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"There are all kinds of serendipities in bookstores, starting with Alphabetical: while looking for one novel, you might remember that you'd always meant to read something by another author whose last name shared the same first two letters. Visual: the shiny jacket on this book might catch your eye. Accidental: superstitiously, I almost always feel the need to buy any book that I knock over. And Prompted: both Mom and I gave very serious consideration to any book placed in the "staff recommends" section, particularly if it sported a yellow stickie (aka Post-it note) or a handwritten shelf talker--a bookstore neologism I love, because it conjures such a vivid image of a shelf talking to you, or of a person who talks to shelves".
A book about Will's mother who was diagnosed with a form of advanced pancreatic cancer and of their "book club" that brings them together as her life comes to a close.
The triumph of Christianity : how a forbidden religion swept the world / Bart D. Ehrman, c2018, Simon & Schuster, 270.1 EHRM.
Subjects
• Constantine -- I, -- Emperor of Rome, -- -337 -- Influence.
• Church history -- Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600.
• Christian civilization -- History.
Notes
• The beginning of the end: the conversion of Constantine -- Back to the beginning: the conversion and mission of Paul -- The religious world of conversion: Roman paganism -- Reasons for the Christian success -- Miraculous incentives for conversion -- The growth of the church -- Christians under assault: persecution, martyrdom, and self-defense -- The first Christian emperor -- Conversion and coercion: the beginnings of a Christian empire -- Gains and losses.
• Other title information from dust jacket.
Summary
• Bart Ehrman, a master explainer of Christian history, texts, and traditions, shows how a religion whose first believers were twenty or so illiterate day laborers in a remote part of the empire became the official religion of Rome, converting some thirty million people in just four centuries. The Triumph of Christianity combines deep knowledge and meticulous research in an eye-opening, immensely readable narrative that upends the way we think about the single most important cultural transformation our world has ever seen - one that revolutionized art, music, literature, philosophy, ethics, economics, and law.
Length
• xiv, 335 pages ; Appendix – Rate of Christian growth, index, chapter notes
Very readable, excellent introduction to the topic. Mostly I was looking @ Constantine, but good general information too.
Notes
• Foreword / Eddie Redmayne -- An introduction / Kip Thorne -- Why we must ask the big questions -- Is there a God? -- How did it all begin? -- Is there other intelligent life in the universe? -- Can we predict the future? -- What is inside a black hole? -- Is time travel possible? -- Will we survive on Earth? -- Should we colonise space? -- Will artificial intelligence outsmart us? -- How do we shape the future?
• Includes index.
Summary
• Offers the renowned scientist's final thoughts on using science to address the most important challenges facing humanity.
• "The world-famous cosmologist and #1 bestselling author of A Brief History of Time leaves us with his final thoughts on the biggest questions facing humankind. Now, as we face immense challenges on our planet--including climate change, the threat of nuclear war, and the development of artificial intelligence--he turns his attention to the most urgent issues facing us. Will humanity survive? Should we colonize space? Does God exist? These are just a few of the questions Hawking addresses in this wide-ranging, passionately argued final book from one of the greatest minds in history. Featuring a foreword by Eddie Redmayne, who won an Oscar playing Stephen Hawking, an introduction by Nobel Laureate Kip Thorne, and an afterword from Hawking's daughter, Lucy, Brief Answers to the Big Questions is a brilliant last message to the world."--Dust jacket.
Length
• xxiii, 230 pages : index
A brief & shining overview of Hawking’s thinking & opinions. I miss the man, & he’s only been gone for a little bit.
Chasing shadows : visions of our coming transparent world / edited by David Brin and Stephen W. Potts ; sponsored by The Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination (UCSD), c2017, Tom Doherty Associates, SF CHAS.
Subjects
• Science fiction, American.
• Science fiction, Canadian.
• Privacy in literature.
• Internet in literature.
• Freedom of information.
• Privacy, Right of.
Summary
• "David Brin, Hugo award-winning author of The Uplift War, presents a collection of short stories and essays by other science fiction luminaries. As we debate Internet privacy, revenge porn, the NSA, and Edward Snowden, cameras get smaller, faster, and more numerous. Has Orwell's Big Brother finally come to pass? Or have we become a global society of thousands of Little Brothers--watching, judging, and reporting on one another? Partnering with the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination, and inspired by Brin's nonfiction book The Transparent Society, noted author and futurist David Brin and scholar Stephen Potts have compiled essays and short stories from writers such as Robert J. Sawyer, James Morrow, William Gibson, Damon Knight, Jack McDevitt, and many others to examine the benefits and pitfalls of technologic transparency in all its permutations."-- Provided by publisher.
I just finished Robert Pirsig's Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.
It is the second time I've read the book, and I found rewards in the revisiting. I'm not the dullest knife in the drawer, but it's a difficult book - I expect that I'll read it again someday, and that it will make even more sense the third go-round.
OMG - just finished up Mama's Boy, which is a memoir of a gay man who grew up in a Mormon home in Texas. His mother had survived polio and the book focuses just as much on his remarkable mother as it does on him. This was an amazing, deeply affecting book. I highly recommend it.
"There are all kinds of serendipities in bookstores, starting with Alphabetical: while looking for one novel, you might remember that you'd always meant to read something by another author whose last name shared the same first two letters. Visual: the shiny jacket on this book might catch your eye. Accidental: superstitiously, I almost always feel the need to buy any book that I knock over. And Prompted: both Mom and I gave very serious consideration to any book placed in the "staff recommends" section, particularly if it sported a yellow stickie (aka Post-it note) or a handwritten shelf talker--a bookstore neologism I love, because it conjures such a vivid image of a shelf talking to you, or of a person who talks to shelves".
A book about Will's mother who was diagnosed with a form of advanced pancreatic cancer and of their "book club" that brings them together as her life comes to a close.
Ahhhh - I loved this book and was introduced to two of my favorite books by Will and his mother - Marjorie Morningstar and Crossing to Safety.
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
17,330 posts, read 33,023,154 times
Reputation: 28903
Quote:
Originally Posted by chicagoliz
OMG - just finished up Mama's Boy, which is a memoir of a gay man who grew up in a Mormon home in Texas. His mother had survived polio and the book focuses just as much on his remarkable mother as it does on him. This was an amazing, deeply affecting book. I highly recommend it.
Thanks for the rec. It just went on my "to read" list.
Ahhhh - I loved this book and was introduced to two of my favorite books by Will and his mother - Marjorie Morningstar and Crossing to Safety.
I am thinking I got the book recommendation from you, thank you! I have added at least 30 books to my TBR notebook from the book, oh my! I will put a star by the two you have mentioned as your favorites!
Location: Montreal -> CT -> MA -> Montreal -> Ottawa
17,330 posts, read 33,023,154 times
Reputation: 28903
Quote:
Originally Posted by Firehorse66
I am thinking I got the book recommendation from you, thank you! I have added at least 30 books to my TBR notebook from the book, oh my! I will put a star by the two you have mentioned as your favorites!
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner is my absolute favorite book. I had picked it up about 10 years ago in a used book store. I didn't have high hopes but I didn't have anything to read and was desperate. Go figure that it would end up being my all-time favorite book.
There are four main characters -- two women, two men. I think that everyone sees themselves as one of them. Charity Lang, one of the characters -- and the one in whom I saw myself -- was said to SPEAK in italics. When I read the line to my then-husband, he said "THAT'S YOU!" I said "I know."
I wish that I could find the line. If you read it, I'd really appreciate if you could tell me where it is in the book -- I'd love to read that description again.
ETA: I just did a word search on my e-reader. I must not be remembering the words correctly -- just the sentiment -- because I can't find it. Oh, well.
Last edited by DawnMTL; 06-16-2019 at 07:50 AM..
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The coming of Christianity
