Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt - Anne Rice

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Category: Historical fiction. Acquired: Christmas 2007 or 2008. Re-read: July 2009 (Alaska cruise!) Briefly: creative and thought-provoking imaginings on the life of Jesus Christ as an 8-year old, as He first starts to become aware of who He is.

Comments: Like many, I was surprised when this book first appeared a few years ago, written by a well-known author of vampire-oriented horror tales. I was more than a little afraid of what I'd find between the covers. But Anne Rice's spiritual re-awakening is real, and is a story worth reading in its own right. Before returning to the faith of her youth, she questioned it thoroughly and deeply, and with scholarly completeness. In the end, she felt the critics who wanted to paint Jesus as non-divine, and the Gospels as late compilations and forgeries, totally failed to make their cases. She says, in fact, that their bias and even hatred towards Jesus drove them to some of the poorest scholarship she'd ever seen in her years of historical studies.

The story she's written is virtually all extra-biblical, although it is reassuringly accurate in areas where it does overlap with the scriptural or historical record, e.g. the descriptions of Mary and Joseph, the Jewish culture of the time, the actions of Herod and his successors, etc. It starts with the (extended) family returning from Egypt to Palestine, still under Roman occupation and torn by rebellion. Jesus is 8 years old, and is aware that he's different from others, but unsure exactly how, and why. (I find that plausible enough, given that he was fully human). He knows that there are topics that his mother and father won't let him ask about. He knows that there was some sort of excitement when he was born, but not the details. He knows that the local townsfolk of Nazareth talk about his mother behind her back, as if she were in some sort of disgrace.

Over the course of the book, Jesus learns bits and pieces of what happened in Bethlehem, but still hasn't figured out how it all relates to him. He senses that what he really needs is the answer to one key question: Why did Herod have to kill all the Jewish boys aged 2 or less? Then Passover comes, and the family goes to the temple in Jerusalem. Driven to find answers, Jesus goes to the leaders of the temple, becomes separated from his mother and father, and voila - we're back in Luke chapter 2.

I though this was a great book. While not intending to be devotional or inspirational, it may just expand and enrich your mental image of what a fully-human/fully-divine being would be like. We're lucky to have an author of the caliber of Anne Rice writing Christian fiction, and I'm looking forward to the next book in this series, Christ the Lord: Road to Cana.

Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood - Oliver Sacks

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Category: Autobiography. Acquired: Snoisle Library (looks funny if you don't capitalize the "i"). Read: June 2009 Briefly: memoirs of a young boy growing up in the 1920's and 30's, and learning the wonders of the molecular world around him.

Comments: This book begins "Many of my childhood memories are of metals", which gives you a pretty good clue where it's headed for the next 300-odd pages. Basically, it's a first-person account of a young boy who grew up in a household (and extended family) full of scientists, doctors and engineers. His fascination for metals is fueled by an uncle who happens to run a tungsten fabrication plant in town. The uncle's love for this particular metal is infectious, and he's more than willing to share his knowledge (and personal lab, and shelves of chemicals) with the 10-year old lad. (While the author acknowledges that he was given access to some outrageously dangerous substances - nasty acids, toxic gasses, even radioactive isotopes - he also decries how today's chemistry sets have been completely stripped of anything even remotely interesting). This becomes the launching point for a lifelong interest in materials ranging from inert gases to the rare earth elements.

The story is fascinating because it's not just the boy who is learning. This is roughly the same era when scientists were finally beginning to understand such fundamentals as the nature of the atom, how elements were arranged in the periodic table, how/why certain elements would combine, how to predict what their compounds would be like, etc. Sacks (the author) had studied the various elements enough to have a sense that there were some regularities involved (e.g. elements that were 8 numbers apart tended to have similar properties). So, when the periodic table was finally published in today's form, he describes it as a pivotal moment in his life, as it finally made sense out of so much that he had observed on his own.

So, this is the story of two journeys, both the author's and the science world in general. I enjoyed how Sacks intertwines the narratives so that the reader gets to experience the sense of achievement felt by both him individually and (presumably) those making the actual breakthroughs. And, the many anecdotes about growing up in this era add some human interest as well.

Final note - you'll understand and enjoy the book a lot more if you brush up on your high school chemistry first, reviewing such topics as atomic weight, atomic structure, oxidation/reduction, ionic bonding, classes of elements, etc. You know, just the basics.

Odd Hours - Dean Koontz

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Category: Time filler. Acquired: LAX airport. Read: June 2009. Briefly: twenty-something drifter has paranormal gifts, including the ability to see and interact with the lingering spirits of the recently-deceased, who seek him out for help in resolving their issues.

Comments: I've never been much of a Dean Koontz fan, but this series is a clever departure from his usual action thrillers. The books all feature a young man named Odd Thomas, who sees dead people. Actually, he only sees those who have unresolved issues making them reluctant to "go over" to the other side. In the first of these books, he helped Elvis Presley; in this one, it's Frank Sinatra.

But those interactions are actually just side plots. The main story always involves some larger mystery or crime to be solved, into which he is pulled via his other 'gifts' -- urges, premonitions, visions, etc. They're never very specific, and he's learned to just go with the flow and let things develop at their own pace. That makes for a very laid-back, thoughtful hero, in contrast with the traditional goal-driven gunslinger.

A great scene in this book is where Odd is being held prisoner and roughly interrogated by the bad guys, while the ghost of Frank Sinatra watches (seen only by him). On an impulse, he begins viciously insulting Sinatra's life, work and reputation, driving the ghost into a rage. As the bad guys watch in horror, things in the room suddenly start flying about, poltergeist-style, causing them to hide under the table and giving Odd the chance to flee.

There are three more books in this series, and I'm looking forward to reading them on future trips.