Category Archives: Non-fiction

Non-fiction

Blue Like Jazz Movie

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Donald Miller’s book, Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality has been praised by a variety of folks for years, and Steve Taylor has adapted it for the big screen. It opens this weekend, though not in my area. It may gain a wider release next weekend. World Magazine as a good review here. Tiffany Owens writes:

While the movie successfully explores themes of forgiveness, authenticity, and the question of God’s existence as it follows one man’s journey to find God, it struggles to offer a clear explanation of the gospel.

I’m sure Blue Like Jazz is funny, and it’s probably uncomfortable. Hopefully, it’s also rewarding. Here’s the trailer.

Donald Miller talks about the themes of the movie and the criticism he’ll probably get on his blog. He says, “I get it. Criticism is hard. And not only this, churches get criticized for stuff that happened hundreds of years ago. I’d venture to say most criticism is unfounded and ill-informed. It can also be spiteful and hateful. So, I don’t want to be lumped in with the haters.”

Thomas McKenzie does One Minutes Reviews (which usually aren’t one minute, but hey!) and he talks lightly about the movie. This puts a positive spin on it for me.

Bookselling, Non-fiction

Say That Again?

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Bookseller and poet Jen Campbell has made a name for herself by quoting odd and often hilarious things people say in bookshops. For example: “What books could I buy to make guests look at my bookshelf and think: ’Wow, that guy’s intelligent’?”

Now, that question makes complete sense to me. I remember a speaker, perhaps Ravi Zacharias, saying he overheard someone ask for so many feet of books. It didn’t matter what types of books really, just important looking ones to fill up a shelf behind a union leader’s desk to make him look educated when he spoke to business owners.

Fiction, Non-fiction, Reviews

Courage: New Hampshire

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Colony Bay Productions, an independent acting group, is taking up the story of early America with a passion some well-known commentators might think no longer exists. Lead by James Riley, a reenactor of Patrick Henry and owner of Riley’s Farm, this group is producing an ambitious DVD series called Courage, New Hampshire. It’s goal is to tell the story leading up to our independence, season by season for the remainder of the decade. They started in the winter of 1770 with the story Sarah Pine, an unmarried, young woman who gave birth to a child she claims to be by a British soldier named Bob Wheedle. The story primarily introduces the characters and the small town of Courage. No appearances from Ben Franklin or Paul Revere. The Boston Massacre occurs during the time of this story (March 5, 1770) and is the only reference given to the history of the world beyond their border.

There are two episodes available today; the third is coming in several weeks. My wife and I watched the first one, “The Travail of Sarah Pine,” and loved it. The music by Rotem Moav is perfect. I love the authentic sound of the many references to the Bible in the dialogue. Costuming and setting all look beautiful and genuine, though at one point I thought they should have aged a man’s clothing to take the straight from the catalog look away.

There is a community theater aspect to Courage. Some of the acting isn’t as polished as I’d like, because in the end, viewers want to enjoy the story and not think about the last few lines sounding off a bit. Some of the actors are fairly new or untrained in their art, but many of the cast have experience with Shakespearean plays, movies and TV, and some famous people play a part here and there, like Andrew Breitbart in episode two.

I can’t discern a political agenda in this story, unless stories about colonial America without touching on select hot spots makes a story politically incorrect. I look forward to seeing the big historical names, if they ever get out to Courage or if the story ever goes to Boston. I see that episode three has a much lesser-known figure, a black soldier named Caesar, who fought in the continental army.

You can buy a DVD or steam the episodes through their site. If you like period drama, this is worth your time. I’ll let you know what I think of other episodes when I see them. (Thank you, Ori Pomerantz, for promoting this series to me and sending me this DVD.)

Non-fiction

“A Culinary Journey Through Time”

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Dave Lull directed me to this web page, advertising “the first ever cookbook based on archaeological finds.” If you want to eat like a cave man, or a Viking, this would appear to be the book for you.

Will I be purchasing a copy? I don’t think so. It would require me to actually, you know, cook stuff. Not that I can’t cook when I’m cornered, but one of the consolations of bachelorhood is that nobody really expects you to cook in a serious fashion.

The picture of a Viking house in the article is pretty good, but the floor puzzles me. It looks flat and clean. To the best of my knowledge, Vikings pretty much always had dirt floors, usually covered over with rushes, which would be taken out and replaced periodically.

Non-fiction, Reviews

Canute the Great and the Rise of Danish Imperialism During the Viking Age, by L. M. Larson

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I downloaded this book because a) it promised to be useful in my ongoing research on northern Europe in the 11th Century, for my Erling books, and b) it was cheap for my Kindle. In general I’m pleased with my purchase. It proved even more helpful than I expected, though I have one complaint.

Canute the Great and the Rise of Danish Imperialism During the Viking Age, by Laurence Marcellus Larson, was first published 100 years ago, but it remains a readable, useful, and occasionally dramatic historical account. This was a great relief to me, since I’d read a more recent biography, Cnut: England’s Viking King by Lawson, and it had been a bow-ring read. I marveled at the time, considering that here we have the saga of a real man who lived a Conan the Barbarian life, rising from exiled prince and pirate to emperor (effectively) of England and much of Scandinavia. But Lawson’s book was a dry recitation of textual citations, concentrating on tallies of Danish and English names in old charters, in order to guess how far Canute (or Cnut) favored his fellow Danes in the English government. As I recall (it’s been a while) he barely touched on Canute’s adventures outside England, while Larson revels in the saga accounts of (Saint) Olaf Haraldsson’s establishment of an independent Norwegian kingdom, in the teeth of Canute’s power.

And this raises my main complaint about the book. Lawson is completely on Olaf’s side. For men like Erling Skjalgsson, who opposed Olaf’s high-handed policies, he has only scorn. They are traitors, bought with English silver, and their cause is essentially heathenry.

If you’ve read my books, or followed what I say about Erling in this blog, you’ll know that I dissent strongly from that opinion. Erling and his allies were defending republican government. Heathenry had almost nothing to do with it. If they took silver from Canute, well, that’s what carls did in those days. Olaf gave rich gifts to his men too.

But other than that, it’s a pretty good book, and even exhibits an enlightened (especially considering the date of publication) view of Viking culture. Recommended. (As is the case with so many e-books, there are some problems with typos due to OCR errors.)

Non-fiction, Publishing

New from Gene Edward Veith

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Our friend Dr. Gene Edward Veith has a new book out, Family Vocation: God’s Calling in Marriage, Parenting, and Childhood.

I probably won’t be reviewing it myself, this subject being outside my sphere of expertise, but if you’re a normal person, you’re likely to find the book useful. Dr. Veith is a wise and godly man.

Non-fiction, Religion

Preaching a Different Gospel

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The remarkable growth on Christianity in Africa “has been tainted by an American-style prosperity emphasis that focuses on health and wealth at the expense of sin, redemption, and repentance.” Nigerian Femi Adeleye is fighting back in his book, Preachers of a Different Gospel: A Pilgrim’s Reflections on Contemporary Trends in Christianity, drawing clear distinctions between biblical gospel with the message of self-satisfaction.

Non-fiction, Reviews

Answering Big Questions and Overcoming Fear

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I respect Dr. Edward Welch from some of his earlier works (a good example, Running Scared: Fear, Worry & the God of Rest). Now, he has a book for teenagers and young adults in which he answers a few fundamental questions. What Do You Think of Me? Why Do I Care?: Answers to the Big Questions of Life leads a reader into the reasons he may pander to his crowd by asking:

  1. Who is God?
  2. Who am I?
  3. Who are these other people?

Whatever answers we give to these questions point to what we worship, and that’s the heart of the matter.

Welch offers a gentle path to freedom to anyone wise enough to walk with him. He describes true and false worship as being those things that are worthy of our love and those that aren’t. “Love the approval, acceptance, or love of other people; they will be like a god to you and control your life,” he writes. “It is a basic principle: the more you are controlled by God, the less you are controlled by other people. The more you love God, the less you will love the acceptance or recognition of others. So grit your teeth and get to work! Just kidding.”

I look forward to giving my daughters this book to help guard them against the fear of men, which I still find threatening. It’s probably the main reason I don’t feel as if I’ve fully grown up yet.

Authors, Non-fiction

It’s Not That You’re Noisy

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NPR has a good report on Susan Cain’s new book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, noting that modern workplaces are often designed for extroverts. My office is a comfortable place for introverts, but I feel the pressure of the extroverts in the desire to collaborate on work that doesn’t seem very collaborative to me. I appreciate what she says about leadership training, even though I’m not a leader and don’t know what it will take to become one. Perhaps the problem is my definition of leadership.

Get Cain’s book here: Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking