Messiah: Origin adapted and edited by Matt Dorff, translations by Mark Arey, art by Kai Carpenter A lot of superhero franchise reboots suffer from the same problem. The adapters don’t appreciate the source material from which they craft a “new take on” or a “more relevant version of” someone like Superman, who has been ill-served recently in both comic books and on the big screen. Messiah: Origin takes on a person much more significant than Superman. It retells the story... Read more
Aristotle of Everybody: Difficult Thought Made Easy by Mortimer J. Adler Writing a comprehensive and concise summary of Aristotle’s ideas is a difficult task, especially if the author wishes it to be accessible not only to the average reader but also to children in middle school. That ambition is what Mortimer Adler aimed at with this book. His thirteen year-old and his eleven year-old read the manuscript and gave helpful feedback, so he certainly thinks it is a success. But... Read more
For a while on my book wish list sat one called Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon. It finally landed on my actively reading list. I was pretty much totally caught unaware by the talent of this author, although somehow it made it to my wish list. Reading Swan Song I kept drawing comparison to Stephen King’s The Stand my favorite of King’s books. There are comparisons to draw, but they are also very different stories and I found Swan... Read more
Before there was the blockbuster movie, there was the book it came from–The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. My children have seen the movie and a few weeks ago we decided to read the first book in the Oz series for bedtime reading. Like the movie, the book starts with the grey and hard Kansas life of Dorothy. Unlike the movie, there aren’t all the other characters (the farm hands, Elmira Gulch, Prof. Marvel) who are mirrored in the fantasy world.... Read more
There is one genre that I would like to see grow and then have no need for at all. That is the conversion testimony of those who were once pro-abortion and were involved in the business of providing abortions. There have been some startling conversion stories such as founding member of NARAL the abortion doctor Bernard Nathanson. In recent years it was the story of an ex-Planned Parenthood manager Abby Johnson in her book Unplanned. I enjoy reading conversion stories... Read more
Once again Lent is coming around again in it’s a annual cycle. Yet with Easter being a movable feast we still are always a bit surprised by the start of Lent regardless of whether Ash Wednesday starts earlier or later than average. Lent is almost something you can look forward to. We know we need that spring cleaning of the soul and that we have some work to do to get our spiritual lives untangled. Still if we think of... Read more
I thought about rereading something this year but feel that I want something new. Something that I can just read a little at a time and soak up and reflect upon. Somehow Romano Guardini has come to my attention this year. I have requested The Lord and The Living God from the library to take a look at them. If you’re still trying to figure out what to read, here’s a great big list of spiritual books I have found... Read more
One giant list of fiction to inspire them all and in the light to find them. Oh. Sorry. I’ve begun rereading the Lord of the Rings and it does show a bit! This is a huge list to be sure. But it has some of the most thought provoking books I know which can both entertain and inspire. It ranges from science fiction to mystery to Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Silence by Endo. The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R.... Read more
If Aristotle’s Kid Had an iPod: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Parents by Conor Gallagher A popular internet parenting meme is “Steve Jobs didn’t let his kids have an iPad.” I’ve never taken the click-bait since I don’t have any idea whether Jobs was a good parent or not. Sure, he’s a brilliant entrepreneur and a smart guy, but that doesn’t make him a good dad. Then I saw the title of this book and knew I wanted to read it.... Read more
Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O’Connor Everything That Rises Must Converge is a set of short stories published after the death of Flannery O’Connor’s death in 1964. At face value, characters in her stories are hard to sympathize with. If the main character isn’t a know-it-all, he or she is holier-than-thou. Often, characters (main or minor) are a mixture of the two. They think of themselves as pleasant and well-mannered but their preening is hardly justified. Delusions of... Read more
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