Every month we show what is on our reading table.

This month we added two books:

  1. “Bad Moon Rising: The Unofficial History of Creedence Clearwater Revival” (358 pages, paperback, 2001) by Hank Bordowitz: Our dog Danna was investigating a hoodoo in a potted plant. Michelle wondered what she was doing. I explained via the Credence Clearwater Revival (CCR) song, “Born On The Bayou”.

“And I can remember the fourth of July,

Runnin’ through the backwood, bare.

And I can still hear my old hound dog barkin’,

Chasin’ down a hoodoo there.

Chasin’ down a hoodoo there.”

I was a big CCR fan in the late 1960s given that I grew up in Northern California and CCR was a “local” band. John Fogerty has always fascinated me. Immensely talented, learned by ‘copying’ and an epic antisocial streak. I found this book exploring for CCR material.

And a little-known fact, I was the original author of one of CCR’s hits!

You know it as “I Put a Spell On You”. I originally wrote it as “I Put a Snout Lock on You”. It was written about our family dog, Ror. He was a rare, barking Basenji from Australia. Basenji’s are famous for not barking. Our Ror barked. More, later.

  1. “Restoring the Christian Family” (320 pages, paperback, 2011) by John Loren and Paula Sandford: I found this buried on my dresser after doing a complete cleaning, i.e., putting aways stacks of clothes. I don’t know where it came from or who bought it. I was intrigued by leafing through it and so it is on the reading list.
  2. “Friday” (362 pages, paperback, 1982) by Robert Heinlein: From an Instapundit entry on February 13th, 2022: “TAMARA KEEL: “The other weekend I read of a dystopian cyberpunk future full of powerful tech companies that were effectively states unto themselves, balkanizing nations facing crises of governmental legitimacy, wars carried out by mercenaries and contractors serving as cutouts to hide the origins of their paymasters, all set in a world menaced by global plague. I also reread Robert Heinlein’s 1982 novel Friday.

Published two years before the seminal Neuromancer, Heinlein’s novel can be viewed as a sort of ur-cyberpunk, with a protagonist who’s an “Artificial Person” and who works as a specialized courier in a world full of megacorporations, prototypical street samurai, hypersonic air travel, and earth-to-orbit beanstalks.

…The most controversial part of the book happens very early on, still in the opening setup part of the book, when our heroine is captured by a gang of baddies and tortured… which torture includes rape.”

An underrated work. I agree that it basically invented cyberpunk. I don’t think it got the attention it deserved because it came after the justly-panned Number of the Beast, written while Heinlein had a clogged carotid artery and had a brain that was basically oxygen starved. Post surgery he wrote Friday, which is much better. And yeah, it fits the present better than I’d like, except that we don’t have suborbital flights and beanstalks.”

  1. “Moving Beyond Anxiety: 12 Practical Strategies to Renew Your Mind” (192 pages, paperback, 2020) by David Chadwick: I picked this up in the Charlotte, North Carolina airport to read on the trip back from our soon-to-be son-in-law’s graduation from Army Basic Combat Training. It turns out it was written by a couple local to Charlotte. I read through half on the plane, and it is outstanding. Might even be life changing with the chapter on “Casting”. Here is Corporal Tyger Cortazar and Melissa at Family Day:

Tyger and some of his graduating class:

On the way back, we stayed in Charlotte, North Carolina for a few days to look around. While wandering around, we found the Mint Museum and fell in love with this vase:

Here we are unwrapping it after shipment:

  1. “Intercessory Prayer” (275 pages, paperback, 1996) by Dutch Sheets: I just started reading this. I have read the first two chapters. If the rest is as good, and as documented, this is an OUTSTANDING book on what is intercessory prayer and how to do it. I like his explanation of theology and how he backs each claim with scripture.
  2. “Fourfold Kingdom of God” (239 pages, paperback, 2020) by Gerald Paul Paul Kooyers: I bought this book after reading “The Holy Longing” based on a recommendation from the Stanford Magazine. The book looks at God’s kingdom from a mathematical and physics perspective. I did get a chance to read this on a trip to Bakersfield and it is outstanding. Lots of speculation; on scripture and on physics but soundly based. That said, it is speculation. Remember Jesus’ caution in Matthew 24:36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” And yes, it is double Paul; not sure why. I did finish it and am somewhat disappointed. I knew it was ‘speculation’, but I expected more informed speculation.
  3. “Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries That Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe” (576 pages, paperback, 2021) by Stephen C. Meyer: His claim “the data support not just the existence of an intelligent designer of some kind—but the existence of a personal God” based on three scientific revolutions/theories: The Big Bang Theory, The Fine Tuning Observation and Information Coding in DNA. This is a long, detailed book. I hope to get to it soon. I note that there is now a documentary planned. Here are two interviews with the author.
  1. “Honour Bound” (412 pages, paperback, 2017) by Alaric Bond: I read and reviewed the first nine books in this British Naval Fiction series; “His Majesty’s Ship”, “The Jackass Frigate”, “True Colors”, “Cut and Run”, “The Patriot’s Fate” and “The Torrid Zone”, “The Scent of Corruption” and “HMS Prometheus”, and “The Blackstrap Station”. I give them high marks. Now that I read the first nine stories in the series, I like it even more. And these last four; ‘Scent’, ‘Prometheus’, “Blackstrap” and now “Honour Bound” show a new levels of plot complexity and character development. SPOILER: The key part of the plot includes Lt King, his officers and two interesting ‘enlisted men’ being held at Verdun and meeting some ‘old friends’:

“The French did take prisoners back to France. The British prisoners numbered about 14.000 and were primarily housed in Verdun, in which the officers had considerable liberties. They had their own shops, gambling houses (which Napoleon eventually closed down in 1806) and other everyday institutions. Verdun became sort of a ”Little London”. The life depended on rank and status with officers able to be on parole, some acquired passports and left Verdun. Only 23 actually escaped, one escapee returned to Britain and was shunned by his community, 3 escapees were sent back to France when it was found out that they broke parole. In Verdun, the British also had their own theatres which only they could enter, life was not actually that bad.”

 

Not pictured:

“The One Year Bible” with help from the “Lutheran Study Bible“.