Archive for » March, 2010 «

Reading Classics

30 Mar 2010 | By

I try not to turn this into a blog just about my reading, so lately most of the reviews have been my BookSneeze books. But I have continued in my effort to read more classics. Here’s a summary of progress made so far in 2010.

Just last week I read Utopia by Sir Thomas More. It is interesting to see that even now people can’t quite tell if he was serious or sarcastic. It is fascinating to see that things we struggle with and argue over today were being discussed in the 1500′s. The writing is easy to read and the book isn’t overly long, so I recommend it. I read it for free on my Kindle. One thing that struck me was that the perfect society was on an island with some separation from other countries and was not suffering from a gigantic population.

Related, and from 1976 so not an old classic, I read The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia by Ursula K. LeGuin. This is Utopia with a science fiction spin on it. A good story showing the differences between a socialist society and one man’s experience in a more capitalist society and how the two relate to each other. The socialist society is on a barren planet which the idealists populated so they could begin with a society set up the way they wanted. I am still struck by how the geography and origin play into the concept.

I also read Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville. This is a novella, so a much quicker read than Melville’s Moby Dick. I’m not sure most people even know what a scrivener is, but this story of an assistant to a lawyer who stops doing more and more until he is doing nothing is really interesting.

One of my favorite reads this year is Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton. What a fascinating, and sad, story. I had heard of it but never read it. I recommend it highly. The chapters are short, but that is necessary to absorb what just happened in each one. Wow.

I did read my planned classics – Pilgrim’s Progress for book club discussion, and Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini. This last was a great swashbuckler pirate story.

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Movies

21 Mar 2010 | By

I am not a big movie-watcher. I like movies, but I’d rather curl up with a good book. But watching movies together is my husband’s idea of good together-time, his love language. So, I watch a few movies that would never have been in my personal watch list.

One we recently watched is from 1982, a movie I don’t think I had even heard of as a teenager, but it was a big movie for my husband. Tron is about computers and video games – of course it was huge for him. Well, there is a sequel coming out this summer and he keeps showing me the trailer – a sure sign that I will be watching the movie with him at some time in the future. I mentioned that it would probably be a good thing to see the original before we see the sequel so I’ll have some clue what’s going on. That’s all it took, he bought Tron the next day.

I have to admit, it was pretty good. I had no clue Bruce Boxleitner had been in movies before the tv series Scarecrow and Mrs. King (which my husband had never heard of – how did he miss such quality tv programming? :-) It was also interesting to hear that Jeff Bridges spoke without a speech impediment at all. The effects were old (it was 1982) but not too cheesy. The plot was pretty interesting for what it was. So, now I’m ready to see Tron Legacy.

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The other movie I watched recently was The Hurt Locker. It came out in 2008 and won awards in 2009. It’s about an elite Army bomb squad in Iraq. I think it was fantastic in showing the stress and intensity, being surrounded by people and not knowing who you can trust. And dealing with explosives, IEDs, and bombs all the time. It was powerful and tough to watch.

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Movies I need to watch. I borrowed a copy of Pride and Prejudice that I need to make time to watch. I also have a copy of another movie from the 1980′s, Between Two Women with Farrah Fawcett and Colleen Dewhurst (woman and mother-in-law) who have a changing relationship as the mother-in-law gets ill and dies (oops, spoiler). I remember Farrah Fawcett is a runner in the movie and it ends with her running. My husband picked up a copy for me but I haven’t made time to watch it yet.

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Review: Chronological Guide to the Bible

10 Mar 2010 | By

My latest BookSneeze book is The Chronological Guide to the Bible from Thomas Nelson.

This year I am reading and following a blog set around The One Year Chronological Bible from Tyndale. While looking for this a friend and I also came across The Chronological Study Bible from Thomas Nelson. When the companion Guide came available I realized it would be a great addition to my library. I am very pleased with the contents of the Guide.

I read the entire Old Testament last year and found it very interesting to read through the books all at once. I was curious what it would be like to read the the books on the kings and the books by the prophets all in chronological order. This Guide is a great companion to provide some context. It can  be used to guide your reading order with any Bible.

The book itself is small, but high quality. I love those thick glossy reference book pages with vivid colors. The introductions do a great job of explaining how one goes about putting the Bible in chronological order. Issues and concerns are well addressed so the user knows what they are getting. Each section is about a different epoch and describes the state of the earth, a list of and description of the books of the Bible that relate events during that epoch, and major points of history and of the biblical accounts. There is also a chronological reading guide for each epoch or sub-epoch. These are placed in each chapter. My one recommendation would be to repeat all of those as an appendix.

The level of detail is really wonderful, and the format makes it very approachable with time lines, lists, and well delineated sections of informational paragraphs. In reading the first few epochs, I found the text a little heavy on showing how other cultures had rituals or explanations that were very similar to the Bible. I agree with the facts and think the finding is interesting. But sometimes the book seemed to interpret the biblical event as just another instance of this, rather than as relating the people of God acting as God directed. This doesn’t happen too often, and other sections are much clearer in this respect.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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