Anxious for Nothing by Max Lucado

In the early chapters of Anxious for Nothing, pastor and author Max Lucado describes the kind of harried, distracted anxiety that people suffer in modern life. Many are depressed by troubling things going on all around that repeat all day on newscasts.

Honestly, that is not the reason I picked up the book. I did not have a particularly gloomy outlook. Nor was I consciously worked up about much. I was driving by an amygdala-induced fear that I didn’t understand. Even so, I read the rest of the book.

Anxious for Nothing is an extended sermon, taking its main text as Philippians 4:4-8. The Main points for the acronym CALM:

-celebrate God’s goodness,

-ask God for help,

-leave your concerns with Him and

-meditate on good things.

“Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and mind ins Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:4-8 (NKJV)

For Christians, there is plenty of good to be found in God that can allay our fears. God is in control. He has demonstrated His love and mercy toward us in Christ. He has a good plan for us and He is able to carry it out.

God hears our prayers for help. He invites us to ask for what we want. His own love for us motivates Him to answer our prayers; though sometimes He has better things in mind for us than we might imagine. We can rely on His promises, which He encourages us to rehearse, though He never forgets them.

Because we can rely on God, we can stop worrying. We can let things go. We can remind ourselves of all the way God has already helped us an rest in peace.

Finally, we can choose what we think about. Instead of worrying, we can abide in Christ. We can dwell on what God has done for us and what He has promised, and we can take courage.

Max Lucado also wrote

It's Not About Me

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

Philippians

Rewire Your Anxious Brain by Catherine M. Pittman & Elizabeth M. Karle

The Solution by Lucinda Bassett

Lucado, Max. Anxious for Nothing: Finding Calm in a Chaotic World. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2017.

Common Sense by Thomas Paine

Paine, Thomas. Common Sense. Bradford Enlarged Edition. 1776. Reprinted in 46 Pages. Scott Liell. New York: MJF Books, 2003.

Thomas Pain came to America form his home in England at the encouragement of Benjamin Franklin. Franklin encouraged Paine to write about conflict the American colonies and Britain. The product was Common Sense.

Common Sense was an essay making the case for American independence. In a sense, it is two essays, one directly supporting the call for independence and one providing background on the impossibility of liberty under the British system.

The first parts of the essay deals with the concept of government in general. In particular, Paine argues against monarchy as a form of government. To him, monarchy is unnatural and hereditary monarchy insanity. Even a constitutional monarchy that gave real powers to a king, such as England had at the time, could not guarantee the peoples right, particularly in a colony where it was in the monarch’s and mother country’s interest for the colony to be dependent. Paine advocated throwing off the British monarchy and adopting a constitutional republic.

The latter half dealt with directly with American independence. Building on his earlier statements, he argued that America could not meet its potential if it did not act on its own interest. Paine saw a confluence of things, particularly the population and resources of the continent that made for the best possible time to pursue independence.

In this edition, Paine offered an answer to some of the detractors of his first edition, especially the pacifist among the Quakers. He argued that peace under Britain was impossible, but that independence would bring a lasting peace. In addition, there was already an aggressor on the continent in the form of British troops. To Paine, taking up arms against Britain was not to start a war, but a defense against foreign attacks.


Paine’s arguments seemed to tip the scale. Common Sense was widely read among the founding fathers. Within months of its publication, the Declaration of Independence was published.

If you're interested in Common Sense, you may also be intersted in:
His Excellency by Joseph J. Ellis
A Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization by Anthony Esolen
Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose

My Inventions by Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla’s autobiography, collected under the title My Inventions, originally appeared as six articles in issues of Electrical Experimenter in 1919. It is a surprisingly thin book, especially in light of the several biographies that have been written about him, and the possibly greater volumes propounding the mythology of an almost demi-god genius.

To be fair, Tesla was a very creative and productive inventor. His AC motors, and the power systems that support them, enabled a new level of industrial power and automation. In many ways it was the technological foundation of the power grid we have today.

Tesla was ahead of his time and he realized it. He knew that the success of AC motors was greatly aided by coming about at the right time. Even so, it took many years from Tesla’s design to become a prototype and for that to become a commercial product with an infrastructure to support its use. At the time he wrote My Inventions, the value and practicality of his later inventions were still hard for many to see.

One of these later inventions was the radio. Tesla didn’t use that term “radio.”  It’s probably fair to say that he misunderstood the phenomena he was working with. Even so, he could produce radio transmissions and put them to practical use. As a demonstration, he built radio-controlled boats. It’s a stretch to say that Tesla envisioned smart phones, but he foresaw the possibility of using radio to transmit many kinds of data and signals, sometimes to devices “not bigger than a watch.”

“The pressure of occupation and the incessant stream of impressions pouring into our consciousness thru all the gateways of knowledge make modern existence hazardous in many ways,” Nikola Tesla, My Inventions

These articles were written at the end of World War I. Tesla reflected on the potentials of technology in peace and war. He imagined that wireless communication could shrink the world, leading to the kind of cultural exchange, common ground and commercial connections that would reinforce peace. He also imagined a rocket that could be guided to its target by radio control or internal mechanism; we could call it an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

Though visionary, he was not an infallible genius. He held to notions of physics that were not supported even by the science of his time. He had some wild ideas about psychology, biology and other fields, though some of these were no more far-out and off the mark that many that were popularly accepted by his contemporaries.

Tesla wrote very much from his own experience and perspective. Though he speaks of his upbringing in eastern Europe, his education and his career in Europe and the United States, he spends little time reflecting on the places, cultures and broader events he experience. You’ll learn more about Tesla’s peculiar ailments than about the life of youth in late-19^th Century Croatia. Perhaps that wouldn’t have sold many issues of Electrical Experimenter.

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

The Astounding, the Amazing, and the Unknown by Paul Malmont

Empires of Light by Jill Jonnes

Men of Tomorrow by Gerard Jones

The Power Makers by Maury Klein

Tesla, Nikola. My Inventions. 1919. New York: Barnes & Noble, 1995.

Rapt by Winifred Gallagher

Our brains can’t process all the stimuli to which we are exposed.  It selects to be more strongly aware of some stimuli that seem important and to suppresses awareness of others. It is like a spotlight that illuminates every detail of an actor and the scenery immediately next to him, but leaves the rest of the stage in twilight or even completed darkness. This process is attention.

Our experience of life is what we pay attention to. This is the thesis of Winifred Gallagher’s book Rapt. We may not always be happy, be can nearly always be focused and choose to pay attention to what brings us peace, joy, and a sense of meaning in the moment.

We have two types of attention. Gallagher calls the first “bottom up” attention. This is the our instinctive attention to things in our environment that are novel, potentially dangerous, or a potential opportunity.

Top down attention is intentional focus on what we choose. Our intentional focus can be very powerful, drilling into our target while leaving us unaware of things that might otherwise seem obvious. Gallagher recounts a humorous experiment in which subjects were asked to watch for a certain activity on a video. The subjects completely missed a man in a gorilla suit dancing around in the video because their top down attention was so intensely trained on the task they were instructed to pursue.

In the same manner that attention raises or lowers awareness of physical stimuli, it adjusts awareness of our own thoughts and feelings. Bottom up attention tends to focus on the most and least pleasant feelings, our highs and lows. Our top down attention can focus on any thought of feeling we want.

In turn, our thoughts and feelings affect our attention. When we are negative, our focus narrows to take in just a little. Feeling bad make our problem seem like the only thing in the world. Positive thoughts and feeling expands our attention, allowing us to take in more information. It switches us to mental broadband that allows us to be aware of more of our world both inside and out.

Attention is important to every aspect of life. Relationships are inherently paying attention to others. Intimacy in relationships is built on building common, positive experiences from paying attention to the same thing and to each other. Success requires intense, long-term attention to our goals. Fulfillment arises from taking on just-manageable challenges that hold our attention. Creativity involves a calm mindfulness that does not so much capture an idea as allow it to unfold in our awareness. Motivation comes from sorting out the competing voices in our mind and listening to the ones that advocate for our goals.

Our attentional style is shaped both by our genes and our culture. A significant part of what and how we pay attention is learned. Because of this, we can learn new ways of attending and direct our focus in new directions. If we learn to pay attention to positive emotions and opportunities for positive action, we can change our experience of life to have more peace, joy, and fulfillment.

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

Change Your Brain Change Your Body by Daniel G. Amen

The Genius in All of Us by David Shenk

Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs

The Mindful Way through Depression by Mark Williams et al

Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer

The Procrastination Equation by Piers Steel

Quiet by Susan Cain

Succeed by Heidi Grant Halvorson

The Thinking Life by P. M. Forni

Gallagher, Winifred. Rapt: Attention and the Focused Life. New York: Penguin, 2009.

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No Excuses by Brian Tracy

In his book No Excuses!, self-help, business and sales author Brian Tracy says that there are several strategies that can lead to success. Self-discipline makes them all work.

For Tracy, self-discipline is the same as self-control, self-denial, delayed gratification and self-mastery. As you might guess from this description, he relates discipline to character. One of the important aspects of exercising discipline, even more than what you achieve by it, is who you become by it. Self-discipline leads to greater character, courage and persistence.

Self-discipline is also important to having a great personal life. Our relationships with spouses, children and friends, our physical fitness, and even our happiness and internal peace can be improved by discipline.

Of course, as you would expect from Tracy, he addresses the importance of discipline in business and work. Discipline is important to success in every aspect of business.

If you’ve read many self-help or business books, you may have seen many of the ideas presented by Tracy in No Excuses! Even so, some are so simple, powerful, possibly obvious and often overlooked that they bear repeating.

-Always be improving your skills.

-Writing down your goals greatly increases the likelihood you will complete them.

-When you are at work, work.

-If you want to be wealthy, save money.

-Spend most of your time on your most valuable activities.

Tracy presents an interesting idea that you may not have seen elsewhere. Happiness is not an end to itself; it is not something you achieve. Instead, happiness arises out of the process of doing what you love, having great relationships and meeting needs. To paraphrase the cliché, happiness doesn’t come from reaching a destination, it comes from enjoying the journey.

Tracy brings up another worthy concept about discipline. Disciplining yourself in one area helps you to discipline yourself in another. Every chapter in the book is about using self-discipline in a different aspect of life. Don’t burn out trying to do it all at once. Pick an area or two that you find most important or needful and begin disciplining yourself in those areas. When you make a habit of being disciplined in those areas, it will be easier to be more self-disciplined in other areas as well.

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

How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life by Alan Lakein

The Procrastination Equation by Piers Steel

The Richest Man Who Ever Lived by Steven K. Scott

The Thinking Life by P. M. Forni

Tracy, Brian. No Excuses! The Power of Self-Discipline. New York: MJF, 2010.

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Epistles

Most of the New Testament is epistles, or letters, sent from church leaders to the churches.  Most of these letters were written by Paul, which are collectively known as the Pauline Letters.  The other epistle writers are James, Peter, John, and Jude.

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The church was growing rapidly and dispersed through the nations around the Mediterranean Sea.  Both in Jerusalem and in the churches founded by missionaries or Christians fleeing persecution, there was a need for sound teaching and a way to bind them together into the larger body of Christ.  The epistles served this purpose.

The epistles cover a lot of ground.  Some of them are fairly long and heavy on instruction.  Others are short, more newsy and encouraging.  Themes that I find recurring in the epistles are: a reiteration of the Gospel emphasizing the centrality of Christ, living as a Christian with character and good relationships, and words of warning and encouragement.

Reiterating the Gospel: The Centrality of Christ

The epistles repeatedly summarize the Gospel.  We have all sinned. Christ came to atone for our sins through His death on the Cross.  His righteousness is imputed to those who receive Him.  He was resurrected, as foretold, as proof of that He was Christ and as evidence of the resurrection we will experience.

The epistle-writers vigorously defended who they knew Christ to be.  He was God (he was divine, God-the-Son, a person of the godhead).  He was incarnated; God became flesh and lived as a human being.  He died on the cross, physically dying as a man.  He was resurrected, and that resurrection was a bodily restoration and transformation, not merely a spiritual continuance.

Christian Living: Character and Relationships

Now that these Christians were saved, what did it mean for the way they lived?  This is still an important question for Christians.   We are to abandon sin and do what is right, exhibiting a Christ-like character.  That character is typified by faith, self-control, humility, and especially love.

One of the toughest problems we face in life, and one of the most important, is our relationships.  The epistle-writers address how we are to relate to each other in church, marriage, family, work, and business.

Warning and Encouragement

The early church was beset by false teachers.  These people twisted the scripture to suit their own purposes.  It has not stopped.  These letters warn us to look out for falsehood and show us how to spot it.

Even more than this, though, these letters are full of encouragement.  We are not alone; God is with us always as the Holy Spirit indwells us.  Whatever trials, temptations, or opposition we face, we can live the life God has called us to in Christ.  Not only that, the difficulties we face in ourselves and around us in this sinful world will pass, and we will be resurrected to live forever in the perfect love and peace of God.

The epistles are:

Romans     1 Corinthians     2 Corinthians

Galatians     Ephesians     Philippians

Colossians     1 Thessalonians     2 Thessalonians

1 Timothy     2 Timothy     Titus

Philemon     Hebrews     James

1 Peter     2 Peter     1 John

2 John     3 John     Jude

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150 Book Reviews Posted on Keenan’s Book Reviews

We’ve posted reviews of 150 books on this blog so far. The most recent 50 are listed below in alphabetical order by title.

The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
8 Minutes in the Morning for Extra-Easy Weight Loss by Jorge Cruise
Acres of Diamonds by Russel H. Conwell
Attitude is Everything by Jeff Keller
The Beethoven Factor by Paul Pearsall
Beezus and Ramona by Beverly Cleary
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Changing for Good by James O. Prochaska et al
The Christian’s Secret to a Happy Life by Hannah Whitall Smith
The Club of Queer Trades by G. K. Chesterton

The Complete Verse and Other Nonsense by Edward Lear
Copernicus’ Secret by Jack Repcheck
The Dangerous Duty of Delight by John Piper
The Dain Curse by Dashiell Hammett
Descarte’s Secret Notebook by Amir D. Aczel
The Difference Maker by John C. Maxwell
The Elements of Technical Writing by Gary Blake and Robert W. Bly
The Emotional Energy Factor by Mira Kirshenbaum
Fathered by God by John Eldredge
Follow Your Heart by Andrew Matthews

Genesis
The Golden Age of DC Comics by Les Daniels et al
Henry Huggins by Beverly Cleary
The Hunter adapted by Darwyn Cook
Idea Mapping by Jamie Nast
The Innocence of Father Brown by G. K. Chesterton
Instant Self-Hypnosis by Forbes Robbins Blair
The Invention of Air by Steven Johnson
Keeping a Journal You Love by Sheila Bender
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

Language and the Pursuit of Happiness by Chalmers Brothers
The Man Who Loved Books too Much by Allison Hoover Bartlett
Mastering Fiction Writing by Kit Reed
Maus by Art Spiegelman
The Mindful Way through Depression by Mark Williams et al
The Numbers behind NUMB3RS by Keith Devlin & Gary Lorden
The Numbers Game by Michael Blastland & Andrew Dilnot
The Once and Future King by T. H. White
Peace of Mind through Possibility Thinking by Robert H. Schuller
The Private Investigator’s Handbook by Chuck Chambers

Ramona the Brave by Beverly Cleary
The Richest Man Who Ever Lived by Steven K. Scott
The Secret of the Ages by Robert Collier
Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck
Triumvirate by Bruce Chadwick
Water by Marq de Villiers
The Way of the Wild Heart by John Eldredge
When the Rivers Run Dry by Fred Pearce
You Can Write a Column by Monica McCabe Cardoza
Your Intelligence Makeover by Edward F. Droge, Jr.

Additional or expanded reviews have been posted on these books:
The Amazing Adventure of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
The Big Necessity by Rose George
Blink by Macolm Gladwell
The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril by Paul Malmont
The Emotional Energy Factory by Mira Kirshenbaum
Epic by John Eldredge
The Ghost Map by Stephen Johnson
God Wants You to be Rich by Paul Zane Pilzer
The Gospel of Luke
Gratitude by Melody Beattie
The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis
His Excellency by Joseph J. Ellis
How to Write Mysteries by Shannon OCork
The Joy of Supernatural Thinking by Bill Bright
Mastering Fiction Writing by Kit Reed
No More Christian Nice Guy by Paul Coughlin (see comments)
The Numbers Behind NUMB3RS by Keith Devlin & Gary Lorden
One Small Step Can Change Your Life by Robert Maurer
The Physics of Superheroes by James Kakalios
The Politically Incorrect Guide to Western Civilization by Anthony Esolen
Proverbs
Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
The Relaxation Response by Herbert Benson with Miriam Z. Klipper
The Spirit by Darwyn Cooke
Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose
The Unfinished Game by Keith Devlin
Walking with God by John Eldredge
The Water Room by Christopher Fowler
Why Good Things Happen to Good People by Stephen Post & Jill Neimark
Wisdom from the Batcave by Cory A. Friedman

Additional reviews:
First 25 Reviews
Reviews 26-50
Reviews 51-75
Reviews 76-100

Follow Your Heart by Andrew Matthews

Matthews, Andrew. Follow Your Heart. New York: Price Stern Sloan, 1997.
ISBN 0-8431-7491-9

Follow Your Heart is like a short course in the major concepts of happy living. That Andrew Matthews wrote it in a light, simple style gives it and advantage over many similar self-help books.

Matthews sees life as series of lessons. Our job is to learn, change and improve. Instead of fighting against and imperfect world, we learn to be better people and make the world a little better in the process. We’re not here to change the world, but to change ourselves.

In this light, success is more about being happy and having peace than about having money and the trappings of wealth. A person who does what he loves to do often finds he doesn’t need much. A person who develops his talents into excellent skills often finds himself equipped to make plenty of money.

This kind of success is available to everyone. Matthews says, “The universe has no favorites.” The universe is governed by natural laws and we can all understand and use them. Matthews discusses some of these laws. The laws aren't easy ways to get what you want. The laws require patience and effort. This relates to another of Matthews’ precepts, “When you fight life, life always wins.”

One of the ultimate things we can do to be better and help others be better is to love others. According to Matthews, the great expressions of love are forgiveness and acceptance. People aren’t going to be perfect and aren’t going to follow all the rules me make up for them. When we free others from our hurts and expectations, we free ourselves from self-imposed misery, too.

Follow Your Heart isn’t especially original in its message and methods, but neither are many other self-help books. Where it stands out is in a style that is straightforward, lighthearted, humorous and brief.



If you’re interested in this book, you may also be interested in
Attitude is Everything by Jeff Keller
Happier by Tal Ben-Shahar

Faith by Jimmy Carter

President Jimmy Carter is well known for his Christian faith. Excepting a handful of famous pastors, Carter is one of the few Americans who is known as a Christian almost as much as he is known for other things; this is especially extraordinary for a former president.

Faith is the title and subject of his recent book. He addresses religious faith, but other types of faith are important to him as well.

For instance, each person need faith in himself to take action with hope to achieve positive results. We need faith in each other to live, work and trade together peaceably.

We even need some degree of faith in government. If we hope to achieve the ultimate purposes of government, justice, equality under the law and peace, we have to believe it can be done. Especially in a republic we need to believe we can achieve these goals through our institutions, laws and the people we elect to represent us.

“A country will have authority and influence because of moral factors, not its military strength; because it can be humble and not blatant and arrogant, because our peple and our country want to serve others and not dominate others. And a nation without morality will soon lose its influence around the world.”-Jimmy Carter, Faith (quoting a speech he presented in 1978)

There are also personal goals that require faith. Justice and equality may be the highest goals we can expect from government, but we want more. If we also hope for love, humility, generosity and kindness, we need another kind of faith.

For many, including Carter, this is religious faith. We find in religion reasons to believe that things like love are real and worthy of pursuing, even if we don’t always get it right.

For Christians, this faith is founded on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as the proof of God’s loving mercy and grace. It all starts with God, and we can hope to be better people through the empowerment of God and our grateful response to His love demonstrated in Jesus Christ. As Carter puts it, “It is not what we do for God that is important but what God does for us. Faith brings about good works, but doing good things does not result in faith."

For Carter, Jesus is worthy of consideration as an example of the ideal in human character. Being like Christ is being a better human being. As a Christian and Protestant, Carter believes he has a personal relationship with an ever-present Christ. The faith that underlies Carter’s career and achievements as a politician, philanthropist and peacemaker is that he does not walk alone, but he walks with a living Christ and with other believers who seek to follow Him and see His good will done in our time.

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

Defining Noah Webster by K. Alan Snyder

The Faith of JFK edited by T. S. Settel

God and Ronald Reagan by Paul Kengor

Hebrews

The Language of God by Francis S. Collins

Carter, Jimmy. Faith: A Journey for All. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018.

First Thessalonians

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

Paul covers several topics in this letter to the church at Thessalonica.  The main theme is that Jesus Christ will return and believers should be reassured in that fact.  He mentions the second coming twice before teaching about it in some detail.

Paul praises the church for their faithfulness and godly character in the face of persecution.  Their behavior was a sign to all of their faith in gospel of Jesus Christ.  They could bear troubles with patience because they new He is coming again and He had already rescued them from the judgment he will deliver on His return.

Part of the persecution the church face appears to involve attempts to discredit Paul and the gospel he taught.  He presents two defenses.  First was his conduct during his time in Thessalonica.  He did not try to take advantage of the people, but worked hard to take care of them.  Second, the proof of the gospel was the endurance and faithfulness of the people who believed it.  Paul concludes this section of his letter with another reference to the second coming, stating how much he will delight in them with the Lord at that time.

The letter was prompted in part by Timothy’s visit to Thessalonica and his report on the state of the church there.  Paul is encouraged by what he hears and encourages the Christians to continue in the faith.  It may seem disheartening that he reminded them to live lives of sexual purity, good order, and peace.  A glance around almost any church even today will show how much we need such reminders.

Before wrapping up, Paul gets deeper into the subject of the second coming.  First, he addresses the question of those who die before Christ’s returns.  Is that the end for them?  Will they not be with the Lord?  They though Christ might return in their own lifetime, and were concerned about Christian brothers who had passed away.  Paul reminded them of Christ’s resurrection, and taught that dead Christians would be brought back to life in the same way.  When He comes again, all of His people, alive and dead raised to new life, will join Him.  We don’t need to worry, those who God calls He will keep forever.

The other question about the second coming, one that people still ask, is: When will it happen?  Only God knows.  The rest of us will be caught by surprise.  For Christians, though, this is no cause for fear.  At any moment we could be with the One we long to be with, our God, our Savior, our Helper, with a kind of unveiled intimacy we have barely tasted.  In the meantime, we should live with faith, love, and hope as we have been called.

Paul’s message to these Christians, and by extension to us, is simple.  You believed the truth and God has saved you.  Keep living well.  Don’t worry.  Jesus Christ is coming and we will be with Him.

Paul also wrote

Colossians

First Corinthians

Galatians

Philippians
Romans
Second Corinthians

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Second Chronicles

Second Chronicle continues the history of Israel from First Chronicles (originally they were one book). It covers a period of almost four centuries, beginning with the reign of Solomon and ending as the Babylonian captivity started.

The chronicles are books of comparisons and contrasts. There was something alike about all the periods when the kings of Israel were successful and the people thrived. Likewise, periods of defeat and loss all shared a common element. These thriving and dying periods similarly were unlike in a key way.

The key factor was the faithfulness of the king, and the people, to God. When the kings sought God and the people worshipped Him, he blessed them and caused to rise in wealth and power.  When the king and people sought their own ways, especially to worship the idols and practice the sins of neighboring kingdoms, God let them fall into the hands of their enemies. Eventually, Israel was completely taken over by Babylon.

This pattern could play out even if the reign of a single king. Some hard-hearted kings would start well but stray from God and lead the people away with him. Some evil kings responded to God’s call of repentance and reconciliation, and their turnaround could bring the whole kingdom back to God.

One could argue that the kingdom was at its peak during the reign of Solomon. He built the temple, he reigned in peace, and he stored up great wealth for himself and his kingdom. In spite of his wisdom, he strayed, too. Though he never abandoned the worship of God, he suffered for his sins, suffering he brought onto himself.

Even so, Solomon was the model of a good king. His reign takes up more pages than others in the book. A lot happened during that time, especially the building of the temple. The temple was the symbol of God’s presence with the nation of Israel, and His blessing is central to the prosperity of the nation, so it makes sense that His temple received a lot of attention.

Other notable kings include Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah, and Josiah. These leaders were associated with revivals, the destruction of idols, the restoration of worshipping God, and generally successful reigns. As an engineer, I take special note of Hezekiah, who was famous for building a reservoir and underground aqueduct to supply water to Jerusalem.

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

First Chronicles

First Kings

Second Kings

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

His Excellency by Joseph J. Ellis

Ellis, Joseph J. His Excellency: George Washington. New York: Knopf, 2004.


Ellis organizes his biography of the first President of the United States along the lines of Henry Lee’s statement about the man, “First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen,” though he breaks Washington’s life into a few more categories than that. He begins with Washington’s youth on the frontier and follows it through his vigorous retirement.

Ellis presents a man who does not rehearse his past, but seeks lessons from his experience. I’ll take a similar attitude in this review.

One of the things that stands out about Washington is his understanding of models and how to use them. As a youth, he looked up to the landed aristocracy that ruled Virginia and proceeded to become a man in much the same mode. As head of the Continental Army, he looked to Roman general Fabius Cunctator who won through retreat, preserving his army from battles he couldn’t win, even though Washington warred against his on adventurous nature to fight such a war. As a retiring general who could have received great political power from a grateful nation, he looked to Cicero, who retired to his farm when his duty was completed.

Washington also knew how to break with models and go his own way. He twice came out of retirement to lend his reputation to efforts to build an American nation, first to preside over the Constitutional Convention, second to serve as president under the new constitution.

Another notable thing about Washington’s life is the balance he struck between ambition and virtue. Only an ambitious and opportunistic man could have accomplished what he did; he accumulated great wealth and power. However, he held on to power lightly and readily let it go, though he seemed a little more attached to wealth. His virtues restrained his ambitions.

Finally, Washington was a realist. He was certainly a man of high ideals, but he didn’t expect to see people and nations conform themselves to ideals. Just as he had to restrain himself from excesses, so did others. This is clearly where he differed from Thomas Jefferson and his Ant-Federalist faction; Washington didn’t believe in a naturally virtuous class of citizen who would naturally uphold republican values. People pursued their interests; that went double for nations.

Washington was the right man at the right time. His insight into models, ambition, virtue and realism were just what the nascent nation needed to rally it together and lead it through the rough patches that could have broken it to pieces.

The Girls of Atomic City by Denise Kiernan

World War II was a time when secrecy was often a necessary part of security. The secrecy surrounding the development to of the atomic bomb was particularly thick. Since that veil was lifted, Las Alamos, Nevada, has become strongly associated with the bomb, as it should be. However, there were other locations critical to the project. Denis Kiernan discusses one of them, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, in her book The Girls of Atomic City.

The Clinton Engineer Works was part of the Manhattan Project. Its purpose was the enrichment of uranium to supply the research, development and construction of an atomic weapon. When it was built, the Army took over thousands of acres of farmland in Tennessee, displacing the residents. Oak Ridge did not exist before the project.

As the title suggests, Kiernan focuses on the role of women at the Clinton Engineer Works, as the area was known when it was a military reservation. The book draws on her interviews with women who worked at the site; the experiences of nine particular women serve as guideposts for the story. These women served in a variety of roles: statistician, chemist, inspector, equipment operator, nurse, secretary, and janitor. Some became wives and mothers as well during the war years. It was an interesting time when there was space for women in science, technology and manufacturing, but not a lot.

Kiernan reaches outside of Oak Ridge to mention other notable women who played a part. German physicist Lise Meitner coined the term nuclear fission; she had Jewish ancestors and fled to Sweden as the Nazis came to power in her homeland. Earlier, Ida Noddack was the first to suggest that the atomic nucleus could split, an idea that was initially rejected by many scientists studying radioactivity and the inner workings of the atom.

The growth of families in a place designed solely for one purpose suggested a result that had not been considered when the Army started to build the Clinton Engineer Works. Oak Ridge was becoming a community and it eventually became an incorporated city (in 1958 by a vote of the residents after federal and state laws opened the opportunity). Though the population dropped dramatically from its war-time peak, Oak Ridge remained a center for research in nuclear energy and the peace-time use of radioactive materials as it transitioned to civilian control. Today the Oak Ridge National Laboratory continues research in energy and computing. The city of Oak Ridge continues as well, still connected to its past as a unique factory town, but in many way a city like any other.

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Kiernan, Denise. The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II. 2013. New York Touchstone: 2014.