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2017

Book Reviews 2017
January 14, 20202017Star Trek is an interesting universe. However, this book was not interesting. Commander Kruge was obliterated in a Star-Trek’s-episode-past. In this series, however, his ideologies still live on. While at a summit to commemorate the unification of the Klingon and Federation, Captain Picard and crew are attacked by a mysterious group of masked soldiers. The Enterprise crew is split up and we learn more about a nefarious plot to push the two sides apart. Overall, this wasn’t a very interesting book. I thought after reading Headlong Flight that all Star Trek books would be golden. However, this one proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that some can be just mediocre. [...]
January 14, 20202017Peter Enns is a controversial figure. And this book is probably controversial too. Although what is not controversial is Joe Barrett, the narrator for the audiobook version of this book. While there is no small amount of controversy that even stems from this book (for example, the Amazon reviews feature Rob Bell and Brian McLaren), I try to keep an open mind about such things. Which is why I read this book. I wanted to hear Peter Enns’ arguments. And now that I’ve heard them, I’ll take some things and leave others. And that’s probably what has stymied my book reviews up until now. As of May, I’ve read over 35 books. But every time I come back to review this particular book, I find myself lacking the clarity to properly review it. It’s a dread that has made me cease to want to write about the controversy. But I figure I’ve waited long enough. Here are some thoughts: Peter Enns believes that Evangelicals have spent so much time defending the Bible to “protect” it, they have inadvertently quashed its meaning. What this means is that we are so concerned with our interpretation of the Bible being the correct way, we have pushed anything outside of that periphery to heresy. Enns, I believe, means well. He argues that there are some things we do not wish to accept about the Bible. One of the chapters, he focuses on how the ancient Hebrew people were warriors who lived in a society of barbarism. It would only make sense that their perception of God would be in that same vein. This is perhaps why the Bible contains what we feel is out of touch with our Western sensibilities in Exodus and Joshua with the slaughtering of thousands in a type of crusade. I think there is some merit to this conclusion, but I think Enns goes too far in some regards. I definitely agree with the main premise: there are times where Evangelicals won’t accept the cultural and historical background to understanding and interpreting the Bible. But I think we must be careful on this spectrum. I believe that Enns goes too far in his various interpretations of scripture that relies perhaps too heavily on evidence. For example, he believes since there is no archeological evidence of a mass exodus of people in the wilderness outside of Egypt, it perhaps didn’t happen. He also believes that Jesus radically manipulated Old Testament scripture to fit a very slim, or perhaps farfetched, interpretation. Here are some examples where I think Enns is off the mark. However, I believe he is on point with some things. For example, I think it’s reasonable to assume, and within orthodoxy, to understand the perspective of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in their writings of the Gospel. They were writing down history as they understood it. They probably paraphrased and recalled certain events in a strange order or in a different way. These imperfections do not necessitate that the Bible is flawed or wrong; rather, they recorded history in the way they understood it. That’s something I feel Evangelicals miss a lot in a day and age where we are obsessed with defending the veracity of the Bible. If this book has taught me anything, it is that we can have a high view of the Bible while understanding it in the culture and context it was written in, and more importantly, who it was written to. Crucify him (figuratively) or love him, Peter Enns is controversial. But I’m glad I read this book that gave me a unique perspective on these topics. [...]
January 14, 20202017Delta Force, if you didn’t know, is a highly secretive, special operations unit attached to the United States Army. They are one of the premier counter-terrorist organizations (Raiders and SEALs not-withstanding) and have a reputation of being quite, efficient killers. Eric Haney happened to be part of the first group of Soldiers who were able to try out for Delta. What ensued was a blur. The first part of this book talks about Haney’s experience of “trying out” and making it into Delta. He speaks at length about the training process (being vague enough to not give anything away but detailed enough to have a compelling story) and how they weeded out those who couldn’t make the cut. This is probably the most intriguing part of the book. After he is accepted into the program, the details regarding his follow on training are equally interesting. For example, during one part of the book, he enters a “shoot house” where each member of the team was to sit on a couch while the others entered and had to shoot the “bad guys” and not the friendly in the center of the room. That was after days and days of training. This kind of training says much about these men and their strengths; they really are well equipped to defeat terrorist threats both abroad and domestic. The other information this memoir contains seems to be about the same as others of this genre that I have read (such as “No Easy Day”). Therefore, the book becomes much more uninteresting after Haney’s training phase. Not a terrible military memoir, but not my favorite either. 3/5. [...]

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

C. S. Lewis’s “Mere Christianity”: A Biography

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2017)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2017)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2017)

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two

Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

The Bible Tells Me So: Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It

Bop Apocalypse: Jazz, Race, the Beats, and Drugs

We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse #1)

Star Trek the Next Generation: Headlong Flight 

After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam (2017)

Silence

Star Trek: Prey: Hell’s Heart 

Sleeping Giants (Themis Files #1)

Jonathan Edwards

Columbus Day (Expeditionary Force Book #1)

Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity

Inside Delta Force: The Story of America’s Elite Counterterrorist Unit

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome (2017)

SpecOps (Expeditionary Force Book #2)

A Confederacy of Dunces (2017)

Waking Gods (Themis Files #2)

Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian

Star Wars: Thrawn: Thrawn

Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy: Heir to the Empire

Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy: Dark Forces Rising

Star Wars: The Thrawn Trilogy: The Last Command

Jezebel: The Untold Story Of The Bible’s Harlot Queen

Agnostic: A Spirited Manifesto

The First Muslim: The Story of Muhammad

Star Wars: Aftermath

Star Trek: Prey: The Jackal’s Trick

12 Way Your Phone Is Changing You

Star Trek: Hearts and Minds

Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East

Steve Jobs

Wine. All the Time.: The Casual Guide to Confident Drinking

Huế 1968: A Turning Point of the American War in Vietnam

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Outliers: The Story of Success

iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy–and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood–and What That Means for the Rest of Us

Leonardo and the Last Supper

Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling

Ranger Games: A Story of Soldiers, Family and an Inexplicable Crime

Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made

The Maltese Falcon

The Interdependency: The Collapsing Empire

The Fold

Paradox Bound

Escape from Reason: A Penetrating Analysis of Trends in Modern Thought

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Leonardo Da Vinci

An Exorcist Tells His Story

The Storm Before the Storm: The Beginning of the End of the Roman Republic

The Swerve: How the World Became Modern

Einstein: His Life and Universe

Artemis

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