Eragon by Christopher Paolini

I heard about Eragon a while back on public radio. Christopher Paolini was only fifteen years old when he wrote it. His parents paid to pubilsh the novel and then peddled from the back of their van until they attracted enough attention that he was signed by a publisher.
Hannah checked Eragon out of the library and I started it after she finished. It was very well written, good adolescent fiction. I highly recommend it, and I can’t wait for the next book in the trilogy.

A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines

My latest drive-time listen was A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines. This novel portrays the complexity of social and racial interactions in post-WW II Louisiana. The protagonist, a college-educated black man, struggles to come to terms with his faith and his place in his community and the world.
I really enjoyed listening to this novel and I highly recommend it. As I was listening, it struck me that this novel could be easily adapted to the screen, and sure enough, it has been. I’ve set my DVR to record it if it is ever shown on a cable channel that we get.

Miracle at St. Anna by James McBride

I just finished listening to the audio edition of Miracle at St. Anna by James McBride. It certainly wasn’t my typical read. I don’t think I would have ever picked up the print edition of the book, and if I had, I may not have finished it. But since I was a captive audience in traffic, I stuck it out and I’m really glad that I did. I would recommend this book.

Book Review: Utopia by Lincoln Child

I haven’t been reading much lately. My interest in reading comes in waves, and I have certainly been between waves for a while. After last summer’s disappointing reading, I decided to give up on ‘junk’ novels and read something a little more substantial. I started John Irving’s A Widow for One Year a while back. I am throroughly enjoying it, but it’s not engaged me to the point where I had to just finish it immediately.
Well, a few days ago, I decided to take a break from Irving. I have enjoyed some of the other novels by Lincoln Child and Douglas J. Preston (Relic, The Cabinet of Curiosities), so I picked up Childs’ Utopia. It was about as I expected: much of the technology was a logical, if stretched, extension of current knowledge, the characters were not terribly deep, and the some of the plot elements were not very subtle. But, it was entertaining enough that I completed it in a couple of days.

John Grisham’s “The Street Lawyer”

I read this book while on vacation based on Fred Clark’s blog entry about Christian entertainment. The article that Fred quotes cites Grisham’s book as an example of “What Would Jesus Do” in action.

In The Street Lawyer, the protagonist is a high powered lawyer (surprise!) who undergoes an experience that causes him to reject his pursuit of money, prestige, power, etc. Instead, he becomes a low-paid advocate for the homeless.

I would heartily recommend the book as a good example of someone ‘walking the walk’. I would also recommend it for its realistic portrayal of the homeless. Toward the beginning of his change of heart, the protagonist is afraid of the homeless and of the bad parts of D.C. As he gains more experience with the homeless, however, he begins to see them as individuals and loses his fear. That’s a great lesson for us all.

For its pure entertainment value, however, I was not so impressed with The Street Lawyer. The protagonist undergoes a monumental life change, but frankly we don’t see much depth in his character or the other characters.