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On our recent road trip to take my sister to university, I read The Case of the Late Pig, Police at the Funeral, and Tether's End, all Margery Allingham mysteries. The first two were good, but the last one was rather badly written. I'd be somewhat surprised if Allingham actually wrote it, but maybe she was just in a hurry.

Road trips are excellent occasions for doing a lot of reading. I also read Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung, a good, basic, Christian common sense book about making decisions. It's short, simple, and easy to read, so even if you're looking for a quick read, this would be an excellent one. His point is surprisingly basic. Gavin, I think you would find his analysis of modern youth culture interesting after Honors last year. He deals with contemporary college students' propensity for drifting in a refreshingly Biblical way.

Also on the road, I read aloud Dealing with Dragons, by Patricia C. Wrede. It's the first in a series of young adult fiction. Charmingly written, full of little witticisms. It pokes loving fun at fairytales. Another good light read (though, of course, much different from DeYoung's book!).

From here on out, it's the Norton Anthology and GRE prep books for me!

Art and Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time, and Light

Leonard Shlain, a surgeon from California, began this project after visiting an art museum with his young daughter. He realized that in the cases of some modern works, he could not explain to her why they qualified as "art" at all! What, he wondered, was modern art trying to communicate, and why was so much of modern art difficult to comprehend?

Shlain concluded after extensive research that "the radical innovations of art embody the preverbal stages of new concepts" concerning the nature of reality. Art and Physics explores how different styles of art (from ancient times to the modern era) have treated space, time, and light; then compares the artistic vision to the work of scientists trying to grasp those same concepts. He believes that artists have often portrayed ideas about, for example, the nature of light or the relativity of space before physicists arrived at those same ideas.

If artists really are unknowingly creating works that anticipate cutting-edge physics, what could explain such prescience? (Pardon the pun.) That question pulls Shlain into metaphysical territory. He suggests that the existence of a universal mind -"an overarching, disembodied universal consciousness that binds and organizes the power generated by every person's thoughts" - could explain "how an artist can incorporate ideas into his or her work that have not as yet been discovered by physicists and that are certainly unknown to the general public."

The strengths of this book are that it is very readable and that it assembles incredibly wide-ranging material into a coherent narrative. However, I doubt that an expert in physics or in art would be entirely satisfied with Shlain's exposition. The book's subject is simply too broad for its thesis to be rigorously supported.

* * * *

I googled the author's name before posting this, and learned that Leonard Shlain died this year. He wrote three other books after Art and Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time, and Light. Each has an ambitious title: The Alphabet Vs. The Goddess: the Conflict Between Word and Image; Sex, Time and Power: How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution; and Leonardo's Brain: the Left-Right Roots of Creativity (the third book will be published posthumously in 2010). It sounds like he was a remarkable person who enjoyed synthesizing information to get a big-picture perspective on the human story.

Funny in Farsi

One of my roommates this year is from Iran. It has been very interesting to hear her talk about her life in her home country. She loaned me a memoir by an woman who moved from Iran to America as a child. The book describes cultural clashes and family quirks in a lively and humorous way. Even serious topics, like the suspicion that Iranian immigrants were subjected to during the hostage crisis, are treated with a light touch. Reading Funny in Farsi was a pleasant way to learn a little bit more about Iran's culture.

Mystery Mile

Actually, I read this book about a week ago, but then I had to put a moratorium on book reading for awhile so that I could finish some other work. Mystery Mile by Margery Allingham is the second in her series of Albert Campion mysteries. Allingham's mysteries are somewhere on the food chain below Dorothy Sayers but above Agatha Christie, in my opinion. Her detective, Campion, is a hilarious fellow, very colorful, with an even more colorful sidekick, Lugg, who is the requisite manservant. Allingham's dialogue is pure joy to read. I read some online reviews that were less than complimentary of her ability to construct a good mystery plot; nevertheless, her books are excellent light reads. They're set in roughly the same time period as Sayers's mysteries and concern roughly the same social class, but with much less of the Austin-esque social commentary. I plan to read more when I have a chance.

The Perilous Gard

Amanda and Syneva recommended this book to me several years ago, but I never could get my hands on a copy of it until a friend of mine in Stillwater happened to mention it. I read it in an afternoon. The story is set in Elizabethan England (or the reign of Queen Mary, Elizabeth's predecessor, to be precise). Kate, the main character, is sent to a castle called the Perilous Gard for what paranoid Queen Mary decides is treason. The story unfolds from there. It's one of those excellent tales that both explains old legends and treats a world-within-a-world. I thoroughly enjoyed it. It's written for young adult readers, but it combines historical fiction and mystery and is very well-written. At one point an unusual Gospel presentation is even made. A good quick read.

Geeks in Las Vegas

I read Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich, an old bestseller that was made into a movie, 21. I haven't seen the movie, but the book gave me a slight adrenaline rush as I entered the world of MIT students who beat the system at casinos by using their highly skilled card counting techniques to give themselves a statistical edge in blackjack. Over the course of a few years, the blackjack team raked in millions of dollars, and eventually the casinos caught on and barred them from returning. As a Harvard graduate, Mezrich has social connections with interesting people-- one of his acquaintances was on this blackjack team, and this year he published another book about the inside story of Facebook's origins by interviewing other people he knew. The story is highly entertaining and very well-written. I recommend it enthusiastically, with reservations; read it if you want a vivid picture of the modern equivalent of Babylon.

At the end of the book, there is an essay by the (real-life) main character, describing a basic card counting technique. It sounds simple, but it's no easy feat to track cards accurately through six decks while acting like a drunk novice to deflect suspicion.

When I visited Vegas, the only thing that interested me was taking pictures of the cool chandeliers and slot machines. I would not have done that if I realized how many cameras were tracking my every movement, and that people must have been eyeing me suspiciously until they realized I was just a silly, bored, underage girl-- no threat at all. The city is a twisted Neverland, for those who want to live in an endless frat party.

The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty

Just finished The Collected Stories by Eudora Welty last night. She's a prolific author, so it's a formidable collection. Her early stories are very similar to Flannery O'Connor's in some ways. Southern Gothic. She tends to give a gritty, depressing picture of normal life in the South. The small, isolated towns in which her stories are set give her the opportunity to explore the darker side of human nature. However, as her style develops, her style becomes more and more beautiful. Though she doesn't leave behind her dark thematic material, she treats it more gently, with more pathos. Her later stories have some really lovely moments in them. Her ability to weave similes and metaphors is unparalleled, and I went through my copy with a pencil underlining the best bits. Nevertheless, one has to take these stories a few at a time. Read a couple, then go find something a bit more cheerful.

The Most of P.G. Wodehouse (etc.)

First, as an aside: Last night some friends and I watched Secondhand Lions, which is a hilarious film except for the attempt at moral values in the middle. One of the characters tells another character just to "Believe!" in something. "It doesn't matter if it's true or not! Just believe!" was the mantra. That moment reminded me of The Screwtape Letters, where Screwtape plumes himself on the fact that evil has been able to convince humans just to "believe" without any regard for the truth of belief. The essentially wonderful thing about the Christian Gospel is that it is true, C.S. Lewis seems to be saying. Otherwise, what would be the point?

(Though he seems to undercut this in The Silver Chair, where Puddleglum declares to the witch that he's going to live like a Narnian whether or not there is a Narnia. A point for discussion?)

Anyway, last night I finished The Most of P.G. Wodehouse, a collection of several of his short stories plus a novel. A delightful read. His style draws you in and addicts you to its sheer light-heartedness. His characters are all completely laughable. My favorites are Jeeves and Wooster, of course, but the members of the Drones Club could be Wooster's twin brothers. I love Wodehouse's gentle satire of British aristocratic life. I rather wish someone with the same sort of humor could write similar satires about today's culture. Though perhaps today we have the opposite problem. P.G. Wodehouse slags off his young aristocrats for refusing to do any useful work, but in our American culture we seem to have glorified work to an extreme.

Pontius Pilate

This book by Paul Maier is one I bought at the McFarlin book sale for two dollars, and is billed as a "biographical novel." It blends both Biblical, historical, and traditional sources to paint a probable portrait of Pilate's life. The notes explain that several orthodox churches have a tradition of Pilate's wife Procula being an early convert and celebrate her as a saint, and the Ethiopian Orthodox actually have St. Pilate and St. Procula's day, indicating a belief that Pilate also converted. The book does not take a stand on whether they ultimately did, but the book does offer a large amount of accurate historical data about the rules of Tiberius, Caligula, and Claudius and the governorship of Pilate. It was interesting to read this one right after the Anne Rice book, they were complements from different perspectives.

Pilate has short interactions in the book with several Biblical figures, including Paul, the Centurion Cornelius (who, Maier notes, Pilate almost certainly would have met, given how few Roman officers were in Judea at that time), and of course Jesus. It gives context to many of the occurrences of the Bible, including the identities of the "Herodians" who succeeded Herod the Great, their actions, and Pilate's authority with respect to Christ's prosecution.

It makes the interesting theological point, through Paul, in fact, that the presence of Pilate was to indicate the guilt of Gentiles in the death of Christ. Based on this and a reference in the preface, I feel that Maier was trying very hard not to write anything that could be construed as anti-semitic, but nonetheless I think it is a legitimate point and a true interpretation. Though I do wonder what all of you think about this point and the method of its presentation. Actually, having delved slightly into the genre of religious fiction set in Biblical times, I was wondering what your opinions might be on that type of writing.

Certainly this is a recommendable book, though there is a lot more darkness in it, what with the Roman politics, Caligula, Tiberius, and all, than in many of the others. It is intensely interesting if you have a interest in ancient history.

The Phantom Tollbooth

This came at the very enthusiastic recommendations of Asher and Katie, and a sale at Borders.

It is one of the best children's books, the kind that still holds legitimate appeal for adults.

A bored and dull young boy gains entrance to another world though the Phantom Tollbooth, and there he learns some lessons from a very interesting set of characters, through a series of harrowing adventures. It bears similarities to Narnia, then, but without Christian undertones.

With humor, wit, and an impressive (but not pompous) vocabulary, it pokes fun at some illogical human tendencies that suck the enjoyment out of life, and teaches us to live wisely and richly.

Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt

This is a book that Anne Rice, of vampire fame, wrote after reconverting to Catholicism. It is the story of Jesus and his family, when he was about seven years old, leaving Alexandria and traveling to Nazareth in the Holy Land after the death of Herod the Great. It draws on both Biblical, historical, and other sources, such as one reference to Christ creating birds out of clay while bored. Real, flying, living birds, which was startling to his friends and classmates, to say the least. At the beginning of the novel, he also curses a kid who bullies him and his cousins, causing that boy to instantly die, and then promptly brings him back from the dead.

It is interesting how Jesus' divine nature is handled in the book. Naturally, he is not omniscient, as that would make such a first person narrative almost impossible. But he does have power and instant theological knowledge, and he heals people at several points. I think Rice did a difficult job well and managed to not include anything very theologically questionable

The main plot of the book centers around Christ trying to discover the truth about the circumstances surrounding his birth, in particular the killing of the innocents, which, understandably, no one in his family will talk about to him, and none of the rabbis he meets wish to discuss with a small child. So it is a mystery novel, but one to which the reader knows the solution.

Overall, I recommend this book very highly. It is easy to read, well written, and contains some beautiful scenes both of family life and of religious devotion, though, at the same time, there are some very horrible things that happen in it during the turmoil surrounding Herod's death.