Review: Finding God in My Loneliness

 

Lydia Brownback. Finding God in My Loneliness.  Wheaton, IL: Crossway, February 28th 2017.  174 pp.

4 out of 5

Purchase: Westminster |Amazon

Do you struggle with loneliness?  If so how do you handle loneliness biblically?  This book is a great resources for anyone going through the trial of being lonely.  I have not heard of the author Lydia Brownback before I read this book so I did not had any expectation in the beginning but when I finished the book I realized I was quite impressed and edified by the content of this book.  The work was refreshingly biblical and I am glad that the author is one of the senior editors at Crossway

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Review: Tong Wars: The Untold Story of Vice, Money, and Murder in New York’s Chinatown

A weekend reading review…because Pastors also need a break from heavy theological reading!  And also for your stay at home, “shelter in place,” etc, with the virus.

 

Scott D. Seligman.  Tong Wars: The Untold Story of Vice, Money, and Murder in New York’s Chinatown. New York, NY: Viking, July 12th 2016.  368 pp.

5 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

What comes up in your mind when you hear “Chinatown?”  For those in New York City from the 1890s through the 1930s many people associated Chinatown with organized crime.  It was seen as a hotbed for betting parlors, opium dens, prostitution and violence. Sadly most people during that time associated Chinese people with vice and were seen by the elites in New York and the Newspaper as a bigger problem than other immigrant groups such as the Irish, Italians, etc.  As the book agues this picture wasn’t accurate and Chinese and Chinatown was not statistically more criminal than the rest of the population in New York though their different lifestyles and ways did invite racism and prejudicial serotyping.  In fact during this was Tammany-era New York City and corruption and depravity was all over the city and among politicians and the police.  Situating things in this context the book focuses largely on Chinese organize crime.  The author look at secret societies called “Tongs,” which are the Chinese equivalent to the Italian Mafia.  It is well researched, heavily source documented and narrated well; I can’t put it down!

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Review: The Death of Caesar

A weekend reading review…because Pastors also need a break from heavy theological reading!  And also for your stay at home, “shelter in place,” etc, with the virus.

Barry S. Strauss. The Death of Caesar: The Story of History’s Most Famous Assassination.  New York, NY: Simon Schuster, March 3rd 2015. 352 pp.

4 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

Most people know about the assassination of Julius Caesar through William Shakespeare’s play.  But what was the actual history of this event?  Barry Strauss a Cornell University professor of classical history gives us a well-researched book about the actual events before and after one of history’s most infamous assassination.

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Review: Rising in Flames: Sherman’s March and the Fight for a New Nation

A weekend reading review…because Pastors also need a break from heavy theological reading!  And also for your stay at home, “shelter in place,” etc, with the virus.

 

Jeff D. Dickey. Rising in Flames.  New York, NY: Pegasus Books, June 5th 2018. 400 pp.

4 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

When I say “Sherman’s March to Sea,” what do you think of?  I know many images and connotation is stirred up when General Sherman is brought up.  This is a rather infamous military campaign led by General William Sherman going into the Confederate South for the purpose of sabotaging the economic capabilities of the South to feed and equip their Confederate Army.  This was quite a controversy then and also controversial even for our day and age for non-Southerners given the kind of tactics Sherman pursued in the war.  Most of what I have heard has largely been from the perspective of the South and also popular imagination from the movie Gone with the Wind.  The author argues that there’s a need to understand what happened from the perspective of also those in the North and Sherman’s army.

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Review: Above and Beyond: John F. Kennedy and America’s Most Dangerous Cold War Spy Mission

A weekend reading review, because Pastor’s also need a break from heavy theological reading!

Casey Sherman and Michael Tougias.  Above and Beyond: John F. Kennedy and America’s Most Dangerous Cold War Spy Mission. New York, NY: PublicAffairs, April 17th 2018. 306 pp.

5 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

Anyone lived during the Cuban Missile Crisis?  While I knew some things about the incident I didn’t know the extent of how close the United States and Russia came to a nuclear war during that time until I read this book!  While the book starts kind of slow in the beginning it does pick up and is riveting and will have readers’ full attention.

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Review: Severe Compassion

Gregory D. Cook. Severe Compassion: The Gospel According to Nahum.  Phillipsburg, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, April 29th 2016. 288 pp.

5 out of 5

Purchase: Westminster |Amazon

How many people have read the book of Nahum in the Bible?  For believers we can’t just dismiss it as an irrelevant book from the past since it is God’s Word for us today.  Yet readers will no doubt have questions since we are quite removed from the historical context.  A good help in understanding the book of Nahum would be this Bible commentary.

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Review: Batman, Volume 9: The Tyrant Wing

A weekend leisure reading review…because sometimes Pastors also need a break from heavy theological reading!

 

Tom King.  Batman, Volume 9: The Tyrant Wing. Burbank, CA: DC Comics, March 26th 2019. 152 pp.

4 out of 5

Purchase: Amazon

Ready for another adventure with Batman?  This title collects Batman comic issue 58 through 60 and also Batman Annual 3 and Batman Secret files 1. While the cover says this is written by Tom King in actually he was the writer for issues 58 to 60 and the rest was written by various other writers.

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