Scott Freeman

I picked up this short book because if falls within my favorite genre, Dystopian Literature. I love the genre so much that I even created a short guide (still in process) to provide resources for people at the Stillwater Public Library to find resources.

Apparently, this work by Alexander Kabakov created quite a stir at it initial publication in his native Soviet Union. The novella looks at a post-Perestroika Soviet Union in which those attempts at restructuring failed.

It was a decent read and has some insight for us about the dangers that lie in overcompensating for world events (take draconian measures fueled by fear and paranoia in the post 9/11 Bush regime). Outside of that there is not much to recommend it.

My favorite part of the work was in the introduction by Konstantin Sheherbakov which really captures the importance of dystopian literature:

Yet what comes to mind is this: If such dystopias had been read earlier, if the warnings in them had been heeded, then maybe things in our recent past might have been different–more humane, more intelligent. The capacity for experiencing terror and the apocalypse in the imagination gives the strength to withstand it and diminishes the likelihood that it will actually come to pass.

I picked this book up thinking I would simply skim through it for the highlights. I had read great reviews and felt that it was worthy of a once-over. At 700 pages and having never been a Bill Simmons fan I was skeptical to how much I would enjoy it.

I was pleasantly surprised.

Simmons is the ultimate basketball fan and he writes, not as a sports reporter, but as someone who loves the game and has invested all of his life following it. Therefore, what emerges is not a sterile take on the game but a passionate take on the state of the game and the characters and events that have shaped it over the past 60 years. Simmons weaves in pop culture references and a deft sense of humor that keeps the book moving along.

Two things that stood out for me:

1)Simmons had the insight and acumen to include Sidney Moncrief among his top 75 players of all time. The fact that Moncrief, one of the best defenders and all around players of the 80s, is not in the Hall of Fame is an outright travesty. Anybody who disagrees with that obviously was not an NBA fan during that time.

2) Simmons places Scottie Pippen within the right context and in the top 25 of all time. Most notably, he makes the informed argument that Pippen’s lone prima donna moment (refusing to play when a final play was designed for Kukoc instead of him against the hated Knicks) should not negate all that he did right throughout the years. But don’t get me started on Kukoc.

The best part of this book is that Simmons made me want to be an NBA fan again.

I read this book in conjunction with a bookclub that I have begun at the Stillwater Public Library. Ian McEwan’s classic has been called by some to be one of the greatest ever written and it certainly lives up to that hype. Rich characters, a complex yet never convoluted storyline and a “twist” that leaves the reader emotionally conflicted combine to offer up a great read.

My only complaint is that I had seen the movie first. As a result, I was unable to truly and completely immerse myself in McEwan’s narrative. The movie stayed so faithful to the book that there were not any points of departure for me to follow the authors original vision. That was my loss and my mistake and no slight on the excellence of the work.

At the heart of this is a tremendous reflection on the need for atonement and redemption. Briony Tallis, as a precocious and imaginative 13 year old, witnesses a sexually charged exchange between her sister and her childhood friend. She is unable to fully understand what she has seen and incapable of placing it in the proper context. As a result, a string of events takes place that changes everyone’s lives forever.

What transpires is a beautiful work of fiction that deserves to be read.

Tomorrow night I will post my top 5 books of 2009 in Fiction, Nonfiction and Christian releases. First I want to share books I read this year that were published in previous years that I heartily recommend (Bolded titles are essential reads):

Fiction

Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Choke by Chuck Palahniuk
Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larsson
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling

Nonfiction

Out for Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America by Dudley Clendinen
God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question–Why We Suffer by Bart Ehrman
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
Maus by Art Spiegelman

Christian

The Church and the Homosexual by John J. McNeill
The Heart of Christianity by Marcus Borg
Here I Stand by John Shelby Spong

Horror

Creepers by John Morrell
Phantoms by Dean Koontz
Lost Boy Lost Girl by Peter Straub
Night in the Lonesome October by Richard Laymon
The Descent by Jeff Long
The Beast House Series by Richard Laymon
Summer of Night by Dan Simmons

From time to time, I will share a snippet of the current book I am reading that really grabs my attention. This one is from the National Book Award Winner Let the Great World Spin by Colum Mccann.

Corrigan told me once that Christ was quite easy to understand. He went where He was supposed to go. He stayed where He was needed. He took little or nothing along, a pair of sandals, a bit of a shirt, a few odds and ends to stave off the loneliness. He never rejected the world. If He had rejected it, He would have been rejecting mystery. He would have been rejecting faith.

What Corrigan wanted was a fully believable God, one you could find in the grime of the everyday. The comfort he got from the hard, cold truth–the filth, the war, the poverty–was that life could be capable of small beauties. He wasn’t interested in the glorious tales of the afterlife or the notions of a honey-soaked heaven. To him that was a dressing room for hell. Rather he consoled himself with the fact that, in the real world, when he looked closely into the darkness he might find the presence of a light, damaged and bruised, but a little light all the same. He wanted, quite simply, for the world to be a better place, and he was in the habit of hoping for it. Out of that came some sort of triumph that went beyond theological proof, a cause for optimism against all the evidence.

“Someday the meek might actually want it,” he said.

One of the things that I lost in my blog melt-down was the handy-dandy book widget that was on the sidebar. I can add it back but haven’t taken the time to do that. Instead, I have gravitated over to using the visual bookshelf on Facebook.

Friend me to keep up with all of my readings.

One of the things that I want to do more of this year is post my thoughts on what I am reading, listening to, watching and studying. There are a couple of the books I have read over the last 6 weeks that make that list:

Creepers by David Morrell
This book won the Stoker Award a few years back and that my trick you into thinking that this is a horror novel. It isn’t. Instead it is a riveting thriller set in an abandoned hotel. Urban scavengers go into abandoned buildings and study the past. This particular hotel has quite an interesting story.

Out For Good: The Struggle to Build a Gay Rights Movement in America by Dudley Clendinen and Adam Nagourney
I was prompted to read this book after watching Milk. I fancy myself a student of Civil Rights and Social Justice struggles but had not read much regarding this particular movement. It is an exhaustive history of 1969-1989. I have many thoughts on the content of this work but will hold off until a later time.

I would highly recommend either of these works.

I don’t know anybody who enjoys horror novels besides me anyway and the Now Reading plugin hasn’t worked for me in a while. But I will share none-the-less.

10. The Keeper by Sarah Langan
Nominated for best first novel in the 2006 Bram Stoker awards. An auspicious debut that speaks of great ghost stories to come.

9. The Policy by Bentley Little
I am a big fan of Little’s work as he always comes up with intriguing story lines. This one is about an insurance policy that cannot be canceled.

8. The Conqueror Worms/Deluge by Brian Keene
Keene is the pre-eminent horror writer of this generation. He is prolific, imaginative and able to churn out top-rate scares. This two part-er is no exception. The skies mysteriously start raining and don’t stop. 40+ days later the world has changed precipitously. I’m not finished with Deluge yet as he releases a chapter each week on his website.

7. The Ruins by Scott Smith
The movie came out earlier this year but if you want the true fright pick up the book instead. Smith does not release novels fast enough for my taste. But when he does he does not disappoint.

6. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
This book would be higher on my list if not for the style. I am not a big fan of oral histories and would have like a more linear tell. That quibble aside this is a fantastic Zombie story of life after the uprising.

5. Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill
Hill is a consummate story teller. Although he has great bloodlines as the son of Stephen King, he is a novelist to be respected in his own right. If you ever receive a heart shaped box in the mail do not open it.

4. Ghost Story by Peter Straub
This is an absolute classic in the genre. It is the work that put Straub on the map and put him in the same conversation with Stephen King of great horror writers. As I am often a critic of length it is important to note that this tremendous ghost tale would be number one on my list if it has been a hundred pages shorter. At any rate it is top notch. Skip the movie, however.

3. Rosemary’s Baby by Ira Levin
You have probably already seen the classic movie and the book is every bit as riveting. Levin was a great story teller and this is his finest work. However, do not pick up the sequel: Son of Rosemary.

2. The Rising/City of the Dead/Dead Sea by Brian Keene
Honestly, my top 10 could consist of Keene books. He is that good. This is Zombie writing at its finest.

1. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
This novel, which has now been made into a movie three times, is a gripping piece of fiction that focuses primarily on one individual’s coming to terms with his role as the last human on earth. What emerges is a compelling portrait of a man striving to survive in a world that has radically changed and transformed into an archaic mess. The reader is sucked in to a battle that is best defined as a struggle between human and post-human.

I am going to flip-flop my schedule and do the fiction entries tomorrow. In looking back over my reading I notice that I haven’t read as much theological writing this year as in years past. At least in my leisure reading I haven’t. It especially dropped off after June. A couple of reasons conspired for that. One is that I don’t want to read anything weighty after reading my grad school assignments. The other is that we had to do a spending freeze at church earlier this year and that limited my study materials.
However, I did read several notable works that bear mentioning:

10. Angela and the Baby Jesus by Frank McCourt
I know that this is not officially marketed as a Christian book. But this children’s book about the title character of Angela’s Ashes and her concern for the baby Jesus is a beautiful reflection on the hope of the Christ child. Beautifully illustrated and touching.

9. Spiritual Formation as if the Church Mattered: Growing in Christ through Community by James C. Wilhoit
I used this book as a basis for an adult class on spiritual formation earlier in the year and it proved to be a reliable resource. Wilhoit lines out four “pillars” of spiritual formation: receiving God’s grace, remembering our purpose, responding in service, and building relationships. It is an important entry in the discussion of discipleship.

8. Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne
I’m a huge fan of Claiborne as he is one of the foremost gadflies in the Christian world today. He consistently, logically, and passionately pushes the church to be a better reflection of Christ. That is powerfully captured in his latest work. My one constant quibble with both of Claiborne’s releases is a lack of tightness and conciseness.

7. Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy by Kraybill, et al.
A moving account of the staggering depiction of forgiveness that the Amish community displayed in the aftermath of the Nickle Mines School shooting. What we must all aspire to emulate.

6. What about Hitler?: Wrestling with Jesus’s Call to Nonviolence in an Evil World by Robert W. Brimlow
This is an intelligent and scholarly response to the red herring that often surfaces whenever nonviolence is discussed. In this work he points out the elasticity of the Just War theory and repudiates notions of “success” in reference to the validity of nonviolence. A great addition to any nonviolent library.

5. The Shack by William P. Young
I am most appreciative of this book for the way it brought some serious and potentially divisive topics into the public consciousness. I know that many read it and never picked up on some of the more controversial themes but any step toward a more indepth and honest assessment of God’s love, theodicy and soteriology is a welcome step.

4. Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church by N.T. Wright
My commonly held perception of the “Afterlife” was first challenged when I took a grad course at Lipscomb back in 1993. It was then that I realized that there was more to the story than just “over yonder.” Wright has an uncanny knack of bringing these important subjects into the mainstream of religious thought. Hopefully, this will be seen as an integral work in forcing us to challenge our understandings of eschatology.

3. The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith by Marcus Borg
Borg is not for everyone, so exercise caution. However, he is one of my favorite Christian authors who never fails to challenge my thinking at the same time he pushes me into a more nuanced and refined relationship with God. Here he gets at the heart of what this is all supposed to be about.

2. Matthew And The Margins: A Socio-Political and Religious Reading by Warren Carter
I spent most of this year preaching from Matthew. This work by Carter was absolutely essential during that process. Carter does a tremendous job of laying out the important themes of shame/honor and the relationship of the empire with the message of Christ.

1. Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire by Rita Nakashima Brock and Rebecca Ann Parker
Provocative and meticulously researched, this work is an in-depth look at the images, art and thinking of the early church and the absence of death as prime motivator. In the early church Jesus was depicted as alive and vibrant. Over the years that shifted. The reasons why are intriguing.

For the last 10+ years I have read predominantly non-fiction works. This year is the first in a long time that I read more fiction than anything else. When I began work on another Masters Degree in August I went almost exclusively escapist reading.
There were however some worthwhile non-fiction reads that I experienced this year:

10. Introvert Power: Why Your Inner Life Is Your Hidden Strength by Laurie A. Helgoe
I am an introvert and that is often seen by people to be a bad character trait. However, as Helgoe points out, that is a tragic misconception of the great contributions that introverts bring to society. The point of this book is that introverts should embrace their given personality and not try to take on the personality of an extrovert. There is room for both. Nor is this a book that says the solution is isolation but is instead finding proper alone time and to embrace solitude.

9. The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible/The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs
I include both of Jacob’s books together as they are indicative of the novel and creative approaches he takes to his writing. Both books were the results of experiments that he carried out: one to follow the Bible literally for one year, the other to read the entire Encyclopedia Brittanica. Both books are fun to read and filled with hilarious anecdotes of his experiences. My only quibble is the length of both. I repeat my refrain: editing is a good thing.

8. Storm Warning: The Story of a Killer Tornado by Nancy Mathis
My town of Ponca City has not endured a major tornado in over 50 years. Some say that the refinery weakens the tornado winds as they come closer to town. Some claim that the Indian burial grounds exude some mystical force. I think we are just lucky. Oklahoma is the home to some of our nations most unpredictable weather. On May 3rd, 1999 that was witnessed in its full fury as 71 tornadoes hit the state. “The biggest of them all spanned a mile—making it the largest in recorded history—and delivered ground-level winds of over 300 mph.” This is a compelling account of that day.

7. Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori and Rom Brafman
This is an intriguing look at why we tend to make irrational decisions despite evidence that making other decisions would be more productive. The inanity of most job interviews, ignoring fatigue and the over diagnosis of bi-polar disorder are all looked at.

6. Mudslingers: The Twenty-Five Dirtiest Political Campaigns of All Time by Kerwin Swint
Man, politicians are slimy people! This is an in-depth look at the dirtiest of political campaigns. It is often eye-opening and intriguing. It came out earlier this year so it did not include the latest campaign.

5. The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls
I am not a fan of memoirs but this is a book not to be missed. It is at times heartbreaking, at turns hilarious and consistently poignant.

4. Watch You Bleed: The Saga of Guns N’ Roses by Stephen Davis
A book that only true fans would likely find interesting, I was hooked with the depraved tale of musical geniuses and what could have been.

3. The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin
For the second year in a row I have a behind the scenes look at the Supreme Court in my top 10. Toobin’s work focuses on the last twenty years of the Supreme Court and the difficult cases that have defined them. A highly entertaining read.

2. You’re Only as Good as Your Next One: 100 Great Films, 100 Good Films, and 100 for Which I Should Be Shot by Mike Medavoy and Josh Young
This is an entertaining, candid and informative look at one individual’s life in the movie business. Medavoy had a great run in the early 70s as a produced and has parlayed that into a length, successful run in the movie business. His recollections of the infamous Cotton Club shooting alone is worth the time spent reading.

1. Sundays in America: A Yearlong Road Trip in Search of Christian Faith by Suzanne Strempek Shea
Shea set out to attend a different church each week for a year in attempts to reconnect with her faith. In the process she visits a wide variety of churches from all stripes and records her impressions, some good, some bad, some ugly. If I wasn’t spoken for on Sunday mornings this is exactly the kind of thing I would love to do.

The top 10 list will be here this afternoon. In the meantime here are some thoughts from some of my recent reading.

From Gary Wills’ Head and Heart: American Christianities

America has defied predictions that secularization will dry up religious devotion. Separation of church and state did not endanger this religiosity but protected it. There are many sources of this strong historic fact–other streams than that of the Puritans. But they set much of the style for American religiosity, its biblical rhetoric, its sense of vocation. The jeremiad, that self-castigating sermon based on the sense of American mission, continues down through our history–in Lincoln’s Second Inaugural, In William Jennings Bryan’s Cross of Gold Speech, in Martin Luther King’s oratory. It was apparent in the millennial hopes of the Great Awakening and the chiliastic imagery of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” It shows up in the hellfire sermons of the revivals, in the question “Are you saved,” in “testifying” and “witnessing” to personal conversion. Our political conventions take some of their ritual from the revivals.

Again from Wills on American Individualism:

But the aspect of the Puritan heritage with the deepest impact was what Herbert Hoover would call “the American system of rugged individualism.” The Puritan’s introspection, their self-examination, the private conversion experience that set off soul from soul by God’s election, the minute scrutiny of the stages of conversion–all this made the individual prize his or her singular experience. Tocqueville discerned something like this when he introduced the new word individualsime into the analysis of America: ‘Individualism is a considered and tranquil trait that inclines each citizen to separate himself from the crowd of his fellows, withdrawing into the conclave of his family and friends so that, having formed a little society of his own, he gladly lets the larger society go its way without him.’ One coming to that passage directly after studying the Puritans could well imagine that it was meant to describe New England, where the individual withdrew into a private experience of being saved and then joined the elect circle of “visible saints,” separating himself from the unregenerate world, which had to wallow along toward damnation apart from him and his. And that private experience of being saved was like the personal assurance that would later be called “self-confidence” by Emerson–the highest virtue in his eyes.

From The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America by Susan Faludi:

In the years since 2001, we’ve been on a circus ride of impractical policies and improbable “protective” politics predicated as much on the desire to reinstate a social fiction as on the need to respond to actual threats. The enemy that hit us on September 11 was real. But our citizenry wasn’t just asked to confront a real enemy. The arrest and prosecution of our antagonists seemed to be only a part of our concern. We were also enlisted in a symbolic war at home, a war to repair and restore a national myth. Our retreat to the fifties reached beyond movie tropes and the era’s odd mix of national insecurity and domestic containment. It reached back beyond the fifties themselves. For this particular reaction to 9/11–our fixation of restoring an invincible manhood by saving little girls–was not so anomalous. It belonged to a long-standing American pattern of response to threat, a response that we’ve been perfecting since our original wilderness experience.

Thoughts? Agree? Disagree?