These are the books I'm currently reading, or have read and have opinions about.
An excellent book; it's an O'Reilly, after all. This gives strategic, tactical, and technical details on how to formulate a backup and recovery strategy for Unix systems, and then to carry it out.
It also clued me in to Storage Area Networks (SANs), which look pretty cool.
The definitive guide. This was invaluable in getting DNS set up on our local network.
[Noticing a theme here?]
Yet another excellent O'Reilly book. I'm seriously thinking about building some custom PCs after reading this, and it's been very helpful in getting some PC upgrades done. The authors' web site, HardwareGuys.com, has even more useful and up-to-date information.
Jackson's thoughts on both the paradigm shifts and the practical work necessary to build a sustainable agriculture and culture in North America. Wes Jackson is not simply an academic scribbler, he's the founder of The Land Institute, which does work on perennial polyculture suitable for the Kansas prairie.
[If this mini-review sounds a touch odd, it's because I've excerpted it from an email, and there's some context missing. Sorry, I haven't gotten it rewritten as 100% standalone, but I hope the idea comes across.]
Berry is one who knows that there is glory in the humble and the particular. The stories of "Fidelity" are set in the fictional town of Port William, Kentucky, a place not entirely unlike his native Harlan County.
Berry's stories are full of characters who see the world -- not in the sense of wandering over vast tracts of land, but in being truly present where they are. Which, it seems to me, is a prerequisite for experiencing the glory that is bathing your particular patch of creation.
This is the first collection of Berry's fiction that I've read, and I enjoyed it very much. I had the odd experience of reading "A Jonquil for Mary Penn" when it was originally published in the _Atlantic Monthly_ in 1992. That issue also carried a short story by Joyce Carol Oates. The contrast is remarkable. The Oates story is about a 15-year old girl who is so alienated from her mother and from life that she is jumping into bed with any available male stranger in a desperate attempt to feel better about life and/or attract her mother's attention. Oates teases us with a glimmer of a possible hope of reconciliation at the end, but it's one weak note in a symphony of despair.
Berry's protagonist is also a young female, but the similarity ends there. Mary Penn is 18, only a few years older than Oates's anti- hero. She is newly married to Elton Penn. It is the middle of the Depression. They are poor, Mary's family has rejected Elton and her, and she is falling ill. But even though Mary's situation is objectively more difficult than our other girl's (she may be depressed and spoiled, but she's not going hungry), there is none of the same sense of pointlessness and despair. In fact, the point by the end is that hope endures and love overcomes. Alienation? What's that?
Berry's characters are not perfect. Port William is subject to the Fall. But the contrast between a world where Love undergirds it all and one where it is all pointless randomness was very, very clear.
Sorry for the rambling. Read the book!
A very helpful explaination of both the "why-to" and the "how-to" of homeschooling. Susan and Michael alternate within each chapter, so we are treated to each's voice and perspective. Susan's key reason for homeschooling, "to not be a stranger to the souls of our children," is compelling.
Ellul traces the city in Scripture from Genesis to Revelation, and tries to give some perspective to this vital (since we live in an urban world) yet much-ignored topic.
This has to be the most challenging non-technical reading I've attempted in years. (The introduction claims they had a tough time finding a capable translator, as Ellul is a difficult read in the original French as well.) Still, I'm happy to be stretching my brain in this direction -- I've been meaning to read Ellul for years now.
In a strange perhaps-not-coincidence, I found this book on our Boston trip ...
I'm definately going to have to reread this, but so far I think I've managed to get the following points:
After this, hopefully I can tackle Ellul's The Technological Society. The theology of technology is an interest of mine, and Ellul seems to be one of the few writers on the subject of note (barring Teilhard de Chardin, who seem rather NewAgey to me).
A devastating indictment of our modern so-called educational system. Gatto pulls no punches, and is a master of writing plainly without writing "down." A shorter version of the first essay, The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher, is online. Gatto's viewpoint is an insider's; this was his speech at being named New York State Teacher of the Year for 1991.
School is like starting life with a 12-year jail sentence in which bad habits are the only curriculum truly learned. I teach school and win awards doing it. I should know.
Affectionately known as "K&R". If you are a C programmer, you must own this book. This is the definitive guide from the creators of the language. Not great as a tutorial, but priceless as a reference.
The only book of it's kind, as far as I know. It very nicely covers the differences between different flavors of Unix, and the practicalities of porting software.
Outdated by now, since it covers (and includes on CD-ROM) Red Hat 6.2; however, it's got some very clear explainations that still apply to Red Hat versions 6.x. I think there may be a new edition out.
More Celtic legends redone and "modern man thrust into fantasy realm" stuff. Thing is, Lawhead does it well. I rate this at least as good as Lloyd Alexander's Prydain chronicles. Alexander's books are generally considered juveniles (not a criticism, I loved them as a child, and they bear re-reading as an adult), while the level of The Paradise War is adult, or at least literate high-school.
My friend Kerstin says that I goofed in failing to mention that Paradise War is the first of a trilogy, followed by The Silver Hand and The Endless Knot. So I'm mentioning them now. :^)
Father
Elijah: An Apocalypse by Michael
O'Brien
Go. Find this book. Read it. You will thank me later.
OK, you probably want a little bit more to go on. This is by far the best fiction concerning either the end times or spiritual warfare that I've yet read. The events described are frighteningly plausible, and O'Brien is an insightful observer of our modern anti-culture.
Those who are thoroughly incultured into a Pre-Trib Rapture viewpoint may find the prospect of the Tribulation beginning without the Rapture troubling. In Pre-Trib fiction, one would have to be an idiot not to realize that Something Is Happening, due to the absolute disruptiveness of the initial Rapture, and the obviousness of the signs. In this novel, the signs are so subtle that even the most spiritually discerning can hardly tell what is gathering about them.
And, this being a thoroughly Catholic novel, those who see no role for the Roman Catholic Church in the end times other than as the Whore of Babylon need not apply.
But, you have to love a book where "Mordor" is casually mentioned as "an English literary reference." :^)
This is a book about the challenges facing the Episcopal Church in the next 15 years, and what needs to be done to rise to these challenges. While Kew and White write specifically about the Episcopal Church, I suspect much is applicable to any of the "mainline" denominations, or even to the Roman Catholic Church in the USA.
Mayer is most famous, I think, for the Little Critter franchise. Most of the Little Critter books are good, although I find the quality to be uneven. Still, a bad Mercer Mayer book is better than some of the travesties that pass themselves off as children's books.
This a fantastic story about the escapades of a boy who buys a bottle of "magic bubbles" and the trouble he gets into. Must be seen to be believed, as most of the story is in the illustrations, and not the simple narration. Sadly, it seems to be out of print.
My favorite (and the kids') is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (if you see an edition titled Chicka Chicka ABC, skip it -- it's only half the book). Ehlert has a distinctive artistic style, simple yet not cartoony.
The rollicking, rhyming adventures of a berrypicking boy and bear. The kids love it and so do I -- which is good, since I've read it enough times to them that I have it memorized.
If you have a fast Internet connection and infinite time, there's a lot of reading you can do without murdering trees: