John

John rated a book it was ok Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse by Faith Sullivan (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
A partial list of authors who wrote, or have written, fiction set in small-town Minnesota: Jon Hassler, Vidar Sundstol Leif Enger, Garrison Keillor, William Kent Krueger, Sinclair Lewis. I know that's not a complete list, but it seems like a lot alre ...more
Nov 17, 2018 09:35AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse by Faith Sullivan. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse by Faith Sullivan <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
John rated a book it was amazing Bleak House by Charles Dickens	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
"Dead, your Majesty. Dead, my lords and gentlemen. Dead, Right Reverends and Wrong Reverends of every order. Dead, men and women, born with Heavenly compassion in your hearts. And dying thus around us every day." This is my favorite Dickens novel and ...more
Nov 17, 2018 09:13AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Bleak House by Charles Dickens. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Bleak House by Charles Dickens <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
John voted for All the Light We Cannot See as Best of the Best in the Final Round of the 2018 Goodreads Choice Awards. Cast Your Vote
Nov 15, 2018 05:18PM · like
John wants to read The New Encyclopedia of Christian Martyrs by Mark Water	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Nov 10, 2018 05:31PM · like
John rated a book really liked it Church Without Walls: Moving Beyond Traditional Boundaries by Jim Petersen	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
When I picked up "Church Without Walls" at the used bookstore, I thought it might be a sort of how-to guide for starting a house church. I had no intention of starting a house church, but I still thought it might be interesting to find out how it's d ...more
Nov 08, 2018 06:33PM · 2 likes · like · see review
John rated a book liked it The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Stephen Greenblatt scored a hat trick with "The Swerve." It was a New York Times bestseller, it won a national book award, and it won the Pulitzer Prize. If he knew I gave "Swerve" a mere three stars, I suspect he wouldn't lose much sleep over it. Well ...more
Nov 07, 2018 06:50PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Swerve by Stephen Greenblatt <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
John rated a book really liked it The Horse and His Boy (The Chronicles of Narnia, #5) by C.S. Lewis	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Book 5 in the Narnia Chronicles is the funniest of C.S. Lewis' series of remarkable books for children and for grownup children. It's also the least likely to be made into a movie. It has political correctness issues in its portrayal of a people livi ...more
Oct 28, 2018 04:46PM · 2 likes · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
John wants to read Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America's Most Powerful Mobster by Stephen L. Carter	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Oct 25, 2018 05:45PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Invisible by Stephen L. Carter. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Invisible by Stephen L. Carter <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
John rated a book really liked it Money in the Bank by P.G. Wodehouse	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Oh, how to describe a P.G. Wodehouse plot without totally confusing everyone, including myself. Well ... a failed lawyer hurls some unwanted sweets at a detective across the way, races over to apologize but doesn't find the detective, who is in hiding ...more
Oct 10, 2018 06:27PM · like · see review
John wants to read The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Oct 06, 2018 02:02PM · like · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Moon Is Down by John Steinbeck <iframe id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">

John rated a book it was ok

Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse
by Faith Sullivan (Goodreads Author)

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A partial list of authors who wrote, or have written, fiction set in small-town Minnesota: Jon Hassler, Vidar Sundstol Leif Enger, Garrison Keillor, William Kent Krueger, Sinclair Lewis.
I know that's not a complete list, but it seems like a lot alre ...more

John rated a book it was amazing

Bleak House
by Charles Dickens

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1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

"Dead, your Majesty. Dead, my lords and gentlemen. Dead, Right Reverends and Wrong Reverends of every order. Dead, men and women, born with Heavenly compassion in your hearts. And dying thus around us every day."
This is my favorite Dickens novel and ...more

John voted for All the Light We Cannot See as Best of the Best in the Final Round of the 2018 Goodreads Choice Awards.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Cast Your Vote

John wants to read

The New Encyclopedia of Christian Martyrs
by Mark Water

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John rated a book really liked it

Church Without Walls: Moving Beyond Traditional Boundaries
by Jim Petersen

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When I picked up "Church Without Walls" at the used bookstore, I thought it might be a sort of how-to guide for starting a house church. I had no intention of starting a house church, but I still thought it might be interesting to find out how it's d When I picked up "Church Without Walls" at the used bookstore, I thought it might be a sort of how-to guide for starting a house church. I had no intention of starting a house church, but I still thought it might be interesting to find out how it's done.
That's not what it's about.
It's about something better. Jim Petersen's message, if I dare summarize it, is that no matter what we do to make our churches in America more attractive, they don't really attract the lost (or the unchurched, if you prefer). By and large, they're attracting people who abandon other churches for something that's a little more contemporary, or meets their family's needs better, or whatever. Today's U.S. culture is so far removed from the church that to reach people on the outside it has to GO outside, not expect the culture to come to us.
If you're in a hurry and want to get to the heart of this book, you can go directly to Page 123, which is where Part 3 starts on "Patterns for the Future." Up until then is mostly the historical backdrop, and since I love history when it's well-told, I found it fascinating. But it's after this that Petersen really starts to guide us outside of the walls.
Here are a couple of his concepts:
-- The journey to Christ is a process, not just an event.
"It is a relief to realize we are only part of a process," Petersen writes. "I ask God to move every person I meet a step closer to Christ. Sometimes I reap, but far more often I do not. Sometimes I witness verbally, but more often I do not."
-- We guide people to Christ through the Scriptures.
"I have learned to sit down with an unbelieving friend, or small group, and over a period of time just read that first-century tract," he writes, referring to the Gospel of John. "As the person Jesus emerges, faith becomes plausible."
"Church Without Walls" was written in 1992, which seems like yesterday to me but in fact is more than a quarter-century ago. It does seem dated. I doubt if it were written today it would mention fax machines. I'm sure if it were written today there would be discussion of social media.
In essence, though, the message of "Church Without Walls" seems still true, only more so. I think it's useful reading for Jesus followers who want to develop meaningful strategies for bringing the church and the message to the pre-Christians in their lives. ...more

John rated a book liked it

The Swerve: How the World Became Modern
by Stephen Greenblatt

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Stephen Greenblatt scored a hat trick with "The Swerve." It was a New York Times bestseller, it won a national book award, and it won the Pulitzer Prize.
If he knew I gave "Swerve" a mere three stars, I suspect he wouldn't lose much sleep over it.
Well Stephen Greenblatt scored a hat trick with "The Swerve." It was a New York Times bestseller, it won a national book award, and it won the Pulitzer Prize.
If he knew I gave "Swerve" a mere three stars, I suspect he wouldn't lose much sleep over it.
Well. Greenblatt is clearly a first-rate scholar and an impeccable researcher with the ability to report his findings in readable prose.
His story is about Poggio Bracciolini, a 15th century bookworm who discovered a copy of "On the Nature of Things," an epic poem written before the time of Christ by Lucretius.
I found the parts about Poggio and his discovery to be utterly fascinating; the rest of the book somewhat less so.
Poggio had time to go manuscript hunting because he had lost his job because his boss -- the pope -- had lost his job. This was the first Pope John XXIII -- he was stripped of his title, so it became available to a much later pope. Greenblatt reports that the pope was charged with simony, sodomy, rape, incest, torture, murder and 16 counts so scandalous that they never were revealed.
Picky, picky, picky.
So Poggio, who had been the pope's apostolic secretary (but not a priest), was able to indulge in his passion. He was the type who could never walk past a used bookstore, except that in his case that generally meant long journeys to distant monasteries.
"On the Nature of Things" was his gold mine.
Greenblatt describes "On the Nature" as a sort of humanist manifesto and makes the case that Poggio's re-discovery of the text was the birth of humanism and everything modern: the designated hitter, video review of umpires' calls, the phrase "Please listen carefully as our menu has changed" and all other detestable improvements.
OK, that's not the modernity Greenblatt is talking about. But the so-called modernity of humanism wasn't new when Poggio found the manuscript, nor was it new when Lucretius wrote his poem, nor with Epicurus, whose thoughts Lucretius echoed.
Greenblatt summarizes Epicureanism
If you can hold on and repeat to yourself the simplest fact of existence -- atoms and void and nothing else, atoms and void and nothing else, atoms and void and nothing else -- your life will change. You will no longer fear Jove's wrath whenever you hear a peal of thunder, or suspect that someone has offended Apollos whenever there is an outbreak of influenza.
The upshot was that man didn't need to worry about what any divine being thought; he could simply live for pleasure. The writer of Ecclesiastes had already tried that and found it wanting. "All that my eyes desired I did not refuse them," he wrote. "I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure." And then concludes one verse later: "... and behold all was vanity and striving after wind."
As for Lucretius, he was not an atheist, Greenblatt contends. Perhaps not, but he certainly came to conclusions to which atheists could say "amen," or whatever it is that atheists say when they agree with things: There is no afterlife. Death is nothing to us. All organized religions are superstitious delusions. The universe has no creator or designer.
Lucretius might come to a different conclusion today. He lacked the benefit of 2,000-plus years of science, and the more science reveals the more it seems to be telling us that if the universe has no creator or designer, it certainly behaves as if it did.
For all of Greenblatt's formidable scholarly ability, I think his reading of the Gospels is a bit incomplete. "As every pious reader of Luke's Gospel knew, Jesus wept, but there were no verses that described him laughing or smiling, let alone pursuing pleasure," he writes.
Well, the pious reader of Luke's Gospel probably would have come across Luke 17:21, which reports of Jesus, "At that very time he rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit."
That's the sort of pleasure worth celebrating. ...more

John rated a book really liked it

The Horse and His Boy (The Chronicles of Narnia, #5)
by C.S. Lewis

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Book 5 in the Narnia Chronicles is the funniest of C.S. Lewis' series of remarkable books for children and for grownup children. It's also the least likely to be made into a movie. It has political correctness issues in its portrayal of a people livi ...more

John wants to read

Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America's Most Powerful Mobster
by Stephen L. Carter

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John rated a book really liked it

Money in the Bank
by P.G. Wodehouse

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Oh, how to describe a P.G. Wodehouse plot without totally confusing everyone, including myself.
Well ... a failed lawyer hurls some unwanted sweets at a detective across the way, races over to apologize but doesn't find the detective, who is in hiding Oh, how to describe a P.G. Wodehouse plot without totally confusing everyone, including myself.
Well ... a failed lawyer hurls some unwanted sweets at a detective across the way, races over to apologize but doesn't find the detective, who is in hiding in the conviction that he's under attack from a party wronged by him. Just then, a beautiful young woman arrives, presumes that the lawyer is the detective. The lawyer, smitten, doesn't correct her assumption and instead becomes the detective for the purpose of being as near the beautiful young woman as possible. She has appeared on behalf of her uncle, who has had to lease out his estate because of money troubles which would be resolved if he could find the diamonds he hid somewhere in the estate (but can't remember where).
Making sense so far?
The uncle has gotten himself hired by the new tenant -- who doesn't realize he is the owner -- as the butler, affording him opportunities to search. The niece has gotten herself hired as the tenant's personal assistant.
Now that I think about it, it's actually the tenant -- a big-game-hunting vegetarian -- who has sent the young woman to hire the detective. She -- the tenant -- is suspicious of everyone besides the butler and the personal assistant and wants a detective to look into things.
And things go rather swimmingly for the lawyer-turned-detective until the real detective shows up.
There's a whole lot more to it than that -- layers and layers of characters and plot twists and mistaken identities. Lord love a duck -- to borrow an expression frequently used by the uncle-butler -- there's more. But I'm exhausted just telling you this much.
"Money in the Bank" is the best P.G. Wodehouse story I haven't read. Instead, it was read to me during a recent road trip by Simon Vance. And I'm now convinced this is the best way to absorb a Wodehouse story; not reading it, not watching a BBC production of it. At least it's the best way to take it in if it's done as expertly as Simon Vance does it here. I don't think I've enjoyed the reading of an audio book this much since listening to the reading of "To Kill a Mockingbird." Entirely different sort of story, of course, but both readers belong at the top of the audio book-reading heap.
"Money in the Bank" is as manic as any Wodehouse story and funnier than most -- but I think much of the credit for that goes to Vance. ...more

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