Between the pages… part 1

So its been 15 forevers since I posted.  Whatever.

I’ve been reading some pretty cool books of late.  What has made the experience particularly enjoyable is the fact that I’ve been trying to more consistently read things that took me to new places.  Sometimes that means authors I know little about beyond their reputation.  Sometimes it means choosing a book because I wan’t to hear a contrarian point of view.  Still others, I am on one of my financially crippling forays into the bowels of my local bookstore (yes, bookstores have bowels).  Experiments don’t always work out as well as these, but the last few months has me on a really good streak.  Given that introduction, here is the first of several reviews on books I’ve recently read.

One of the side effects I’ve noticed since becoming a veggie several years ago is that it makes you pay significantly more attention to what you eat.  I will also admit to having decided to wage my own personal war against everyone involved in the oil extraction, refinement, distribution, and extortion trade.  Eating food grown close to me seems like a pretty good addition to my arsenal in this Quixotic quest.  For these reasons, along with the fact that I could hold a few more pounds of book-weight before encumbrance would drive me to the bookstore checkout, I was intrigued by Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver.  Reading the back cover reveals it as a memoir of an author, (Barbara Kingsolver, who also wrote The Poisonwood Bible, among others) as she and her family undertake a personal challenge to go an entire year with virtually all of the food they eat having been grown within 100 miles or so of their own home (often on their own farm).  The book is not the story alone however, but rather an unequal sampling of retelling of the experience, some educational sections about how food is made/grown/distributed, some pretty hefty preaching about the evils of “big food” corporations, as well as some recipes and additional points of view from her eldest daughter and husband.  While some of the preaching was a bit heavy handed, my only real complaint is that I wanted more of the story of her year-long experiment.  Its not that she didn’t adequately cover the subject (she did this quite well), but rather that she was exceptionally good when writing of the search for morels, preparing her garden for time away on vacation, or sharing details of the community in which they live.  One of the marks of a great books is feeling a bit disappointed when you reach then end, knowing there will be no more.  While I didn’t feel I needed any more details on chickenhouse conditions on a CAFO or the latest on seed patent legislation, I did long to know how the next generation of turkeys fared and if they made a good choice on the rooster they kept.  In fairness, even the somewhat momentum breaking sermonizing was rather educational.  I’d give the book a 7/10 for general reading, and 9 if you long to know more about what might be produced in a year on a Virginian farm, the local/slow food movement, and the dangers of mega-producers.  (BTW, there is also a website for those interested in the topic.

Fiction or Rant?

A Review of Michael Crichton’s State of Fear

Let me start by saying I feel I have earned the right to be opinionated on Michael Crichton’s writing style. I have earned this right by long-following his written work (never really followed E.R., for which he was the principal writer). Like any writer, he has had his ups and downs. Like any author, he has agendas that flow through his work.
After having read 8 or so of his books, here are certain things I have learned to expect. I have learned to expect that he is no respecter of the lives of key characters. Historically, they have assumed room temperature with frequency, and often in technicolor. I have learned to expect numerous tutorials, usually of a highly technical nature, built in to the text so that I may become as well informed as Crichton. This is usually critical to understanding either the plot, or the particularly grotesque end to which some character will soon come. I have learned to expect the unexpected. I have learned that while, like any author, he has an agenda, to expect that it will be wrapped into a well crafted story. I have learned that while he is one of my favorite authors (Jurassic Park and The Andromeda Strain), he is still capable of stinking up the joint (Disclosure and Lost World). I have learned to expect time stamps on every section in the book (he uses a journal style) and bits of “supporting evidence” to be included directly in the body of the text.

Having thus set the stage, there were many of the Crichton-esque elements I have come to expect in this book. It was a techno-thriller, with a myriad of details and tutorials to satisfy my nerdy soul. It was written with all of the document excerpts and date and time stamps I have come to expect. There was an agenda, but alas, it was not wrapped in a particularly well crafted story. As I had seen him do in the past, I am afraid he stunk it up in this much like he did in Disclosure.

In State of Fear, Crichton tackles the family of Monsters Under the Bed known as Global Warming, Abrupt Climate Change, and their various offspring.  His position appears to be that adherence to these concepts takes either a tremendous amount of faith or a profit motive.  He provides tons of support for the idea that global warming is more about junk science than it is about saving the environment.  It also seems clear that he isn’t saying that environmentalism and being considerate of the world we live in isn’t a bad idea, but instead that there are a lot of nut cases involved in the cause.  I found the arguments he posed to be very interesting.  Unfortunately, I was looking for a good fiction read.  This was not good fiction.

There was plenty of action, and isolated scenes were really pretty good.  The problem is, the story did not really work as a whole.  It was somewhat predictable (in a bad way) and I didn’t really buy they characters working together as they did.  The story left tons of loose ends.  Sometimes this can be good.  Sometimes it can leave the reader with interesting unresolved questions to answer.  This time it was just annoying.

My advice to Crichton: pull you great research and advocacy for a sane approach to respecting our world into a decent non-fiction work.  Maybe you could make it a response to Al “internet” Gore’s magnum opus.  Meanwhile, write a nice piece of fiction that happens to have a message, unstead of the other way around.  That’s when you are at your best.

My advice to the book buying public: buy Jurassic Park and The Andromeda Strain.  They are both fantastic books worth every page.  By the way, don’t let the fact that you have seen the movie version of Jurassic Park stop you from reading the book.  Both the book and movie have dinosaurs and involve an island, but there aren’t many similarities past that.

A Roadmap for Great Talks

A Brief Review of Andy Stanley’s Communicating for a Change

Most folks that have heard Andy Stanley talk would have to admit that, love him or hate him, the guy can communicate. (Feel free to put me in the “love him” camp: his megachurch, Northpoint, may not be the right place for everyone, but I have decided they do a pretty fantastic job of the thing they set out to do.)

The subject of this particular Andy Stanley co-written project (he’s extremely prolific) is his guidance on putting together effective talks that have one particular goal: creating change in the lives of those that hear them. He is clear from the onset that if your goal something else (such as giving a comprehensive historical review of the contents of the Pentateuch and their implications in a post-modern world), his approach is probably not the right one for you. As a new youth pastor, and therefore a guy very interested in putting together and presenting talks that speak truth into the lives of students in a way that changes them, this book was exactly what I needed.

The book is arranged into two parts. The first is a parable that joins a pastor struggling with the effectiveness of his sermons, and follows him through some unexpected encounters and how he learns from them. This would be the portion likely contributed by the co-author. The second part them takes you into further explanation on the points suggested in the first half, this time more directly and clearly authored fully by Andy.

The parable reads easily, is interesting, and is engaging. The real-world example helps to provide some context for the detail in the sections yet to come. The second, instructional section is also quick and easy to read, and is very consistent with the Andy that anyone who has ever heard him speak has grown to know. The language of this section is suprisingly casual in tone (I recall him using the word “dis”) and feels almost like a conversation over a cup of Starbucks. The advice is very practical, with each chapter ending a reminder section that covers the highlights of the action the reader should take.

Overall, there were only a couple of minor criticisms of the work. First, Andy says several times in the course of the text that he is not trying to get the reader to present talks like him. This is somewhat true, but not entirely. There are several things that are so prototypically Andy from a style perspective (he suggests the use of several “transitional” and “attention focusing” statements that are absolute hallmarks) that a listener familiar with the younger Mr. Stanley would immediately recognize them as such. The second item is that the last few chapters read a bit like “Andy Saves the World” as he recounts several stories of how he either could have helped someone’s style had they listened to him, or did so when the fortunate soul did listen. These are both minor issues that do not noticeably detract from an excellent tutorial.

All in all, the book may not be welcomed by seasoned speakers that are confident with their craft. For those that are experienced, but always open to new ideas, the book may not revolutionize things for you, but I would bet you find some nuggets you will use. For folks like me with little experience in the area and a desire to start giving life changing talks, it goes on my must read list. I highly recommend the book to anyone with a desire to learn and a need to put together talks. It is a short and easy read with a great payoff.