Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Father Brown (Complete Collection):

Father Brown (Complete Collection) by: G. K. Chesterton
Fiction: Mystery, Classics, E-book

This book contains all the stories written about Father Brown by Chesterton, so it is really 7 books of short stories all put in the order they were published.  Having watched the TV series, I was surprised how quickly Flambeau went from the criminal mastermind to a friend of Fr. Brown who works with him in dealing with mysteries.  Also, as it is an older book their is the warning that it does contain language that modern readers will find offensive. (Much like in his other works that I have commented on here or elsewhere, it is a case of these were the commonly used words in his day and there doesn't appear to be any of the derogatoryness that these words convey now implied in the use, but it is jarring to read.) Besides that it is an interesting collection of mystery stories.  Some of them, I could see where the clues were leading and some I didn't know who did it until the explanation. 

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Dead Man Talking:

Dead Man Talking by:T.M. Simmons
Fiction: Mystery, Paranormal, E-book

In this 1st book in a series we meet Alice a writer who sees ghosts and lives in a haunted house. (With a number of ghost, her dog and cat.) We also meet her ghost seeing granny, cousin, mentor, skeptical ex-husband and ghost who range from a few hours to centuries old.  And find her cousin in the situation of finding the body of the newest ghost and being accused of his murder.  So they have to solve that murder as well as the accidental murder of Sir Gary (a centuries old ghost) so he can pass on into the light (and stop messing with people here.)

Monday, July 29, 2019

The Reckless Way of Love: Notes on Following Jesus:

The Reckless Way of Love: Notes on Following Jesus by Dorothy Day
Non-Fiction: Religion, Memoir, 149 pages

A collection of short sayings and thoughts from Dorothy Day about many subjects.


Saturday, July 13, 2019

The Little Book of Big Mistakes:

The Little Book of Big Mistakes by:Ken Lytle
Non-Fiction: History, 220 pages

I took this book with me on a trip.  If I hadn't I might not have finished it.  Each page is about a "Big Mistake" that happened in history in chronological order, some have a short paragraph at the end that relates to the story but not necessary directly.  When it started with the original sin as a story of a woman that wanted to go apple picking, I thought I would give it a chance on a story that was more historic, factual, detail based.  There were a few stories that I knew and were like meh, not a good explanation, but then it did the Galileo was 100% correct with the science to prove it and the Church was just anti-science and backwards myth, where I was like did you look into any of these things or just repeat the half truth elementary school version of these events?   

The Apostasy That Wasn't: The Extraordinary Story of the Unbreakable Early Church:

The Apostasy That Wasn't: The Extraordinary Story of the Unbreakable Early Church by: Rod Bennett
Non-fiction: Religion, E- book

This book deals with the real history of the time that many people say the "Great Apostasy" happened.  Just yesterday I was talking with someone that believes all the anti-Catholic lies including that Constantine "made" the Catholic Church and caused his religion to be the official and only religion of the Roman Empire destroying all the "real" Christians who some how were also perfectly erased from history until X preacher remade the "Early Church."  It included information with lots of foot notes for from the years before Constantine to later rules that effected the role of the church in the Empire. It also dealt  with the actually heresies and different groups within the Church that were there at the time.  There is of course many things on Arianism and the different Church councils of the time as well as actual writings from people at the time.  And it includes plenty of information on what the different heretics groups believed so people can see that they were nothing like what preacher X says that they believed.

Friday, July 12, 2019

One Thousand and One Ghosts:

One Thousand and One Ghosts by: Alexandre Dumas
Fiction: Classic, Paranormal, 203 pages

This book is interesting as the author himself is a "character" in the book.  Besides that, the book is a collection of ghost stories connected with the time of the French Revolution.  Some stories are directly connected to the revolution, some are just based off of a group of people all sharing their stores with each other.  Some are classic ghosts, one is a vampire tale,  but many are the bodies of the dead staying animated until they can finish some unfinished business.

Thursday, July 11, 2019

The Unhappy Medium: A Supernatural Comedy:

The Unhappy Medium: A Supernatural Comedy By: T.J. Brown
Fiction: Mystery, Paranormal, E-book

 Dr Newton Barlow is a scientist and life long skeptic of anything that can't be proven by science.  So he was understandably upset when a dead friend who also didn't believe in an afterlife, ghosts, paranormal events etc shows up.  And then tells him that he has an important job for Newton working with ghosts for purgatory. 

Wednesday, July 10, 2019

The Protoevangelium of James:

The Protoevangelium of James by: Unknown. . . James?
Non-fiction, Religion, E-book

1st, in the same way that books that made it into the Bible are each called books I'm counting this as a book even though it can be read in one sitting.  (It is still longer then 3 John.)  2nd, given the number of times that this book is used to explain things that are in church tradition, but not in the bible, I expected that it would be a longer book that was more like the books that made it into the Bible.  As after reading this I can see how it didn't make it into the bible, even though at least some of the information in it was seen as true.