From Trevin Wax’s Holy Subversion (new from Crossway):
. . . Christians are turning the world upside down! They are acting against the Caesars of our day.
They are disobeying the Caesar of Success by praying for their competitors, making career choices that put family over finances, and seeking to be above reproach in their business practices.
They are dethroning the Caesar of Money by giving away their possessions and downsizing. . . .
If the lie is big, and you repeat it often, then it must be confined to a few points. . . . Wait, what did Goebbels actually say?
Growing up in the wake of Walker Percy and John Updike
While opening a carton of books from Zondervan Publishing today in the bookstore, a question occurred to me:
“Who was this man Zonderv, and what were his teachings? And who are his followers, these Zondervans? What do they really believe?”
Inquiring minds want to know.
Caleb Land reviews Douglas Wilson’s book Five Cities that Ruled the World. Wilson is a reformed pastor in Idaho who has written many books and taken many strong stands, so you will find he has many opponents.
Conversational Reading is now at conversationalreading.com. Accept no imitations.
Scandinavian crime fiction is popular these days, for example, Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Laura Miller writes about it for the Wall Street Journal.
“Counterintuitive as it may seem, the Scandinavian brand of moroseness can be soothing in hard times. Its roots lie deep in the ancient, pagan literature of the region, preserved in sagas that were first written down in medieval Iceland. The sagas, created by and for people who led supremely difficult lives, are about love, death and war, like all great stories, but above all, they’re about fate.”
What cereal should I eat? According to this chart, which recommends Cinnamon Life or Golden Grahams as the best cereal ever, if I am not in Australia, am not Marty Mcfly, and care about the roof of my mouth; if it isn’t October, I’m under 50, I don’t want chocolate milk with my cereal, but I do chew on gravel, then I should pick Grape Nuts. I had Grape Nuts with my ice cream last night. Maybe I should try gravel.
NPR’s Morning Edition has a nice spot on these authors, praising Parker for recreating the detective novel.
This will be a mini-review. I’ve reviewed one of Stephen J. Cannell’s novels already, and will doubtless review more (I’ve become a fan). Final Victim isn’t a world-changing novel, but I thought it very well crafted, and I just wanted to meditate on its virtues.
Cannell, as you likely know, is one of the most successful television producers in the industry. He’s also a prolific script writer (though, interestingly, he’s dyslexic). As a professional, he knows how to tell a story, seizing the viewer’s (or reader’s) attention with a wrestler’s grip, and never letting go. Continue reading Mini-review: Final Victim, Stephen J. Cannell
