The Bruised Reed, by Richard Sibbes

***

This exposition of Isaiah 42:3 ("A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench . . .") is, I believe, Sibbes' best known work. It has been consistently praised by theologians and preachers I respect and seems to be very highly regarded by all who've read it.

Except me, apparently.

Honestly, I found it rather underwhelming. Maybe I've just heard it talked up too much; maybe my expectations were unreasonably high. Whatever the reason, this book was kind of a letdown for me.

Duplicate Death, by Georgette Heyer

***

Murder! At a bridge party, no less! The cast of characters includes a barrister, a Lady, a secretary, a spoiled debutante, a Communist, a businessman, a ballet aficionado, a wealthy widow/parvenu, and a charming gentleman with no visible means of support. When one of them winds up strangled at during an evening of duplicate bridge, it's up to the brusque-but-intelligent Inspector Hemingway (with an assist from his Scottish assistant Grant) to figure out who done it!

Man, I forgot how fun Georgette Heyer books are!

Lit!: A Christian Guide to Reading Books, by Tony Reinke

****

An excerpt of a review posted on Schaeffer's Ghost:

First of all, fiction is uniquely creative in a way that non-fiction simply is not. A good fiction writer does not just tell a story; he (or she) creates a world. When we engage in this activity of world-building, we reflect the image of God, who created our world. He made it up out of his own head (so to speak) and brought it into existence. [...] Even though they can never be ‘real’, these imagined worlds can sometimes have a greater effect on individuals than the ‘real’ world because they work from the inside out. They are directly implanted from the mind of the writer into the mind of the reader or viewer, and it is from there that any real-world effects emanate. Thus, by writing fiction we have an opportunity to share—albeit in a very small way—in the creative work of our Creator God. By writing fiction, we can (dimly) reflect the image of our imaginative God, and by reading fiction, we can appreciate this God-like quality in others.

Full review available here.

Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table, by Ruth Reichl

*****

Food critic and chef Ruth Reichl traces her lifelong love affair with food, beginning with her mother's atrocious culinary creations during her childhood, through to her very first restaurant reviews out in California. The entertaining anecdotes are interspersed with recipes that have been particularly important to her over the years.

Reichl, a highly respected food writer, doesn't seem to have had any formal culinary education. Instead, her expertise is the result of varied experiences cobbled together over the years. She learns about apple dumplings and potato salad from her grandmother's maid. Her mother's housekeeper teaches her the secrets of Beef Wellington and wiener schnitzel. A school friend's father introduces her to souffle and fine cuisine, and a college roommate introduced her to several South American delicacies.

Anxious for Nothing: God's Cure for the Cares of Your Soul, by John MacArthur, Jr.

****

John MacArthur, Jr. (of Grace to You fame) offers biblical counsel for those struggling with anxiety, worry, and stress. The first few chapters are by far the strongest, but there's good counsel throughout.

In the opening chapter (by far my favorite in the book), MacArthur admonishes his readers to observe God's care for them. Using the Sermon on the Mount, points us to three reasons why believers should not worry: "It is unnecessary because of our Father" (He feeds His creatures and clothes the meadows in splendor, and besides, worry doesn't actually help), "it is uncharacteristic because of our faith" (by worrying we disbelieve Scripture and distrust God), and "it is unwise because of our future" (we need to live one day at a time and entrust the future to God). I found this theology of worry extremely helpful, particularly as MacArthur sums it up:

[W]orry is needless because of God's bounty, senseless because of God's promise, useless because of its impotence to do anything productive, and faithless because it is characteristic of unbelievers.

All Creatures Great and Small (Series 1)

***

A perfectly serviceable adaptation of James Herriot's beloved semi-autobiographical books.  The books themselves are highly episodic in nature, and so lend themselves to adaptation for television.  This first series of 13 hour long episodes starts off with young James, a recent veterinary school graduate, interviewing for a position with Siegfried Farnon, the local vet in the tiny Yorkshire town of Darrowby.  The show tracks his various escapades dealing with the local farmers and citizenry, as well as the challenges of working for Siegfried and dealing with Farnon the Younger, a young veterinary student by the name of Tristan (their mother was a big Wagner fan) with a penchant for late nights, good ale, and female company.  Mid-1930s Yorkshire style, as portrayed by the BBC, though, so no seedy stuff.  Just enough to cause the occasional comic hangover or to justify coaxing James to cover for him when romance (or a good pub visit) calls.

The show started filming in the late seventies, and it looks it.  Not the set design, mind you--that's pretty consistently 1930s.  But the film quality screams 1970s.  Lots of stationary cameras and rooms that feel like sets--that sort of thing.  On the other hand, near as I can figure, Christopher Timothy (who plays James) really does stick his arm up a cow on more than one occasion.  I would be very interested to know just how much of the veterinary work he performed was staged, and how much was, well, real (or real-ish).  It certainly looked real, and it's not like they had the technology (or the budget) to fake it.

Masterpieces of Medieval Literature, by Timothy B. Shutt

****

A series of fourteen lectures covering, well, the literature of the Middle Ages. Starting with the 'Germanic North', then moving west to the Icelandic family sagas, then back to the more familiar land of the Anglo Saxons and the Celtic West and on to France, Shutt covers a broad range of literary genres and, obviously, geographic locations.  He's a solid lecturer, and his enthusiasm about the subject matter is contagious.

Literary heavyweights Chaucer and Dante get short shrift here; Shutt notes that they are significant enough to their own separate courses. And indeed, the Modern Scholar offers a course on each--Dante and His Divine Comedy (by Shutt) and Bard of the Middle Ages: The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer (by Michael D.C. Drout, whose courses on science fiction literature and fantasy literature are definitely worth checking out).

Instead, Shutt focuses primarily on lesser-known works (to me anyway), many of which, as with the Icelandic sagas (vikings!) and epic poems of the Anglo Saxons, were written anonymously.  Not that it's all obscure stuff--there is an entire lecture devoted to Beowulf, and a thorough discussion of such important works as The Song of Roland, the tales that formed the basis for Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, Mallory's Le Morte d'Arthur, and, one of my personal favorites, the deeply weird and yet thoroughly awesome Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.