Like Him: A Thoughtful, Intentional Pursuit to Becoming As Christ Is

 

8/10

I read this a little over five months ago. Gave this one a looksie because my old man is one of the contributing authors, bringing the book home with the final chapter in the book, smashing it out of the park as per usual. His was the best one, obvy. It was a good book overall and I liked the concept. It's a collection of short chapters on 12 core attributes of Christ: Godliness, Hope, Brotherly Kindness, Patience, Temperance, Virtue, Love & Charity, Diligence, Faith, Humility, Knowledge, and Obedience. There were two chapters from different authors per attribute. So my Dad's was on obedience and he tells a cool story about the "Wherever He Leads Me" painting of Christ overlooking Jerusalem before entering knowing full well that he will soon be laying down his life, but he will be obedient and go wherever he is led. There were some other good chapters in there as well, such as the one from S. Michael Wilcox who always crushes it, and Susan Easton Black, among others. The artwork is a big part of the book. I'm not much of an art guy. Some of the art seemed pretty good but a lot of it was of a certain style that was "different" and not in a good way. But that's from a guy who knows nothing about art, so take that for what it's worth.

Aftermath: Life Debt by Chuck Wendig

 

8/10

I read this one a little less than five months ago. I ended up liking this one pretty well. It got off to a slow start, mostly because it had been a few years since I had read the first book in the series, and I couldn't really remember who was who. But the storyline ended up being quite interesting and a major upgrade to the first Aftermath story. Some classic Star Wars characters play a major part in this book, such as Leia, Han Solo and Chewbacca, so that was fun. I also wasn't as bugged by Wendig's writing style as I was with the first one. Glad I stuck with this series and am now looking forward to finishing the series off, hopefully in the not-too-distant future.

Star Wars book rankings:

1. Lost Stars

2. Aftermath: Life Debt

3. Battlefront: Twilight Company

4. Aftermath

The Duel and Other Stories by Anton Chekhov

 

6/10

I read this one a little less than six months ago. It's been a while since I've read Russian literature, and this was my first experience with Chekhov. This has six short stories: The Duel; My Wife; Murder; The Black Monk; Terror; and The Two Volodyas. The Duel was easily my favorite, probably a solid 8/10, and I was very satisfied with my intro to Chekhov. But the others weren't nearly as good, in my opinion. My Wife and The Black Monk were fine. Murder was ok. And for the life of me, after less than six months, I can't remember almost anything about Terror or The Two Volodyas, which likely means that I had checked out at that point and was ready to move on from Chekhov until another time. Also, they were super short, 12 and 11 pages respectively. Far too short to really be worthwhile. The Duel was 100 pages while My Wife was 40, Murder 30, and The Black Monk 30. In most cases, I do prefer a story that is long enough to allow it to develop. And that's the case here where the longer the story, the more I ended up liking it.

Quotes from The Duel:

"I have an uncle, just an ordinary parish priest, whose faith is such that when he goes into the fields to pray for rain during a drought, he takes his umbrella and a leather coat to avoid a soaking on the way home. There's faith for you!"

"'The boat's tossed back,' he thought; 'it makes two movements forward and one back, but the oarsmen don't give up, they swing the oars tirelessly and have no fear of the high waves. The boat moves on and on, now it's disappeared from view. In half an hour the rowers will be able to see the ship's lights clearly and within an hour they'll be alongside the ladder. Life is like that ... As they search for truth people take two paces forward and one back. Suffering, mistakes and life's tedium throw them back, but thirst for the truth and stubborn willpower drive them on and on. And who knows? Perhaps they'll arrive at the real truth in the end.'"

Quote from Murder:

"But a little later, when I was at confession, the idea suddenly dawned on me: that priest's married, he doesn't keep the fasts and he smokes. Then why should he hear me confess, what authority did he have to pardon my sins, with him more of a sinner than me?"

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories by Robert Louis Stevenson

 

7/10

I read this one a little over six months ago. This is a little collection of four "supernatural" stories which includes the highlight, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, along with The Bottle Imp, Markheim, and The Body-Snatcher. Jekyll and Hyde is a story where I've always known about the basic premise but had never got around to actually reading it. I wish I knew nothing going in so I could have enjoyed the surprise and development of the story rather than just waiting for it to be revealed, but it was still a great story. Probably would have given this book a 9/10 if it was just this story. The other three were not nearly as good and each was less enjoyable than the last with the Body-Snatcher being the weakest with a pretty lame ending, in my opinion. The Bottle Imp was pretty interesting and Markheim was very so-so. Fortunately, Jekyll and Hyde was half of the entire book with the other three tales comprising the remaining half. Overall, not too shabby work from Stevenson and I'm glad to finally get around to Jekyll and Hyde.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Writings by Washington Irving

 

8/10

I read this one five months ago. It was a good one. I really enjoyed Irving's writing style; very easy to read and a nice mix of writings in this collection. Almost all of his short stories were solid. And it was nice to actually read Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle after being familiar with those tales my entire life. One pleasant surprise was "Philip of Pokanoket" which is about one of my alleged ancestors (according to the Family Tree pedigree chart he is my great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandpa and son of Massasoit, the Chief who welcomed the Pilgrims and held the first Thanksgiving). Other ones that come to mind as I scan the Table of Contents five months later are The Spectre Bridegroom, The Stout Gentleman, and Dolph Heyliger. One thing that I really enjoyed is how one story would lead into another, as well as how some stories would have multiple storytellers relating the tale. There were some stories that went several layers deep with multiple narrators along the way. I believe it was from his Tales of a Traveler series of stories that were all very good. I think my least favorite was his longer A History of New York that is considered some of his better work, but I just didn't connect with it much. Lots of his stories paint a pretty cool picture of the Hudson Valley area of New York during the late 1700's era or thereabouts. I think in a previous post several years ago I mentioned Nathaniel Hawthorne and James Fenimore Cooper as the first great American writers, but I hadn't read anything from Irving and did not mention him. He obviously should be included in that statement.

Quote:

"[A] sharp tongue is the only edged tool that grows keener with constant use." From Rip Van Winkle.

"[I]t is certain that the integrity and good faith of Massasoit have never been impeached." Had to throw this one in here because of the ancestory factor, from Philip of Pokanoket.

Battlefront: Twilight Company by Alexander Freed

 

7/10

I read this one a little over 5 months ago. It was pretty solid. I started reading it to my youngsters thinking that they would love it, but it ended up being super technical to the point where I felt like I had to stop and explain everything to them every other sentence. So I read about 1/5 of the book to them before it was aborted, and I finished it on my own. It took me a while to get into this one and to learn the characters, but the book got better to further I read. I was almost done with it before I learned that this book ties into some video game. Not sure how that really works, but thought it was funny and shows how I'm still such a novice Star Wars guy. But this had a great premise and storyline, and I came to really like Freed's writing. On to the next one!

Star Wars book rankings:

1. Lost Stars

2. Battlefront: Twilight Company

3. Aftermath

Too Late the Phalarope by Alan Paton

 

9/10

I read this one nearly six months ago. It was fantastic. My Dad had been begging me to read this book for decades. He did us a solid and flew out to watch our kids while the Mrs. and I went on our 15-year anniversary trip. So as his reward, I thoughtfully started reading this just before he flew out and finished it up during our trip. I understand why he wanted me to read it so much. It's got so much heart and tenderness and empathy. I don't choke up much when I read books, but I just about did toward the end of this one. Of Paton's books, "Cry, the Beloved Country" gets all the recognition, but I think this one outclasses it, and by a wide margin. Highly recommend. But only if you like good literature and want to be inspired.

Quote:

"God is both Lover and Judge of men, and it is His commandment that we join Him in loving, but to judge we are forbidden."