The book is The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. It was originally published in 1937 by Allen and Unwin. It was first published in America in 1938 by Houghton Mifflin. I read the 2020 Harper Collins Hardcover edition with illustrations by Alan Lee. I read it in October of 2023  The title refers to the main character Bilbo... Continue Reading →

The book is In the Shadow of the Sword by Tom Holland. It was originally published in 2012 by Little Brown books. I read the paperback edition. I read this in October of 2023.   The title refers to the violence of the origin of Islam. This isn't how Holland would frame it but what I got from this... Continue Reading →

The book is Red Rising by Pierce Brown. It was originally published in 2014 by Del Rey books. I read the paperback edition. I read this in October of 2023.   The title refers to the main character Darrow a "red" in the dystopian future where all people are categorized by color coded classes. Darrow is a red which is... Continue Reading →

The book is Rubicon by Tom Holland. It was originally published in 2003 by Little Brown books. I read the Anchor Books paperback edition. I read it in October of 2023  The title refers to the Rubicon river that acted as the border between Italy and Gaul (France). Julius Caesar in 49 BC crossed the Rubicon with his... Continue Reading →

The book is Strange Fire by John MacArthur. It was originally published in 2013 by Nelson Books. I read the 2013 paperback edition. I read it in September of 2023.   The title refers to Lev. 10:1-3   "Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it... Continue Reading →

The book is Men and Marriage by George Gilder. It was originally published in 1973 by Quadrangle/The New York Times Book Company as Sexual Suicide. I read the 2023 Canon Press hardcover edition. I read it in September of 2023.   It's titled Men and Marriage because it deals with men and their role in marriage.   I read it because it... Continue Reading →

The book is The Iliad by Homer. It was originally written around the 8th century BC. I read the Robert Fagles translation in the Penguin Deluxe Classics 1998 paperback edition.  I read it in September of 2023.   "Iliad" is a word that means "a poem about lium" (ie. , Troy), and Homer's great epic poem has been known as... Continue Reading →

The books are Theogony and Works and Days by Hesiod. It was originally written long long time ago. I read the 1973 translation Penguin Classics edition. I read it in September of 2023.   Theogony means a lineage or system of gods. This book is the creation and origin story of the Greek gods. Works and Days is like practical advice and proverbs for ancient... Continue Reading →

The book is Man of the House by C.R. Wiley. It was originally published in 2017 by Resource Publication. I read the 2017 paperback edition. I read it in August of 2023.   The title is a play on the common phrase "man of the house" in a "Lord of the manor, king of my castle" kind of... Continue Reading →

The book is Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. It was originally published in 1985 by Harper and Row Publishers. I read the 2007 author authorized abridged paperback edition. I read it in August of 2023.   The title refers to the chain of island gulags in the soviet union. These were the prison camps that Stalin sent prisoners... Continue Reading →