It's kind of an odd choice to read a book about work at this stage of my life. I'm a stay-at-home parent and I love it. I feel a lot of value in what I do and so I try to do it to the best of my ability. Which is really what lies at… Continue reading Book Review: Every Good Endeavor by Timothy Keller
This book was dangerously over-hyped for me. When I start to hear over and over again how great a book is (or anything really) my stubborn heels begin to dig in and I am ready to dislike it. Which is a silly reaction, I know, but a difficult habit to shake. Fortunately, I still enjoyed… Continue reading Book Review: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Grace River is a slim little novel, told from the alternating perspectives of four residents of a small town in British Columbia called Grace River. It's a town where most people know each other, where most people grew up nearby, and the main industry is the smelter, Axis. Our four narrators are Jessie, Daniel, Kali,… Continue reading Book Review: Grace River by Rebecca Hendry
There are two ways I have to approach a book like this. 1) As a reader and 2) as a Christian. In the first instance, I didn't love this book. I really wanted to. I've heard great things about Chan as a speaker but it unfortunately seems to be the case that, though he may… Continue reading Book Review: Crazy Love by Francis Chan
"The soldier is not a photographic machine. He is not a camera. He registers, so to speak, only those few items that he is predisposed to register and not a single thing more. Do you understand this? So I am saying to you that after a battle each soldier will have different stories to tell,… Continue reading Book Review: Going After Cacciato – Tim O’Brien
Harold is a child of undetermined age. However, he is bald and he is wearing clothes that are all one-piece and that tells me that he is too young to be going for a walk on his own. Conclusion: Harold's parents need to be reported. Does Harold live in a black hole? There is neither… Continue reading Book Review: Harold and the Purple Crayon by Crockett Johnson
After reading The Lotus Eaters (read my review here), it seemed fitting to read something about the Vietnam War from a North Vietnam perspective. The Sorrow of War was written by Bao Ninh, who served as a teenager for North Vietnam. While the book is fictional, it's easy to imagine that it's based on a… Continue reading Book Review: The Sorrow of War by Bao Ninh
Remembrance is a short book, more of an essay, really than maybe even a story. I read it in one middle-of-the-night baby-feeding session. It's the story of three David MacDonalds; father and son and grandfather. The focus is primarily the first David MacDonald, who left his pregnant wife and young daughter to serve with the… Continue reading Book Review: Remembrance by Alistair MacLeod
The Lotus Eaters begins with the following quote from The Odyssey: Those who ate the honeyed fruit of the plant lost any wish to come back and bring us news. All they now wanted was to stay where they were with the Lotus-eaters, to browse on the lotus, and to forget all thoughts of return.… Continue reading Book Review: The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli
Let's talk about story. And narration. And unreliable narrators and memory and aging. Each of these subjects is what Julian Barnes' The Sense of an Ending is really about. The plot is really more of an excuse to examine these topics. That's not to say there is no plot or that the plot is no… Continue reading Book Review: The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
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