Timeline by Michael Crichton - 512 Pages

Archaeologists travel to Medieval Times and almost get stuck.  I would say that they time travel, but the book is very clear that what they are doing is not traveling through time but traveling to another, parallel universe.  Using pop quantum theory, Crichton has his adventurers basically getting faxed into a universe that is almost the same as ours, yet not the same.  Although Crichton's explanation is slightly more technical, you can understand that it is still quite a stretch and leaves ample room for some ridiculousness and plot holes - the biggest of which (in my opinion) is how does doing something in the past of one universe affect anything in the present of this universe...if they aren't the same universe?

Anyways, if you are willing to swallow some of the inevitable jumps in logic surrounding the time/universe travel, this is a fun, exciting read.  Nonstop action, most of the main characters are well developed and as a history buff I enjoyed the discussions on the importance and impact of understanding the history that has shaped the present.  

If you like Crichton, I think you would enjoy this, one of his less popular books.

Renting the movie this weekend.  Paul Walker is in it.  I have a very bad feeling about this....

Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco - 641 pages

I was thoroughly unimpressed with this book.


Imagine 40 pages of a Dan Brown novel (although admittedly Eco's prose is much more refined and beautiful than Brown's) bookending 600 pages of three guys sitting around talking about conspiracy theories, secret societies, pseudo-history, occult rituals, mysticism and abstract dream sequences.


I'm sure some English major types would like the whole everything-relates-to-everything-and-words-have-whatever-meaning-we-assign-to-them-reality-is-what-we-make-it postmodern subthemes that run through the book. No thanks.


as reviewers on goodreads commented:


"One of those books where the author tediously says next to nothing, and all the semi-litterati can't figure out what he's trying to say, so they conclude he must be brilliant."


or


"This book consists of predominantly two things: (1) Endless dialogue by mentally unbalanced paranoid conspiracy theorists; (2) Endless dialogue by scholars who study mentally unbalanced paranoid conspiracy theorists. This is not a bad book, but its not an easy read, and not really a particularly enjoyable one."



If you want to read about postmodern philosophy I would suggest not Foucault's Pendulum but Michel Foucault. Likewise, if you want to read a thriller about Rosicrucians and Templars and the like I would look elsewhere.

In Christ Alone by Sinclair Ferguson - 256 Pages

For the past few months I have been reading a few pages of this book every morning when I have extra quiet time.  It has proven to be one of my favorite books of its type.  Short chapters filled with truth.  Each chapter can be read in 5 minutes or less, yet there is much to chew on and think about and apply.

Ferguson lays the book out in 6 parts:

I.   The Word Became Flesh (Christology)
II.  The Heart of the Matter (The Gospel)
III. The Spirit of Christ (Pneumatology)
IV. The Privileges of Grace (Sanctification)
V.  A Life of Wisdom (Discipleship)
VI. Faithful to the End (Perseverance)

Although each of these sections has their own specific focus, they all flow out of the central theme of the sufficiency and glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Throughout the book I was impressed and helped by the way that Ferguson not only didn't avoid, but embraced and applied difficult doctrines such as limited atonement, predestination, total depravity, suffering, and the perseverance of the saints in a pastoral, concise, and clear way.

I recommend this book for anyone wanting to be encouraged to grow in their love of Christ.

"Santa Christ is sometimes a Pelagian Jesus.  Like Santa, he simply asks us whether we have been good.  More exactly, since the assumption is that we are all naturally good, Santa Christ asks us whether we have been "good enough"...Jesus becomes a kind of added bonus who makes a good life even better.  He is not seen as the Savior of helpless sinners."

"There is, therefore, an element in the Gospel narratives that stresses that the coming of Jesus is a disturbing event of the deepest proportions.  It had to be thus, for He did not come merely to add something extra to life, but to deal with our spiritual insolvency and the debt of our sin.  He was not concieved in the womb of Mary for those who have done their best, but for those who know that their best is "like filthy rags" (Isa. 64:6) - far from good enough - and that in their flesh there dwells no good thing (Rom 7:18).  He was not sent to be the source of good experiences, but to suffer the pangs of hell in order to be our Savior."

"Only a sinless Savior is able to die for our sins.  He cannot die for our sins if He must die for His own."

"Say this to yourself when you rise each day, when you struggle, or when you lay your head down sadly on your pillow at night: 'Lord Jesus, You are still the same, and always will be.'"