As someone who has lived in the Peoples Republic of China – if ever so briefly – I was familiar with the descriptions of the – shall we say – craziness that Parfitt or most any Westerner encounters when traveling to China.  I also have to admit though I was skeptical of his consultations that he reveals in the prologue, by the end of the book I began to see his point.  There are a lot of assumptions we have made about China because we only ‘learn’ them from the press who is allowed to see only what China wants them to see.

However, I think there is still something missing from this book.  One thing is that even though the author knows the language and much of the cultural nuances, I often feel he falls where most of us do when going from West to East.  (Unless of course you are Asian then you might feel more at home.)  Parfitt spends much energy critiquing the culture rather than becoming a cultural learner and ‘becoming Chinese’. Also while being a tourist is how most of us might ever experience China, it causes one to make false assumptions.   I found it interesting that at one point Parfitt finds his most interesting conversations to be just as he is leaving a city.  In China, because of her history of xenophobia and because of  ”Big Brother”, I have seen people were slow to open up until we developed a friendship beyond just a business transaction.

Despite some of the gaps, I think Parfitt’s book is well worth the read.  It’s funny and insightful. His point of view belongs to the conversation of China’s future.   He offers insight into what China is like especially for those wanting to enter the dragon.  I certainly know to avoid a river boat trip to the Three Gorges.

“Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language: Hereditary Deafness on Martha’s Vineyard” is an excellent book!  The author Nora Ellen Groce reveals her research into this incredible story.  Groce’s book is laid out like a disseration but I actually enjoyed that.   It’s like a documentary.  Even though I personally do not have a stake in the story of deafness, I love history, research, and genetics.  But foremost, its the social case study that intrigued me the most.

Groce, a cultural and medical anthropologist, not only tells the facts she discovers but presents an incredible study of what a true community could be like.  Because everyone learned sign language, the deaf were not limited in functioning as a vitle part of the community.  People would sign as they spoke and considered those around them that could not hear or speak.  It became a natural part of life to be bilingual.    As a result their community was richer.  I found it most interesting on how this made life better for those who did not live in silence.  Neighbors who could speak and hear would sign rather than shout.  Fishermen would signal to each other across loud waves. Children who pass signs in class behind the teachers back.

I highly recommend “Everyone Here Spoke Sign Language”. This book was written in 1980′s and may be hard to find though (except for a kindle version on Amazon). My local library had to secure a copy for me through an inter-library loan since there was not a copy available.

Oskaloosa Moon is powerful bittersweet tale of a deformed boy growing up in small town Iowa during the 50′s and 60′s. Author Gary Sutton superbly writes from the first-person of Moon who faces injustice after injustice at the hands of others. In fact, his writing style is so appropriate for the character, I keep asking, “Now this is a fiction, right?”. It reminds me of how Robert Morgan pens Gap Creek from the point of view of his illiterate Appalachian grandmother. Of course the setting of time in Oskaloosa Moon parallels the author’s life but the way he enters the main character’s head is touching and powerful.

Moon is not the protagonist’s real name but what he is cruelly called because his head is shaped like a crescent moon. Moon is physically deformed but gifted intellectually, solving mechanical problems and having a pure heart. (Even though he has a few vices like stealing.) Sutton’s story is most poignant when few treat Moon with kindness along the way and most painful when people treat him in inhumane ways. It’s interesting to note that the people who should be ones who treat a deformed boy with kindness – his mother, the local pastor, the town doctor, his principal – are the ones who are most cruel. It’s the ones who are also rejected by society that are not blind to the beauty of Moon’s soul – a boy with a speech impediment, blind girl and a homosexual college professor.

I as a reader was drawn not only into Moon’s story but a self-examination of perhaps ways and times I have treated others who looked or acted differently. I keep thinking of the phrase concerning young David in the Bible that “Man looks at the outward appearance but God examines the heart.”

I highly recommend Oskalaoosa Moon. It is an enjoyable read. It is a fine book simply as a novel itself but its power is in the story itself. You will laugh, cry and hopefully look at others beyond just the surface.

Seay brings insight as a fan into characters like Jack, Kate, Sawyer, Ben, Locke, Hurley, Faraday, Desmond and the like.  Then he shows how their flaws and pains are parallel to those we face as humans. Seay does a good job weaving in stories from the bible without it coming across as a cheap gimmick.

As a fan of the show, I enjoyed the book.  It might be a little hard to follow if you are not aware of ‘Lost’.  (Of course you can just go watch episodes on hulu or read insights on lostpedia and get caught up.) But any fan of the show,whether a seeker of truth or a follower of Christ, would enjoy this book.

I think the only weakness is when he talks about Jacob as Seay has to speculate more on his character as we really got most of what we know about him during the final two episodes of season 5.  (Seay has to go a lot by what Ben has told us and who can trust him?).  Also it feels a little pre-mature since we have a season still to go before the story ends but I guess the publishers realized the appeal might be stronger now.   Unfortunately some of what Seay writes about may be out of date come February.  Perhaps he will update the book for a 2nd release in the Spring/Summer.

By the way, the best part of the book to me is in the last chapter when Seay relates the conclusion of a sermon a friend was supposed to preach until he had a tragic death. Seay’s friend’s thoughts on accepting life as a gift are poetic and powerful.  …Sort of like ‘Lost’.

Here’s all you need to know….  I received my copy of Called to Worship back to review back in the early part of the summer.   I started it but set it aside as I got bored and keep trying go back if only so i could review it and get another book to review.  It’s not that it was bad.  In fact i enjoyed his first chapter on Creation and intial call to worship.  But after a while it felt like I was sitting in a Sunday school class in the South.

I stopped at the lessons from Saul when Whatley started to preach:

“Yet people try constantly. ‘Oh I’m a Christian,’ they say. Every weekend, they’re in God’s house, singing enthusiastically  along with the worship leader, perhaps raising their hands, or shouting hallelujah.  Like Saul, they are making a show of worship.  But then these same ‘worshippers’ go home and worship at the feet of internet pornography or sex-filled romance novels.  their TV viewing is uncensored; the movies they watch, abhorrent. Their speech is laced with profanity – and gossip. Alchol hides in their cupboards; lust and evil lurk in their hearts. They are worshippers, all right but of whom/ Themselves.  They are certainly not worshipping God, because they are endeavoring to worship above the law, and that’s idolatry.”

Perhaps he should have added…  “Lord I thank you I am not like those sinners.”

So the book is not bad.  I am sure Dr. Whatley is well meaning and many will benefit from this biblical overview.  Just not what I enjoy or what draws me into worship.  I tend to be drawn to God by authors who are vulnerable and put themselves in the place of one seeking and not having all the answers.

Save your money.

I read the entire book on Saturday. It’s awesome! I will try not to copy the Amazon editorial review verbatim. But it really is like no other book you have ever read. It’s a work of art that is bizarre (I mean that in a good way too), laugh-out-loud-funny, entertaining, profound, and convicting all wrapped up in one. Not sure what category it would fall under. You really can’t say its a novel or or a theological book or completely auto-biographical.  Though its written from a very personal pov as Matt himself is the main caratcher on the quest to renounce his misconceptions and discover the real Jesus.

While I found myself rolling on the floor at times, I also found myself being convicted.   Matt took me as a reader to similar places of truth and discover as when I read the profound theolgical works on Christ: ReJesus and The Jesus Way: A Conversation on the Ways That Jesus Is the Way.  All three made me want to renounce the imaginary Jesus I have chosen to follow and discover the true one. But even though I really like Alan Hirsch and Eugene Peterson, they can’t hold a candle to Matt’s sense of humor.

Maybe it helps that I know Matt personally and that even some of his personal life adventures were familiar to me.  But I have to think most when they read his book would agree.  I believe it’s the kind of book that anyone would enjoy whether they consider themselves a follower of Jesus or not.  Everyone will be able to identify with crazy views they have of Jesus and be compelled to search for the true Messiah.

Awesome book!  Pre-order yours today!

The idea behind 100 Bible Stories 100 Bible Songs is to combine Bible stories with songs.  Every story has a song sung by kids on one of two CDs.   One quick play of the songs and my boys really didn’t like them.  Most are old school like “Noah’s Arky Arky”, “Do Lord” and “Father Abraham”.   Even if your kids do like these songs, honestly, which parent can stand 100 straight 1970′s/1980′s praise songs sung in kid’s choral style?    Okay some of you might like that. My boys – almost 7, 4 and 4 – perfer to listen to Fernando Ortega or Autumn Film for some other adult praise music.

The stories are okay I guess.   They are rather short often one paragraph.  Stephen Elkins is the author and the cover page says that he is president and owner of Wonder Workshop which is the third largest independent children’s music company in the world.   I had never heard of Wonder Workshop but will take his word on that.  Sometimes as I read the stories, my wonder workshop is if the author was thinking, “As president and owner of the third largest independent children’s music company in the world, what story can I write to go with this song?”   You have to like his chutzpah  since how many Children’s Story Bibles tell the story of Ezekiel’s wheel, Job’s boils or Balaam and the Talking Donkey?    How many combine a story on heaven with that classic “You Can’t Get to Heaven on Roller Skates” or a story of Father Abraham with.. well you can guess.

Personally, I have to say that I would pass on this book.  If you want a good children’s story bible, I suggest buying The Big Picture Story Bible.

Incredible book.  Itano, an American journalist, focuses on the issue of AIDS in Africa not by just being a distant reporter of facts.  Instead she lived among people suffering from the disease and thereby weaves facts, history and personal accounts to tell the story.

The book is divided into three sections.  ’Denial’ is centered around a lady and her son living in Lesotho.  ’Despair’ focuses on a family of AIDS orphans being raised by the grandparents in rural South Africa and ‘Hope’ takes us to Botswana again to a single mom and a child living with AIDS.    I have to say I experienced more  ’despair’  as I read this book. (Maybe why it took me so long to finish it.)  There is hope in terms of Botswana providing antiviral drugs free to her citizens but the lives of these people living in extreme poverty and facing certain a life of despair seems hopeless nonetheless.

I personally liked how Itano would set aside her journalistic approach at times and get involved in the lives of these people.  It showed the author was truly human as she cared.  It invites the reader to do the same.

This is a book we should all read.  Itano brings home the need for the world community to act on behalf of Africa.  Compassion should drive us to care for these people facing a life of hopelessness.   Justice should drive us to look for ways to stem the tide of death.