religion - Book Reviews

Infidel

Buckle up, my friends. Ayaan Hirsi Ali's "Infidel" is a staggeringly controversial memoir that forcefully condemns "multicultural" appeasement of Islamic immigrants in Western countries because of their unequal treatment of women and subordination of individual liberty. A fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institution and Harvard's Kennedy School, a member of the

4-stars

The Screwtape Letters

An epistolary novel in which a demon ("Screwtape") gives advice to his tempter-in-training nephew ("Wormwood"). It's a marvelous conceit and one which C.S. Lewis executes brilliantly.

5-stars

Circe

Beautifully written in sort of modern/mythic hybrid style, Miller's feminist retelling of The Odyssey surprised me. Miller expertly walks a fine line, adding substantive feminist themes while still respecting the underlying mythology.

4-stars

Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther

Halloween 2017 is the 500th anniversary of a turning point in Western history. Although few actions have changed the world as much as Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the church door at Wittenberg, it was barely mentioned in my formal education. Bainton's "Here I Stand: A Life

3-stars

The Doors of Perception

Best known for his "Brave New World," Aldous Huxley also made his stamp on the counter-culture with his notorious mescalin book, "The Doors of Perception". In it, he brings us along on one of his mescalin trips and takes frequent detours into the worlds of art,

5-stars

The Satanic Verses

Surreally cynical, flamingly controversial, and surprisingly touching, Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses" is a work of art. Structuring a frame narrative around the intersecting paths of two Indian actors as they flit between London and Bombay, Rushdie made me laugh, frown, ponder, and reflect as he told of Gibreel

3-stars

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow

"Homo Deus" is a provocative but ultimately scattered, shallow, and incorrect analysis of liberal political history and what recent developments in our scientific understanding mean for the future of our society. It's a frustrating book to review. There are a few great frameworks in here that changed how

5-stars

Finite and Infinite Games: A Vision of Life as Play and Possibility

I started this book expecting a popular treatment of game theory. I was in for a surprise! Contrary to what the title might lead you to believe, "Finite and Infinite Games" is actually an extremely dense religious/philosophical text. The insights-per-paragraph rate is insane. Carse - a religion

fiction

Submission

Brutal, philosophical, terrifying, and bigoted? Houellebecq's "Submission" describes the Muslim Brotherhood's demographic/religious takeover of France. Published on the same day as the Charlie Hebdo shooting, Submission is a violent condemnation of the moral relativism/bankruptcy of leftist multicultural Europe and its impotence in the face of massive

4-stars

After the Prophet: The Epic Story of the Shia-Sunni Split in Islam

"After the Prophet" links the personalities and events of the early days of Islam to the recent history of the Muslim world. Hazleton deftly spins a narrative that transported me back to in time to the Arabian peninsula in the 600's and introduced me to the main cast