Category Archives: Books

Quick review: Bike!

Bike! A tribute to the world's greatest racing bicyclesBike! A tribute to the world’s greatest racing bicycles by Richard Moore

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This has flashes of being a great book on racing bicycles, but often disappoints.

It consists of many short entries on a series of famous brands. They might be bike manufacturers (Bianchi, Flandria, etc) or component makers (Reynolds, SRAM, etc). There’s also the occasional special two-page spread for more detail: such as Coppi’s 1952 Bianchi after the chapter on Bianchi.

That’s all good, an accompanied by plenty of fine illustrations. But the whole is let down by poor execution.

For a start, the number of contradictions within the text shows sloppy proof reading. Within two or three pages you can read three different start dates for some companies. Are any of them correct?

The editors also made a lazy (non-)decision about units of measurement: everything is listed in both miles and kilometres. This makes for awful reading in sections where four or five racing distances are listed in the one sentence.

Further, for a book about classic cycling brands, I think it was a poor decision to include some ‘up to date’ recent technology – poor because they aren’t classics. The spread on Mark Cavendish’s Specialized Venge just reads like a press announcement from three years ago.

I enjoyed this book, but I don’t trust it as a source of information. Hence, two stars.

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Quick review: I am Malala

I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the TalibanI Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is quite an astonishing family – especially Malala (of course!), but also her father. Through this biography, we get a sense of their dedication to the cause of education even in the face of grave danger.

Malala, and her beloved Swat Valley, faced – and still face – many dangers. She narrates a number of the troubles of Pakistan and Pashtun history. But the worst, it seems, is the Taliban infiltration of the valley. Starting with apparently benign aims of social improvement, the Taliban’s presence in the valley became increasingly violent and uncontrollable. Malala’s verbal pictures of external carnage and internal fear simply underline how extraordinary is her bravery in speaking up for education of all, especially girls.

And so the Taliban shot her. The injuries were serious, and her rehabilitation difficult for all. But you don’t need me to recount the story of the book. The book is clear and speaks for itself. Instead of a re-listing, here are some impressions and thoughts from I am Malala.

This book successfully gives an outsider like me a feel for some of the history of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It’s complex, but the amount of complexity recorded is just enough so I am not totally confused.

Through written with the help of an English journalist (Christina Lamb), Malala’s voice comes through. This sounds like a teenager speaking – speaking well of serious matters, indeed, but still being herself. I’m glad this book does not sound like anonymous, anodyne reportage. Obviously Malala has a strong voice and Lamb is a good journalist.

The tone of this book is mature. It’s not that blame is planted simplistically at the feet of just one or two actors. And even those who fail have moments of strength. For example, Malala’s mentions of Pakistan’s military – of which there are many – do not at all absolve them of culpability in Pakistan’s turmoil. And yet there are also military personnel and structures credited with good and helpful activity.

Finally, showing my definite interest in matters of faith, Islam’s place in the tapestry of Malala’s story is fascinating. The presentation of Islam is a particular example of the book’s qualities noted above: complexity and maturity. Malala is an observant and prayerful Muslim. The Taliban are also Muslim (there’s none of the silly Western pretence that they’re not) – but their expression of Islam is criticised from within the tent of Islam. Pakistan is notably a Muslim homeland, yet Malala wonders why this nation has harmed Muslims more than if there had not been a split between India and Pakistan.

I am very glad for the brave Mulsim activists I heard of in this book: Malala, her father, and a number of others. But I long also for there to be more Christians in Pakistan and the Islamic world. This is not because there’s any greater deficiency in those people compared with others – but because of the greatness of Jesus whom Christians trust. The gospel of the Lord Jesus is needed in places of war, just as it is in places of complacent peace.

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The value of work

A good question, from the early sixteenth century (from Thomas More’s Utopia):

what justice is there in this: that a nobleman, a goldsmith, a banker, or any other man, that either does nothing at all, or, at best, is employed in the things that are of no use to the public, should live in great luxury and splendour upon what is so ill acquired, and a mean man, a carter, a smith, or a ploughman, that works harder even than the beasts themselves, and is employed in labours so necessary, that no commonwealth could hold out a year without them, can only earn so poor a livelihood and must lead so miserable a life, that the condition of the beasts is much better than theirs?

I don’t propose compulsory rearrangement of pay scales (not necessarily, anyway!), but how foolish it is to value people by the measure of their salary.

 


 

Quick review: Honk if you are Jesus

Honk If You Are JesusHonk If You Are Jesus by Peter Goldsworthy

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Very disappointing! A book written by rote, it seems.

I greatly enjoyed Goldsworthy’s Maestro, so had been looking forward to Honk if you are Jesus. I can’t see how it’s the same author.

‘Honk’ is entirely predictable. Every plot turn is telescoped. And the characters! Awful examples of mere types, barely encompassing even two dimensions. There is a lonely-brilliant-cynical woman professor, a fat-gay-epicurean diva, a nagging mum, a two-faced televangelist, a scruffy-brilliant-geneticist, a trophy wife … And these are the filled-out characters!

All this is a pity. Firstly, because I’m convinced Goldsworthy can write. Secondly, because he’s nodded towards a whole library full of fascinating topics.

The story touches on: private tertiary institutions, the decline (or not?) of religion in Australia, genetics, the nature of scientific enquiry, the personality-driven nature of ‘objective’ progress , and the ethics of interference.

These wonderful ingredients, however, are poorly articulated. ‘Honk’ made me feel like it was a neat colour-by-numbers book (#1, make medical expert a cynic with nagging mum, etc).

There is one exception – the last chapter is SO MUCH better than the rest of the book. It has shade and nuance, it’s more reflective, and it hints at (not yells out) a surprising plot twist. The whole book could have been like this!

As a Christian, it’s kind of encouraging to see how poorly this book is written. There’s pressure, both subtle and direct, that tells Christians to butt out of these big topics. I hear the message that Christianity has nothing worthwhile to say about abortion, genetic engineering, medical funding decisions, etc. This book reminds me that so many Christians, simply by being interested in these things, already have a more thought-out point of view than our neighbours who float along with current popular opinion.

So, if you have an idea, speak up! Test it out. Measure the idea by the gospel of Jesus. See how to explain it to a general audience, with varied points of view. And, respectfully, speak. In other words, ‘Honk if you know Jesus.’

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Quick review: Ministry in Disaster Settings

Ministry in Disaster Settings Lessons from the edgeMinistry in Disaster Settings Lessons from the edge by Stephen Robinson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a good read for anyone doing Christian ministry (paid or unpaid). The book began with interviews with chaplains involved in very stressful settings: the Granville Train Disaster, Kempsey Bus Crash, Port Arthur Massacre, and Thredbo Landslide.

These stories draw us in from the start of the book, which then goes on to reflect on a number of areas: the nature of ministry in these tough circumstances; theological reflections; tips and lessons.

This is all great stuff. It’s full of important observations. It illustrates the varied types of response people make, as well as varying kinds of support given to chaplains (and others). The appendices alone are a most useful resource. Three appendices I think I will return to address symptoms common in emergency response workers, what it means to defuse, and what it means to debrief.

There are two criticisms I have of the book. Please only read these if I’ve convinced you that it’s a very good book and worth reading!

First, the interviews and reflection are grounded in disasters. That is, exceptional situations of chaos and mayhem. Yet the conclusions are applied equally to general emergency work. As a volunteer ambulance chaplain, I am naturally interested in these conclusions and lessons. But I think there needs to be more effort put into explaining how lessons from ‘big trauma’ are applicable to everyday emergency service work. I suspect there is connection and similarity – along with significant difference. A disaster, I’d guess, is more than a scaled-up everyday emergency.

Secondly, I wish that theological reflection in Christian circles had more depth when speaking of incarnational ministry. This book did as I’ve seen often: ‘Jesus became flesh, that’s a model for us.’ It has become a simplistic ministry cliché, bypassing the theology of Jesus’ two natures, of creator taking on aspects of creation, etc. If we use such a high-powered theology to justify care for neighbour it doesn’t improve our care, but seems to water down the theology. I can feel a hobby-horse coming on, so will stop there …

Overall: a good book, worth reading, and full of reflection on caring for those confronted with trauma.


 

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Quick review: The Kite Runner

The Kite RunnerThe Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a real page-turner, and one with a feeling of foreboding. Revolving around the shambles of events in Afghanistan since the 1970s, there is plenty of scope for disaster and tragedy. I always felt something was about to go wrong – and usually it did.

It seems that every possible tragedy, outrage and plot twist has been worked into The Kite Runner. The coincidences and so on become distracting in the final third of the book, but not enough to make me stop reading.

What I most appreciate is how the novel opens a window into a place unknown to me: Afghanistan’s long-term rivalries and her recent-history chaos. And something of her beauty, too.

As to the story, it’s really a tale of redemption. It’s not Christian redemption – most definitely not – because it’s self-redemption. As such, it resonates in any culture, for we all want to ‘fix’ the bad things we’ve done.

Here’s how one character describes another, “Sometimes, I think everything he did, feeding the poor on the streets, building the orphanage, giving money to friends in need, it was all his way of redeeming himself. And that, I believe, is what true redemption is, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good.”

But this fails – for doing something good never undoes the evil that lingers. Self-redemption is a foolish dream, and should never be added on to the awareness of sin. Awareness of sin is only useful if it leads us to the one without sin, the living one who offers free forgiveness.

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Review: By Hook or By Crook

CrookHere’s your experiment. You travel towards a new planet knowing that, of the two races, one is friendly towards humans and the other very angry. Which is the friendly one, the Lamonians or the Gataks?

If you have an answer, then you are a linguist. Congratulations and welcome. The experiment is from David Crystal, a man who gets paid his love of words. By Hook or by Crook is his idiosyncratic linguistic journey, searching – as the subtitle tells us – for English. He doesn’t really find it, but how could you? English is far too big and far too interesting to bottle up, and Crystal know this. He’s already written two encyclopaedias on English, after all.

A more apt subtitle would probably mention a journey to look down some of the darkened corridors of English. Crystal is endlessly fascinated with language and words and speech patterns and local dialect and people and change and history and … well, anything.

The book is based loosely on a journey around Wales and southern England. Crystal was recording varied voices for a BBC series (called ‘Voices’ – what a surprise). As he travels and writes, his mind also wanders. To take one chapter, ‘Stratford’ includes thoughts on taboo words for sailors and actors, pub names, absent-minded professors, word-sound associations, cathedrals, cultural diversity, place names in the US and understanding Shakespeare’s plays.

Crystal is well aware of his wandering habit. He describes the internet as having many properties of spoken language: ‘loosely constructed sentences and unexpected changes of direction. A bit like this book, really …’

And it’s a good fun read. You’ll be surprised, informed and quite possibly keen to pursue word studies of your own. (Can you think of another place name with Roman numerals in the middle, to add to Ruyton XI Towns?)

As a Christian, I’m all for language because I’m all for the Word. I admit, though, that I am not thankful enough for the benefits of English in sharing the gospel of Jesus.

The English Bible, particularly the Authorised Version, has had huge impact on our language. In Anglican circles, the Book of Common Prayer is also an enduring legacy. BCP was not merely a way to run church. It is packed full of teaching about Jesus in phrases that stick. Independent churches don’t have prayer books. But I know what will happen if I visit an aged care home and start, ‘Our Father which art in heaven …’

It’s not that English is God’s language. It’s more like Paul using Roman roads, or the reformers using new printing technology. God’s eternal gospel is not too proud to hitch-hike a ride with what’s going on in our (transient) cultures.

You won’t find this kind of reflection on language in By Hook or by Crook. It is wide: the UK, USA, Canada, India, Australia, South Africa. It is long: going back to Old Norse, Latin, Anglo-Saxon and more. But it is not deep. It does not ask why words are so powerful, how they effect so much and what is the truth that lies beneath all speech.

I can’t say this is a failing. This is an enjoyable ramble. If your mind wants to wander, you can investigate deeper thoughts on your own time.

In that spirit, here’s a modified experiment for you. This time you aren’t going to a new planet, but into your local community. How do you think these people respond to the following words: Jesus, Christian, St Blogg’s by the Road? Or even – and there’s risk here – to hearing your name?

If enough of us listen like linguists to these opinions, we’ll be better able to point our neighbours to the God who has spoken clearly. It’s only in God himself that one of Crystal’s greatest desires will come to be – the preservation of all the world’s languages. What a day that will be! When all tribes and peoples and languages will cry out, ‘Salvation belongs to our God, and the the Lamb’ (Revelation 7:9-10).

 


 

Quick review: This is not the end of the book

This is Not the End of the Book: A conversation curated by Jean-Philippe de TonnacThis is Not the End of the Book: A conversation curated by Jean-Philippe de Tonnac by Umberto Eco

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was an enjoyable read, though it treats quite deep matters in a superficial manner. It is translated excepts from an interview/conversation involving two bibliophiles: Umberto Eco and Jean-Claude Carrière.

In this digital age, with books said to be under threat, they show great confidence that the book will continue. Once invented, the book is like the spoon or the wheel – there’s nothing to add to it.

Being originally in French, I know almost nothing of many of the authors named, even the modern-day ones. But this does not make the book incomprehensible. The two (plus the conversation ‘curator’) range over many topics: books and authors lost; books burned; the folly of authors; the place of oral tradition; the point of collections and libraries, etc. Being a conversation, the material is not covered as thoroughly as an essay. And it’s repetitive. But the format clearly indicated what kind of book this is, so the spoken nature of the text is acceptable.

There’s a faint tension in the content. The chat contains the somewhat trendy intellectual doubt that we can really know anything – combined with strong and sometimes censorious judgements about certain people or groups. ‘We can’t know – but we really know.’

Especially for Jean-Claude, this became apparent concerning Christianity. He’s almost Dan Brown in what he says of the history of the four gospels and the ‘other/false gospels.’ There’s also the silly prejudice that asserts the textual tradition of the Bible is impossibly corrupted. If only he knew how foolish is this platitude …

Overall, though, I enjoyed that these two discussed belief systems as integral and normal parts of every culture. eliefs were not ignored, nor always mocked, just commented upon.

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Quick review: Just Do Something

Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God's WillJust Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will by Kevin DeYoung

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The subtitle promises a book about finding God’s will – and this book certainly delivers on this promise.

As I read it, I think this book has a second purpose: to stun Christians out of passive apathy. DeYoung claims, ‘Passivity is a plague among Christians.’

In a short summary, DeYoung’s argument is that the apparently ‘spiritual’ waiting and sign-seeking that Christians exercise is a waste of energy. God has given us in his word what we need to make decisions, and this does not include a promise of detailed road maps for us navigate by.

Therefore (his second purpose), learn God’s word and do stuff!

I recommend this book. There are others out there just a good on the idea of God’s will. But I don’t know of any that are as motivating in stirring us up to active Christian obedience.

As with many American books for general readers, the writing and layout are great for understanding. But this also comes with a number of American-specific cultural references (what sort of honey is made by Applebees?, and what on earth is a Piggly Wiggly?).

If you want something for an Australian reader, try Guidance and the Voice of God. But I’d still recommend this book for anyone striving to live for Jesus Christ.

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Quick review: Home

HomeHome by Marilynne Robinson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This novel, companion to Robinson’s Gilead, continues her beautiful and affecting writing. Though it is the ‘same’ story as its partner, Home does not merely echo the story from the perspective of the other home. It is a different story, the story of personal lack (both disreputable and respectable). Though the deficient are individuals – strange and estranged – the missing pieces are are fundamentally about the family and the home.

Perhaps the central matter of the novel, to my understanding, is exploring if there can be a true home even when the home harbours failure. I think Robinson’s narrative creates more than a simple ‘Yes’. Astonishlingly it’s, ‘Yes, for the pain itself becomes homely.’

If you haven’t read the novel, my description above will not mean very much. My apologies! I did not want to give away the plot.

Though I enjoyed Home, I don’t think it works as well as Gilead. Home, to me at least, was not always clear. Sometimes this was in the unfolding plot (but this is partly Robinson’s skill of leaving the reader to join up the dots she places on the page). At other times, the lack of clarity was in the ethical judgements made within the tale. This latter lack of clarity is my major concern with Home.

There were times, for example, when the elderly and dementing father spoke with (uncomfortable) directness. And we readers were then told to view that directness as unfortunate, even shameful. Yet I usually thought that the directness was what I’d recommend if real life threw up similar family problems.

A futher comparison in which Home comes off second is in creating characters. They’re fine charatcters, but I did not feel they live as vividly in this novel as do the characters in Gilead.

A part of this was that the theology in Home felt a little tacked-on. The old gent in this novel is a clergyman, but my impression was that the discussions of theology were peripheral to the internal drama. In contrast, when the main ‘reprobate’ quotes scripture (rather than theological maxims) his words show how the Bible can populate the mind even of an individual struggling against the Word.

This quick review has plenty of comparative comments in it – but that’s inevitable with two novels so deeply interrelated. I could not help but consider if one is better than the other. Though it’s clear which one I think that is, I definitely recommend both these novels and Robinson’s writing.

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