An energetic, inviting breakdown of sections of Genesis.
A senior pastor’s faith-based attempt to grapple with the origins of humanity.
“Is it possible one can get so involved in ‘religion’ they miss Christ?” asks McClure (Who Do You Say I Am?, 2013, etc.) at one point in his passionate and rhetorically fluid 2016 book, adding an implicit warning about worship-minded Christians who “know the rules but missed the Savior.” This emphasis on faith instead of faith rituals runs throughout this book, a warning against the ecumenical softening of the present age. “I have been amazed at how many church leaders and Christian education directors have told me that study of the Word of God is too hard and requires too much time,” he writes. His contention is that Bible study is not only essential to the Christian life, but also far easier and more natural than many modern-day Christians believe. He goes on to demonstrate this latter point by conducting a patient, accessible reading of the earliest stories in the book of Genesis, with particular concentration on the creation of humans in the Garden of Eden. “The more I consider Adam’s rising from the dust of the earth,” he writes, “the more I am convinced his origin is the key to unlocking the mysteries of creation.” This key is likewise a familiar theme in McClure’s work, this “hunger” of the faithful for a relationship with God, the duty to “allow ourselves to move deeper into God, closer to the heart of God—to be centered in God.” McClure has read widely and knows his Bible from front to back; his book is softened with many personal stories and peppered with quotes from Scripture. The book contains the usual dangers of a jeremiad: McClure’s “back to basics” approach must ignore legitimate complexity in order to land its points. The combination of personal and pastoral, however, strikes a near-perfect balance between instruction and fellowship. McClure’s Christian readers will read with pleasure.
An energetic, inviting breakdown of sections of Genesis.Pub Date: Nov. 3, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-63269-426-3
Page Count: -
Publisher: Deep River Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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