Quick book reviews (#8)

Here is another set of brief reviews of books. I have fallen way behind on writing these, so these are from books I read as much as a year ago. I have almost twenty more reviews to write in order to catch up! 

As usual, these reviews use a scale of one to five stars based on Library Thing (where I post these reviews as well). I am a tough grader and seldom give out the full five stars, so keep that in mind when looking at my ratings.

David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell (4.0 stars)

David and Goliath is a Gladwell book through and through. Like his other books (such as The Tipping Point, Blink, and Outliers), it is a fun, quick read that builds its case via lots of anecdotes. In this book, he starts off using the familiar Biblical story of David and Goliath. Gladwell argues fairly persuasively that contrary to popular thinking, Goliath never stood a chance. Foot soldiers, even really large ones, were easy targets for stone hurlers and other range-weapon fighters. Gladwell contends through the remainder of the book that overcoming perceived disadvantages is what makes many people successful. He then uses examples of people who have overcome disadvantages (poverty, dyslexia, dead parents, etc.) to show how they were instrumental to their successes. Gladwell concedes that few of these people would wish their situations on others (and indeed they shelter their own children from those situations), but they still understand that those circumstances were critical to their successes. I would recommend this book to almost everyone who wants to explore the causes of success or just wants a fun book to read.

Slaying the Badger: Greg LeMond, Bernard Hinault, and the Greatest Tour de France by Richard Moore (4.5 stars)

This book explores the world of professional cycling through the lives of two great competitors and their rivalry during the 1986 Tour de France. The French Bernard Hinault was a grizzled veteran and winner of a record-tying five Tours de France. Greg LeMond was a young, free-spirited American with seemingly limitless potential. What makes their rivalry even more compelling is that they were on the same team. The resulting clash made that Tour de France arguably the greatest one ever. And, it made this book a joy to read. As such, it was a marked contrast to another cycling book about a five-time Tour winner, Sex, Lies, and Handlebar Tape (see my critique in my last set of book reviews). Moore does a great job of giving glimpses into the lives and motivations of LeMond and Hinault, rather than just recounting the events. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in cycling or understanding what drives competitive athletes. The book is rewarding and well worth the time to read it.  

The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate by John H. Walton (3.5 stars)

Walton gives a new perspective on the Biblical Genesis 1 creation account by viewing it in light of other Ancient Near Eastern (ANE) literature. He does this by working through eighteen propositions/chapters about Genesis 1. The first two are the critical ones that provide the foundation for the remaining ones. The first proposition is that Genesis one needs to be viewed as ancient cosmology not as scientific exposition. The second proposition regards ontology and was much harder for me to get my head around. He asserts that ANE cosmology is function oriented (describing functional ontology) rather than material. The simplest example he gave is that creating a curriculum does not refer to the material manufacturing process, but the process of organizing the ideas and goals necessary to form the curriculum. I found some of what Walton proposes to be compelling, but I confess that I don’t have the necessary expertise in ANE cosmology or the philosophy of ontology to see all the flaws in his arguments. Despite that, I found what he wrote to be well worth considering and recommend this book to anyone willing to be challenged in their understanding of the Biblical creation account in Genesis 1.

Out of a Far Country: A Gay Son’s Journey to God. A Broken Mother’s Search for Hope. by Christopher Yuan & Angela Yuan (4.0 stars)

This book is a particularly hard one to summarize in a paragraph. The simplest description is that it is the story of a mother and her homosexual son. It is, however, the successive layers of complexity and feeling that make the book compelling. The mother, Angela Yuan, starts out as a fairly stereotypical Chinese immigrant, wife, and mother. Her son, Christopher Yuan is the complementary successful son of immigrants. His struggles with his sexuality, and his life in general, send the whole family into crisis. The book chronicles their intertwined roads to redemption. Part of what makes the book compelling is that each of them write alternating chapters. Neither of them pulls punches nor succumbs to pat answers. I think Out of a Far Country is worth reading for anyone seeking to better understand people in crisis and especially for Christians grappling with one of the most divisive issues of our times.

I'm back!

Two hundred five days. That is the amount of time between my last blog entry on TEDActive in March to the one on my trip to Bolivia earlier this week. After two years of writing my blog an average of about three times a month, I stopped. Well, I did not so much stop as kept putting off the next one. Over time, that turns out to be the same thing! 

Part of the reason for writing no new entries over those months is that I continued to write about gadgets in a Principled Technologies blog, Tech Everywhere. If you care about the latest in connected device technology like smartwatches, home automation, electric cars, or health monitoring (or, if you are just willing to humor me), you should check it out.

On the plus side, I have lots of pent up things to write about! I have a ton of books I've read that I need to review and lots of ideas I’ve been pondering. My goal is to finish up fairly quickly my backlog of half-written blogs and then settle into an every other week cadence (the alternate weeks from my Tech Everywhere blogs). We’ll see how I do over the coming months!  

Quinceañera in Bolivia

The mountains around Cochabamba

At the beginning of August, Susie and I went to Cochabamba, Bolivia to work with Amistad, a ministry that we have supported for over 15 years. (See my previous blogs from 2013 and 2012 for more details.) For me, visiting Amistad and the children in its orphanage is an invigorating time that I look forward to each year. This year’s trip was especially enjoyable, both because of some of the activities I got to participate in and because I went with Susie for the first time. (Since 1998, I'd been four times before and Susie two times, often with our children, but never together.)

As always, it is obvious from the moment you approach Cochabamba in the airplane that it is a different place from what you are used to. The city of over one million is at an altitude of 8,000 or so feet and ringed by mountains. We were there in winter, but the weather was in the 70s every day, though cooler in the evenings. It is called the City of Eternal Spring for good reason!

Susie ready to catch the ball outside one of the houses

Amistad’s orphanage (called La Villa) is organized into families of 8 to 10 children in individual houses with a mamá. Most of the week, we spent time with the children playing and just hanging out. My Spanish is not very good and most of them speak little, if any, English. However, that really didn’t matter. We played everything from dodgeball to “ice” skating to baseball.I even helped with some English homework where we had to guess at the meaning of some English phrases I had never heard of!

Bárbara all grown up and dressed up

The big event of the week was a quinceañera for 10 of the girls from La Villa. A quinceañera is a coming of age event in Latin American countries that celebrates a girl passage into womanhood.  I usually describe it as sort of a bat mitzphah or a sweet sixteen party.

It was a wonderful evening where we all got dressed up, especially the 10 girls who wore custom dresses, makeup, and fancy hair with tiaras. Everyone from La Villa was there, from the littlest ones on through those in college as well as the staff and their spouses. It was like a family reunion for the extended Amistad family. The evening was a great time to catch up with some people I had not seen in years, renew friendships, and meet new people who shared a common love for the children of La Villa.

Ten beautiful girls with their cakes and candles

At one point during the evening I had to make a little speech to the girls. (Fortunately, I had our faithful friend and translator, Sarah, to translate for me.) I talked about Esther 2:7, “The girl was beautiful in form and face.” I quoted the verse and noted that the 10 girls that evening were all very beautiful as well. I then pointed out that Esther was not famous or in the Bible because of her beauty. Instead, it was because of her faith and courage which allowed her to save her people. I encouraged them to rely on their faith and courage rather than their looks. I have no idea what the translated version of that turned out to be, but everyone smiled very nicely!

Susie and I with one of the quinceañera girls

The evening, however, was not just about those 10 beautiful young women. It was about all of the Amistad family who participated; from the little children dressed in their best clothes dozing off in their chairs, to the college students complimenting the quinceañera girls, to the boys trying to sneak into the candy before it was time, to the younger girls obviously thinking about when it will be their turns.

Alison dancing to her heart's content

And, it was about Alison. She is a younger girl who when she came to La Villa as a small child was not supposed to be able to walk. Instead, through a combination of miracles and years of loving care, she spent the night dancing. She was in her own world dancing alone to the music. At the same time, she was an integral part of the community, the family that is Amistad.

I think that is why I love going to Bolivia. Whatever my failings and limitations, while I'm there, I feel part of the loving, extended Amistad family.

Unfortunately, the trip ended with both of us getting sick. So, the transition back to normal life in the States was harder than it usually is. Regardless, the memories will sustain me for quite some time. I’m already trying to figure out when my next trip will be.