Religion – Page 15 – Cannonball Read 17

Mediocre Non-Fiction Primer on Religious Conspiracy Theories

Secrets of the Code: The Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries Behind The DaVinci Code by Dan Burstein

February 4, 2019 by Wanderlustful Leave a Comment

I have an almost flashbulb memory of reading The DaVinci Code– I was 20, backpacking Europe for six months and staying for a few days with my best friend at her live-in B&B job in London. After Tube delays caused me to miss my discount early morning flight out to Berlin, I headed back into the city and spent the day reading Dan Brown’s thriller. As a lapsed United Church churchgoer, I wasn’t heavily undone by any of the religious conspiracies in the novel, but […]

I taught you better than to open doors you can’t close

An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon

January 20, 2019 by Dusty Highway 2 Comments

Rivers Solomon’s An Unkindness of Ghosts is yet another great example of the kind of book I would have missed had I not started reading more speculative fiction and diversifying the voices in my library. That would have been a pity, because this complex, powerful novel may very well end up at the top of my 2019 favorites list. After Earth suffered an unnamed cataclysm 300 years ago, the remnants of humanity were crowded onto the spaceship Matilda and launched toward some long-forgotten destination. Humanity […]

the last of God’s children in a godless world

New Jerusalem by Paul Ham

January 6, 2019 by RecurringExtra Leave a Comment

New Jerusalem is a non-fiction book covering the history of a militant and apocalyptic breakaway Christian sect in the early Reformation. The Melchiorites, named after their founding preacher, were early Anabaptists. A radical offshoot of Lutheranism, the Anabaptists were viewed as heretics by mainstream Catholics and suffered significant persecution. The Melchiorites sought sanctuary in the Lutheran-friendly city of a Munster. A small group of influential men put out a call for the poor to come to Munster for rebaptism as Melchiorites. More appealingly, they also promised […]

“Conflicted” would have been a more accurate title

December 23, 2018 by Dusty Highway 2 Comments

Tara Westover’s memoir, Educated, is difficult to digest. She’s the youngest of seven children in a fundamentalist Mormon family in rural Idaho. Her father rules with the proverbial iron fist. He’s a survivalist, a millennialist, a conspiracy-theorist. He keeps his children out of school, refuses them medical care, continually places them in physical danger. Her mother resists in small ways but ultimately caves whenever the father demands her submission. One of her brothers educates himself well enough to get into BYU and encourages Tara to […]

Who Was…. Part two

November 9, 2018 by BlackRaven Leave a Comment

Yes, I have mentioned the Who Is/Who Was series before, but I have several of the titles and could not let good reads go to waste! This time: Who Was Martin Luther King, Jr.? and Who Was Barack Obama? and Who Was Amelia Earhart? and Who Was Charles Darwin are the “newest” ones devoured. Of course, pairing Martin Luther King, Jr. and Obama is natural. Two men of color who broke racial barriers. But why pair Earhart and Darwin, too? Earhart broke down barriers, too, […]

Looking for a punch in the gut? Read this.

November 3, 2018 by BlackRaven 4 Comments

I have one word: DAMN! I noticed this cover. It was very odd. But lately people are trying to go with more “artistic” covers and things that “have not been done before.” Of course, by doing that, they have already done it, therefore it is not new. I still gave it a more careful look. Noticed it was Jack Gantos (SCORE!) and then saw the title. A Suicide Bomber Sits in the Library Well, that’s a bit of light reading isn’t it? I picked it […]

Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.

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