The Year of Living Biblically, by A. J. Jacobs

The sub-title is, "One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible." This is a fabulous book. It is listed in the comedy genre but the only explanation I can see for that is the publisher imagining better sales there than in the theology section of the book store. I found nothing comedic and many things thought provoking.

The best part of the book is the clarity about the dangers of selective literal interpretation of the Bible. Even the most devout fundamentalist Christians and fundamentalist Hasidic Jews just can't do it - even they have to decide that some lines are metaphor.

For the more moderate who choose to pick and choose lines from the bible to defend their hostility towards homosexuality or to defend their desire to over-rule a woman's right to choose how to handle her own body, there is ample evidence that this is a fool hardy approach.

There are more examples than I can count (read the book and you'll just set yourself up for a time-wasting scavenger hunt through a Bible concordance to find yet more examples of your own). (Oh, maybe that's just me.) Here are a couple from Jacobs' book:

"...kick women out of church for saying hello ('the women should keep silence in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak...' -- 1 Corinthians 14:34) and boot out men for talking about the 'Tennessee Titans' [football] ('make no mention of th enames of other gods...' -- Exodus 23:13).

The White Tiger, by Aravind Adiga

The Man Booker Prize has been a reliable predictor of novels; they're always excellent. This is no exception.

White Tiger puts an "modern day India / technology changes the nation / stark distinctions of rich and poor / caste system" spin on the ages old rags to riches story line. In brief: our hero goes from poor, uneducated servant class to modern day entrepreneur, but has to kill to do so. (Don't fear, I haven't given away anything to which the author would object.)

This well written book captured my interest. Probably as Westerners we should be cautious to not try to read too much into this as a depiction of India, but rather enjoy it as the novel it is. Think of it as in the Slumdog Millionaire genre if you'd like.

Night and Day, by Robert B. Parker

This short book is in the Jesse Stone series (i.e., not Parker's Spencer mysteries). I was flying and wanted a distraction: this was perfect. Good thing I always carry more than one book though; this novel reads fast.

What more might I say: if you know Parker's writing, particularly in the Stone books, you already know the deal. It was just another light entry in that collection. In other words, you wouldn't waste your money on acid free paper for this stuff. But a great little mystery.

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz

Okay, this was an entertaining novel. The big surprise is that it won a Pulitzer Prize; wow - the other submissions must have been really poor. Not that this is bad. But I never felt I really got to know the main character, Oscar, in any deep fashion. The style is unusual for a modern day novel, but perhaps is more typical of Dominican literature. I'd say, B+.

Understanding Wood Finishing, by Bob Flexner

This is a great reference; it demystified about 85% of the subject. I'm not sure if I should blame Mr. Flexner for not getting me to 100%: perhaps I just need to re-read the book a couple times more.

Still, it made some things quite clear, and not clear: tung oil might really be called varnish, and it often might not even have any tung oil in it. There, that's helpful, right?

Beat the Reaper, by Josh Bazell

Wow, fantastic. Superb novel. Loved it.

Uncommon, by Tony Dungy

This is definitely not my kind of book, but having said that, the core message (integrity is a good thing) certainly resonated. Where Mr. Dungy used personal anecdotes to punctuate his message it was interesting, and even the preachy sections (of which there were an awful lot) weren't all that bad.

I recommend this to those young adults who can get past the secular aspects.

White Witch, Black Curse, by Kim Harrison

When you've read eight woodworking books in a row, it is time to settle down with a trashy paranormal novel. This is that. I only understood 70% or 80% of what was going on, but it was a diversion.

Fixing and Avoiding Woodworking Mistakes, by Sandor Nagyszalanczy

This is a very cool concept and well executed.

Greene & Greene Design Elements for the Workshop, by Darrell Peart

This is quite a good book, focused on the furniture of the Greene brothers. Their style is distinctive, as indicated by the photo, right. You may need to enlarge the image to notice the ebony plugs.

I like that Peart shows how to construct some of the complex joints in this furniture. He is also an accomplished furniture maker, with interesting designs of his own, derived from the Greenes.