Month: August 2010

Reference links:

Esther 8:1-10:3 1 Corinthians 12:27-13:13 Psalm 37:1-11 Proverbs 21:23-24

Overview of the Book of Esther Overview of the First Epistle to the Corinthians Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

We finish Esther today, making it our shortest book (in days) so far. We wrap things up in a somewhat unpleasant way.

The command that was issued in the king’s name cannot be taken back. (Hint to anyone who might design a government: bad idea; always leave yourself loopholes.) Because of this, the people of the empire are still free to murder Jews on the appointed day. However, the king issues a new decree giving them permission to defend themselves.

Now, I am guessing the real point of this new decree was to indicate to the people that, despite what the previous decree had said, they should not attack the Jews. I cannot imagine that before getting this permission to defend themselves, the Jews were going to just let themselves be killed.

The Jews defend themselves with great success. However, despite having the permission to take the property of anyone they kill, they do not take advantage of this. I suppose the point of this is to show that the Jews are better than the people who would have killed them.

Up to this point, I am kind of okay with this. If you have a stupid government system that does not allow the king to change his mind, then encouraging self defense is the next best thing. And if people were stupid enough to attack the Jews under these conditions, let them die.

It’s what happens next that bugs me and makes me like Queen Esther less than I have so far. After the appointed day, the Jews had killed 500 people in the fortress of Susa (where the king and queen lived) and 75,000 throughout the rest of the provinces (side note: these numbers are one of the things that leave scholars to think this is fictional; such massive killing is unlikely to have gone unrecorded in other sources).

When the day is over, the king asks Esther if there is anything else she wants.

Esther responded, “If it please the king, give the Jews in Susa permission to do again tomorrow as they have done today, and let the bodies of Haman’s ten sons be impaled on a pole.”

How unnecessarily vengeful! Asking to let the Jews kill anyone they want for another day. Now, if this had been phrased as a request for continuing permission to defend themselves, that would be acceptable. But this! This just sounds like Esther is out for blood.

In any case, the purpose of this story (and it was a good story) was to explain the origin of the festival of Purim. Thus ends Esther. Tomorrow: Job!

New Testament

Paul finishes his body analogy by talking about some of the specific roles within the early church. This is followed by one of the most famous Pauline passages: the commentary on love. This passage is so familiar that I have nothing to say about most of it except that, even to a non-believer, it is very lovely.

I do, however, want to highlight one passage,

When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

Paul has often implies that believers should not be too critical of those who express their beliefs differently, and should limit what judgments they have to fellow believers. The main tempering of this permissiveness is the warning that people should take into account the needs and limitations of those they interact with. (Paul’s discussion of what is and is not proper to eat is a illustrative example).

The passage above takes those ideas even further. Here, Paul emphasizes that even what he knows is partial and incomplete, despite the fact that he sees much more clearly than he use to. This makes clear why he often hesitates in condemning others. Even though he has certain feelings about what is right and wrong, he knows that he only has partial knowledge now.

This is, in my opinion, one of those passages that many modern Christians, especially the type who end up getting attention in the main stream media, do not take seriously enough.

Psalms and Proverbs

Nothing new.

Reference links:

Esther 4:1-7:10 1 Corinthians 12:1-26 Psalm 36:1-12 Proverbs 21:21-22

Overview of the Book of Esther Overview of the First Epistle to the Corinthians Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Esther continues to be a fun and exciting read.

Mordecai mourns the fate of the Jews. Eventually, Esther hears of her cousin’s distress and asks him what is wrong. He tells her, and asks her to intervene. Esther, however, is reluctant to take on that role. She knows that going into the king’s presence uninvited can mean death.

Mordecai persuades her to take that risk. Perhaps, he tells her, she was placed in the position of queen for just a time as this. He does not fail to add that she too would likely be killed in a massacre of the Jews.

Esther agrees to intervene with the king and, after a period of fasting, does so quite skillfully. She enteres the king’s presence and is forgiven. She then invites the king and Haman to a banquet. (Remember, Haman was the official who ordered the killing of the Jews because he was annoyed at Mordecai).  I love Esther’s invitation to the second banquet:

If I have found favor with the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my request and do what I ask, please come with Haman tomorrow to the banquet I will prepare for you. Then I will explain what this is all about.

She does not hide that she is buttering the king up, but she reveals it in such as way as to make it seem flattering rather than pathetic. Brilliant!

After that banquet, the king learns that Mordecai once saved his life and decides to honor Mordecai. He asks Haman how the king should honor the man, and Haman, thinking the king means to honor him, answers,

If the king wishes to honor someone, he should bring out one of the king’s own royal robes, as well as a horse that the king himself has ridden—one with a royal emblem on its head. Let the robes and the horse be handed over to one of the king’s most noble officials. And let him see that the man whom the king wishes to honor is dressed in the king’s robes and led through the city square on the king’s horse. Have the official shout as they go, ‘This is what the king does for someone he wishes to honor!’

The king has Haman do this for Mordecai, and this after Haman had been planning to kill Mordecai. Haman is mortified.

After that, Esther holds her second banquet. She reveals that Haman is the enemy of the Jews. While the king temporarily walks away in rage, Haman begs Esther for his life. The king comes back and thinks this begging is an assault on Esther and orders Haman killed.

While I think that it is properly literary justice that Haman be killed, I do wish that he was not killed on false pretenses (assaulting the queen). I wish, instead, that his crimes had been seen as enough on his own. But either way, it makes for good story.

What happens tomorrow? We’ll have to wait and see.

New Testament

Paul talks about the importance of spiritual gifts. The members of the church in Corinth have received many spiritual gifts, but they come from the same spirit and so are all important. To emphasize the importance of all of these gifts, and to, presumably, speak against those who may have been puffing themselves over the importance of their own gifts, Paul gives an analogy of the human body. Paul is much better at analogies than he is at logical reasoning.

The members of the Corinthian church are like the different parts of the human body. All of them are important in their own way; all of them are necessary. Without all of the different parts, the body would not function. He then extends this analogy to talk about harmony and caring in the church. Since they are all parts of one body, they all share suffering

Psalms and Proverbs

Whoever pursues righteousness and unfailing love
will find life, righteousness, and honor.

As non-religious as I am, I have observed enough to recognize that mature belief calls for balance. Depending on tradition, exactly what is in balance varies. However, there is always balance. Today, we see that is the above proverb.

The wise conquer the city of the strong
and level the fortress in which they trust.

This, I think, is totally the proverb for nerds and geeks. Those of us who consider ourselves wise and have rarely been among the strong. (Ignore, just to indulge us, the difference between intelligence and wisdom.)

Reference links:

Esther 1:1-3:15 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 Psalm 35:17-28 Proverbs 21:19-20

Overview of the Book of Esther Overview of the First Epistle to the Corinthians Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

New book! Today we start the book of Esther. According to Harris’s Understanding the Bible,

Esther is a strongly nationalistic story in which a beautiful Jewish queen risks her life to help save her people from Haman’s plot to annihilate them. This secular tale of heroic resistance to Gentile persecution celebrates the origin of the festival of Purim. … 

The only book in the Hebrew Bible that does not even mention God, Esther at first glance appears to be an entirely secular tale, one in which human characters seem to act on their own initiative and without specific divine guidance. On closer inspection, however, Esther may represent a fresh and subtle way of representing God’s hidden influence on human history. … 

As a work of historical imagination, Esther interweaves some reliable information about the Persian Empire during the fifth century B.C.E. with an ingenious tale of imminent catastrophe and redemption. Scholars believe that the author may have adapted the historical background … Attempts to verify specific events in the story, however, have been unsuccessful.

Wikipedia adds the following interesting detail:

The story is also the first time that the word Jew (יְהוּדִי) was used, thus denoting a distinction between the Hebrews, the Israelites, and their Jewish descendants in the diaspora.

Note that this is relative to the traditional ordering used in the Tanakh. As I have noted, both Ezra and Nehemiah use the term, but they come after Esther in the Tanakh.

Probably the most important thing about the book of Esther from my point of view, is that it is a good story. That is quite a relief after Ezra and Nehemiah. King Ahasuerus (a.k.a., King Xerxes), deposes his wife, Queen Vashti, when she refuses to appear before the drunken king and his drunken guests. This, in my opinion, should be any woman’s prerogative, even if her husband is the king.

Having sent away Vashti, Ahasuerus gathers up all of the beautiful women of the land and adds them to his harm. He sleeps with them one by one until he finds one he likes well enough to be his king. Interesting but rather disturbing detail:

When it was time for [one of the young women] to go to the king’s palace, she was given her choice of whatever clothing or jewelry she wanted to take from the harem. That evening she was taken to the king’s private rooms, and the next morning she was brought to the second harem, where the king’s wives lived. There she would be under the care of Shaashgaz, the king’s eunuch in charge of the concubines. She would never go to the king again unless he had especially enjoyed her and requested her by name.

So for most of these women, the best of the beautiful young virgins of the land, this signals the end of their chance at a loving or even at a sexual relationship. Unless they happen to get pregnant in that one night, they will never be mothers. They will live their life out as unused possessions of the king. They probably lived a life of relative luxury, but still, it is kind of a harsh fate for a king to try and throw off so many women.

Can you tell I’m not so fond of Ahasurerus? In any case, the chosen woman is Esther, a beautiful Jewish woman. She hides her heritage under the instruction of her cousin and caretaker, Mordecai. Mordecai saves the king from an assassination plot, but he also angers Haman, the kings official, by not bowing down when Haman goes by.

This bugs Haman, so he decides to kill off all the Jews in the land. Ahasureus agrees, and a degree is sent out that in a bit less than a year, there would be a day when everyone would be allowed to kill Jews and take their property.

Oh no! We’ll have to wait until tomorrow to see what happens next.

New Testament

Paul talks about proper behavior at the Lord’s Supper. During that discussion, he drops this bomb of a statement (emphasis mine),

So anyone who eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily is guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. That is why you should examine yourself before eating the bread and drinking the cup. For if you eat the bread or drink the cup without honoring the body of Christ, you are eating and drinking God’s judgment upon yourself. That is why many of you are weak and sick and some have even died.

Paul just claimed that people who approach the Lord’s Supper the wrong way get sick and die. Do any Christians actually believe this? It sounds pretty ridiculous to me.

Psalms and Proverbs

Nothing new.

Reference links:

Nehemiah 12:27-13:31 1 Corinthians 11:3-16 Psalm 35:1-16 Proverbs 21:17-18

Overview of the Book of Nehemiah Overview of the First Epistle to the Corinthians Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

We finish Nehemiah today. We get to see another case of applying commands explicitly meant for the Israelites as they were taking over the land of Canaan to the Israelites returned from exile (or, alternately, we see another case that adds to the suspicion that the details of the traditional stories were doctored to apply more closely to the situation of the returned exiles). We also have a couple more passages that make it seem like the point of Nehemiah is to show what a great and obedient person Nehemiah was.

Overall, I was rather bored with Nehemiah. Our next book, Ester, should be much more interesting.

New Testament

In today’s reading, Paul tries and fails to make a case that his cultural norms are somehow absolute.

Judge for yourselves. Is it right for a woman to pray to God in public without covering her head? Isn’t it obvious that it’s disgraceful for a man to have long hair? And isn’t long hair a woman’s pride and joy? For it has been given to her as a covering.  But if anyone wants to argue about this, I simply say that we have no other custom than this, and neither do God’s other churches. [emphasis added]

Essentially, Paul is arguing that women should have long hair because… women have long hair. Nice tautological reasoning there.

This is part of an argument that women should wear head coverings in prayer and men should not. I don’t buy the argument. Not only, as is not unusual, do I no buy the premises. I also think that the reasoning makes no sense. Paul seems to be working under the assumption that if he strings enough statements together, eventually he will be convincing. There is no actual underlying argument here. Even Harris says, in Understanding the Bible, Eight Edition,

Paul’s argument for relegating women to a subordinate position in church strikes many readers as labored and illogical.

That’s the problem here. This whole passage feels labored. It seems like Paul is trying to make a logical argument, but his statements follow none of the rules for a logical argument.

Paul should, perhaps, stick to passionate persuasion and leave logic to someone else.

It’s also worth noting that Genesis most distinctly has two creation stories. One where man and woman are created at the same time and one where woman is created from man. Paul very selectively chooses the later. A case nearly opposite to his easily could be (and has been) made with the other.

Psalms and Proverbs

Nothing new.

Reference links:

Nehemiah 11:1-12:26 1 Corinthians 10:14-11:2 Psalm 34:11-22 Proverbs 21:14-16

Overview of the Book of Nehemiah Overview of the First Epistle to the Corinthians Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Once again, pseudo random number generators are being declared holy. After that, more lists.

How many days worth of reading would be be able to skip if got rid of all of the boring lists of people. I’m guessing at least two weeks worth. If we added other random lists (such as the detailed descriptions of the tabernacle and temple), I am guessing we could probably get rid of another week’s worth.

Overall, I am still finding this project interesting and valuable, but those lists represent hours of my life that have been utterly wasted.

New Testament

Paul continues to talk about eating habits. Paul touches here upon a very valid point. There is much importance and symbolism in eating and drinking. Both what we eat and how we eat it. A McDonald’s burger eaten in the car is an emotionally different thing than a lovingly made meal eaten with loved ones.

Paul spends any points he may have gained today by saying that all idols are demons. Really Paul, really? Demons? Not just fake or perhaps incorrectly worshiped manifestations of the one true God? But demons? That is both likely to breed disrespect and kind of ridiculous.

I think Paul’s feelings on what one should and should not eat can be summed up with this statement from near the end of today’s reading:

So whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

Psalms and Proverbs

Another proverb of questionable morality:

A secret gift calms anger;
a bribe under the table pacifies fury.

Reference links:

Nehemiah 9:22-10:39 1 Corinthians 9:19-10:13 Psalm 34:1-10 Proverbs 21:13

Overview of the Book of Nehemiah Overview of the First Epistle to the Corinthians Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

We finish up the summary of Israel’s history covering: the conquest of the land of Canaan, the disobedience of the people, and God’s repeated mercy. This is followed by yet another list. The people then vow to follow the Law of Moses.

It is interesting how exactly the regulations expressed in the Law of Moses seem to fit with the needs of the time. E.g., preventing marriage between the easily absorbed group of returned exiles and the locals or supporting the priests in the newer and much poorer temple. This, in my opinion, provides support for the scholarly opinion that much of the Mosaic law was actually codified at this time.

New Testament

After finishing his speech about adjusting your behavior to those you live among, Paul also gives us a history lesson. Paul claims that Christ was travelling with the Israelites through their 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. He also implies that everything that happened to the Israelites, happened to provide a lesson for Christians of Paul’s time.

Claims like these annoy me. Certainly, Paul and his followers should reinterpret the past to get meaning that is applicable to their present situation. But what bugs me is the implication, based on the wording, that this Christ-centric interpretation is the only valid interpretation of those past events. This, in essence, says to the Jews, “Everything you believe about your past is wrong. Here is what it actually means.” A more healthy attitude would be, “Everything you believe about your past is valid, but here is an additional level of meaning.”

Of course, it’s always hard to analyze such subtle issues as wording in a translation. Paul’s original Greek may very well have had more of the second sense than the first. In that case, the issue still stands, but the subject changes. Instead of Paul showing disrespect for the interpretive traditions of the Jews, it is the translators. Either way, still annoying.

It’s also worth noting that the sexual immorality that caused 23,000 people to die in one day is, as best as I can tell, referring to Numbers 25 (although that says 24,000 people died). Paul fails to mention that the primary source of God’s wrath is that the Israelites are having sex with foreign Moabite women and worshiping their God. Paul, it seems, is committing something of a lie of omission by not mentioning that aspect of the situation.

I find it interesting that Paul says this:

And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.

Not only does God choose who he will let believe properly, but then he makes sure that those who have been led to believe are not put into situations that will test their belief beyond their abilities. This seems rather unfair.

Now, I know that one standard answer for this unfairness is that God leads everyone who would believe to believe. Thus, it’s perfectly fair because the people God does not lead to belief would not believe even if God did try to help them, and so, since God knows everyone’s hearts perfectly, it’s perfectly okay for him not to try.

However, I have not really seen anything which makes a Biblical case for that particular theodicy. Everything I have noticed so far seems to imply, like today’s reading, that God just favors some people or another for no reason that we are given.

Psalms and Proverbs

Nothing of particular note.

Reference links:

Nehemiah 7:61-9:21 1 Corinthians 9:1-18 Psalm 33:12-22 Proverbs 21:11-12

Overview of the Book of Nehemiah Overview of the First Epistle to the Corinthians Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

So, the first part of today’s reading, Nehemiah 7:61-73, is pretty much word for word the same as Ezra 2:59-70. Boring!

The rest is not much more interesting. Ezra reads the law of Moses to the people, they paid attention and worshiped the Lord, celebrated the festival of shelters, and then listened to a recap of the adventures of the Israelites from Abraham to the 40 years of wandering.

The idea of a festival where you build yourself a shelter still entertains me, so at least that bit was interesting.

New Testament

Paul discusses how it was within his rights to expect the support of the churches he founded, but he never took advantage of that right. Reminds me of Nehemiah.

Psalms and Proverbs

I do not think I get this proverb:

If you punish a mocker, the simpleminded become wise;
if you instruct the wise, they will be all the wiser.

The second part is pretty clear, but the first part confuses me. I am guessing the author is saying that people learn from seeing others punished? I suppose so although there is much proof to support that punishment is among the least effective ways to regulate behavior.

Reference links:

Nehemiah 5:14-7:60 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 Psalm 33:1-11 Proverbs 21:8-10

Overview of the Book of Nehemiah Overview of the First Epistle to the Corinthians Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

I am reading Jane Austen’s Persuasion and, since I am not a Christian, I can say with out guilt that is is vastly more interesting and instructive than the vast majority of the Bible. This includes today’s reading which consists largely of more lists.

Nehemiah describes his virtue in refusing to put more burdens on the people during his years as governor of Judah, his devotion in working on the wall of Jerusalem, and his faithfulness in resisting his enemies. Both the things described and the wording make it seems like Nehemiah is mostly using this document to count up the points God should award to him and deduct from his enemies.

After that, a long dull list of the people who returned from exile.

New Testament

Paul talks about whether or not one should eat food sacrificed to idols. It is okay, but because some weak minded folks might be led astray by it, it should be avoided. Independent of the religious content, this seems like sound advice with respect to personal relationships: don’t lead the people around you into temptation. However, I think that such cautiousness can be taken to the extreme. If you never do things because someone might be led astray by them, then you will live a very limited life since almost anything can be a source of weakness to someone.

Psalms and Proverbs

Nothing of a particular note.

As mentioned in my last post, I recently finished two books about the Bible. Karen Armstrong’s The Bible: A Biography and Stephen L. Harris’s Understanding The Bible. In this entry I am going to actually review the books.

Armstrong is quickly becoming one of my favorite non-fiction authors. This is because, in addition to writing about interesting topics, she is a truly superb story teller. In this book, Armstrong weaves together history, the revelations of Biblical scholarship, and the Bible itself to form the story of the Bible’s writing and canonization and the different ways it has been perceived throughout history.

At a high level, all of the content in this book is in the Harris textbook, but this book is a much more interesting read. It also has a different balance. Where Harris mostly focuses on the origins and content of the Biblical texts and spends very little time on the process of canonization and the subsequent history of the Bible, Armstrong spends time on all of those things. Overall, Armstrong’s book was a quick, entertaining, and educational read. If you read only one book about the Bible, I recommend this one.

The limitation of Armstrong’s style is that it does not allow for much detail. She limits herself to the most generally agreed on claims of Biblical scholarship and does not spend time discussing different theories or their merits. When there are legitimate differences of opinion within the scholarly community, she limits herself to the common kernel (e.g., when discussing books with a disputed date of composition, she limits her claims of composition date to a general period).

To get those sorts of details, you are going to need a textbook. The textbook I have read and am recommending is Harris’s Understanding the Bible. However, I do not think that it is particularly special. I chose it because it covers both testaments in one volume, was well rated on Amazon, and was available at my local library. Any textbook that meets those criteria will probably meet your needs.

The text includes some chapters of overview and some chapters providing historical background. However, the bulk of the text is devoted to a discussion of each book of the Bible plus the Old Testament apocrypha. Although you will certainly get more out of this book by reading the whole thing, these core chapters are structured so that each can be read on its own. For each book, there is a discussion of the historical circumstances surrounding the composition, the date (or possible dates) of composition, a discussion of authorship, a discussion of literary genre (where appropriate), and a discussion of the content of the book. Harris provides some justification for why scholarly opinion has settled as it has, and he provides an extensive bibliography for each chapter that can be used for those who want to examine the different views in more depth.

One of the most useful things I got out of both of these books was the overview of Jewish thought, especially how it evolved after the Hebrew canon was closed. I think that people who have not been educated otherwise often assume that Jewish thought stopped after what was recorded in the Bible. I know that people who use the New Testament as their main reference on Jewish thought at the time of Jesus have an unfairly negative view of the Jews of the time. Learning a little about the actual history of Jewish thought shows how many of the tenants of Christianity which people now claim were novel innovations actually followed quite directly from the thoughts of the Jewish contemporaries of Jesus and his followers.

Finally, a quick note for those who know me in real life: I own both of these books and would be happy to lend them out (although I am still actively using the Harris book for my project).

As part of my project to blog my way through the Bible, I have been reading books to educate myself about the Bible. At the same time, I have been looking for books that I can recommend to others since I know that not everyone enjoys reading text books (weirdos =P).

I have finally found two books that I can recommend. The short, sweet, easy to read book is Karen Armstrong’s The Bible: A Biography. As far as I have found, there is no book that really gets the depth that I want without being a textbook, so I am also recommending a textbook: Stephen L. Harris’s Understanding The Bible.

Before I get into the details, I want to explain in a bit more depth why I think every Christian should read these kind of books. (I assume that non-Christians who find the Bible an interesting topic of study do not need this persuasion.)

If you are a Christian, you probably read the Bible in a primarily devotional manner. You see the books as applying to you and your life. You interpret the books of the Bible in light the whole (e.g., seeing the Old Testament as pointing to Jesus). This is all well and good. If the Bible really is the work that you think it is, then these are proper ways of reading it.

However, there is value in understanding the Bible from literary and historical perspectives. The advantages are both of principle and of practicality. The advantages of principle are pretty simple, and you probably either agree with my perspective or not: If you are basing your life on what you read in the Bible, you have a duty to understand when and why it was written. Otherwise, you are basing your beliefs on a weak foundation and quite possibly lying to yourself.

The practical advantages are, I think, less controversial. Understanding the literary and historical origins of the Bible helps readers in a number of ways. Understanding the history behind the Bible and its composition helps it make more sense. For example, Ezra and Nehemiah are clearer when you know about the Bablyonians’ exile of the bulk of the people of Judah.

Understanding the literary forms used in the books of the Bible open your eyes to the subleties of those literary forms. The apocalyptic books of Daniel and Revelations are easier to understand if you know about the genre they belong to. The wisdom books make more sense if you understand the larger tradition of wisdom literature (both Jewish and non-Jewish).

Knowing the origins of books of the Bible can clear up confusing or contradictory passages. For example, knowing that the last chapter of Romans is generally considered to be a genuine Pauline fragment from a different letter makes the awkward seam at that point less confusing.

One more thing for the Christians before getting onto the reviews. If you worry that reading these books will threaten your faith, you shouldn’t. These are not books written by atheists or skeptics. They are written by authors who respect the Bible. They do not try to push a non-believing agenda. Both, especially the Harris book, often go out of their way to reconcile the best research with belief. That said, these books are based on the best contemporary research. They clearly point out that many traditional beliefs about the Bible and its origins are flat out wrong. If you find books like that, honest, respectful books that may challenge particular beliefs, to be threats to your faith, then I would urge you to consider the possibility that a challenge may do you good.

This is getting rather long. I’ll put the reviews themselves in a separate post.

(Note also that I have decided to start linking to books and, since I would always link to Amazon any way, I am using Amazon associate links.)