en-US Sun, 20 Apr 2025 16:27:46 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg ReadStatus9332157209 Sun, 20 Apr 2025 16:27:46 -0700 /review/show/7504677751 Michael finished reading Monet: Itinerant of Light by Salva Rubio
]]> Review7486601097 Sun, 13 Apr 2025 18:54:49 -0700 /review/show/7486601097 Michael gave 4 stars to The Beatles Couldn't Read Music? (Wait! What?) by Dan Gutman
]]> Review7463165082 Fri, 04 Apr 2025 19:01:37 -0700 /review/show/7463165082 Michael gave 4 stars to Adventures of Hershel of Ostropol (Paperback) by Eric A. Kimmel
]]> Review7452106740 Mon, 31 Mar 2025 18:58:21 -0700 /review/show/7452106740 Michael gave 3 stars to The Angel's Mistake: Stories of Chelm (Hardcover) by Francine Prose
]]> Review7428737538 Sun, 23 Mar 2025 15:13:06 -0700 /review/show/7428737538 Michael gave 5 stars to Solomon and the Ant: And Other Jewish Folktales (Hardcover) by Sheldon Oberman
]]> ReadStatus9215994117 Fri, 21 Mar 2025 20:47:24 -0700 /review/show/7423831401 Michael finished reading C. S. Lewis had a Wife and Catherine Marshall had a Husband: Two-in-one Special by William J. Petersen
]]> Review7417003539 Wed, 19 Mar 2025 10:03:48 -0700 /review/show/7417003539 Michael gave 3 stars to Stranger in a Strange Land (Paperback) by Robert A. Heinlein
This is a very creative novel that explores the idea of a man from Mars (the stranger) coming to earth (the strange land). I have deep differences and disagreements with the author's philosophical and theological views, but the novel gave me much to think about and disagree with.

Mike's saying "Thou art God" strikes me as being empty of meaning, except in a pantheistic sense, which is not what Westerners mean when they speak of God. Any "God" of "Thou art God" is not a God at all. And it's too easy to hide behind the idea that the meaning of this phrase can't be fully expressed unless you know Martian.

I also found that Mike's "religion" is not one of faith but one of self training and discipline. That struck me as akin to Buddhism and self-help. So I would agree that Mike's "church" is not a faith or religion, but more like a self-help philosophy that aims to get the believer in touch with reality.

I also disagree with the reality that the novel presents. Free sexual love ends up destroying the human person. To move in that direction will not result in wholeness but emptiness, jealousy, and brokeness -- and one need only check multiple human experiences for verification. The marriage relationship is exclusive and not-coexclusive. Water brothers, do you grok the fullness of my critique? ]]> Review7409020843 Sun, 16 Mar 2025 15:21:59 -0700 /review/show/7409020843 Michael gave 3 stars to Biblioteca de adaptaciones de ópera de P. Craig Russell vol. 02 (Hardcover) by P. Craig Russell
]]> Review7406198043 Sat, 15 Mar 2025 16:05:55 -0700 /review/show/7406198043 Michael gave 4 stars to How to Speak Dragonese (How to Train Your Dragon, #3) by Cressida Cowell
]]> Review7404687766 Sat, 15 Mar 2025 04:42:11 -0700 /review/show/7404687766 Michael gave 5 stars to The Art of Disagreeing: How to Keep Calm and Stay Friends in Hard Conversations (Christian book on disagreement, arguments, conflict resolution, disunity.) by Gavin Ortlund
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