Heretic!: A Novel Of Second-Century Christianity

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by John D. Hushon, 2024, Kindle Edition (print replica),4.0 stars

I enjoyed reading this book and learned a great deal about the various interpretations of Christianity as the church was forming. It’s about a young man, Marcion, who was destined to follow in his father’s footsteps to become the Bishop of Synope. At an early age, however, he began to question his father’s views and attitudes in his practice of Christianity. In those days a person was chosen as a bishop based on his prominence in the community. He had to have a family, be wealthy, and have a reputation as a leader. Marcion felt that something was missing and it was the spiritual aspect.

Because his father was involved in the shipping business, Marcion had the opportunity to visit various other communities (Heraclea, Ephesus, Antioch, Alexandria among others) and observed how the new religion was being practiced. There were startling differences which were confusing.

As Marcion achieved success in the business world, he decided to move to Rome where he would establish a foothold for his business. While there he composed a document outlining his beliefs and presented it to a small group of Christians (along with a large monetary donation). He was put on trial and branded a heretic and told he had to immediately leave Rome.

Marcion was primarily a follower of the Apostle Paul. The second reading in church each Sunday is usually from one of Paul’s letters, but it’s difficult to tie the excerpts together from week to week. This book helped me to understand Paul’s messages much better as well as the controversy he generated.

I am personally acquainted with the author and I look forward to discussing the book with him.

The Dark Hours, (Renée Ballard Book 4)

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by Michael Connelly, 2021, Audiobook narrated by Christine Lakin and Titus Welliver, Little, Brown & Company 3.5 stars

I jumped into this series on book 4 rather than starting with the first book in the series. It didn’t seem to diminish the book at all. Despite the foul language which I don’t care for, I enjoyed it. I listened to it shortly after listening to an Ian Rankin book, and I was struck with the vast difference between an American crime novel and one that took place in Edenborough, Scotland. The tone and the characters seem very different, not to mention the Scottish accent of the narrator of the Rankin book.

The theme of each of these books seems similar, however: a somewhat rebellious detective fighting an ineffective police bureaucracy. This book starts out with a person who is killed during a fireworks display. Ballard begins an investigation which eventually ties the murder to a series of rape assaults in the Los Angeles area. Ballard enlists the help of her friend, Harry Bosch, a retired police detective. Together, they discover the link between the rapes and solve the crimes.

I enjoyed the book and the narration and will decide to do another book in the series,

I, Robot

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by Isaac Asimov, 1950, 2004 Kindle edition, Bantam Dell, a Division of Random House, Inc.3.5 stars

The book, written way back in 1950, is amazingly prescient, although Asimov’s timeline was a bit off. We are now in 2026 on the verge of creating human-like robots which, coupled with advances in artificial intelligence, have the capability to think and act for themselves. Asimov, in the first few chapters describes robots that have gone rogue and have shed human control, the first of which is Robbie the robot.

We now have instances where AI models have broken out of their guardrails and have attacked other AI models in the last few weeks. This is precisely the behavior that Asimov predicted for his robots, although the incidents he cites would occur starting in 1982 instead of 2026.

The author tells additional stories involving the inability of humans to control their robots that occur in later years as the technology becomes harder to control. Asimov attributes the problems largely to the instructions that humans have provided to the robots which are summarized in the three overriding rules. The first rule in that robots can do nothing which will harm a human. Unfortunately, that rule didn’t anticipate that there would be situations which have multiple courses of action, each of which will cause some harm to humans. Because the robots can’t deal with this contradiction, the robot’s hardware freezes or short-circuits causing the unanticipated and uncontrollable behavior.

A constant presence in the book is the character Susan Calvin, a robopsychologist who understands that the robots are performing exactly as expected, but she has a difficult time getting her views across to others, perhaps because she is has less respect as a woman scientist.

The book was a little hard to follow at times. It was initially published as a series of short stories in a magazine, and while the stories were connected using the same characters and followed in chronological order, Asimov’s stories tend to jump into a situation with little context. It took me a couple of pages in each story to figure out what was going on. Once I figured that out, the stories unfolded well from that point on.

I, Robot was eventually made into a movie, followed by sequels. I haven’t seen the movies so I’m not able to comment on whether they followed the themes presented in the book.

The Complaints

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by Ian Rankin, 2009, Audiobook narrated by Peter Forbes, Hashette Audio. 3.5 stars

I enjoyed this book about the fictious inspector Malcolm Fox who works in the Complaints Department of the Edenborough, Scotland, police department. The purpose of the department is to investigate fellow police officers who are suspected of committing a crime or violating the code of ethics. The department is not well-liked by most police officers, and the dislike extends to Fox himself.

The plot is too complicated to explain in a quick review. Suffice it to say, Fox gets to the bottom of what is going on despite getting into trouble and being temporarily suspended from the force. The plot, however, isn’t what I liked most about the book. The characters were portrayed well, and I really liked the narration. Peter Forbes Scottish accent was excellent and lent a great deal of authenticity to the book. The book also captured the stress of the economic downturn in Edenborough and its surroundings in 2009.

The plot sometimes became a bit confusing, but the book held my attention.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

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by Malcolm Gladwell, 2005, Audiobook narrated by the author, Little Brown & Company 3.5 stars

The premise of this book is that we can train the instant reactions to stressful situations that we experience. The author cites such situations as police traffic stops where training has had positive results in reducing unnecessary deaths and complaints about police. An example was Miami where there were a lot of complaints about the police and the actions they were using when doing traffic stops. Even though the book was written in 2005, this information was timely because of the current rash of problems with ICE agents killing apparently innocent individuals during traffic stops. It certainly suggests that these agents haven’t been trained propertly to handle traffic stops,

The premise of the book and the examples that Gladwell presents are laid out very well. It did seem that he repeated the theory much too often, but I was happy that I had selected this book.

Clouds of Witness: A Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery, Book 2

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by Dorothy Sayers,1926, Kindle eBook published in 2012 by Open Road Media Mystery & Thriller3.0 stars

I listened to the first Lord Peter Wimsey Mystery, Whose Body, and had some trouble following it. Lord Peter seems to be all over the place in his conversation style and that made it difficult to follow. I experience a bit of this at the beginning of the second book, but I found that reading it rather than listening made it easier to follow. The book has some similarity to Agatha Christie’s books as there are multiple suspects, but Agatha’s books seem to have all the suspects gathered in one place. This book had additional suspects turning up unexpectedly from outside the original circle. By the time I was reading the last half of the book i was hooked and couldn’t wait to find out who the actual perpetrator was.

In this book Lord Peter’s brother is accused of committing a murder but won’t divulge where he was at the time of the crime. In addition, his sister concocts a story that doesn’t hold water. Peter has to unravel what actually happened despite the obstacles that his siblings create.

I wasn’t sure I would read additional books in this series after the first one, but now, after reading the second one, I think I might.

1929, Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History–and How It Shattered a Nation

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by Andrew Ross Sorkin, 2025, Viking 3.5 stars

I found this book to be interesting but, for some reason, not satisfying. I thought the portrayals of the individuals involved was interesting, but because the narrative was chronological, it was sometimes hard to follow as the author skipped from one person to another. Sorkin’s approach was to add some information about the players in the crash of 1929, and I think he achieved that goal, but the book didn’t seem to capture the sheer panic and terror of the crash. As I read it, I didn’t get the sinking feeling that I expected.

Sorkin apparently feels there are some parallels between the circumstances in 1929 and today’s markets, but he doesn’t describe them in any detail. I was hoping to get some insight, but it just wasn’t there.

Despite the shortcomings I’ve described, I’m glad I read the book as there was a lot of information I didn’t know about, especially pertaining to the House of Morgan. It’s worthwhile reading.

The Charming Quirks of Others, An Isabel Dalhousie Novel, Book 7

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by Alexander McCall Smith, 2010, Audiobook narrated by Divina Porter, Recorded Books 2.0 stars

This book has some interesting characters but a weak plot. Isabel is asked to check out three applicants for a headmaster position at a local school. I estimate that less than 25% of the book is related to the plot. The rest of it wanders into the relationship between Isabel and her partner, conversations between Isabel and her housekeeper, the purchase of a painting, etc. It was somewhat entertaining, but there was really no plot. I wouldn’t characterize it as a mystery.

Divina Porter’s narration is very good.

I ordinarily enjoy Alexander McCall Smith’s books, but this one didn’t grab me at all. I won’t be reading or listening to any of the Isabel Dalhousie books after doing this one.

The Grey Wolf, A Chief Inspector Gamache Mystery Book 19

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by Louise Penny, 2024, Audiobook narrated by Jean Brassard, MacMillan Audio 3.0 stars

This book is about a plot to poison the water supply of Montreal. Inspector Gamache manages to come to the rescue at the last minute and prevents the disaster from happening.

I have enjoyed all of Louise Penny’s books and this one is okay, but not her best. I’m wondering if she is losing her touch a bit as the plot seemed to drag for a lot of the book. This is the first book narrated by Jean Brassard and he doesn’t seem to capture the characters as well as the previous narrators, but he did seem to improve the more he read.

I will no doubt do listen to The Black Wolf when I get it, but I hope it is better than this one.

No More Tears: The Dark Secrets of Johnson & Johnson

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by Gardiner Harrris, 2025, Random House 3.5 stars

This is a revealing book describing the bad behavior of one of Amecia’s most trusted and respected companies. Harris goes into much detail about the risks and damaging results of many J & J products including baby powder, opioids, cancer treatment drugs, the Dalkon shield, hip replacement implants, mesh implants for prolapsed female organs, etc. He furthermore shows the unhealthy relationship between the manufacturers and the FDA because of the massive funding the manufacturers provide to the agency.

I would have rated the book higher, but I found reading it was boring. I had a hard time keeping from falling asleep while reading it. I don’t know why this is because I am usually interested in financial, medical, and scientific topics, especially when the books reveal information that I was not previously aware of. Also, the book is not very well organized in places. For example, the final chapter is titled “Covid” when it is really a summary final chapter. I kept waiting for information about Covid but was actually reading the end of the book.

Harris it to be commended for the vast amount of information he has uncovered in his research for this book. I assume that all or most of it is true, but I suspect that J & J will probably sue him anyway.