At first glance, I thought this book by Robert Kaiser was about the “stimulus” bill in congress, but I see it’s about the election process. The title and cover say it all.
Category Archives: Non-fiction
Rice Called Out of Darkness
Pete Peterson praises the revelations in Anne Rice’s memoir, Called Out of Darkness.
Such an about face of worldview surely came as a shock to some fans her vampire mythology and there is a sense that she wants to lay out the pieces of the puzzle to provide insight for those to whom the final image was a surprise. She also aims to lay to rest the suspicions of those that may think her conversion is flighty, shallow, or spur of the moment. Continue reading Rice Called Out of Darkness
Wouldn’t Report It
Serial killer Ted Bundy wanted to talk to James Dobson because he believed the regular media wouldn’t report his story.
Dr. Albert Mohler talks about the larger problem that Ted Bundy address in his new book, Desire and Deceit: the real cost of the new sexual tolerance. “What we face today are not individual, isolated issues, but rather a massive social transformation that has not happened by accident and that will not break apart on its own,” Mohler writes.
(Long review) Schulz and Peanuts, by David Michaelis
I’ve told you already that I found this book utterly gripping and compelling. I might add that it also made me feel as if I were being beaten repeatedly with a rubber hose.
I shall explain in due course.
Warning: I will say some hard things about Charles Schulz in the course of this review. Please understand that this doesn’t spring from malice. In fact, it rises from a scary level of personal identification. As I shall explain, etc.
Back in those days I’ve been reminiscing about in my last couple posts (the early ’70s), when I was working with a Christian musical group and we were in the midst of the “Jesus Movement,” there was no celebrity Christian about whom we were more smug than Charles M. Schulz. Everybody loved “Sparky” Schulz. He was the most successful cartoonist, not only in the world, but in history. Art galleries displayed his original panels. He said things in his wonderful little strip that made us feel as if this guy really understood us, shared our fears and insecurities, and sympathized. Continue reading (Long review) Schulz and Peanuts, by David Michaelis
Princess
I’m currently engrossed in David Michaelis’ Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography. I’ve rarely been so caught up in a nonfiction book, for reasons I’ll explain when I’m ready to write my review (which I expect will be a long one).
But one thing that grabbed my interest was all the places where Schulz’s and my paths crossed (disregarding the small matter of a few decades’ time). I lived for a while with my aunt in St. Paul, only a couple miles southeast of the corner of Snelling and Selby, where Schulz’s father, Carl, ran a barber shop for most of his life. I used to jog around Highland Park, where Schulz himself liked to play golf.
But the crossings weren’t only in St. Paul.
I worked several years in Minneapolis in the shipping and mailing department (known for some reason as the Service Section) of the headquarters of the American Lutheran Church, an organization which no longer exists (like its building, which was demolished a few years back to make way for the new city jail).
Just kittycorner across Fourth Street from our building was Art Instruction Schools (the people behind the “Can you draw me?” magazine ads). Schulz worked there for a number of years, before and after his service in World War II and up to the time when he became an established cartoonist.
Michaelis reports that he “fell in love” (from afar; he was desperately shy) with several pretty girls who worked at the school. One became the inspiration for Charlie Brown’s “little red-haired girl.” Another was the sister of the woman he eventually married.
Art Instruction Schools and pretty girls. That brings back a memory…. Continue reading Princess
Idiots, All of Them
Author Larry Winget says people, generally speaking of course and not at all applicable to readers of BwB, are idiots.
Parents don’t talk to their kids or discipline their kids; give them everything they want and then wonder why their kids are a mess.
People barely do any work while they are on the job, then can’t figure out why they got laid off when times got tough for their employer.
People spend more money than they earn then seem to be surprised that the people who loaned them the money actually want to be repaid.
The majority of people can’t read and don’t read.
Winget has written a book about these problems, and I suppose hopes some of us will either skim it for knuggets or have someone who cares read it to them. Perhaps ripping out pages and stapling to them to foreheads would work for some too.
Hitman Sells Story to Hollywood
John V. Martorano, who confessed to killing for the mob as a plea bargin, has reportedly sold his story to a Hollywood producer. Some of the good guys who worked against him aren’t too happy about it, and lawman is trying to pass a state law against criminals profiting from their no-doubt-dramatic stories.
Listen to ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’
Billed as “the most powerful sermon ever preached on American soil,” a presentation of Jonathan Edwards’ message, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” can be downloaded for free. This sermon shaped my understanding of salvation with its glorious imagery and biblical sense.
Good Books of 2008
Mr. Key highlights a few books from the NY Times Book Review list of notable books in 2008.
Teachout on Composer John Adams
Terry Teachout talks about what appears to be the good, though difficult, operas of John Adams:
His operas are intended to function not as conventional stage dramas but as mytho-poetical statements that are illustrative of larger ideas about the condition of man. Doctor Atomic, for instance, attempts to retell the Faust myth in specifically American terms, with J. Robert Oppenheimer, the scientist who directed the research-and-development program that led to the building of the first atomic bomb, cast in the role of the all-too-human genius who sells his soul and lives to regret it.