Isle of View

I have been reading Isle of View-A history of South Manitou Island by Charles M. Anderson. It gives a personal history of the South Manitou Island in Lake Michigan. It tells of life on an island in a different era. There are stories about how life was both from historical, practical day to day and personal point of view. It is from an era when people lived on the island instead of it being a part of the national park system. Some of the personal stories are very funny like when the author's sister's soup exploded at the one room school house they went to. For those of you who love local history, this is a 5 out of 5 Pith helmets.

Dangerous Book for Boys

This book has been out for a while and even though I am a bit old for it, I was curious about the book. It is an interesting book and a fantastic idea book for boys and girls. I put in both since I think ther is stuff in it that would interest boys and girls even though it is aimed at boys. It is a combination of information abd activites for boys. It covers a lot of area and would serve as a way to get boys interested in the world around them. I was impressed with the reading list, the activites and the whole book. I was also impressed that it dared have the ten commandments in it when they have lost some of their popularity.

5 out of 5 Pith Helmits.
Read it with a boy that is in your life.

Wisconsin Lore and Legend I & II

I was combing through the shelves of one of my favorite local used bookstores and I found two neat books- Wisconsin Lore and Legends Volume I &II. They are a collection of newspaper comics done very much in the same genre of Ripley Believe it or Not! but focused on Wisconsin. A very enjoyable and quick read. Too quick. They are a bit on the thin side but otherwise very enjoyable read. Try them out if you can find them.

4 out of 5 pith helmets.

Barrack Obama is Your New Bicycle.

I read the book Barack OBama is your new bi.cycle by Mathew Honan. It is subtitled 366 ways he really cares. It was started by the author's desire to make his wife laugh. While she was campaigning for Senator Obama, he set up the website, barckobamaisyournewbicycle.com. From there, came the book. I t is a humorous look at how Barrack Obama cares for you and why he is a good candidate. I will give you a few examples from the book but hopefully not too many so I don't go beyond fair use.

Barack Obama gave you a puppy.
Barack Obama mapped out a new dungeon and rolled up a totally bad ass paladin for your first game of D&D.
Barack Obama called your mom on mother's day just to say hi.

It was trite and yet very funny. It was an incredibly fast read and worth the time to read it.

3 out 0f 5 Pith Helmets.

Young Man Luther by Erik Erikson

Young Man Luther by Erik Erikson is a book with an interesting premise but littl else. The premise was do to a psychoanalysis of Martin Luther. The big and central problem is that his analysis was with a person who was absent. Luther was so absent that he had been dead for centuries and no one around to even a first hand account of things. Besides this, there was a cultural biased that was not deal with in the book. Erikson was writting this while living in the 1950's America while looking at Martin Luther who was living in the 1500's Germany. This, at least for me, left the book's theories foundationless. I give this one 1 out of 5 Pith helmits and this solely for how much Erikson's biased amused me.

Egyptian Book fo the Dead.

The Edition of the Egyptian Book of the Dead I will be reviewing has been translated by Raymond O. Faulkner and has an introduction by James P. Allen. It was copyrighted in 2003 and published by Barnes and Noble. This edition is a beautiful and well done coffee table edition full of pictures of both original texts but also artifacts from the era. Both text and pictures shed light on the ancient Egyptian culture and religion. It was an enjoyable read and a book i would leave out for people to look through. Due to its vignette nature. This book is best read in short snippets.

5 out of 5 pith helmets

Regie Gets a New Friend

This book was both written and illustrated by Anthony J. Emberton and published by Nation Wide Publishing, Inc. . It was interesting to see how Tony used the interaction of two dogs he knew and turned it into a story that children would enjoy. With both word and drawn line, he was able to get the dogs personalities and interactions down. Very well done. Keep the creative juices flowing Tony.


5 out of 5 Pith Helmets.



5 out of 5 Pith Helmets

Grave Peril-Audio Book

Grave Peril is written by Jim Butcher and read by James Marsters. The audio book is put out by Buzzy Multimedia Publishing. I will be reviewing both the story and the reading performance.

The story is a great piece of mind candy. It is not a great piece of literature but you don't need great literature to be a fun ride in reading. The universe of Harry Dresden is an interesting, fun place to visit. There are rules to his magic are consistent or at least not jarring you out of the moment. One of the great things is that what happens in one book follows through the rest of the books. There are too many series where you can read them in any order because although things happen, they have no long term effects in most cases. With the Dresden Universe there is.

I also found it interesting how it was developed about Harry"s relationship with his God Mother. There was also progress with him and his love. I also enjoyed the fleshing out of the universe of how the wizards deal with the vampires.

About my only complaint with this one is that it had a little bit of a feel of reading a Hardy boys book, in the sense that Harry was getting either knocked out or pushed to the very limit just to be pulled back in the nick of time. Guess what, it is still a fun ride. I also can never get enough of Bob. Bob the Skull for president.

James Marsters does a great job of reading this book. He has a good voice and reading style for presenting books on audio. He sounds like Harry Dresden which helps with the performance. I think he also looks like Harry Dresden except I imagine Harry as being either dark brown or black hair rather than the blond the Mr. Marsters is. That really does not affect the performance but it does make for a comment.

The audio book itself can be gotten in MP3 format which is really nice. The whole book on one CD. From a clutter around the house factor, that is nice. It also makes it easier if you like taking things to listen to on the go. You can take a lot more on the road to listen to when it takes less space.

Final review
The story itself is a 4.
Reading Perfomance is a 5. You could not get a better reader for this series.
MP3 format is also a 5.

Tales of the Komets

Tales of the Komets is by Blake Sebring and is copyright 2007 and printed by AuthorHouse.

You don't need to be a Komets' or hockey fan or from the Fort Wayne Area to enjoy enjoy this book. The vignettes are funny enough and well enough written for universal appeal. However, it's main audience will be Komets and Hockey fans. If gives a history of the Komets that focus both on ice and behind the scenes. You do not need to know the game of hockey to be able to follow it. It deals with both the funny times and the struggles of a minor league team and the players that played for the team. The most impressive story was the story of how one of the players faith life showed through the illness of one of his children.

It is a great read especially when you have time to only read little snippets. There is a big section on statistics for those who love to number crunch.

4.5 out of 5 pith helmets if you like hockey and a 4 out of 5 Pith helmets if you do not. Either way, it is worth the read.

Reading The Psalms with Luther

This book was originally published as Psalms with Introductions by Luther in 1993 by Concordia Publishing House. The translation of the Psalms used is the English Standard version. The edition I am reviewing is the 2007 printing by Concordia Publishing House by the name of Reading The Psalms with Luther.

This book has several helpful features. It has a section on how to sing the Psalms so that can become a part of your daily devotions. There is a power to singing scripture especially the psalms which were written to be sung. There is both an explanation and prayer with each psalm to help dig further into the psalms. There is also a list that categories the psalms as well as two different reading schedules for going through the psalms. You are not limited to using the schedules suggested.

At least for my style of devotions, this is a great aid in my devotional life. It is aid for personal worship as well as learning God's Word. Definitely a great way to deepen your devotional life.

4 out of 5 Pith Helmets