My Jesus Year: A Rabbi's Son Wanders the Bible Belt in Search of His Own Faith by Benyamin Cohen

A charming spiritual journey in which an Orthodox Jew discovers that "Hanging out with Jesus has made me a better Jew."

Published in 2008.

First off - My Jesus Year is not one of those stories of conversion.

Rather, Benyamin Cohen does not feel fulfilled by his experiences with the synagogue or the hundreds of rules that an Orthodox Jew must follow. He decides to go to the other side of the street and see if the grass is greener (he literally grew up across the street from a Methodist church that seemed so much more vibrant and alive and happy than the synagogue that was attached to his house).

Cohen gets permission from a Rabbi to spend a year with the Christians - he goes to church every Sunday (after synagogue on Saturdays this makes for some long weekends I am sure) and treats the experience as a wandering anthropologist looking into the strange and wondrous world of Christianity.

Benyamin Cohen

What follows is a remarkable journal of one man's exploration of Judaism and Christianity - some of it mainstream, some odd (Christian professional wrestling, for example) but all of it treated respectfully by a man who is searching for what he's missing in his own faith. On the way he finds it and the reader is blessed with wonderful writing, witty insights, touching observations and, quite simply, the experience of a great read.

I am writing from the perspective of an active, involved Christian and I find myself chuckling at some of his offbeat observations about the quirky things we do. I also learned a lot about Judaism along the way. I am sure some would find offense, but...whatever. It was not written in the spirit of offense and if they are offended they should grow up some.

One of the best books of the year for me.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: My Jesus Year.

Reviewed on December 26, 2008.

Twice Buried (Bill Gastner #3) (Posadas county #3) by Steven Havill

Not up to the standards of later Gastner mysteries

Originally published in 1994.

Having read several of the later Undersheriff Bill Gastner mysteries I found myself a little torn with Twice Buried.

I love the character of Bill Gastner. The characters in this series are particularly well-developed and realistic. The procedures in this book are thorough and seemingly well-depicted (I'm not a police officer, but it seemed pretty kosher to me) except for one very large hole in the way the investigation developed - a whole line of investigation was ignored that seemed obvious to me. This hurt the integrity of the book in my eyes, but I still give it 4 stars.

If you are a fan of Tony Hillerman's Navajo Tribal Police books you should check out this series.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Twice Buried.

Reviewed on December 29, 2008.

The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300-1850 by Brian M. Fagan

Published in 2000 by Basic Books

Brian Fagan's The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300-1850 is, by definition, an introduction to the climate phenomenon of the same name. Actually, it is quite similar to a History Channel documentary of the same name. On page xix Fagan notes that historians are either "parachutists" (big picture) or "truffle hunters" (love all of the details of one particular era or topic). Fagan warns that this is a parachutist book - an overview.

So, what of this overview? Fagan starts with the Vikings and covers an area that is better covered by Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. However, his stories of how the fishing industry was affected by the shift to a colder climate was surprisingly interesting.

A lengthy discussion of how the colder climate change brought more disease, famine and general mayhem is punctuated by the single best one page description of the changes in farming methods that came about in the 1600-1700s that I have ever read (page 107).

An interesting (and too short) section on glaciers proved quite fascinating and should be required reading for those that point to the melting of those "ancient" glaciers in our day as a cause for worry. If 200 years old is ancient, well...

Frequent maps are a big positive but some of them are unnecessary. However, too many maps is much better than the normal too few that are in most books.

The end of the book gets bogged down in the Irish Potato Famine. We go from being a parachutist to a truffle hunter in this section.

The last chapter is a commentary on something out of the scope of the book's stated thesis. We leave the Little Ice Age and receive a lecture on Global Warming that is at variance with some of the things we've just read. Early on in the book he tells us the Medieval Warm Period was warmer than we are now (p. 17) and spent the better part of 200 pages telling us that cooling brings famine, death and disease. Why is global warming so bad then? On page 206 he mentions cattle herding as a source of methane over the last 150 years. In the United States at least, cattle herding was only possible by clearing out the deer and buffalo east of the Mississippi and by killing off millions of buffalo out west (imagine herds from one horizon to the other in the Great Plains) to make room for millions of head of cattle. To me, that seems to be a methane trade-off.

Regardless, this is really a nice little book. You'll undoubtedly learn something new. Skip the last chapter.

I rate this book 4 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History 1300-1850.

Reviewed on December 31, 2008.

Note: there is a revised edition of this book that was published in 2019.

Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve

A re-telling of the Arthurian legend

Published in 2008.

Philip Reeve's re-telling of the Arthurian legend has a ring of truth to it, although he openly admits in his notes that this re-telling is based on nothing more than his own imagination and is not a product of new research.

Intellectually, I appreciate his take on Arthur in Here Lies Arthur. I never have been a big fan of the Arthurian legend. To me it is too puffed up, too self-important. You would think that this re-telling - a re-telling that includes a not-so-noble Arthur being promoted by a story-weaving Merlin so that Arthur's legend can grow to the point where he can actually unite the Britons against the Saxons would appeal to me. All of the magic from the story is explained away. All of the legends are laid bare, exposed as frauds.

And, the story loses all of its punch.

It becomes nothing.

Wonderful characterization fails to make up for the fact that Here Lies Arthur takes the magic from the story which, in the end, turns out to be the whole point of the legend.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Here Lies Arthur.

Reviewed on January 13, 2009.

A World of Wealth: How Capitalism Turns Profits into Progress by Thomas G. Donlan

While I agree with most of his premises...the delivery needs some work

Published in 2008.

I'm an economics teacher with a firm belief that markets are the single most efficient way of creating wealth and that interfering with markets is a sure way to slow or stop the creation of wealth for all, not just for the elites.

However, despite the sometimes eloquent prose, Donlan's A World of Wealth is merely a solid book, not a great one. Two issues cloud the book for me:

1) no footnotes, endnotes or even a bibliography. Instead, there is only an interesting list of recommended reading. I would not let my high school students get away with such shoddy scholarship, an editor of a magazine should know better.

2) Meandering text and incomplete arguments get in the way of his discussions of immigration and education. Too bad since there is some nice writing here.

This one won't hurt the reader too much (scholarship-wise) but others do it better.

A better introductory text would be Naked Economics: Undressing the Dismal Science.

I rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: A World of Wealth.

Reviewed on January 13, 2009.

I Am Not a Cop!: A Novel by Richard Belzer and Michael A. Black

Okay, but not great detective fiction

Published in 2009 by Simon and Schuster.

Law and Order: SVU's Richard Belzer tries his hand at fiction (with some help from mystery writer Michael A. Black) with I Am Not A Cop!: A Novel ,a bit of noir lit that reminds me of Robert B. Parker without all of the psychobabble but with more conspiracy theories and lots more political commentary. Belzer inserts himself as the main character in this interesting but tedious work.

Belzer's acid wit comes to the fore throughout his personal investigation into the disappearance of a Ukrainian-born friend. Belzer's multiple police contacts due to the TV show (ride-alongs, police advisors to make the language and procedures more realistic) and a simple assumption that he can figure out how to investigate crime in real life since he's done it so long on TV.

At times it's interesting, at times it gets repetitive, especially with multiple passages similar to this one: "...when I get determined, it takes an act of Congress to dissuade me. Well, those are usually pretty watered down by the time they get out of committee and have all the pork attached to them. Maybe I should change that to an executive order. Unless it came from someone with the last name Bush." (p. 198) Cute enough, but put one on every fifth page and you begin to wonder if the book was being padded for some reason.

Richard Belzer

Throw in some repetitive phrases such as "It hit me like a punch in the liver" (p. 197) and "Buteyko's comment...came back to me like an elbow to the kidneys" (p. 211) and "I felt like I'd bumped up against a live outlet" (p. 178) and I began to tire of the whole thing.

Interestingly, there are no reviews of the actual book on the book. Instead, on the back of the book there are reviews of Belzer's stand-up routine from Chris Rock, Robin Williams, Chevy Chase, Robert De Niro, Richard Pryor and John Belushi. In my mind, that says something about the quality of the book as a whole. The reviews play to Belzer's strength - his history as a comic but ignore the book completely. It may be harsh, but to be honest, the premise of the book (TV actor who plays a cop really investigates a crime) and the fact that it was written by a celebrity carried the book. If this were written by a no-name author about a fictional actor investigating crimes on his own time I don't know if I would have finished it.

I rate this book 2 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: I Am Not a Cop!.

Reviewed on January 15, 2009.

The Black Ice (Harry Bosch #2) (audiobook) by Michael Connelly

Not the best Bosch book, which means that it is merely very, very good and not excellent

Originally published in 1993.
Audiobook originally published in 1998 by Brilliance Audio.

Read by Dick Hill.
11 hours, 11 minutes.

Unabridged.

Connelly's Hieronymus (Harry) Bosch is named after a Renaissance painter who specialized in fanciful and gruesome visions of hell from high above and detailed looks at the tortures that it holds for its residents. Hieronymus Bosch is designed to be our guide through the modern hell of Los Angeles - at least that's the way it seems to the Hollywood Homicide Division.

Fittingly, The Black Ice starts with Harry Bosch watching a wildfire burn part of the canyon below his home. His thoughts are interrupted with a radio call about a homicide and Bosch descends the mountain into the madness. A long, complicated case unrolls for Bosch as he goes against direct orders and privately investigates the presumed suicide of a narcotics and I will go no further so as to avoid spoilers.

Michael Connelly

Dick Hill read this installation of the Bosch series with a great deal of skill. It was a joy to listen and was the best thing about my commute for more than a week.

While not the best of the series that does not mean it is not an excellent book. I consider this to be one of the best series going right now and am happily working my way through them.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: The Black Ice.

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5.

Reviewed on January 15, 2009.