Here are some funny testimonies from bookstore employees who have suffered at the hands of the public.
1. “I’d like to return a book”
2. “Our friend is really weird.”
3. “I can’t take back this sticky book”
4. “Do you have any mohair wool?” (scroll down five items for this great call from a philistine)
Journalist Bill Morris describes his bad experience with co-writing an article and how a new venture writing with scientists who can’t write may be a great opportunity.
Jesus calls us to take up our cross daily, and in doing so, our lives will take the shape of His cross. Jimmy Davis describes such a life in his book, Cruciform: Living the Cross-Shaped Life, possibly the best under-the-radar, Christian Living book this year. He writes, “We are shaped by the cross into the shape of the cross,” and thus are transformed to fulfill roles of seeker, shepherd, sower and steward.
I will summarize these points.
We do this due to a focus on Christ’s life, which is essentially cross-shaped, and out of the source of our spiritual strength, which is a cross-shaped spirit. Each of these roles intermingles with the community in which they serve, a give-and-take that makes Jesus’ disciples interdependent. Davis carries these concepts through the end of the book as he describes that cross-shaped source of our spiritual lives.
Each chapter opens with a well-written, personal example of that chapter’s theme, showing how he has learned and continues to learn the principles he has written here. Perhaps the most difficult of these principles is the overcoming of sin by faith, not by effort (Galatians 3:1-5), which is the reason Davis builds his book on it. His constant refrain throughout the book sings of the grace by which we were saved being the same grace through which we obey and are made holy. Even in the worst situations (the last chapter begins with one), our Heavenly Father’s grace gives us the strength to persevere.
I look forward to living perpetually in that grace. Sometimes I think I’ve learned that lesson, and then I discover I haven’t. I want to make space in my daily routine to hear the gospel, to dwell on the Father’s love, as Davis describes it, because that cross-shaped song is where the abundant life is.
Paste has an interesting list of graphic novels this week. These history and alt-history titles look good: Defiance by Carla Jablonski and Leland Purvis, The Red Wing by Jonathan Hickman and Nick Pitarra.
In loosely related news, the U.S. Army is testing a bionic exoskeleton to help soldiers carry more farther and run at 7 mph for a long stretch. Tests have gone well, and they appear to be close to battlefield exercises. What are they calling it? Human Universal Load Carrier or HULC.
He pitches another rock over the barley stalks.
“Is my work not vital? Of course. That’s not what he rejects. I am. What more could he…? Does he need blood?”
His brother calls from the hilltop. Cain lifts his face to him. “Blood I can get,” he mutters.
“Are you still angry?” Abel asks. “If you do well, he will accept you.”
“I know you’re right,” he replies. And favored. Cain feigns confession and waits for his brother to turn his back. The stone shatters against Abel’s skull. Cain strikes him again as thunder rolls above—what have you done?
The Wordsmith’s Word of the Day is focusing on words with meanings that contradict, such as today’s word, ravel, which can mean to entangle and untangle. For example: “Colin Innes, from the Department of Public Works, says the roads tend to get worse in the spring. ‘In the spring here we’ve seen all kinds of failures related to frost boils and things raveling apart and potholes.'”
Alexis Grant, a journalist working on a travel memoir on the side, has a good list on why a writer should keep a day job.
Sara Zarr, author of How to Save a Life
Sara says she feels that way about adult fiction too and asks why it isn’t frequently criticized for being so dark like YA lit has been for many years. What we need in both book fields, she says, is hope, even if the story is a dark one. “We need context, we need excellence, everywhere. Not just for the young.”
Scientist and author Tali Sharot likes to read books from places she’s familiar with. She likes The Easter Parade by Richard Yates, because it’s placed in New York. In this interview with the Boston Globe, she describes her reading habits. It’s nice to see people dropping books they are no longer interested in.
Kevin Holtsberry loves “The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel.” He reviews the latest novel in this series here. He explains:
This is one of those series where the books are not stand alone reads. Each book is more like an episode than a stand alone novel. Once you start you have to keep reading; both to find out what happens but also to explore the world and the mythological characters Scott develops and introduces.