CharlieDean

I said in a previous post, that I’d review books that you all requested.  And the first request was for The Night Circus, so here it is. If you’ve followed my blog for awhile, you’ll notice a slight change – I’m trying to review books in one paragraph. There are many extensive reviews out there, I don’t need to write a thome… And I’m giving stars on a scale of 1 to 5. So here goes…

I read The Night Circus on the beach two weeks ago and I tried to explain it to my wife. Finally, after stammering over my words, trying to explain a magical circus, enchanters, a competition, etc., I just handed her the book and said, “read the jacket.” It’s really not a story that one can summarize easily for a friend. The story is about a magical circus that serves as arena for two characters who duel by proxy, in the form of their proteges, Celia & Marco. In the end, it’s a love story – maybe an echo of Romeo & Juliet – but nevertheless enchanting. (Yeah, I know, I don’t used the word enchanting every day!) It really was a beautiful, gripping, literary read and a remarkable effort for a 1st time novelist! I could hardly put it down, and lucky for me, I was on the beach, basking in the sun and didn’t have to put it down very often! The ending was a little flat, but otherwise a great vacation read.

My “must read” recommendation: ★ ★ ★ ★ (out of 5).

What others have said: The NY Times didn’t like this book so much, but I thought the NPR review was even-handed.

Okay, while on my blog hiatus I finished 11 books. 3 of them were the Hunger Games trilogy (I read them over a year ago, so I brushed up with the movie’s release), the other 8 are listed here, with an Amazon link. I don’t have the energy to write reviews on all of them if now one else is interested. So, if you’d like me to talk about one or more of them, say so in the comments and I’ll start working through the list.

• Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture – Christian Smith
• Evolving in Monkey Town – Rachel Held Evans
• Praying with the Church – Scot McKnight
• The Supper of the Lamb: a culinary reflection – Robert Farrar Capon
• Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense – N.T. Wright
• Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef – Gabrielle Hamilton
• The Night Circus – Erin Morganstern
• Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN – James A. Miller
• The Word of the Lord to Democrats – Brian McLaren

Also – I’ve also updated my “now reading”list in the sidebar, so you can see what I’m currently reading.

“Hi.”

I’ve been away for awhile. I don’t exactly know how it happend, but sometime a couple months ago, I got tired of blogging. It became a chore. And I got discouraged about writing and my own ambition. And I got tired of the whole social media world. I got tired of the bragging, the complaining, the race to be the first critic. I got discouraged about the lack of readers, lack of comments and wondered if this medium is worth the effort.

And since it coincided with the beginning of Lent, I used the holy season as a good excuse to exit the stage gracefully. And it seemed significant to remind myself that the world will still keep turning without my two-cents-worth of opinion.

So, maybe you’ve notice, I’ve been silent for awhile. And, to be honest, it’s been really good and refreshing. And it’s given me a chance to think. This quotation from a book that I was reading on the beach a couple weekly ago really resonated with me:

So, I’m back, at least for now – dipping my toes in the pool, deciding if this is a venue that I want to keep  pursuing.  But I’m a little shy. I’m not sure if I’ll keep at it, or just throw in the towel for good. I’ll watch the stats, watch what kind of interaction happens, and pay attention to my own heart and my own desires… so, we’ll see. But the weeks off have been good. I think I’m closer to the Charlie I’m supposed to be than the Charlie I had been before – and I don’t know exactly what it means, but maybe it’s not important to know yet…

In the next couple of weeks, I at least have a lot of books to tell you about, so if you’re into that sort of thing – here they come…