The Mortal Messiah - Book 2 by Bruce R. McConkie

 

8/10

I read this one almost 6 months ago. Same rating as Book 1 even though I think I liked this one slightly better. But the main reason I liked it better is because the material being covered, Jesus' actual ministry, is more interesting than the previous book. McConkie's style is still largely scriptural citation and quotation, which is fine. Most of the money quotes come from the early great books about Christ from guys like Farrar, Edersheim, and Talmage. Still a good, worthwhile book.

Quotes:

"Where members of the Church are concerned, there is a very close connection between manifestations of healing grace and the forgiveness of sins. When the elders administer to faithful saints, the promise is: 'And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.' (James 5:15.) The very fact that a member of the kingdom has matured in the gospel to the point that he has power through faith in Christ to be healed, means that he also has so lived that he is entitled to have his sins remitted." 

"The hand of Jesus was not polluted by touching the leper's body, but the leper's whole body was cleansed by the touch of that holy hand. It was even thus that He touched our sinful nature, and yet remained without spot of sin." - Farrar

"The Judaism of that day substituted empty forms and meaningless ceremonies for true righteousness; it mistook uncharitable exclusiveness for genuine purity; it delighted to sun itself in the injustice of an imagined favouritism from which it would fain have shut out all God's other children; it was so profoundly hypocritical as not even to recognise its own hypocrisy; it never thought so well of itself as when it was crushing the broken reed and trampling out the last spark from the smoking flax; it thanked God for the demerits which it took for virtues, and fancied that He could be pleased with a service in which there was neither humility, nor truthfulness, nor loyalty, nor love." - Farrar

"[W]hen the Risen Lord ministered among the Nephites[,] [b]e it noted that he spake not unto them in parables; they were a people prepared for their King."

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

 

8/10

I read this one about 6.5 months ago. Obviously, a solid book. We all know the movie is great so it was expected that the book would be enjoyable. It was fun getting a little deeper look at this original story and seeing where things were different from the movie. It had a whole lot of scientific explanations throughout which was fine, but I could have used a tad bit more excitement and action like there is in the movie. Sometimes it just felt like the setup was drawn out and the payoff not as big as it could have been in parts. Probably another book that suffers from the unavoidable bias I have when I already know the story and unconsciously judge the book against the movie. Oh well. It was an enjoyable book and fun to read. I need to read more Crichton.

Michael Crichton books ranked:

1. The Great Train Robbery
2. Jurassic Park

The Runaway Jury by John Grisham

 

9/10

I read this one seven months ago. I liked it a lot. I think the premise of the story is a great one and made the book super interesting throughout, the idea of someone infiltrating a jury and having influence there. I also saw the movie many moons ago back when it came out and really liked it which probably had some influence on how much I enjoyed this book. One part that I could have done without was the extreme length Grisham went at some parts to get into all the scientific explanations about the harms of smoking. It almost felt like he did a ton of research for this book and didn't want to waste a bunch of things he learned so he just stuffed some of it in the book instead of just summarizing the findings. But it wasn't too big of a deal, obviously, since I still gave it 9 out of 10. Good book. Grisham hasn't missed for me yet.

Grisham books I've read, ranked:

1. The Runaway Jury
2. A Time to Kill
3. The Pelican Brief
4. The Client