Unfreedom of the Press, by Mark R. Levin

With Mark Levin, you can always count on a conservative perspective and an informed, passionate, and thorough treatment of the issues at hand.  This is certainly true of Unfreedom of the Press.  Levin is no knee-jerk defender of President Trump, but he certainly recognizes the coordinated schemes of the media to embarrass and, they wish, unseat Trump.

As you will expect with Levin, if you've read his books or listened to his radio show, he doesn't simply report on and react to the news of the day.  Unfreedom of the Press is wide-ranging, but a couple of themes stand out.  The biases of the press, while amplified during the age of Trump, are nothing new.  Levin recounts the failures of the New York Times specifically.  While Stalin was systematically oppressing and starving millions of people in the Ukraine in the 1930s, the Soviets tried to keep it under wraps.  Word did leak out, but somehow the NYT kept it off their pages.  Similarly, even though the nature and extent of the Holocaust were known, for many years Americans did not learn of it because a compliant press, led by the New York Times, kept it off the front pages, if it was reported at all.

The internet and social media have, of course, revolutionized the way people receive and disperse information.  But big media still dominates and they do what they can to shape the story line.  Months after the publication of Levin's book, we heard recordings of NYT editorial meetings in which editors expressly discussed their strategies to discredit Trump.  (The Russian collusion narrative fell apart, so now they were going to shift to the "Trump is a racist" narrative.)  Levin must have been thinking, "There's another chapter for the second edition!"

People on the left and in the mainstream stress will hate this book.  The rest of us will see that Levin is right: Trump not only has to work against the Democrats to accomplish anything in his agenda, he has to fight the misrepresentations and opposition coming at him from the newspapers and "news" networks.

Safe Enough Spaces, by Michael S. Roth

I read Michael S. Roth's Safe Enough Spaces: A Pragmatist's Approach to Inclusion, Free Speech, and Political Correctness on College Campuses with some suspicion and trepidation.  I am thirty years past my college experiences, with a son in the midst of it.  In the decades that have passed, I have, as an outsider, seen the deepening of leftist culture's grip on college life, and have wondered and prayed for my son's generation to be free from the grip of destructive liberal indoctrination.

Roth is president of Wesleyan University and while he seems personally quite comfortable with liberalism, he does actually provide a perspective that leaves room for other points of view.  I admit that I have come to accept the common belief, which Roth says is mistaken, that "campuses have replaced teaching and learning with indoctrination and political posturing."  But Roth does concede that "there is a serious problem of political bias on college campuses, particularly in the humanities and interpretive social sciences."

Roth wants campuses to be "safe-enough," existing and teaching with "tensions between flourishing and criticizing."  He celebrates broad diversity, even seeming to embrace affirmative action type admissions policies.  But while providing "encounters with different diversities" universities can't be "too safe--they must not coddle."

Based on what I read here, Roth sounds too liberal, politically and socially, for my taste.  We would find plenty of points of disagreement, I'm sure, if we were to sit around a seminar table together at Wesleyan.  On the other hand, I think I could count on him to teach my son's generation and to create a campus environment where conservatives and liberals and religious and non-religious alike can be challenged and taught without the "growing danger of orthodoxy and authoritarianism." 

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

Savage Harvest, by Carl Hoffman

I don't think the current generation knows much about the Rockefeller family.  We don't hear much about them now, but when John D. Rockefeller became the richest person in the world via Standard Oil, starting in the late 19th century, and his grandson, Nelson Rockefeller, became governor of New York (1959-1973) and Vice President under Gerald Ford, everyone knew about the Rockefellers.  So in 1961 when Nelson's son Michael Rockefeller disappeared off New Guinea, it was big news around the world.

A generation later, Carl Hoffman investigated Michael's mysterious disappearance and tells the story in Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller's Tragic Quest.  Michael embraced his father's passion for native artifacts, and became an expert in Asmat art and culture, traveling through the jungles and seas of Dutch New Guinea.  When his boat became disabled within sight of shore, he began to swim to land to get help.  No one ever saw him again.

Some rumors pointed to his being murdered and eaten by natives.  Hoffman follows Michael's route in hopes of finding evidence of Michael's fate.  So it's a history, a memoir, a travelogue, and a mystery story.  Hoffman can't make any definitive statement--he didn't turn up remains that can be identified by DNA, for instance--but based on his findings, he leans hard toward accepting the cannibalism rumors.

Savage Harvest brings alive this period of history and brings back memories (for older Americans) of headlines from the early 1960s while introducing younger Americans to a rather odd chapter, or maybe footnote, of American history.  Hoffman brings it all together nicely in a readable, somewhat suspenseful, package.

Together for the City, by Neil Powell and John James

Neil Powell and John James are church planters in Birmingham, the second largest city in England.  In Together for the City: How Collaborative Church Planting Leads to Citywide Movements, they describe the work of 2020birmingham (https://2020birmingham.org/) which set out in 2010 to plant 20 churches in the Birmingham area by 2020, and now is on its way to planting 30 churches by 2030.

Powell and James bring a passion to Together for the City that is contagious and effective.  First of all, they remind us that church plants are on the cutting edge of the reaching people for the gospel.  Churches, they write, are the primary means for bringing people into the kingdom of God, and are the primary place where new believers are discipled.  Further, new churches are statistically much more likely to reach new believers.  So the message of Together for the City is, in part, to promote the vitality of church plants for the sake of the larger Church.

But more than that, they want to expand the vision for church planting well beyond the single church or single denomination model.  Most church planting I have been aware of is either one church planting a "daughter" church, or, better, a series of daughter churches.  If not a single church, then a regional denominational office will develop a plan to plant a church that is supported by that denomination.  In Powell and James's model, churches join across denominational lines to pursue a unified vision of reaching the city, through church plants, for the gospel.

Maybe I'm too cynical or insulated, but this, to me, sounds pretty radical.  They write that they "aren't seeking to plant churches together but to be together as we plant churches."  They still recognize denominational distinctives while sharing resources, strategies, and plans, with a greater vision of seeing people across their city come to walk with Jesus.  A church planting pastor in my area used to say, "We don't want to be the largest church in the area; we want to church the area."  This is the type of attitude that I see in Together for the City.

2020birmingham, as a group, grasped the conviction that "we are far too tribal, and tribalism is the consequence of failing to reflect deeply on the gospel."  As they look at the "fields white unto harvest," they embrace the attitude that "This field is far too big to farm without collaboration."  As unique and revolutionary as this sounded to me, I apparently am way behind the times.  The authors include interviews with church planters from similar networks in Chicago, Tokyo, Pretoria, and other cities around the world.  The type of collaboration that Powell and James write about is happening all over the world.  As one pastor in Chile said, "We began the first church plant funded by local churches of different denominations.  In this case, a Presbyterian church and an Anglican church are helping financially to support a Reformed Methodist Pentecostal church plant."  What a great vision of working together for the sake of the gospel.  We need more of this, in every city!  May it be, Lord!


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

Redshirts, by John Scalzi

Every casual fan of Star Trek will immediately recognize what John Scalzi's Redshirts is referring to.  Those crew members who show up on an episode wearing a red shirt and assigned an away mission are almost certain to meet their doom.  Sometimes they don't even get the dignity of having a name.  In Redshirts some of the new recruits on the Intrepid, the flagship of the Universal Union, gather that they definitely don't want to be chosen for an away mission.  They see this pattern and are warned against becoming a part of the story line.

Thanks to a crazy crew member who has managed to stay hidden in the maintenance tunnels, they being to figure out that their parts, and the ship's missions, are being written into a TV show from centuries before.  They hijack an away mission shuttle to travel back in time through a wormhole to meet with the writers of the show.

This sounds absolutely ridiculous--and it is!  But Scalzi pulls this ridiculous story off.  The crew members even meet some of the cast members who play them on the show.  The crew members and the actors and writers get themselves in all kinds of pretzels figuring out the causation and reality of their lives and the writers' power over them.  It's like a time travel story, with a bizarre twist.

Star Trek fans with a sense of humor will love this story.  Comparisons to the Tim Allen movie Galaxy Quest are appropriate.  I found myself laughing out loud throughout.  As much fun as Redshirts is to read, however, the "codas" at the end seemed more contrived and out of place.  I liked how Scalzi finally put a bow on things, but the codas were a let down after the greatness that was the rest of the book.  That said, if you want a good laugh with a Star Trek-like theme, Redshirts is a must-read.

Coffee with Jesus, by David Wilkie

David Wilkie's Coffee with Jesus is hilarious, thought-provoking, and sometimes convicting, all at the same time.  Wilkie started Coffee with Jesus a few years ago as an online comic strip, which he has collected in this volume.  If you're looking for great comic art, well, you'll have to keep looking.  His characters are simply throwback clip art figures.  But man does the dialogue pack a punch!

In each strip, one or two of Wilkie's cast of characters has a short interaction with Jesus, as if they are having coffee together.  Wilkie has grouped the strips thematically, sort of, and some themes pop up throughout.  Wilkie's Jesus is very mellow, approachable, sometimes a little sarcastic, and always pushing his interlocutors to think a bit more deeply about their faith and actions.

The obvious theme of the book is that Jesus wants us to talk with him.  I think it's OK to think of prayer as sitting across the table from Jesus, having a cup of coffee; he desires intimacy and vulnerability from us.  My favorite strips have Jesus reminding us that "Sometimes it's good to not talk."

Sometimes we just need to be still and quiet in his presence. . . .

Jesus will sometimes remind us that we don't really need to hear from him, because we already know what he's going to say.  On the topic of marriage, we know the answers already . . . .

He especially likes "watching it sink in" when we realize the answers. . . .And he gently reminds us that sometimes when we think we know all the answers, we really don't.

Many of the strips poke fun at the foibles of the modern American church.  For instance, after Carl tells Jesus about the youth group mission trip that will include assisting a church in Florida, followed by a trip to Disneyworld, Jesus points out, "Amazing how many churches in tourist destinations need help, isn't it?"

One topic that I often need to hear from Jesus on is the nature of vocation.  Jesus points out to Carl that "some people will walk through life quietly, with dignity, doing my will without being noticed at all."  Carl, who has a landscape company, questions whether his call is "just" mowing lawns.  Jesus answers, "That's what you get to do."  What a great reminder to serve Jesus in everything, whatever vocation we are in.

There are so many great strips in Coffee with Jesus, and so many challenges and chuckles.  If you are a Christian who doesn't mind a bit of good-natured ribbing at Christian culture, and who enjoys a fresh approach to questions about the Christian life, I dare you to spend a few minutes having coffee with Jesus.  It just might change your life.

Hellhound on His Trail, by Hampton Sides

As the subtitle of Hampton Sides's book Hellhound on His Trail: The Electrifying Account of the Largest Manhunt in American History indicates, the hunt for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassin was, in fact, the largest manhunt in American history.  When James Earl Ray shot MLK, the shock waves reverberated around the world.  The memory is still fresh and raw in the minds and hearts of many Americans.

Sides tells the story of these two men's paths and destinies crossing on that fateful Memphis day.  Alternating between Ray's movements around the country as an escaped convict and King's movements around the country as a civil rights leader, Sides presents a thorough picture of race and culture in the 1960s.  Drawing on historical accounts and oral histories, Sides reconstructs the events in painstaking detail.

As gripping as the story is--and even though we know the outcome, it's pretty gripping--Sides does get bogged down in the details, while only tangentially examining the big picture.  We learn much about Ray's personal habits and personality quirks, but the question of motive is assumed and glossed over.  Sides mentions theories about Ray's being part of a larger conspiracy, but dismisses any inkling that Ray was just a guy who wanted to kill MLK.  For many, the thought that he had not one bit of financial or logistical support is simply outside the realm of possibility.  For Sides, it's ridiculous to imagine that Ray was anything other than a lone assassin. 

One thing remains unquestioned: King's death was tragic for the civil rights movement and our nation's history.  King's philosophy of nonviolence didn't die with him, but his death allowed many in the civil rights movement to move away from nonviolence.  On the bright side, King's death elevated and accelerated the concerns of the movement, perhaps leading to swifter acceptance of attitudes and policies King promoted. 

Sides doesn't whitewash King's lifestyle or legacy, but he clearly sees King as a tragic hero.  Similarly, he doesn't make Ray out to be an evil man, but a regular guy who pursued--and accomplished--a goal, and who was frankly shocked that his actions had such far-reaching repercussions.  Try as he might, even leaving the country and leaving the continent, Ray couldn't escape the consequences of his killing King.  With Sides, you will feel like you are with him every step of the way.

God and Money, by John Cortines and Gregory Baumer

John Cortines and Gregory Baumer met as students in the Harvard Business School.  A class project about giving grew into a longer paper which grew into God and Money: How We Discovered True Riches at Harvard Business School.  The bottom line of this book on giving is this: decide what you need to live on, and give away everything above that. 

Cortines and Baumer do a nice job of outlining their reasoning, starting with the biblical account.  They argue that Christians aren't commanded to tithe, but to them, giving goes way beyond a tithe.  In practical terms, they propose that Christians determine what they need to live on, and set a savings goal for retirement.  With whatever they earn beyond that, they can give to their church (I credit them for pointing out the primacy of giving to the church) and other Christian causes.  They even propose that givers band together and collectively give, multiplying the impact of their gifts.

As one who has worked in the non-profit world, dependent on the generosity of committed givers, I appreciate their project.  As an antidote to a materialistic, keep-up-with-the Joneses American mentality, their perspective is welcome.  The book is full of stories of families who have deliberately limited or downgraded their lifestyles so that they can give more.  The authors point out that Christians control a vast amount of wealth, and if more Christians limited their spending on themselves and gave more, tremendous good could be done.

Despite the great message, as I read I continually felt that the book was not for me, or even for most Christians.  Cortines and Baumer began this project while at Harvard Business School.  For them and their classmates, throwing around six and seven figure income numbers is no big deal.  For most Americans, including most Christians, five figures is more realistic.  Six figures would be great.  They propose that a good target for a family to live on would be about $100-150 thousand per year, and a retirement goal would be from $1 to $4 million. 

Now, for a Harvard MBA, $100,000 is probably a modest starting salary.  To live on that might seem like poverty wages.  But to most of us, that sounds pretty lofty.  The average household income in the US in 2017 was about $61K.  If you make more than $100K, you are comfortably in the top 10%.  As I read about these guys making sacrifices to buy a smaller house or drive an older car so they would spend only $150K a year, I found myself longing to earn more--so I could give it all away, of course!

The authors write that everyone tends to compare themselves to people above them on the income scale.  Guilty!  They make the occasional nod to those of us below them--the widow's mite and all--but for the most part, they look to the super rich for their examples and inspiration.  The overall effect, for those of us not in the top single digit percentages of wage earners, is, frankly, exclusion and inadequacy.  If you are a very high income family, check out God and Money.  We 90-95%ers will need to look elsewhere.

Venus Plus X, by Theodore Sturgeon

Theodore Sturgeon is an award-winning, classic sci-fi author.  He was highly influential, having written dozens of short stories and novels, and had his fingers in such outlets as Star Trek and The Twilight Zone.  So I was looking forward to reading one of his novels.  I started with Venus Plus X and was not impressed. 

There's a strong tradition in sci-fi of novels that present a futuristic, utopian society through the eyes of a present-day character.  In Venus Plus X, Charlie suddenly finds himself in Ledom, which turns out to be a far-distant future earth.  (Sturgeon is not above using such silly tricks as making the name of his future society so cheesily named: model in reverse. . . .)  The problem with many stories in this genre, including Venus Plus X, is that it's barely a story.  It's mostly a description of this future world.

In Lodem, the future race is all bisexual.  It's just weird and not inspiring or entertaining.  Maybe I'll read another Sturgeon novel or some of his stories, but Venus Plus X did not make me a fan.

Black Rednecks and White Liberals, by Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell.  Long may he live--and write!  I'm not sure I've ever read anything he has written--whether a tweet, an essay, or a book--that was not absolutely packed full of brilliance, insight, and fresh ideas.  His 2006 book Black Rednecks and White Liberals shatters popular conceptions about race, and is even more relevant today than when these essays were published fifteen years ago. 

The provocative title isn't as self-contradictory as it sounds.  Sowell describes the migration patterns of Europeans who populated the American south and the language and behavior patterns they brought from Scotland and Wales.  Much of what we now consider "redneck," and many of the behaviors and language patterns viewed as stereotypically Southern black culture, derive from these European immigrants.  Interestingly enough, when Southerners began migrating to the north, whites experienced exclusion because of their southern speech.  Many blacks in the north showed prejudice against southern blacks for the same reason.

The irony that Sowell points out is that when blacks have experienced the greatest success educationally and professionally, it is the result of the influence of New England educational attitudes and programs.  Dunbar High School in Washington, D.C. produced generations of successful black Americans due to their faculty of New England educated blacks.  When liberal advocates try to preserve or celebrate stereotypically black language and culture in schools (i.e., ebonics), they are crippling students who would be better served in the manner of Dunbar and other successful schools.

Sowell writes about economic and cultural trends in a way that celebrates the achievements of American blacks, while disparaging the programs and policies that most black political activists and politicians support today.  For example, economic and education success of blacks in America saw much greater improvements in the middle of the twentieth century, before the Civil Rights movement and the Great Society programs. 

Sowell sticks his neck out in such a way that makes many black leaders hate him.  But as an economist, he prefers to look at data rather blindly follow popular movements.  No matter the color of your skin, Sowell is worth reading and considering.

I Was Hungry, by Jeremy K. Everett

Can we eliminate hunger in the U.S.?  How about in the state of Texas?  Jeremy K. Everett certainly thinks it can happen.  As director of the Texas Hunger Initiative, he's taking steps to make this a reality.  In I Was Hungry: Cultivating Common Ground to End an American Crisis, he describes the problem and discusses the ways that THI is bringing groups together to address the problem.

One point of frustration for Everett and other activists is the degree to which individuals are demonized or ostracized for their own poverty.  Policy makers and many private citizens view sloth, refusal to work, addiction, and other life choices as the chief causes of hunger.  Everett doesn't dispute that these factors exist, but wants us to acknowledge other factors, such as underemployment, lack of educational opportunities and achievement, and physical access to resources.

To this end, Everett tells stories of people he has met, either as neighbors in poor neighborhoods where he has lived, or as participants in his work with THI and as a member of the National Commission on Hunger.  It's one thing to talk about hunger in the abstract, and conclude that people's choices lead to hunger.  It's another thing to have a relationship with someone who works two jobs and can't afford adequate food, or to meet someone who lives in a border town with no running water and no neighborhood grocery store.  Any understanding of hunger must include relationships with people who experience it.

I appreciated the fact that while he admits that he previously had deep suspicion and animosity toward corporations, he has come to see that both as providers of employment and in the distribution and production of food, corporations can have a positive impact on hunger in our communities: "Many corporations are . . . doing good, and when we cut out an entire sector that employs millions of people from being part of a solution, we are doing the common good a great disservice."  He calls on corporations, civic leaders, private citizens, charities, school districts, and others to work together to make sure no one in our communities is hungry.  It's not a matter of a lack of resources, but a matter of coordination of efforts.

The bottom line is working together in our communities toward the common good.  "Whether you choose to pay for food for families from your missions budget at your church, strengthen utilization of federal resources, or better yet, create good-paying jobs for people in poverty, that decision is yours and your community's to make."  The private sector, all levels of government from federal to the school board, private charities, and religious congregations and organizations all have a part to play.

Everett has a broad approach and offers very practical solutions.  Sure, there are behavioral factors that lead to poverty and hunger, but the societal factors are greater.  Whatever the case, in our wealthy nation, consistent hunger is an indictment against the structure of our society.  Everett will not only have you believing that food insecurity in the U.S. can be a thing of the past, but will also inspire you to play a part in addressing hunger in your own community.



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

Black Lies Matter, by Taleeb Starkes

Taleeb Starkes is brave to have written Black Lies Matter: Why Lies Matter to the Race Grievance Industry.  Starkes is a conservative African-American who, as the title of his book suggests, has little patience for much of the activism of his fellow blacks.  He takes issue with what he calls the "Race Grievance Industry" whose "sole purpose is to profit from racial strife under the guise of pursuing racial peace."  The RGI promotes "a lie that refuses to die: blacks are permanent victims of racism, and no amount of effort will overcome it."

Starkes writes about the "hypocritical, not Hippocratic oath."  The RGI perpetuates misleading narratives about race while ignoring more crucial problems.  Starkes examines some of the most violent cities in the United States, providing crime statistics for some of the black neighborhoods.  Contrasting stories of innocent blacks killed by "urban terrorists" with the causes that black activists get behind.  If black lives really matter, he argues, Black Lives Matter would focus on who is really killing black people in urban America.

If Black Lies Matter were written by a white writer, it would probably be dismissed as racist garbage.  Many will still dismiss it as racist garbage, but the author is a black man who grew up in poor conditions.  Maybe some of the RGI should give him a listen. . . .

Confessions of a Traveler, by Clara Molina

Alien 597 has a taste for adventure and enlightenment, so she jumped at the opportunity to travel to Earth, where the dominant species looks exactly like her own.  In Confessions of a Traveler: The Observations of Alien 597, Clara Molina conveys Alien 597's wanderings in our world.

First of all, from a practical standpoint, this story is barely long enough to be considered a short story.  It's longer than flash fiction, but shorter than most stories in, for example, a sci-fi anthology.  Not that short stories can't have value, but if you're spending $2.99 on a story from Amazon.com, you probably want to be aware that you're paying for a story that will take you about ten minutes to read.

Confessions of a Traveler is brief, but cute, insubstantial but amusing.  It doesn't take her long to figure out that "Everything was silly here, . . . and the people were silly too."  It's a silly little story.  I can think of worse ways to spend 10-15 minutes of my life, but I must say I'm glad I got my copy for free.


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

The Justice Game, by Randy Singer

Randy Singer does not hesitate to explore controversial topics in his legal fiction.  In The Justice Game, the big issue is gun control.  When a popular TV news figure is murdered on the air, her husband looks to sue the maker of the gun used in the shooting.  As the case heats up, the lead lawyers on each side of the case turn out to share a history, having worked for the same powerful law firm at different points in their careers. 

Each of them has secrets from their past which they would rather keep secret.  But they both receive threatening messages from a blackmailer who wants to manipulate the case.  Follow his demands, or the secrets will come out!  As in his other novels, Singer shows a strong talent for taking legal ideas and courtroom settings and making them dramatic.  But despite the drama, I had a harder time with this story, as compared to Singer's other stories. 

The Justice Game tries really hard, and is a decent story, but it's not as compelling as some of Singer's other novels.

Vessel, by Lisa A. Nichols

The setup for Lisa A. Nichols's sci-fi novel Vessel is gripping.  Catherine Wells is the sole survivor of a crew that had travelled through a wormhole to explore another planet.  The crew was thought lost and dead until Catherine showed up in our solar system after her years-long absence.  Not only is her life turned upside down, but she becomes the center of a mystery about what went wrong with her mission and the implications for the next mission.

Two things about Vessel.  First, there's a lot of focus on Catherine's angst upon her return to her family and work.  Her husband moved on to another lover, and her daughter has grown up in her absence.  Obviously, this is a recipe for heartache and scrambled emotions.  Second, Catherine has experienced a huge loss of memory.  She doesn't remember her time on the other planet or her return.  Back on Earth, she experiences periodic memory loss.  This is the mystery at the center of the novel.

Vessel is not a bad novel, but it's pretty predictable.  I'm not particularly perceptive, but even in my little brain I realized the source of Catherine's memory loss.  Now, don't get me wrong, I kept reading because I like a good story.  But between the family drama and the predictable "mystery" it left me not particularly interested.


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

Campusland, by Scott Johnston

If the insanity of political correctness, social justice battles, and sexual politics on colleges campuses today weren't so consequential, it would be laughable.  Oh wait, it is laughable!  Absurd!  And Scott Johnston describes and personalizes campus culture in Campusland: A Novel.  Set on an elite northeastern campus suspiciously similar to Yale, where Johnston attended and later taught, Campusland skewers the current atmosphere of higher education.  It's a novel, but oh so real.

English prof Eph Russell is up for tenure, but that's in peril after he becomes a target of the campus social justice warriors.  They are unhappy that his course on 19th century American literature doesn't feature authors of color, but does feature a book full of racist language (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn).  If the campus activists accusing him of racism isn't enough, one of his students makes a pass at him, which he rebuffs, then accuses him of sexual assault.  Meanwhile, the president of the university is trying to balance his appeasement of the aggrieved minority groups and his traditional donor base while protecting the university's vaunted reputation.

This is the story of Eph, but it's also the story of Title IX, of the hashtag culture, of social media.  It's a story of much that is wrong with colleges today.  So check it out, get a good laugh, but then pay more attention to what's going on around the country.  Johnston mashes it all together on one campus in one academic year, so the absurdity of it all comes to an uber-absurd head.  But the elements of the story are taken from real-life stories from a campus near you.


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

The Road to Serfdom, by F. A. Hayek

The rise of socialist thought in the United States is simply incredible, given the nation's history of battling socialist regimes in a number of wars.  F.A. Hayek's The Road to Serfdom should be required reading for any socialist-leaning political leader or candidate.  Hayek wrote thus during World War 2, publishing in 1944.  At the time he was teaching at the University of London, and first published the book in England, but it was met with a much more enthusiastic reception in the U.S.

During this era, National Socialism was, of course, marching through Europe, and socialist thought was steadily rising in prominence in England.  Hayek was alarmed by these trends and hoped to stem the tide by pointing out the inevitable direction of socialism.  While his views were not particularly popular at the time, he has proven to be prophetic. 

Hayek became a leading figure in the Chicago School of Economics, and was awarded the Nobel Prize in economics in 1974.  Hayek rejects central planning by government entities, pointing out how that leads to misinformation and a loss of freedom.  Organization, planning, centralization of economic power, all lead to a loss of freedom and a loss of prosperity.  History has shown Hayek to be correct.  If only we could get modern politicians to listen and learn.

The Churchgoer, by Patrick Coleman

Maybe this is a shallow perspective, but I generally like to have a character to root for in novels.  If it's not someone I like, at least make it someone who I can get behind.  In Patrick Coleman's debut novel The Churchgoer, no character stepped up or stood out.  They are all rather unlikeable, if not despicable.  As a result, despite a decent, even endearing beginning, as the story progressed I became less and less interested in where it was all going.

Mark Haines had been a successful pastor, but alcoholism and a crisis of faith drove him away from the church and from his family.  He's now deeply cynical and mostly aimless.  He buys dinner for a young lady, with whom he has a weird mix of romantic and fatherly attraction.  Later on, as he searches for her, he reenters his former world of evangelical church culture as well as his former drug and alcohol culture. 

The Churchgoer is a mystery, a slice-of-life of Southern California, and a personal redemption story.  It's not particularly enjoyable, and, as I said, the efforts at suspense are diminished by the unlikeable characters.  I just didn't care about them or the story by the time I was done.


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

Spiritual Life Hacks, by Len Woods

If you've ever been on Facebook or other social network sites, you've probably seen "life hacks," those out-of-the-box quick and/or creative solutions to common, everyday problems.  Len Woods, former pastor and prolific author, has compiled a collection of spiritual life hacks.  They might not be quite as quick and easy as the life hacks you see online, but they are considerably more consequential.

The 36 chapters of Woods's Spiritual Life Hacks: Uncommon Solutions to Common Challenges address common "ailments" of the Christian life--actually, of everyone's life.  Using scripture, amusing anecdotes, and practical advice, Woods offers a way out of these quagmires.  He will be the first to tell you that, in the spiritual life, quick fixes are not normally an option.  Like an athlete in training, there are not shortcuts to spiritual disciplines or character transformation.  Rather, Woods's goal is to show that "little actions can become holy habits."

Each chapter introduces a common problem, like "When You're Battling Doubts," "When the Idea of Repenting Leaves You Cold," or "When Your Faith is Overdue for a Checkup."  You could read the book straight through, but it might be better used to refer to particular chapters at opportune times.  I especially enjoyed some of his practical suggestions.  For example, when unhealthy thoughts and attitudes bog you down, prayerfully sit with your hands cupped in your lap, imagine those things gathering in your hands and slowly dump them out.  Then raise your cupped hands and allow God to fill them with good things and attitudes.  A little corny?  Maybe.  Effective?  Probably.  Another fun idea to help you fix attitudes about other people: guerrilla prayer.  Throughout the day, silently pray for people around you in traffic, in line at the store, or around your workplace.  Just watch how that transforms the way you view other people.

Woods's style is informal and folksy, sometimes delving into the preachers world of unnecessary word meaning riffs or list of examples.  But his applications are practical, workable, and faith-provoking in the best way.  Take a few minutes to read and apply his life hacks and you might move ever closer to Christian maturity.


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

The Last Policeman, by Ben H. Winters

Hank Palace may not actually be the last policeman, but there aren't too many left.  In Ben H. Winters's The Last Policeman, the world is about to end.  A meteor is on a collision course with earth, and people are counting down the days until impact.  Palace gets a quick promotion to detective and becomes a dogged investigator.

During this time of impending doom, suicides have become commonplace.  But when he's called to the scene of an apparent suicide in the bathroom of a fast food restaurant, he gets the sense that it's not a suicide.  As he digs into it, he uncovers a sordid, end-of-days way of life that desperate, hopeless people resort to.

The Last Policeman is sort of interesting, as Winters writes against this background of a society that is losing any hope of surviving more than a few months.  What is left of organized institutions is crumbling, so it's remarkable that Palace tries to maintain a sense of normalcy and justice.  This is not a bad book, but I didn't find myself caring much about the characters or the story.  I may check out books 2 and 3 of the trilogy, just out of curiosity.

Rise! by Bethany Hegedus, illustrated by Tonya Engel

It has been five years since Maya Angelou passed away.  In hopes that children of this generation do not forget this remarkable woman, Bethany Hegedus has written Rise! From Caged Bird to Poet of the People, Maya Angelou.  I well remember when she spoke at Baylor University when I was an undergraduate there.  She recited her poem "Still I Rise."  It was captivating and memorable; when this book described her revelation about the music of words, it took me back to that event.  "Maya memorized the rhythm, sways to the exquisite dance, the twisting, turning conga line of language that pulses across the page."

With illustrations by Tonya Engel, Hegedus's text covers the major events of Angelou's life.  Her experiences were so varied and her impact was so great, that it almost seems a disservice to be so brief.  But it is a children's book, made for reading in a single sitting.  Hegedus whets the appetite of children (and the adults who read this book to them) to learn more about Angelou.



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

The Dispatcher, by John Scalzi

In the strange near-future world of John Scalzi's novella The Dispatcher, people who are murdered get a second chance.  Their bodies disappear and reappear naked, at home, in bed. . . .  Weird, right?  Once people figured out this pattern--which Scalzi doesn't bother explaining--the role of the dispatcher was created.  The protagonist of The Dispatcher is a dispatcher, whose job is to be present during surgery (and maybe other times of peril) so that when it looks like someone is about to die naturally, he can kill them, so that they get another chance to live.

I know, it sounds absurd, and it is.  Valdez's fellow dispatcher goes missing, and he teams up with a cop to investigate the disappearance.  He gets into the shady world of unofficial dispatching and, to his surprise, gets dispatched himself.  It's a gritty whodunit set against the backdrop of this unlikely world of dispatching.

On the one hand, I wasn't too interested in the elusive mystery.  On the other hand, the resolution wasn't what I might have anticipated.  On the one hand, this in an ok but not great story.  On the other hand, it's pretty short, so you won't feel like you have wasted a ton of time for a mediocre story.