Category Archives: Non-fiction

Non-fiction, Publishing

Free Chapters of New Books

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Jonathan Acuff, author of Stuff Christians Like, is in the middle of 12 Days of Fantasticalness to promote his new book, Gazelles, Baby Steps And 37 Other Things Dave Ramsey Taught Me About Debt. He’s allowing us to download the first chapter for free. Such generosity is rarely seen, wouldn’t you agree?

Maybe not.

Matthew Spalding of The Heritage Foundation offers a free chapter of his book, We Still Hold These Truths, which is filled with great quotes from our nation’s founding leaders. There’s a 20 minute video to promote the ideas of the book.

Let me promote a book you may not see many places. Shared Hope International has published the story of their founder, Linda Smith. From Congress to the Brothel describes Linda’s paradigm-shifting journey to a Mumbai brothel district.

Non-fiction, Reviews

Evening In the Palace of Reason, by James R. Gaines

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Evening In the Palace of Reason is a smart, engaging, well-written historical study that ought to be a lot better known than it is.

It centers on a fleeting moment, just a footnote to history. But what happened, and the story that leads up to it, illuminate three epochs of European history, and have relevance in our 21st Century as well.

The facts are easily summarized. On the evening of May 7, 1747, Johan Sebastian Bach and his son Carl presented themselves, by royal command, at the palace of King Frederick the Great of Prussia in Potsdam. Frederick, with his customary lack of courtesy, had required their immediate attendance following the old composer’s arrival by coach, after a three-day journey. He wasn’t given time to wash or change his clothes. Continue reading Evening In the Palace of Reason, by James R. Gaines →

Non-fiction

Approaching Stranger than Fiction

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Cowboy on ridge aiming rifle

WASHINGTON TIMES–‘Toughest sheriff’ recruits big names for border ‘posse’

“America’s toughest sheriff,” Phoenix’s Joe Arpaio, is creating an armed “Immigration Posse” to combat illegal immigration, and Hollywood actors Steven Seagal and Lou Ferrigno, along with Dick Tracy and Wyatt Earp, have signed up.

This is real, even those last two names, who are a Chicago cop and the nephew of the real Wyatt Earp. The sheriff says he and his state are the new whipping boys of Washington bureaucrats.

I like this idea. It’s a little scary, but I don’t know how it else the problem can be contained. I want immigrants, whom I assume have the best intentions, to be treated with mercy, but I think the traffickers should be shot. They are no better than the slave traders who dehumanized and profited from unwilling immigrants to the American colonies and the southern states.

Non-fiction, Reviews

A Voyage Long and Strange

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I didn’t dislike Tony Horwitz’ rambling book, A Voyage Long and Strange. He’s a likeable writer. One assumes his political preferences are liberal, but he works very hard to give everybody a fair hearing, not just the contemporaries he meets on his journeys across America, but the historical figures whose footsteps he attempts to follow.

The germ of the book was conceived when he made an accidental stopover in Plymouth, Massachusetts, was unimpressed with the sight of Plymouth Rock, and began to wonder why, out of all the pre-colonial and colonial American settlements, we’ve chosen Plymouth Plantation as the birthplace of the American idea. He decided to follow the trail of the chief European explorers and settlers who predated Plymouth, to try to evaluate their relative contributions.

In this goal, I believe, he fails utterly. Still, the story is amusing and informative. Horwitz is good company, and has a charmingly self-deprecating voice. Continue reading A Voyage Long and Strange →

Non-fiction, Reviews

Klavan reviews Ellroy

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Thriller writer nonpareil Andrew Klavan reviews James Ellroy’s new memoir, The Hilliker Curse, for the Wall Street Journal.

He admires the book, but sees (plausibly, in my view) some things the author apparently hasn’t noticed.

It would be pretty to think so. Yet one has the feeling that there is as much hidden here as revealed, that Mr. Ellroy’s belligerent candor disguises some deeper and still secret shame. How could it be otherwise? Every confession is also a mask. As all good crime writers understand: There’s no bottom to the perversity of the human heart.

Authors, Non-fiction

Why Can't Black Men Think On Their Own?

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Anthony Bradley, author of the book Liberating Black Theology, writes about how difficult it is to be respected as a black man and an independent thinker. “Independent black thinkers are expected to ‘groupthink’ in ways that usually lead to rejection and isolation by multiple communities,” he says. For example:

To point out the unchallenged racism in some socially conservative circles renders the charge, “angry black man.” Pointing out that big government has never really helped black communities in the long-term while promoting economic empowerment within the context of markets as a sustainable mechanism for socio-economic mobility, invites the charge of being “a sell-out.”

Non-fiction, Religion

Stephen Prothero and Reviews of "God is Not One"

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Earlier this year, several blogs participated in a review tour for Stephen Prothero’s book, God is not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Rule the World and Why Their Differences Matter. Here’s a quote from the introduction.

To claim that all religions are the same is to misunderstand that each tradition attempts to solve a different aspect of the human condition. For example:

  • Islam: the problem is pride / the solution is submission
  • Christianity: the problem is sin / the solution is salvation
  • Confucianism: the problem is chaos / the solution is social order
  • Buddhism: the problem is suffering / the solution is enlightenment
  • Hinduism: the problem is the endless cycle of reincarnation / the solution is release
  • Judaism: the problem is exile / the solution is our return back to God and to our true home

When we gloss over these differences we fail to appreciate each religion on its own terms.

The book appears to be a survey and not an apologetic. This Lutheran reviewer said she wanted more from the Christianity chapter “wishing I could add to further clarification regarding . . . consequences that 95 theses had on the world.” Unfortunately, the list of blogs doesn’t link directly to the reviews, save one. So here’s a link to a review from someone who disagrees with the book’s central premise.