Deus Misereatur

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss My rating: 3 of 5 stars The book was readable....and long....and ended too late. The play back and forth between early Kvothe (the main character) and the older, more seasoned Kvothe was good. But for some reason the length of the story, and the story line, brought me to ask several times, "When will the author get to the point?" The point never appeared to be reached in this volume, and when I came to the end of the book I felt disappointed. This book was written so you would buy the next one (and I assume the one after that) to finally get to the point. I gave it 3 stars, even with my disappointment, because the author is a good writer, and obviously knows how to tell stories that keep attention. This one didn't rouse my excitement, and wasn't a page-turner. It started out slow, and sluggishly built up momentum until it trotted and galloped in places. Maybe it's me. I gave it to my 15 and 18 year old sons, and the...

ConCom: Conflict Communication A New Paradigm in Conscious Communication by Rory Miller My rating: 5 of 5 stars Louis L’Amour’s fictional character, Chick Bowdrie, walked a thin line. He could have easily fallen in with the outlaws, and nearly did so, but was grabbed in the nick of time by the Texas Rangers. And so throughout the short stories and novels, Bowdrie’s ability to think within the mind of the bad guys made him a brilliantly competent and successful Texas Ranger. This capacity to think from within the predator’s mind runs throughout Rory Miller’s works, which is what makes them highly beneficial. Miller, a veteran Law Enforcement Officer and corrections sergeant, has pulled together another fine resource in his 168 page paperback, “Conflict Communication: A New Paradigm in Conscious Communication.” This is a book about communicating in tense and tight situations, whether at work, in in the home, at the pub, or on the street. It is written for Law Enforcement Officers, emp...

Fool's Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion by Os Guinness My rating: 5 of 5 stars Slick spin and polished patois throb and thud their way through every aspect of American society. Whether it’s left or right, liberal or conservative, revisionist or traditionalist, each group has its own particular guild-talk and encoded lingo that fulfills and fortifies their respective self-perceptions. On top of this, much of our communication has become self-serving and self-absorbed, as we post and present and publish our blogs, statuses, thoughts and tweets. As all of this self-important and self-fulfilling hype clouds our associations, “social” media and society what, then, happens to the Gospel? Increasingly it falls into the trap of just being another slice of profile-raising that craves all the “Likes” it can garner. In “Fool's Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion” Os Guinness, author, editor, and founder and past senior fellow of the Trinity Forum, has comp...