“Stories That Feed Your Soul” by Tony Campolo (Regal Books)

2000 years ago Jesus told stories to illustrate His theological teachings, and we are still using them today to do the same thing. Human beings love stories, and we remember stories better than lectures. In the Book of Romans, storyteller and preacher Tony Campolo found 8 distinct themes for amazing stories.
In “Freedom from Condemnation”, rock star Bono was asked by Larry King the difference between Christianity and the other world religions. “Grace vs. Karma”, he answered, adding sadly that far too often the church gets it backwards.
In “The New Life in Christ”, evangelist J. Edwin Orr explained the difference between “belief” and “commitment” using marriage as the example. I also was impressed by two of Tony’s personal stories, one about a small congregation that didn’t need rules because the people trusted each other, and another about compassion in Soviet Moscow toward German POWs.
In “Intimacy with God”, Tony tells of a boy who was adopted and given a very special room full of gifts, which confused him. “What do I have to do to get all this stuff?” he asked. “Nothing”, they answered. “We gave it to you because we love you, and we hope someday you will love us, too.” That is the salvation story, isn’t it?
My favorite story in the chapter titled “The Call to Rescue Creation” was about Tony’s grandmother and a young seminary student named Everett Griffith who talked her out of committing suicide. He then helped Tony’s mother (who was nine at the time) get a job. Later he helped Tony’s father get a job, and eventually performed their wedding ceremony. Dr. Griffith wept went he met the author, realizing that his kindness all those years before had made it possible for Tony to be born and become an evangelist, too.
“Living with Hope” features an apocryphal story about chess champion Bobby Fischer who saw the movie, The Seventh Seal”, which featured a medieval knight who engages in a game of chess with death. The Prince of Darkness made a final move and declared, “checkmate!” and the movie ended, an astonished Bobby Fischer, chess master, protested, “But the king has one more move!” THAT, states Tony, will preach!
“Praying in the Spirit” tells how prayer and caring and doing for others what love requires is what draws people in. “God’s Plan for Us” tells how an angry father told Campolo that he was fine with his son becoming a Christian-up to a point! Best story in “The Assurance We Need” is “enduring to the end”.This is not just an illustration book for preachers—it is a way to reach people with great stories!

“Run On: A Comedy with Errors” starring David A.R. White, Tommy Blaze, and Brad Stine (Pure Flix Entertainment)

What do you get when you combine the three top Christian comedians, a female singer with a wonderful voice, and a message of failure, loss and restoration?
You get this very funny, very moving, very meaningful look on how we cause most of our own problems by running off to a far country without God.
David A.R. White left his Mennonite family and pastor father in Kansas at age 19 to go to Hollywood and have an adventure while pursuing his dream of being an actor. At first it went very well: he got cast in TV’s hit show, “Evening Shade”, and became very close to his “TV dad”, Burt Reynolds. For four years, David luxuriated in the adoration of the crowd and the attention of the nation’s top box-office star. Burt even encouraged him to “warm up” the crowd before the live taping of ES., but David went too far while impersonating Reynolds one day and got summarily fired. No recourse, no apology received. Suddenly his career was at a serious standstill.
Tommy Blaze tells a hilarious story of being served with divorce papers and ignoring them for six months, being summoned to court and getting lost driving from Orlando to Tampa (no easy trick.) He ends up circling Florida “like Ponce deLeon” trough the Everglades, where he is fixing a flat tire amidst the gators and snakes and asking God for a “sign” that he shouldn’t get divorced. Finally getting to court, he insults the judge and discovers this is no “special jail” for people with “potty mouths” and later he relates that to “no special hell” either.
Brad Stine, who was gifted from comedy in the womb, where he almost stayed permanently, was born in Indiana. Like the others, his testimony reflects his personal and professional side of living as a prodigal, and what it took to help him “come to his senses” and return to a loving Father God who never stopped looking for his return. Producer David A.R. White, who does the opening comedy segment, point out that the laughter segment opens the audience to identifying with the performers, and realize their own struggles.
Elizabeth Travis contributes powerful lyrics well-sung between segments, tying them together and challenging the audience all along.
The Dove Foundation gave it five out of 5 Doves, and recommends it for ages 12 and over. It is VERY funny, but it also really an amazing presentation of the Prodigal Son.
Check their website for this project, http://www.pureflix.com/runon.
(Repeat title, stars and distributor.) I’m Doc Kirby & that’s a Book Bit.

Vertigo Presents “Fables:#102—SUPERTEAM Part 1 of 5” by Bill Willingham (writer-creator), Mark Buckingham (penciller), Steve Leialoha (Inker), Lee Loughridge (colors), Todd Klein (letetrs), Joao Ruas (cover)– (Vertigo, a division of DC Comics, Inc.)

One of the most clever comics for adult readers is “Fables”, a speculation about the nature of the main characters in Mother Goose nursery rhymes, Grimm fairy tales and so forth. In other words, what would Good King Cole, Pinocchio, Mary Quite Contrary, Big Bad Wolf, The Frog Prince, and all the rest were real people, with magic powers; that they lived in our world now that the Age of Magic has passed, and that they are trying to find their place in the world while fighting evil magic too?
The latest adventures of the Fabled characters involves a serious threat from a mysterious and evil  “Zephyr”, and King Cole had pledged to kill all zephyrs. This one, however, is the son of his estranged son; in other words, his grandson. Meanwhile, Pinocchio is dressed like Professor Xavier and creating a “superteam” complete without costumes, to the fight the encroachment of the zephyr. He is slowly taking over more of the borderlands of Haven. The Frog cannot transport more than two citizens while he resists the zephyr, so eventually they will have to make a stand.
Thus, a superteam to defend everyone against the Dark Man. (Can’t wait till the next issue!)
(Repeat title, creators and publisher.) I’m Doc Kirby and that’s a Book Bit.

**DC Comics  dropped one dollar from the prices of the standard length 32-page comic book titles to 2.99, effective January 2011, This means that more than 80% of DC titles are priced at 2.99.Look for DC comics and graphic novels wherever DC Comics are found; go to DCComics.Com, or call 1-888-COMICBOOKS. I’m Doc Kirby, and that’s a DC Comics Book Bit.

“Will Eisner: a Dreamer’s Life in Comics” by Michael Schumacher (Bloomsbury Books)

March 6th is the birth anniversary of one of the most important people in the comic book business (and his father, too.)
Will Eisner is a legendary figure in comics and graphic novels. The award given to outstanding comics artists, authors, inkers and publishers is named for him. Will Eisner created one of the most innovative series of all time, The Spirit” back in the Golden Age of Comics. He revolutionized the comics world with his graphic novel “A Contract with God”, and he influenced a whole generation of authors, artists and inkers who worked for him personally. His influence is still pervasive in the industry.
Will Eisner cam from a poor family, whose father was talented but never able to turn that into money for the family, and a mother who was very tough and never let dad forget what a failure he was. When Will was 13, his mother proclaimed that HE was the “man of the family”, with the understanding that meant going to work and providing for their welfare as dad was unable. Will started selling newspaper sin lower Manhattan (he would later have an office in that same building).  He studied the comics, learning to imitate the art style, and went with his father to the Museum of Art where they could sketch the great paintings. His high school, DeWitt Clinton High, was an incubator of great achievers and great talents.
From his first partnership, Eisner showed an incredible work ethic. Eisner & Iger established a reputation o quality work done on time. Eisner understood comics as a business as well as a creative endeavor. With the creation of “The Spirit” Will Eisner became a household name. During WWII he was drafted and became an artist for the Army’s training and safety manuals, task he did so well that after the war he got a contract to continue the work into the 1960s.
Will had no social life until his pal Arthur Strassburger asked him to give a woman a ride who was the sister of the girl Arthur wanted to date. This led to dating Ann Weingarten. They were married within the year, had a wonderful life together and had two children. Their happiness was marred by the death of his daughter, Alice, at age 16 to leukemia, which haunted Eisner. Not a religious man, despite his Jewish upbringing, Eisner began to ponder the Big Questions about God and life, which he turned into a seminal graphic novel, “A Contract with God and Other Tenement Stories.” He would write “To the Heart of the Storm” in 1991, and “The Name of the Game” in 2001, both autobiographical in part.
He would die in January 2005, but his influence over Neil Gaiman and Frank Miller ensured his work would not be forgotten. Will Eisner was innovative and creative to the very end of his long life, and we are the richer for it.
(Repeat title, author and publisher.) I’m Doc Kirby and that’s a book Bit.

“St. Peter’s Bones” a novel by Kenneth Timmerman (Cassiopeia Press)

It’s very dangerous to be a Christian in the Middle East.  If you were born into a Christian family, you are regarded with suspicion. If you convert from Islam, you are considered an infidel and apostate, worthy only of execution. Unfortunately, the presence of American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has not made it better for Christians, but much worse.
Ken Timmerman has been on the ground there for some time. He has shared bunkers with Muslim terrorists under hostile fire, worked with freedom fighters from Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon, and been held hostage in a war zone, He has witnessed the suffering of Iraqi Christians in the Nineveh Plain and in exile, and was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his work by the former deputy prime minister of Sweden. He writes for Newsmax.com.
His new book, the novel “St. Peter’s Bones”, tells the story of beleaguered Iraqi Christians through one fictional family. Deepening tensions between Kurd and Arabs risk plunging Iraq into a civil war. After extensive historical research into the origins of Islam through vital texts, and fact-finding missions in Iraq and Jordan,
Timmerman poses the “what if?” in his novel. What if a legendary Christian monk dictated parts of the Qur’an to Mohammad in order to spread the Gospel to the Arab world, but the Prophet changed things? What if Pope Leo IV asked a sect of trusted warrior-monks to evacuate the bones of St. Peter from Rome and hide them as Muslim armies of Saracens prepare to sack Rome in 846 AD?  These intriguing premises set up “St. Peter’s Bones”, where US Special Forces operator Danny Wilkins (now a Lt. Colonel) is chasing Muslims insurgents in Iraq and a corrupt for CIA officer who is secretly in league with them. His discovery of a mysterious text on a terrorist cell phone is revealed by Iraqi Christian translator Yohannes, who he calls “Johnny”, as a message written in Aramaic, the language of Jesus.
The Muslims will stop at nothing to conceal the apparent manipulation of Mohammad by a Christian monk to present a Gospel for the Arabs that is perverted and changed by the Prophet to suit his own ends. A church in Iraq is convinced that their legends are true: the bones of St. Peter have been kept safely hidden there since 846AD. The Muslims are looking for the relics as well, and a feisty priest is determined to keep them safe. Johnny must decide if he will accept sanctuary and safety in the US or stay in his land and fight for indigenous Christians.
Our brothers and sisters in Christ are being persecuted, tortured, imprisoned and murdered for their faith in the Middle East. Our troops are guarantying any religious freedom there, either. It is imperative that we pray for them and work to support them.
We’ll welcome Ken Timmerman back to ON THE BOOKSHELF this Sunday on WTBF. -AM/FM. Don’t miss it! (Repeat title, author and publisher).

“Prizewinning Political Cartoons: 2011 Edition” edited by Dean P. Turnbloom (Pelican Publishing Company)

This collection of political cartoons has been honored by the most prestigious competitions in the country. Recipients of the Scripps Howard National Journalism Awards, the Pulitzer Prize, the Sigma Delta Chi Awards, and many others are brought together in this anthology of poli-toon excellence. Biographies of the winners give their background. The editor is a retired US Navy member who has drawn editorial cartoons his whole life, and whose work has been published in US Today and on CNN.com, and was featured in the Best Editorial Cartoons of he Year Series himself.
As always, there are political cartoons from across the political spectrum. Some infuriate me for their simple inability to grasp reality, or their mean-spirited attacks on individuals, while others agree with my conservative philosophy (and therefore to me are BRILLIANT.) Allow me to describe a few for you:
Dana Summers of the Orlando Sentinel, a multiple award-winner through his career, contributes several. One shows President Obama in full military gear with a backpack labeled “30,000 troops to Afghanistan” while he tells the Nobel Peace Prize rep to “just hang it (the prize) on the gun barrel”. Another shows a man in full catcher’s gear at a Town Hall, sating, “I’m your congressman and I’m here to discuss healthcare.”
Nate Beeler of the Washington Examiner has a huge evil man (“drug cartels”) standing before a piñata (“Mexico”), which he has just smashed. Cascading from it is an enormous pile of skulls. Another shows the President of Iran saying, “our nuclear program is entirely peaceful, and we have nothing to hide” while his nose in the shape of a nuclear missile, grows like Pinocchio’ when he lies.
Alexander Hunter of the Washington Times, a Moonie newspaper, has the most elaborate artwork with his series of full-page multi-panel satirical offerings. They are all so good it’s hard to choose my favorites, but I like the one with Senator Kennedy labeled “Fire and Water”, and a tribute to Jerry Lewis’ Labor Day Telethon for MDA.
Mike Keefe of the Denver Post offers several one-panels. A little boy standing under an amended American flag with “debt” in its one red star, and saying, “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the People’s Republic of China.” And one more about Iran: the President is sitting on a nuclear missile, saying, “I deny the Holocaust is a part of the past. The future, maybe…”
Matt Wuerker of the Politico shows the inauguration stand where Barack Obama is taking the oath of office in 2011. Underneath in two stories, are people holding up the stand: soldiers, priests, black politicians, women’s righter’s, Abraham Lincoln, Sojourner Truth, Crispus Attacs, and Benjamin Franklin.

(Repeat title, editor and publisher.) I’m Doc Kirby and that’s a Book Bit.

“The KJV Study Bible: 400th Anniversary of the King James Version” (Barbour Publishing)

2011 marks the 400th anniversary of the King James Version—one of the most influential translations of the Bible ever.  It shaped the language and thinking of the English-speaking world, and its phrases still resonate in the English lexicon. No other book can demonstrate the deep and lasting impact had by the King James Version of the Holy Bible, also known as the Authorized Version. King James I of England commissioned 54 scholars to create a translation of the Bible into English that would replace the earlier unauthorized version (such as William Tyndale’s translation which eventually came to be collected and adapted as the Geneva Bible.)
This new study Bible brings the KJV into a 21st century context. It features the complete text of the beloved King James Version; more than 6500 study notes and explanatory notes from Barbour’s QuickNotes Simplified Bible Commentary series; introductions to all 66 books; dictionary/concordance for key terms; full-color map section; and the words of Christ in red. And it’s all in a very affordable 19.99 hardback edition (add $10 more for bonded leather edition)

“The Dinosaur Hunter” a novel by Homer Hickam (Thomas Dunne Books, a Division of St. Martin’s Press)

Mike is a cowboy who works for Jeannette Coulter and the Square C Ranch. He used to be with the LAPD until a bullet to the abdomen made him an ex-cop and a vegetarian. He’s also secretly in love with Jeanette. His life is hard but fulfilling, and the place in Montana is beautiful.

 

Then one day it gets very complicated. A paleontologist claiming to be from a university, and bringing two beautiful assistants, arrives to ask about dinosaur bones on the Square C and the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) property she grazed. She has to be convinced, but Dr. Pickford is persuasive. Meanwhile, someone has killed one of their bulls by bashing in its head, slashing its throat and leaving a note crediting an enviroterroist gang. Before long, a human victim is found, too.

 

Jeanette decides to send Mike and her teenage son Ray and his girlfriend Amelia to hunt for dinosaur bones with “Pick” and his assistants, Laura and Tanya, who is Russian. The work in interesting and there are lots of T-rex bones to be found. But Mike keeps hearing a low motor noise at night, and wonders how honest Pick really is. Mike accidentally finds Pick in bed with Jeanette, and even though he is upset, he can’t say anything because he has never told Jeanette about his feelings for her.

 

Over time, Mike realizes he is falling for the lovely Tanya, who is falling for him right back. Her past comes back to haunt her when a nearby rancher turns out to have been a porn producer in Hollywood before taking up ranching. He has some very unpleasant friends. The local mayor, Edith Brescoe, is an ex-lover of Mike’s, and her husband is the local BLM agent. He is a very unpleasant man, with a vicious temper, and a dark secret of his own.

 

Mike discovers another body, a dangerous-looking Russian associate of Cade Morgan. Like the previous bodies (animal and human) his throat is cut and his head bashed in. His tattoos indicate membership in the Russian Mob. Mike figures it’s not the last Russian mobster he will see, and he is right. At Blackie Butte, the work to flatten the hill was proceeding and they were finding a whole family of T-rex, when Tanya explains why Ted was in he room and why Mike has no reason to be jealous. Ted is gay.

 

Jeanette figures out that the bones are valuable to a museum and since they are on her land, she plans to get paid for them.  She’s right, but then a rustler of sorts comes onto her land: Cade and his Russian friends are determined to take the bones, and they are also determined to kill everyone on the dig except maybe Pick. Turns out that a highly-placed townsperson is involved, too, which shocks Mike but not Jeanette. Unhappily for the bad guys, these cowboys and cowgirls are armed to the teeth. It’s not going to go the way they want, but there will be casualties. Just like the stories Pick told of the Mama T-rex protecting her family, Mike will protect his unconventional family no matter what.

 

Homer Hickam brings another exciting story!  Multi-layered characters, interesting settings, and his real-life long-time interest in hunting dinosaur bones in the ranchlands and badlands of Montana, where the story is set, combine for a monster of a tale.

 

 

 

(Repeat title, author and publisher.) I’m Doc Kirby and that’s a Book Bit.

“A Coast Guardsman’s History of the U.S. Coast Guard” by C. Douglas Kroll (Naval Institute Press)

Most history books deal with things and events, but the aim of this one to tell the stories of the people of the nation’s smallest military branch. The author is himself a Coast Guard Auxiliaries after years as a commissioned officer in the USCG, and a graduate of the Coast Guard Academy.
The U.S. Coast Guard has a long and distinguished history of service, starting with its origin as the Revenue Cutter Service (1790), its inclusion of the Life-Saving Service (1848), the Lighthouse Service (1939), and the Bureau of Navigation and Steamship Inspection Service (1942). These mergers have made the Coast Guard truly a multi-mission service: stop smugglers, rescue ships and sailors from terrible storms and shipwreck, support the US Navy in wartime, and more. The Coast Guard (which was officially designated as such in 1915) incorporates all that heritage and all those stories into their own.
In  1994 the Coast Guard formally articulated those core values that they hold dear: honor, respect, and devotion to duty. “They are deeply rooted in the heritage of commitment and service that distinguishes the U.S. Coast Guard”. They define the organization’s very character from its earliest days to the present.
Some of the heroes and heroines you will meet are:
Ellsworth P. Betholf, who was at the helm when the Coast Guard was created, and who fought for autonomy from the U.S. Navy;
Dr. Dorothy C. Stratton, who organized, recruited and ran the 10,000 enlisted women and the 1,000 officers of the SPARS (short for “Semper Paratus-Always Ready”, the USCG motto), and after WWII ran the International Monetary Fund and the Girl Scouts.;
Douglas A. Munro, awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery at Guadalcanal;
Bernard C. Webber, whose Lifesaving Crew headed into the teeth of a gale to save the crew from the tanker PENDLETON;
Lt. John a. Pritchard Jr. who died saving an RAF crew who crashed in Greenland;
Kelly Mogk, a petite woman who became the USCG’s first female rescue swimmer;
Joshua James, perhaps the most celebrated lifesaver in the world, with 626 lives saved;
And Light-keepers Ida Lewis and Kate Walker, who saved innumerable ships and lives in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
“Team Coast Guard” refers to the active duty service the Reserve, the Auxiliary and civilian employees working together in the US Coast Guard. Their stories will make you proud to be an American, and honored to be served by men and women such as these! (Repeat title, author and publisher.) I’m Doc Kirby and that’s a Book Bit.

“The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture-Volume 1: Religion “Samuel S. Hill, volume editor (University of North Carolina Press)

Religion in the South is pervasive, a key factor in the culture. Since the early 19th century, evangelical Protestant groups have dominated religious life here, although we are a diverse bunch with Catholics, Jews, and Pentecostals all mixed in, too. We tend to be more theologically conservative than other regions of the nation. In the South it is generally accepted that the Bible is in the inerrant Word of God and the sole reference point if belief and practice; that direct and dynamic access to the Holy Spirit is available to all; that morality is defined primarily in individualistic and interpersonal terms; and worship is generally informal.
“The faith of black Christians in the South is both very similar to that of the white Christians and quite distinctive from it.” The two main rituals of Protestant Christianity, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, reveal the South as a distinctive religious setting. Independent Christian churches do the landscape, and small rural churches are common. The South is steeped in Protestant Christianity.
**
“The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture-Volume 2: Geography “. Richard Pillsbury, volume editor (University of North Carolina Press)
The South has seen tumultuous changes in the last three decades, after being somewhat isolated from American mainstream for over a century.  This isolation allowed the South to develop a distinct style, culture, and worldview. The 1930s began a great Diaspora as African-American workers went north in search of jobs and better living conditions. The Post-WWII economic expansion brought new people South. The migration of millions of “Yankees” to the South, especially to the beach areas in Florida and Carolina coasts, and immigrants from Hispanic nations, have changed the old way of doing things. Cities have exploded in size and importance.
The South is divided into five provinces: the Peidmont, along the eastern edge of the Appalachians; the Blue Ridge, extending southward in to the Smoky Mountains; the Lowland South; the Coastal Plain; the Mississippi Delta; and then, there’s Florida.
Distinctive features include Courthouse squares, rural agriculture, tourist areas near the Gulf and Atlantic coasts, timber and hunting, and friendly attitude!

(Repeat title, author and publisher.) I’m Doc Kirby and that’s a Book Bit.

**Book Bit for WTBF-AM/FM, Troy, AL        air date 4/9/11

“The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture-Volume 5: Language”, Michael Montgomery & Ellen Johnson, volume editors (University of North Carolina Press)

(Repeat title, author and publisher.) I’m Doc Kirby and that’s a Book Bit.