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#BookReview: The God Game by Danny Tobey

Solid Yet Could Have Been Transcendental. If you’ve seen the 2016 movie Nerve, you have a pretty good idea what you’re getting into here. The two are very similar in overall concept, though ultimately both use the common concept to speak to different issues. With this particular book, you get more into The Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase’s mantra – everyone has a price – even as the book tries in spits and spurts to discuss much weightier metaphysical topics. Hell, the book name drops Aquinas and Lewis and uses Thoth, Christ, Freud, and Heaphestus as characters! And while all of these add some interesting wrinkles to the overall tale, ultimately this book suffers from the same fate as Marcus Sakey’s Afterlife. By this I mean that, as I said in the title, it is a solid action/ scifi book that could have been transcendental with a bit more care. Very much recommended.

This review of The God Game by Danny Tobey was originally written on January 3, 2020.

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Featured New Release of the Week: This Is Not How It Ends by Rochelle Weinstein

This week we’re looking at an epic love triangle set in the beautiful Florida Keys. This week we’re looking at This Is Not How It Ends by Rochelle Weinstein.

Structurally this book is a bit interesting. Part 1 is told via two timelines, one a couple of years ago and one present day. In each, our lead character finds herself falling in love with two men… who happen to be best friends. In Part 2 the book is told via a now unified present day timeline, and right around the 2/3 point we get one character telling another character the title of this book. It is at this point that the book goes from “solid” to “waterfall” level, and the waterworks continue pretty well through the end of the book.

Reading this book just a day after finishing Iona Grey’s The Glittering Hour, another waterfall level book, was a bit intense, and I very much recommend surrounding this book with light and fun romantic comedies in your own reading. (Or maybe mindless “kill everything that moves, get the girl, save the world” level action, if you prefer.) Reading both of these books right at a holiday known for being one of the biggest parties of the year was even more intense, and I very much recommend waiting until the middle of winter when you need a good cry anyway. Guess what? Since you’re reading this after Jan 2, 2020 (I’m writing it at roughly 4a EST on that date), you’re already in a much better position to read this book.

Which is what you should do. Right now. Go buy this book if you haven’t yet and get set for a good weekend cry. Go!
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#BookReview: The Freedom Of Self Forgetfulness by Timothy Keller

A Christian Case For A Phenomenon Many Realize As They Mature. In this short text – right around 40 pages or so – Christian theologian Timothy Keller makes a Biblical case for getting onself to the point of both self acceptance and no longer caring what anyone thinks of you. He spins this through his own worldview and builds his case based primarily on a text from 1 Corinthians – and both cites it within its context and doesn’t directly appeal to any other texts to “prove” his points, thus earning a rare 5* rating from me for a Christian nonfiction book. Solid within its frame, as noted here there are other methods for achieving the very same state Keller claims is only possible for Christians, which hurts his case objectively but which is understandable within the author’s own mindset. Very much recommended.

This review of The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness by Timothy Keller was originally written on December 31, 2019.

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#BookReview: The Glittering Hour by Iona Grey

Welcome To The Roaring Twenties. As I finish this book a couple of weeks late – yet appropriately just hours before the Roaring Twenties come back – I’m actually thankful I wasn’t able to complete it sooner due to various traveling I was doing in the early parts of this month. Because this book is a phenomenal look at the Roaring Twenties, young adult disillusionment in their twenties generally, and the realities we sometimes face in our thirties. But it is also extremely tragic, and without actually giving anything away let’s just say be prepared to bawl for the last 100 pages or so of this 400 page book. Truly an excellent work, and very much recommended.

This review of The Glittering Hour by Iona Grey was originally written on December 30, 2019.

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#BookReview: You Have The Right To Remain Innocent by James Duane

Every American Needs To Read This Book. In well documented yet easy to read prose, Duane lays bare why the stakes are so high for his ultimate premise: If a cop unexpectedly questions you, state your name, why you were in the location they saw you *at the moment they saw you* (and not even a second before), and four simple words: “I want a lawyer.” Citing case after case after case from around the country, many of which have wound up with Supreme Court decisions on them, Duane shows why this is so utterly imperative for every American. And yet he is also careful to bow to our police overlords with “appropriate” obsequiousness, lest they try to attack his argument as being just “anti-cop”. Truly one of the most important books any American will ever read in the modern American police state. Very much recommended.

This review of You Have The Right To Remain Innocent by James Duane was originally written on December 29, 2019.

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#BookReview: Two Tyrants by A.G. Roderick

This Is Frank Castle Speaking. To know the tone of this book, you really only need to know about two other things within the pop culture psyche, if a bit obscure: The 80 page Galt Speech in the back part of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged gives you an idea of the overall length, and Frank Castle’s letter over the final scenes of the 2004 Punisher movie show you the overall style. This is a dogmatic polemic against Democrats and Republicans that is generally roughly as problematic as the problems it (mostly correctly) points out. It could absolutely use more documentation and a far more extensive bibliography, and even its general points and recommendations need quite a bit more thought. But it does espouse a bit of thinking that more people need to be exposed to, and therefore even with its issues it is recommended.

This review of Two Tyrants by A.G. Roderick was originally written on December 29, 2019.

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#BookReview: Did Jesus Rise From The Dead by William Lane Craig

Solid Introduction To The Arguments. This short and easy to read book is a solid introduction to the various arguments on the issue at hand. The only way it is lacking is in that many of these arguments probably need a lot more discussion of their various points and counterpoints and nuances, but that doesn’t seem to be the intent of this particular book. Instead, this book seems more geared to those that are looking for the basics, and is written in exactly that tone – scholarly, yet more of a “fireside chat” and not the hyper dry prose normally reserved for works aimed at fellow academics and particularly those in the same field. Very much recommended.

This review of Did Jesus Rise From the Dead by William Lane Craig was originally written on December 29, 2019.

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#BookReview: Ending The Era Of The Free Lunch by Jeffrey Dorfman

Decade Old Data, Still Solid Reasoning. This book was written nearly a decade ago now, in 2011. The data is solid from that period, though I did dock a star specifically due to lack of a detailed bibliography – truly the only major flaw I could find with the book. The reasoning is centrist-ish, maybe a touch libertarian, but purely focused on economic, cost/benefit rationale. Indeed, this book seems to have influenced the thinking of the economic policy proposals of 2012 US Presidential candidate Gary Johnson, who ran as the nominee of the Libertarian Party that year. (At one point late in the text, he specifically notes cutting Federal spending by 43%, back to 2001 levels, and this was one of Johnson’s core proposals that year.) Remarkably, more recent works such as Gilbert Gaul’s Geography of Risk -published in late 2019 – back up at least some of the author’s assertions. (Here specifically, the rising cost of damages from coastal storms and flooding being due at least in part to US Federal economic policies that encourage building in more flood prone areas.)

A final note of disclosure, just to be safe: Despite then-regional proximity (I lived in Georgia all my life until right around the time this book was being written, and even then moved closer to UGA – where Dorfman is a Professor of Economics – itself despite being in another State altogether) and even similar-ish politics (I was very active in the Libertarian Party of Georgia in my last few years of living in the State, including serving as its Legislative Director and as a regional representative on its State Executive Committee), to my knowledge the author of this book and I have never interacted other than the very asynchronous nature of his writing this book and my buying a copy of it and reading it many years later.

This review of Ending the Era of the Free Lunch by Jeffrey Dorfman was originally written on December 29, 2019.

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#BookReview: Crash Test Girl by Kari Byron

Real “Myths”. Real Woman. This memoir from one of the first female “reality tv” stars is an extremely interesting look at both her decade+ working with the (possibly arguably) the show that made her famous… and how she got there and a bit of what has happened since that fateful day in 2014 when she (and later the world) was informed that she would no longer be on that show. And she doesn’t hold back too many punches, usually only being a bit circumspect when it is clear that being more direct could result in legal issues. While some of her work is now directed at getting kids into science, if you’re squeamish about f-bombs… she is known to casually drop a few in this text. But ultimately the tale is that of an extremely interesting life on and off camera and how an artsy/ edgy world traveller from San Fransisco wound up working at M5 Industries and becoming world renowned as a “science girl”. Overall a very much recommended book.

This review of Crash Test Girl by Kari Byron was originally written on December 29, 2019.