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Strange Religion: How the First Christians Were Weird, Dangerous, and Compelling by Nijay K. Gupta
Because I have paid attention to his work, I know that he has received a lot of critique for his emphasis on multiethnicity as an important function of the church. When I am writing this, the tweet has over 100K views and about 1500 retweets, comments or likes. Many are supportive because they are aware of the context he is speaking into. But he also drew a number of overt white supremacists. There were three main types of negative responses: 1) those who said that the church was universal in its multiethnicity, but local churches should be segregated. 2) those who asserted that Christianity was white and/or European and others could only be Christian to the extent that they adopted white or European cultural norms. (One said that in heaven all people would become white because dark skin was a result of sin.) 3) Nation states should be monocultural or mono-ethnic and the churches within those nation states would then naturally be mono-ethnic and monocultural. Many of these people cited the Tower of Babel as God’s command to not allow ethnic or cultural mixing.
I don’t want to suggest that this type of thinking is widespread in the church, but it is present. And people who do think in this way are going to be resistant to a reading of scripture, especially Acts and Paul’s letters, which significantly pays attention to the importance of crossing boundaries of all sorts in the early church. (Amos Yong’s commentary on Acts is helpful if you want to understand how important boundary crossing was to reading Acts.) Skye Jehani interviewed NT Wright about his commentary on Acts and in the last 15 minutes cited the kinds of segregationist tendencies that Skye knew are a part of the church. (Go to 1:05 of this video to see the 10-12 minutes of discussion about this.) Books like The Myth of Colorblind Christians and The Bible Told Them So are histories that grapple with the role of the Homogenous Unit Principle played in the church growth movement and how that HUP worked to maintain segregation within churches when other institutions were moving away from segregation.
The importance of Strange Religion and NT Wright’s commentary on Acts is that we need to understand scripture and scriptural culture to understand how modern movements may be deviating from Christianity. It is harder to read scripture when you understand the obligation to pay attention to how different scripture is from our current context. But it is part of Christian maturity to see that scripture is for you but not necessarily written directly to you. And some people are resistant to doing that work to grow in Christian maturity.
This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/strange-religion/
4.5
Summary: A look at Roman religious practices and the how the early church was different from the religious practices of their surrounding culture.
It took me a decade or so, but eventually I came to see that the work of NT Wright and others were bringing attention to the Roman and Jewish cultural practices of the several centuries around Jesus. The good of that work continues in many others like Nijay Gupta’s recent books. Strange Religion and Tell Her Story are interrelated. Tell Her Story is an investigation into the role of women in the early church. The main insights was Gupta’s investigation into the role of women in broader Roman society. Women were marginalized in Roman society, but wealth and class meant that women could still participate in the patronage system even if there were only some women who had the privileges of wealth and class that allowed them that role.
Strange Religion is using similar tools and methods to explore Roman religious practices and with that base understanding explore how early Christian practices were similar or different from the culture of the time. Strange Religion is very readable, but some background knowledge in anthropology, culture, concept of honor/shame versus guilt/innocence will help you get the most out of the book. If you have read Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes or Misreading Scripture with Individualist Eyes, I think you will get more out of Strange Religion. That isn’t required pre-reading, but at least for me, getting my head wrapped around how the early church was significantly different in its thinking needed multiple angles and multiple books and I am sure I do not have it all.
I think the negative of this type of project is that it can make those who are new to the investigation of the early church mistrust their own ability to read scripture. That isn’t the point, but there is some value in giving us humility as we approach scripture and our faith. Christianity is complex. The early church culture was significantly different from our own. The various cultures presented throughout scripture were significantly different from each other, not just from then to now. It is not that reading scripture is impossible, but there are many ways to misread it.
I am not going to summarize the whole book but instead just offer a few take aways and commend the book. Strange Religion is really offering two types of strange. Early Christianity is strange to our eyes because it was in a completely different culture and used an entirely different social imaginary. But early Christianity was also strange to the culture it was in. Roman culture was “religious” in the sense that everyone participated. Almost all meat had been used in some sort of sacrifice or offering. Everyone wanted to appease the gods because it was the gods who controlled weather and luck and all of the things that were outside of the normal human areas of control.
What made Judaism and then Christianity different was their resistance to participate in those communal practices that would bring good to the community. This is not completely different from some versions of Christian nationalism or early Puritanism which believes in a covenant with God by a culture or state. In order to fulfill that covenant, everyone needs to participate in the religious practices that appease the god(s). Judaism did not believe in “the gods” but A God. To appease “the gods” was to deny the supremacy of their god. That was dangerous and different enough. But Christianity added to this by crossing ethnic and cultural boundaries.
Strange Religion fits well with NT Wright’s recent book on Acts. Wright suggests that part of what Paul was doing in going to the local synagogues before reaching out the local gentiles was to identify with Judaism’s exemption from communal sacrifices. The Roman government had allowed Jews to opt out of communal sacrifices as long as Jews would pray for Roman and community good. But Jews were physically marked with circumcision in addition to being primarily an ethnic group. Paul wanted to use that Jewish exemption but also wanted gentile Christians to not get physically marked in circumcision. That appeared to be dangerous both to Jews who wanted to maintain their exemption and to Romans who wanted to be able to identify who Jews were.
Gupta explores this and many other areas of Roman culture, especially religious culture so that we as readers can understand the two threads of strangeness. Private cults were common in the Roman era and Christianity was at times thought of as just being one of the many cults of the era. They maintained secrecy, they called one another brother and sister and to outsiders it appeared that they participated in incest and talked about eating flesh and drinking blood of their god. This is a strangeness that many others in the past have talked about. But Gupta adds to this basic idea of strangeness, why Rome allowed, but monitored cults. Rome was interested in communal stability. And Christianity with its boundary crossing encouraged its members to flout traditional communal roles. Women and slaves were giving places of leadership and authority.
There has been recent push to monoculture or mono-ethnic communities within a portion of Christianity recently. Danny Slavich, a pastor of a multiethnic SBC church, tweeted:
It took me a decade or so, but eventually I came to see that the work of NT Wright and others were bringing attention to the Roman and Jewish cultural practices of the several centuries around Jesus. The good of that work continues in many others like Nijay Gupta’s recent books. Strange Religion and Tell Her Story are interrelated. Tell Her Story is an investigation into the role of women in the early church. The main insights was Gupta’s investigation into the role of women in broader Roman society. Women were marginalized in Roman society, but wealth and class meant that women could still participate in the patronage system even if there were only some women who had the privileges of wealth and class that allowed them that role.
Strange Religion is using similar tools and methods to explore Roman religious practices and with that base understanding explore how early Christian practices were similar or different from the culture of the time. Strange Religion is very readable, but some background knowledge in anthropology, culture, concept of honor/shame versus guilt/innocence will help you get the most out of the book. If you have read Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes or Misreading Scripture with Individualist Eyes, I think you will get more out of Strange Religion. That isn’t required pre-reading, but at least for me, getting my head wrapped around how the early church was significantly different in its thinking needed multiple angles and multiple books and I am sure I do not have it all.
I think the negative of this type of project is that it can make those who are new to the investigation of the early church mistrust their own ability to read scripture. That isn’t the point, but there is some value in giving us humility as we approach scripture and our faith. Christianity is complex. The early church culture was significantly different from our own. The various cultures presented throughout scripture were significantly different from each other, not just from then to now. It is not that reading scripture is impossible, but there are many ways to misread it.
I am not going to summarize the whole book but instead just offer a few take aways and commend the book. Strange Religion is really offering two types of strange. Early Christianity is strange to our eyes because it was in a completely different culture and used an entirely different social imaginary. But early Christianity was also strange to the culture it was in. Roman culture was “religious” in the sense that everyone participated. Almost all meat had been used in some sort of sacrifice or offering. Everyone wanted to appease the gods because it was the gods who controlled weather and luck and all of the things that were outside of the normal human areas of control.
What made Judaism and then Christianity different was their resistance to participate in those communal practices that would bring good to the community. This is not completely different from some versions of Christian nationalism or early Puritanism which believes in a covenant with God by a culture or state. In order to fulfill that covenant, everyone needs to participate in the religious practices that appease the god(s). Judaism did not believe in “the gods” but A God. To appease “the gods” was to deny the supremacy of their god. That was dangerous and different enough. But Christianity added to this by crossing ethnic and cultural boundaries.
Strange Religion fits well with NT Wright’s recent book on Acts. Wright suggests that part of what Paul was doing in going to the local synagogues before reaching out the local gentiles was to identify with Judaism’s exemption from communal sacrifices. The Roman government had allowed Jews to opt out of communal sacrifices as long as Jews would pray for Roman and community good. But Jews were physically marked with circumcision in addition to being primarily an ethnic group. Paul wanted to use that Jewish exemption but also wanted gentile Christians to not get physically marked in circumcision. That appeared to be dangerous both to Jews who wanted to maintain their exemption and to Romans who wanted to be able to identify who Jews were.
Gupta explores this and many other areas of Roman culture, especially religious culture so that we as readers can understand the two threads of strangeness. Private cults were common in the Roman era and Christianity was at times thought of as just being one of the many cults of the era. They maintained secrecy, they called one another brother and sister and to outsiders it appeared that they participated in incest and talked about eating flesh and drinking blood of their god. This is a strangeness that many others in the past have talked about. But Gupta adds to this basic idea of strangeness, why Rome allowed, but monitored cults. Rome was interested in communal stability. And Christianity with its boundary crossing encouraged its members to flout traditional communal roles. Women and slaves were giving places of leadership and authority.
There has been recent push to monoculture or mono-ethnic communities within a portion of Christianity recently. Danny Slavich, a pastor of a multiethnic SBC church, tweeted:
The kingdom of God is multiethnic.
The Church is multiethnic.
If you don't like multiethnicity, take it up with the Lord.
Because I have paid attention to his work, I know that he has received a lot of critique for his emphasis on multiethnicity as an important function of the church. When I am writing this, the tweet has over 100K views and about 1500 retweets, comments or likes. Many are supportive because they are aware of the context he is speaking into. But he also drew a number of overt white supremacists. There were three main types of negative responses: 1) those who said that the church was universal in its multiethnicity, but local churches should be segregated. 2) those who asserted that Christianity was white and/or European and others could only be Christian to the extent that they adopted white or European cultural norms. (One said that in heaven all people would become white because dark skin was a result of sin.) 3) Nation states should be monocultural or mono-ethnic and the churches within those nation states would then naturally be mono-ethnic and monocultural. Many of these people cited the Tower of Babel as God’s command to not allow ethnic or cultural mixing.
I don’t want to suggest that this type of thinking is widespread in the church, but it is present. And people who do think in this way are going to be resistant to a reading of scripture, especially Acts and Paul’s letters, which significantly pays attention to the importance of crossing boundaries of all sorts in the early church. (Amos Yong’s commentary on Acts is helpful if you want to understand how important boundary crossing was to reading Acts.) Skye Jehani interviewed NT Wright about his commentary on Acts and in the last 15 minutes cited the kinds of segregationist tendencies that Skye knew are a part of the church. (Go to 1:05 of this video to see the 10-12 minutes of discussion about this.) Books like The Myth of Colorblind Christians and The Bible Told Them So are histories that grapple with the role of the Homogenous Unit Principle played in the church growth movement and how that HUP worked to maintain segregation within churches when other institutions were moving away from segregation.
The importance of Strange Religion and NT Wright’s commentary on Acts is that we need to understand scripture and scriptural culture to understand how modern movements may be deviating from Christianity. It is harder to read scripture when you understand the obligation to pay attention to how different scripture is from our current context. But it is part of Christian maturity to see that scripture is for you but not necessarily written directly to you. And some people are resistant to doing that work to grow in Christian maturity.
This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/strange-religion/
The Technological Society by Jacques Ellul
3.75
Summary: A dated, but at times quite helpful book on the movement toward modernism.
I decided to read The Technological Society because of my reading project on Christian Discernment. One of the reasons why there is some resistance to discernment is that some view discernment as a type of spiritual knowledge, not unlike magic, where you seek to negotiate with God or invoke God in your own plans in an inappropriate way. I want to say that yes, I agree that there is a type of discernment that reduces it to magic or an incantation. Ellul, in his exploration of where the idea of technique developed, specifically suggests premodern people's use of magic was a type of technique. But Ellul, earlier in the book, suggests that the modern idea of technique was developed in parallel to the development of machines. So, while Ellul thought that magic was a type of technique, it was intentionally hidden knowledge so that others would not see the technique in action. With the rise of the machine, the technique was visible and public in a way that magic was not.
The Technological Society was initially published in French 70 years ago this year. It is both eerily prescient and quite dated. When he speaks about early electronic calculators, computer punch cards, or communism, you can see the age of the book. There are many areas where you can see how his comments apply to issues that arose after the book was released. Self Help books and how that technique is applied to the individual is part of his discussion, but I think if he were writing today, it would be an even larger part of the book.
Hannah Anderson has a piece in Christianity Today about self-help and the problems of applying it as an individual. One of the points that she is pointing out is that the problem is not the intention of self-improvement but the method of self-improvement that has moved from opportunity to obligation. Self-improvement as a technique in Ellul's sense means that we have an obligation to adopt universal ideas and methods, whether they work for us or not, and whether they are a denial of our created limitations or not. Christians are just as susceptible to this denial of limitation when we emphasize how much we can do for God and how extreme we can take our obedience or commitment. Seth Hahne has a thread on twitter about people speeding up audiobooks to consume more instead of enjoying the art of the narration at the intended speed. Which I think is exactly this type of technique for self improvement that is a denial of our humanity and limitation. The discussion that prompted the thread was about pushing listening to the limit of comprehension as a means of consuming to the edge our intelligibility.
The rise of AI is exactly the type of technique that Ellul was asking us to be wary of. Esau McCaulley had a recent podcast where they discussed religion stories of 2024 and they spent a lot of time on AI in the church. It is pretty easy to dismissed AI bots that are designed to be Jesus or a priest who you can confess to. But asking AI to write a sermon isn’t really much different from buying or stealing a sermon from another pastor. The problem is is not using other people’s ideas, but presenting them as it they were your own. Wesley and other pastors have written sample sermons for untrained pastors to use. But the point was for them to learn how to preach on their own. Trish Warren (on McCaulley’s podcast) was making the point that the role of the pastor is to pastor a local body of Christians. The pastor isn’t preaching to all people at all times some vague Christian platitude, but to preach to this particular group of people, whom she or he would know intimately enough that they can speak to the congregation God’s words that are borne to them through prayer and intimacy with the congregation. In Ellul’s conception of technique, a pastor cannot skip forward to intimacy with God and the congregation by using AI because technique intentionally skips the hard work of building intimacy.
Similarly, when students write papers the point isn’t to produce the paper, it is to learn how to produce a paper and how to think about and research a topic. Students may think they are accomplishing the task when they produce an AI generated paper, but they have used technique to avoid the main goal. For discernment, the main reason I was reading, there are two important threads. First, the goal of discernment isn’t decision-making to get to the right end, the goal is to become Christlike. Second, the methods we use to get to Christlikeness can’t skip the hard steps. We have to actually struggle against sin and do hard things and search within ourselves to know our motivation and desires as we attempt to discern God’s path for us. The purpose of a spiritual director or mentors isn’t to make decisions for us or to discern in our place, but to talk through problems and issues so that we can build our own capacity for discernment and Christlikeness. The goal of all of these things is maturity.
I did not finish The Technological Society, I read about 70 percent of it and skipped around the end a bit. The introduction and the first two chapters defining technique and giving historical context to the development of technique was the main sections that I was looking for when I picked up the book. The later chapters on technique and the economy and technique and the state had a lot of focus on capitalism and communism and the modern state and those had some value, but they were so focused on the issues of the 1960s that I could have skipped those without much harm.
This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/the-technological-s...
I decided to read The Technological Society because of my reading project on Christian Discernment. One of the reasons why there is some resistance to discernment is that some view discernment as a type of spiritual knowledge, not unlike magic, where you seek to negotiate with God or invoke God in your own plans in an inappropriate way. I want to say that yes, I agree that there is a type of discernment that reduces it to magic or an incantation. Ellul, in his exploration of where the idea of technique developed, specifically suggests premodern people's use of magic was a type of technique. But Ellul, earlier in the book, suggests that the modern idea of technique was developed in parallel to the development of machines. So, while Ellul thought that magic was a type of technique, it was intentionally hidden knowledge so that others would not see the technique in action. With the rise of the machine, the technique was visible and public in a way that magic was not.
The Technological Society was initially published in French 70 years ago this year. It is both eerily prescient and quite dated. When he speaks about early electronic calculators, computer punch cards, or communism, you can see the age of the book. There are many areas where you can see how his comments apply to issues that arose after the book was released. Self Help books and how that technique is applied to the individual is part of his discussion, but I think if he were writing today, it would be an even larger part of the book.
Hannah Anderson has a piece in Christianity Today about self-help and the problems of applying it as an individual. One of the points that she is pointing out is that the problem is not the intention of self-improvement but the method of self-improvement that has moved from opportunity to obligation. Self-improvement as a technique in Ellul's sense means that we have an obligation to adopt universal ideas and methods, whether they work for us or not, and whether they are a denial of our created limitations or not. Christians are just as susceptible to this denial of limitation when we emphasize how much we can do for God and how extreme we can take our obedience or commitment. Seth Hahne has a thread on twitter about people speeding up audiobooks to consume more instead of enjoying the art of the narration at the intended speed. Which I think is exactly this type of technique for self improvement that is a denial of our humanity and limitation. The discussion that prompted the thread was about pushing listening to the limit of comprehension as a means of consuming to the edge our intelligibility.
The rise of AI is exactly the type of technique that Ellul was asking us to be wary of. Esau McCaulley had a recent podcast where they discussed religion stories of 2024 and they spent a lot of time on AI in the church. It is pretty easy to dismissed AI bots that are designed to be Jesus or a priest who you can confess to. But asking AI to write a sermon isn’t really much different from buying or stealing a sermon from another pastor. The problem is is not using other people’s ideas, but presenting them as it they were your own. Wesley and other pastors have written sample sermons for untrained pastors to use. But the point was for them to learn how to preach on their own. Trish Warren (on McCaulley’s podcast) was making the point that the role of the pastor is to pastor a local body of Christians. The pastor isn’t preaching to all people at all times some vague Christian platitude, but to preach to this particular group of people, whom she or he would know intimately enough that they can speak to the congregation God’s words that are borne to them through prayer and intimacy with the congregation. In Ellul’s conception of technique, a pastor cannot skip forward to intimacy with God and the congregation by using AI because technique intentionally skips the hard work of building intimacy.
Similarly, when students write papers the point isn’t to produce the paper, it is to learn how to produce a paper and how to think about and research a topic. Students may think they are accomplishing the task when they produce an AI generated paper, but they have used technique to avoid the main goal. For discernment, the main reason I was reading, there are two important threads. First, the goal of discernment isn’t decision-making to get to the right end, the goal is to become Christlike. Second, the methods we use to get to Christlikeness can’t skip the hard steps. We have to actually struggle against sin and do hard things and search within ourselves to know our motivation and desires as we attempt to discern God’s path for us. The purpose of a spiritual director or mentors isn’t to make decisions for us or to discern in our place, but to talk through problems and issues so that we can build our own capacity for discernment and Christlikeness. The goal of all of these things is maturity.
I did not finish The Technological Society, I read about 70 percent of it and skipped around the end a bit. The introduction and the first two chapters defining technique and giving historical context to the development of technique was the main sections that I was looking for when I picked up the book. The later chapters on technique and the economy and technique and the state had a lot of focus on capitalism and communism and the modern state and those had some value, but they were so focused on the issues of the 1960s that I could have skipped those without much harm.
This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/the-technological-s...
Thin Blue Smoke: A Novel about Music, Food, and Love by Doug Worgul
4.5
Second Reading:
Summary: A meandering novel set in Kansas City with BBQ as a central setting.
In 2012 my favorite novel was Thin Blue Smoke. I ran across Doug Worgul on Bluesky and decided I needed to revisit the novel. I very much remembered the three main characters, LaVerne Williams, AB Clayton, and Ferguson Glen. There are a host of other supporting characters and part of the joy of the novel is getting to go back in time to give context to why those characters are who they are. I have previously written about Thin Blue Smoke in a way that was pretty vague and without spoilers. But I am going to give away more of the story this time. If you don't want spoilers, read this version. If you are okay with spoilers, then you can keep reading.
LaVerne Williams is a Texas-born former baseball player. After a serious sholder injury in 1967, he is let go by the Kansas City Athletics. He is young, married with an infant and without a job or any prospects. The novel is set in the 1990s and by this time LaVerne has become established with a small BBQ resturant with a number of regulars, but little recognition.
AB Clayton wandered lost into the restaurant, commonly known as Smoke Meat, when he was 15. LaVerne offered him a job on the spot and by the main timeline of the book he has been working at Smoke Meat for about 20 years and his whole life is wrapped up in the work and the people of the resturant.
Father Freguson Glen is a theology professor and Episcopal priest. In the 1960s he wrote a pulitzer prize nominated novel but nothing else of note since. He is an alcoholic and lost in many ways, but he has come to find the people of Smoke Meat are a type of family.
The other characters, including Angela, LaVerne's wife, are largely supporting characters. It isn't that they are not important to the story, but they have less developed back stories or they are the "villans" of the story. Thin Blue Smoke moves back and forth through time to help us understand how the characters came to be who they are. This is not an "excuse" for their actions, but context for understanding them.
The characters are given choices throughout the book. AB Clayton grew up with an abusive, addicted, and neglegant mother. He is naive to the way the world works outside of his experience, but he still has hope. Father Glen knows all the ways of the world. He has been given everything, wealth, access, knowledge, but he is lacking some of what AB takes for granted.
This is a novel that is more about the character and the ideas than the plot. I love that type of novel, but not everyone does. There is a climax and conclusion, but because this is a book that is in large part about the problem of evil and choice, the book is more about the journey than the conclusion.
I know that my attraction to Ferguson Glen is connected to my identification with him and his background and thinking, but he is the character that I most identify with. He knows his theology and practices. Throughout the book he often comments on theological ideas and practical pastoral care and does so with great skill. But his desire throughout the book is to see God. I am reading Fleming Rutledge’s book on Epiphany (she is a retired Episcopal priest just like Father Glen is) and she is talking about epiphany as focusing on God’s glory and Christ’s manifestations as an incarnate being.
When I read that, I thought immediately of Father’s Glen’s desire for God. In the book Father Glen is attracted to the Black church and a more Pentecostal expression of faith, but that isn’t the type of faith he has grown up with. Part of the solution in the book is to find real love so that he can understand what pure love is and know that God’s love for him is greater than that. But I also think that Fleming Rutledge if she were his spiritual director might point him toward understanding that God’s glory isn’t about an expressive emotional response, but about an awareness of the greatness of God. Glen has no issues theologically with God or with his history of radical social action in the civil rights movement. His issue is that those things are all theoretical not personal. His father and mother were distant. His brief marriage was annulled. He takes responsibility for his parts in those relationships, but we are shaped by those around us. And when the love around us is always conditional, and the church we attend demonstrates a conditional love, it is natural that we understand all love as conditional.
LaVerne and AB both had difficult childhoods. LaVerne's mother was addicted to drugs and absent and he was raised by his grandmother and her brother. For all of the challenges in his life, his family, especially his great uncle, were there for him to give him a second (or third) chance. Part of the reality of the book is that while not everyone makes good choices in the face of difficult situations, some people have more support in those situations than others. Angela and LaVerne's son passes away at 19 and AB becomes a surrogate son to them. AB's own mother is largely absent. Everyone needs help to mature. AB is naturally kind and good, but being kind and good does not mean the world is kind and good back. Without Angela and LaVerne, AB would likely end up like another side character who didn't have a support system.
LaVerne himself goes through a number of things trying to find his way in the world, but his uncle kept being there for him. Angela was also there for him, but part of what she came to understand was that she could not save him on her own. LaVerne had to take responsibility for himself even as she could continue to love and support him as part of drawing him toward a more healthy path.
Glen grapples with the concept of God's blessing throughout the book. Theologically he is resistant to claiming God's blessing because of what that can mean for those who do not have what we consider God's blessing. If you have good weather and claim it as God's blessing then what does that mean when you do not have good weather? He shifts somewhat throughout the book because he comes to see that seeing God at work is part of seeking after hope. This is not a book of simple theological answers. This is a book of grappling, the type of grappling that we all need to do throughout life.
This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/thin-blue-smoke-by-...
______
Short review: Some stories are written to be savored. This meandering story is loosely connected to a BBQ joint in Kansas City. But that is just the setting. It is about the way that people come into one another's lives and make an impact. Both for good an ill. LaVerne is the owner of the BBQ place and a former pro baseball player. AB is his assistant and the best friend of Raymond, LaVerne's son that has passed away. Glen is an alcoholic Episcopal Priest and professor and the wise man that cannot take his own advice (think Brennan Manning). There are many other characters and the story jumps through time and from character to character giving the reader background to all of their stories of life, of redemption.
While clearly a Christian novel, this is the type of Christian novel that does not often get written. It has real people, not two dimensional cutouts. They have real struggles with sin and understanding life. They do not all believe the 'right' thing. I hope to see more by this author.
A much longer review and some quotes from that book are at my blog at http://bookwi.se/thin-blue-smoke-by-d...
Summary: A meandering novel set in Kansas City with BBQ as a central setting.
In 2012 my favorite novel was Thin Blue Smoke. I ran across Doug Worgul on Bluesky and decided I needed to revisit the novel. I very much remembered the three main characters, LaVerne Williams, AB Clayton, and Ferguson Glen. There are a host of other supporting characters and part of the joy of the novel is getting to go back in time to give context to why those characters are who they are. I have previously written about Thin Blue Smoke in a way that was pretty vague and without spoilers. But I am going to give away more of the story this time. If you don't want spoilers, read this version. If you are okay with spoilers, then you can keep reading.
LaVerne Williams is a Texas-born former baseball player. After a serious sholder injury in 1967, he is let go by the Kansas City Athletics. He is young, married with an infant and without a job or any prospects. The novel is set in the 1990s and by this time LaVerne has become established with a small BBQ resturant with a number of regulars, but little recognition.
AB Clayton wandered lost into the restaurant, commonly known as Smoke Meat, when he was 15. LaVerne offered him a job on the spot and by the main timeline of the book he has been working at Smoke Meat for about 20 years and his whole life is wrapped up in the work and the people of the resturant.
Father Freguson Glen is a theology professor and Episcopal priest. In the 1960s he wrote a pulitzer prize nominated novel but nothing else of note since. He is an alcoholic and lost in many ways, but he has come to find the people of Smoke Meat are a type of family.
The other characters, including Angela, LaVerne's wife, are largely supporting characters. It isn't that they are not important to the story, but they have less developed back stories or they are the "villans" of the story. Thin Blue Smoke moves back and forth through time to help us understand how the characters came to be who they are. This is not an "excuse" for their actions, but context for understanding them.
The characters are given choices throughout the book. AB Clayton grew up with an abusive, addicted, and neglegant mother. He is naive to the way the world works outside of his experience, but he still has hope. Father Glen knows all the ways of the world. He has been given everything, wealth, access, knowledge, but he is lacking some of what AB takes for granted.
This is a novel that is more about the character and the ideas than the plot. I love that type of novel, but not everyone does. There is a climax and conclusion, but because this is a book that is in large part about the problem of evil and choice, the book is more about the journey than the conclusion.
I know that my attraction to Ferguson Glen is connected to my identification with him and his background and thinking, but he is the character that I most identify with. He knows his theology and practices. Throughout the book he often comments on theological ideas and practical pastoral care and does so with great skill. But his desire throughout the book is to see God. I am reading Fleming Rutledge’s book on Epiphany (she is a retired Episcopal priest just like Father Glen is) and she is talking about epiphany as focusing on God’s glory and Christ’s manifestations as an incarnate being.
When I read that, I thought immediately of Father’s Glen’s desire for God. In the book Father Glen is attracted to the Black church and a more Pentecostal expression of faith, but that isn’t the type of faith he has grown up with. Part of the solution in the book is to find real love so that he can understand what pure love is and know that God’s love for him is greater than that. But I also think that Fleming Rutledge if she were his spiritual director might point him toward understanding that God’s glory isn’t about an expressive emotional response, but about an awareness of the greatness of God. Glen has no issues theologically with God or with his history of radical social action in the civil rights movement. His issue is that those things are all theoretical not personal. His father and mother were distant. His brief marriage was annulled. He takes responsibility for his parts in those relationships, but we are shaped by those around us. And when the love around us is always conditional, and the church we attend demonstrates a conditional love, it is natural that we understand all love as conditional.
LaVerne and AB both had difficult childhoods. LaVerne's mother was addicted to drugs and absent and he was raised by his grandmother and her brother. For all of the challenges in his life, his family, especially his great uncle, were there for him to give him a second (or third) chance. Part of the reality of the book is that while not everyone makes good choices in the face of difficult situations, some people have more support in those situations than others. Angela and LaVerne's son passes away at 19 and AB becomes a surrogate son to them. AB's own mother is largely absent. Everyone needs help to mature. AB is naturally kind and good, but being kind and good does not mean the world is kind and good back. Without Angela and LaVerne, AB would likely end up like another side character who didn't have a support system.
LaVerne himself goes through a number of things trying to find his way in the world, but his uncle kept being there for him. Angela was also there for him, but part of what she came to understand was that she could not save him on her own. LaVerne had to take responsibility for himself even as she could continue to love and support him as part of drawing him toward a more healthy path.
Glen grapples with the concept of God's blessing throughout the book. Theologically he is resistant to claiming God's blessing because of what that can mean for those who do not have what we consider God's blessing. If you have good weather and claim it as God's blessing then what does that mean when you do not have good weather? He shifts somewhat throughout the book because he comes to see that seeing God at work is part of seeking after hope. This is not a book of simple theological answers. This is a book of grappling, the type of grappling that we all need to do throughout life.
This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/thin-blue-smoke-by-...
______
Short review: Some stories are written to be savored. This meandering story is loosely connected to a BBQ joint in Kansas City. But that is just the setting. It is about the way that people come into one another's lives and make an impact. Both for good an ill. LaVerne is the owner of the BBQ place and a former pro baseball player. AB is his assistant and the best friend of Raymond, LaVerne's son that has passed away. Glen is an alcoholic Episcopal Priest and professor and the wise man that cannot take his own advice (think Brennan Manning). There are many other characters and the story jumps through time and from character to character giving the reader background to all of their stories of life, of redemption.
While clearly a Christian novel, this is the type of Christian novel that does not often get written. It has real people, not two dimensional cutouts. They have real struggles with sin and understanding life. They do not all believe the 'right' thing. I hope to see more by this author.
A much longer review and some quotes from that book are at my blog at http://bookwi.se/thin-blue-smoke-by-d...
It Seemed Good to the Holy Spirit and to Us: Acts, Discernment, and the Mission of God by Mark Love
The title of the book, It Seemed Good to the Holy Spirit and To Us is taken from Acts 15:28, which is part of the letter written to the gentile Christians after the Acts 15 council. After the council, this letter summarized what had been decided. What is clear from the context is that this was not simply a decision of a single leader, or a small group of leaders, but of the broader church. The main thrust of It Seemed God to the Holy Spirit and To Us is to explore the book of Acts to get clues into how the early church practiced discernment and how other spiritual and relational practices in the church helped to facilitate that group discernment process.
Mark Love is intentionally exploring these early church practices for the purpose of helping the modern church learn from them. So this is not just a biblical studies book, but a book for the church today. Central to his thesis is that, "...Pentecost gives birth to...a community living in [a] new social arrangement of the kingdom of God--a church." (p22)
I am going to quote a long passage from early in the book because I think it sets the stage for how he understand the role of the book.
Love also assumes that most churches are not designed for practicing communal discernment.
As part of the exploration of Acts, Mark Love particularly looks at the way that modern churches and the church shown in Acts understands economics (Acts 2), planning and efficiency, power structures (Acts 6), eating together and church design differently. Depending on who you are, different parts of this book will raise different questions, but I think virtually everyone will see areas where their church community falls short of the types of communal practices that the early church practiced as they sought communal discernment. Using the chapter titles, this book should prick the conscience of almost everyone: The Spirit poured out on all flesh, There was not a needy person among them, the importance of eating together, living together in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, Truly understand God shows no partiality.
The final two chapters expand on what has been hinted at throughout the book. Some communal practices can be adopted by modern local churches that can help facilitate group discernment. Some of these overlap with other books that are particularly about group discernment, like Quaker Discernment and A Way of Discernment, but the orientation is toward modern adaptations of what is found in Acts. I assume that these are the chapters that will produce a lot of quibbles because the reality is that every church will have different settings and will, therefore, have to adapt these practices to their setting (as Mark Love specifically suggests.).
One of the issues I felt repeatedly as I read the book is that I do not know that any church can practice as the early church did. There is a long history of church reform movements trying to recreate the early church as they understood it. Being familiar with the church history of those movements and how they often devolved into a type of legalism focused on maintaining the practices instead of orienting toward how the practices encourage discernment is an eternal problem. This is similar to Jesus' comment about the sabbath being made for people, not people being made for the Sabbath.
Another tension I felt while reading the book is the role of supersessionism. I need to explore this more, but the recent attention to anti-Semitism has raised my awareness of supersessionism. I think it is just the case that Acts is written with supersessionist ideas. That makes some people very uncomfortable because of their understanding of what scripture is. But the early church was imperfect. The church today is also imperfect, usually in different ways from how the early church was imperfect, but one of the values of cross-cultural exploration is that it can reveal new ways to understand ourselves because different cultural expressions of the church have different blind spots.
I have three main takeaways from It Seemed Good to the Holy Spirit and to Us. First, much of the work around discernment is theological, not biblical. I understand why that is, but I think books like this that attempt to root discernment in biblical studies are helpful corrective. Second, the Holy Spirit and Pentecost are wildly undervalued within church theology and practices. Clark Pinnock's Flame of Love is helpful in this regard, but assuming that we should be oriented toward the Holy Spirit in a post-Pentecost world is frankly undervalued. Third, spiritual practices are not just individual; they are communal. The way we are the church will influence what we value as a church. We often do what we have always done because we are not intentional. The practices of the historic church should be regularly explored to see what is cultural and what is transcultural. There has been a retrieval of liturgical practices in evangelicalism in the past couple of decades, but the church's practices are more than just the liturgy. There is still much work to be done to understand how the church's practices influence the church's mission.
This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/it-seemed-good/
4.25
Mark Love is intentionally exploring these early church practices for the purpose of helping the modern church learn from them. So this is not just a biblical studies book, but a book for the church today. Central to his thesis is that, "...Pentecost gives birth to...a community living in [a] new social arrangement of the kingdom of God--a church." (p22)
I am going to quote a long passage from early in the book because I think it sets the stage for how he understand the role of the book.
"I am demonstrating several convictions I have about ministry in how I deal with these texts. First, ministry finds its life in a deep engagement with Scripture. Ministry emerges naturally through a long habitation with Scripture. Good ministry is an art, requiring a well-funded imagination. In shaping a theological imagination, Scriptures must be more than a tool one uses to solve puzzles. Instead the deep structures of texts—the way they move, their rhythms, the peculiar way they name things—must become deep structures for ministers as well. This deep imagination, related to Scripture, is exactly what we find in Acts 15 when James summarizes the discernment of the community in relation to the inclusion of Gentiles." (p25)
Love also assumes that most churches are not designed for practicing communal discernment.
"...our congregations are not built for discernment. We prize control and mastery, rather than surprise and pliability. If the church is a boat, we are building oars to propel the boat under our own power, rather than constructing sails to receive the empowering wind of the Holy Spirit." (p50)
As part of the exploration of Acts, Mark Love particularly looks at the way that modern churches and the church shown in Acts understands economics (Acts 2), planning and efficiency, power structures (Acts 6), eating together and church design differently. Depending on who you are, different parts of this book will raise different questions, but I think virtually everyone will see areas where their church community falls short of the types of communal practices that the early church practiced as they sought communal discernment. Using the chapter titles, this book should prick the conscience of almost everyone: The Spirit poured out on all flesh, There was not a needy person among them, the importance of eating together, living together in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, Truly understand God shows no partiality.
The final two chapters expand on what has been hinted at throughout the book. Some communal practices can be adopted by modern local churches that can help facilitate group discernment. Some of these overlap with other books that are particularly about group discernment, like Quaker Discernment and A Way of Discernment, but the orientation is toward modern adaptations of what is found in Acts. I assume that these are the chapters that will produce a lot of quibbles because the reality is that every church will have different settings and will, therefore, have to adapt these practices to their setting (as Mark Love specifically suggests.).
One of the issues I felt repeatedly as I read the book is that I do not know that any church can practice as the early church did. There is a long history of church reform movements trying to recreate the early church as they understood it. Being familiar with the church history of those movements and how they often devolved into a type of legalism focused on maintaining the practices instead of orienting toward how the practices encourage discernment is an eternal problem. This is similar to Jesus' comment about the sabbath being made for people, not people being made for the Sabbath.
Another tension I felt while reading the book is the role of supersessionism. I need to explore this more, but the recent attention to anti-Semitism has raised my awareness of supersessionism. I think it is just the case that Acts is written with supersessionist ideas. That makes some people very uncomfortable because of their understanding of what scripture is. But the early church was imperfect. The church today is also imperfect, usually in different ways from how the early church was imperfect, but one of the values of cross-cultural exploration is that it can reveal new ways to understand ourselves because different cultural expressions of the church have different blind spots.
I have three main takeaways from It Seemed Good to the Holy Spirit and to Us. First, much of the work around discernment is theological, not biblical. I understand why that is, but I think books like this that attempt to root discernment in biblical studies are helpful corrective. Second, the Holy Spirit and Pentecost are wildly undervalued within church theology and practices. Clark Pinnock's Flame of Love is helpful in this regard, but assuming that we should be oriented toward the Holy Spirit in a post-Pentecost world is frankly undervalued. Third, spiritual practices are not just individual; they are communal. The way we are the church will influence what we value as a church. We often do what we have always done because we are not intentional. The practices of the historic church should be regularly explored to see what is cultural and what is transcultural. There has been a retrieval of liturgical practices in evangelicalism in the past couple of decades, but the church's practices are more than just the liturgy. There is still much work to be done to understand how the church's practices influence the church's mission.
This was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/it-seemed-good/
Ownership: The Evangelical Legacy of Slavery in Edwards, Wesley, and Whitefield by Sean McGever
4.5
Summary: An exercise in discernment by exploring the legacy of three Christians of the same era and their relationship to slavery.
I read Ownership by Sean McGever with an eye on how he handles the topic of discernment, even though the word discernment was not the focus. Over the past year, I have read about a dozen books on discernment, trying to grapple with the purpose and limitations of Christian discernment. One of the reasons for starting this project was reading Henri Nouwen’s book Discernment and how he grappled with discernment for himself. I am not going to rehash that post again, but while Nouwen received spiritual guidance and help from a pair of priests, after the death of all three and about ten years after the book was published, it became more widely known that the two priests that Nouwen confided in were serial sexual and spiritual abusers. Nouwen described them as some of the most holy men he had known. Nouwen's discernment about those men is a good reminder of the limitations of our discernment, but also that historical judgment and tools can be helpful as a means of helping to see our natural limitations of perspective.
McGever makes the simple but important point that our geographic and social location impacts our decision-making (and discernment) because it impacts how we see choices. None of Edwards, Whitfield, or Wesley's grandparents owned slaves because the slave trade was not yet in wide effect. However, the difference between whether their grandchildren owned slaves was significantly impacted by whether they were in England or the US. Geography and social location always impact choices.
In his discussion of Whitfield’s creation of the orphanage, he presents Whitfield’s positive reasons for doing so. There were orphans, and those orphans needed care. The colony administrators were willing to give the orphanage start-up land and some start-up money. Whitfield and the colony administrators assumed that the orphanage would be self-sufficient after the initial startup.
My day job is as a non-profit consultant. One trend in non-profit grant-making since the early 2000s is that there needs to be a plan for sustainability as part of a grant. But non-profits, by definition, are not profit-making organizations. After-school programs do not generate revenue if they are primarily serving at-risk students. Clinics serving homeless youth don’t make money on the side without violating the organization's main mission. But this is exactly the problem that Whitfield got into.
Whitfield needed to make money by finding a crop or business that the orphanage could do to pay for the ongoing costs of running the orphanage. They started with White indentured servants. Then, they started relying on the orphans themselves to do labor on cash crops. Eventually, Whitfield and the administrators lobbied to change the law of the state of Georgia so that they could have African slaves work to make the orphanage self-supporting.
On Twitter the other day, there was a thread about how ethical choices don’t just need ethical ends but also need ethical means to get to those ends. Whitfield had ethical ends (care of orphans), but once in the weeds of the organization, he eventually moved to unethical means because the ethical means he tried hadn’t worked. This is often where discernment falters because when things seem not to be working but you still feel called to continue, there is a temptation to move to unethical means or change our ethics to allow for what we previously considered unethical.
I think you can summarize this argument about Whitfield’s change in understanding of slavery as his theology changed because of his economic interests, not that his theology influenced his economic interests. This generally fits with the arguments of a wide variety of others. Edward Baptist studies the economics of slavery and thinks that the justification and expansion of slavery were largely a result of the economic success of slavery. Joel McDurmon, a lawyer studying the legal construction of slave law in Christian Americancolonies, largely concludes that economic interests drove legal changes, not that legal changes led to economic results. Akhil Reed Amar, a constitutional scholar writing about the US Constitution and slavery, points out that those opposed to slavery had many opportunities to oppose the expansion of slavery, but for the most part, their economic interests meant that they opposed slavery as an ideology, but they did not put feet to those beliefs and because it was against their economics interests.
Jonathan Edwards, until recently, was not evaluated for owning slaves. Within the past couple of decades, as interest in Edwards has increased, there have been recent documents that have raised questions about his understanding of slavery. Edwards does seem to have changed his views toward the insinuation of slavery, but not owning slaves. He bought at least one slave directly from a slave ship but eventually came to view the slave trade as immoral, but not slavery as a whole. There was some change, but not much.
The third subject is John Wesley. Wesley did come to an abolitionist position, but not until near the end of his life. He was slightly older than both Edwards and Whitfield but lived about two decades longer than both. Wesley had direct experience with slavery when he was in Georgia and was familiar with the institution of slavery more abstractly before that point. He argued for the education, especially Christian education, of slaves but not initially against the institution of slavery as a whole. Wesley did challenge Whitfield about owning slaves but did not break the relationship over slavery and argued against ending the institution of slavery.
McGever believes, and I think he is right, that had Wesley grown up in America or come to America for a longer time, Wesley may have also eventually owned slaves and never come to his late-in-life abolitionist position. Had Edwards or Whitfield lived longer or had different social circumstances, they may have come to similar conclusions as Wesley did later in life. Our social circumstances do not excuse our individual choices, but they do influence them.
I think many reading this book may not be aware of the basic facts in the first 80 percent of the book. So, that initial 80 percent is important to lay out the facts that McGever is dealing with to get to the main focus in the last 20 percent. In the last 20 percent of the book, there is an evaluation of how to think about the three, not just as a historically distant evaluator but as a Christian who shares in the legacy of all three. McGever directly tries to help us, as modern readers, see ourselves in all three. He is trying to help us see that we all have the capacity to have cultural blind spots, but we also can overcome those cultural blindspots by listening to others and history.
Quakers and others of this era strongly resisted slavery and not only worked toward its end but also made financial and other sacrifices because of their Christian convictions. More than the other two, Wesley was willing to listen to this minority report and learn from it. But it did take Wesley years to change, and even while he did change, his change was late enough that some of the institutional inertia of Methodism did not oppose slavery and did not fight for the full humanity of Black Christians, especially in the US, leading to the eventual split of Methodism and the institutional dehumanization of its Black members, as illustrated by Richard Allen and Absolum Jones.
I would have liked to have an explicit discussion of discernment and the ways that historical events and understanding can inform Christian discernment, but even without an explicit discussion of discernment, I think that this is a helpful exercise that will lead to better discernment for those willing to read and understand what Sean McGever is trying to do here.
This post was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/ownership/
I read Ownership by Sean McGever with an eye on how he handles the topic of discernment, even though the word discernment was not the focus. Over the past year, I have read about a dozen books on discernment, trying to grapple with the purpose and limitations of Christian discernment. One of the reasons for starting this project was reading Henri Nouwen’s book Discernment and how he grappled with discernment for himself. I am not going to rehash that post again, but while Nouwen received spiritual guidance and help from a pair of priests, after the death of all three and about ten years after the book was published, it became more widely known that the two priests that Nouwen confided in were serial sexual and spiritual abusers. Nouwen described them as some of the most holy men he had known. Nouwen's discernment about those men is a good reminder of the limitations of our discernment, but also that historical judgment and tools can be helpful as a means of helping to see our natural limitations of perspective.
McGever makes the simple but important point that our geographic and social location impacts our decision-making (and discernment) because it impacts how we see choices. None of Edwards, Whitfield, or Wesley's grandparents owned slaves because the slave trade was not yet in wide effect. However, the difference between whether their grandchildren owned slaves was significantly impacted by whether they were in England or the US. Geography and social location always impact choices.
In his discussion of Whitfield’s creation of the orphanage, he presents Whitfield’s positive reasons for doing so. There were orphans, and those orphans needed care. The colony administrators were willing to give the orphanage start-up land and some start-up money. Whitfield and the colony administrators assumed that the orphanage would be self-sufficient after the initial startup.
My day job is as a non-profit consultant. One trend in non-profit grant-making since the early 2000s is that there needs to be a plan for sustainability as part of a grant. But non-profits, by definition, are not profit-making organizations. After-school programs do not generate revenue if they are primarily serving at-risk students. Clinics serving homeless youth don’t make money on the side without violating the organization's main mission. But this is exactly the problem that Whitfield got into.
Whitfield needed to make money by finding a crop or business that the orphanage could do to pay for the ongoing costs of running the orphanage. They started with White indentured servants. Then, they started relying on the orphans themselves to do labor on cash crops. Eventually, Whitfield and the administrators lobbied to change the law of the state of Georgia so that they could have African slaves work to make the orphanage self-supporting.
On Twitter the other day, there was a thread about how ethical choices don’t just need ethical ends but also need ethical means to get to those ends. Whitfield had ethical ends (care of orphans), but once in the weeds of the organization, he eventually moved to unethical means because the ethical means he tried hadn’t worked. This is often where discernment falters because when things seem not to be working but you still feel called to continue, there is a temptation to move to unethical means or change our ethics to allow for what we previously considered unethical.
I think you can summarize this argument about Whitfield’s change in understanding of slavery as his theology changed because of his economic interests, not that his theology influenced his economic interests. This generally fits with the arguments of a wide variety of others. Edward Baptist studies the economics of slavery and thinks that the justification and expansion of slavery were largely a result of the economic success of slavery. Joel McDurmon, a lawyer studying the legal construction of slave law in Christian Americancolonies, largely concludes that economic interests drove legal changes, not that legal changes led to economic results. Akhil Reed Amar, a constitutional scholar writing about the US Constitution and slavery, points out that those opposed to slavery had many opportunities to oppose the expansion of slavery, but for the most part, their economic interests meant that they opposed slavery as an ideology, but they did not put feet to those beliefs and because it was against their economics interests.
Jonathan Edwards, until recently, was not evaluated for owning slaves. Within the past couple of decades, as interest in Edwards has increased, there have been recent documents that have raised questions about his understanding of slavery. Edwards does seem to have changed his views toward the insinuation of slavery, but not owning slaves. He bought at least one slave directly from a slave ship but eventually came to view the slave trade as immoral, but not slavery as a whole. There was some change, but not much.
The third subject is John Wesley. Wesley did come to an abolitionist position, but not until near the end of his life. He was slightly older than both Edwards and Whitfield but lived about two decades longer than both. Wesley had direct experience with slavery when he was in Georgia and was familiar with the institution of slavery more abstractly before that point. He argued for the education, especially Christian education, of slaves but not initially against the institution of slavery as a whole. Wesley did challenge Whitfield about owning slaves but did not break the relationship over slavery and argued against ending the institution of slavery.
McGever believes, and I think he is right, that had Wesley grown up in America or come to America for a longer time, Wesley may have also eventually owned slaves and never come to his late-in-life abolitionist position. Had Edwards or Whitfield lived longer or had different social circumstances, they may have come to similar conclusions as Wesley did later in life. Our social circumstances do not excuse our individual choices, but they do influence them.
I think many reading this book may not be aware of the basic facts in the first 80 percent of the book. So, that initial 80 percent is important to lay out the facts that McGever is dealing with to get to the main focus in the last 20 percent. In the last 20 percent of the book, there is an evaluation of how to think about the three, not just as a historically distant evaluator but as a Christian who shares in the legacy of all three. McGever directly tries to help us, as modern readers, see ourselves in all three. He is trying to help us see that we all have the capacity to have cultural blind spots, but we also can overcome those cultural blindspots by listening to others and history.
Quakers and others of this era strongly resisted slavery and not only worked toward its end but also made financial and other sacrifices because of their Christian convictions. More than the other two, Wesley was willing to listen to this minority report and learn from it. But it did take Wesley years to change, and even while he did change, his change was late enough that some of the institutional inertia of Methodism did not oppose slavery and did not fight for the full humanity of Black Christians, especially in the US, leading to the eventual split of Methodism and the institutional dehumanization of its Black members, as illustrated by Richard Allen and Absolum Jones.
I would have liked to have an explicit discussion of discernment and the ways that historical events and understanding can inform Christian discernment, but even without an explicit discussion of discernment, I think that this is a helpful exercise that will lead to better discernment for those willing to read and understand what Sean McGever is trying to do here.
This post was originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/ownership/
The Late Scholar by Jill Paton Walsh
3.25
Summary: Peter discovers a new duty that his role of Duke brings. It leads him to a mystery and eventually to several deaths.
I have enjoyed this series of four books that grew out of Dorothy Sayers writing. The first was the draft of a novel written by Dorothy Sayers that Jill Paton Walsh finished. The next three were mostly Jill Paton Walsh using Sayers characters. I have enjoyed the books and I am glad that I read them. But I also haven’t loved them.
I still like Peter and Harriet as characters and I appreciate seeing them as they age. Their children are young adults. At the end of the last book, Peter had assumed the role of Duke after his brother died. His nephew was killed in action during WWII. Harriet still is writing, but the work of Duchess takes time. And there is a lingering of her earlier reputation as an accused murderer that does pop up in this book several times. Bunter is the ever present assistant who wants to keep the social boundaries in place, but who acquiesces to the increasing informality of the 1950s.
The mystery always felt a bit under developed. There is an ancient manuscript in one of the college of Oxford. Because of a long ago bequest, Peter has the role of “visitor” to help settle disputes within the college. In part because of money problems within the college, there is a disagreement about whether the manuscript should be sold and the money invested or if the manuscript should be kept and financial changes made in other ways.
Peter was unaware of the role until he started hearing from members of the faculty seeking to persuade him of their position. Eventually Peter goes to investigate, in part to get away. There he discovers a couple of accidental deaths that he suspects were murders and several more potential attempted homicides and a missing person.
I like that Walsh makes both Peter and Harriet joint figures in the mystery. She operates within a community that still is pretty sexist and I think Walsh over does that in some ways. It isn’t that the era was not sexist, but there was already a history of the female writer and detective.
I was glad to read the book overall, but I think there is a reason that the series did not go further. It has been just over a decade since this book came out. I like the characters more than I like the series and it feels like Walsh didn’t really have anywhere to go. There is only so many references to real life mysteries being different from books. I think Walsh has done a good job maintaining the feel of the characters, but the mystery of the last two has felt pretty flat.
I have enjoyed this series of four books that grew out of Dorothy Sayers writing. The first was the draft of a novel written by Dorothy Sayers that Jill Paton Walsh finished. The next three were mostly Jill Paton Walsh using Sayers characters. I have enjoyed the books and I am glad that I read them. But I also haven’t loved them.
I still like Peter and Harriet as characters and I appreciate seeing them as they age. Their children are young adults. At the end of the last book, Peter had assumed the role of Duke after his brother died. His nephew was killed in action during WWII. Harriet still is writing, but the work of Duchess takes time. And there is a lingering of her earlier reputation as an accused murderer that does pop up in this book several times. Bunter is the ever present assistant who wants to keep the social boundaries in place, but who acquiesces to the increasing informality of the 1950s.
The mystery always felt a bit under developed. There is an ancient manuscript in one of the college of Oxford. Because of a long ago bequest, Peter has the role of “visitor” to help settle disputes within the college. In part because of money problems within the college, there is a disagreement about whether the manuscript should be sold and the money invested or if the manuscript should be kept and financial changes made in other ways.
Peter was unaware of the role until he started hearing from members of the faculty seeking to persuade him of their position. Eventually Peter goes to investigate, in part to get away. There he discovers a couple of accidental deaths that he suspects were murders and several more potential attempted homicides and a missing person.
I like that Walsh makes both Peter and Harriet joint figures in the mystery. She operates within a community that still is pretty sexist and I think Walsh over does that in some ways. It isn’t that the era was not sexist, but there was already a history of the female writer and detective.
I was glad to read the book overall, but I think there is a reason that the series did not go further. It has been just over a decade since this book came out. I like the characters more than I like the series and it feels like Walsh didn’t really have anywhere to go. There is only so many references to real life mysteries being different from books. I think Walsh has done a good job maintaining the feel of the characters, but the mystery of the last two has felt pretty flat.
The Wild Robot by Peter Brown
4.5
Summary: A new robot is lost, and as attempts to survive, it learns from the animals around it and becomes a "wild robot."
My son read and enjoyed The Wild Robot last year when he was eight. He is a pretty good reader and likes to read books on his own. I have been interested in reading the book myself since I saw that it was being made into a movie.
This is a classic late elementary book. There are tons of very short chapters, rarely more than a couple of pages each. This makes the book both easy to engage for 3-5th graders to read by themselves and easy to read to them at that age or slightly younger.
I appreciate that this is a book that admits hard things. This book is mostly about a robot trying to understand the world around "her" and about animals. The reality of the wild world is that animals will die. Some will be eaten by others, some will die from elements or accidents. The fact that there is grief and sorrow in that loss is not glossed over.
The Wild Robot is a self-contained book. I am nearly done with the second book, The Wild Robot Escapes. That book builds on the first but is a complete story as well. I will read the third soon.
I have avoided reading any reviews of the movie at this point, so I am not sure if the movie is just the first book or if it is the whole trilogy. But I am going to finish the whole trilogy before I watch it to be sure.
There is a nice gentleness to the books. Most of the plot conflict is based on misunderstanding. I think this is a good model of plot development for this age. Children are seeking to understand. That doesn't mean that I am opposed to "good/evil" stories, but stories rooted in misunderstanding I think help grow empathy and seek to give alternative perspectives which should be part of a children's book diet.
Based on what I have read so far, I really do think this is an excellent addition to the middle elementary literature.
I read this on Kindle because I saw it on sale, but I think it likely would be a good audiobook as well. I listened to the 5 minute preview and that short excerpt was pretty good. I read it in two sittings, but I wouldn't expect most kids to read it that quickly.
This was originally published on my blog at https://bookwi.se/the-wild-robot-by-p...
My son read and enjoyed The Wild Robot last year when he was eight. He is a pretty good reader and likes to read books on his own. I have been interested in reading the book myself since I saw that it was being made into a movie.
This is a classic late elementary book. There are tons of very short chapters, rarely more than a couple of pages each. This makes the book both easy to engage for 3-5th graders to read by themselves and easy to read to them at that age or slightly younger.
I appreciate that this is a book that admits hard things. This book is mostly about a robot trying to understand the world around "her" and about animals. The reality of the wild world is that animals will die. Some will be eaten by others, some will die from elements or accidents. The fact that there is grief and sorrow in that loss is not glossed over.
The Wild Robot is a self-contained book. I am nearly done with the second book, The Wild Robot Escapes. That book builds on the first but is a complete story as well. I will read the third soon.
I have avoided reading any reviews of the movie at this point, so I am not sure if the movie is just the first book or if it is the whole trilogy. But I am going to finish the whole trilogy before I watch it to be sure.
There is a nice gentleness to the books. Most of the plot conflict is based on misunderstanding. I think this is a good model of plot development for this age. Children are seeking to understand. That doesn't mean that I am opposed to "good/evil" stories, but stories rooted in misunderstanding I think help grow empathy and seek to give alternative perspectives which should be part of a children's book diet.
Based on what I have read so far, I really do think this is an excellent addition to the middle elementary literature.
I read this on Kindle because I saw it on sale, but I think it likely would be a good audiobook as well. I listened to the 5 minute preview and that short excerpt was pretty good. I read it in two sittings, but I wouldn't expect most kids to read it that quickly.
This was originally published on my blog at https://bookwi.se/the-wild-robot-by-p...
A Court of Mist and Fury (1 of 2) [Dramatized Adaptation] by Sarah J. Maas
Summary: A single story arc split between two books.
I am behind on writing about my reading and while I have enjoyed this series enough to keep reading it (I am in the middle of the fourth right now), this if far from a perfect series. I have read pretty widely in the more classical fantasy world. And I have read some romance. The recent trend to Romantasy isn't completely new, but this series seems to have contributed to the movement.
There are some irritating distractions in this version of fantasy. Some are silly things like flush toilets and hot water bathtubs and the level of technology constantly shifting from medieval to 19th-century references. And there is the more common fantasy issues like magic being used to bridge plot points in ways that do not make sense internally to the system.
The series has a sharp turn at the start of the second book (spoilers for the first book and these two books follow), Feyre saved Tamlin and all other Farie courts by breaking the curse. In the process knowingly killed several innocents and herself was killed. But she was brought back to life by the combined work of the seven High Lords who were all gathered together in captivity and who had just been released because of Feyre’s work. She is resurrected and becomes the “Curse Breaker”.
The second book starts with Fryre having a very clear trauma response to both her actions (especially killing the innocents) and her captivity which lead eventually to her death. She can’t be in a confined place because it reminds her of her cell. She can’t paint or do other previously enjoyable things because of the trauma response. The story turns because while there was previous evidence of Tamlin’s character in the first book, the second book starts to show Tamlin having his own trauma responses, which are expressed in abusive and controlling ways.
As part of the deal with Rhys, that saved her at the end of the last book, she has to go live with Rhys one week a month. Rhys is aware of her trauma responses and works to care for her and over time she starts to have some healing. Feyre also never really learned to read because her mother died when she was young. So a significant part of how Rhys addresses her trauma is by teaching her to read and understand her new Farie powers.
It happens fairly early in the second book, but Tamlin understands that their relationship is not going well. His response is to try to control her more. Feyre reacts to that attempt to control by becoming more insistent on resisting control. Tamlin eventually tries to force a marriage, and that is the breaking point for Feyre. A bond was created when Rhys saved Feyre under the mountain and he can sense her emotions. When she is breaking down before the wedding ceremony he arranges for Feyre to be rescued/kidnapped.
And it is at this point there is a shift in the book toward Feyre starting to heal and then fall in love with Rhys. Internally that does make some sense, but looking at it from the end of the three-book arc, there is a tension between an abusive initial relationship and a probably too good healthy relationship. Real people fall in love with problematic people all the time. There is a trope about the attraction that women have to bad guys. But what this series relies on entirely too heavily is bad characters actually being good characters who do bad seemingly bad things for hidden reasons. And those hidden reasons make sense once you gain understanding.
I don’t remember where I read it initially, but I read an article a few years ago about how many Western children’s movies are stories of good overcoming evil. While many Eastern children’s movies are about the conflict of the story not being rooted in overcoming evil but overcoming misunderstanding. Frozen 2 and Encanto are both stories where the idea of overcoming misunderstanding is more central to the plot than overcoming a specific evil character. There are still evil characters in this series, but many of those evil characters are good guys who were forced to work with the evil characters for a time but were trying to weaken the evil forces from the inside. I like this as a story possibility, but that story possibility is less interesting when it is overused, as it is here.
In this two-book story arc, Feyre has to heal from her trauma, and find faith in herself and her abilities, many of which are new as a result of her resurrection, but many of which were developments of her character and upbringing and doing what it takes to care for those around her. She is unfamiliar with the Faerie world but quickly learns. I am not going to reveal more plot points, but the two books are about 1300 pages overall and are a single-story arc. The fourth book is a pretty short addition. And the fifth book of the series appears to focus on side characters.
Because I was not interested in purchasing I listened to the Graphic Audio versions of these two books from my library. Graphic Audio is an audiobook production company that is making full-cast radio drama adaptations. Although they don’t call them radio dramas, they use the tagline, “a movie in your mind.” I don’t know how much of the story was cut but the Graphic Audio versions are about 20 percent shorter than the unabridged versions. I did not feel like there were holes in the story but I do not know what I missed so there may be plot points that were cut that would have made the overall story better.
On the whole, these felt like young adult books with a couple of sex scenes added in. The actual sex scenes could easily have been edited out without any loss to the story. I know others will disagree but that does seem important to me that the books are not written primarily around sex as plot points, but include sex. I understand the argument that this makes the sex gratuitous and not central to the story and that may be true. I don’t think that the scenes made the books better. And I do understand the critique that these are written as young adult books with sex in ways that would make young adult readers feel comfortable reading them.
Right now I am sort of listening to the fourth book as an audiobook but I have started reading the most recent KB Hoyle book. I have read every KB Hoyle book and this series has reminded me why good writing matters. It is not that Maas is a bad writer as much as she is not a deep writer, everything is on the surface. The first book in this series is a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast. But by the middle of A Court of Mist and Fury we understand that while the curse against Tamlin was lifted, he is still a beast internally. She leaves because he is abusive and she eventually finds a good healthy relationship.
KB Hoyle has a series based on a retelling of classic fairy tales that starts with a gender swap Little Mermaid. And then moves to a fairy tale that I didn’t know in A Son of Bitter Glass. This third book is Son of Gold and Sorrow and continues with James, the side character in the first book, the helper character in the second book, and the main character in the third book. I bring this up because there is a difference between fluffy writing that keeps me interested (Maas’ books) and really good writing that made me stay up a couple of hours past my bedtime last night reading half the book.
KB Hoyle is writing a young adult fairy tale romance that doesn't fit in the romantasy genre but has some of those elements. I think many who are drawn to Maas, would enjoy this series because depth of writing matters. It is not that I am opposed to sex in books. While I picked up this series because it was banned by my local school district because of the sex, the quality of the books matters far more to my perception than the sex. I wasn’t offended by the sex. In 1800 pages of the three Maas books, it was only about 20-30 pages, so I just can’t get worked up about it.
What I do get a little worked up about is that Maas’ books have sold hundreds of thousands of copies and a far superior series by KB Hoyle won’t. If you haven't already, I think you should read Holye, I would recommend her Gateway Chronicles, which are early teen fantasy. She has a post-apocalyptic series that is pitched a bit older. She has started a middle-grade series that is pitch a bit younger. She has a stand-alone novella and the Fairy Tale series that I linked above.
Originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/a-court/
3.25
I am behind on writing about my reading and while I have enjoyed this series enough to keep reading it (I am in the middle of the fourth right now), this if far from a perfect series. I have read pretty widely in the more classical fantasy world. And I have read some romance. The recent trend to Romantasy isn't completely new, but this series seems to have contributed to the movement.
There are some irritating distractions in this version of fantasy. Some are silly things like flush toilets and hot water bathtubs and the level of technology constantly shifting from medieval to 19th-century references. And there is the more common fantasy issues like magic being used to bridge plot points in ways that do not make sense internally to the system.
The series has a sharp turn at the start of the second book (spoilers for the first book and these two books follow), Feyre saved Tamlin and all other Farie courts by breaking the curse. In the process knowingly killed several innocents and herself was killed. But she was brought back to life by the combined work of the seven High Lords who were all gathered together in captivity and who had just been released because of Feyre’s work. She is resurrected and becomes the “Curse Breaker”.
The second book starts with Fryre having a very clear trauma response to both her actions (especially killing the innocents) and her captivity which lead eventually to her death. She can’t be in a confined place because it reminds her of her cell. She can’t paint or do other previously enjoyable things because of the trauma response. The story turns because while there was previous evidence of Tamlin’s character in the first book, the second book starts to show Tamlin having his own trauma responses, which are expressed in abusive and controlling ways.
As part of the deal with Rhys, that saved her at the end of the last book, she has to go live with Rhys one week a month. Rhys is aware of her trauma responses and works to care for her and over time she starts to have some healing. Feyre also never really learned to read because her mother died when she was young. So a significant part of how Rhys addresses her trauma is by teaching her to read and understand her new Farie powers.
It happens fairly early in the second book, but Tamlin understands that their relationship is not going well. His response is to try to control her more. Feyre reacts to that attempt to control by becoming more insistent on resisting control. Tamlin eventually tries to force a marriage, and that is the breaking point for Feyre. A bond was created when Rhys saved Feyre under the mountain and he can sense her emotions. When she is breaking down before the wedding ceremony he arranges for Feyre to be rescued/kidnapped.
And it is at this point there is a shift in the book toward Feyre starting to heal and then fall in love with Rhys. Internally that does make some sense, but looking at it from the end of the three-book arc, there is a tension between an abusive initial relationship and a probably too good healthy relationship. Real people fall in love with problematic people all the time. There is a trope about the attraction that women have to bad guys. But what this series relies on entirely too heavily is bad characters actually being good characters who do bad seemingly bad things for hidden reasons. And those hidden reasons make sense once you gain understanding.
I don’t remember where I read it initially, but I read an article a few years ago about how many Western children’s movies are stories of good overcoming evil. While many Eastern children’s movies are about the conflict of the story not being rooted in overcoming evil but overcoming misunderstanding. Frozen 2 and Encanto are both stories where the idea of overcoming misunderstanding is more central to the plot than overcoming a specific evil character. There are still evil characters in this series, but many of those evil characters are good guys who were forced to work with the evil characters for a time but were trying to weaken the evil forces from the inside. I like this as a story possibility, but that story possibility is less interesting when it is overused, as it is here.
In this two-book story arc, Feyre has to heal from her trauma, and find faith in herself and her abilities, many of which are new as a result of her resurrection, but many of which were developments of her character and upbringing and doing what it takes to care for those around her. She is unfamiliar with the Faerie world but quickly learns. I am not going to reveal more plot points, but the two books are about 1300 pages overall and are a single-story arc. The fourth book is a pretty short addition. And the fifth book of the series appears to focus on side characters.
Because I was not interested in purchasing I listened to the Graphic Audio versions of these two books from my library. Graphic Audio is an audiobook production company that is making full-cast radio drama adaptations. Although they don’t call them radio dramas, they use the tagline, “a movie in your mind.” I don’t know how much of the story was cut but the Graphic Audio versions are about 20 percent shorter than the unabridged versions. I did not feel like there were holes in the story but I do not know what I missed so there may be plot points that were cut that would have made the overall story better.
On the whole, these felt like young adult books with a couple of sex scenes added in. The actual sex scenes could easily have been edited out without any loss to the story. I know others will disagree but that does seem important to me that the books are not written primarily around sex as plot points, but include sex. I understand the argument that this makes the sex gratuitous and not central to the story and that may be true. I don’t think that the scenes made the books better. And I do understand the critique that these are written as young adult books with sex in ways that would make young adult readers feel comfortable reading them.
Right now I am sort of listening to the fourth book as an audiobook but I have started reading the most recent KB Hoyle book. I have read every KB Hoyle book and this series has reminded me why good writing matters. It is not that Maas is a bad writer as much as she is not a deep writer, everything is on the surface. The first book in this series is a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast. But by the middle of A Court of Mist and Fury we understand that while the curse against Tamlin was lifted, he is still a beast internally. She leaves because he is abusive and she eventually finds a good healthy relationship.
KB Hoyle has a series based on a retelling of classic fairy tales that starts with a gender swap Little Mermaid. And then moves to a fairy tale that I didn’t know in A Son of Bitter Glass. This third book is Son of Gold and Sorrow and continues with James, the side character in the first book, the helper character in the second book, and the main character in the third book. I bring this up because there is a difference between fluffy writing that keeps me interested (Maas’ books) and really good writing that made me stay up a couple of hours past my bedtime last night reading half the book.
KB Hoyle is writing a young adult fairy tale romance that doesn't fit in the romantasy genre but has some of those elements. I think many who are drawn to Maas, would enjoy this series because depth of writing matters. It is not that I am opposed to sex in books. While I picked up this series because it was banned by my local school district because of the sex, the quality of the books matters far more to my perception than the sex. I wasn’t offended by the sex. In 1800 pages of the three Maas books, it was only about 20-30 pages, so I just can’t get worked up about it.
What I do get a little worked up about is that Maas’ books have sold hundreds of thousands of copies and a far superior series by KB Hoyle won’t. If you haven't already, I think you should read Holye, I would recommend her Gateway Chronicles, which are early teen fantasy. She has a post-apocalyptic series that is pitched a bit older. She has started a middle-grade series that is pitch a bit younger. She has a stand-alone novella and the Fairy Tale series that I linked above.
Originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/a-court/
A Court of Mist and Fury (2 of 2) [Dramatized Adaptation] by Sarah J. Maas
Summary: A single story arc split between two books.
I am behind on writing about my reading and while I have enjoyed this series enough to keep reading it (I am in the middle of the fourth right now), this if far from a perfect series. I have read pretty widely in the more classical fantasy world. And I have read some romance. The recent trend to Romantasy isn't completely new, but this series seems to have contributed to the movement.
There are some irritating distractions in this version of fantasy. Some are silly things like flush toilets and hot water bathtubs and the level of technology constantly shifting from medieval to 19th-century references. And there is the more common fantasy issues like magic being used to bridge plot points in ways that do not make sense internally to the system.
The series has a sharp turn at the start of the second book (spoilers for the first book and these two books follow), Feyre saved Tamlin and all other Farie courts by breaking the curse. In the process knowingly killed several innocents and herself was killed. But she was brought back to life by the combined work of the seven High Lords who were all gathered together in captivity and who had just been released because of Feyre’s work. She is resurrected and becomes the “Curse Breaker”.
The second book starts with Fryre having a very clear trauma response to both her actions (especially killing the innocents) and her captivity which lead eventually to her death. She can’t be in a confined place because it reminds her of her cell. She can’t paint or do other previously enjoyable things because of the trauma response. The story turns because while there was previous evidence of Tamlin’s character in the first book, the second book starts to show Tamlin having his own trauma responses, which are expressed in abusive and controlling ways.
As part of the deal with Rhys, that saved her at the end of the last book, she has to go live with Rhys one week a month. Rhys is aware of her trauma responses and works to care for her and over time she starts to have some healing. Feyre also never really learned to read because her mother died when she was young. So a significant part of how Rhys addresses her trauma is by teaching her to read and understand her new Farie powers.
It happens fairly early in the second book, but Tamlin understands that their relationship is not going well. His response is to try to control her more. Feyre reacts to that attempt to control by becoming more insistent on resisting control. Tamlin eventually tries to force a marriage, and that is the breaking point for Feyre. A bond was created when Rhys saved Feyre under the mountain and he can sense her emotions. When she is breaking down before the wedding ceremony he arranges for Feyre to be rescued/kidnapped.
And it is at this point there is a shift in the book toward Feyre starting to heal and then fall in love with Rhys. Internally that does make some sense, but looking at it from the end of the three-book arc, there is a tension between an abusive initial relationship and a probably too good healthy relationship. Real people fall in love with problematic people all the time. There is a trope about the attraction that women have to bad guys. But what this series relies on entirely too heavily is bad characters actually being good characters who do bad seemingly bad things for hidden reasons. And those hidden reasons make sense once you gain understanding.
I don’t remember where I read it initially, but I read an article a few years ago about how many Western children’s movies are stories of good overcoming evil. While many Eastern children’s movies are about the conflict of the story not being rooted in overcoming evil but overcoming misunderstanding. Frozen 2 and Encanto are both stories where the idea of overcoming misunderstanding is more central to the plot than overcoming a specific evil character. There are still evil characters in this series, but many of those evil characters are good guys who were forced to work with the evil characters for a time but were trying to weaken the evil forces from the inside. I like this as a story possibility, but that story possibility is less interesting when it is overused, as it is here.
In this two-book story arc, Feyre has to heal from her trauma, and find faith in herself and her abilities, many of which are new as a result of her resurrection, but many of which were developments of her character and upbringing and doing what it takes to care for those around her. She is unfamiliar with the Faerie world but quickly learns. I am not going to reveal more plot points, but the two books are about 1300 pages overall and are a single-story arc. The fourth book is a pretty short addition. And the fifth book of the series appears to focus on side characters.
Because I was not interested in purchasing I listened to the Graphic Audio versions of these two books from my library. Graphic Audio is an audiobook production company that is making full-cast radio drama adaptations. Although they don’t call them radio dramas, they use the tagline, “a movie in your mind.” I don’t know how much of the story was cut but the Graphic Audio versions are about 20 percent shorter than the unabridged versions. I did not feel like there were holes in the story but I do not know what I missed so there may be plot points that were cut that would have made the overall story better.
On the whole, these felt like young adult books with a couple of sex scenes added in. The actual sex scenes could easily have been edited out without any loss to the story. I know others will disagree but that does seem important to me that the books are not written primarily around sex as plot points, but include sex. I understand the argument that this makes the sex gratuitous and not central to the story and that may be true. I don’t think that the scenes made the books better. And I do understand the critique that these are written as young adult books with sex in ways that would make young adult readers feel comfortable reading them.
Right now I am sort of listening to the fourth book as an audiobook but I have started reading the most recent KB Hoyle book. I have read every KB Hoyle book and this series has reminded me why good writing matters. It is not that Maas is a bad writer as much as she is not a deep writer, everything is on the surface. The first book in this series is a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast. But by the middle of A Court of Mist and Fury we understand that while the curse against Tamlin was lifted, he is still a beast internally. She leaves because he is abusive and she eventually finds a good healthy relationship.
KB Hoyle has a series based on a retelling of classic fairy tales that starts with a gender swap Little Mermaid. And then moves to a fairy tale that I didn’t know in A Son of Bitter Glass. This third book is Son of Gold and Sorrow and continues with James, the side character in the first book, the helper character in the second book, and the main character in the third book. I bring this up because there is a difference between fluffy writing that keeps me interested (Maas’ books) and really good writing that made me stay up a couple of hours past my bedtime last night reading half the book.
KB Hoyle is writing a young adult fairy tale romance that doesn't fit in the romantasy genre but has some of those elements. I think many who are drawn to Maas, would enjoy this series because depth of writing matters. It is not that I am opposed to sex in books. While I picked up this series because it was banned by my local school district because of the sex, the quality of the books matters far more to my perception than the sex. I wasn’t offended by the sex. In 1800 pages of the three Maas books, it was only about 20-30 pages, so I just can’t get worked up about it.
What I do get a little worked up about is that Maas’ books have sold hundreds of thousands of copies and a far superior series by KB Hoyle won’t. If you haven't already, I think you should read Holye, I would recommend her Gateway Chronicles, which are early teen fantasy. She has a post-apocalyptic series that is pitched a bit older. She has started a middle-grade series that is pitch a bit younger. She has a stand-alone novella and the Fairy Tale series that I linked above.
Originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/a-court/
3.25
I am behind on writing about my reading and while I have enjoyed this series enough to keep reading it (I am in the middle of the fourth right now), this if far from a perfect series. I have read pretty widely in the more classical fantasy world. And I have read some romance. The recent trend to Romantasy isn't completely new, but this series seems to have contributed to the movement.
There are some irritating distractions in this version of fantasy. Some are silly things like flush toilets and hot water bathtubs and the level of technology constantly shifting from medieval to 19th-century references. And there is the more common fantasy issues like magic being used to bridge plot points in ways that do not make sense internally to the system.
The series has a sharp turn at the start of the second book (spoilers for the first book and these two books follow), Feyre saved Tamlin and all other Farie courts by breaking the curse. In the process knowingly killed several innocents and herself was killed. But she was brought back to life by the combined work of the seven High Lords who were all gathered together in captivity and who had just been released because of Feyre’s work. She is resurrected and becomes the “Curse Breaker”.
The second book starts with Fryre having a very clear trauma response to both her actions (especially killing the innocents) and her captivity which lead eventually to her death. She can’t be in a confined place because it reminds her of her cell. She can’t paint or do other previously enjoyable things because of the trauma response. The story turns because while there was previous evidence of Tamlin’s character in the first book, the second book starts to show Tamlin having his own trauma responses, which are expressed in abusive and controlling ways.
As part of the deal with Rhys, that saved her at the end of the last book, she has to go live with Rhys one week a month. Rhys is aware of her trauma responses and works to care for her and over time she starts to have some healing. Feyre also never really learned to read because her mother died when she was young. So a significant part of how Rhys addresses her trauma is by teaching her to read and understand her new Farie powers.
It happens fairly early in the second book, but Tamlin understands that their relationship is not going well. His response is to try to control her more. Feyre reacts to that attempt to control by becoming more insistent on resisting control. Tamlin eventually tries to force a marriage, and that is the breaking point for Feyre. A bond was created when Rhys saved Feyre under the mountain and he can sense her emotions. When she is breaking down before the wedding ceremony he arranges for Feyre to be rescued/kidnapped.
And it is at this point there is a shift in the book toward Feyre starting to heal and then fall in love with Rhys. Internally that does make some sense, but looking at it from the end of the three-book arc, there is a tension between an abusive initial relationship and a probably too good healthy relationship. Real people fall in love with problematic people all the time. There is a trope about the attraction that women have to bad guys. But what this series relies on entirely too heavily is bad characters actually being good characters who do bad seemingly bad things for hidden reasons. And those hidden reasons make sense once you gain understanding.
I don’t remember where I read it initially, but I read an article a few years ago about how many Western children’s movies are stories of good overcoming evil. While many Eastern children’s movies are about the conflict of the story not being rooted in overcoming evil but overcoming misunderstanding. Frozen 2 and Encanto are both stories where the idea of overcoming misunderstanding is more central to the plot than overcoming a specific evil character. There are still evil characters in this series, but many of those evil characters are good guys who were forced to work with the evil characters for a time but were trying to weaken the evil forces from the inside. I like this as a story possibility, but that story possibility is less interesting when it is overused, as it is here.
In this two-book story arc, Feyre has to heal from her trauma, and find faith in herself and her abilities, many of which are new as a result of her resurrection, but many of which were developments of her character and upbringing and doing what it takes to care for those around her. She is unfamiliar with the Faerie world but quickly learns. I am not going to reveal more plot points, but the two books are about 1300 pages overall and are a single-story arc. The fourth book is a pretty short addition. And the fifth book of the series appears to focus on side characters.
Because I was not interested in purchasing I listened to the Graphic Audio versions of these two books from my library. Graphic Audio is an audiobook production company that is making full-cast radio drama adaptations. Although they don’t call them radio dramas, they use the tagline, “a movie in your mind.” I don’t know how much of the story was cut but the Graphic Audio versions are about 20 percent shorter than the unabridged versions. I did not feel like there were holes in the story but I do not know what I missed so there may be plot points that were cut that would have made the overall story better.
On the whole, these felt like young adult books with a couple of sex scenes added in. The actual sex scenes could easily have been edited out without any loss to the story. I know others will disagree but that does seem important to me that the books are not written primarily around sex as plot points, but include sex. I understand the argument that this makes the sex gratuitous and not central to the story and that may be true. I don’t think that the scenes made the books better. And I do understand the critique that these are written as young adult books with sex in ways that would make young adult readers feel comfortable reading them.
Right now I am sort of listening to the fourth book as an audiobook but I have started reading the most recent KB Hoyle book. I have read every KB Hoyle book and this series has reminded me why good writing matters. It is not that Maas is a bad writer as much as she is not a deep writer, everything is on the surface. The first book in this series is a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast. But by the middle of A Court of Mist and Fury we understand that while the curse against Tamlin was lifted, he is still a beast internally. She leaves because he is abusive and she eventually finds a good healthy relationship.
KB Hoyle has a series based on a retelling of classic fairy tales that starts with a gender swap Little Mermaid. And then moves to a fairy tale that I didn’t know in A Son of Bitter Glass. This third book is Son of Gold and Sorrow and continues with James, the side character in the first book, the helper character in the second book, and the main character in the third book. I bring this up because there is a difference between fluffy writing that keeps me interested (Maas’ books) and really good writing that made me stay up a couple of hours past my bedtime last night reading half the book.
KB Hoyle is writing a young adult fairy tale romance that doesn't fit in the romantasy genre but has some of those elements. I think many who are drawn to Maas, would enjoy this series because depth of writing matters. It is not that I am opposed to sex in books. While I picked up this series because it was banned by my local school district because of the sex, the quality of the books matters far more to my perception than the sex. I wasn’t offended by the sex. In 1800 pages of the three Maas books, it was only about 20-30 pages, so I just can’t get worked up about it.
What I do get a little worked up about is that Maas’ books have sold hundreds of thousands of copies and a far superior series by KB Hoyle won’t. If you haven't already, I think you should read Holye, I would recommend her Gateway Chronicles, which are early teen fantasy. She has a post-apocalyptic series that is pitched a bit older. She has started a middle-grade series that is pitch a bit younger. She has a stand-alone novella and the Fairy Tale series that I linked above.
Originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/a-court/
A Court of Wings and Ruin (1 of 3) [Dramatized Adaptation] by Sarah J. Maas
Summary: A single story arc split between two books.
I am behind on writing about my reading and while I have enjoyed this series enough to keep reading it (I am in the middle of the fourth right now), this if far from a perfect series. I have read pretty widely in the more classical fantasy world. And I have read some romance. The recent trend to Romantasy isn't completely new, but this series seems to have contributed to the movement.
There are some irritating distractions in this version of fantasy. Some are silly things like flush toilets and hot water bathtubs and the level of technology constantly shifting from medieval to 19th-century references. And there is the more common fantasy issues like magic being used to bridge plot points in ways that do not make sense internally to the system.
The series has a sharp turn at the start of the second book (spoilers for the first book and these two books follow), Feyre saved Tamlin and all other Farie courts by breaking the curse. In the process knowingly killed several innocents and herself was killed. But she was brought back to life by the combined work of the seven High Lords who were all gathered together in captivity and who had just been released because of Feyre’s work. She is resurrected and becomes the “Curse Breaker”.
The second book starts with Fryre having a very clear trauma response to both her actions (especially killing the innocents) and her captivity which lead eventually to her death. She can’t be in a confined place because it reminds her of her cell. She can’t paint or do other previously enjoyable things because of the trauma response. The story turns because while there was previous evidence of Tamlin’s character in the first book, the second book starts to show Tamlin having his own trauma responses, which are expressed in abusive and controlling ways.
As part of the deal with Rhys, that saved her at the end of the last book, she has to go live with Rhys one week a month. Rhys is aware of her trauma responses and works to care for her and over time she starts to have some healing. Feyre also never really learned to read because her mother died when she was young. So a significant part of how Rhys addresses her trauma is by teaching her to read and understand her new Farie powers.
It happens fairly early in the second book, but Tamlin understands that their relationship is not going well. His response is to try to control her more. Feyre reacts to that attempt to control by becoming more insistent on resisting control. Tamlin eventually tries to force a marriage, and that is the breaking point for Feyre. A bond was created when Rhys saved Feyre under the mountain and he can sense her emotions. When she is breaking down before the wedding ceremony he arranges for Feyre to be rescued/kidnapped.
And it is at this point there is a shift in the book toward Feyre starting to heal and then fall in love with Rhys. Internally that does make some sense, but looking at it from the end of the three-book arc, there is a tension between an abusive initial relationship and a probably too good healthy relationship. Real people fall in love with problematic people all the time. There is a trope about the attraction that women have to bad guys. But what this series relies on entirely too heavily is bad characters actually being good characters who do bad seemingly bad things for hidden reasons. And those hidden reasons make sense once you gain understanding.
I don’t remember where I read it initially, but I read an article a few years ago about how many Western children’s movies are stories of good overcoming evil. While many Eastern children’s movies are about the conflict of the story not being rooted in overcoming evil but overcoming misunderstanding. Frozen 2 and Encanto are both stories where the idea of overcoming misunderstanding is more central to the plot than overcoming a specific evil character. There are still evil characters in this series, but many of those evil characters are good guys who were forced to work with the evil characters for a time but were trying to weaken the evil forces from the inside. I like this as a story possibility, but that story possibility is less interesting when it is overused, as it is here.
In this two-book story arc, Feyre has to heal from her trauma, and find faith in herself and her abilities, many of which are new as a result of her resurrection, but many of which were developments of her character and upbringing and doing what it takes to care for those around her. She is unfamiliar with the Faerie world but quickly learns. I am not going to reveal more plot points, but the two books are about 1300 pages overall and are a single-story arc. The fourth book is a pretty short addition. And the fifth book of the series appears to focus on side characters.
Because I was not interested in purchasing I listened to the Graphic Audio versions of these two books from my library. Graphic Audio is an audiobook production company that is making full-cast radio drama adaptations. Although they don’t call them radio dramas, they use the tagline, “a movie in your mind.” I don’t know how much of the story was cut but the Graphic Audio versions are about 20 percent shorter than the unabridged versions. I did not feel like there were holes in the story but I do not know what I missed so there may be plot points that were cut that would have made the overall story better.
On the whole, these felt like young adult books with a couple of sex scenes added in. The actual sex scenes could easily have been edited out without any loss to the story. I know others will disagree but that does seem important to me that the books are not written primarily around sex as plot points, but include sex. I understand the argument that this makes the sex gratuitous and not central to the story and that may be true. I don’t think that the scenes made the books better. And I do understand the critique that these are written as young adult books with sex in ways that would make young adult readers feel comfortable reading them.
Right now I am sort of listening to the fourth book as an audiobook but I have started reading the most recent KB Hoyle book. I have read every KB Hoyle book and this series has reminded me why good writing matters. It is not that Maas is a bad writer as much as she is not a deep writer, everything is on the surface. The first book in this series is a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast. But by the middle of A Court of Mist and Fury we understand that while the curse against Tamlin was lifted, he is still a beast internally. She leaves because he is abusive and she eventually finds a good healthy relationship.
KB Hoyle has a series based on a retelling of classic fairy tales that starts with a gender swap Little Mermaid. And then moves to a fairy tale that I didn’t know in A Son of Bitter Glass. This third book is Son of Gold and Sorrow and continues with James, the side character in the first book, the helper character in the second book, and the main character in the third book. I bring this up because there is a difference between fluffy writing that keeps me interested (Maas’ books) and really good writing that made me stay up a couple of hours past my bedtime last night reading half the book.
KB Hoyle is writing a young adult fairy tale romance that doesn't fit in the romantasy genre but has some of those elements. I think many who are drawn to Maas, would enjoy this series because depth of writing matters. It is not that I am opposed to sex in books. While I picked up this series because it was banned by my local school district because of the sex, the quality of the books matters far more to my perception than the sex. I wasn’t offended by the sex. In 1800 pages of the three Maas books, it was only about 20-30 pages, so I just can’t get worked up about it.
What I do get a little worked up about is that Maas’ books have sold hundreds of thousands of copies and a far superior series by KB Hoyle won’t. If you haven't already, I think you should read Holye, I would recommend her Gateway Chronicles, which are early teen fantasy. She has a post-apocalyptic series that is pitched a bit older. She has started a middle-grade series that is pitch a bit younger. She has a stand-alone novella and the Fairy Tale series that I linked above.
Originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/a-court/
3.25
I am behind on writing about my reading and while I have enjoyed this series enough to keep reading it (I am in the middle of the fourth right now), this if far from a perfect series. I have read pretty widely in the more classical fantasy world. And I have read some romance. The recent trend to Romantasy isn't completely new, but this series seems to have contributed to the movement.
There are some irritating distractions in this version of fantasy. Some are silly things like flush toilets and hot water bathtubs and the level of technology constantly shifting from medieval to 19th-century references. And there is the more common fantasy issues like magic being used to bridge plot points in ways that do not make sense internally to the system.
The series has a sharp turn at the start of the second book (spoilers for the first book and these two books follow), Feyre saved Tamlin and all other Farie courts by breaking the curse. In the process knowingly killed several innocents and herself was killed. But she was brought back to life by the combined work of the seven High Lords who were all gathered together in captivity and who had just been released because of Feyre’s work. She is resurrected and becomes the “Curse Breaker”.
The second book starts with Fryre having a very clear trauma response to both her actions (especially killing the innocents) and her captivity which lead eventually to her death. She can’t be in a confined place because it reminds her of her cell. She can’t paint or do other previously enjoyable things because of the trauma response. The story turns because while there was previous evidence of Tamlin’s character in the first book, the second book starts to show Tamlin having his own trauma responses, which are expressed in abusive and controlling ways.
As part of the deal with Rhys, that saved her at the end of the last book, she has to go live with Rhys one week a month. Rhys is aware of her trauma responses and works to care for her and over time she starts to have some healing. Feyre also never really learned to read because her mother died when she was young. So a significant part of how Rhys addresses her trauma is by teaching her to read and understand her new Farie powers.
It happens fairly early in the second book, but Tamlin understands that their relationship is not going well. His response is to try to control her more. Feyre reacts to that attempt to control by becoming more insistent on resisting control. Tamlin eventually tries to force a marriage, and that is the breaking point for Feyre. A bond was created when Rhys saved Feyre under the mountain and he can sense her emotions. When she is breaking down before the wedding ceremony he arranges for Feyre to be rescued/kidnapped.
And it is at this point there is a shift in the book toward Feyre starting to heal and then fall in love with Rhys. Internally that does make some sense, but looking at it from the end of the three-book arc, there is a tension between an abusive initial relationship and a probably too good healthy relationship. Real people fall in love with problematic people all the time. There is a trope about the attraction that women have to bad guys. But what this series relies on entirely too heavily is bad characters actually being good characters who do bad seemingly bad things for hidden reasons. And those hidden reasons make sense once you gain understanding.
I don’t remember where I read it initially, but I read an article a few years ago about how many Western children’s movies are stories of good overcoming evil. While many Eastern children’s movies are about the conflict of the story not being rooted in overcoming evil but overcoming misunderstanding. Frozen 2 and Encanto are both stories where the idea of overcoming misunderstanding is more central to the plot than overcoming a specific evil character. There are still evil characters in this series, but many of those evil characters are good guys who were forced to work with the evil characters for a time but were trying to weaken the evil forces from the inside. I like this as a story possibility, but that story possibility is less interesting when it is overused, as it is here.
In this two-book story arc, Feyre has to heal from her trauma, and find faith in herself and her abilities, many of which are new as a result of her resurrection, but many of which were developments of her character and upbringing and doing what it takes to care for those around her. She is unfamiliar with the Faerie world but quickly learns. I am not going to reveal more plot points, but the two books are about 1300 pages overall and are a single-story arc. The fourth book is a pretty short addition. And the fifth book of the series appears to focus on side characters.
Because I was not interested in purchasing I listened to the Graphic Audio versions of these two books from my library. Graphic Audio is an audiobook production company that is making full-cast radio drama adaptations. Although they don’t call them radio dramas, they use the tagline, “a movie in your mind.” I don’t know how much of the story was cut but the Graphic Audio versions are about 20 percent shorter than the unabridged versions. I did not feel like there were holes in the story but I do not know what I missed so there may be plot points that were cut that would have made the overall story better.
On the whole, these felt like young adult books with a couple of sex scenes added in. The actual sex scenes could easily have been edited out without any loss to the story. I know others will disagree but that does seem important to me that the books are not written primarily around sex as plot points, but include sex. I understand the argument that this makes the sex gratuitous and not central to the story and that may be true. I don’t think that the scenes made the books better. And I do understand the critique that these are written as young adult books with sex in ways that would make young adult readers feel comfortable reading them.
Right now I am sort of listening to the fourth book as an audiobook but I have started reading the most recent KB Hoyle book. I have read every KB Hoyle book and this series has reminded me why good writing matters. It is not that Maas is a bad writer as much as she is not a deep writer, everything is on the surface. The first book in this series is a retelling of the Beauty and the Beast. But by the middle of A Court of Mist and Fury we understand that while the curse against Tamlin was lifted, he is still a beast internally. She leaves because he is abusive and she eventually finds a good healthy relationship.
KB Hoyle has a series based on a retelling of classic fairy tales that starts with a gender swap Little Mermaid. And then moves to a fairy tale that I didn’t know in A Son of Bitter Glass. This third book is Son of Gold and Sorrow and continues with James, the side character in the first book, the helper character in the second book, and the main character in the third book. I bring this up because there is a difference between fluffy writing that keeps me interested (Maas’ books) and really good writing that made me stay up a couple of hours past my bedtime last night reading half the book.
KB Hoyle is writing a young adult fairy tale romance that doesn't fit in the romantasy genre but has some of those elements. I think many who are drawn to Maas, would enjoy this series because depth of writing matters. It is not that I am opposed to sex in books. While I picked up this series because it was banned by my local school district because of the sex, the quality of the books matters far more to my perception than the sex. I wasn’t offended by the sex. In 1800 pages of the three Maas books, it was only about 20-30 pages, so I just can’t get worked up about it.
What I do get a little worked up about is that Maas’ books have sold hundreds of thousands of copies and a far superior series by KB Hoyle won’t. If you haven't already, I think you should read Holye, I would recommend her Gateway Chronicles, which are early teen fantasy. She has a post-apocalyptic series that is pitched a bit older. She has started a middle-grade series that is pitch a bit younger. She has a stand-alone novella and the Fairy Tale series that I linked above.
Originally posted on my blog at https://bookwi.se/a-court/