5 stars

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “Breadcrumbs” by Anne Ursu

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Hazel’s Mom wants her to find new friends–girl friends. She’s just not so sure about Hazel and Jack’s best-friendship. She knows how tenuous those can become once adolescence begins.

The girls at Hazel’s school want to know if she and Jack are “going out.” Hazel feels like maybe she should say yes, because then maybe they’d think she was likeable enough that someone would want to go out with her. But she isn’t “going out” with Jack. She doesn’t want to “go out” with Jack. He’s her best friend.

“And there was a time when everyone understood that, but they didn’t anymore, because apparently when you get to be a certain age you’re supposed to wake up one morning and not want to be best friends with your best friend anymore, just because he’s a boy and you don’t have a messenger bag.”

Except that one day, Hazel wakes up and her best friend doesn’t want to be friends with her anymore.

Why did I love Breadcrumbs as much as I did? What made it shine so brightly among the myriads of children’s stories available?

Like Amy said in her review, I have a hard time articulating my reasons.

But I’ll try nonetheless.

First, and perhaps most strongly, I loved the literary allusions in this story.

Savvy readers can probably already figure out that this story is at least somehow related to Hansel and Gretel. But the story is just as much (or more) a retelling of the less familiar “The Snow Queen”. But the references to other works don’t stop there. I know I didn’t catch all the references, because I’m not as widely read in children’s fantasy as I could be, but I caught references to Chronicles of Narnia, Coraline, Alice in the Wonderland, Harry Potter, and pretty much every Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale.

Second, I loved this story for how it captured a tension between the wonder of fairy tales and “cold science”.

Hazel hates how everyone tries to tell her the boring scientific explanations for everything when she’s caught in the magic that is snow or whatever. When Jack’s soul goes cold (for that is what happened to him), he suddenly finds fairy tales incomprehensible but math makes perfect sense. Yet math and science aren’t completely placed outside the realm of imagination. Jack has arranged imaginary stats for his superhero baseball team. The imaginative Uncle Martin delights in the geometry of snowflakes.

Third, I love this book for its description of the woods.

The book is split in two–the first half is set in the normal world of school children, the second half in the wild woods not far from the sledding hill. The first half is ordinary with occasional asides into fairy tale, the second half is fairy tale with occasional flashbacks into “reality”. The second half was my favorite.

You see, people go into the woods because they’re desperate. Desperate people prey on other desperate people; desperate people fall prey to other desperate people. Everyone there is either predator or prey, desperately seeking something they somehow failed to find in the “real world”.

It might seem that the woods are a fantasy world completely separated from reality, but really, it’s an unveiling of reality–pulling back the mundane details of daily activities to show the heart.

Finally (for now), I loved this book because it’s a story of friendship against fierce foes.

Hazel and Jack are friends, just friends, not boyfriend-and-girlfriend. I love this, in an age where boys and girls are encouraged to “likey-likey” stuff at younger and younger ages. But that doesn’t mean that non-romantic girl-boy friendship is seen as particularly normal or easy. In fact, Hazel and Jack are constantly at odds with the reality that boy-girl friendships don’t usually last through the transition from child to teen.

Their friendship might not last through this adventure. Jack might be changed. Hazel might be changed. When Hazel sets out to rescue her friend Jack, she has no promises that life might return to usual. She might be able to rescue Jack, but she has no illusions that she’ll be able to get her friend back. She has to selflessly choose to rescue her friend–even if she rescues him only to find that he’s not her friend anymore.

I love this. I love how this speaks of real love, not the smarmy stuff found in so many stories. And I love how this story ends. It’s perfectly fitting.

This is truly a good story.

Rating:5 Stars
Category:Middle Grade Fantasy
Synopsis:Hazel ventures into the woods to rescue her friend Jack, who has been taken away by an enchantress.
Recommendation: Read this book. It’s great.

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “Has God Spoken?” by Hank Hanegraaf

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Has God spoken?

Manuscript evidences say “Yes”.

Copyist practices resulted in a Bible that shows significant harmony in manuscripts spanning up to a thousand years. The way many teachings (especially Jesus’ teachings) were organized for an oral culture ensured accurate transmission of Christ’s words to the authors of the Gospels. The enormous volume of Biblical papyri and parchments and their close proximity to the original autographs makes the Bible the most reliable of ancient manuscripts (that is, the least likely to be contaminated by legend or heresy). The internal evidence of different but compatible eyewitness testimonies is a remarkable testimony to the power of the book. External evidences from credible early AD historians buttress the historical details of the New Testament. And the science of textual criticism allows us to carefully evaluate and identify what the original autographs said.

Has God spoken?

Archeology says “Yes”.

Steles (large stone monuments containing written records of events) and stones corroborate the Biblical stories of the Exodus, of King David and other Israelite kings, and of Pilate’s authority in Judea. Archeology has unearthed the Pools of Siloam and Bethesda, both of which turn out to be just as they are described in the New Testament. Assyrian archeology corroborates the Biblical tale of the Israelite Exodus. The Dead Sea Scrolls resolve the most commonly cited inconsistencies between Biblical record and archeology. And the Epic of Gilgamesh shows clear parallels with the Biblical account of the flood, while setting up a contrast between a clearly mythical and a clearly historical retelling.

Has God spoken?

Prophecy says “Yes”.

The succession of nations turned out just as prophesied by Daniel. Typological prophecies fulfilled in Christ bring together the whole of Scripture (with its multiple antitypes) into the person of Christ. The abomination of desolation predicted by Christ happened “before this generation passes away” just as Christ had said. The prophesied resurrection of Christ can be seen (through many proofs laid out in this book) as having come true. And seven specific prophecies regarding the Messiah definitively pinpoint Jesus of Nazareth as Israel’s Messiah.

Has God spoken?

Yes, He has. And we must listen

Hanegraaff’s apologetic on the inspiration of Scripture takes the reader through his famous acronym M-A-P-S (manuscripts, archeology, prophecy, and Scripture) with subacronyms for each point, all to demonstrate that God has indeed spoken through Scripture and that we have a responsibility to be obedient to His word.

Hanegraaff does a great job of demonstrating some of the best apologetics for the inspiration of Scripture–and does it in an utterly readable style. I have only two beefs with this book: First, the acronyms that can be very helpful for memorizing information are not always the most helpful way of arranging information for understanding. As such, individuals who lack familiarity with some of the basic apologetic arguments presented in this book may feel that they are jumping around from one thing to another quite a bit. Second, Hanegraaff references modern politicos, pundits, and scholars who pooh-pooh the inspiration of Scripture. If he were only referencing scholars, that would be one thing. But he also refers to President Obama and Bill O’Reilly (among others) as anti-inspirationalists. And so they are, but I feel that including them in this book as examples makes what could be a timeless reference work into a period piece that will quickly appear dated.

Nevertheless, I feel that this is a valuable apologetic work and I highly recommend it to those interested in apologetics or Scripture or archeology–or, actually, I think most Christians could benefit from reading this book.

This book was provided to me at no cost via Thomas Nelson’s “BookSneeze” program. My opinion, as always, is my own.

Rating:5 Stars
Category: Apologetics
Synopsis:A detailed apologetic (using easy-to-remember acronyms) for the inspiration of Scripture.
Recommendation: A valuable resource for the Christian library, especially for those who enjoy apologetics or desire to learn more about the Bible.

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “The Summer I learned to Fly” by Dana Reinhardt

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After my “eh” review of The FitzOsbornes in Exile (which I liked but didn’t necessarily feel was award-winning) and my definitively negative review of The Big Crunch, you might be thinking that I’ve gotten into a negative rut and won’t ever be content with a YA nominee.

But that’s because I hadn’t yet reviewed Dana Reinhardt’s The Summer I learned to Fly.

Thirteen-year-old Birdie has great plans for the summer. She’ll work long hours in her mom’s cheese shop, helping Nick (her mom’s employee and her secret crush) make pasta. She’ll take care of her pet rat Hum and visit with her mom’s other employee Swoozie.

This was her family after all, an odd mix of employees from her Mom’s cheese shop. It wasn’t that Birdie doesn’t have friends–she enumerates all six friends she’s had throughout her life–it’s just that she’s always felt more like a “one”. And her current three friends are all gone at elite summer camps anyway. It’s a good thing she still has Hum and Nick and Swoozie and Mom.

Except that Nick gets himself a girlfriend (and has an accident), Mom starts hiding things, and Hum gets lost.

When Hum gets lost, Birdie bikes back to the shop to try to find him. There, she discovers that Mom isn’t at the shop late as she’d told Birdie. And she discovers Emmett Crane.

Emmett is hanging out by the dumpster feeding Hum some discarded cheese. He’s a skittish fellow who reveals little but nevertheless becomes something of a friend.

And so begins the summer she learned to fly.

Unlike much YA fiction, this is not a sensational story. It’s not a romance and doesn’t include sex. There’s no violence or otherwise aberrant behavior. Birdie’s family is unusual-ish, but not dysfunctional (her father died while she was very young and her Mom is not quite sure how to tell her 13 year old daughter that she’s now dating.) Birdie complains about her mother and occasionally rebels, but in the ordinary (at least ordinary for my highly-functional family) way. Even as she complains, Birdie still loves her mother–and the author does not portray the mother as being a tyrant or an out-of-the-loop oldie.

The Summer I learned to fly is a delightful, moving coming-of-age story–and one that I highly recommend. This one had better be on the short-list, cause it’s a definite winner.

Rating:5 Stars
Category:YA Fiction
Synopsis:Birdie learns about friendship, dreams, and believing in miracles the summer she meets a homeless boy behind her mother’s cheese shop.
Recommendation: A sweet, appropriately-told coming of age tale that’s one of my picks for the YA shortlist (if I were a judge, that is!)

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “Redeeming Singleness” by Barry Danylak

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Christian books about singleness are all the same.

I should know.

I think I’ve read every one of them.

They all have a couple of requisite chapters explaining why singleness is good before getting into the meat: a) how to be content and productive as a single and b) how to get un-single as quickly and in as godly a manner as possible.

Barry Danylak’s Redeeming Singleness stands out like an apple tree in a field of blowing grass.

In other words, it’s not a thing like the rest of the Christian treatments of singleness.

Redeeming Singleness seeks to establish a Biblical theology of singleness–starting from the beginning, when God said “It is not good that man should be alone”, and ending with Paul’s startling (within the Jewish culture, at least) statement that he “wish[es] that all men were even as [he himself].”

The epilogue neatly summarizes the main thesis of the book:

Christianity is distinctive from its monotheistic sibling faiths of Judaism, Islam, and Mormonism in its affirmation of singleness…it differs from the others in distinctively affirming both singleness and marriage as something good within the new family of God. The reason for this difference has its roots in what makes Christianity fundamentally different from its sibling faiths, namely, its affirmation that Jesus Christ has come in human history as God’s offspring and that through him come all the blessings of the new covenant.

Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the promised seed of Abraham, and in him are Abraham’s true offspring….Since all the blessings of the new covenant are realized through our reconciliation to God through Christ, marriage is no longer a fundamental marker of covenantal blessing as it was in the covenant of Sinai. Singleness lived to the glory of God and the furtherance of his kingdom testifies to the complete sufficiency of Christ for all things. The Christian is fully blessed in Christ, whether he or she is married or single, rich or poor, in comfort or duress…

Paul distinguishes the spiritual gift or charisma of singleness by three elements. First, it is characterized by one who, by the grace of God, lives a continent life apart from marriage…. Second, it is distinguished as a life free from the distractions of a spouse and children, a life characterized by freedom and simplicity…. Third, it is a life enabled for constant service to the King and the kingdom. It emulates the model of the eunuch who is ready and waiting to serve the king whenever and however he is called.

~Redeeming Singleness by Barry Danylak, page 213

This is a robust, Biblically-sound theology of singleness; and it is presented in an engaging and surprisingly (for theology) readable manner.

After reading Danylak’s closing chapter on “The Charisma of Corinth”, I truly desired (perhaps for the first time in my life) to have the gift of singleness. While I can’t say that I have the “charisma” of singleness, Danylak’s description of Christian singleness (the “charisma” or spiritual gift of singleness) as a powerful testimony to the sufficiency of Christ made me long to live out such a testimony. Where previously I had recognized and spoken of marriage as a testimony (in a cosmic play-act) of God’s relationship with His church, I can now see the equally glorious testimony that the single-in-Christ have–the testimony of being complete IN Christ, without need of any other mediating person, action, or state.

This book is a powerful and much-needed look at singleness as seen through the lens of God’s redemptive work. I recommend this book for the single and the married–and especially for the friends of and ministers to single adults. This perspective, lifted straight from the Bible, can help the church to encourage and bless the single among them while avoiding the twin pitfalls of glorifying marriage to the harm of the single adult or denigrating marriage in order to “encourage” the single adult.

Check out Three Star Night’s review of this book. She comes to the same conclusions as I–but expresses her thoughts (and mine?) much better than I.

Rating: 5 stars
Category: Theology of Singleness
Synopsis:Danylak traces a theology of singleness throughout Scripture, seeing singleness within the redemptive framework of the Old and New Testaments.
Recommendation: A much-needed resource in an age where singleness is becoming a new norm–and where the church is struggling to find a holy way of dealing with the “new norm”.

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “Firegirl” by Tony Abbott

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Tom is a rather ordinary seventh grade boy.

He hangs out with his best friend Jeff, reads comic books, drools over red Cobras, and dreams of having “ordinary” superpowers that enable him to save the life of his secret crush, Courtney.

Enter Jessica Feeney.

“It’s odd now to think of how I almost missed what Mrs. Tracy said next. I almost missed it, thinking about Courtney, but I looked up just in time and now I can never forget it.

‘There is…,’ Mrs. Tracy was saying quietly, ‘there is something you need to know about Jessica…'”

Jessica was burned. Badly.

She’s undergoing skin graft treatments at a nearby hospital, which is why she’s going to be joining their classroom partway through the semester.

She looks… awful.

Weird.

Scary.

No one knows what to do or say or think when Jessica’s around.

Firegirl cover

What do you do when “firegirl” walks into your classroom?

I picked this title up because the author “Abbott” just happens to be the very first author in Eiseley library’s alphabetically-by-author-last-name-listed juvenile fiction section. I wasn’t sure what to expect from the almost-YA-looking cover with its string of paper people holding hands–all except the one girl who is singed and burnt.

Turns out, once I started reading, I couldn’t stop.

Firegirl is a snapshot in Tom’s life–just the record of the month or so that Jessica was in his junior high classroom.

But it’s a month that shaped his outlook. It’s a month where he had to make decisions about following the crowd or doing what’s right. It’s a month where he had to decide whether to base his actions on his feelings or on what’s right.

Here, faced with the melted exterior of Jessica Feeney, he has to decide whether the outside or the inside was more important.

I was glad to find that Firegirl was not misclassified in the juvenile fiction section (as opposed to the YA fiction.) This book has none of the graphic violence or gratuitous sex so common in YA fiction–nor does it have the blatant rebellion that is generally in ready supply in that genre. Instead, this is a not-at-all-saccharine story that deals with real-life issues in what I believe is a thoroughly appropriate manner. Tom’s crush is just that–a crush–with no accompanying sexual fantasies or even middle school dating (which I abhor). Jessica’s burns and the circumstances of her burns are not described in an overly sensational way (although they are described realistically). And Tom comes from a relatively functional family that he appreciates (although we see that his friend Jeff comes from a broken family–with some definite consequences to Jeff’s outlook and actions.)

This was a surprisingly good story, and definitely one that I’d recommend. (Although I’d encourage parents to preview it or read it along with their child–while I feel that the subject is dealt with in a very appropriate manner, it’s still a pretty weighty topic, especially given the context of Jessica’s burns.)

Rating: 5 stars
Category:Middle Grade Fiction
Synopsis:Tom learns about compassion and about judging by appearances when a badly burned Jessica Feeney enters his middle school classroom.
Recommendation: For lack of a better term, I can only say that this is probably the most appropriate book I’ve ever read. It deals with tough topics in a realistic yet non-sensational manner. I highly recommend it.

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “Live a Little” by Susan M. Love and Alice D. Domar

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Health information bombards us from a hundred directions. It’s on the television, in the newspaper, on the radio. It glares at us from billboards and public service announcements. Popular magazines tout the newest *amazing* health discovery, and the web has fifty thousand opinions on just about everything.

Every disease has a corresponding nonprofit with a corresponding day, week, or month to promote awareness. And every day, week, or month of awareness gives us another list of things to do to make sure we’re healthy.

And then there’s the government. We have the USDA’s new MyPlate which replaces MyPyramid which replaced the Food Guide Pyramid which replaced the four basic food groups. For professionals, there’s the corresponding “Dietary Guidelines for Americans”. For Physical Activity, we have the “Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans.” Then various government agencies put out lists of recommended vaccinations, preventative screenings, what-have-you.

It’s absolutely overwhelming. And it means that many of us, women especially, are walking around with major complexes about all the healthy things we should be doing but aren’t.

Well, doctors Susan M. Love and Alice D. Domar (one a MD, one a PhD) have a word of advice to us all:

“Live a little!

In their book by the same name (written with the help of Leigh Ann Hirschman), these two health professionals seek to cut through the mess of health information and tell women what’s really important for health–and what’s not.

The authors set up what they call the “Pretty Healthy Zone” (or pH zone)–a balanced position between absolutely letting yourself go and being hyper-obsessive about your health. Then they go about helping women to understand what the “pH zone” is for six critical areas: sleep, stress, health screenings, exercise, diet, and relationships. In each of these areas, they offer a little quiz to help you determine whether you fit into the “pH zone”–or if you need to do some work to get yourself there. The final chapter describes what a pretty healthy life might look like decade by decade throughout a woman’s life.

As a health professional who is often alarmed at the extreme recommendations being thrown out by researchers and lay people alike, I am very pleased by this book’s balanced approach to health. Love and Domar critically evaluate the available research and weed out the good recommendations from the tenuous ones. Furthermore, they evaluate these recommendations in light of overall quality of life, in addition to simply evaluating disease avoidance.

For the woman who feels guilty that she [insert your own health “vice”: isn’t exercising enough/doesn’t do a breast self exam/doesn’t get 8 hours of sleep every night/eats Twinkies], this can provide a measure of relief–and some direction for how to make positive steps towards a healthier lifestyle.

For the woman who is obsessed with her health and spends every moment of every day counting calories in and out, calculating risk factors, and engaging in “prevention”, this book can provide a level of balance–and some direction regarding which health steps are most advantageous.

For the woman who doesn’t even bother about her health and has no idea what she should or shouldn’t be doing health-wise, this book can provide an entry-level intro to what healthy behaviors look like–and give some pointers for getting started in developing a healthy lifestyle.

Rating: 5 stars
Category:Women’s Health
Synopsis:Dr’s Love and Domar evaluate common health advice in light of good science and help women understand what a “pretty healthy” life looks like.
Recommendation: One of the best books I’ve ever read on health and prevention. This is definitely worth picking up.

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “The Story of the Bible” by Larry Stone

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After the the first book I agreed to review from a publisher turned out to be a dud (in my opinion, humble), I told myself that maybe I just wasn’t cut out for the “review copy” thing. I should go back to just reviewing the books I check out of the library. It’s much less pressure that way.

Then I saw The Story of the Bible from Thomas Nelson’s BookSneeze program–and saw that the foreword was by Ravi Zacharias.

Surely if Ravi wrote the foreword, it’s got to be okay, I told myself. So I went ahead and requested it without reading another word.

What a fortuitous impulse!

The Story of the Bible arrived outside my front door, I opened it up, and was immediately hooked.

For the next couple of weeks, I never went anywhere without my copy.

“You need to see what Thomas Nelson just sent me,” I’d say as I pulled it out of my tote to pass to friends, family, and strangers. (Lucky me, I carry a nice large tote that can hold the jumbo-sized coffee-table-style book.)

“It’s the story of the writing and canonization and preservation and translation of the Bible.” I told them as they rifled through the pages.

Then, lest they miss the most exciting part, I’d direct them to the vellum envelope pages found within every chapter. “Go ahead and take it out” I’d urge.

Dutifully, they’d pull out the odd sized papers found in the various envelopes.

One started reading the writing:

Great Isaiah Scroll
The only complete Dead Sea Scroll is the Great Isaiah Scroll, discovered in 1947 by Muhammed Ahmed el-Hamed and pictured on page 25….

I could hear the quizzical expression in my friend’s voice as she read aloud. “Why on earth is Rebekah so excited about this?”

“Turn it over,” I urged.

And that’s when she discovered what I was so excited about.

Each scrap of paper within the vellum envelopes is a life-size full-color replica of a Biblical text.

A page from the Dead Sea Scrolls, pages from the Codex Sinaiticus and Codex Vaticanus, Wycliff’s Bible and Gutenberg’s. The list goes on and on.

It’s like a museum in one glossy paged volume.

I can’t be more excited.

The text itself is in well-written, engaging prose. I had no difficulty getting through the pages–or dipping in for a paragraph here and there in casual perusal (both of which I did.)

The author writes with an evangelical bent and an obvious reverence for the Word of God. This is no dull historical story of how men have preserved a book. This is a living story of how God has spoken a book, preserved His words, and communicated His heart to the nations of the world throughout the centuries.

This book is a definite keeper!

Rating: 5 stars
Category:Christian history
Synopsis:A museum in a book, telling the story (and showing the documents) of the writing, canonization, preservation, and translation of the Bible.
Recommendation: 5 stars

For the sake of full disclosure, I received this book for free via the Book Sneeze blogger program at Thomas Nelson. All views expressed in this post are my own. I received nothing for this review beyond the book I just reviewed (which is a reward of great worth, if I do say so myself!)

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “The Book Thief” by Markus Zusak

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What is it about books that makes them so tantalizing?

What is it about them that begs to be picked up, to be enjoyed, to be READ?

I’m not quite sure what it is…but it is a powerful force.

It’s the force that made young Liesel Meminger perform her first act of thievery: picking up a book lying half hidden in the snow by her even younger brother’s grave.

What follows in The Book Thief is a masterful tale of the power of written words snatched from snowy seclusion, from a censor’s fire, from a kindly cruel neighbor’s library.

The illiterate Liesel is taught to read by her near-illiterate foster father. Liesel reads to the Jew her foster parents are hiding in their cellar. And both the Jew and Liesel write as death looks on.

For this story is set within Nazi Germany, while the Grim Reaper is busy across the whole of Europe.

The Book Thief is a fascinating story, not the least because it’s narrated by the Grim Reaper himself.

An excerpt from the beginning of the book:

“As I’ve been alluding to, my one saving grace is distraction. It keeps me sane. It helps me cope, considering the length of time I’ve been performing this job. The trouble is, who could ever replace me?….The answer, of course, is nobody, which has prompted me to make a conscious, deliberate decision–to make distraction my vacation. Needless to say, I vacation in increments. In colors.

Still, it’s possible that you might be asking, why does he even need a vacation? What does he need distraction from?

Which brings me to my next point.

It’s the leftover humans.

The survivors….

Which in turn brings me to the subject I am telling you about tonight, or today, or whatever the hour and color. It’s the story of one of those perpetual survivors–an expert at being left behind.

It’s just a small story really, about, among other things:

  • A girl
  • Some words
  • An accordianist
  • Some fanatical Germans
  • A Jewish fist fighter
  • And quite a lot of thievery

I saw the book thief three times.

The Reaper tells the story of all his dealing with Leisel–the Book Thief, as he calls her–from her first act of thievery to her last breath. Along the way, he tells a story of men and women and little girls and boys who risked much and gained much in silent resistance to the Reich.

I found it wonderful.

Rating: 5 stars
Category:Historical fiction
Synopsis:The Grim Reaper tells the tale of a young girl inside Nazi Germany who finds herself enamored with books–and willing to go to great lengths to obtain them.
Recommendation: I greatly enjoyed this book–although it took a bit to get accustomed to the Reaper’s unique style

Interesting note about this book–This was my first, and last, adult fiction book with last name “Z”. Just so happens, all the other books my library owns by authors with last names starting in Z are either sci-fi or mysteries–books I determined from the outset that I wouldn’t include in my personal challenge. So there you have it :-)

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “Justice that Restores” by Chuck Colson

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I think most Americans would agree that our American system of justice is less than stellar. We spend massive amounts of money incarcerating criminals—yet we seem unable to avoid the problem of repeat offenses.

Conservatives insist that the answer to this dilemma is harsher sentences from the beginning. Liberals insist that the answer is to work harder to rehabilitate offenders. In Justice that Restores, Chuck Colson argues that neither of those work. He argues that the rehabilitative approach, because it fails to underscore the reality of moral offenses against others, ultimately fails to change behavior. At the same time, he says that the harsh sentence approach serves to enrage criminals without changing their behavior, while simultaneously costing Americans significant amounts of money.

Colson argues instead for a “Restorational” approach to justice. At the center of this approach is the idea that criminals should seek to make right what they have done wrong—becoming aware of the impact that their transgressions have had on others and taking action to correct what they have done. He argues that incarceration should be reserved only for violent criminals who are a risk to others—and that non-custodial forms of punishment should be designed to deal with nonviolent offenses (One shocking statistic Colson shares is that in 1995, 71% of all incarcerated criminals were guilty of nonviolent crimes.)

I found Colson’s book to be a well-written description of today’s justice dilemma—and a well-thought-out suggestion for how to solve today’s justice dilemma.

Colson has a unique viewpoint on justice as a former offender who served seven months in a Federal prison following his conviction as a participant in the Watergate scandal. He came to know Christ during his incarceration and has since founded Prison Fellowship, a ministry to incarcerated prisoners and their families.

Justice that Restores gives plenty of statistical descriptions of the justice problem—but it goes beyond to give personal examples both from Colson’s own incarceration and from his conversations with prisoners over the years.

This is an excellent book for all those interested in seeing justice prevail in the American court system. I feel that this book should have great cross-sectional appeal as this issue affects the political and the apolitical, the friend of offenders and the friend of victims. We are all affected, whether we recognize it or not, by the failings of our justice system—and we ultimately can all play a role in helping to establish a justice that restores.

Rating: 5 stars
Category:Criminal Justice
Synopsis:Using the Christian worldview as a starting place, Colson offers an alternative model to the current American justice system.
Recommendation: This short, easy-to-read volume engages thought regarding and offers innovative solutions to America’s current criminal justice problem.

Visit my books page for more reviews and notes.

Categories Book Reviews

Book Review: “The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma”

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I was thrilled with Trenton Lee Stewart’s The Mysterious Benedict Society (My Review). Not quite as much with The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey (My Review). Both were great stories. I’d highly recommend either. But The Mysterious Benedict Society is not just a great story–it has the additional benefit of being profound.

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma is a great middle betwixt the two–and a great cap to a marvelous series.

“The Prisoner’s Dilemma” refers to a famous test the children are given at the beginning of the book. They’re being given the test as a school exercise–and they manage to find a way out without resolving the tricky ethical questions the exercise was designed to force them to grapple with.

Yet life will insist that they wrestle with the same question yet again.

When Ledropthe Curtain renews his attempts to regain the Whisperer, the children must make difficult decisions. Will each child choose to act in his own interests or in the interest of another–even at a high cost to self?

Stewart artfully weaves the Prisoner’s Dilemma throughout the story, never heavy-handedly insisting on recreating the exact predicament set up in the first scenario–but still managing to test the children multiple times (and to renew the question in the reader’s mind as well.)

The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner’s Dilemma is a potent love story–not the story of romantic love, but of the love of a father for a daughter, a daughter for a father, a devotee to his idol, a brother for his brother, and four friends for each other.

Rating: 5 stars
Category: Young Adult General Fiction
Synopsis: Four children find themselves in tricky positions as they must repeatedly choose between personal gain or what’s best for their friends and loved ones in this adventure to stop the evil Ledropthe Curtain.
Recommendation: Nothing can quite top the first in the series for a thought-provoking read that’s also a great story–but this third volume comes close. A must read.

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