Claws and Effect, by Rita Mae Brown

Summary: A guy is killed in the basement of a hospital, and Harry and her animals are determined to figure out whodunnit.

Response: Woot, mystery! Yay! Not much to say other than that it's as good as the other books in the series.

Jesus: What He Really Said and Did, by Stephen Mitchell

I think the title of this book pretty much summarizes it. It's a really quick read. And I found it interesting to find a description of Jesus not colored by the usual propoganda sources of New Testament times.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert M. Pirsig

Summary: While on a motorcycle trip across the country with his son, the narrator reflects on the philosohpical musings of his previous self.

Reaction: I can't help but think of that line from a song, "Nobody knows the trouble I've seen." Maybe trouble isn't relevant to my life at the moment, but it does seem to be the case that nobody knows what my experience is. This book is written on a far deeper level than people tend to experience on a day-to-day basis. And that's why it took me so long to read it: I needed to find the time to actually absorb it, to understand what it just said and how that fit with what it said previously so I'd have a foundation for the rest of the book. And I think that's what must be done with this book: one must take the time to reflect on what it says whether this has any applications in ones own life. This isn't a book that one reads simply for the sake of reading it. Overall, I really enjoyed this book but I wish I'd been able to finish it over a shorter period of time.

Why I read this book: We read an excerpt of it in philosophy class ~4 years ago now, and it intrigued me and I was interested in reading the rest of the book and then for whatever reason I didn't (didn't have time, forgot about it, etc.), and then last summer one of my friends happened to mention it and I was like "Oh yeah, I was planning to read that, wasn't I?" and then I didn't (did I ever mention how bloody many other books I collected to read last summer?) and then a conversation finals week with the same friend about a different book reminded me and after that I finally found a copy (mostly because I went to the library within about an hour of recalling an interest in reading this book)

Pawing through the Past, by Rita Mae Brown

Summary: Harry is helping to plan her thirtieth high school reunion when several of her classmates get murdered.

Comments: Yay mystery! I'm not sure I had any hope of predicting the ending. I think that's all I have to say. Besides the following

Disclaimer: No, this book didn't take me what, three weeks to finish. Well okay, it did take two weeks, but that was only because I've been trying to read another book and it actually requires large chunks of time and not getting distracted and actually having time to read, so ...yeah.

Princess on the Brink, by Meg Cabot

Summary: Mia's boyfriend is about to leave for Japan for a year. I'm not sure it's quite accurate to say chaos ensues, but that somehow seems fitting.

Reaction: Wait, what? It's amazing how complicated the various inter-personal relationships end up in this series! The first half of the book I was wondering why I'm continuing to read the series and by the end, well that may be true, but I still want to know what happens next because it's a total cliff-hanger type situation. Not that I didn't see the gist of it coming, but still.

Misquoting Jesus, by Bart D. Ehrman

This book, as its subtitle says is about "who changed the Bible and why". I focuses on a few examples of signifiant changes as well as describing how people come to identify these and other changes and outlining the reasons behind the largest groups of changes. The first ~2/3 I found very interesting. The last part, which was mostly examples of changes and the process of finding the "real" version of the text, kinda got on my nerves. I think that was mostly because I couldn't be bothered to take the time to convince myself that the author had the right interpretation, and I wasn't willing to just accept that he did. And either that part of the book had more reiteration of previous points, or I was just more inclined to get annoyed with them. In other words, if I was writing this last night, I would probably be gushing about how informative this book is on a subject I know little about.

Mere Christianity, by C. S. Lewis

A straight-forward discourse on Christianity, originally written as a series of radio broadcasts. Amazingly thought-provoking. One of those books that makes me feel like I understand something only to realize after some time has passed that I really don't. The whole point of Christianity is to become one with Christ. Makes sense. But how does one accomplish this? What can I do in my own life? How much have I done already? In a way, this kind of explains my realationship with Christianity: it oscillates between a feeling that Christianity is 'right' or 'true' and a drifting apart mostly because of unanswered questions. But that's not entirely right. It goes beyond what I can pin down with words.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that this book made me think seriously about my relationship with God and the necessity of living as a Christian. And it also answered questions that I know to ask. And above all, it made sense. This could easily be one of those books that has a profound influence on my life if only I could keep in mind what it said.