ON GETTING OUT of BED: THE BURDEN and GIFT of LIVING (audiobook) by Alan Noble

 

Published in 2023 by ChristianAudio.con

Read by the author, Alan Noble.
Duration: 2 hours, 18 minutes.
Unabridged.

Alan Noble is a college professor and a Christian writer who writes for Christian and non-Christian publications. 

He also struggles with a mental illness that he does not identify in this short book. On Getting Out of Bed is all about dealing with the depression and struggles that come with mental illness, thus the title.

Noble's powerful description of overwhelming depression demonstrates that he understands the issue and how it effects people well. This is important because it shows that he is coming from a place of understanding and that is vitally important.

His advice is not easy advice, but it is realistic advice. One of my relatives was advised by well-meaning church members that the best way to deal with depression and suicidal ideation was prayer for God to help with these thoughts. I cannot stress enough that this was sincerely intended to be helpful advice, it was taken as, "If you only had enough faith, God would lift this burden from you. But, he has not lifted this burden so you are not worthy."

He acknowledges the struggle and he goes on to offer realistic advice that is not easy.

The author, Alan Noble

The acknowledgement: 

"Each morning you must choose to get out of bed or not. All the medication and cognitive therapy and latest research and self-care in the world can't replace your choice. This decision can be aided by these resources but never replaced by them. Which means that you have to have an answer to a fundamental question: Why get out of bed? Or, more bluntly, why live?"

The advice:

"This is precisely why we must see that each choice to do the next thing is an act of worship, and therefore fundamentally good. Feeding your pets is an act of worship. Brushing your teeth is. Doing the dishes. Getting dressed. Going to work. Insofar as each of these actions assumes that life in this fallen world is good and worth living despite suffering, they are acts of faith in God. Choose to do the next thing before and unto God, take a step toward the block. That is all you must ever do and all you can do. It is your spiritual act of worship."

There is no "fix" for most people, although Noble doesn't discount the possibility of such a thing happening. But, for almost everyone else that suffers from depression, it has to be enough to get out of bed as an act of worship and of faith.

Another quote I really liked:

"We almost never take the witness of our actions seriously enough. I suspect that's because if we did, it would frighten us. It's scary to realize that my every decision communicates to people around me something about the nature of God, the goodness of His creation and laws."

I rate this book 5 stars out of 5 stars. It can be found on Amazon.com here: ON GETTING OUT of BED: THE BURDEN and GIFT of LIVING by Alan Noble.

FINDING GRACE by Alyssa Brugman

Published in 2001 by Delacorte Press

Synopsis: 

Rachel lives in Australia and is a brand new graduate of high school. She is ready to head off to college but she needs a job and a place to live that is close to the university.

She finds both when the enigmatic Mr. Preston offers her a place to live just a few blocks from campus in exchange for watching over a woman named Grace. 

Rachel knows that Grace was brain damaged in some sort of accident, but not much more than that. Grace can walk and feed herself - but that's about all she can do. She cannot talk, she cannot bathe herself, she cannot communicate in any way.

Rachel spends the night with Grace, feeds Grace and watches over her much like a nanny watches a small child. She gets time off for classes, when the nurses come for physical therapy, and when Mr. Preston comes over to spend time with Grace.

My Review:

The author

I expected nothing from this book. Several year ago, I picked it up from a pile of books that were being shipped out of my school building because they weren't part of the curriculum any longer. The book sat in my to-be-read while for so long that I thought (because of the title) I was picking up one of the religious titles I had bought a couple of years ago. 

This wasn't the book that I was expecting, but it was a good book. Not much goes on, but it is a good coming of age book about transitions, love, rivalry, and dedication. 

I rate this book 4 start out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: FINDING GRACE by Alyssa Brugman.

MOTHER NIGHT by Kurt Vonnegut

Originally published in 1962

Mother Night is one of Kurt Vonnegut's (1922-2007) early novels (his third) and the first that is not a work of science fiction. 

The book features Howard W. Campbell, a defendant awaiting trial in Israel for war crimes in Israel. He is wanted for being a well-known voice for the Nazis on broadcasts that he made during World War II. 

Campbell freely admits that he did what they say he did, but he does have a defense - he was working as a double agent for the Americans and was passing secret messages during those broadcasts. 

The book sets itself up to be a legal thriller - will the hero of the book be saved? Can he prove what he says is true?

But, there's none of that in this book. Campbell probably would have been the voice of the Nazis in the broadcasts no matter if he was recruited as a spy or not? He is just a self-absorbed author of plays that was way more concerned about bedding his German wife than politics or any "trivial" things like a World War or the mass murder of millions of people. 

Most of the book is about the last few months of Campbell's life and how he was found hiding in plain sight in New York City where he had been living in a tiny apartment. We get to meet a cast of freaks and creeps that loathe or worship Campbell for his part in the war while Vonnegut demonstrates that patriotism, duty, and racism/race loyalty are all illusory constructs at best. 

Self-portrait by the author

The book starts out with these themes by having Campbell introduce his prison guards. One of them is too young to really remember the war, one doesn't care and one worked in a death camp - he helped lead his fellow Jews to the gas chambers by telling them it was just a de-lousing. Then, he would help loot their bodies and bury them. He did this to save his own life - but he still gets to guard a man who literally didn't do anything to hurt anyone in the war except talk.

Vonnegut revels in pointing out that life is contradictory and complicated and no one is who they act like they are.

Good quotes:

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be." 

"Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile."

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: MOTHER NIGHT by Kurt Vonnegut.

OATH and HONOR: A MEMOIR and a WARNING (audiobook) by Liz Cheney

 

Published in 2023 by Little, Brown and Company in December of 2023.
Read by the author, Liz Cheney.
Duration: 12 hours, 14 minutes.
Unabridged.

Liz Cheney is most famous for two things. Pre-January 6, 2021 she was famous for being Dick Cheney's daughter and a leader of the House Republicans. 

Post-January 6, 2021 Cheney is most famous for being one of the leaders of the United States House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack. Cheney was one of the few Republicans willing to incur the wrath of Donald Trump and actually look into the role he played in the January 6 Attack.

Cheney calls the book a memoir, but this is not really true. The book offers next to nothing about her childhood or her personal life. You know that she has a husband because she mentions that he helped her proofread various papers she had prepared for the committee. 

Cheney starts with former President Donald Trump's election denialism immediately following the 2020 election date rather than her own life. This is a very Liz Cheney thing to do - the purpose of the book is to talk about how Donald Trump's Election Denialism and how it led directly to the January 6 Attack. There is not much else to the book because, in her mind, this movement is a direct threat to the American Republic itself. 

I am not going to detail all of her arguments that she laid out in the televised presentations that the committee prepared for the country in 2022. Those are easily available on YouTube and anyone can watch and see the arguments she makes in this book.

The book is almost always clear, concise, and to the point. That is very much Cheney's plainspoken style.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: OATH and HONOR: A MEMOIR and a WARNING (audiobook) by Liz Cheney.

THE GREAT DECHURCHING: WHO'S LEAVING, WHY ARE THEY GOING, and WHAT WILL IT TAKE to BRING THEM BACK? (audiobook) by Jim Davis and Michael Graham with Ryan P. Burge.

Published by Zondervan in August of 2013.
Read by Jim Davis, Michael Graham, and Ryan P. Burge.
Duration: 7 hours, 3 minutes.
Unabridged.

America's church members are dropping out of church at a record pace - millions upon millions over the last 2 decades and, according to the stats, the only thing that will slow the pace is the fact that Christianity in America will be so much smaller that it will statistically impossible to lose so many people without completely emptying the pews.

The authors started out to identify a number of things such as:
a) Who is leaving - is it the old, the young, the middle-aged?

b) Who is staying?
c) Why are they leaving? Is it toxic politics? Sex scandals? Abuse? Lost interest? No connection?
d) Will they be willing to come back? What would it take?

This book draws heavily from a religious attitude survey administered by Baylor University from time to time. I recently read another book on Christian Nationalism that used the same surveys and these books dovetail nicely together in a concerning way for anyone that is interested in a healthy Christianity surviving in America.

One data point leaped out to the researchers. It is a common piece of conventional wisdom that "going to college" makes people drop out of church. Kids go away, get an education and are convinced that Christianity is bad.

But, it turns out that the most likely to stay in church group is college educated Christians. They discuss various theories to explain this, but the most compelling to me is the argument that church is extremely friendly to families that have success in America and buy into America's definition of success. Having a degree is a sign that you have also bought into that definition of success. The other side of that coin is the idea that the church is not friendly to people who can't (or won't) buy into that definition of success. Single moms, divorced people, and people that work for hourly wages with irregular hours just can't participate as well and feel left out. If you feel left out enough, you drop out.

To answer all of the questions at the beginning:

a) the old, the youngish (18-30), and the middle-aged are leaving.

b) the same ages are also staying.
c) People are leaving for all of those reasons. One of the biggest reasons is that people move and never get started at a new church.

d) Most are open to coming back so long as they feel like they will actually be connected. People who were abused are not likely to come back - ever.

A topic that was never covered is if this "dropping out" is occurring in other religions. For example, are American Muslims experiencing this?   

This book was full of good information but not particularly riveting in its presentation. I rate it 3 stars out of 5. 

RESURRECTION WALK (audiobook) (Book 7 of the Lincoln Lawyer series) by Michael Connelly

 

Published in November of 2023 by Little, Brown and Company.
Read by Peter Giles, Titus Welliver, and Christine Lakin.
Duration: 10 hours, 30 minutes.
Unabridged.

Synopsis:

The seventh book in the Lincoln Lawyer series is also a crossover with the more prolific Harry Bosch series. 

Mickey Haller is known as "the Lincoln Lawyer" because, at one point, he didn't actually have an office and he used the backseat of a Lincoln automobile as his office while he rode through LA's infamous traffic. Haller is a high profile defense attorney known for his antics and willingness to make any argument for the defense. But, lately, Haller has started his own version of the Innocence Project - he is looking for cases of truly innocent people who were mistakenly convicted.

Harry Bosch is Haller's older half brother (by 15 years.) Bosch is a retired LAPD detective and has always looked at defense attorneys as slimy characters that use tricks to get the guilty people that he arrested set free. 

Despite that mindset, Bosch has always hated sloppy police work - it convicts the wrong people and leaves the guilty free to continue on with their crimes. It's that angle that draws Bosch in and lets him work as an investigator for the most outrageous defense attorney in Los Angeles.

The author, Michael Connelly

Bosch sorts through the big pile of letters that arrive in Haller's office and finds the ones that seem plausible to him and he does what he does best - he investigates.

When he comes across a case of a woman who is convicted of killing her ex-husband (a sheriff deputy) in her front yard after an argument, Bosch is convinced that there's more to the case than the files suggest.

Once he starts digging, Bosch and Haller get sucked into a complicated mess...

My review:

This is a satisfying, complicated mystery coupled with a lot of dramatic courtroom scenes. 

This book would probably not be a great place to jump in as a first novel in either series. If you watch the Lincoln Lawyer series on Netflix or the Harry Bosch series on Amazon/FreeVee, be aware that there is significant divergence between the shows and the books.

The audiobook goes back and forth between the three readers that typically read the audiobooks nowadays. If the action features a certain character in a chapter, that reader reads the chapter. The other actors read for their character if there is dialogue. It is a nice touch and it works.

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: RESURRECTION WALK (audiobook) (Book 7 of the Lincoln Lawyer series) by Michael Connelly.

TAKING AMERICA BACK for GOD: CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM in the UNITED STATES (audiobook) by Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry

Published by Tantor Audio in 2020.
Read by Tom Parks.
Duration: 6 hours, 44 minutes.
Unabridged.

Whitehead and Perry are the first sociologists who set out to do an in-depth study of Christian Nationalism and Christian Nationalists. Whitehead (Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis) and Perry (University of Oklahoma) both hail from states where Christian Nationalism plays a strong role in the political and cultural realms.

First, you need a working definition of Christian Nationalism. Whitehead describes it as:  "a cultural framework that is all about trying to advocate for a fusion between Christianity — as they define it — and American civic life." I also like this description by a completely unrelated person, Rev. Skye Jethani: 
"Christians participating in politics or influencing society with their values is NOT Christian Nationalism. Christians believing they have a God-given right to dominate the government & society by excluding & diminishing the value of their non-Christian neighbors IS Christian Nationalism." Whitehead and Perry piggybacked 6 statements into a periodic national survey on religion that Baylor University has conducted for years. Participants ranked their agreement with the statements and were given a total score. The higher the score, the higher the correlation with Christian Nationalism. Here are the statements: 

1. The federal government should declare the United States a Christian Nation.
2. The federal government should advocate Christian values.
3. The federal government should enforce strict separation of church and state. 
4. The federal government should allow the display of religious symbols in public spaces.
5. The success of the United States is part of God’s plan.
6. The federal government should allow prayer in public schools.

The results tell us that a little over half of the country (51.9%) is Christian Nationalist or sympathetic. 48.1% of the country is very opposed or supportive of opposition to Christian Nationalism. Once again, the country is very deeply split. 

Regional differences are strong here. Unsurprisingly, the South is the stronghold of Christian Nationalism. Also, it is no surprise that the Northeast is the stronghold of its opposition.

One of the more interesting facts to come from their study is that the long perceived truth that White Evangelical Christian is just another way of saying Christian Nationalist is incorrect. Although there is a strong correlation between the two, there are White Evangelical Christians represented in all four group identified in strong numbers. For example, the reverend that I quoted above with his definition of Christian Nationalism is an Evangelical Christian, but he is certainly no Christian Nationalist. 

The book starts and ends with detailed explanations of how the data was compiled. It's not particularly invigorating listening in an audiobook, but it does demonstrate that the authors used tried and true methods to gather solid data. 

The discussion of the results in the middle was particularly riveting to me, though. It turns out that I must be what they identify as a "rejector" of Christian Nationalism based on how I reacted to what I think is Christian Nationalism's perversion of the ideals and basic tenets of both my faith and the ideals of my country. As they went through comments from individuals that they gleaned from the surveys I often felt sick to my stomach and sometimes felt like crying. I would love to provide examples, but as I already noted, I listened to the audiobook and it is hard to take notes while driving or walking the dog.

I rated this audiobook 4 stars out of 5 only because all of the parts of the book actually tell you that this is reliable information makes for a slow listen and is likely to drive away listeners who have not taken a sociology class or studied how good polls are made (hint: most polls you run across on social media are very bad polls.)

I rate this audiobook 4 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: TAKING AMERICA BACK for GOD: CHRISTIAN NATIONALISM in the UNITED STATES by Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry.