Mr Shields: I'm a reader not a fighter

If you have read many of my reviews you have probably seen that many of the books I read are audiobooks. I love audiobooks. I like that, a good audiobook draws you into the story in a way that just reading does not do. Many non-fiction authors write in a form that is more oriented to the spoken word than the written. I will probably never read Rob Bell, Eugene Peterson and Orson Scott Card in print again. All three are authors that seem to scream for an audio version.

Audible.com have been around since 1999 and I have been a member since 2003. I have hundreds of books from Audible. They advertise that they are the “Leading Provider in Digital Spoken Audio”. That is marketing speak that means they have an almost monopoly on downloadable audiobook. Audible has more than 60,000 books now.

This store review will have almost nothing negative to say. I think their DRM (Digital Rights Management) is reasonable. They allow concurrent activation of six devices so your family can share the account. Also if you have a smart phone (blackberry, windows mobile, palm, symbian and some java equipted non-smart phones) allow you to download your books directly to your phone. I have discovered through trial and error that phones are not charged against your six devices, I presume because they can be replaced so often and require OS wipes so much. I have never come across a time when I could not listen to an audiobook when I wanted to. In my mind, that is the goal of a good DRM system, one that does not get in the road of the person trying to consume the product.

I am a part of the Platinum Plan, $229 a year for 24 books.  That ends up being less than $10 a book.  Which is often cheaper than what I can get the book on kindle and quite often cheaper than paperback.  Included in the Platinum plan is a daily summary of either the New York Times or Wall Street Journal.  The summaries are quite good and about 1 hour in length.  I just don’t have time to listen to them, but if you would it is a great benefit.  This past year I have also received about six free books (in addition to the 24).  Only 1 or 2 would I have purchased on my own, but free is always nice.

Other plans are cheaper, and have less books, but are also monthly.  So you get either 1 or 2 books a month and you have to use that book that month.  There is a rollover if you don’t use the book, but only up to six books.  So potentially you can loose books if you don’t use them.  Since I am at the highest level plan I get all 24 credits when I sign up and do not have to worry about when they expire.  And then when I run out of credits I just renew my membership, even if my year is not yet over.

If you are just signing up now, you should sign up through Amazon.  Amazon will give you $100 credit toward the purchase of a kindle or music player or audio enabled GPS (click for list of devices).  The offer is good through January 31, 2011.  And it has been renewed for the past several years so it will likely stick around after that.  The links I have are affiliate links to Amazon, so I get a referral fee, but you can sign up without my referral if you like.  I get lots of people ask me how I read so many books.  My main answer is audiobooks.  Certainly not all, and probably not even half, of the books I read are audio, but most of the time I spend listening to audiobooks is while I am doing something else.

When you read as much as I do every once in a while you need some palate cleansing.  I am a huge fan of pickled ginger, which is always served with sushi and wasabi.  Pickled ginger has great taste, but when you finish you do not have an aftertaste, you just have a mildly pleasant feeling in your mouth.  The two Christopher Buckley novels I have read, No Way to Tread a First Lady and Supreme Court, are the pickled ginger for my mind.

I enjoy politics.  I like watching the weekend political talk shows, although I rarely have time.  I often listen to Shields and Brooks podcast from PBS news and the Slate Political Gabfest podcast.  My favorite NPR show is Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me, a radio equivalent of Christopher Buckley’s political satire.  So when I had it up to here with memoirs and other books telling me how wonderful the authors were doing at processing what God has been telling them, I picked up some emergency Christopher Buckley.  I am saving the rest of his novels for future need.

No Way to Treat A First Lady is a satirical novel about trying the first lady for killing her husband (the President).  She found him yet again having an affair, this time he the dalliance was in the Lincoln Bedroom, while she was asleep down the hall.  The next morning he is discovered dead in bed and the First Lady is suspected and tried for Presidential Assassination.  Buckley does a fabulous job making a trial both boringly realistic and exciting to read about.

I listen to a lot of audiobook because a fair part of my job is doing mindless data entry.  I finished this book in three days.  Grover Gardner was the narrator.  I got a kick out of the fact that he was narrating three different audiobooks that I am concurrently listening to.  This one, Tell it Slant by Eugene Peterson and Desiring God by John Piper.  As a warning to more delicate listeners/readers, Christopher Buckley can use some strong language and quite frequently references sex in this book, although not overly crudely.  It is quite funny and very enjoyable.

Tithing can be a tricky topic in some crowds. I have never really understood why it is such a taboo subject. Maybe it is because I am a pastor’s kid, maybe it is because it was never really a question whether you gave or not. So I guess I do not really understand the trepidation that many people have when dealing with Tithing.

Tithing is part of the The Ancient Practice Series, of which Tithing is the fifth book that I have reviewed.  These books are all completelydifferent in tone from one another.  This book is described by the author as a journalistic survey of tithing from a variety of sources.  So the author interviews people from a variety of mostly Christian backgrounds (there is one Orthodox Jewish Rabbi as well.)

This is certainly one way to get a variety of perspectives about tithing but it does not get at any of the hard questions or issues that I have. There is an assumption that the tithe, at least the majority, goes to the local church. But there is never a discussion about why, in an age of weak denominations, poor giving to international missions and strong para-church organization, about why tithe should go to the local church. (Personally, I give almost nothing to my local church and have not for most of my adult life. I have always attended local churches that have had plenty of resources, while having a number of friends that raise their own support for local or international missions. I also believe that the tithe as instituted in both the Old and New Testament was to be used in significant portion to serve the poor.)

Another issue that is not addressed is US Christians’ very poor participation in the tithe. Even if you think of the tithe as completely voluntary and not attached to a 10 percent amount, very, very few Christians participate in a meaningful way.  The average Christian in the US gives less than 3 percent to all causes, Christian and secular combined.  There is one really good quote from the Ronsvalles (Empty Tomb Inc), “If I am not trusting God with my money, am I really trusting him with my eternal salvation?”

The final big issue in my mind that was not adequately addressed is dependence on God.  The above quote hints at it.  But in the US, almost no one is really destitute.  There is poverty, but only a few really worry about where there next meal is coming from.  So when we give, it is almost always out of plenty, not out of poverty.  How does this affect how we give?

Tithing, like all of the other books in the series except for a small portion of Scot McKnight’s book Fasting, has virtually no real history of the practice. So it does not really meet the task of introducing the reader to the Ancient Practice, but rather casually surveys the modern practice.

This was far from a bad book. It was brief (I read it during one of my nieces long naps). And it was well written. It just did not address any of the questions that I think should be addressed when talking about the tithe.
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Disclosure: This book was provided free by Thomas Nelson for review purposes. It was donated to a pastor doing research.

This is my weekly post on free ebooks that are readable (or listen-able) on the Kindle.  Some of the books from previous posts are still available for free.  If you want to see all free books as they come out you should follow Books on the Knob on their RSSor Twitter Feed.  As always please check to make sure the books are still free before you “buy” them, especially from Amazon.  Prices can change quickly.  These books were all free as of 6 AM EST today.

Free Audiobooks

I am a big fan of christianAudio.com.  They give away one book every month and then have a larger sale based around the free book.  This month they are giving away two books.

The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer A classic. - This book is quite simply, one of the most profound and important books of the 20th century. Dietrich Bonhoeffer lived a testimony of his thoughtful and engaging writers.  Focusing on the most treasured part of Christ’s teaching – the Sermon on the Mount with its call to discipleship, and on the grace of God and the sacrifice which that demands.  Viewed against the background of Nazi Germany, Bonhoeffer’s book is striking enough. At the same time, it shares with many great Christian classics a quality of timelessness, so that it has spoken, and continues to speak powerfully, to the varied concerns of the contemporary world.  Also all Bonhoeffer books are on sale for $4.98

Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die by John Piper The most important questions anyone can ask are: Why was Jesus Christ crucified? Why did he suffer so much? What has this to do with me? Finally, who sent him to his death? The answer to the last question is that God did. Jesus was God’s Son. The suffering was unsurpassed, but the whole message of the Bible leads to this answer.  All Piper audiobooks are also $4.98.

Both books require a coupon MAR2010 and the second coupon is MAR2010B.  You have to do two different orders to get both books.  I merge the .mp3 files together into one big file and put it on my kindle (in the audiobook folder).  And listen to them as an audiobook.  The kindle looks at it as a single book.

Also Blackstone Audio is giving away a new version of Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland until March 16, 2010.

Science Fiction

These two books are being given away by the author to celebrate the publication of book 4 of this series.  More and more authors are giving away their earlier books as a way to get noticed.  The good part is that the author has a wide variety of formats.  If you have an ebook reader, computer or smartphone, one of them will probably work.  If you are getting these for your kindle, use the PRC format.  The kindle versions are only $0.99 a piece on Amazon so you aren’t saving that much.  But free is free.

Admiral’s Ghost: Book One in the Onyalum Series by NB VanYoos (found via Ireaderreview.com) From LA drug dealer to planetary hero of an alien world, the Universe must have a sense of humor. Tyler Jensen, an earthling lost in the cosmos, struggles to understand the technologically advanced world whose hero he has inadvertently become. Posing as the Supreme Commander of the planet’s fleet, Tyler must quickly learn the murky alliances of the military to succeed against their neighboring enemy. Will Tyler’s naiveté doom the warring world, or can he navigate the political trappings of the Admiral’s world to conquer another? This is the first book in the Onyalum Series.

Trial of Gesh by NB Van Yoss (book 2) Los Angeles drug dealer, Tyler Jensen, continues his quest to find a life within the Universe after his transformation into an ethereal agent of destruction known as an Onyalum. After abandoning his only friend in a fit of anger, Tyler unjustly seeks worlds to unleash his bitter hatred for everything that has turned his life inside out. He becomes an evil spirit rampaging through the Universe, hell-bent on sharing his grief with everything in his path. But he finds no solace and seeks solitude on a desperate planet awaiting the return of their god. Posing as a lowly priest addicted to narcotics, Tyler becomes embroiled in a battle between an ancient cult and the planet’s dominant religion. As his decadence leads him further astray, his sins transport him into a hell he is unable to comprehend, let alone escape. Will Tyler survive his damnation or will the alien locked inside awaken his lost humanity to save his soul?

Harry Potter Related…sort of

Lippert G. Norman has written a series, three so far, of books in the Harry Potter world.  They are set 20 years after the end of book seven and center around Harry’s son James.  I haven’t read them, but I did download them.  JK Rowling, who has sued several authors that have written about Harry Potter, has not sued Norman yet.  But she may eventually.  The third book is new, but the first book was written several years ago.  The website is professional and the books seem to be formated well (from glancing through them.)  Unfortunately they are all in PDF format, but they can be easily converted to a better kindle format.  The download side for all three is http://www.jamespotterseries.com (found via Books on the Knob)

Christian Fiction

Saving Sailor: A Novel by Renee Riva – The year is 1968. After spending the first half of summer vacation driving her Italian family crazy with her fake southern accent, 10-year old A.J. finds a soul mate on the other side of the island to divert her attention. She is intrigued to learn that Danny shares her same burning desire to know God and realizes that few people her age think as deeply as the two of them do. However, the depth of their newfound faith and friendship is soon tested when Danny’s father betrays his wife. Set in a simpler time, Saving Sailor is a heartwarming tale of how hearts can change and relationships can be restored with God’s help. — RiverOak Publishers

The Someday List (Jubilant Soul Series #1) by Stacy Hawkins Adams – Rachelle Covington has it all. A fabulous home, a handsome and prestigious husband, two beautiful children, and a place in the upper crust that’s quite comfortable. But her life is not all it’s cracked up to be. When her husband goes away on business trip and the kids are sent off to the grandparents for a month, Rachelle takes up the challenge of a dying friend to start a list of things to do before she dies. She heads back to Jubilant, Texas, to reconnect with her past, her purpose, and herself. But when her ex shows up in town looking very fine and very single, Rachelle must confront feelings she thought she’d long buried. Will she give up everything to recover the past? Or will she find a reason to plan for the future? The Someday List is an honest look at what makes us who we are and what can throw us off track. Author Stacy Hawkins Adams writes with a voice that is fresh, sincere, and completely real. Her characters jump off the page and into her readers’ hearts. — Revell Publishers

Other Fiction

Dawn of the Dreadfuls by Steve Hockensmith — This is a prequel for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I think this is the whole book and not a sample, but I am not clear.  It seems to be a pre-order. – With more than one million copies in print, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was the surprise publishing phenomenon of 2009. A best seller on three continents, PPZ has been translated into 21 languages and optioned to become a major motion picture.In this terrifying and hilarious prequel, we witness the genesis of the zombie plague in early-nineteenth-century England. We watch Elizabeth Bennet evolve from a naïve young teenager into a savage slayer of the undead. We laugh as she begins her first clumsy training with nunchucks and katana swords and cry when her first blush with romance goes tragically awry. Written by acclaimed novelist (and Edgar Award nominee) Steve Hockensmith, Dawn of the Dreadfuls invites Austen fans to step back into Regency England, Land of the Undead!

Booth’s Sister by Jane Singer - ”My brother killed Abraham Lincoln. That is my weight, my shame. While he remained at large, I was held captive in my home. I should have told the soldiers who came with guns drawn and bayonets at the ready this true thing: I might have stopped him, for I harbored him and kept his secrets. I was a pie safe locked tight and guilty as he.” Asia Booth Clarke was twenty-nine years old and pregnant when Union soldiers and Federal detectives stormed her Philadelphia home in search of her assassin-brother. John Wilkes Booth’s older sister had grown up in one of America’s most notoriously troubled but spectacularly acclaimed acting families. “Johnny” and Edwin, her handsome brothers, were the matinee idols of the era. When John Wilkes Booth’s crime left the nation in furious mourning and the Booth family under a dark cloud of accusation, it was Asia who bore the brunt. Booth’s Sister was inspired by Asia Booth Clarke’s personal memoirs. Author, Civil War scholar and storyteller Jane Singer has masterfully imagined the family dynamics and intimate dilemmas that led to one of America’s most fateful crimes and left a sister’s life in shambles.

You Can’t Stop Me by Matthew Clemens - Smalltown sheriff J.C. Harrow made headlines when he apprehended a would-be presidential assassin–only to come home that night and find his wife and son brutally murdered. This tragic twist of fate launched his career as the host of reality TV’s smash-hit, Crime Seen! But while media star Harrow tracks down dangerous criminals coast to coast–with the help of viewers’ tips–a killer with a twisted agenda is making his own bloody path to fame. . .

Petals From The Sky by Mingmei Yip - From the acclaimed author of Peach Blossom Pavilion comes a lush and lyrical novel of East and West–and of one young woman’s search for her heart’s true calling. . .When twenty-year-old Meng Ning declares that she wants to be a Buddhist nun, her mother is aghast. In her eyes, a nun’s life means only deprivation–”no freedom, no love, no meat.” But to Meng Ning, it means the chance to control her own destiny, and to live in an oasis of music, art, and poetry far from her parents’ unhappy union.  With an enigmatic nun known as Yi Kong, “Depending on Emptiness,” as her mentor, Meng Ning spends the next ten years studying abroad, disdaining men, and preparing to enter the nunnery. Then, a fire breaks out at her Buddhist retreat, and Meng Ning is carried to safety by Michael Fuller, a young American doctor. The unprecedented physical contact stirs her curiosity. And as their tentative friendship grows intimate, Meng Ning realizes she must choose between the sensual and the spiritual life. From the austere beauty of China’s Buddhist temples to the whirlwind of Manhattan’s social elite, and the brilliant bustle of Paris and Hong Kong, here is a novel of joy and heartbreak–and of the surprising paths that lead us where we most need to be.

Cool Like That: A So For Real Novel by Nikki Carter - Now that she’s been accepted into a summer enrichment program in New York City, Gia knows she’s going to have the flyest summer ever. Especially since her mom and her annoying stepsister won’t be around. And best of all? Her best friend, Ricky, is joining her so they’re going to spend the entire summer together. Gia hopes Ricky’s finally going to make a move on her, but it seems like Ricky’s bent on playing it safe-too safe, as far as Gia’s concerned. So when Rashad, a cutie from the summer program, starts to get his flirt on with Gia, she’s got a new crush-and Ricky’s so not cool with that.

Moonstone by Marilee Brothers – A Fictionwise Fantasy bestseller Young Adult A sickly mom. A tiny house trailer. High school bullies and snarky drama queens. Bad-guy dudes with charming smiles. Allie has problems. And then there’s that whole thing about fulfilling a magical prophecy and saving the world from evil. Geez. Welcome to the sad, funny, sometimes-scary world of fifteen-year-old Allie Emerson, who’s struggling to keep her and her mom’s act together in the small-town world of Peacock Flats, Washington. An electrical zap from a TV antenna sets off Allie’s weird psychic powers. The next thing she knows she’s being visited by a hippy-dippy guardian angel, and then her mysterious neighbor, the town “witch,” gives her an incredible moonstone pendant that has powers only a good-hearted “Star Seeker” is meant to command. “Who, me?” is Allie’s first reaction. But as sinister events begin to unfold, Allie realizes she’s got a destiny to live up to. If she can just survive everyday life, in the meantime. Marilee Brothers is a former high school teacher turned full-time author. She’s married to her college sweetheart, and they have three sons. Marilee lives in Washington State, where she’s hard at work on more books in the Moonstone series.

Christian Devotional

Prosper in the Spirit , a Christian devotional by Jaye Seay, is free on Smashwords using coupon code GK65P, valid through February 28, 2011. Prosper in the Spirit contains eighteen powerful devotional messages that will inspire your faith. Each devotional was carefully crafted from the author’s personal study of the Bible. Topics covered include God’s providence, overcoming anxiety, prayer and walking with Christ. These devotionals will encourage you, strengthen your faith and bring you closer to Jesus. (Found via Books on the Knob)

If you read my reviews frequently, then this book is going to be way outside my normal content.  Only about 1 in 8 books I review is fiction.  And all except for 2 of the fiction books I have reviewed here have been Fantasy or Science Fiction.  I am not traditionally a suspense/horror reader.  The author of this book contacted me to see if I would like to review the book after finding my blog.  I am always up for something different so I agreed.

The opening of the book is classic suspense.  I was on the edge of my seat.  The main character is scared to death of being alone in her home, because of past events and the author did a great job giving what seems to be unrational fears, real life and meaning.  This is a suspense, through most of the book, you are not sure if the main character is deluded or someone really is out to get her.

At one point, I was reading late at night (while sitting on my bathroom floor between bouts of sickness-stomach virus) and kept wanting to read more, but being a bit too creeped out to keep reading.  Eventually I changed books because I wanted to try to get some sleep that night.

If you like suspense, and don’t mind discussion of ritual satanic worship (not overly violent or bloody) this was a good book.  If you have a kindle it is cheap ($0.99) and well worth it.

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Disclosure: I was provided a free ebook copy by the author for review purposes.

Ebooks are here to stay.  Whether you like the idea of ebooks or not, they are going to be sticking around.  Personally, I am trying to move more and more of my world digital.  My filing cabinet is almost empty.  My bookshelf with the few paperbooks that I really don’t want to get rid of are on the shelf in my basement while the bookshelf that I really use is on my computer in a folder.  My CDs are in a box in storage, but all of my music is on my mp3 player and my two computers.

I still buy DTB (dead tree books) and CDs.  But I am more price sensitive than ever.  For the most part, I buy what is cheapest.  If a CD is $10 and the mp3 files are $10 I will probably buy the CD.  If the CD is $15 and the mp3 files are $10 I will buy the mp3 files.  If the digital music files are DRM, I won’t buy them regardless of the price.

Books are a different story.  I am locked into the Amazon world.  I am ok with that for now.  The kindle is the best ereader out there right now.  That will probably change, but I am ok with DRM restricted content because I know I can break it if I really need to.  I buy paperbooks, but only if I think I have someone to give them away to.  I am keeping no paper books.

What I find strange are publishers and authors that seem to want to complain about the end of the world.  It is overblown.  The book world is changing, it is not ending.  There are more books being written and published now than ever before.  Sure there is more trash being written than ever before, but quantity and quality usually work together.  Today the primary problem is the filter.  So much is being written that it is almost impossible to filter through it and get to the good stuff.  And I am not convinced that publisher are the filter they claim to be.

One of the main roles of publishers in the past, and one of their more important ongoing roles is filter.  Publish what is good, act as editor and first reader and make sure what is published is worth the effort of reading.  Publishers are falling down on that role.  Overworked copy editors are letting a lot of errors slip through.  Overworked book editors are not asking author to cut the fluff.  Authors that have make money with just a few ideas, keep repackaging them instead of thinking of new ideas.

Meanwhile, publishers are concerned that ebooks are going to leave them without any profits.  They have a real concern.  But I think the problem is not the ebook, that is just a distribution method.  The problem is their model.  Historically 1/3 of published books tanked, 1/3 paid their costs but didn’t make any money and 1/3 made a lot of money.  That is what publishers know.  So they risk a lot on books.  Books really are fairly expensive to produce.  And I fully admit, it is not the printing cost that is expensive.  The average hardcover is less than $2 to print and distribute.  The average paperback is only about $1 to print and distribute.  But publishers are used to charging $20-30 for a hardback and $7 to 14 for a paperback.  So they are making a lot of extra money on the hardback that they are not making on the paperback.  Like first run movies, the highest return comes from the initial distribution.  Second run movies, DVD and TV rights have much less profit.  The problem for them in the future is justifying why they have been charging 2 to 3 times the paperback costs for a hardback if it is not based on the added printing costs.

So that brings us back to ebooks.  I think publishers have full rights to mess with their pricing.  Charge $20 if you want for an ebook.  Charge twice as much for the ebook as the hardback.  Hold the ebook for several months and treat it as a second run movie.  Capitalism is based on experimentation.  So try out your experiments and get the most out of your product you can.  You are a business and your job is to make money.  My job is to buy something that I want, for a price I am willing to pay.  So if I choose this less good indie author that is giving away their book instead of your big name author that you want to charge $20 for an ebook, don’t cry to me.  It may be that the indie author is actually better than your big name.  But I will pay for content that I want.  I just paid $10 for an ebook, when I have over 100 books waiting to read, because I had a friend recommend it.  I can get free books all over the place, not only indie authors, but the 1000s of public domain works.

Publishers, I wish you well, just stop complaining that the world is about to end and deal with it.

“The world is interested in Jesus. It is his wife, the bride of Christ, that they do not want to spend time with.”

Neil Cole opens the book Organic Church with that provocative idea. I met Neil about the time that this book came out at a conference. I just got around to reading the book (about five years later.) Since attending that Simple Church conference I have been intrigued by the concept of simple churches. At the time I was attending a small church of about 50. But my small church was anything but simple. Cole is practical, biblical and interested in making much of Jesus, to use Ed Stetzer’s phrase. This is a rich book with a lot to think about. Some will be turned off because he is strong in his language about the weak and failing US church. But he is interested, not in condemning the Church, but making it stronger. Below are a variety of thoughts from the book. I listened to this on audiobook, so the quotes are my paraphrases.

Cole suggests that the Parable of the Sowers should give us encouragement to know that many (in the parable 2/3) of those that initially receive the gospel will not produce any fruit.  So I can spend my time on those that do produce fruit without guilt.  We have spent too much time accommodating those in the church that produce no fruit.

Later, Cole retells the story of Frog and Toad’s garden. Toad plants a garden, but it doesn’t grow as quickly as he thinks it should.  So he reads to it and sings to it and talks to it.  Eventually it grows but Toad is not sure that the garden is worth it.  He spent so much time working on it, he is not sure it is worth having a garden.  Cole’s point is that much of what we do as churches is similar to what Toad was doing.  It is the Holy Spirit that brings people to Christ and causes them to grow.  We have a responsibility to break up the soil, plant and harvest, but the actual growing, what we tend to spend a lot of time working on, is not our job.

Cole makes a lot of references to Jesus being what is important, not structure.  At one point he describes churches as being like the pipes in our house.  We never notice pipes unless they are clogged.  What we notice is how good the water is.  The water and getting it is what is important, not the pipes.

Cole also turn servant leadership on its head.  We all know Jesus told the disciples that the leader will be the servant.  And so we frequently hear from the pulpit and bible studies that leaders should be serving the rest of us.  But Cole thinks Jesus also meant it the other way.  People will follow those that they see serving.  If leaders need to be reminded and told to serve, then they aren’t worth following.  Find someone that is serving and follow them instead.

Cole spends a significant amount to time talking about releasing new Christians to work.  He, quite rightly in my mind, complains about the mentality that people should be trained before sharing the gospel with others.  The majority of Christians in the US feel inadequate in sharing the gospel.  But Christians in the US are the most trained and equip Christians in history.  Few Christians have less than a handful of bibles.  Many have attended church their whole lives.  But poorly educated new Christians around the world start churches and reach people.  He asserts, and I mostly agree, the big issues is obedience.  US Christians are trained beyond their obedience.  Much better to have obedience beyond your training.  The Holy Spirit is the one doing the work anyway.  The part I don’t agree with, or really I think he just needs to be explicit about it, is that part of the reason that US Christians are trained beyond their obedience lies in the training.  We tend to train people by talking to them, not bringing them alongside while we do the work of sharing the gospel.  If trainers took one person and walked with them and mentored them in sharing the gospel and then took another person and did the same.  I think we could reach a lot more people than we do by filling huge ballrooms at evangelism conferences where we talk about sharing the gospel.  Cole does this, and I think more than the style of or method of simple church, his emphasis on discipleship and practical equipping is what makes his movement successful.

Overall I think this is a great book. My only complaint is that I think it could use a bit of editing. It is only 272 pages on paper, but I think it could have had 50 pages cut and still provided the same amount of punch.  Many people want to condemn Cole and others like him for rejecting the church.  That is just not fair, Cole loves the church.  But Cole is called to reach people that the church is not reaching, and he is doing it.  We should never just reject people that are successfully following the direction of the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit is not directing us in the same direction.

As I was getting ready to publish this post this morning I read a post by Kelly Moreton.  She relates a quote that I think is the central issue with humility.

Every problem in the world is a relationship problem. The problem with relationships is pride. The solution to that problem is humility.

The older I get, the more I want to say that real and deep wisdom comes with age.  Not that with age comes wisdom, because I know many older people that have never acquired wisdom.  But that in order to really develop wisdom, you need some years.  C.J. Mahaney is a good example of someone that has put in the time and effort into developing wisdom.  Humility (Christianaudio link) is a great example of a good book that if we put it into practice will help us move in the direction of spiritual growth, wisdom, and of course, humility.

The first section of Humility (Amazon link) is devoted to a description of what is and is not humility, and why pride, the opposite of humility, is the root of all other sin.  Mahaney uses a simple way to help describe pride.  Pride is when “we contend with God for supremacy”.  He says that years before contemplating this book he started making confession to God, and occasionally to others, around pride.  He stopped saying, “Please forgive me for my pride” and started saying “Please forgive me for contending with God for supremacy.”  This focuses him more on what pride, and humility, are really about.

The remainder of the book (about the last 75 percent) is devoted to practical ways to encourage humility.  Some of them are practices of spiritual devotion, along the lines of Spiritual Devotions for the Christian Life (my review) which is specifically mentioned.  But there are many others, like re-claiming our commute.  There is also an extended section on sleep, why it is important, why God created it and what we should do for spiritual benefit as we get ready for it.  This is probably the closest that anyone I am aware of has come to a theology of sleep.

There is also an extended discussion on Habakkuk about the relationship of suffering and humility.  There is good quote from DA Carson, “The truth of the matter is that all we have to do is live long enough and we will suffer.”  Mahaney then suggests that we need to prepare to respond humbly to trials.  He does not really deal with the problem of evil (why is there suffering) but instead focuses on how suffering can allow us to better focus on humility before God.

The final section is on parenting.  I am not a parent, but I am a full time nanny for my two nieces (2 1/2 and 1).  I think the 15 minutes (on audiobook) or so of why we should focus on developing humility in our children and some practical steps on how to do it are worth the price of the book.  Like the rest of the book, the parenting section isn’t revolutionary, but it is clear, succinct and convicting.  Overall this is a great book.

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Discussion about prices and lenght:  This is not a part of the official review.  But I think it is odd that the hardback, the kindle version and the Christianaudio audiobook are all within $0.03 of one another.

The second issue is length.  I traditionally only bought audiobooks that were at least 10 hours long.  That was when I had more time and did a lot more data-entry at work.  As I have been more focused on posting three book reviews a week, I am realizing that many of these short books, really might be better.  Not only because I can keep to my deadlines, but because many of them get to the point, make the point and finish without a lot of the fluff.  Admittedly fiction and non-fiction have different goals, so I still don’t think I would buy a 3 hour fiction audiobook.  But even many of the fiction books I have read recently are adding too much fluff that does not really add to the story.

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Disclosure: I am a part of ChristianAudio.com’s blogger program.  They provided me with a free copy with the understanding that I will blog about it and post a review in their store.  I am not required to give a positive review.

This is my weekly post on free ebooks that are readable on the Kindle.  Some of the books from previous posts are still available for free.  If you want to see all free books as they come out you should follow Books on the Knob on their RSSor Twitter Feed.  As always please check to make sure the books are still free before you “buy” them, especially from Amazon.  Prices can change quickly.  These books were all free as of 6 AM EST today.

Non-Fiction

I am into politics, but I am no where near this geeked out on political stuff.  But if you are: Economic Report of the President by Council of Economic Advisers — The Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2011 contains the Budget Message of the President, information on the President-s priorities, budget overviews organized by agency, and summary tables. Analytical Perspectives, Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2011 contains analyses that are designed to highlight specified subject areas or provide other significant presentations of budget data that place the budget in perspective. This volume includes economic and accounting analyses; information on Federal receipts and collections; analyses of Federal spending; information on Federal borrowing and debt; baseline or current services estimates; and other technical presentations. The full Budget and additional information related to the Office of Management and Budget is available at Budget.gov

Also, if anyone doesn’t know, almost all of John Piper’s books are free on his website.  They are mostly in PDF format but if you have a Kindle or other ebook reading you can convert them into a friendly format (they do not have DRM) and read away.  I have downloaded several and plan on reading a couple more in the next few months.

Fiction

Amberville Free by Tim Davys (Harper Collins) What does it mean to be bad? Eric Bear has it all: a successful career, a beautiful wife, a blissful home. He knows he’s been lucky; a while back, his life revolved around drugs, gambling, a gang of stuffed-animal thugs, and notorious crime boss Nicholas Dove. But the past isn’t as far away as Eric had hoped. Rumors are swirling that Dove is on the Death List and that he wants Eric to save him. If Eric fails to act, his beloved wife, Emma Rabbit, will be torn apart, limb by limb. With a nod to the best of noir and the wisest of allegories, and interlaced with greed and gangsters, Amberville depicts an alternate world that mirrors our own realities and moral concerns, and reminds us of the inextricable link between good and evil.This special free edition includes an excerpt from Tim Davys- newest Mollisan Town novel, Lanceheim.

Dead Witch Walking (The Hollows, Book 1) by Kim Harrison (Harper Collins) All the creatures of the night gather in “the Hollows” of Cincinnati, to hide, to prowl, to party … and to feed.Vampires rule the darkness in a predator-eat-predator world rife with dangers beyond imagining — and it-s Rachel Morgan’s job to keep that world civilized.A bounty hunter and witch with serious sex appeal and an attitude, she’ll bring ‘em back alive, dead … or undead.This special free edition includes an excerpt from Kim Harrison’s newest Hollows novel, Black Magic Sanction.

The Almost True Story of Ryan Fisher: A Novel by Rob Stennett (Zondervan) Meet Ryan Fisher-a self-assured real estate agent who’s looking for an edge in the market.While watching a news special late one night, he sees evangelical Christians raising their hands in worship. It’s like they’re begging for affordable but classy starter homes.Ryan discovers the Christian business directory and places an ad complete with a Jesus fish. His business doubles in a week.But after visiting an actual church, Ryan realizes that with his business savvy, he could not only plant a church-he could create an empire. The Almost True Story of Ryan Fisher is a hilarious, spot-on, and often heartbreaking satire in the tradition of Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Perrotta, and Douglas Adams.

My Name Is Russell Fink by Michael Snyder (Zondervan) Russell Fink is twenty-six years old and determined to salvage a job he hates so he can finally move out of his parents’ house for good. He’s convinced he gave his twin sister cancer when they were nine years old. And his crazy fiancee refuses to accept the fact that their engagement really is over.Then Sonny, his allegedly clairvoyant basset hound, is found murdered.The ensuing amateur investigation forces Russell to confront several things at once the enormity of his family’s dysfunction, the guy stalking his family, and his long-buried feelings for a most peculiar love interest.At its heart, My Name Is Russell Fink is a comedy, with sharp dialogue, characters steeped in authenticity, romance, suspense, and fresh humor. With a postmodern style similar to Nick Hornby and Douglas Coupland, the author explores reconciliation, forgiveness, and faith in the midst of tragedy. No amount of neurosis or dysfunction can derail God’s redemptive purposes.

My wife and I read a few pages every night before we go to sleep.  Crazy Love was our most recent book.  Francis Chan is a captivating speaking and author. And the book is a fairly serious one.

A ton of people have written really good reviews of this book and I am not sure how to add to them.  Francis Chan starts with the glory of God.  If you have heard Louis Giglio speak often there is some overlapping themes and style with the first couple chapters.

But then Chan moves into an assessable, modern call to live a radical life for Christ.  He challenges the reader to inspect what they claim to believe.  And if you believe what you say, then why aren’t you living with the type of radical devotion that shows that we really believe what we say.

There are several sections of examples of real life people trying to live a life devoted to Christ.  If you want your faith challenged.  This is a good place to start.  Fairly short book, 192 pages.

Since we read this as a paper book, not audio or ebook, I will give away our copy.  Leave a comment below between now and 5 PM EST Feb 25th and I will chose someone randomly.

Last week, I wrote about the eink screen, the main reason that I bought the Kindle that ended up being wrong (it has a browser, but it is unusable) and the biggest benefit that I did not know about (the free books).

This week I want to talk about what the kindle brings to reading tools (highlighting, annotating and search).

Highlighting

I know that readers have different feelings about whether you should write in books.  Michael Hyatt (CEO of Thomas Nelson) has two great posts on how to take notes and how to read a non-fiction book.  I was brought up to be a “don’t ever write in a book” person.  So I do not have a history of writing in books.  But the highlighting feature in the kindle has changed that for me.  Highlighting, not only makes a mark on the page, but it also automatically creates a bookmark, to make it easier to find the passage later, and copies the entire highlighted section to a notes files (with a note on the book and location of the passage.)

I use this all the time to help me write my book reviews.  Anytime I see something that I want to comment on I just highlight it and when I am ready to write the review I pull up the notes file and the review is usually already half written.

Annotating

Highlighting is only half of the note taking process.  The other part is your response to what you are highlighting.  I have found that I do not use this as much as the highlighting.  But I do use it sometimes.  When you want to make a comment on a passage, you can either highlight and then annotate (which I recommend) or just move the cursor to where you want to add the annotation.  If you do not highlight first (or after) then you do not have the context for the note attached to the note.  There is a book location in your notes file, and the note is in the book, so you see it when you are re-reading the book.  But if you are note taking because you are preparing for a paper or a talk, then you want the whole context so you do not have to go back and re-read the section.

Search

I have a visual memory with books.  I used to be able to turn to a passage in the bible and know about where on the page what I was looking for was going to be.  It has been a decade since I regularly used a paper bible, so that visual memory is gone.  But search more than makes up for what I used to be able to occasionally find through visual memory.  It is a concordance for every word or phrase, not only in the book you are reading, but every book on your kindle if you want.  Search is a huge advantage for an ebook reader.  And really it is the main reason I use the kindle keyboard.  I really do not make that many notes.

Next week: A consumer’s opinion on ebook prices

I really like Eugene Peterson’s books.  Over the last year I have read four of his books.  They are essentially practical theology, the theology of how we live our life.  The first (this is the order I read them in, the intended order may be different)  is Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places (a discussion of Christian Theology and spirituality).  The second is Eat This Book (a discussion of scripture, the shortest and most accessible of the books).  The third, The Jesus Way, I still have not finished.  It is the only one that I read.  The rest I have listened to.   Even though it is not Eugene Peterson reading, I find that his writing style is more audible for me than visual.   The Jesus Way is about the exclusivity of Christ.  And like Peterson often does, it is about a narrative, not propositional truth.  There are two more that I have not read yet.  Tell it Slant (about the language and way Jesus communicates the gospel) and a new one I just saw this morning Practice Resurrection (on growth in Christ).

This book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction is not actually a part of this series and has overlapping themes with Practice Resurrection but it fits right in.  A Long Obedience is a series of meditations on the Psalms of Ascent (Psalms 120-134).  The Psalms of Ascent were songs that were sung as people went into Jerusalem to celebrate one of the three major feasts each year.  These are psalms of preparation and worship.  Peterson takes one psalm by chapter and teases out a cohesive narrative about how we grow as Christians, not by quickly learning something new, but by doing what needs to be done over the long haul.  This would make a good devotional reading.  Each chapter (in audio form) is about 15 to 20 minutes.

One particularly good section, I am paraphrasing here because this was an audio-book, says…”We can act ourselves into feeling.  We shouldn’t worship only when we feel like it.  The bible never says, worship when you feel like it.  Instead it says to worship.  The act of worship will bring about the feeling of worship far quicker than the feeling of worship will bring about the act of worship.”   I have found this true in my attempts at fixed hour prayer.  I often do not feel like praying.  In fact, I frequently am half or three quarters of the way through the time before my mind even switches over to what I am doing.  Sometimes I never switch over to a worship mood.  But more often than I would have ever guessed, I am caught by something that I could not have predicted.  I suddenly am worshipping when I would not have predicted.  If I was “choosing” when to worship based on feelings there would be less worship in my life.  The last chapter is also about “feelings and worship” and is probably the best of the sections.

In another chapter, Peterson uses the example of having children as an example of the work that we should be doing for God.  None of us actually do much to construct a child.  We participate, but what we do, most of the time is not what would be considered “work”.  Instead, God does the work and allows us to participate through an act of love.  Children are not created without our participation, but at the same time, we all know it is God work and not our own.

Peterson, in his distinctive, narrative, style really is one of the best authors I know to move us in the direction of spiritual growth.  Highly recommend any of these books.