Books in the Mail and on the Shelf

I have a slight backlog of books to review, but I’m catching up. I finished reading John Walton’s The Lost World of Genesis One some time ago, but having decided to blog about each chapter, it will take some time to finish.

I’ve been reading Martin Zemmit’s `Enbe men Karmo Suryoyo (Bunches of Grapes from the Syriac Vineyard) – A Syriac Chrestomathy, which Gorgias Press kindly sent me a copy of. It provides a nice, well-rounded reader in Syriac that will allow relative novices not only to stretch themselves but to encounter short excerpts that include particularly useful vocabulary on specific topics often encountered in ancient Syriac and other Aramaic texts, for instance astrology. Since the reader provides a range of excerpts from a variety of genres of literature touching on a range of subjects, and so will be of interest to those already proficient in Syriac as well. I’m looking forward to finishing reading it and blogging about it in the near future.

In today’s mail, a free copy of a volume I’ve been looking forward to reading arrived in the mail from InterVarsity Press: The Historical Jesus: Five Views. In the past I’ve found books like this one, which present a number of different perspectives on a topic with opportunity for each contributor to respond to the others, to be very helpful. I’ve also read quite a bit of Mark Noll’s The New Shape of World Christianity, which IVP sent me a gratis copy of a while back. So many books, so little time!