First Chronicles

First Chronicles is a history of Israel beginning at the beginning of creation and running through the transfer of power from David to Solomon. The first roughly half of the book is a series of genealogies, showing the descent from Adam to the various tribes of Israel. The end of Saul’s reign, and his thwarted dynasty, are treated briefly. The rest of the book is devoted to the reign of David.

The treatment of David’s reign is much different in this history than it is in Second Samuel. First Chronicles focuses on David’s service to God, especially in relation to the Ark of the Covenant and the temple.

David recovered the Ark and eventually moved it to Jerusalem and restored it to the Tabernacle. Considering how important the Ark and the tabernacle were to Israel in the time of Moses and Joshua, when the people became a nation, recovering it must have had a great impact on the minds of Israelites as they transitioned from a nation to a kingdom.

I think one can see a connection between the reestablishment of regular worship under the Mosaic system and the establishment of David’s reign. God makes a covenant with David that a descendant of David will build a temple to God and reign forever.  This promise was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

David’s devotion to God was sincere. His motivation to build the temple came from a desire to serve and glorify God. Even though he was instructed not to build a temple, this task was reserved from Solomon, he prepared for it by gathering materials for its construction and decoration. David envisioned a beautiful and richly appointed temple.

If there is a theme to tie together the various parts of the book, I think it is the hand of God in the establishment of the kingdom of Israel, especially David’s family dynasty. It didn’t start with David, though, or even Moses. It started with Adam. From the beginning, God planned to set aside a people for Himself, to serve and worship Him and to enjoy Him and His blessings. In God’s covenant with David, we can even see the continuity of this plan through the church.

First Chronicles is not an easy book to read. There is a lot of genealogy. This abundance of family history and the various divisions of Israel can give one a sense of piece-by-piece building of a kingdom, though it may have as easily been for ensuring a correct inheritance to the various people the land God gave them.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Exodus

First Samuel

Genesis

Second Samuel

First Chronicles. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Second Samuel

Second Samuel.  The Holy Bible.  New King James Version.  Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

The prophet Samuel died before the events described in this second book named for him.  Like First Samuel, this book continues the history of the establishment of a monarchy in Israel.  In particular, it covers most of the reign of David.

The book begins with the death of Saul.  He was the king who preceded David and the father of David’s close friend Jonathan, who died in the same battle.  David mourned the loss of the king and his friend, even though he knew it cleared the way for him to take the crown.

David’s ascension to the throne was rocky even though he had been selected by God to fill the position.  The southern tribes, Judah, received David as king, but the rest of Israel was led by Saul’s son Ishbosheth.  The two were at war, which ended when Ishbosheth was killed by two of his own men.

That is only the beginnings of the intrigues that plagued David’s reign.  No doubt part of this was the instability of a new kingdom, where many people were seeking to acquire and consolidate power.

Part of this instability may have come from David himself.  At his best he was described as a man after God’s own heart.  He loved God.  He was brave and generous. He was a great military leader and a canny diplomat.  He was all too human as well.  He was lustful.  He didn’t want to face trouble, especially within his own family, which led to an insurrection led by his son Absalom.  He allowed his office to remove him from his people, his troops, and his family, and the isolation made him vulnerable.  Sometimes his temper got the better of him.

On the whole, though, David is remembered as a great king.  He consolidated his country.  He defeated foreign enemies.  He surrounded himself with faithful and capable advisers and assistants.  He especially was faithful to God; even though he slipped he returned to God, acknowledging Him and seeking His way for himself and the kingdom.

There is a lot of exciting history in this book.  Most of it is very tightly summarized.  If someone wanted to novelize this book, expanding and fictionalizing the detailed plot, they could probably produce a series of thick novels packed with enough intrigue and action to keep even a jaded reader of thrillers engaged.  For a religious book that you might think would want to polish and aggrandize the reputation of a powerful and beloved king, the Biblical historians are surprisingly frank.  They do not turn away from David’s shortcomings or the swirl of conniving in his court.

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Writing for Comics with Peter David

David, Peter. Writing for Comics with Peter David. Cincinnati, OH: Impact, 2006.

Peter David brings his more than two decades of experience as a comics writer, including a well known stint as a writer of The Incredible Hulk, to bear on the subject of writing for comics. David’s book is mainly a guide to writers who want to break into comics, but it’s also written to appeal to comics fans who want a better understanding of their favorite medium.

To some degree, good writing is good writing, so much of the advice David provides could be useful to fiction writers in general. Conflict, character, setting, plot and pacing are things all fiction writers must handle. David draws on examples from other media, especially movies, to illustrate his points.

Even so, comics have there own conventions, traditions and techniques. David deals with some of the unique elements of comics directly such as script style, speech balloons, continuity and writing instructions for artists. Mostly, relevant techniques are dealt with as they arise in discussing writing for comics.

The main audience of the book is writers, so it deals with art, editing and other elements of comics from the standpoint of the writer’s place. All writers need to understand the craft of writing; comics writers also need to understand the craft of making comics since he not only writes a story, but also a script that gives shape to the final product, often page-by-page and frame-by-frame.



David’s advice can be taken more as guidelines as rules. One of his repeated points is to do what works. Even in his own writing, he adapts his script style and level of detail according to the story he is telling, the artist he is working with and the expectations of his editor.

Even though David doesn’t lay out one way, he does show the better ways and the danger zones. Someone wanting to write for comics will find a lot to help him do it well and possibly break into the tight market (including advice from a Marvel editor on pitching a story and detailed script guidelines from Dark Horse).

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics by Dennis O’Neil
How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy by Orson Scott Card

First Samuel

First Samuel.  The Holy Bible.  New King James Version.  Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

First Samuel tells of the establishment of a monarchy in Israel, especially the rise of David from shepherd to king.  It is named for the prophet Samuel, a principal person in the book.

Samuel was the son of Elkanah and Hannah.  Hannah was one of Elkanah’s two wives.  Elkanah loved Hannah and doted on her, but she had no children, which grieved her and made her feel inferior to Elkanah’s other wife, Peninnah.  She prayed that she would have a son and promised to dedicate him to the Lord.  That is what happened.

Samuel helped the priests from the time he was a boy.  As a child he heard God’s voice.  God told the boy He would do things in Israel so astounding that hearing it would make your ears tingle.

It started with the overthrow of wicked priests.  The Ark of the Covenant fell into the hands of the Philistines and would not return to Israel in Samuel’s lifetimes.

As a prophet, Samuel led Israel in the manner that the judges before him did.  The people began to clamber for a king so they could be a nation like the others around them.  Samuel was understandably hurt by the rejection.  God told the prophet they were really rejecting Him.  He saw fit to give them a king anyway.

Saul was the first king of Israel.  Like many modern leaders, he was tall and handsome. 

Unfortunately, he was week.  He craved approval from the people and was jealous of his position and power.  Eventually, his disobedience was too much and God sought out another king.

David did not immediately become king.  He was still youth when he was anointed by Samuel.  God led him through a series of events to prove David, the most famous being the battle with the giant Goliath.  David became a great general in Saul’s army, a fast friend of Saul’s son Jonathan, and popular with the people.

Saul’s jealousy of David was severe.  David had to get of the country.  He lived in foreign lands where he was permitted, along with many fighting men who were loyal to him and their families.

Israel had enemies all around and it was the king’s job to lead the defense, through diplomacy or war.  Saul faced capture during a battle and fell on his sword rather than face humiliation in the hands of his enemies.  Most of Saul’s family was wiped out, including Jonathan.

David became king of the portion of Israel called Judah and later the whole nation.  Samuel was a witness and participant in these events.  His death is described at the end of the book.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Joshua

Judges

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Amazing Fantastic Incredible by Stan Lee, Peter David & Colleen Doran

When a book is entitled Amazing Fantastic Incredible, Stan Lee must be involved. That is the title of Lee’s graphic novel memoir, co-written with Peter David with art by Colleen Doran, about his long career in comic books.

Lee has a career in comic books going back the Golden Age. He started working in comics soon after they became a popular medium. Few people have had a career in comic books as long as Lee’s, partly because he is still working. No one has been the public face of comic books, or a spokesman and promotor for the medium, as much as Lee.

Because Lee’s career in comics is well known, at least among fans, some of the more interesting parts of the memoir deal with other aspects of his life. He depicts himself as being crazy in love with his wife, Joan, even after decades of marriage. He recalls himself as a lonely kid during the Great Depression, who took refuge in books and the world of his own imagination. He retelling of his army service during World War II, mostly serving as a writer stateside, is mostly humorous.

I suspect Lee’s humor has a lot to do with his popularity. He comes across as self-aggrandizing with a self-deprecating wink.

Even so, Lee’s status as a comics celebrity has sparked criticism in some circles. He was the face of Marvel Comics, and so has taken the heat for the way the publisher treated the artist who worked for him (comics publishers treated artists shabbily for decades). Maybe he could have done more for the artists who worked for him, and maybe he would have been unemployed if he tried. Lee doesn’t get into this matter much, but when he does he shifts the blame to publisher Martin Goodman.

Lee addresses some of his most famous characters and the artists who co-created them. Some might see his recognition of co-creators as a defense against detractors who say he has claimed too much credit. I think the book presents the situation the way Lee would like to remember, and the way he would like others to remember it. I think he genuinely liked and admired many of the people he worked with. Throughout the book, Jack Kirby is depicted as handsome, powerful and dynamic, almost like a superhero, even when there was a rift if their personal and professional relationship.

This is a memoir, not an autobiography. Lee and his collaborators do not attempt to independently confirm memories, though they straightforward about some memories being fuzzy. A few scenes a clearly constructed to present information in a manner more interesting than direct exposition, though they may have had some root in an actual event. Lee’s conversations with his boyhood self are plainly fictional; I thought they tended to be the weakest parts of the book, though they were functional.

Fans of Lee will probably enjoy the book. Someone who wants a brief and easy history of comics, and isn’t too concerned about the lopsidedness that would naturally come with Lee’s perspective, might also like it. Lee would know, he was there.

Stan Lee also wrote Spider-Man with Steve Ditko. Peter David also wrote Writing for Comics with Peter David.

If  you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Comic Book Nation by Bradford W. Wright

The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics by Dennis O’Neil

Kirby by Mark Evanier

Men of Tomorrow by Gerard Jones

The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore

Stan Lee by Jordan Raphael and Tom Spurgeon

The Ten-Cent Plague by David Hajdu

Will Eisner by Michael Schumacher

Lee, Stan, Peter David & Colleen Doran. Amazing Fantastic Incredible: A Marvelous Memoir. New York: Touchstone, 2015.

300 Books Reviewed on Keenan’s Book Reviews

I’ve posted reviews of 300 books on this blog. It’s hard to believe.  Here are links to the 50 most recent posts. Further down are links to more reviews.

First Time Reviews

1939 by David Gelernter

A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold

American Nerd by Benjamin Nugent

Arthur & George by Julian Barnes

The Big Thirst by Charles Fishman

Blue Revolution by Cynthia Barnett

Cathedral, Forge, and Waterwheel by Frances & Joseph Gies

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

Dog Days by Dave Ihlenfeld

Double Your Brain Power by Jean Marie Stine

Epistles

First Chronicles

First John

First Kings

First Peter

The Genius in All of Us by David Shenk

The Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Hebrews

Help, Thanks, Wow by Anne Lamott

The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine N. Aron

How to Build an Android by David F. Dufty

I Declare by Joel Osteen

James

Jude

Life's Not Fair, but God is Good by Robert H. Schuller

London Under by Peter Ackroyd

Miss Leavitt's Stars by George Johnson

Men of Tomorrow by Gerard Jones

Mojo by Marshall Goldsmith

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein

The Most Effective Organization in the U.S. by Robert A. Watson & Ben Brown

No Excuses by Brian Tracy

Pauline Letters

Philemon

Quiet by Susan Cain

Rapt by Winifred Gallagher

Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose

Revelation

Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness by Bryan Lee O'Malley

Second John

Second Kings

Second Peter

Second Samuel

The Solution by Lucinda Bassett

Succeed by Heidi Grant Halvorson

Superman versus the Ku Klux Klan by Rick Bowers

The Thinking Life by P. M. Forni

Third John

This Year I Will... by M. J. Ryan

Additional and Expanded Reviews

1089 and All That: A Journey into Mathematics by David Acheson

1939 by David Gelernter

American Nerd by Benjamin Nugent

The Big Roads: The Untold Story of the Engineers, Visionaries, and Trailblazers Who Created the American Superhighways by Earl Swift

The Brooklyn Bridge: They Said it Couldn’t be Built by Judith St. George

Buried Alive: The Terrifying History of Our Most Primal Fear by Jan Bondeson

Dreams of Iron and Steel by Deborah Cadbury

The Essential Engineer: Why Science Alone Will Not Solve Our Global Problems by Henry Petroski

The Ghost Map: The Story of London’s Most Terrifying Epidemic—and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Steven Johnson

How to Build an Android: The True Story of Philip K. Dick’s Robotic Resurrection by David F. Dufty

Men of Tomorrow by Gerard Jones

Quiet by Susan Cain

The Secret by Rhonda Byrne

The Sherlockian by Graham Moore

The Physics of Superheroes by James Kakalios

Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West by Stephen Ambrose

Continuation of list of 250 books reviewed

First 25 Reviews

Reviews 26-50

Reviews 51-75

Reviews 76-100

Reviews 101-150

Reviews 151-200

First Kings

First Kings is a history of the kings of Israel and Judah beginning with the transition for David to his son Solomon.  The book also recounts some of the notable prophets of the time, particularly Elijah and Elisha.

Solomon was David’s contested successor.  David had many sons older than Solomon, though some were dead, notably Absalom who had tried to usurp the throne.  David’s son Adonijah was preparing to succeed his father, and even organized an elaborate celebration to court the favor of important aristocrats.  The prophet Nathan discovered the plot.  He, Solomon, David, and Bathsheba, Solomon’s mother, arranged to elevate Solomon to the throne while his father still lived.

Solomon was notable for his wisdom.  God offered to the young king what he wanted.  He asked for wisdom to govern the people rightly.  God was pleased with the answer and gave Solomon wealth and power in addition to wisdom.

Wisdom didn’t keep Solomon out of trouble.  He had many wives (no doubt trouble by itself), and he permitted his foreign wives to continue practicing their religions, so the worship of false gods was allowed in the kingdom.  Idol-worship would be common amongst Solomon’s successors.

After Solomon, the kingdom was divided.  The ten northern tribes formed a kingdom generally referred to as Israel.  Two southern tribes made Judah.  Throughout this period, idol-worship prevailed in Israel.  Some kings of Judah served God, but many did not, and the godly kings did not succeed in eradicating idolatry.

Following Solomon, most of the kings of both the north and the south are summed up briefly.   Some just get a paragraph.  We see the kingdom rise and fall based on the faithfulness of the people.  When they sought God, even imperfectly, He blessed them and they thrived.  When they sought to gratify themselves and follow false gods, they quickly ran into trouble.  This is a pattern in the history of ancient Israel that started before the kings and continued after them.

First Kings ends with the reign of Ahab, famously married to Jezebel.    These monarchs promoted the worship of Baal and suppressed the worship of God.  They were opposed by the prophet Elijah.  Elijah is associated with some spectacular miracles.  God withheld rain from the land until Elijah called an end to the drought.  Elijah called out the prophets of Baal in a contest to call down fire from heaven  Baal did not answer his worshippers, but God sent fire for Elijah, who that day executed hundreds of Baal’s priests.  This put him in serious conflict with Ahab and Jezebel.

Elijah is also well known in that he did not die, at least not in a conventional sense.  He was taken up to heaven in a chariot of fire.  He appeared to Christ and a few disciples on during the Transfiguration.

It is clear that First Kings is intended to be a summary.  It frequently refers to records of the actions of the kings as if these might be available to a reader who wanted to confirm the recounting of find more information.

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

First and Second Samuel

Luke

Mark

Matthew

Proverbs

First Kings.  The Holy Bible.  New King James Version.  Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

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Psalms

Psalms is a collection of songs. Many of the songs are attributed to the poet and king David. Others are attributed to Asaph, the sons of Korah, Solomon and even Moses. Many are anonymous.

The songs were meant to be sung, and sometimes they contain annotations suggesting a certain style, tune or instruments. I find that sometimes the structure or words of a psalm suggest that it was probably intended for a soloist, a chorus, or a call and response.

Many of the psalms, especially those attributed to David, deal with the faithfulness of God and the blessed life of those who trust Him. Other psalms suggest that David encouraged, and probably enjoyed, corporate singing of praise to God. David is particularly honest in his prayer-like psalms, and is not afraid to express his anger, disappointment and fear. Even in these moments, he is grateful for God’s mercy.

Several psalms have a messianic message, foreseeing and describing Christ before His coming. Jesus even suggests that these psalms refer to Him, along with other Old Testament scripture (see Luke 24:44).

Other songs were written for, or have become associated with, certain ceremonies. The Hallel psalms (113-118) are sung as part of the Passover celebration. The Songs of Ascent (120-134) are associated with pilgrimages to Jerusalem.

You will find there is a psalm that resonates with almost any emotion, mood or experience. Though the music of these songs is lost to most of us, they still invite us to explore our thoughts and experience, reflect, pray, and connect to a God who cares, who’s mercy is at hand. Even the structure of much of this Hebrew poetry, in which ideas are repeated, compare and contrasted, invites one into meditation.

Psalms. The Holy Bible. New King James Version. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1982.

Range by David Epstein

Specialization is king. It has become seen as the road to success. Since Malcolm Gladwell popularized the 10,000-hour Rule a few years ago (perhaps unintentionally), I’ve seen a lot of people using it to justify and spell out the road to specialization: focus and start early. However, specialization can hurt when we face problems that cross boundaries and pull us out of our niche; we can be lost and ill equipped outside of our specialization. Journalist David Epstein explored the issue in his book, Range.

 Epstein starts out by showing the limitations of specialization. It works well in an arena where repeating patterns prevail, and we can learn to recognize those patterns from exposure. When there are no repeating patterns, or they are complex and obscure, a high degree of specialized knowledge can lead to wrong conclusions and false confidence. We can have a few good tools that we trust, but if they are the wrong tools for the job we may be doing the wrong thing without realizing it. Complex environments and problems require us to reason conceptually, connect ideas from different contexts and solve problems without direct prior knowledge of what we are facing. We need breadth.

 Though it is not as popular a narrative, Epstein provides several examples of how people with broad and diverse knowledge have become high achievers. Creativity is, to a great extent, finding relationships between seemingly unrelated things. One must be equipped with a variety of experience to be able to make these leaps.

 I can see how the generalist’s path can seem unappealing. It may not seem like a path at all. Deep learning is slow and effortful. It is a way of errors, false starts and diversions that can seem like a waste of time. Developing range is messy and uncertain; by comparison, specialization seems like a sure thing.

 Epstein’s book contains ways to develop range. Analogies allow us to apply knowledge from one area to another, and seeing where analogies fall apart can lead to new ideas. Take an outsider’s cooler, distant and critical view and save yourself from the pitfall of taking a rosy view of familiar things. Pay attention to things that don’t fit the model. Don’t plan too far ahead, but be open to exploration an experimentation. There is a time for mastering particular knowledge and procedure, but the overall approach to learning should be to make connections and gain perspective.

 If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande

The First 20 Hours by Josh Kaufman

Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

The Genius in All of Us by David Shenk

Learn Better by Ulrich Boser

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

 Epstein, David. Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. New York: Riverhead Books, 2019.

The Wright Brothers by David McCollough

Brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright rose to fame at the beginning of the 20^th Century by building the first successful manned, powered flying machine. In popular culture, they tend to be presented as geniuses who went out to Kitty Hawk and started flying one day. In his biography of these men, The Wright Brothers, David McCollough does not dispel the notion of genius, but he focuses on their courage, determination, careful study, methodical approach, and persistence in the pursuit of something they believed could be.

As boys, the brothers were inspired by a toy to consider the possibility of flight. As grown men, they made a careful study of it. Before beginning their experiments, they gathered the available information, including contacts with earlier experimenters in flight such as Octave Chanute and Samuel Pierpont Langley (the director of the Smithsonian Institute who’s “aerodrome” was a failed early flyer). When they began conducting their own experiments with kites (and later using a small wind tunnel they made), they found the published data to be lacking in useful or correct information.

Therefore, it was mainly on their own that the brothers invented their flyers and the means of piloting them. They had the practical view that inventing a flying machine included inventing the method for controlling it in flight.

An interesting note is that the Wrights funded their experiments and first airplanes with their own money. Their bicycle shop must have produced a decent income, but they lived modestly. They lived in a modest home together with their father and sister until after they completed built three working airplanes, the third model being the one they demonstrated publicly. Even after they began to make money making airplanes and decided to build a new, larger house, they shared it. Wilbur’s only request for the new house was that he have his own bedroom and bathroom.

McCollough emphasizes how much the success of Wilbur and Orville was a family affair. They were close to their widowed father, who survived Wilbur by two years. Once they began to demonstrate their airplane and make a build a business on it, their sister Katherine became a social manager for them, and she share a house with Orville until she married at the age of 52 (she passed away three year later). Orville had a long life and saw many improvements in aviation after he sold the company, including Charles Lindbergh’s trans-Atlantic flight and the use of bombers in World War II.

The book is fairly brief. McCollough concentrates on the period when the Wrights were most involved in experimenting with, building, and ultimately demonstrating their invention. Even so, one gets a sense of what the brothers and their immediate family and friends were like.

David McCollough also wrote The Great Bridge. 

If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in

Make a Joyful Sound by Helen Elmira Waite

McCullough, David. The Wright Brothers. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015.