bookshelves: to-review
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bookshelves: to-review
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bookshelves: to-review
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bookshelves: currently-reading, to-review
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bookshelves: to-review
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bookshelves: to-review
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I really shouldn't have wasted my time with this book, but I was in an apocalyptic mood earlier this month, and downloaded this and a few other "end-of-the-world" stories onto my iTouch.
There's not much to say--the main storyline is less a story, and more a report: an elderly survivor of the apocalypse tells a group of children what it was like. This internal story, while it had its moments (I actually dug the image of a group of survivors holed up inside a university building while the roving sick try to break in--standard fare, but standard because it's enjoyable), was disturbing for reasons other than the rapid destruction of humanity at the hands of a new virus. For some reason, the internal narrator was a little giddy at the thought of a new "Aryan wave" sweeping across the globe, now that it had been cleansed. His evaluation of the survivors was entirely based upon their positions in life before the plague--the wealthy are, in his opinion, better than the poor. The whites are, in his opinion, better than those of other socio-ethnic groups. It runs like this for a little while, and then it ends with the internal narrator providing a genealogy to his listeners to explain how they are related to each other. Fun.
Seriously, if you have this book, give it to someone you don't like.
RATING: 1/5 Stars = Burn This Book ]]>
Sider does a good job, especially in this fifth edition of making the argument that moe evangelical writers ought to be making. His general thesis is as follows:
God wants every person and family to have equality of economic opportunity, at least to the point of having access to the resources necessary (land, money, education), so that by working responsibly they can earn a decent living and participate as dignified members of their community. This kind of equality of economic opportunity is…a clear, powerful biblical demand—which if implemented in our world, would help correct a terrible evil that still persists.
And with this assertion as his goal, he proceeds to make the case that (1) there is a terrible and persistent evil in the world today, (2) that Christians have a biblical responsibility to address this evil, (3) that the underlying causes of this evil are complex and open to some debate, and (4) that there are a variety of responsible actions which should be taken by individual believers and by the church at large in addressing this evil.
RATING: 3/5 Stars = Recommended, But Not Urgent*
*It might be urgent for many readers.
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Dan Julian
read and liked
Ellen's
review of Shinjuku Shark:
"This was a real disappointment. I've read and enjoyed other books published by Vertical and generally anything that rates a Chip Kidd cover is a decent read.
I'm not sure if the major problem with this was that it was a horrible translatio...more "
"This was a real disappointment. I've read and enjoyed other books published by Vertical and generally anything that rates a Chip Kidd cover is a decent read.
I'm not sure if the major problem with this was that it was a horrible translatio...more "