20 Answers Challenge:Part 4

20 Answers: Death & Judgment by: Trent Horn
Non-Fiction: Religion-C 70 pages
Physical Book Count: 29
Book Count: 33


20 Answers: Angels & Demons by: Fr. Mike Driscoll
Non-Fiction: Religion-C 70 pages
Physical Book Count: 30
Book Count: 34


20 Answers: Mary by: Tim Staples
Non-Fiction: Religion-C 79 pages
Physical Book Count: 31
Book Count: 35


20 Answers: God by: Trent Horn
Non-Fiction: Religion-C 68 pages
Physical Book Count: 32
Book Count: 36


20 Answers: Divorce & Remarriage by: Jim Blackburn
Non-Fiction: Religion-C 79 pages
Physical Book Count: 33
Book Count: 37


20 Answers: Scripture & Tradition by: Jim Blackburn
Non-Fiction: Religion-C 72 pages
Physical Book Count: 34
Book Count: 38


Past the 1/2 way point and with 5 days left, I might make it. . .  or not.

Apocalypticon:

Apocalypticon by:Clayton Smith
Fiction: Sci-fi, E-book
E-Book Count:4
Book Count: 32

Patrick and Ben are two survivors of the surprise, civilization ending, chemical warfare, attract on the USA.  Most people liquefied with their first contact with the yellow dust that now covers the world.  But, some people survived, possibly due other chemicals dumped in the Mississippi river when they were growing up.  When their supply of pudding cups almost disappeared, they decided to take a trip to Walt Disney World,  for reasons that are beyond what the reader or Ben are told.  On the way to Disney they are given a prophesy of what will happen, run in to other survivors,  fight cults, zombies, and Amtrak red caps.

20 Answers Challenge:Part 3

20 Answers: The Bible by: Trent Horn
Non-Fiction: Religion-C 74 pages
Physical Book Count: 28
Book Count: 31

One thing that these books could use to make them easier for using as reference; either a list of the questions and what page they are at the beginning of the books i.e. a table of contents or an index at the end of the book.  Although the books are short it is still some work re-finding a question quickly.

20 Answers Challenge:Part 2

20 Answers: The Sacraments By: Fr. Mike Driscoll
Non-Fiction: Religion-C 70 pages
Physical Book Count: 26
Book Count: 29

20 Answers: The Real Jesus by: Trent Horn
Non-Fiction: Religion-C 61 pages
Physical Book Count: 27
Book Count: 30

20 Answers Challenge: Part 1

So right before Lent, Catholic Answers had a 20 Answers Challenge, which was to read the 20 booklets that they made called 20 Answers- (blank), each of which has 20 questions and answers on some subject related to the faith, before the end of Easter (i.e. 50 days after Easter Sunday/Pentecost.)  And if you bought the complete set of books you would get the books for half off and $10 of the sale would go to help St. Paul Street Evangelization. So on Fat Tuesday I ordered the books to do the challenge/ get them on sale at the last possible minute.  As Lent was spent reading about vampires, because why wouldn't you, I started this challenge late.  Also as apparently Lent and Easter is a busy time when you work at a church, I started even later then that.  So I have about 20 days to read 20 books, luckily they are shorter books, so it should be possible.  Anyway as theses books/booklets are shorter and are part of a non-fiction series, I will be putting the "reviews" (Notes to myself that I have read them for the most part and proof to friends that I did do the challenge,) in a grouping of a few books at a time.

Also I will be counting them each as books, just so my book count looks great at the end of the year.

And as these books were written by a group of people (with one author for each book) and the writers are also on the show from Catholic Answers that I see on youtube, it is interesting to see the way that the author's speaking style translates into their writing style, as there are a number of times that I can "hear" the writing in the author's voice and wonder how one of the other authors would answer one of the questions differently.  

20 Answers: Salvation By: Jimmy Akin
Non-Fiction: Religion-C 71 pages
Physical Book Count: 23
Book Count: 26

I am picking the order of these books in mostly a random order.  When reading this book there were no pictures of Jimmy Akin with Batman, meaning we still have no proof that they are not the same person! Also this book does not have end notes, but the citation inside of the text of the book.

20 Answers: The Eucharist By: Trent Horn
Non-Fiction: Religion-C 64 pages
Physical Book Count: 24
Book Count: 27

This book has end notes, which is why I made a note about the 1st book not having them.  Also it had an end note with an idea that I have never heard of before, and which has not a lot to do with the subject of the book, and that is the idea that The Salvation Army isn't a Christian denomination because they don't do baptisms.  It noted that many Christian denominations have different beliefs on what, if anything baptism does, but argues that because they don't have baptisms it's not a denomination.

20 Answers: Miracles By: Karlo Broussard
Non-Fiction: Religion-C 68 pages
Physical Book Count: 25
Book Count: 28

Also with end notes!  This book reads like it should have been a much longer book for all the ideas that it is trying to share.  Also, I still haven't figured out how one determines if something outside of the relm of normal, scientific, reasonable, outcomes to an event, is within the nature of angels/demons or only something God can do.  Did someone do scientific testing on angels?!?

Alcatraz Vs. the Evil Librarians:

Alcatraz Vs. the Evil Librarians By: Brandon Sanderson
Fiction: Sci-fi/fantasy, Children's 290 pages
Physical Book Count: 22
Book Count: 25

The library just emailed me that they wanted this book back, sounds just like something that the librarians would like, get this book out of people's hands!

This book is the story of Alcatraz, a boy that just found out that he isn't a family-less orphan, but a member of the important Smedry family, who all have special gifts that help them fight the evil librarians that rule the Hushlands.  He grew up in the Hushlands (the USA) as a foster kid who constantly broke things in freak accidents.  When he gets a bag of sand as his inheritance on his 13th birthday,  it get taken, and he meets his grandfather, Leavenworth.  From then he learns about life in the Free Kingdoms, being an oculator, the evil librarians, and his family.  Also there is a great big adventure filled with danger, surprises, dinosaurs, and asides.  This is book one in the series of books that make up his autobiography, written under a pen name as fiction to trick the librarians.

Doctor Who: The American Adventures:

Doctor Who: The American Adventures by: Justin Richards
Fiction: Children's, Sci-fi, Pop Culture, 180 pages
Physical Book Count: 21
Book Count: 24

As the title suggests this book is a collection of stories involving The Doctor in America.  It features the 12th Doctor, and no companions besides ones the he picks up in each story, so it doesn't clearly tell when in the series the stories happen.  Also besides a few notes on what he is wearing and looks, it doesn't really have to be the 12th Doctor in the stories as it doesn't deal much with the different personalities of the Doctors.  The stories take place during many important historical times: the gold rush, Oregon trail, War of 1812, WWII, as well as 1902 New York, (which does reference"The Angels Take Manhattan") and modern day times.

Pope Francis Takes the Bus and other unexpected stories:

Pope Francis Takes the Bus and other unexpected stories By: Rosario Carello
Non-Fiction: Biography, Religion-C, Pop Culture, 160 pages
Physical Book Count: 20
Book Count: 23

This is a collection of 80 short stories told in alphabetical order, off a key word or idea in each story, about the life of Pope Francis.  It was written about a year after he became Pope, and mostly tells stories from earlier in his life.   Most of the stories are from when he was just a priest or after he was made a bishop, but there are also a few stories about his earlier life, especially things in his life that lead him to becoming a priest/ the type of priest that he is.  There are a few stories about things that have happened after he became pope as well.  

The Dumbest Idea Ever!:

The Dumbest Idea Ever! by: Jimmy Gownley
Non-fiction: Graphic Novel, Memoir, 236 pages
Physical Book Count: 20
Book Count: 23

A graphic novel about how the author started out making a graphic novel as a teen.