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Created Equal: How the Bible Broke with Ancient Political Thought

God's Radical Laws of Freedom in the Old Testament Author: Joshua Berman In Created Equal Joshua Berman focuses on the Hebrew Bible (i.e., the Old Testament to Christians) and its revolutionary sociological and political precepts. In God’s ancient covenant with Israel, He broke from the prevailing king worship and tiered social structure (think “class”) of the day, using His laws and their implementation to create a society where everyone was equal. Of course, this one sentence doesn’t get to the complexity behind how this equal society was created and just how vastly different it was from all the other social structures [...]

Frances Carden2022-12-11T11:22:56-07:00December 11th, 2022|Tags: book review, Christian, history, non-fiction, Old Testament, read, reading, scholarly|

House Next Door, The

Brand New House, Evil House Author: Anne Rivers Siddons When I finally got Covid and was stuck isolating (and going stir crazy) in the bedroom, I picked up The House Next Door. I quickly forgot about my sick room with its twisted sheets and balls of Kleenex, and was instead transported into a normal, happy world that was slowly, insidiously turning inside out. The clatter of ice in drinks, the comforting days of sitting on a porch with a friend, the curiosity about the transformation of a vacant lot next door, all captured me with the lulling slowness of a good [...]

Frances Carden2022-12-29T09:28:28-07:00December 3rd, 2022|Tags: book review, haunted, horror, read, reading, reviews|

Sunday Afternoons and Other Times Remembered

Murder or Mundane? Author: Ben Ewell Easter Sunday 1992 – Dale Ewell, his wife, and his daughter Tiffany are all shot to death in their quite suburban home. Later, Ben Ewell, Dale’s brother, received a horrible call that he will never forget, turning the remaining family upside down. After that there was suspicion, accusation, and finally a trial. Some members of the family would never speak again. This is how Ben Ewell’s memoir, Sunday Afternoons and Other Times Remembered, begins. It appears Ewell’s focus will be on loss, what comes afterwards, and how a killer is found and brought to justice. [...]

Frances Carden2022-11-30T08:18:53-07:00November 29th, 2022|Tags: book review, memoir, nonfiction, read, reading, reviews|