a story book. It–I couldn’t figure out what it was. But then I popped in the CD and fell in love. The book has illustrations and original lyrics to 18 hilarious songs, played in a variety of styles from doo-wop to blues to tango.

In the style of the Beach Boys’ iconic car songs, “Speed Turtle” includes:

“It is compact, streamlined, built to last,
shiny and green and so incredibly fast–

It’s a speed turtle! Whoa-ho!
It’s a speed turtle! Oh, no!
Man alive, it’s in overdrive. Go, little turtle, go go”

And my favorite song of all, “Your Personal Penguin” has me singing:

“I want to be your personal penguin
I want to walk right by your side…
I want to be your personal penguin from now on.”

This book/CD combo is too great not to share, so I pulled it out and popped in the disc when my friend Gena and her children (third and fifth grade?) were over one evening. C and N (as well as Gena, Anna, and I) had a blast singing and dancing along, all the while enjoying the illustrations and enjoyably laid out lyrics.

I’m contemplating buying myself a copy.

Reading My LibraryI’m still reading my way through the children’s picture book section of my no-longer-local library. For more comments on children’s books, see the rest of my Reading My Library posts or check out Carrie’s blog Reading My Library, which chronicles her and her children’s trip through the children’s section of their local library.

Categories Books, Goals

Reading by the Numbers

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As of yesterday, April 25, 2012, I have been working on my epic library reading project for 2058 days.

In those 2058 days, I consumed 3487 library products (not counting the half-read ones that I intend to go back to sometime). That’s 1.69 library products per day.

Library products? What’s that supposed to mean?

That’s everything…
…Picture books (1203 titles read)
…First Readers (62 titles read)
…Beginning Chapter Books (91 titles read)
…Children’s Fiction (306 titles read)
…YA books (23 titles read)
…Juvenile nonfiction (140 titles read)
…Children’s CDs (42 discs listened to)
…Children’s DVDs (47 discs watched)
…Children’s VHSs (1 video watched)
…Adult Fiction (377 titles read)
…Adult Nonfiction (589 titles read)
…Adult Cassette Tapes (2 tape sets listened to)
…Adult CDs (432 discs listened to)
…Adult DVDs (106 discs watched)
…Periodicals (66 issues read)

Do you think that’s cheating?

I totally do. Which is why I also separate my reading out into books and into adult books.

I’ve read 2857 books since starting this project–a rate of 1.39 books per day.

I’ve read 1032 adult books and periodicals since beginning the project–a rate of .5 books per day.

It’s been 311 days since I last tabulated my reading, and in that time, I’ve read/listened to/watched…
…312 Picture books (one per day)
…9 First readers (just under 1 per month)
…9 Beginning chapter books (just under 1 per month)
…57 Children’s fiction books (about 5.5 per month)
…16 YA books (about 1.5 per month)
…52 Children’s nonfiction books (about 5 per month)
…9 Children’s CDs (about 1 per month)
…1 Children’s DVD
…29 Fiction books (just under 3 per month)
…49 Nonfiction books (just under 5 per month)
…166 Adult CDs (16 per month)
…9 Adult DVDs (just under 1 per month)
…6 Periodicals (about 1 every two months)

Since I check out my materials in 6 week intervals, let’s look at what I typical consume per library trip (vs. what I typically check out per library trip):
…42 Picture books (vs. 50 checked out)
…1.2 First Readers (this is probably the average checked out too)
…1.2 Beginning Chapter Books (ditto above)
…7.7 Children’s fiction (vs. 6-8 checked out)
…2.2 YA books (vs. 2-3 checked out)
…7 Children’s nonfiction (vs. 8 checked out)
…2.8 Adult fiction (vs. 4-5 checked out)
…4.7 Adult nonfiction (vs. 6-8 checked out)
…23.6 CDs (vs. 25 checked out)
…1.3 DVDs (vs. 1 checked out–this is because I sometimes get the DVDs via Netflix or whatever and then count them because the library does own a copy)

Yes, that’s right. I typically check out 100-110 items from the library each visit–and have consumed an average of 98 items per 6 week visit. Not bad if you ask me.

According to my brother-out-law (who is a library aide) and his coworker (a librarian), there are approximately 30,000 books at the library I’m attempting to read through. Which means that (if I’ve got my math right: 30,000 books x 6 weeks/98 books x 1 year/52 weeks) it will take me around 35 years to complete this project.

Yes, it’ll take me forever to read my library-but I’ll say I’m making halfway decent progress :-)

Categories What's on Your Nightstand?

Nightstand (April 2012)

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In what is becoming a refrain for me, I’ve been busy–busy enough that I haven’t blogged much and haven’t written anywhere near as many reviews as I’d have liked. But I’ve still been reading in every snatched moment.

Books to be Read

On top of my Nightstand

This month I read:

Adult Fiction

  • Dear Lady by Robin Lee Hatcher
  • The Hidden Flame by Davis Bunn and Janette Oke
    I’d already met Abigail, a family-less woman of the early church, in The Centurion’s Wife. There, she was an unassuming character, gently inviting Leah (the main character of that novel) into the community of believers. Abigail is still serving the church, but somehow she’s managed to catch the eye of two very different men: one a well-endowed Pharisee merchant, another a well-positioned Roman soldier. She’s not sure she is interested in either, but what choice does she have in the matter? This story takes the reader through the martyrdom of Stephen-moving slowly through the times of the first church.
  • Last of the Dixie Heroes by Peter Abrahams
    I’ve really lucked out that Abrahams’ name starts with AB. Had I begun my trip through the fiction section of my not-so-local library with an author that I despised, I might have despaired. As it is, I’ve enjoyed each of the half dozen or so suspense novels I’ve read by Abrahams so far. This one, about a Rebel Civil War reenactor who finds himself a bit deeper amidst battle than he expected, was no exception.
  • Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
    While listening to the chapter on Northanger Abbey in A Jane Austen Education, I realized that I had never read this particular work of Austen’s. I set out immediately to correct that oversight and found it a delightful story, one that must be added to my list of favorites (along with pretty much everything else by Austen.)
  • Sweet Caroline by Rachel Hauck
    Caroline is about to spread her wings and fly off to Barcelona, leaving behind her responsible but unexciting life as bookkeeper-slash-waitress at the decrepit Frogmore Cafe. But then she learns that the late owner of the Cafe has willed it to…her. Either she takes it, or it’ll be closed. Sweet Caroline is fluff Christian romance, nothing spectacular. I did enjoy it, though.

Books to be Read

Top shelf of my Nightstand

Adult Non-fiction

  • Changing Diapers by Kally Wels
    Yes, I read books about cloth diapering. Sue me. This was a fun little guide for Moms who have made the decision to cloth diaper (or are strongly leaning that way) and who want some direction regarding the options and/or the process. This book is decidedly pro-cloth diapering and does NOT give both sides of the issue. If you’ve chosen not to cloth diaper and are inclined toward Mommy-guilt, do yourself a favor and don’t read this. As for me, I read it while thanking God that the little Miss (my niece) is cloth-diapered–getting to change her every so often helps keep the covetousness at bay :-)
  • Coffee is bad good for you by Robert J Davis
    Have you ever been confused by the conflicting food and nutrition information you hear from just about everywhere? Who hasn’t been? Robert J. Davis puts a collection of popular food/diet information through the evidence test–and shares his findings. This is a rare nutrition book that gets my (almost unequivocal) stamp of approval. Davis is true to his word and avoids the sensationalism to get down to the science behind the headlines. What I liked best about this book is that Davis is willing to say that the jury’s still out–something most health reporters don’t seem to understand in their rush to report what the latest study “proves”.
  • Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America by Ann Coulter
    I read this. I liked parts of it. I didn’t like other parts. I think Coulter’s crazy. I think she’s very intelligent. I think that if you’re a conservative, you might want to read my full review. If you’re a liberal, you’d probably rather not. Coulter takes delight in ticking off liberals–and, while I don’t delight in doing the same, probably just hearing her described will be enough to raise your blood pressure (I know it raises my blood pressure to hear about certain authors/personalities who take delight in raging against me and mine).
  • A Jane Austen Education by William Deresiewicz
    The life “Billy” has lived is far different from mine–and I disagree with many of the choices he describes having made in his memoir of growing up through his encounters with Jane Austen’s fiction–but that doesn’t change my opinion of this book. It is the perfect bibliophile memoir. Deresiewicz takes Austen seriously, extracts valuable life lessons from Austen’s fiction, and shares enough (but not too much) about his own life to make the reader sympathize with him. I sincerely enjoyed this book.
  • Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy
    Yes, I also read pregnancy books–although the official word on this is “research” for the story that I may someday move from my head to paper.
  • Mere Anarchy by Woody Allen
    I don’t know much about Woody Allen, but apparently he’s a comic. I’m not sure about how funny he is, but his Mere Anarchy certainly was fun to read. He used big words, SAT or GRE caliber words. He alludes to educated things. Regularly. It’s fanTAStic. I’d read this again, just for the privilege of reading phrases like “my spine suddenly assumed the shape of a Mobius strip” and “only the fumes of a smoked whitefish I was deconstructing at the Carnegie Deli induced sufficient hallucinatory molecules to conjure the following correspondence.”
  • Miller’s Collecting Science and Technology
    I don’t collect science and technology, but it sure is fascinating to read all about the pieces.
  • Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
    I had heard about this book (via a podcast I listen to regularly), read about this book (on a couple of different blogs), and talked about this book (with my dad, who’d heard about it from the same podcast I had). It was on my TBR list, but it wasn’t until I saw a hardback copy for sale at the used store that I actually settled down to read it. Nothing prepared me for what I found within. This is a fascinating look at the factors that contribute to success. It was not at all what I expected, but just as interesting as I’d expected. I hope to review this in more detail at some point (add it to the pile of “review in more depth someday”.)
  • The Roots of Obama’s Rage by Dinesh D’Souza
    I cringed when this book came up next in my attempt to speed my way through the 973.932’s at my library (current events-if I can finish this and close the gap between it and the next section before the next presidency, I can somewhat stem the tide of new books about politics that I’ll have to read.) The title of this book is awful. It reminds me of all those books that attempted to psychoanalyze Bush or explain how really he was just a puppet of Rove/Cheney/Big Oil. I hate that sort of thing. Hate it, hate it, hate it. And rage? Since when is Obama raging? Condescending, I can see, but I’ve never thought of him as raging. Anyway, I was inclined to not want to read this book. The redeeming feature was that it is written by Dinesh D’Souza, whose books I really enjoy reading. Thankfully, it turned out that this book was mis-titled, and isn’t really about rage after all (thank goodness!) I propose that it should have been titled The Last Anti-colonial. D’Souza draws from Obama’s autobiographies to explain how he feels that the underlying value behind Obama’s policy decisions is anti-colonialism. I’m fascinated by this thesis, and (for the first time ever) am eager to read Obama’s autobiographies myself in order to put D’Souza’s theory under the microscope.

Books to be Read

Bottom shelf of my Nightstand

Juvenile Fiction

  • Cam Jansen and the Mystery of Flight 54 by David A. Adler
  • Cam Jansen and the Mystery at the Haunted House by David A. Adler
  • Don’t Talk to Me about the War by David A. Adler
    Tommy Duncan does not want to hear about the war going on in Europe. There’s enough going on in his own home to keep him worried, what with his mom’s shaking and unexpectedly dropping things and falling and whatnot. And when Tommy isn’t worried about his mom, he wants to take his mind off of trouble by thinking about stuff like baseball–not gloom and doom stories of war. But Tommy’s friend friend Beth and their new classmate Sarah, a refugee from the Third Reich, aren’t going to let him ignore what’s going on in the world.
  • The Ghost at Skeleton Rock by Franklin W. Dixon
  • The Mystery Girl by Gertrude Chandler Warner
  • Nine Days a Queen by Ann Rinaldi
    I think I’m on my way to becoming a historical fiction junkie. And if this book is any indication, Rinaldi is among the best. This work is, of course, about Lady Jane Grey, who reigned for nine days before being deposed by her cousin, Mary, who would later have a blood-red cocktail drink named after her. The bit of this book that hooked me for good? The adolescent Edward, Mary, Jane, and Elizabeth (do you recognize these four as King Edward the Sixth, Bloody Mary, Jane Grey, and Queen Elizabeth I?) are discussing the King’s new wife:

    “She is brave,” Elizabeth put in.

    “She has a good head on her shoulders,” Edward said, and just as he said it, he minded what he had spoken, and we all looked at one another in horror.

    “May it stay there,” Mary whispered as if in prayer. And she crossed herself.

    Elizabeth said nothing, but I saw her pale. Her mother had been beheaded when she was just three. She never spoke of it. But I wondered what she felt and how she could live knowing about it.

    ~Nine Days a Queen by Ann Rinaldi, page 14

  • At least 28 Children’s picture books

Juvenile Non-Fiction

  • Tell Them We Remember by Susan D. Bachrach

Don’t forget to drop by 5 Minutes 4 Books to see what others are reading this month!

What's on Your Nightstand?

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “Demonic” by Ann Coulter

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“She’s crazy!” my friend proclaimed from the front of the vehicle when I mentioned that I had just finished listening to Ann Coulter’s Demonic: How the Liberal Mob is Endangering America via the text-to-speech feature on my Kindle.

I’ll admit that this is a common reaction to Coulter–and one that I’m inclined to agree with.

I’m disappointed that this is the case, though, because her “crazy” often ends up masking that she’s also brilliant.

Coulter’s Demonic is typical of her books in that it is brash, liberal-bashing, and stuffed with well-researched connections between historical and modern events.

Coulter’s thesis is that “the Democratic Party is the party of the mob, irrespective of what the mob represents.” She argues that the Democrats gain power by encouraging mob behavior and then by manipulating said mob to their own means.

In the first part of Demonic, Coulter compares the behavior of modern day liberals to that of Gustave Le Bon’s description of a mob in The Crowd: A Study of the Popular Mind (published in 1896).

“All the characteristics of mob behavior set forth by Le Bon in 1895 are evident in modern liberalism–simplistic, extreme black-and-white thinking, fear of novelty, inability to follow logical arguments, acceptance of contradictory ideas, being transfixed by images, a religious worship of their leaders, and a blind hatred of their opponents.”

Coulter unpacks each of these characteristics, citing dozens of prominent examples for each accusation. To the accusation that all American politics is simply mob behavior, she offers conservative counterexamples (For example, the criticism that Ronald Reagan experienced from conservatives during his eight year presidency as a counterexample to political “idol” worship.)

In the second part of Demonic, Coulter argues that Liberal mob behavior has its roots in the lawless French Revolution–a revolution about as foreign to the American Revolution as you can get (despite modern attempts to compare them). In this second section, Coulter devotes less time to insulting modern liberals and focuses on the history of the respective revolutions–leaving the reader to draw parallels with modern times as she contrasts the French Revolution’s godless mobs and the American Revolutionaries’ objections which, only as a last resort (and with careful advance planning by a thoughtful assembly), resulted in violent war. Interestingly, Coulter describes how the Founding Fathers were of a split opinion regarding the original Boston Tea Party–with some arguing that it was too close to mob behavior while others argued that it was not mob-like because it had been carefully planned only after lawful attempts at protest had been exhausted. Apparent in all the Founding Fathers’ discussion of the Tea Party was their inherent distaste for mob behavior.

Which leads to the third part of Demonic, in which Coulter describes the tendency of liberals to instigate, abet, and defend violent mobs. Coulter gives the college campus protests of the sixties, civil rights mobs (both on the pro- and anti- civil rights sides), and the Central Park rape case as examples of the above. She also works through a number of media accusations of violent behavior from conservatives, finding that in most cases the accusations were overblown (or the violent individuals and groups were not conservatives after all.)

Finally, Coulter attempts a psychoanalysis of liberal mobs, asking “Why would anyone be a liberal?” She answers her own question by saying that liberals 1) have a thirst for popularity, 2) ignore the history of the French Revolution and therefore commit its same mistakes, and 3) hate traditional morality and are willing to do anything to overthrow it. Coulter ends by trying (not entirely successfully) to explain her cryptic title, explaining that Satan is the father of the mob.

Can you see the “crazy” even in just my description of Demonic? Coulter has a determined animosity towards liberals and makes no attempt to hide it. She isn’t going to “play nice” or “soften the blow” with meaningless affirmations. She says it exactly as she sees it.

Unfortunately (I think), this animus is likely to make most people dismiss the connections Coulter has made between historical and current events. I think her readers are likely to either agree with her animosity and be confirmed in their biases against liberals and liberalism or they are going to disagree with her animosity and take offense–most on either side missing the historical warning against mob-like behavior.

For my part, I like to think that I’m a more discriminating reader–able to glean valuable insight that will help me to combat mob behavior wherever it is found (on the left or the right or anywhere else) without adopting Coulter’s abrasive attitude towards the Left.

And I pray, that by God’s grace, I would recognize that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:12).

While I fully support strong action against unlawful mob behavior, my war is not against the mob. While I am a committed conservative, my war is not against liberals. My war is spiritual, not physical.

I have a different strategy than political machinations, than legal cases, than military action. My strategy is to fasten truth as a belt around my waist, to let righteousness guard my chest, to prepare my feet to share the gospel of peace, to trust God to deflect the devil’s arrows, to let salvation be a crown on my head, and to fight with God’s word to advance the gospel of Christ (Eph 6:13-20).

I will love my enemies–not in the sense that I will capitulate to a mob’s demands–but in the sense that I will sacrifice in order that they can know salvation in Christ. How can I do any less when my Savior responded to the truly evil mob (including myself) who demanded His death by offering His life to the Father as a ransom for the mob’s sin?

Categories What's on Your Nightstand?

Nightstand (March 2012)

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I’ve been busy, busy, busy, which has decreased my reading somewhat. But I’ve still managed to get a good piece in.

Books to be Read

The top shelf of my Nightstand for April

This month I read:

Adult Fiction

  • Catching Katie by Robin Lee Hatcher
    Suffrage-fighter Katie Jones returns to her small-town home-town to encourage her fellow women to fight for enfranchisement for women in other states. Her plans go somewhat awry when her best friend, Paul Rafferty, falls in love with her and wants to get married. This was a light read that I was not overly impressed with. Katie’s a bit too self-centered, the “religious” element a bit too contrived, and the plot a bit too formulaic for me to really enjoy it.
  • A New Name by Grace Livingston Hill
    In some ways, very unusual for Hill (thanks to a male main character, a very understated romance, and some definite law-breaking). In other ways, classic Hill (thanks to romanticized mothers, a strong “conversion” scene, and lots of great food and household descriptions.)

Books to be Read

The bottom shelf of my Nightstand for April

Adult Non-fiction

  • Decision Points by George W. Bush
    A fascinating look at some of the key decisions 43 made over the course of his presidency (and a couple prior to that)–and how he made those decisions. George W. explains why he did what he did–and offers some retrospective thoughts on the outcomes of his decisions. I still don’t agree with everything Bush did during his presidency, but this book confirmed my respect for him as a leader. Read some quotes I’ve extracted from this book.
  • Don’t Sing at the Table by Adriana Trigiani
    A delightful little memoir about Adriana’s grandmothers, filled with common anecdotes made special by Trigiani’s telling and wise sayings that are special however they come. I read this book based on Jennifer’s review at 5M4B–and I’m glad I did.
  • I’m Not Really Here by Tim Allen
    Supposed to be humorous. Wasn’t quite. Meh.
  • The Language of God by Francis S. Collins
    An attempt to reconcile science with faith–or, more specifically, Darwinian evolution with Christianity. I disagreed with much of this book, but appreciated it for provoking thought. Read my full review here.
  • The Pregnancy Project by Gaby Rodriguez
    Few people were surprised when Gaby announced that she was pregnant in her senior year of high school. She was the daughter of a single mom who’d had her first child at fifteen. Many of her older siblings had carried out the family legacy of teen pregnancy. Gaby’s announcement was disappointing, but no surprise–until five or so months later when she announced that she wasn’t actually pregnant. The Pregnancy Project recounts Gaby’s senior project, a social experiment in expectations and prejudices. I had some definite peeves with this book (Gaby’s written voice is less than stellar and the way she skirts the question of whether she and her boyfriend were sexually active frustrated me), but the overall story is fascinating.
  • The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard
    Stuff is all around us. We buy it from the store, we bring it home, we pile it up. Eventually, we go through and toss it out. But stuff’s story begins long before it reaches us–and lasts long after we toss it out. Leonard tells that story in The Story of Stuff. I liked this book except when I didn’t. I enjoyed the information and appreciated how Leonard made me think about the environmental impact of “stuff”. I did not appreciate Leonard’s clear bias against individual responsibility and toward government action. (I tend towards libertarianism–and Leonard is evidently a strong proponent of the nanny state.)

Books to be Read

My traveling bag of books I’m in the middle of

Juvenile Fiction

  • Cam Jansen and the Mystery at the Monkey House by David A. Adler
  • Only You, Sierra by Robin Jones Gunn
    I’ve read the Christy Miller books and the Glenbrook books and the Sisterchicks books–but I’ve never read the Sierra Jensen series until I started this last weekend. And now I’m hooked–so much so that I was VERY disappointed that I can’t access books two and three on my Kindle edition that was supposed to be the Sierra Jensen Collection, volume 1 (containing all three books). Because I’m hooked, I’m actually reading books 2 and 3 on my computer (not something I like to do since the computer’s backlighting KILLS my eyes). I’ll review all three once I’m done, but for now I’m thinkin’ Sierra’s a slightly less conformist but ultimately more normal version of Christy Miller.
  • Page by Paige by Laura Lee Gulledge
    I never imagined I’d like graphic novels, but this one is the second I’ve read so far, and it’s rather good. Paige is timid, insecure, and not so sure she likes being transplanted into New York City. But, by taking to heart some art tips from her Grandma (who was a real artist) and practicing them in her sketchpad (and in life), she manages to adjust to and find her place within her new world. This novel reminded me of my little sister.
  • The Search for Delicious by Natalie Babbit
    Go read Carrie’s Review of this book. She’s right, there doesn’t seem to be any ulterior motive behind this delicious little read. I positively devoured it.
  • Young Cam Jansen and the Baseball Mystery by David A. Adler
  • At least 14 Children’s picture books, 14 of which were “Franklin” stories

Don’t forget to drop by 5 Minutes 4 Books to see what others are reading this month!

What's on Your Nightstand?

Categories Book Notes, The Week in Words

WiW: Notes from my readings

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With less than one week before books are due back to the library, I’m in a frenzy trying to get several books finished up. The below is just a sampling of what I’ve been reading.

George W. Bush on the Iraq War prior to the 2006 “Surge”:

“For the first time, I was worried we might not succeed…Ultimately, our enemies could use [Iran’s] sanctuary to attack our homeland. We had to stop that from happening

I made a conscious decision to show resolve, not doubt, in public. I wanted the American people to understand that I believed wholeheartedly in our cause. The Iraqis needed to know we would not abandon them. Our enemies need to know we were determined to defeat them. Most of all, I thought about our troops. I tried to imagine how it would feel to be a twenty-year-old on the front lines, or a military mom worrying about her son or daughter. The last thing they needed to hear was the commander in chief whining about how conflicted he felt. If I had concerns about the direction of the war, I needed to make changes in the policy, not wallow in public.”

~George W. Bush in Decision Points

I’m not a George W. groupie by any stretch of the imagination. I certainly disagree with some (even many) of his policies. But I admire him greatly–and am immensely thankful that he was our leader during the years after 9/11.

Reading Decision Points has cemented my admiration of the 43rd president. Whatever I think about some of his policies, George W. Bush was a leader. He recognized that he could not sit idly by, waiting for someone else to do what he thought needed to be done. He took personal initiative, took personal responsibility, and took the harsh criticism that came with standing as a leader when many would have preferred a figure-head.

Tony Blair on success as an envoy to Palestine:

“The day he left Downing Street, Tony Blair accepted a post as special envoy to help the Palestinians build the institutions of a democratic state. It wasn’t glamorous work, but it was necessary. ‘If I win the Nobel Peace Prize,’ Tony joked, ‘you will know I have failed.”
~George W. Bush in Decision Points

Considering that Palestinian-peace-obstructing Yasser Arafat won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994, I’d say Blair is probably right.

Arthur Koestler on American psychology:

“For the anthropomorphic view of the rat, American psychology substituted a rattomorphic view of man.”
~quoted in Alfie Kohn’s Punished by Rewards

Pre-modern animism raised animals to have human (or godlike) attributes. Modern naturalism lowered humans to have merely animal attributes. Yet only Christianity can account for man’s wonderfulness and horridness.

Viola Trigiani on debt:

“There is no such thing as a silent partner. When you owe someone money, they own you.”
~Factory rules related in Adriana Trigiani’s Don’t Sing at the Table

A very Biblical sentiment. “The borrower is the slave of the lender” (Proverbs 22:7).

The Week in WordsDon’t forget to take a look at Barbara H’s meme “The Week in Words”, where bloggers collect quotes they’ve read throughout the week.

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “The Language of God” by Francis Collins

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Do science and faith conflict? Does being a scientist preclude being a believer? Can you be a Christian and a Darwinian evolutionist at the same time?

These are the questions Francis Collins, head of the Human Genome Project, seeks to answer in his book The Language of God.

The book starts with Collins’ personal testimony from atheism to belief (his testimony involves C.S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity and, more specifically, Lewis’s moral argument for God). In the second chapter, Collins addresses some common rationalist arguments against belief.

Having answered some fundamental objections, Collins jumps into his argument for the compatibility of science and faith. He begins with Big Bang cosmology, a hard science which (I feel) offers compelling evidence for the God of the Bible. Collins’ argument here is straightforward and rather common (among Bible-believing Big-Bang theorists). The Big Bang insists that the universe had a beginning and therefore it needs a beginner; the anthropic principle shows that the universe is finely-tuned as though it were built with man in mind.

So far, I’m in complete agreement with Collins. The moral argument for God is a good and rational argument. Science and faith are compatible. The Big Bang testifies loudly of the God of the Bible. The anthropic principle indicates the personal nature of the Creator.

And then Collins loses me.

Because what comes next is an argument for the compatibility of Darwinian evolution and historic Christianity.

In short order, Collins debunks the argument from design (er…tries his best to debunk), derides the “God of the gaps”, and discounts the Cambrian explosion as a challenge to Darwinian evolution. But really, Collins’ argument boils down to this statement he makes in the middle of chapter 4:

“No serious biologist today doubts the theory of evolution to explain the marvelous complexity and diversity of life. In fact, the relatedness of all species through the mechanism of evolution is such a profound foundation for the understanding of all biology that it is difficult to imagine how one would study life without it.”

Collins unpacks his support for Darwinian evolution as he explains the genome and his work on the Human Genome Project. Collins refers to DNA as “the language of God”–“the DNA language by which God spoke life into being.” Honestly? I can’t say I disagree with him on that point. DNA is a marvelous thing, and it is the language that “tells” living things to carry out the functions of living. But then Collins tells us that most of God’s language is gobbledy-gook. He makes his case for evolution based on the similarities between the DNA of all living things (and the ability to create a phylogenetic tree) and on the prevalence of so-called “junk DNA” (DNA that has no known function.)

The difficulty I have with the “junk DNA” argument, in particular, is that, after deriding a “God of the gaps”, Collins now finds it completely reasonable to introduce an “evolution of the gaps”. We don’t know of functions for this DNA so it must be junk–and therefore must have come about by evolution rather than design. The evidence suggests otherwise. Unfortunately, many scientists who hold to this belief have abandoned the search for function in the “junk DNA”–but those who have continued to study junk DNA have found that there’s much less “junk” than they originally thought.

Part 3 of The Language of God turns again to science/faith conflict. Collins issues a warning by hailing back to Galileo–reminding believers that their interpretations have been wrong before, and that holding too tightly to a wrong interpretation can result in damage to the faith. Now he moves on to what he considers to be the four options in dealing with science faith issues: atheism and agnosticism (where science trumps faith), creationism (where faith trumps science), intelligent design (when science needs divine help), and “Biologos” (where science and faith are in harmony). “BioLogos”, of course, means theistic evolution.

This section was a mixed bag. I agreed with Collins’ point in the chapter on atheism. Science can not be used to discount the existence of God, especially since science cannot account for morality. I agreed with many (but not all) of Collins’ arguments against intelligent design, especially his argument that intelligent design does not offer a predictive (that is, testable) scientific model.

But Collins’ chapter on creationism seems to me to be setting up a straw man of sorts by focusing on Young Earth creationism. It is true that to hold that the universe is less than 10,000 years old means discounting the evidences of multiple branches of science (geology and cosmology primary ones, but analysis of prolific Chinese genealogies also suggests that humanity itself is older than Ussher’s date for creation.) But does this mean that the Genesis accounts are not to be taken literally and that Darwinian evolution should be accepted?

I don’t believe so. Collins completely ignores what I feel to be the most Biblically- and scientifically-faithful alternative: old earth creationism, particularly the (non-Darwinian) creation model set forth by Reasons to Believe. Reasons to Believe has a high view of Scripture AND a high view of science, believing both to be books written by God to display Himself.

The difference between Collins’ approach and RTB’s is marked. Collins says “Since the common interpretation of science and the common interpretation of Scripture are incompatible, the interpretation of Scripture must be wrong.” Unfortunately, Collins does not offer any alternative exegesis in support of theistic evolution. On the other hand, Reasons to Believe says “Since the common interpretation of science and the common interpretation of Scripture are incompatible, we must examine both carefully to ascertain what God is really speaking through the two books of general and special revelation.” Reasons to Believe offers a legitimate alternative exegesis of Genesis 1-2, as well as other creation accounts in Scripture–and offers a legitimate scientific model that has explanatory power for the observations Collins sees as irrefutable proofs of evolution.

Ultimately, I think that Collins is well-meaning in his writing and is a sincere believer in God–but I think he has more in common with a liberal branch of theology that discounts Scripture as truly inerrant than with historic Christianity (which has upheld a high view of Scripture). He made arguments for evolution, sure, ones that different individuals may find more or less convincing (I am less convinced). He made arguments for faith from outside the realm of science. But despite stating that science and faith are compatible, Collins failed to make any good arguments for how science and faith are compatible.

I’m glad I read The Language of God, and I’m thankful to Janet for drawing my attention to this book. Clearly, though, I was unconvinced by Collins’ arguments for theistic evolution (what he calls “BioLogos”).

Rating:3 Stars
Category:Science and Religion
Synopsis:The head of the Human Genome Project attempts to make a case for the compatibility of Christianity and science, particularly Darwinian evolution.
Recommendation: A thought-provoking book, but ultimately unconvincing. I recommend it for critical readers, not so much for those who aren’t able or willing to think critically as they read.