These are a few of the things I've recently found interesting, but don't have the time to properly blog on. I don't necessarily like or agree with the links here, I just think they're interesting. And just in case you do, too, enjoy.

(You can view past Del.icio.us links here or subscribe to my Del.icio.us feed here. )

This is a review of The Apostle that I dashed off back in 1998, about half a year after that film was released. I wrote it for a discussion list that is now defunct. I thought, in light of the other recent movie I reviewed (Jesus Camp, it would be interesting to resurrect this from the ol' mail archives.

Since I wrote it eight years ago, it's a little rough around the edges. But I'm posting it with minimal editorial changes--mainly for the sake of time.

Enjoy ... and if you get a chance to rent this flick, I think you'll enjoy it, with the few caveats I mention below.

After all the debate about Robert Duvall's move, The Apostle, I finally got a chance to see it in one of the cheap second-run theaters locally.

These are a few of the things I've recently found of interest, but don't have the time to properly blog on. I don't necessarily like or agree with the links here, I just think they're interesting. And just in case you do, too, enjoy.

(You can view past Del.icio.us links here or subscribe to my Del.icio.us feed here. )

These are a few of the things I've recently found interesting, but don't have the time to properly blog on. I don't necessarily like or agree with the links here, I just think they're interesting. And just in case you do, too, enjoy.

(You can view past Del.icio.us links here or subscribe to my Del.icio.us feed here. )

I keep seeing these posts where memes get passed around, where one person "tags" another as an inducement to answer a list of questions. One is presumably supposed to answer the questions, post the response, and tag a handful of others.

I had been secretly glad that I'd never been tagged. And I also wondered, just how are you supposed to find out you're on the hook?

Well. Never mind. There I was ego-surfing my blog, checking out the incoming referrers, wondering who's linked to me lately, and there I find that Travis Johnson, fellow PneumaBlogger, has done gone and tagged me with the One Book meme.

An enterprising Ben Fernström, with way too much time on his hands, tracked down the beginnings of the One Book meme, wrote an entertaining narrative, and positioned himself as belonging to the 14th generation of this meme's recipients.

Thus, ultimately, we have Benjamin Myers to blame for this post. I'm the 18th generation of this particular meme, but by a different route (see the note at the end).

:: sigh ::

Well, at least I'm one of the cool kids now!

So, here goes:

Okay, so I'm trying out the Windows Live Writer — because I'm a sucker for new tools and I'm always on the lookout for the better (free) blogging tool. Besides, Amy at GentleWhisper made me do it. ...

Installation

The install went okay ... the second time. The installer wants to add the Windows Live toolbar to Internet Explorer. I initially opted for it, but after Live Writer failed to read my blog settings, I uninstalled everything and started over — this time without the toolbar.

On the second install I de-opted for the MSIE toolbar, since I rarely use MSIE anyhow. This time, Live Writer started up nicely and read my blog settings without halting. Not sure why the toolbar would've made a difference. Not sure if it did or not, but second time was the charm.

Setup

After installing,

The ever-brilliant (and most widely-read man I know) John Wilson over at Books & Culture, reflects on the pre-conversion writing of Anne Rice (especially Interview with the Vampire) and concludes with a comment on her conversion (see: “The Vampire and the Cross”). John’s take on Rice’s writing is succinct and spot-on:

“I finished the novel with the sense of moral contamination that some books leave us with.”

But he doesn’t end there. He concludes his analyses by recounting a review of the 1997 anthology, The Anne Rice Reader: Writers Explore the Universe of Anne Rice, edited by Katharine Ramsland. In his review (never published, unfortunately), Wilson writes, presciently:

In short, there was a profound contradiction at the heart of Rice's work. And so I

Okay, I stopped by Border’s on the way home from a medical followup today, and I picked up Anne Rice’s Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. I’ll soon be diving into it. Already I’m concerned. A phrase from the back of the book jacket caught my eye: the young Jesus Christ is described as a “nature mystic.” Maybe I misread that.

I will follow up with a review as soon as I can make it through the book. Assuming it’s not so laborious that it worsens my illness, that is.

So far, the reviews on Amazon are lightweight and glowing.

See my previous post: “Anne Rice channels the Jesus you never knew…”

[tags]A-N-Roquelaure, Anne-Rampling, Anne-Rice, Howard-Allen-OBrien, Christ-the-Lord, Christopher-Rice, Evangelical, Howard-Allen-Frances-OBrien, jesus, christ, Jesus-Christ, Out-of-Egypt, Vampire-Lestat, literature, fiction, homosexuality, novel, Pentecostal, religious-fiction, review, http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0375412018[/tags]

So, the word is out: On November 1, 325,000 copies of Anne Rice’s latest literary offering will be hitting the shelves. Big deal, right? Yes. When the main character is no longer a blood-sucking vampire but is, instead, the seven-year old, blood-shedding savior: Jesus Christ. (Listen to an audio excerpt at MSNBC.)

I was clued-in to this only a few hours ago (October 25), but already the blogosphere is heating up over her latest book, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt, and the print media is not far behind. Sadly, the print outlets are exploring neither Rice’s 1998 conversion (“return”) to Catholic Christianity, nor the depths of her change—if any. If you’re up to the lackluster press, check out Newsweek|MSNBC’s “The Gospel According to Anne,” Canada.com’s review, “

Donald E. Westlake: The Axe
Read: June 6, 1998

I'm harboring an armed and dangerous man,
a merciless killer, a monster, and he's inside me.

This is a disturbing book, and it's haunted me for the days since I first read it. I'm a veteran fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, murder & suspense reader, so there isn't much that'll make me put a book down in the middle of a page, take a deep breath, exhale and close my eyes. This book did.

Burke Devore is a desperate, angry man, deeply frightened at the prospect of personal and professional worthlessness now that he's been handed the pink slip and "chopped" from middle management at the plant he gave twenty-plus years of his life to.

I've always imagined life is a series of identity crises punctuated by moments

Graziunas, Daina and Starlin, Jim: Predators
Reading: 2/11/98.

Okay, I've got to admit up-front that the premise is hokey: What do you get when a telepath suffers the loss of his family to a serial killer's madness? You get this book—which initially reads like a first-novel, but does pick up somewhere along the way. The plot is adolescent, but the character development isn't too bad, and by the end of the novel I was really into it. Part of it may be a continuing childhood fantasy that I can read minds. (No, I know that I can't, but I think my wife can.... And the cats? Don't get me started.)

This book reminded me that it wouldn't be such a great trip to have that ability. It would be a curse.

The primary protagonist is a little hard to identify in this story;

Ken Follett: The PIllars of the Earth
Read: 2/20/1998.

This is a phenomenal read! While I wasn't exactly on the edge of my seat throughout the whole book, it was surprisingly satisfying.

I initially bought this book on the enthusiastic recommendation of a Hasting's clerk. So, I wound up being leery of it for some reason — and then it languished on my shelf for more than a year. Maybe two. So, when I was finally low on reading material I gave it a try. I was very pleased and am now serious about chasing down other Follet works.

The main protagonists are Tom Builder and his stepson Jack Jackson. (Follet is probably not lecturing on the “interesting names for your novel’s characters” tour.) Tom's lifelong's vision is to be appointed master builder of a cathedral church, and everything is

I finished reading an old Stephen King novel, The Dark Half, last night. Wow, what a read!

(I’m not sure I’ll have much time for this post … the kids are about to wake up from their nap and I need to take them shopping. So, I’ll try to be brief.)

I love books about moral good versus evil, and I especially enjoy books featuring writers as protagonists. One of the first I read along these lines, years ago, was Mr. Murder, by Dean Koontz, also an enjoyable read, as I remember it.

In this tale, the principle character, Thad, began writing as a pre-teen, but the creative act somehow awakened some tissue that remained inside his body that was the leftover from a so-called fetus in fetu. (The rare, but real, circumstance where one