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Talk about deconstruction! Bishop Spong takes the first section of the book to tell me that everything I was taught was untrue. No virgin birth, no star in the east, no miracles, no bodily resurrection. Then he takes the rest of the book to talk about why the writers of the Bible wrote the way they did and how to read the Bible (particularly the New Testament) in a new way. Though the deconstruction process is brutal, for me, wading through it was worth it. I’ve done a lot of searching myself Read the rest…
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It’s hard to write a biography of someone who left as scant a record of his life as William Shakespeare did. So a good portion of this book debunks theories that posit that Shakespeare didn’t write his plays and why the people who have been suggested as authors probably weren’t. Bryson sticks to his subject and while writing with verve and the humor for which he is justly famous, he meticulously sets out the few undisputed facts about Shakespeare — mostly gleaned from legal documents. While not Read the rest…
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I’m not sure this book is readily available in the US, but get it anyway! It is a great shame that most Americans are blissfully unaware of entertainer Derren Brown (don’t be put off by the scary face on the cover of the book), but one of the best reasons to live in the UK must be access to his delightful, mystifying, and sometimes downright frightening TV series and specials. To call Brown a magician is to focus on only a facet of his skills, as simple illusions and sleight of hand are the least Read the rest…
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Phoebe Damrosch’s Service Included: Four-Star Secrets of an Eavesdropping Waiter introduced me to a world I didn’t know. Forget the eavesdropping. This isn’t a juicy, tell-all, he said/she said-over-the-salad book. It is the true story of her experience as a waiter in one of Manhattan’s finest restaurants. I must admit I don’t eat in many restaurants of this caliber but, as a travel writer, I certainly have visited some fine establishments. Thanks to this book, I’ll never look at the service in the same way. Read the rest…
