Category: Book Review

The Drifter by William W. Johnstone

Book Review / Books and Reading

The Drifter (The Last Gunfighter Book 1) by William W. Johnstone

The Drifter by William W. Johnstone is exactly what I look for in a western, which made it a perfect book to begin the 2018 Wild Wild West Reading Challenge. There was plenty of gun-fighting action, a fair share of humor, and even a bit of romance. I had picked up the Kindle edition of The Drifter at a bargain price without knowing much about the story or the author, so I had moderate expectations about how good it was going to be. After finishing it, though, I’d have...

Tripwire (Jack Reacher 3) by Lee Child

Book Review / Books and Reading

Tripwire (Jack Reacher #3) by Lee Child

A Jack Reacher book is a lot like a popcorn movie: if you just go with it and don’t think about it too much, then it can be pretty entertaining. Tripwire is the third book in the series and the fourth Reacher book I’ve read, and while it was entertaining, it’s my least favorite. Not that it’s bad, it’s just not the Jack Reacher story I was anticipating. The book is more of an investigative mystery than an adrenaline-pumping action thriller. Tripwire features a more introspective Jack Reacher, a man...

Book Review / Books and Reading

Pope Francis and the Joy of the Gospel by Edward Sri

This past December our pastor gave each member of the parish staff a copy of Pope Francis and the Joy of the Gospel: Rediscovering the Heart of a Disciple by Edward Sri. He asked us to read it because his focus for the parish in 2018 is on our baptismal call to share the Good News. Sri’s book fits this focus because it’s is a distillation and explanation of The Joy of the Gospel, an apostolic exhortation published by Pope Francis in 2013. A pope writes an apostolic exhortation in order to...

Musketeer detail

Book Review / Books and Reading

Classics Club #18: Twenty Years After by Alexandre Dumas

The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas is one of my favorite all-time books. I might even put it up there with the likes of The Lord of the Rings, Master and Commander, and Don Quixote. And like the characters in those other books, the characters in The Three Musketeers are old friends of mine. I love hanging out not only with D’Artagnan, Athos, Aramis, and Porthos, but also with their servants Planchet, Mousqueton, Grimaud, and Bazin. I’ve read the book maybe three of four times in my life, most recently in...

Book Review / Books and Reading / Spirituality

A Spring Within Us: A Book of Daily Meditations by Richard Rohr

“Remember, always remember, that the heartfelt desire to do the will of God is, in fact, the truest will of God. At that point God has won, the ego has lost, and your prayer has already been answered.” My constant companion each morning this past year was A Spring Within Us: A Book of Daily Meditations by Richard Rohr. Like water dripping onto a stalagmite, this book slowly dripped onto my soul, building it up each day. Rohr writes with great spiritual maturity, and his words always challenge...

The Apothecary Rose by Candace Robb

Book Review / Books and Reading

The Apothecary Rose by Candace Robb

The Apothecary Rose by Candace Robb is a historical murder mystery set in England in 1363. The book opens with two suspicious deaths in the infirmary at St. Mary’s Abbey. The Lord Chancellor of England then sends his former captain of archers, Owen, to try and find out what happened. The mystery centers on an apothecary shop run by Master Nicholas Wilton and his wife/apprentice Lucie. Owen has orders to go under cover and insinuate himself into the lives of the people of York in order to discover why and...

The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall

Book Review / Books and Reading

The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall

The Ultimate Gift by Jim Stovall is a contrived, preachy story where most of the action takes place off stage. Despite all of that it’s still worth reading. The plot revolves around Jason Stevens, a spoiled young man who stands to inherit a life-changing amount of money if he fulfills certain tasks set out in the will of his rich great-uncle Red Stevens. Red is an old-school Texas oil-man who upon his death leaves behind twelve video messages to teach Jason the important life lessons that he failed...

The Ballad of the White Horse by G. K. Chesterton

Book Review / Books and Reading

The Ballad of the White Horse by G. K. Chesterton

“When our last bow is broken, Queen, And our last javelin cast, Under some sad, green evening sky, Holding a ruined cross on high, Under warm westland grass to lie, Shall we come home at last?” Chesterton’s The Ballad of the White Horse is wonderful epic poetry, but I found myself rushing through it. Part of the reason was my lack of knowledge about English history, and part of it was that I just wasn’t in the mood for poetry. But I think anyone who loves Dante, Homer, or...

Alfred Hitchcock

Book Review / Books and Reading

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: 12 Stories for Late at Night

12 Stories for Late at Night is the second of three anthologies edited by Alfred Hitchcock that I read for the Deal Me In Short Story Challenge this year. It contained some of the creepiest stories of the year, including “The Cocoon” by John B. L. Goodwin, “Vintage Season” by C. L. Moore, and “Our Feather Friends” by Philip McDonald. I always enjoy these Hitchcock anthologies, but this is one of the better collections, especially since it contains several top tier authors including Ray Bradbury, M. R. James...

Hunted Down by Charles Dickens

Book Review / Books and Reading

Hunted Down by Charles Dickens

Hunted Down by Charles Dickens is a novella divided into five parts and recently published as a stand-alone Kindle ebook from Open Road Media. Hunted Down has all the hallmarks of a Dickens story: characters with evocative names (Julius Slinkton, Miss Niner), wonderful Victorian sentences, and a mysterious plot. Unfortunately, the mystery takes a while to get going and the climax isn’t up to Dickens’ typical standards. Still, it didn’t take long to read, it only cost me 99 cents, and the story wasn’t horrible, only disappointingly average. For...

The Autobiography of Malcolm X

Book Review / Books and Reading

The Autobiography of Malcolm X as Told to Alex Haley

My whole life had been a chronology of—changes. I had already read The Autobiography of Malcolm X once before, but it still held my interest this time around. Malcolm X led one of the most dramatic and tragic lives of the twentieth century, and as he says, his whole life was a chronology of changes. He chronicles them all in his autobiography, which reads like a spiritual confession. I was impressed by Malcolm X’s willingness to share the personal details of his life, especially his wayward youth. The book...

Book Review / Books and Reading

Classics Club #16: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

The house was a sepulcher, our fear and suffering lay buried in the ruins. There would be no resurrection. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is a masterpiece of suspense that should not be missed by anyone who loves atmospheric settings, classic mysteries, or gorgeous prose. Ranked as the 9th greatest mystery novel of all time by the Mystery Writers of America, Rebecca entrances the reader with its lyrical sentences as the story slowly unfolds, picks up speed, and then builds into a page-turning climax. I enjoyed every sentence of this haunting...