Out Stealing Horses, by Per Petterson

Per Petterson is an award-winning Norwegian novelist.  His 2003 novel Out Stealing Horses (published in Norwegian in 2003 as Ut og stjæle hester, published in English translation in 2005) has received the most praise of any of his work, including the €100,000 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.  So if I don't like the book I must be a literary ignoramus.

I didn't totally not like the book.  I just found it to be dull and aimless.  Parts were beautifully written.  (Speaking of ignorant, I admit I read it in English.  My Norwegian is a bit rusten.)  This is the story of a man named Trond, flipping between a summer in his teen years and his 60s.  It's a mix of coming of age, a family tragedy involving a neighbor's family, his own family's dissolution, and a bit about the Nazi occupation of Norway. 

If you're into pastoral novels, with lots of reflective passages, which switches between time periods while slowly drawing the events together, developing a character arc but not much more, this could be one you'd love.  Out Stealing Horses is a good book, maybe even great literature, but I simply didn't enjoy reading it very much.

The Girl Who Owned a City, by O.T. Nelson

I have wanted to read O.T. Nelson's The Girl Who Owned a City for a long time.  It was nominated last year for the Libertarian Futurist Society's Prometheus Hall of Fame, after all.  Key word there is nominated.  It didn't win, or even make the finals, which seems reasonable to me.  It's neither a very good book nor a particularly libertarian story.

In this future world, a plague has killed everyone over the age of 12.  Why?  Who knows.  Doesn't matter.  Lisa lives with her little brother in their family's home.  She seeks out food and supplies in nearby houses, but the sources are running thin.  She decides to organize the kids in her neighborhood to defend themselves against roving gangs, eventually leading them to relocate to the local high school, of which she declares herself the owner.

Nelson showed some early promise, as Lisa tried to get the children to work for incentives rather than mere communal ownership and reliance on the older children.  When they begin to organize their defense, I thought she might forge alliances for trade, like a good libertarian would.  But no, it's just might versus might.  And with her self-declared ownership, she sets herself up as the dictator of her city.  The other kids have little option for self-direction or self-governance, other than leaving to live somewhere else.

More disappointing than the lack of principles was the plot and story telling.  The story is rather shallow and predictable.  I know a post-apocalyptic world of all children would be chaotic, but I just don't see the scenarios Nelson lays out happening.  Besides, why is Lisa the only kid in the world who can figure out how to drive a car?

Questions Asked, by Jostein Gaarder, illustrated by Akin Düzakin

Jostein Gaarder has questions.  In Questions Asked, the Norwegian author asks many of those questions that bug all of us.

• Where does the world come from?
• Can anyone know what I think?
• How do my legs go where I want them to go while my mind is elsewhere?
• What is time?
• Why am I alive?
• What happens when I die?

Jostein Gaarder does not have any answers.  At least not in this book.  What he does have is some beautiful illustrations by Akin Düzakin, which follow a little boy's adventures and ponderings.

Questions Asked can be a great conversation starter.  I can imagine reading this with my own child, or in a therapy session, or, if a teacher is brave, in a classroom.  Be prepared for some lengthy discussions.

Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Forging a President, by William Hazelgrove

Teddy Roosevelt, 26th president of the United States, has an aura about him--the Rough Rider who spoke softly but carried a big stick.  That persona was not shaped by his elite New York society upbringing, nor by his time at Harvard or his early years in the New York state legislature.  As William Hazelgrove tells the story, Roosevelt's years in the West shaped him into the man history remembers as president.  Forging a President: How the Wild West Created Teddy Roosevelt traces Roosevelt's life in the 1880s, from his first buffalo hunt to the end of his ranching career.

Drawing on Roosevelt's own writing as a well as a wide variety of biographical sources, Hazelgrove crafts a readable narrative that celebrates Roosevelt and his rough and tumble time in the West.  While on a buffalo hunt, the young Roosevelt decides he wants to be a rancher.  Pulling out his checkbook, he forks over a sizable chunk of his recently inherited wealth and enlists a couple of cowboys to get a herd started for him.

When Roosevelt's mother and wife pass away on the same night, Roosevelt moves more permanently to the West.  Over the course of three years, he builds his reputation, facing down drunk cowboys, capturing outlaws, standing up to Indians, holding his own on cattle drives, and organizing cowboys.  The asthmatic young man whose doctor told him he should lead a sedentary lifestyle was transformed into a broad shouldered cowboy, a man's man and a leader of men. 

Hazelgrove, clearly a Roosevelt admirer, made me a fan as well.  He builds the narrative, paints the picture, fills in the historical setting, and makes the case for the influence of Roosevelt's years in the West on his later years.  A child of privilege and wealth, Roosevelt did not simply rest on his position, but made a way for himself.  In a way it's tragic, as a response to the deaths of his wife and mother.  But ultimately, he--and the United States--are better off as a result.  Forging a President is an enjoyable read about a remarkable man.


Thanks to the author for the complimentary electronic review copy!

Nothing to Lose, by Lee Child

Jack Reacher: drifter, ex-MP, vigilante, and vagrant.  At least that's what the police of Despair, Colorado call him.  They pick him up for vagrancy and deliver him to the town line, returning him to Hope, where he spent the previous night.  But he's curious, doesn't like to be told what he can or can't do, and has a dogged determination to find out the truth.  In Nothing to Lose, Reacher is traveling cross country, on his way, eventually, to San Diego.  After a night in the small town of hope, he heads to despair, where he finds even stopping in for a cup of coffee is unwelcome.

After being told he should never come back to Despair, he does.  Again and again.  He single-handedly takes down the whole police department.  And he gets to the bottom of a scandalous plot that includes and end-times nut case preacher, the cover up of U.S. military operations in the Middle East, a company town whose company's contracts are questionable, an operation smuggling AWOL soldiers out of the country, and a beautiful police woman who may or may not be available.

Child does not disappoint with his detailed descriptions of Reacher's fighting prowess, his ability to put the pieces together in the mysterious puzzle, and the ease with which he attracts the beautiful woman without becoming tied down.  Once he suspects something is fishy, he won't quit until he figures it out.  The police woman observes that he can't be a one-man Department of Justice; Reacher disagrees.  I wasn't comfortable with some of the unanswered questions Child leaves hanging, but Reacher was comfortable enough to keep on moving. 

Truth, by Randy Alcorn

Truth.  Sometimes it seems like a fluid concept.  We might hear about "alternative truth."  A politician's spokesperson might respond to criticism of her boss by talking about "her truth."  Randy Alcorn not only wants to make the case that truth is unchangeable and discoverable, but also that it is rooted in "the eternal, all-powerful, and unchangeable God."  In Truth: A Bigger View of God's Word, Alcorn gives us 200 short selections to help us understand and apply God's truth.

Following the pattern of his earlier book Grace, each selection includes a scripture, a couple of paragraphs of Alcorn's insights, and a quotation from another writer or pastor.  He covers a wide gamut of the Christian life, and draws quotes from a wide variety of the Christian tradition. 

The strength of these selections is two-fold.  First of all, Alcorn reminds us that God and his word are arbiters of truth, not us.  Christians should be looking to the authority of scripture, not their own feelings.  He writes, "The test of whether Scripture is my authority is this: Do I allow God's Word to convince me to believe what I don't like, what's contrary to what I've always believed and wanted to believe?  Do I believe it even when it offends me?"  We should believe what the Bible teaches, not "whatever makes us feel better about ourselves or justifies our actions."

Second, the truth of scripture should guide our lives.  Christians ignore or are ignorant of so much of what scripture teaches about the Christian life.  The Christian is a new creation.  We are saved by grace.  The gospel is good news.  (How about this quote: "A good test of whether you believe the true gospel is if it makes you happy.")  So much truth in the gospel, so many Christians who live like they don't believe it.

This is not a book to read straight through.  If you do, like I did, you will be frustrated by the lack of continuity or structure.  Take these short chapters a bite at a time, chew on them, and let God's truth inform your life and transform your thinking.  Truth is unchanging.  That is important to acknowledge.  But even more importantly, Christians need to acknowledge the power of truth to change them.


Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!

The BFG, by Roald Dahl

What a delightful, fun book!  Perhaps I can be excused for not reading Roald Dahl's The BFG when it was published in 1982, since I was 13, and probably thought I was too old for children's stories.  My loss.  I saw Disney's recent Stephen Spielberg adaptation, was smitten, and decided to read the book, too.  The movie was quite faithful to the book, and both are worth reading or watching again.

Young Sophie, who lives in an orphanage, sees the BFG (big, friendly giant) sneaking around one night.  He picks her up and takes her to his home, where he says she will have to stay forever.  He can't risk her telling other people about him.  He is one of many giants, the rest of which eat "human beans" that they capture in distant lands on their nightly forays.  The BFG doesn't eat humans, and does approve of his fellow giants doing so.  He and Sophie concoct an elaborate plan to prevent them from eating any more people.

The story is great, with enough silliness mixed with insight to make it immensely entertaining while being multilayered enough to make it enduring.  The BFG's distinctive bungling of words kept me smiling throughout.  "Giants is all cannybully and murderful!  And they does gobble up human beans!"  When giants drink "frobscottle" the bubbles go down instead of up (like our soft drinks), resulting in "a whizzpopper."  "Us giants is making whizzpoppers all the time!  Whizzpopping is a sign of happiness.  It is music in our ears!"

Dahl, who flew in the Royal Air Force in World War 2, finds a place for a bit of anti-war commentary.  Sophie asks the BFG about the other giants' habit of eating people.  She is appalled, but the BFG counters, "Do not forget that human beans is disappearing everywhere all the time even without the giants is guzzling them up.  Human beans is killing each other much quicker than the giants is doing it."   He points out that other animals don't kill their own kind, "but human beans is squishing each other all the time. . . . They is shooting guns and going up in aerioplanes to drop their bombs on each other's heads every week.  Human beans is always killing other human beans." 

The BFG is perfect bedtime reading for boys and girls.  Due to the subject matter, that is, giants eating people, the very youngest among them might not enjoy it, but it's a classic that should be enjoyed for generations to come.