A relatively straightforward message for a very specific audience, enriched by its focus on Christian community.
Langford (Why the Bible Is So Hard to Understand, 2015) discusses what he believes is the central focus of Jesus’ ministry: the kingdom of God.
The author’s study lays out what he sees as the characteristics of “the kingdom”—which he defines as “a world shaped by the character of God, embodying the ways of God”—and how it’s “at cross purposes with the world—society and culture shaped by the inherent inclinations of our self-serving human condition.” In other words, the kingdom, being reflective of God’s own character, often stands in stark contrast to ways that come naturally to ordinary people. Jesus’ life and ministry on Earth, he asserts, offer a glimpse of the life that all Christians ought to seek. By looking closely at Jesus’ example and walking in repentance, he says, they can learn how to live out of step with the world, pattern their thinking and behaviors after God’s character, and ultimately experience a “God-shaped world” in which “people relate to one another out of grace and forgiveness; power is used to serve; and material wealth is used…for the good of others.” Langford effectively encourages his fellow believers to cast off what he sees as fear-based thinking. That said, the text is a little repetitive at times, and the differences between the “kingdom” and “God-shaped” things can be difficult to parse: “A God-shaped world—the kingdom—is inseparably tied to God-shaped lives….A God-shaped life…is a life patterned after the ways of the kingdom.” But overall, this will be a satisfying read for Christians who, like the author, see the importance of emulating early Christ-followers’ priorities, particularly regarding living a “transformed” life and living in close community with other Christians. Overall, this book offers inspiring goals for believers to pursue.
A relatively straightforward message for a very specific audience, enriched by its focus on Christian community.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-973602-92-7
Page Count: 140
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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