BOOK REVIEWS

A book review is your opportunity to evaluate a book which contains historical relevance. The review could be over a biography, historical fiction, or a scholarly secondary source. Although the organization for your essay is flexible, you may wish to follow the following order which contains all the suggested content.

Introduce the author with some biographical data which may provide the reader with insight as to their field of expertise, bias, and purpose for writing. These can sometimes be implied by noting what else the author has published.

Determine the author’s main message of the book. Was the author effective at supporting that message? Was certain historical information accentuated beyond belief or were there obvious historical omissions that decreased the validity of the author’s claims? If the book is a monograph, check to see if the sources cited are reliable by examining the source context of a questionable statement.

Historical truth within a work of historical fiction is often challenging to unravel from the fictional plot, setting, and characters. Point out the primary truths and fictions of the book from historical facts. Your essay may include brief quotations of passages to illustrate your points.

Truth is the standard for the evaluating a book's accuracy. Besides historical truth (with a small “t”) there is the Truth, who teaches: "For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness" (1 Cor. 3:19). Expose the irrational craftiness of authors who are opposed to a Biblical worldview. With an equally critical eye, assess passages that may promote a Biblical worldview.

How was the book helpful or hurtful to understanding the historical period presented? Is it a book you would recommend that others read? Why or why not? Are there similar books that an interested reader might enjoy?

Finally, list any sources that you used to check for the historical accuracy. Be careful not to commit plagiarism by copying what other reviewers have said. (A book review is not worth the exchange of your integrity and family reputation, not to mention the lesser penalty of failing the course, as happened to this former student who plagiarized from other essays and called it their own.) Read the book for yourself!

A review of about 400 to 900 words should be sufficient for this assignment. Select a book from this list for your review or email me with another suggestion.

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

Nectar in a Sieve

Vanya by Myrna Grant

Case for Christ

Siddhartha by Hesse
(Reviewer: Rit Nosotro)

Hesse brilliantly integrates his understanding of Eastern religions and Jungian psychoanalysis to produce the fictitious character of Siddhartha. This clever fairy tale (1922) was a forerunner in the blatant promotion of New Age deceptions. In Siddhartha's sentimental narrative, one is tempted to believe that divinity can be realized within one's self. Siddhartha's conceited search to save himself leads him into the pit of self deception, believing Creator and creation are One.

Like the teacher who tries so many paths to wisdom in Ecclesiastes, Siddhartha's search takes him through wealth, lust, and worldly pleasures. The definitive difference is that the seeker in Ecclesiastes comes to correctly acknowledge the Creator, whereas Siddhartha decides, with his false assumption in the circular nature of history, that a rock is potentially a Brahman and a god.

Let the reader be warned that the smooth propaganda of Siddhartha is enticing as it blends truth and lie. It is true that learning contentment regardless of circumstances is highly valued. The Apostle Paul had learned to be content in all situations through union with the living Christ (Phil.4:11-13). Conversely, Siddhartha "exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator" (Romans 1:25). In so doing, he deceived himself. Hesse vividly endorses the deception. Given these cautions, the mature reader will find ample insight into the world of Eastern mysticism. Although the book is in no way history, it does relay a religious experience which may be similar to millions who are bent toward self actualization.

The Samurai by Shusako Endo

A Samurai records his travels with a Jesuit through much of the Spanish Empire over the course of six years and his conversion to Catholicism. Upon return to Japan, he finds Christianity has been prohibited as the country isolates itself from Western influences. The challenge of reading this book is paid back with insights into this dramatic time period.

Turning Points : Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity by Mark A. Noll review

The book is a survey of church history but the thesis revolves around the importance of twelve defining moments within the two-thousand-year span. His selection of "turning points" include the Fall of Jerusalem (70), the Council of Nicaea (325), Benedict's monasticism (530), the coronation of Charlemagne (800), the schism of East and West (1054), the Reformation (1521), the English Reformation (1534), the founding of the Jesuits (1540), the conversion of the Wesleys (1738), the French Revolution (1789) and the Edinburgh Missionary Conference (1910). The book is chronologically arranged around each of these events.

Wanted:
A review on works by Shusaku Endo (e.g., "Silence" or "The Samurai") who wrote about the 17th century and the trials of Christianity in early Tokugawa Japan. Also of interest:
1- King Leopold's Ghost
2- Life and Death in Shanghai

Guns, Germs and Steel (first 214 pages are said to be the most pertinent)

Nathaniel's Nutmeg, Giles Milton
Seeds of Change: Five plants that Transformed Mankind, Henry Hobhouse
(history of quinine, sugar, tea, cotton, and the potato.)
Tamerlaine, Christopher Marlowe
The Grand Inquistor, middle class Russia; middle class France, Madame
Bovary; middle class Germany would be Buddenbrooks; middle and lower
class China in the 17th century, The Death of Woman Wang by Jonathan
Spence,
Master and Man, Leo Tolstoy (serfdom in Russia)
The Axemaker's Gift, J. Burke
Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science--from the Babylonians to the Maya, Dick Teresi (theme of technology and science in
Foundations)
Guns, Germs and Steel , J. Diamond
Things Fall Apart, Achebe
Life and Death in Shanghai, Nien Cheng.
The World Trade Created, Ken Pomeranz & Steven Topic
Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder,
Conquests and Cultures, Thomas Sowell
1421, Gavin Menzies
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress
Spring Moon
Son of the Revolution, Liang Heng and Judith Shapiro (cultural revolution)

The Gifts of the Jews, Thomas Cahill
Year of Wonders-A novel of the Plague, Geraldine Brooks paired with Daniel
Defoe's Journal of the Plague Year. Note that the first book also deals
with the Middle East of the time.
Broad and Alien is the World, Ciro Alegria (Peruvian Indians)
Forgotten Fire, Adam Bagdasarian (Armenian Holocaust)
Tree of Red Stars, Tess Bridal (mid-late 20th Uruguay) Set in Uruguay in
the 1960's, charts the toll of political events on a young woman and
those close to her, as their democracy is gradually taken over by a
military dictatorship.
Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China, Jung Chang. (20th C China)The forces
of history and the exceptional talents of this young writer combine to
produce a work of nonfiction with the breadth and drama of the richest,
most memorable fiction classics.
The Adventures of Ibn Battuta: a Muslin Traveler in the 14th Century, Ross Dunn Hiroshima, John Hersey. This book tells what happened on that day, told
through the memoirs of survivors
The Great Mutiny, Christopher Hibbert ( India 1857 ) Poisonwood Bible, Barbara Kingsolver (mid-late 20th Congo/Zaire)
When China Ruled the Seas, Louise Lavathes (14th Century China) An
interesting account of Zheng He's sea voyages to the Indian Ocean - just
before Europeans round the tip of Africa.
What Went Wrong: Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response, Bernard Lewis Science and Technology in World History, James McCelellan and Harold Dorn Plagues and Peoples, William McNeill. A classic study of the role of
disease in world history
The Fixer, Bernard Malamud (Russian anti-Semitism)
Nectar in a Sieve, Kamala Markandaya (India);
Giving up the Gun: Japan's Revision to the Sword 1543-1879 , Noel Perrin War of the Rats, David Robbins (WWII Stalingrad snipers)
A Fez for the Heart, Jeremy Seal
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Alexander Solzhenitsyn (Russia) A
brutal depiction of life in a Stalinist camp and a moving tribute to
man's triumph of will over relentless dehumanization, this is
Solzhenitsyn's first novel to win international acclaim.
Dream of the Red Chamber.Tsao Hsueh-Chin. 18th Century China
A Black Woman's Odyssey through Russia and Jamaica: The Narrative of Nancy
Prince, Ronald Walters (mid 19th C. Europe/Americas)
Black Dog of Fate, (Amenian genocide).
Measuring Reality, Alfred Crosby (bridging the medieval and Renaissance
periods, and combines fascinating information in a variety of areas--art,
architecture, accounting, music, etc.
Throwing Fire, Alfred Crosby (man’s ability to throw and to harness fire
as his distinguishing characteristic from other mammals) ~
Longitude, Dava Sobel
Coffee: The History of a Commodity, Heinrich Jacob
Shooting an Elephant, Orwell
The Road to Wiggan Pier, George Orwell (the changes in life an culture due
to the Industrial Revolution)
Mythistory by William H. McNeill
The Art of War by Sun Tzu
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
The Structure of Big History by Fred Spier
Hiroshima by John Hersey
The Communist Manifesto by Marx & Engels
Midaq Valley by Naguib Mahfouz
Don't Be Afraid, Gringo by Elvia Alvado
The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon
Some Prefer Nettles by Junichiro Tanizaki
Tulipomania by Mike Dash
A Passage to India by E. M. Forster
Fantasia - An Algerian Cavalcade by Assia Djebar
Family by PaChin
The Alchemy of Happiness by Abu Muhammad al-Ghazzali
The Travels of Marco Polo; Manuel Komroff, ed.
Sundiata, an Epic of Old Mali by D.T. Niane
The Ramayana; R. K. Narayan, trans.
The Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee, Robert Van Gulik

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