Shattered by Jonathan Allen & Amie Parnes

Shattered is aptly named because this is the story of what turned out to be the Clinton run for president in 2016.

Trump is in. Hillary somehow missed the mark. What happened and why?

Critics saw her reluctance to use “we” --like Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump and so many other candidates did—as evidence that her campaign was all about her, the book says. She would tend to speak about “I’ and “you” but almost never “we”

Also, she never took the blame for what happened. The email problem was not because she disclosed classified information on a non-government server. Oh, no. It was a private server, she says.  For a smart woman, she must have known that any cyber-message becomes cyber-junk. Anyone can read it.

 And her opponent in Bernie Sanders drew her away from her message.

The major problem was that Hillary couldn’t flex. She felt the rules of what worked in the past would work today. She also had a temper that is unbecoming of a candidate.

Allen and Parnes write a chronological structured account of the campaign run by Hillary. It is a book for those who want a report of just how Hillary ran her race.

I felt satisfied. I think if you were to read this book you would be also.

This book was sent to me gratis from Blogging for Books to be reviewed.

The book is published by Crown and retails for $28.00.

Post Christian

   Every once in while the people of God need to read books like this to see what we need to be doing. 

   We need to know the spiritual needs of the present generation. We need to practice discipleship. We need to reach our world one person at a time for Jesus Christ.

   Post Christian is written by a nerd for the general public. It is not a handbook for the selected few. Everyone needs to read it. Piatt even quotes Austin Power’s father who is not in any way to be considered Christian. And Powers is definitely a nerd.

   As people in this Post Christian world we need to find that dream upon which we can hang our hopes and rest. We have to orientate ourselves to a way without the benefits of seeing the destination in the distance.

   Abraham in the book of Genesis did so and was rewarded.

   We need to show people how to make the leap to faith required, trusting that in doing so we will find God in the process, Piatt suggests.

   It is also pointed out what truth is not. In fact, Piatt records, truth is not propositional. It can’t be encapsulated in an argument or justified with force.

   Truth is seen in a life style.

   Just what is the way to reach the Post Christian world? This book in seventeen chapters explores that question. A person may have to leave themselves vulnerable. But that may be what the Post Christian world is looking for.

  It is published by Jericho Books and retails for $20.00

Year Of No Clutter

 

   All of us accumulate stuff. As we live our lives there are things that we receive that seem to mean to us importance.  Our report cards, our first piece of writing, and so on.

  Our parents, especially our mothers, coo over our accomplishments and save them in boxes to pass on to us once we are adults.

   Some of us become what is politely called hoarders, unable to throw away past records of life steps.

   We may even collect our trophies in separate rooms and close off the doors so others don’t catch on we are just unable to organize.

    Schaub in this memoir points out it is generational. At least it was for her family. Her father taught her by example to hoard. It is something taught and then caught.

    Sometimes it makes no sense. You may collect cans or paper or books or food even.  Sometimes even the science projects of long time ago get in your collection.

    But it can be controlled. Schaub took a whole year to get the habit down of control. Her delightful journey she took  along with her husband and children is detailed in a humorous way in this book.

    She had a place called the Hell room where she hide the clutter. Every hoarder has a place of clutter no matter what the name.

    Hoarders will recognize the problem. Non-hoarders will smile and cut the hoarders some slack, with understanding.

    I recommend this book highly. All will recognize themselves as we all are hoarders to a certain extent. If not hoarders we do have clutter of different types.

   Read. Weep. Laugh.

   The book is published by Sourcebooks and retails for $15.99.

 

The Chamberlain Key by Timothy P. Smith

 

   The idea that the original manuscripts of the Bible had secret meaning behind the words used-- secrets that were hidden until now--has been with us a long time.

   When I saw this book in an advertisement in a respectable Theological magazine, I knew I had to get it and review it and set the record straight.

   This teaching that the words of the original languages hide some secret message is still being circulated today and being taught in some so called respectable theological seminaries. So it is an issue that must be answered. And having books such as this come out don’t help.

   It is being marketed as a nonfiction book. Smith is not a theologian as far as I know. It seems he got it in his mind that since he had six sons and a daughter and his father had six sons and a daughter and Leah, in the book of Genesis, the first book in the Hebrew Bible, had six sons and a daughter, there was a message hidden for him to discover in the Hebrew text.

   He claims to have discovered a key code using his first name which unlocks a message which has been hidden from us.  It is best explain by Smith himself at www.chamberlainkey.com.

   All I am going to say is this is poor Hermeneutics , the study of interpretation.  That is, the rules to proper understanding of the text. This story is not good scholarship.

   I cannot and won’t recommend it

   That said let me say I was sent this book gratis for the purpose of a review by blogging for books. Com. I was not required to give it a pass. I was only required to read it and post a review in my book blog.

    All views are my own and do not reflect on the publisher.