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Source: (consider it) Thread: Life? I prefer reading.
la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688

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I have now finished the second volume of 1Q84. I think it's good but not as good as the first one. It picks up after 150 pages or so, but is a bit slow-moving for a while. The first book never misses a beat.

I definitely want to know what happens in the end, but not enough to spend €23 on volume III. I'm going to wait until I can get it out of the public library.

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Rent my holiday home in the South of France

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Keren-Happuch

Ship's Eyeshadow
# 9818

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I'm reading New Finnish Grammar by Diego Marani. Despite the title, it's actually a novel about a man who loses his memory after a blow to the head. The name label in his jacket suggests that he's Finnish so he sets off to rebuild his life in that country and language.

It was nominated for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize which was awarded last night. I'm about halfway though and have no idea what's going to happen, but doubt that it will end well!

ETA: Forgot to credit the translator, tsk! It's translated from the Italian by Judith Landry. New Finnish Grammar.

[ 15. May 2012, 13:08: Message edited by: Keren-Happuch ]

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Travesty, treachery, betrayal!
EXCESS - The Art of Treason
Nea Fox

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Helen-Eva
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# 15025

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quote:
Originally posted by venbede:
If you like quirky set in London, then Christopher Fowler's Bryant and May mysteries may be interesting.


I've read and enjoyed the first and ordered the second - thanks very much for the recommendation!

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I thought the radio 3 announcer said "Weber" but it turned out to be Webern. Story of my life.

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venbede
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# 16669

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Thought you might, H-E. Glad to oblige.

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Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.

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Mr Curly

Off to Curly Flat
# 5518

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I've just finished a book written by a guy I went to school with. Hadn't seen him since our last exam together in 1980! Had coffee with him 2 weeks ago.

Thy Fiefdom Comes by David KoChin is a post-apocalyptic fantasy romp in the classic style. Once you get through discovering the "world"', it romps along.

He self published in paperback, but it's now an ebook as well.

mr curly

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My Blog - Writing, Film, Other Stuff

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Zappa
Ship's Wake
# 8433

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As well as Moltmann I'm reading Richard Broome's Aboriginal Australians, now in its fourth edition. Ye gods we Europeans fucked up. Big time. And it always frightenes me to know that had I been born a century earlier I would never have had the guts to speak out against absolute genocidal inhumanity.

[Tear]

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shameless self promotion - because I think it's worth it
and mayhap this too: http://broken-moments.blogspot.co.nz/

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leo
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# 1458

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Christian Origins – C. Rowland. Ahead of its time in acknowledging Christianity's debt to Judaism.

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My Jewish-positive lectionary blog is at http://recognisingjewishrootsinthelectionary.wordpress.com/
My reviews at http://layreadersbookreviews.wordpress.com

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Jack the Lass

Ship's airhead
# 3415

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Vaguely related to this thread - I'm wondering if any of you avid readers have any recommendations for a book reading facebook app? I used to use weRead which I was really happy with, but for the last couple of months every time I've tried to access it it has timed out and so I ended up having to delete it. GoodReads was an app I've seen friends use, but having tried to sign up this evening I got sent round and round in circles and got nowhere (facebook directed me to the GoodReads site, the site asked me if I was already a member or if I needed to create an account; when I tried to create an account it claimed that the email address was already taken, but when I tried to sign in using that email address it was telling me that it didn't recognise it! [brick wall] So I deleted that one as well).

All I want is something where I can record what I'm reading, give it a few stars and have it post to my timeline. Is that really too much to ask?! *sigh*

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"My body is a temple - it's big and doesn't move." (Jo Brand)
wiblog blipfoto blog

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QLib

Bad Example
# 43

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I've just finished The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. I hesitate to describe it as "charming", which is a word that would turn me off a book - but it has a certain charm none the less. Set in Alaska and linked to a Russian fairy tale, it's a blend of realism and fantasy which mostly works pretty well.

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Tradition is the handing down of the flame, not the worship of the ashes Gustav Mahler.

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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492

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JtL: Zeke now owns a Barnes and Noble Nook bought with the moneys she received for finishing grad school and she also has a Kindle app that she used before she bought the tablet. It works on our iMac.

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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.

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LeRoc

Famous Dutch pirate
# 3216

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I think I'd better post it here, since it's related to reading.

Literary Map of Britain

I like it!

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I know why God made the rhinoceros, it's because He couldn't see the rhinoceros, so He made the rhinoceros to be able to see it. (Clarice Lispector)

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Adeodatus
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# 4992

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This afternoon, I finished Michelle Paver's ghost story Dark Matter. It's such a page-turner, I could easily have polished off the last 50 pages last night ...

... but I really, really thought I'd better do it in daylight. [Eek!]

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"What is broken, repair with gold."

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leo
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# 1458

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Christology from the Margins – T. Bohache - a good introduction to liberation theologies, spoilt by its unnecessary descent into heterodoxy at the end.

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My Jewish-positive lectionary blog is at http://recognisingjewishrootsinthelectionary.wordpress.com/
My reviews at http://layreadersbookreviews.wordpress.com

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Moo

Ship's tough old bird
# 107

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I am currently reading The Other Dickens which is a biography of Catherine, Charles Dickens' wife. It's a real eye-opener.

In biographies of Dickens you read about Catherine's sister Mary and how devoted she was to Charles. Her letters make it clear that her devotion was to Catherine; everything she did for Charles was done because he was Catherine's husband.

There are many other misconceptions about Catherine and her relation to Charles.

Moo

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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.

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venbede
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# 16669

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It is pretty nauseating to read Dickens' idealisations of women and marriage given he treated Catherine like dirt.

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Man was made for joy and woe;
And when this we rightly know,
Thro' the world we safely go.

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la vie en rouge
Parisienne
# 10688

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Looking about my apartment for a Book™ I realised that War and Peace was sitting unread on the shelf (my Dad gave it to me, and I hadn't quite got round to it). I may be some time.

(If I'm honest, I'm so far having a bit of a hard time keeping track of who all the different people are [Hot and Hormonal] )

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Rent my holiday home in the South of France

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Sir Kevin
Ship's Gaffer
# 3492

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I have pretty much abandoned my book-club book and was browsing through my wife's Kindle and Nook applications on our iMac. Kindle is legible, but no titles are forthcoming on Nook (a Kindle-like e-Reader from Barnes and Noble bookstores that my wife actually owns.)

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If you board the wrong train, it is no use running along the corridor in the other direction Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Writing is currently my hobby, not yet my profession.

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Moo

Ship's tough old bird
# 107

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quote:
Originally posted by venbede:
It is pretty nauseating to read Dickens' idealisations of women and marriage given he treated Catherine like dirt.

Yes. The most infuriating part is the untrue things he said about her, especially that she took no interest in their children and left them to others. She loved them deeply, and they loved her. After the separation Dickens promised she could see the children as often as she wanted, but it didn't happen that way. He argued constantly with Katey because she insisted on visiting her mother frequently.

Moo

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See you later, alligator.

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Belle Ringer
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# 13379

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Last night I finished Blessings by Anna Quindlen. There was a marker about 1/4 the way thru where I had started it months ago and put it aside, but not thrown it out. I picked up where where I had left off (only slightly remembering what came before), read half the book, put it down, half an hour later decided what I really wanted to do with the evening was read that book. When I was done I felt privileged to have read it.

Not a gripping book or I wouldn't have twice put it down. Rainy day or leisurely evening book.

It's about people and choices and relationships and forgiveness and family secrets (that half the community know) that no one mentions, leaving the children puzzling about pieces of life that don't quite fit together but they aren't supposed to ask, aren't supposed to see, aren't supposed to mention if they do see. Sometimes it's gracious to not see the secrets, sometimes not.

A gentle book. Quiet evening glass of wine break from the busyness of life book.

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Steve H
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# 17102

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Slowly struggling to the end of 'Quentin Durward', by Sir Walter Scott. In general, I'm a Scott fan, but this is proving heavy going.
Just finished 'Hops and Glory', by Pete Brown, the story of his attempt to recreate the Victorian journey of India Pale Ale from Britain, round the Cape of Good Hope, and up to India by sea, with a cask of IPA, to test the popular theory that the heat and motion of the journey was what trandformed IPA from an immature, overly hoppy beer into a wonderful, rich, rounded, almost wine-like drink. It was. Fascinating, and often funny, book.
Don't know what to start next. Something a bit more serious, perhaps. Maybe I'll finally get round to tackling Paul Tillich's 'Systematic Theology', which I've got a three-volume hardback edition of, published in 1960, which I bought second-hand in St Albans years ago. After buying it, I was surprised to discover from the inscription that it had formerly belonged to a former vicar of my church, who left before my time, and who eventually left the ministry to become a humanist.

[ 23. May 2012, 05:36: Message edited by: Steve H ]

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Hold to Christ, and for the rest, be totally uncommitted.
Herbert Butterfield.

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Steve H
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# 17102

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Assuming that the 'Bryant and May' books, mentioned above, are about a pair of detectives of those names, I assume that they're a good match.

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Hold to Christ, and for the rest, be totally uncommitted.
Herbert Butterfield.

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Albertus
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# 13356

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quote:
Originally posted by Steve H:
Maybe I'll finally get round to tackling Paul Tillich's 'Systematic Theology', which I've got a three-volume hardback edition of, published in 1960, which I bought second-hand in St Albans years ago. After buying it, I was surprised to discover from the inscription that it had formerly belonged to a former vicar of my church, who left before my time, and who eventually left the ministry to become a humanist.

He wasn't by any chance the apocryphal one who had three daughters called Faith, Hope, and - having read Tillich after birth of no 2- Doris?

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My beard is a testament to my masculinity and virility, and demonstrates that I am a real man. Trouble is, bits of quiche sometimes get caught in it.

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Steve H
Shipmate
# 17102

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quote:
Originally posted by Albertus:
quote:
Originally posted by Steve H:
Maybe I'll finally get round to tackling Paul Tillich's 'Systematic Theology', which I've got a three-volume hardback edition of, published in 1960, which I bought second-hand in St Albans years ago. After buying it, I was surprised to discover from the inscription that it had formerly belonged to a former vicar of my church, who left before my time, and who eventually left the ministry to become a humanist.

He wasn't by any chance the apocryphal one who had three daughters called Faith, Hope, and - having read Tillich after birth of no 2- Doris?
Probably! [Big Grin]

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Hold to Christ, and for the rest, be totally uncommitted.
Herbert Butterfield.

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georgiaboy
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# 11294

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quote:
Originally posted by la vie en rouge:
Looking about my apartment for a Book™ I realised that War and Peace was sitting unread on the shelf (my Dad gave it to me, and I hadn't quite got round to it). I may be some time.

(If I'm honest, I'm so far having a bit of a hard time keeping track of who all the different people are [Hot and Hormonal] )

A prof of 19th cent literature once suggested that W&P (& Russian lit in general) would be much easier if one renamed the characters to something like Sally, Joe, Mac and Billy-Bob. Imagining all that made Anna Karenina much more fun! [Cool]

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You can't retire from a calling.

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Twilight

Puddleglum's sister
# 2832

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The Girls by Lori Lansens.

The first line of this novel is, "I have never looked into my sister's eyes." That's because Rose and Ruby are conjoined twins. When the book begins they are looking back over their unusual lives and, in two very distinct voices, telling their story.

My favorite character, aside from the girls themselves, is the nurse who looks at the twin babies after they are born and falls in love with them, noticing that the bigger baby seems to be holding her sister like a doll.

The book is funny more often than sad and would have been an excellent novel even without the girls unique situation. Very real, raw and unsentimental.

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MrSponge2U

Ship’s scrub
# 3076

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Recently finished The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers and World Leader Pretend by James Bernard Frost. Both are excellent. Anubis Gates is a wonderfully complex time travel novel, while World Leader Pretend shows the loneliness and disconnection of people addicted to MMORPGs, and is one of the better novels that deals with this subject.

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sig? what sig?

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Ariston
Insane Unicorn
# 10894

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Scott Pilgrim, all six volumes. I think I did my thoughts on the film (Scott Pilgrim Versus the World) on the film thread; the graphic novels are very, very different, not only in plot details, but also in characterization. While the film is limited to two hours and the constraints of dramatic unity, the books spread the action over about a year—Scott and Ramona are allowed to enjoy their blossoming romance, to let it develop, and to let their friends into it. Rather than being a series about a boy defeating his girlfriend's seven evil exes, it's a story about two people and the many, many people they know, coming to terms with their pasts, and how that can be done with or without grace or harming others.

Anybody who has had a "complicated" relationship will appreciate these books. Nobody enters a relationship on their own, or without there having been a past; in these six graphic novels, the whole of the past and the interactions between the characters is captured perfectly.

Anyone who thinks comic books aren't serious? Forget Watchmen or The Dark Knight Returns, start here. All the humor and depth you could ask for, Scott Pilgrim delivers.

[Edit: just felt like fixing a stray]

[ 26. May 2012, 10:09: Message edited by: Zappa ]

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“Therefore, let it be explained that nowhere are the proprieties quite so strictly enforced as in men’s colleges that invite young women guests, especially over-night visitors in the fraternity houses.” Emily Post, 1937.

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QLib

Bad Example
# 43

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I'm reading The Skallagrigg by William Horwood - a fascinating book about a girl with CP on a quest which involves uncovering the history of the "care"(often terrible abuse) of people with profound disabilities in special hospitals. It weaves fiction and history - sometimes I find it frustrating when I can't tell which is which.

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Tradition is the handing down of the flame, not the worship of the ashes Gustav Mahler.

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Eigon
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# 4917

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The Anubis Gates is one of my favourite Tim Powers books (Last Call is another one).

I've just started Banker to the Poor by Mohammed Yunus. It's about the Grameen Bank that he started in Bangladesh (giving micro-credit to people that could not get loans from ordinary banks), and how to really change the lives of the poorest in society for the better. I'm also finding the bits about his upbringing in Chittagong fascinating.

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Laugh hard. Run fast. Be kind.

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Cara
Shipmate
# 16966

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I am reading The Sign by Thomas de Wesselow, the new book about the Shroud of Turin and its (posited) role in the origin of Christianity. The book has many flaws--some evident to any reader and some spotted by critics knowledgeable in the area--and the tone is infuriatingly self-satisfied, but the subject is nonetheless fascinating. I'm half-way through.

There are two basic ideas: the first is that the Shroud cannot be a painting, a proto-photograph, or a result of sudden radiation as Christ came back to life. I'm not sure about the last, but he's convincing on the first two.

In his explanation and very detailed analysis of all the studies done so far on the Shroud he makes a good case for the mind-boggling possibility that it really was the winding-sheet of a crucified man. This is believed by many of the scientists who have worked in sindonology and is not a new idea. Even the stripes on the back are such as would be made by a Roman scourge, and different from any shown in medieval paintings. And apparently the blood is forensically real blood. The body image lies on top of the thread fibres and apparently is not made by any sort of pigment or paint at all...I learned much I did not know before about the Shroud and the work done on it.

He argues convincingly that the carbon-dating (to the 1200s-1300s) was flawed, as apparently often happens, especially with old linens. There are pollen, linen, and needlework studies of the fabric that support a much earlier date.

How the image was transferred to the cloth is still an unsolved mystery, though he supports one particular theory. (A chemical one connected with the process of decomposition).

He shows the image is consistent with the sheet's being wrapped around a dead man in rigor mortis who died in an upright position (the rigor broken for the placement of the arms) and whose jaw has been strapped up in traditional fashion...

De Wesselow is an agnostic or atheist, but believes-convincingly to untutored me--that the Shroud did wrap the body of a man crucified in the Roman way with an unusual wound in his side and some sharp circular object on his head. He believes this was Jesus. In which case the Shroud is an extraordinary historical survival, whatever one believes, or not, about Jesus.

The book's second, and main, idea is one I can't really buy, though I'm only at the beginning of his exposition of it. I don't think I'm committing a spoiler--all reviews have mentioned it--to say that he believes the risen Jesus the apostles saw was really the Shroud held up and displayed.

Although the traditional belief in the Resurrection is hard to sustain in this day and age, I'm not sure I find this Shroud idea easy to believe either. Especially after reading Paul and the Gospels and taking into account the extraordinary power that the appearances of the risen Jesus had on everyone. Could it really just have been the Shroud image they saw? He explains it by saying people regarded images in a more animist way then, as imbued with something of the personality or spirit of the living person...

As I say, I've only just started this section, and of course one's response to this thesis will depend on one's faith, or not, in the true Resurrection.

But the whole thing is fascinating. The book, despite its flaws and historical errors, is worth reading for its gathering and analysis of the studies done on the Shroud, an extraordinary object by any measure.

However, I haven't read Ian Wilson's well-known books on the Shroud (the latest is from 2010) and don't know how de Wesselow compares.

I'd love to know what readers here think.

Cara

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Pondering.

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Moo

Ship's tough old bird
# 107

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Here is the website of the group that did the hands-on research.

I know a couple who were part of that research team. The subject fascinates me.

Moo

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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.

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Cara
Shipmate
# 16966

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Thanks for the link, Moo. Fascinating stuff.

cara

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Pondering.

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Steve H
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# 17102

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quote:
Originally posted by Cara:
The book's second, and main, idea is one I can't really buy, though I'm only at the beginning of his exposition of it. I don't think I'm committing a spoiler--all reviews have mentioned it--to say that he believes the risen Jesus the apostles saw was really the Shroud held up and displayed.

Although the traditional belief in the Resurrection is hard to sustain in this day and age, I'm not sure I find this Shroud idea easy to believe either. Especially after reading Paul and the Gospels and taking into account the extraordinary power that the appearances of the risen Jesus had on everyone. Could it really just have been the Shroud image they saw? He explains it by saying people regarded images in a more animist way then, as imbued with something of the personality or spirit of the living person...

As I say, I've only just started this section, and of course one's response to this thesis will depend on one's faith, or not, in the true Resurrection.

I've read some pretty desperate attempts to explain away the resurrection narratives, but that takes the biscuit.

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Hold to Christ, and for the rest, be totally uncommitted.
Herbert Butterfield.

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Cara
Shipmate
# 16966

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As I read on, it (de Wesselow's "The Sign") becomes more and more complex. It's not only that De Wesselow says people saw the Risen Jesus in the Shroud, but he claims that the Shroud (with its double figures) also prompted the visions of angels dressed in white at the tomb. And he says sometimes the Shroud represented the Risen Jesus, sometimes the Ascended Jesus who had gone to heaven...

I'm still not buying this basic premise, that all the Resurrection experiences were simply encounters with the Shroud; but there is a lot about the way images were interpreted then--with reference to the Fayum portraits, Egyptian beliefs about the afterlife, and more--that is interesting and thought-provoking. I'm not qualified to judge how accurate De Wesselow's presentation of that material is...

Lots of his work in this book is sloppy and inaccurate, according to, among others, a lambasting review in The Scotsman by Stuart Kelly. However, Kelly says, the section on the Shroud does raise sufficient doubts (about the carbon dating etc) for further work to be undertaken. On the other hand, the part on the Resurrection is "frankly, bonkers."

I agree with this assessment but I'm finding myself fascinated by the book anyway--first because the Shroud itself is a fascinating and still-unexplained object--and secondly because it makes one think all over again about the people and emotions involved in the death and Resurrection of Jesus; even if his thesis is indeed bonkers, one finds oneself thinking about these extraordinary events and narratives-- the tomb, the angels, the appearances, the roads to Emmaus and Damascus, the breakfast of grilled fish on the shores of Galilee....

Cara

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Pondering.

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tessaB
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# 8533

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I've just bought China Mieville's new book Railsea. I have loved all his other books and have passed that love onto my daughter who (lucky thing) saw him at a book signing in Hackney today and got an autographed book and a photo of them together (now where is that green with envy smiley when you want it?)

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tessaB
eating chocolate to the glory of God
Holiday cottage near Rye

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Yerevan
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# 10383

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quote:
Although the traditional belief in the Resurrection is hard to sustain in this day and age...
This is a bit of a tangent, but I've never really understood the idea that the resurrection is somehow inherently more improbable now than it was two thousand years ago. 1st century Jews knew that crucifixion was pretty fatal and that the crucified didn't tend to pop up again three days breaking bread and frying up fish on the lake shore.
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Trudy Scrumptious

BBE Shieldmaiden
# 5647

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I've just finished reading Bring up the Bodies, the sequel to Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. I reread Wolf Hall before getting into the new book, so it was quite an immersion into the world of Thomas Cromwell. Thoroughly enjoyed both, and am looking forward to the next (possibly final?) volume, whenever it may come.

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Books and things.

I lied. There are no things. Just books.

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Zappa
Ship's Wake
# 8433

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Having depressed myself utterly by reading Aboriginal Australians (ye gods we Europeans fucked up) I am adding the strychine to the arsenic patties by reading Lyndal Ryan's Tasmanian Aborigines. I can barely put it down, but when I do it will be to slash my wrists.

Before eating the patties.

Did I mention that post-colonial studies are somewhat miserablising?

[Tear]

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shameless self promotion - because I think it's worth it
and mayhap this too: http://broken-moments.blogspot.co.nz/

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Yerevan
Shipmate
# 10383

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For various reasons I'm actually getting time to read some fiction for the first time in a long while. I've just finished a very funny book called 'Gods behaving badly', which is based on the premise that the Greek gods are down on their luck after years of unbelief and have to earn a living as best they can in contemporary London. Aphrodite works for a phone sex line, Apollo is trying his luck as a TV physic and Eros (now a Christian) spends his time teaching the church youth group archery. Artemis, goddess of chastity and the hunt and the central character, is particularly under-employed in liberal, animal loving 21st century Britain. There are some interesting thoughts on obsolescence lurking beneath the humour (Christian readers might find themselves sympathising with the unfortunate Artemis [Razz] ) and a definite nod to Terry Pratchett's 'Small Gods'.

[ 31. May 2012, 10:32: Message edited by: Yerevan ]

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Firenze

Ordinary decent pagan
# 619

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You might enjoy The night life of the gods.
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Zappa
Ship's Wake
# 8433

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Now I am turning to Marwick's The Sixties - becuase it is the era I adulate. More later.

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shameless self promotion - because I think it's worth it
and mayhap this too: http://broken-moments.blogspot.co.nz/

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Zappa
Ship's Wake
# 8433

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quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
You might enjoy The night life of the gods.

Or, indeed, the Percy Jackson series

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shameless self promotion - because I think it's worth it
and mayhap this too: http://broken-moments.blogspot.co.nz/

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leo
Shipmate
# 1458

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Jews and Christians: Perspectives on Mission - The Lambeth-Jewish Forum - basically,Christians shouldn't seek to convert Jews but should engage with them in a common mission.

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My Jewish-positive lectionary blog is at http://recognisingjewishrootsinthelectionary.wordpress.com/
My reviews at http://layreadersbookreviews.wordpress.com

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Evensong
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# 14696

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Some of youse seem to know a bit about fantasy so I'm posing a plea here:

My fave fiction author of All Time (besides Georgette Heyer) is Patrick Rothfuss. Unfortunately he is new and not particularly prolific. So I went searching for "people that write like him".

Scott Lynch came up so I bought "The lies of Locke Lamora". I've got about a chapter in.

The writing, theatrics and ribaldry is superb, my question really is does he have any depth?.

Nothing I hate more than pursuing a book that leaves me cold in the profound department.

Any of you know Scott Lynch? Should I persevere? Is he actually anything like Rothfuss?

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a theological scrapbook

Posts: 9481 | From: Australia | Registered: Apr 2009  |  IP: Logged
Evensong
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# 14696

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quote:
Originally posted by leo:
Jews and Christians: Perspectives on Mission - The Lambeth-Jewish Forum - basically,Christians shouldn't seek to convert Jews but should engage with them in a common mission.

Quite the flavor of the day for the interfaith movement: working together for improving the world.

I approve.

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a theological scrapbook

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Nicolemr
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# 28

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I am currently reading the Robert Crais Joe Pike/Elvis Cole novel Taken. But I'm enjoying it less than I should because of the shifts of POV, which I am finding annoying.

When i read Robert Crais I want to read Elvis Cole and Joe Pike, not the innumerable other characters that have taken center stage. [Roll Eyes]

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On pilgrimage in the endless realms of Cyberia, currently traveling by ship. Now with live journal!

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QLib

Bad Example
# 43

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I went to the library to get clerical detectives, but almost everything on my (ship-inspired) list was out on loan, so I came away with Barbara Kingsolver's Lacuna which is proving to have been a great find. Looking forward to Trotsky's entrance.

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Tradition is the handing down of the flame, not the worship of the ashes Gustav Mahler.

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birdie

fowl
# 2173

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quote:
Originally posted by QLib:
I came away with Barbara Kingsolver's Lacuna which is proving to have been a great find. Looking forward to Trotsky's entrance.

Oh that is a fantastic book - absolutely love it!

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"Gentlemen, I wash my hands of this weirdness."
Captain Jack Sparrow

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Mary LA
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# 17040

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Yes to Barbara Kingsolver's Lacuna

But also immersed in rereading Leon Edel's biography of Henry James, planning to move to Colm Toibin's The Master and then Lyndall Gordon's study of the women who influenced James.

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“I often wonder if we were all characters in one of God's dreams.”
― Muriel Spark

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leo
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# 1458

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50 Years of Coronation Street - S. Egan.

Having seen virtually every episode, it was interesting to read the internal politicking of producers and writers.

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My Jewish-positive lectionary blog is at http://recognisingjewishrootsinthelectionary.wordpress.com/
My reviews at http://layreadersbookreviews.wordpress.com

Posts: 23198 | From: Bristol | Registered: Oct 2001  |  IP: Logged



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