A thorough, well-organized guide to biblical study.
A comprehensive introduction to the Bible that treats it as an instruction manual for morality.
Debut author Cole asserts that relying upon Scripture for moral guidance has become unfashionable, thus leaving younger people rudderless in a world of temptation. However, he believes that the path to salvation is charted in the Bible, when properly understood. The author grants that Scripture can be complex— it communicates different messages to different people, sometimes employs hyperbole, and often engages in cryptic symbolism— but that doesn’t mean that its principal points can’t be understood. Cole offers a comprehensive guide to the Bible that takes novices on an impressively thorough tour. He begins with the account of Jewish history provided in the Hebrew Scriptures, followed by a chronicle of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ; he then discusses the future as prophesized, and the nature of moral obligations and God’s promises. Cole uses the King James Version of the Bible, and only slightly revises the text to make it more accessible to modern readers. His book concludes with a series of appendices, some of which discuss relevant contemporary issues, such as the conflict between divine creation and evolution and the biblical stance on astrology. The crux of Cole’s reading is that the Bible isn’t merely one book among many, but the revealed word of God, given to humanity to assist people in their earthly lives. His mastery of the material is extraordinary, especially as he’s neither a professional historian nor theologian, and he dexterously links the ancient message of the Bible to modern life. For example, there’s an engaging discussion of the doctrine of election (the idea of being “chosen by God for His purpose”) and an account of 20th-century Zionism. The prose is habitually clear and highly readable by even the least knowledgeable beginner. However, some moments are overly strident, leaving no room for philosophical discussion (“Don’t be deluded into thinking Satan is not real or lacks great power”). Still, for religious readers in need of assistance interpreting the Bible, this is a sound one-volume introduction.
A thorough, well-organized guide to biblical study.Pub Date: March 24, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-692-42236-6
Page Count: 441
Publisher: DANCO
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
With this detailed, versatile cookbook, readers can finally make Momofuku Milk Bar’s inventive, decadent desserts at home, or see what they’ve been missing.
In this successor to the Momofuku cookbook, Momofuku Milk Bar’s pastry chef hands over the keys to the restaurant group’s snack-food–based treats, which have had people lining up outside the door of the Manhattan bakery since it opened. The James Beard Award–nominated Tosi spares no detail, providing origin stories for her popular cookies, pies and ice-cream flavors. The recipes are meticulously outlined, with added tips on how to experiment with their format. After “understanding how we laid out this cookbook…you will be one of us,” writes the author. Still, it’s a bit more sophisticated than the typical Betty Crocker fare. In addition to a healthy stock of pretzels, cornflakes and, of course, milk powder, some recipes require readers to have feuilletine and citric acid handy, to perfect the art of quenelling. Acolytes should invest in a scale, thanks to Tosi’s preference of grams (“freedom measurements,” as the friendlier cups and spoons are called, are provided, but heavily frowned upon)—though it’s hard to be too pretentious when one of your main ingredients is Fruity Pebbles. A refreshing, youthful cookbook that will have readers happily indulging in a rising pastry-chef star’s widely appealing treats.
Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-307-72049-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Clarkson Potter
Review Posted Online: Jan. 13, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Making movies may be ``hard work,'' as the veteran director continually reminds us throughout this slight volume, but Lumet's simple-minded writing doesn't make much of a case for that or for anything else. Casual to a fault and full of movie-reviewer clichÇs, Lumet's breezy how-to will be of little interest to serious film students, who will find his observations obvious and silly (``Acting is active, it's doing. Acting is a verb''). Lumet purports to take readers through the process of making a movie, from concept to theatrical release—and then proceeds to share such trade secrets as his predilection for bagels and coffee before heading out to a set and his obsessive dislike for teamsters. Lumet's vigorously anti-auteurist aesthetic suits his spotty career, though his handful of good movies (Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, Prince of the City, and Q&A) seem to have quite a lot in common visually and thematically as gutsy urban melodramas. Lumet's roots in the theater are obvious in many of his script choices, from Long Day's Journey into Night to Child's Play, Equus, and Deathtrap. ``I love actors,'' he declares, but don't expect any gossip, just sloppy kisses to Paul Newman, Al Pacino, and ``Betty'' Bacall. Lumet venerates his colleague from the so-called Golden Age of TV, Paddy Chayevsky, who scripted Lumet's message-heavy Network. Style, Lumet avers, is ``the way you tell a particular story''; and the secret to critical and commercial success? ``No one really knows.'' The ending of this book, full of empty praise for his fellow artists, reads like a dry run for an Academy Lifetime Achievement Award, the standard way of honoring a multi-Oscar loser. There's a pugnacious Lumet lurking between the lines of this otherwise smarmy book, and that Lumet just might write a good one someday.
Pub Date: March 27, 1995
ISBN: 0-679-43709-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1995
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