inside of a dog

A book for February

A reminder of the new plans for running Inside of a Dog this year - as discussed in some emails in the run-up to the last meeting.

The biggest change is that each month's book will not 'belong' to anyone. Instead folks can make suggestions of books to be added to a 'pool' from which be will pick (vote on) each month. I hope to get the web site to automate this in due course but for the moment here are the four books that have been recommended for next month. (Would be hard to pick four more different books if we tried!! A Christian 'commentary' on the place of women in society; a fantasy novel; a recent fiction by one of the greatest living American novelists; and some autobiographical short stories by one of the most well-know British writers).


Rebekah (Doug Sparks)
"The Church has not solved the problem of the role of women in leadership. Pretending we have will not help, ignoring the dilemma will not help, continuing in our hypocritical double standards will not help. Only the truth of God's word will give the answers. Rebekah reveals what God, Jesus and Paul all meant when they addressed the issue of women's worth, value and role. It's revolutionary!"

Find more at this Amazon link
Rebekah


Lord Foul's Bane (Stephen Donaldson)
Thomas Covenant is a successful writer working on a sequel to his best-seller. He has a young, beautiful, loving wife, and a little child. He lives in the country in a home he sees as his haven. He has it made. And then, he is diagnosed with leprosy. His wife leaves him because she fears he will contaminate their child. He spends months in and out of hospitals. He is shunned by his neighbors. Thomas Covenant is outcast, and deeply depressed. He withdraws into himself and builds a wall around him as thick as he any castle or fortress.

Suddenly, he is in an entirely different world. There is no leprosy, he recognizes no one, he recognizes nothing of where he is, and everyone identifies him as the reincarnation of an ancient, semi-mythical hero, who was foretold to return to The Land to heal it with his magic. Covenant doesn't believe any of this, and assumes, despite the apparent impossible reality of everything around him, that he is in a delirium-induced delusion. He is named Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever.

He called himself Thomas Covenant, the Unbeliever, because he dared not believe in this strange alternative world in which he suddenly found himself.

Find more at this Amazon link
Lord Foul's Bane


The Plot Against America (Philip Roth)
"When the renowned aviation hero and rabid isolationist Charles A Lindbergh defeated Franklin Roosevelt by a landslide in the 1940 Presidential election, fear invaded every Jewish household in America. Not only had Lindbergh publicly blamed the Jews for pushing America towards a pointless war with Nazi Germany, but, upon taking office as the 33rd President of the United States, he negotiated a cordial 'understanding' with Adolf Hitler. What then followed in America is the historical setting for this startling new novel by Pulitzer-prize winner Philip Roth, who recounts what it was like for his Newark family during the menacing years of the Lindbergh presidency, when American citizens who happened to be Jews had every reason to expect the worst."

Find more at this Amazon link
Plot Against America


Untold Stories (Alan Bennett)
"'Untold Stories' is a sort of autobiography by reflection, through reflection. Bennett talks you through his experience of family life and social life, delivering short story anecdotes of his parents and relatives, painting elusive little portraits of the people in his life and his changing understanding of their roles and import. Alan Bennett is a master both of language and of observation. He can make telling statements about individuals in a few words, can deliver incisive insights into the human condition with a twist of a phrase..."

Find more at this Amazon link
Untold Stories

posted by Crawford @ 10:43 PM