Tagged: reviews

Declare

Book Review / Books and Reading

Disappointed by Tim Powers’ Novel Declare

I finally had to abandon Tim Powers’ supernatural spy novel, Declare. I read over 200 pages into it and just couldn’t go any further. I really enjoyed Powers’ earlier novel, The Anubis Gates, and I had high hopes for Declare after reading reviews. But the book didn’t evoke any emotional reaction from me at all. I never really connected with Hale, the main character, and I didn’t care for the way Powers’ narrator alternated back and forth between the 1940s and the 1960s. I think part of the...

Master and Commander read by Simon Vance

Books and Reading

Master and Commander Audio Book Review

Simon Vance does a superb job reading every character in Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander except one: the central character Jack Aubrey. I just finished listening to Blackstone Audio’s unabridged version of Master and Commander, and the book keeps getting better each time I experience it. I first read it about ten years ago, then a few years after that I listened to Patrick Tull’s unabridged audio recording from RecordedBooks.com. This time around I didn’t get so bogged down trying to understand the naval jargon, so I was...

Babette's Feast

Movies

45 Important Movies as Chosen by the Vatican

In 1995, to commemorate 100 years of film-making, the Vatican made a list of what it called “Some Important Films.” The list was divided into three areas–Religion, Values and Art. I’ve been gradually acquiring them and watching them. What I particularly like about the list are the international titles. Here’s the list with a few comments of my own thrown in: Religion: Andrei Rublev Babette’s Feast – I really enjoyed this slow-moving but tender film. Ben-Hur – The four-disc edition also includes the original silent film–an excellent dvd...

Don Quixote

Books and Reading

The Knight of the Sorrowful Face Will Put a Smile on Yours

I finally finished listening to the Don Quixote audiobook narrated by George Guidall, and it remains my favorite book of all time. It took almost five months to listen to (I have a very short commute to work), but it was worth the time. Guidall is deservedly known as the king of audiobooks, and his reading was masterful. In a book full of dozens of characters, he managed to give each one a separate personality and voice. I don’t want to say too much about the story itself,...

Books and Reading

Read for Your Life

Motivational speaker Pat Williams has an important new book out called Read for Your Life: 11 Ways to Transform Your Life with Books. Pat is the father of nineteen children, a marathon runner, the senior vice president of the Orlando Magic basketball team, and a reader. His book is designed to encourage people to read for an hour every day. He says, “Hey, if I can do it with nineteen kids, so can everyone else.” Yeah, but does his wife read for an hour every day, too, or...

An Evening in Rivendell

Books and Reading / Music

Music to Listen to While You Read, Part III – Lord of the Rings

As promised in part II, here are some CDs I like to listen to while I read The Lord of the Rings: The Tolkien Ensemble has done a beautiful job setting all of the songs in The Lord of the Rings to music. Their work is collected in four CDs: An Evening in Rivendell, A Night in Rivendell, At Dawn in Rivendelland Leaving Rivendell. The sound is more classical than I expected, but it really grew on me. Another album I listen to is Broceliande’s Starlit Jewel. This...

Book Review / Books and Reading

Made to Stick Will Stick with You

I began Flannery O’Connor’s Wise Blood a few weeks ago, but I got sidetracked by a few nonfiction titles that grabbed my interest. That happens to me every so often. I’ll make up my mind to start a book, and then another one will grab me by the shirt and say, “NO! Pick ME!” That’s what happened with the Heath brothers’ Made to Stick, a fantastic exploration of what makes ideas memorable. I started reading it in the bookstore and couldn’t put it down. As I mentioned in...

Don Quixote Tone Poem CD

Books and Reading / Music

Music to Listen to While You Read Part II – Don Quixote

Yesterday I wrote about the music I like to listen to while reading Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander series. I know that the reading group Tilting at Windmills is about to begin Don Quixote, so today I want to share the kind of music that helps set the atmosphere when I read this most excellent novel. (Sidenote: If you’ve never read Don Quixote you should join Tilting at Windmills and read it–it’s my favorite book, hands down, and in my opinion the greatest novel ever written.) To achieve...

Musical Evenings with the Captain

Books and Reading / Music

Music to Listen to While You Read Part I

Picture yourself curled up on the couch with a good book and your favorite drink. No interruptions. What music is playing in the background? Some people like to read in silence, but I’m not one of them. The right music helps me become more involved in my book by creating a kind of environmental blanket that envelops me and keeps the world out. I thought I’d share some of my favorite music to read by with you in the hopes that you might share yours with me. If...

Book Review / Books and Reading / Teaching

The Intellectual Devotional

I never buy new hardcovers because they’re too expensive, but I made an exception yesterday and bought two: The Intellectual Devotional and Made to Stick. At first I was a bit worried when I saw the title for The Intellectual Devotional, thinking it was going to be a kind of anti-prayer book for atheists, pitting faith against reason or science against religion. As I thumbed through the pages, though, it doesn’t appear to be any such thing. Like a devotional, it consists of daily readings, but rather than...

The Samurai

Book Review / Books and Reading / Spirituality

Book Review: The Samurai by Shusaku Endo

I just finished reading Shusaku Endo’s The Samurai, and it was eye-opening in so many ways. It is the story of two men: Father Velasco, the flawed but well-meaning missionary to Japan, and Hasekura Rokuemon, the quiet Samurai who only wants to do his duty. Both men have a mission, both of them are forced to compromise their integrity for the sake of that mission, and neither of them get what they want. In the end, however, The Samurai is a gentle reminder that God “writes straight with...

Art / Books and Reading

Cover Artist Feature – Michael Whelan

Yesterday I wrote about how important book covers are to me, and this week’s featured artist is Michael Whelan. If you’ve read with any depth in the science fiction/fantasy genre then you probably already know his work. From Anne McCaffrey’s Pern series to Michael Moorcock’s Elric series, Michael Whelan has been illustrating fantasy novels for over twenty-four years. He has won the Hugo award an amazing fourteen times. The biography on his official website includes Whelan’s artistic statement which, interestingly enough, is a quote by renowned Catholic author...