Review:

    ‘Mercy Me’

Members of Lovett Memorial Library’s inspirational book group met recently to discuss “Mercy Me” by Margaret A. Graham. All four members present at the meeting gave this fiction title a unanimous and a resounding thumbs-up! However, this blogster gives the book a mere two stars out of five. … Two main objections this blogster has with “Mercy Me” are:

1)    Though the book is set in modern times, it has a definite feel of bygone days, particularly circa 1930 or 1950 — very ambiguous;

2)    The book is written in first person (which generally this blogster prefers), yet the main character is portrayed as somewhat backwards — constantly quoting Charles Spurgeon and constantly misspelling his name, for example.

This blogster did feel the book improved towards the end; however, in this blogster’s opinion, the author left at least one character’s situation unresolved. Plus, this blogster did not, for the most part, find the main character likable or even sympathetic.

On the other hand, the book contained nuggets of simple, yet profound, wisdom as well as some unforeseen plot twists, and the main character did begin to grow on this blogster as the book drew to a close.

Check-out “Mercy Me” on the shelves of Lovett Memorial, 111 N. Houston, in Pampa, Texas. The book is shelved with the regular Christian fiction titles. Call or stop by the front desk of the library for more information, 806.669.5780.

Lovett Memorial’s inspirational book club meets once a month at the library. Visitors are welcome. The group will next meet from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 29. For more information, contact the Lovett Memorial.

Next inspirational book club meeting ...

The next inspirational book group meeting hosted by Lovett Memorial Library will be from 5:30-6:30 p.m., Monday, Sept. 29, at Lovett Memorial, 111 N. Houston, in Pampa, Texas. The group will be discussing "Looking Up When Life Is Looking Down" by Beth Moore. Visitors are welcome. For more information, contact Lovett Memorial at 806.669.5780.


A ‘fantastic’ source for serious series info

Several years ago, Ms. Bolin, children’s librarian here at Lovett Memorial Library, 111 N. Houston, Pampa, Texas, made a discovery of utmost importance to readers who are serious about series … Bolin discovered FantasticFiction.com, a Website devoted to a number of genres. Browsers can search FantasticFiction in one of three ways — by author, by book, or by ISBN.

This blogster typically searches by author, so, for example, for those Karen Kingsbury fans, FantasticFiction pulls up the following series: “Forever Faithful,” “Time to Dance,” “Redemption,” “Red Gloves,” “9/11,” “Firstborn,” “Even Now,” “Cody Gunner,” “Sunrise,” “Above the Line,” “Bailey Flannigan,” and “Angels Walking.”

FantasticFiction then lists the individual titles in each series by number beneath the heading for that series. FantasticFiction also offers visitors a look at “New Authors,” “New Books,” “Coming Soon,” “Most Popular,” and “Top Authors.”

If you are struggling to keep that series straight, checkout FantasticFiction.com at http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/.

Critiquing the critique …

Hampton Village Book Club (HVBC) members are currently immersed in reading “Mercy Me” by Margaret Graham. HVBC is sponsored by Lovett Memorial Library, 111 N. Houston, in Pampa, Texas, and is hosted by Hampton Village of Pampa. From this space, this blogster attempts, on a semi-regular basis, to rate and to review select titles, typically those generated through participation in HVBC.

Alack and alas, this blogster must confess to sometimes feeling woefully unprepared and just as inadequate for the job of reviewer-slash-blogger. Some folks out there in Cyberland — including Aaron Armstrong of “Blogging Theologically” — advise the novice reviewer to approach and to conduct the exercise of review using a somewhat structured approach.

Armstrong recommends the discriminating, conscientious book reviewer read the book to be reviewed with the thought of the subsequent review central in mind. Armstrong offers five pointers to assist the amateur book reviewer along with several “Guiding Questions” in a special blog piece titled “The Dos and Don’ts of Book Reviews (or at least how I do them).” To, er, review the article visit the following URL: http://tinyurl.com/ovmw4pw.

Ralph G. Brockett (http://www-distance.syr.edu/bookreview.html) also offers some handy book review advice if, however, from a more educational, scholarly angle. Among Brockett’s more innovative suggestions? Book reviewers should maintain a “reading log.” Brockett insists upon “balance between … description and analysis.”

Purdue University’s OWL Online Writing Lab (http://tinyurl.com/l7u26rd) carefully differentiates between the book review versus the book report and offers some helpful “Before You Read” and “As You Read” advice.

I am going to go out on limb here by supposing that rating is vastly different from reviewing since rating in and of itself requires no comment and therefore no formal voicing or elucidation of opinion. Remember, Lovett Memorial’s and HLC’s selection of e-books provides users with a five-star rating system, so if you want to help out the next reader give those books some stars!

HVBC meets once a month at Hampton Village. For more information on joining HVBC or on specific titles or series, contact Lovett Memorial Library at 806.669.5780 or e-mail sbryant@cityofpampa.org.

Review: ‘The Nephilim and Pyramid of the Apocalypse’

Members of Hampton Village Book Club (HVBC), an inspirational book group, met recently to discuss “The Nephilim and the Pyramid of the Apocalypse” by Patrick Heron. HVBC is sponsored by Lovett Memorial Library of Pampa, Texas, and hosted by Hampton Village housing development of Pampa.      Heron’s decidedly non-fiction title sparked a spirited discussion among HVBC’ers. Three of the five members present at the meeting (this includes yours truly) gave “Nephilim” a thumbs up while the other two members present gave the book an emphatic thumbs down. This blogster does now solemnly bestow upon the title a solid three stars.      The main objection articulated by HVBC’ers to the book was its scholarly style. Heron packed in the research. Consequently, the HVBC’ers felt inundated with background information and factoids from a plethora of sources. While intriguing at times, the book was written in a somewhat technical way that demands the reader’s full attention. On the plus side, some HVBC’ers found the book inspired creative, yet critical thinking.      Personally, this blogster enjoyed and appreciated the author’s frank approach to sharing his research. Heron writes not as an authority, but rather as a searcher of knowledge and arrives at some startling conclusions. In this inexpert sense, the author invites speculation and avoids bludgeoning the reader with his unusual theories and opinions.      In addition, the work appears well-cited and in-depth as opposed to shallow and rushed. This blogster felt the author may have been reaching a time or two and was certainly disappointed the author carefully avoided applying his unique theory to a specific end-time Biblical prophesy quoted in the latter half of the book, but, altogether, this blogster is not sorry to have read the book.      Check-out “Nephilim and the Pyramid of the Apocalypse” on the shelves of Lovett Memorial, 111 N. Houston. The book is shelved with the regular non-fiction selections. Call or stop by the front desk of the library for more information, 806.669.5780.      HVBC meets once a month in the main office at Hampton Village on Alcock. Visitors are welcome. The group will next meet from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 25 at Hampton Village. For more information, contact the library.

˘Nefə˘lim, -lə̇m OR ˘Nĕphī ˘līm: 

That is the question!

This month Lovett Memorial Library’s inspirational book group will meet from 5:30-6:30 p.m. Monday, July 28 at Hampton Village, 1517 Alcock, in Pampa, Texas. So, um, HVBC members  — a.k.a. Hampton Village Book Club members — will be discussing Patrick Heron’s “The Nephilim and the Pyramid of the Apocalypse.”

According to the book cover, Heron’s recommended pronunciation of nephilim includes two long “i” sounds for the last two letter ‘i’ vowels. According to Merriam-Webster Online (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nephilim), the pronunciation with the two long vowel sounds is the accepted Hebrew pronunciation of the term, otherwise, the online dictionary unequivocally nixes and therefore entirely banishes the two long ‘i’ vowel sounds from the somewhat tricky word (ˈnefəˌlim, -lə̇m).

Personally, this blogster favors the pronunciation with the two long ‘i’ sounds. Ah well, tə-ˈmā-tō/tə-ˈmä-tō (tomato), pə-ˈtā-tō/pə-ˈtä-tō (potato) and all that …

Whilst reading “The Nephilim and the Pyramid of the Apocalypse,” this blogster relied heavily upon another online resource called BibleGateway.com (https://www.biblegateway.com/). BibleGateway.com allows visitors to access a plethora of Biblical translations and other reference materials through a lovely little drop-down menu at the top of the page next to a basic search engine.

The drop-down menu option is defaulted to New International Version and includes KJV, TLB, MSG, and scads more versions along with other reference materials. BibleGateway.com permits users to sign-up for daily scripture quotations dubbed its “Verse of the Day.” The site also encompasses links to an online store as well as to devotionals, Bible reading schedules, and much, much more.

Never forget to check out the site’s “About” feature (https://www.biblegateway.com/about/). Web users can usually find this feature at the bottom of a site’s main page. The about feature will inform visitors as to the core mission, goals, background, etc., of a Web site and its sponsoring organization or organizations.

Hampton Village Book Club is offered through Pampa’s Lovett Memorial Library, 111 N. Houston, and is open to — and indeed, welcomes — visitors. For more information, call the library at 806.669.5780.

Apocalyptic Christian fiction …

This month Hampton Village Book Club (HVBC) members are reading “The Nephilim and the Pyramid of the Apocalypse” by Patrick Heron. HVBC is sponsored by Lovett Memorial Library, 111 N. Houston, Pampa, Texas, and is hosted by Hampton Village located on Alcock in Pampa. The group meets at Hampton Village once a month.

“The Nephilim” is a non-fiction work that focuses on the End Times. Lovett Memorial has a number of Apocalyptic Christian fiction titles as well as more traditional non-fiction books on the subject.

One of the most popular and well-known inspirational End Time series is the “Left Behind” series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Altogether, there are sixteen books in this series. The first three titles are available for check-out in an omnibus edition titled “Rapture’s Witness” which includes “Left Behind,” “Tribulation Force,” and “Nicolae.” A DVD based on the series is also available from the library along with various other book titles within the series.

The series includes the following titles: “Left Behind”; “Tribulation Force”; “Nicolae”; “Soul Harvest”; “Apollyon”; “Assassins”; “The Indwelling”; “The Mark”; “The Desecration”; “The Remnant”; “Armageddon”; “Glorious Appearing”; “The Rising”; “The Regime”; “The Rapture”; and “Kingdom Come.” A series for younger readers is also available.

Fans of this series might also enjoy visiting www.leftbehind.com on the Internet.

Other Christian fiction titles of this vein held by Lovett Memorial include “The Copper Scroll” and “The Ezekiel Option” by Joel C. Rosenberg in addition to other intriguing titles such as:

• “Apocalypse Dawn” by Mel Odom (part of his “Left Behind: Apocalypse” series)
• “Last Light” by Terri Blackstock (part of “Restoration” series)
• “Black” by Ted Dekker (part of “Circle” series)
• “Patriots” by James Wesley Rawles (part of a series)
• “The Beginnings of Sorrows” by Gilbert, Lynn and Alan Morris (part of a series)
• “8 Minutes to … Digital Winter” by Mary Hitchcock and Alton Gansky
• “The End is NOW” by Rob Stennett
• “Fuse of Armageddon” by Sigmund Brouwer and Hank Hanegraaff.

Don’t forget a search of the library’s online card catalog is just a mouse click away from Lovett Memorial’s Internet home page at www.pampalovettmemorial.org. The “Search Our Catalog” feature is prominently located midway down on the main page.

For more information on joining HVBC or on specific titles or series, contact Lovett Memorial Library at 806.669.5780 or e-mail sbryant@cityofpampa.org.