May Book Reviews

The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene

The one word that comes to mind to describe this book is dark. A very dark view of God, and a dark view of humanity. A synonym to this could be: Catholic. Most of these concepts of man and God come from Catholicism. This novel is in the line of Edith Wharton which should at least tell you this book describes a man with a tragic flaw: Pity.

“The word ‘pity’ is used as loosely as the word ‘love’: the terrible promiscuous passion which so few experience.”

Let me give you a few more quotes.

“People talk about the courage of condemned men walking to the place of execution: sometimes it needs as much courage to walk with any kind of bearing towards another person’s habitual misery.”

“Despair is the price one pays for setting oneself an impossible aim. It is, one is told, the unforgivable sin, but it is a sin the corrupt or evil man never practices. He always has hope. He never reaches the freezing-point of knowing absolute failure. Only the man of good will carries always in his heart this capacity for damnation”

“any yet he could believe in no God who was not human enough to love what he had created.”

“What an absurd thing it was to expect happiness in a world so full of misery. Point me out the happy man and I will point you out either extreme egotism, evil- or else an absolute ignorance.”

I really enjoyed this book and it’s discussion of the nature of God and man and look forward to reading “The Power and the Glory”. I’m sure it is probably just as dark but yet very revealing into many Catholics view of God. This may sound stereotypical but it’s a stereotype for a reason. Check this one out!














Gall by Pete Gall

I already talked about this in a previous post. If you would like to hear more about this book click here. But I really enjoyed Pete’s thoughts and I have enjoyed getting to know Pete a little more through our email conversations. Thanks also Pete for the critique of my sample chapter for my book! I appreciate the help. Check out his blog here.














Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer

I would have to say that this was the read I enjoyed most this month. I flew through it and it fascinated me the entire time. The story (which is non-fiction) focuses on the Lafferty murders in Utah. They were men who caught a revelation from God that they were supposed to kill their brother’s wife and child and carried it out calling it the “removal revelation”. It is a scary and intriguing book about religious fanatics gone completely bonkers. The book isn’t as much Mormon bashing as it is fundamentalist Mormon bashing which is a completely different ballgame. The FLDS has had quite the scandalous history. I think some people read this book and think that all Mormon’s are crazy. I am certainly not one of those people. I don’t think that all Mormon’s are wacko’s just like I don’t think all Christians are sane. I think more than anything this was a realization that you can’t just go around saying “God told me to do this”. That statement gets very dangerous especially when you place unrestrained authority on the ones making those statements. History has certainly proven that. Anyway, if you love Mormon history or early American history you will enjoy this. Thanks Doug for recommending this book to me. I think this summer in August Kelli are I are going to be going through Utah on our way to the Northwest but more to come on that. I can't wait to visit Provo! Doug have you been around those parts??? Where should we go?














The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

Finally broke down and read it! I wanted to read the book to see mostly what all the fuss was about. As a book it was entertaining and Kelli and I both flew through it in a few days. Very choppy, fast moving book. It’s not the greatest piece of literature in our history but it was a fun read and a good change of pace from the classics. It’s nice to read some current fiction once in a while.

After reading through the book and some of its critics it has become clear that the time Brown was studying history he must have been on crack or some other hallucinogen because history clearly contradicts about 80% of the book. For instance, Constantine’s deathbed conversion (he spend his final years going nuts building churches, why would he do that if he wasn’t a believer?) The Priory of Sion beginning in 1099 and Da Vinci being a part of it (unfortunately in 1956 it was started by a man who under oath testified that he started it and wrote all of the documents claiming Mary Magdalene’s relationship with Jesus.). Oops! And then there's the other gospels which Brown claims number about 80. Unfortunately there are not even half of that number. Also Brown says that the Council of Nicea decided which books to put in the Bible (once again, that council had nothing to do with the books that were in the Bible). Also he claimed that they picked the books that would show Jesus’ divinity and left out the ones that showed his humanity. Unfortunately the “other gospels” show just the opposite. The gospels we have are the most human based side of Jesus that can be portrayed. If you read the Gospel of Thomas, Philip, Mary Magdalene you get quite a different picture of Jesus. A side of Jesus that is more than divine and supernatural, in fact quite crazy! My favorite is when a little boy touches Jesus so he strikes the boy down dead and tells the crowd to never touch him. I love that story. That certainly sounds reasonable compared to the rest of history.

So in any case, the book was less than a threat theologically and more just ignorant of history. I’m certainly not offended as a theologian, I would be pissed if I were a historian though! If you are interested you should read some history by people who are theologically neutral and you will understand how misguided Brown has been in his studies. Fun read though, didn’t mean to go nuts there. I have nothing against Brown and am not picketing anything, he's just a little unstudied in the history department.














The Genesee Diary by Henri Nouwen

I started this quite a while ago and finally finished it off. I have always been fascinated by the idea of the monastery and the sacred life. I love reading about their lives and work. If I weren’t already married, I might join a monastery myself. Nouwen was also quite influenced by Merton and Kierkegaard so I love seeing how those ideas play out in his life.














Telling the Truth; The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy and Fairy Tale by Frederick Buechner

Buechner being Buechner. Fabulous. No need to say anything else.


I read a few other books this month that aren’t worth mentioning. One was for the publisher I work for. It was quite a beauty! It’s funny because after reading the book I still had no idea what the title meant. Is that bad? Actually the theology was a little shaky to say the least. My favorite was, “you should stop trying to attract more people to your church and try to start attracting more of God.” What in the world does that mean? Does that mean God is only in certain places at certain times and if we are holy enough maybe God will join us on a Sunday morning? Wow. Go ahead spell it out with me: H-E-R-E-T-I-C-A-L. Now say it aloud!

I had quite a bit of time to read this month which was nice. I’m trying to read as much as I can before I start Seminary in the fall! My reading list will change substantially or most likely cease to exist! Darn.

The next month I will be reading The Brothers Karamazov, by far the longest book I have ever read. Weighing in at around 900 large pages with small print. I’m scared but this is probably one of the most talked about books in history and from what I understand is the full gospel shared in human form! I always just keep going back to, "If Oprah can read it, so can I!" I have no idea what it means but in my mind it helps me. I just reread that statement and I'm almost sure that someone is going to accuse me of being a racist but I can promise I don't say that because she is black, i say it because she's a woman. Ok, just joking again, calm down! A threat on my life is imminent.