The Seventh-day Adventist is one of the lesser known Protestant denominations even though it has the second largest pre-k to university parochial school system second only to the Catholics. In 2015 there was a vote at the General Conference of the denomination. The vote was to grant women pastors ordination which, according to denomination policy, is necessary to move in administrative positions in the church. Sadly, the denomination was split between conferences from Western developed nations and developing nations of South America, Asia, and Africa. […]
It’s All a Game: The History of Board Games from Monopoly to Settlers of Catan
Once again I have my library’s “New Arrivals” section for introducing me to “It’s All a Game”. What caught my attention is that it covers two of my favorite topics, board games and history. Several of the games mentioned throughout the book are ones I had never stopped to consider from whence they sprang. Now that I do, I have a greater appreciation for them. The book is organized around different types of games. Life, Monopoly, Risk, Clue, and Settlers of Catan are some of […]
The White Bicycle
“The White Bicycle” by Beverley Brenna was part of my quest to read through the Printz award winners and nominees. I didn’t know much about the book before I read it, and I was intrigued that once I started reading it, the main character had Aspberger’s. Not since reading “A Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime” have I read a character from this point of view. I’m glad that this book was included in the Printz honor list. Taylor has been hired by […]
The River Why
“The River Why” by David James Duncan is one of those novels that could’ve been prevented by a good editor (Flannery O’Connor’s sentiment, my paraphrase). By that I mean, there’s a good story in this book, but the author kept getting in the way of letting the story evolve and play out. The crux of the novel is that Gus grows up in a family that both obsesses and is famous for fishing, both pole and fly. He was an only child until he was […]