Winston Churchill has been on my mind lately for no apparent reason. I thought it was time I read something about him.

This slim book was a nice introduction to this great man, even though most of it read more like an encyclopedia than a passionate account of one of the greatest personalities of the 20^th century. When the timeline reaches World War II, the narrative begins to sparkle and offers more dimensions to this mythical, larger-than-life statesman.

Here are a few interesting facts that I’ve learned from this book:

• Churchill hated the movie Citizen Kane. (Strangely enough, I couldn’t stop making comparisons between these two men.)
• Churchill’s son-in-law was a stand-up comedian.
• He became a prolific painter later in life, amassing over 500 pieces.
• He has little tolerance for whistling and those who did it. Coincidentally, Hitler was a notorious whistler.
• His famous pseudo-angry blurb regarding the prepositions at the end of sentences: “Up with this I will not put!”
• Churchill is often cited as the source of the V-sign (for victory) and the terms “iron curtain” and “cold war.”

Winston Churchill is a politician to be admired, especially during wartime. He provided his countrymen leadership, determination, pride, and hope in the face of Hitler’s terrorism throughout Europe. In the current milieu of pandering and appeasement with our current American president, a biography of Churchill is a refreshing read.

The world needs fewer Chamberlains and more Churchills.

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This is the first time I’ve read any of the Shelock Holmes adventures. The book consists of the 24 original short stories.  Each story offers a creative tale of intrique, suspense, and logical deductions by the world’s most famous detective – Sherlock Holmes.

Since each story is about 20 pages long, this book would have probably been better if I spread it out over time and occasionally read one of the 24 original Sherlock Holmes adventures.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed the classic work by Aurthur Conan Doyle.  Not surprisingly, I found the stories to be more captivating than most, if not all of the modern Sherlock Holmes renditions, be they on the movie screen or stage.

If you’re looking for some good short story mysteries, does anyone do it better than Arthur Conan Doyle?  I think not.

No mystery on my rating of this book… “Elementary my dear Watson!”

4 stars.

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I read Eric Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation several years ago and loved it. It opened my eyes to specific problems in the fast food industry. Chew On This is the teenage version of that book, and I bought a class set to teach to 8^th graders next month. It should be fun, and I think they’ll like it, mainly because of the gross-out stuff.

My favorite part of the book is the history of the key players. Like the computer industry, I love reading about how these world-changing companies were started by some key personalities. Ray Kroc is the Steve Jobs of hamburgers.

Best parts: history of the industry, slaughterhouse descriptions, advertising campaigns

Weakest parts: too much time with the Yupiks in Alaska, the blow-by-blow account of one girl getting a soda machine removed from school, and the Edible Schoolyard narrative. Kids will skip over these dull parts, and I wanted to as well.

My main criticism of this book (and other books and articles that attack the power of big companies over what people buy/eat/consume) is that they ignore the other “forces” out there that attempt to manipulate culture. Where are the outcries about what TV shows teenagers watch, about the popular music with violent or sexual lyrics, about over-protective parents who try to be buddies over mothers and fathers, or about allowing kids to have three televisions, cell phones, and any other electronic device they whine loudly enough for? The Saw series of movies and the Kim Kardashians provide a generational numbness that disturbs and frightens me more than the methylphenylglycidate in strawberry shakes. These produce something far worse than overweight teenagers with pre-adult onset diabetes; they produce a morally anemic, self-serving, and self-obsessed generation unable to look beyond their digital navels.

I’d take the fat kid any day.

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I get tired of hearing the phrase, “Brain research shows…” to prove whatever point teachers are trying to show at the time. Whether it is about the importance of play, the use of movies, standing on your head before a test, or studying on the toilet, educators pull these three words and throw them down on the table like the trump card they’ve been saving to illuminate a point. The problem is that most teachers, including me, have no idea about brain research or even where to begin. Because of this, I sought to find a book to offer a basic understanding for dum-dums like me.

The subtitle of this book is, “A cognitive scientist answers questions about how the mind works and what it means for your classroom.” This is a better explanation for the information, as I still don’t know why students don’t like school (perhaps it has something to do with me!). I suppose I could sum up the book as follows:

1. People are naturally curious.
2. Teachers create “problems” far too easy or too difficult.
3. Students do not have background information necessary to engage a problem, thus making it easy to quit.
4. Teachers present information in a disconnected way, thus students cannot remember background information to address critical thinking problems.
5. Students sit and force themselves to hold back both sleep and drool, while dreaming about that cute girl sitting in the front.
6. Students are no longer curious.

As I read, I made liberal notes throughout, and it will be a book to revisit. If you are a teacher, I think that you’ll find this to be an important work for your professional growth. At face value, here are the three main points that I have thought most about since completing this:

1. As I already listed, people are naturally curious. I like this idea, and I must remember it as I teach. Am I creating problems that challenge students to think and wrestle with in class, problems that are still within their reach for success? Reducing the amount of other work to focus on more of this kind of work is something that I want to do. This includes offering more opportunities for students to play with language and words. Sometimes, I forget about this as I try to meet content standards.
2. Memorization is important, as it provides the building blocks for critical thinking. The author is not suggesting long lists of information to remember. However, in order for our brains to conquer a problem, basic materials are needed. This could be definitions, word parts, poetry, multiplication tables, etc. Modern teaching often belittles memorizing as outdated pedagogy, but when students do not know the times tables or what the definition of an allusion is, the critical thinking engagement is crippled.
3. The effectiveness of “multiple intelligences” is over-emphasized in education. According to Wellingham, educators put too much stock in this, as there does not seem to be different intelligences, rather strengths and talents. We do students a disservice when we tell them that they are smart in some area, even if they are not the same. His suggestion is that we focus on varying the lessons (sometimes visual, using music, acting, etc.) rather than on each student. This is the area that teachers will squirm and protest the most. Multiple intelligences are the sacred cows of education. If you don’t believe me, as a teacher you know about them. Their eyes will light up as they tell you about how they had students act out what a commas does or sing about a Picasso painting.

Why Don’t Students Like School? is the perfect primer for educators to get a peek into the complex and deep world of brain research. I still won’t use “brain research shows…” in my next conversation, but I found this book a good first step in understanding how it relates to education.

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My friend John recommended this book to me and I ordered it immediately. John is one of those guys who is smarter than most people, and he has an outstanding knowledge of literature, pop culture, and sports. I enjoy discussing opinions on 2 out of 3 of those topics, but I still don’t know what a running back does that differs him from a linebacker. After finishing this book, I understand why John enjoyed it—Klosterman is a doppelganger for John, an expert on all three of these areas.

Eating the Dinosaur is a collection of 13 essays about modern life discussed in terms of popular culture. Klosterman is the uber-hipster with a writing style that is sharp, funny, and biting. Here are some of my favorites:

• “Oh, the Guilt” connects Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain’s and David Koresh’s messiah complexes.
• “Tomorrow Rarely Knows” is one of the best discussions on time travel that I’ve read.
• “ABBA 1, World 0” about the phenomenon of ABBA Music
• “ ‘Ha ha,’ he said. ‘Ha ha.’ ” discusses what the laugh track on sitcoms says about its viewers and our culture.
• “FAIL” gives insight into the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski that I never before considered.

The power of this book is not reading about topics that I enjoy (advertising, Lost, time travel), but also about those subjects in which I usually steer clear from in choosing my literary selections. He has two essays that are sports related, one about Ralph Sampson and one about football. It was the longest piece dedicated to football plays that I’ve ever read..and I enjoyed it. The next time I talk to John, I’m going to discuss the feasibility of the 4-3 and Wildcat plays, and how the forward pass changed the face of football for good.

In the Ted Kaczynski piece, Klosterman offers this conclusion of the effects of technology that coincide with the Unabomber’s views:

Technology is bad for civilization. We are living in a manner that is unnatural. We are latently enslaved by our own ingenuity, and we have unknowingly constructed a simulated world. The benefits of technology are easy to point out (medicine, transportation, the ability to send and receive text messages during Michael Jackson’s televised funeral), but they do not compensate for the overall loss of humanity that is its inevitable consequence. As a species, we have never been less human than we are right now. And that (evidently) is what I want.

This is a clever collection of essays that will be worth your time to read.

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Picture Life’s Little Instruction Book written for young, Christian professionals, and you’ll get close to the feel of Hugh Hewitt’s In, But Not Of. And while it may not sound like it, I mean this as a compliment.

Hewitt’s premise is that Christians must be an influencing force in the world through work in churches, politics, education, and culture. This is not a “Take over the institutes with force” battle cry; rather, it is a plea for Christians to be the best as they can be in their respective spheres in life. With chapter titles like “Make Frequent Deposits in the Favor Bank,” “Always Be Prepared to Admit Error,” and “Ask at Least a Half-Dozen Questions in Every Conversation,” this book offers practice advice that a wise mentor, your grandfather, or Yoda would give you. Again, this is a compliment.

A law professor and radio host, Hewitt seems to have the young, college-bound crowd or the newly graduated in mind for his intended audience. This practical advice is a must for Christians and non-Christians alike as they figure out ways to navigate in the world of career, ambition, and power. Amazon should sell these gift wrapped with Congrats, Graduate wrapping paper for gifts in May.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading each of these short chapters. They were morsels of advice to put perspective on how to be “in the world, but not of the world.” I especially loved his literary references throughout. Hewitt is a sharp guy with lots of allusions to great works of literature. My favorite chapter was titled, “Learn How You Got There,” an earnest request to read about the formation of western civilization through the Jews, Greeks, Romans, English, and Americans. He encourages all to read one book about each, and offers suggestions. Currently, I am searching for Churchill’s  A History of the English Speaking Peoples.

The shortest chapter is chapter 9, “Tattoos: Don’t.”  In it, he says, “These permanent displays of youthful exuberance trigger at best mild amusement, but in some a serious concern about your maturity.”

I heartily recommend this book to you. It’s a perfect tome to place at your bedside to read a few chapters before the sleep you’ll need to go to work tomorrow and influence the world.

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I have given up on this book, even though I was on page 178. The reason is simple: I do not care about John Wilkes Booth.

Quitting a book weighs heavily on me, and I usually try to power through. As a result, I found that I was not reading. This book was clogging up my reading flow, so I tossed it.

Sometimes, quitting is a beautiful thing.

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This was the first Vince Flynn book that I’ve read… and probably the last.   The political/spy thriller was, well, not that thrilling.  It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t all that compelling.

Buddy has already reviewed this book. There he wrote something to the effect, “Flynn writes with a conservative bent”.  For which Buddy receives the award for biggest understatement on my52books.com. As a result, parts of the book seemed a bit strained to make a political point.

On the other hand, I found it ironic that throughout the story Flynn began to draw the reader’s sympathies toward one of the more moderate, educated, and sophisticated Islamic terrorists in the story (even though he was involved in an attack that killed hundreds of people).  By the end, this character was sort of a hero as he turned on another terrorist… all of which left me scratching my head.

The next time I’m looking to read in this genre, I’ll probably pick up a David Baldacci book.

2 stars

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As the title suggests, A.J. Jacobs sets out on a quest to try to follow the Bible as literally as possible.   Jacob’s is a self-professed agnostic liberal with some Jewish family roots.   This is his presupposition going into this one year experiment.  While Jacobs is exposed to many different religious experiences and mostly extreme religious groups (both within the Jewish and Christian context), he never really gets past his initial presuppositions.

Nonetheless, Jacobs writes in a witty and engaging manner.  Though I often cringed and disagreed with his conclusions,  I found his book to be an enjoyable read.   As a pastor within in the young, reformed, and evangelical movement, I find books like Jacob’s to be very insightful, helping me see religion in general, and Christianity specifically through another perspective (c.f. ‘Jim and Casper Go to Church’).   I do believe we all have ‘blind spots’ and sometimes reading or listening to another person’s perspective is helpful in analyzing what we are doing and why we do it.

A.J.  sets out on an adventure to follow all the laws and commandments of the Bible as literally as possible.  Along the way he discovers the vast variety of interpretations available as to what it means to follow the Bible literally.  He also discovers the great difficulty of following the law – To which I say, ‘you’re getting close to understanding the gospel now A.J.” – Or as the Apostle James writes, “¹⁰For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it (James 2:10).  Furthermore, Jacobs is immediately guilty of breaking the Law since it says that we are to “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength (Dt. 6:5)” As A.J. admits, an agnostic simply cannot do this…

A.J. decided to spend the first nine months of his Biblical year focused on the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) and the remaining months focused on the New Testament (since that is proportionally the same as the Bible as a whole).  While I enjoyed his varied attempts at following ‘the Law’, I was really looking forward to his take on the New Testament.   Sadly, this part of the book was the weakest part.   He really didn’t know what to do with it… especially since Jesus came to fulfill the law and offer a gospel of grace.   As a result, A.J. spoke briefly on a few random passages and went to visit some fringe elements of American Christianity such as Jerry Falwell’s church and the snake handlers in the Appalachian mountains.  A.J. also had an old mainline theologically liberal pastor on his religious advisory board.  It’s too bad too, since A.J. and his family live in Manhattan, New York.  He could have easily met and interviewed one of the sharpest, most thoughtful, influential, and gospel-centered pastors in the country – Tim Keller.

At any rate, I enjoyed A.J.’s unique take on religion and his self-depricating sense of humor… you might too.

3.5 stars.

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