CurlyShavings

Espresso Tales by Alexander McCall Smith

My review

This was a difficult book to put down. Its daily format encourages that, of course, but even so, it was a joy to read. Its characters are engaging, helping the reader to laugh, cry and a few times even cringe in agony.

Overall, I enjoyed it quite a bit and look forward to the next.

One of my favorite quotes comes toward the end. The discussion was around shared history, the importance of remembering one's past and even one's ancestor's past. And not just events but places, land and circumstances. "We need to remind ourselves", said Domenica. Then she goes further.

We need to renew that bond between ourselves and them, our great-great-grandparents, or whatever they were. It's what makes us a people. It's the knowledge of what they went through, what they were, that brings us together. If we lost that, then we'd be just an odd collection of people living on the same little bit of land. And that would be my nightmare. . . . If our sense of ourselves as a group, a nation, as Scots, were to disappear.

I have the feeling that we've seen the dismantling of civilisation, brick by brick, and now we're looking at the void. We thought that we were liberating people from oppressive cultural circumstances, but we were, in fact, taking something from them. We were killing off civility and concern. We were undermining all those little ties of loyalty and consideration and affection that are necessary for human flourishing. We thought that tradition was bad, that it created hidebound societies, that held people down. But, in fact, what tradition was doing all along was affirming community and the sense that we are members one of one another. Do we really love and respect one another more in the absence of tradition and manners and all the rest? Or have we merely converted one another into moral strangers—making our countries nothing more than hotels for the convenience of guests who are required only to avoid stepping on the toes of other guests?

My apologies for the longish quote. It's only that it is expressed so well. Captures some of my day, I think.

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Love Over Scotland by Alexander McCall Smith

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
The third "44 Scotland Street" book, this one was also written as a daily for a newspaper. It appeared to me that the author began to further explore some of the ways that these can be written. One has the sense that the plot twists that surprise the reader are sometimes a product of the author not completely knowing where the story is going himself.

This time, however, there is more of a sense that the book (or collection) is finished, is complete.

And once again, it was difficult to put down, largely due to each chapter so naturally flowing one to the next.

Overall, a good read, one that provides additional insight into life at 44 Scotland Street. I look forward to the next.

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Krazy & Ignatz 1935-1936: "A Wild Warmth of Chromatic Gravy" by George Herriman

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars

Ooooo! I just love reading Krazy Kat. Since I can't get any new Calvin & Hobbes and while Frazz meets some of my needs, I truly enjoy getting into a Krazy Kat and catching up with the characters there.

This edition is an eyeful of color, movement and scenery and is thoroughly wonderful.

When picking up Krazy Kat for the first time (or after an extended absence), it may be necessary to remember (or learn) that Krazy Kat isn't so much read with the eyes as with the ears. There's a particular "Coconino" dialect that is used that at first glance (and second and thirds) isn't readily readable. Please listen with your ears and let the words sound out before hitting your brain. Don't actually read it out loud or your bus neighbors or office mates might lock you up. But listen with your ears as the filter and processor before your brain takes up the words.

A lovely book.

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The World According to Bertie by Alexander McCall Smith

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars

What's there to say about this book that hasn't been said about the previous three? This one is also a good read that is hard to put down. A difference in this series of chapters is the settlement of many of the issues already developed.

Oh, I won't spoil them, but I will say that I'm quite glad that the last voice from Bertie's house is Bertie's own. It is disturbing to me that Irene is as she is. It is even more disturbing that there are people like her out there in the world. How sad.

I was left quite pleased with how things turned out. A good read.

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I think this will be more of a "ramblings on the book "I.M. Wright's 'Hard Code'" than a full review.

I picked it up for a number of reasons. One is that it was from Microsoft Press and I'd never read anything from them before. Another is that I always enjoy reading The Mythical Man-Month and this seems to be in a similar vein. I'm not sure where I first heard about it since it isn't on Slashdot (yet).

No matter, it's a great book and I have already been challenged to rethink certain things because of its pages, for example the relationship between a developer and a tester (or in my situation, an engineering resource and an operations resource). He goes into some detail about why this is such an Odd Couple relationship and makes a very good case for why (and how) the relationship should be improved.

More on this later, including (I hope) some best quotes. Oh, and since I'm finishing it soon, what to read next?

I read The Shack recently and thought it was fantastic. As fiction, it was "fanciful or capricious". As a theological work, it was "highly unrealistic or impractical". It can be good for fiction to be fantastic, I can't think of any good reasons for theology to be fantastic.

Please note that as fiction, I enjoyed it and thought it had an interesting premise; as a father I wept with the main character and enjoyed many of his observations of the natural world around him. And if it was being read only as fiction, I doubt I'd be writing such a long post on it.

It's when we look at it as theology that we get into trouble. Some have said that it is heresy and others have said that it is a great book. I won't argue too much with either of them. Some have said that it is "the next Pilgrim's Progress" and that does worry me a bit. I'm concerned that folks might read The Shack and take it too seriously, or even worse, too literally.

There are definitely some things to like and dislike about The Shack. Here's my biggest beef: it completely misses the mark on how we'll respond when we enter into God's presence or when we discover we're with God. Here are two examples of how it really happens:

When Isaiah meets God in the throne room and he understands where he is, he immediately wails, "Woe is me! for I am undone!" He realizes immediately that he is unraveling (undone). Not until God cleanses his lips is Isaiah even useful to God. As sinners, we cannot stand before holy God.

Another example is when the mob accosts Jesus in the garden. They tell Him they are looking for Jesus of Nazareth and He replies "I am He". Jews of that day would have heard those words and remembered how God answered Moses when he asked "whom shall I say has sent me". They would have understood that Jesus was claiming to be God. What did they do in response? They "they drew back and fell to the ground".

OK, here's a third, non-biblical example. When Mrs. Beaver explains to the children about Aslan (a Jesus-like figure in the book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), she tells them "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or just silly."

So, for contrast, what does the main character of The Shack do all weekend when someone named "Papa" invites him to the shack for the weekend? He hangs out with what he thinks is the Trinity all weekend, chatting in the kitchen, going on a hike, watching stars on the dock, going canoeing, working in the garden and generally just palling around with what he thinks is the Trinity, father/(mother), son and ghost.

Wayne Jacobsen takes issue with his critics in this response. He tells people to "enjoy the meat and toss the bones". That's fine as long as the eaters can recognize what a bone is. Many folks reading The Shack will, unfortunately, try to eat the bones and may perhaps die choking on them. Because, ultimately, that's what we're talking about: not a work of fiction but eternal life. This is serious stuff and I don't know that we can afford to get any detail wrong, however insignificant it may seem.

Others have used a similar metaphor and said that when you're making an omelet and find that one of the dozen eggs you've used is rotten, you toss out the omelet. You don't try to eat around the rotten parts. I was told once that swimming through a sewer for a cookie was a bad idea. Extreme examples, both of them. But I think they paint a better picture than Mr. Jacobsen's chicken bones.

I'm going to leave comments open (unless they get nasty). I don't really care if you think I'm right. I'm only really interested in comments that take issue with my "how will we respond when we meet Jesus/God/Holy Spirit" stance. Because I think that's where this book falls. So if you want to tell me that I'm boneheaded, go for it, but also tell me why I'm wrong. Keep it to the topic, though!