Book Review: The Evolution Conspiracy, Vol. 1: Exposing Life’s Inexplicable Origins and the Cult of Darwin by Lisa A. Shiel

The Evolution Conspiracy
By Lisa A. Shiel

Rating:

Lisa A Shiel brings us Volume 1 entitled Exposing Life’s Inexplicable Origins & the Cult of Darwin; there is no mention I saw of upcoming books to follow but the Vol. 1 on the cover is promising.

The Evolution debate is one I have discussed, argued and debated with both Evolutionists and Creationists. I find myself in a middle ground somewhere between them, vainly arguing that there is no argument; Creation (no matter how it happened) is an event, while Evolution is a process.

Creationists fervently believe in their specific form of Origin and devoutly hold to the idea that Evolution somehow negates it. They fight the concept with everything they have. Evolutionists insist they have proof, that Evolution is only called a theory because that is what science does, like the Theory of Gravity, which everyone knows is real.

Creationists ignore or negate the evidence of a long history of different animals and the strangeness of human beginnings while Evolutionists will not even consider some of their basics tenets may be wrong or simply off target.

So it was with some trepidation I said ‘Yes’ when my wife asked me if I would be interested in reading Ms Shiel’s book – too many of those with whom I have interacted on the subject are fervent nutters.

Lisa Shiel has produced a well thought out book of basic concepts. She has attacked the issue by making herself fully aware of the Evolution side of things, and step by step, sets about showing how the ‘proof’ is nothing like what the average person would consider solid.

Questions such as when and how first life came about are looked at, as well as the whole species question. Another area I have tried to debate with Evolutionists is their insistence that it is all about Species, because Species are an invented concept. Ms Shiel takes a look at the issue and the rest of the taxonomic question.

There are deep mysteries about the Evolution question, with Punctuated Equilibrium (PE) as an attempt to settle some of them. It is an area I feel might have been explored more thoroughly, as the causes of PE don’t seem to get a lot of air time.

I think some time might have been usefully spent showing readers how the two questions (the Event & the Process) have been manipulated to place at loggerheads two groups who might otherwise have found some common ground. Creation is rightfully opposed to the Big Bang idea rather than Evolution. Evolution would find a more appropriate opposition in ideas about just how all the animals came around and how they altered, arguing process against process.

In future books it might be interesting to investigate the work of biologists such as Rupert Sheldrake and Bruce Lipton for alternative possibilities for how a change process might have worked – there are more possibilities out there than ‘God did it’ or ’random chance mutations did it.’ I’m certainly hoping the follow up book will not be a basic Christian Tract on the bible version of Creation – for a writer of this calibre it would be a cop-out to take such a path.

I doubt Lisa Shiel is about to alter any of the diehard Evolutionists with this book – we humans too easily shrug off evidence that disagrees with our preset views – but she provides a rational look at questions people should be asking of Evolution.

I doubt also that making the case for questioning Evolution will provide anything concrete to show Creation as anything more credible than an interesting concept, but I think anyone who prides themselves on being open to evidence should take the time to read this book, The Evolution Conspiracy.

One Holy Night

One Holy Night
Author: Joan Hochstetler
Publisher: Sheaf House

Rating: 
Reviewed by:  Cheryl Malandrinos 

A husband and father, tormented by nightmares of a war he can’t forget.

A wife and mother, fighting a battle of her own.

A misunderstood son, serving in another controversial conflict overseas.

A married daughter, always playing the peacemaker.

And the baby, who would change it all!

The Viet Nam conflict is in full swing, but Frank McRae still lives in the past, tormented by his nightmares of fighting the Japanese in WWII.  Even worse, Frank’s family is being torn apart.  His wife Maggie, the love of his life, is being tortured by ovarian cancer.  The thought of losing her is devastating and he urges her to continue the fight.  His son, Mike, goes off to Viet Nam, where God knows what could happen to him.  Actually, Frank knows all too well. 

When Frank learns that Mike has fallen in love with Thi Nhuong, despite Maggie’s pleas and his daughter Julie’s urging, Frank disowns his son.  If there is a God, where is He?  How could he let such horrible things happen?

“As on that holy night so long ago…
in a world torn by sin and strife…
to a family that has suffered heart-wrenching loss…
there will be born a baby…”

I have never read a book quite like One Holy Night. This modern-day retelling of the nativity story set in Minnesota in 1967, finds a family that is torn apart by the war, disease and suffering brought together again by the miraculous birth of a baby. This is a deeply emotional, heart-wrenching book.  I have never cried so much while reading a book, as I did with One Holy Night.  And yet, it is such an inspiring story of hope and how God’s grace touches all of us, that you can’t help but feel uplifted by the time you’re done reading it–which certainly won’t take you long because you’ll never be able to put it down once you start.

Hochstetler has a rare gift for words. As I write this review, I don’t feel I’ve even been able to express how touching and powerful this story is, how the author’s words created so much emotional energy in me that I had to keep reading until I finished, and then was ready to read it all over again.

One Holy Night is destined to become a Christmas classic as moving as Max Lucado’s The Christmas Child.  This book would also be wonderful on film.

If you want to experience the true meaning of Christmas, buy this book.  I can’t recommend it highly enough.  Joan Hochstetler has gained a fan for life!

Dispel the Mist

Dispel the Mist
Author: Marilyn Meredith
Publisher: Mundania Press

Rating: 
Reviewed by:  Cheryl Malandrinos 

 

In this latest installment of Marilyn Meredith’s award-winning Deputy Tempe Crabtree series, a Tulare County supervisor dies under suspicious circumstances. With her Mexican and Native American roots, Lilia Quintera was certainly a person to have on your side. Because of Tempe’s ties to the Bear Creek Indian Reservation, she is called in to investigate Lilia’s death. Tempe soon discovers that several people, including Lilia’s husband, might have wanted her dead.

Tempe’s unsettling dreams bring back memories of her grandmother’s stories about the legend of the Hairy Man. Wishing she had thought to ask her grandmother more about the Hairy Man, Tempe wonders if these dreams predict the future. Once again, Tempe finds herself in danger. Only now, she fears no one will come to her rescue in time!

Dispel the Mist is an excellent new addition to the Deputy Tempe Crabtree series. I have been a fan of this series since Judgment Fire–the first of these books that I read–and they just keep getting better.

Hutch and Tempe are on track with their marriage, but that certainly doesn’t mean life is dull. A new golf course and hotel project planned at the Bear Creek Reservation could threaten the amount of business heading to Bear Creek Inn, owned by Tempe’s friend, Claudia Donato, who also runs the inn with the help of Nick Two John. The opening up of a home for women with disabilities in the new gated community of Shadow Hills has some of the residents up in arms. And Lilia Quintera had connections to both projects. So, again, Tempe doesn’t expect things to go easily when Detective Morrison asks her to investigate the possibility that Lilia died under mysterious circumstances.

The unsettling dreams that Tempe experiences, along with continued involvement at the reservation, bring in the Native American elements that flow through the Crabtree books. One can certainly tell the level of research Meredith has undertaken in order to create this series. In addition, the author’s past experience as a caregiver may have played into this book as well.

If you’re looking for an excellent fall read, look no further than Dispel the Mist by Marilyn Meredith. Filled with suspense, mystery and legends, you’ll keep turning pages until you reach a satisfying conclusion.

Book Review: Stewards of the Flame by Sylvia Engdahl

Stewards of the Flame
By Sylvia Engdahl

Sylvia Engdahl’s book, Stewards of The Flame has set about a difficult task – to write a science fiction story, making it entertaining while simultaneously delivering a message about today’s world, without preaching or being ‘in-your-face’ about the ideas.

Good sci-fi takes something we know and shows what the logical or sometimes ridiculous eventuality might be if we extend the behaviour, philosophy or technology too far. Engdahl tells a story of a man, trapped involuntarily by circumstance on a planet that practices Medicine in ways that, while she presents the local planetary practices as a repugnant controlling set of laws, is not too far removed from some rather scary situations happening right now, right here.

Big Pharma and most of Medicine are heavily prejudiced towards palliative care – there are instances where apparent cures are banned, not from lack of success or for want of trials, but because they offer cures, rather than symptom relief.

In Stewards, the central character, Jesse Sanders, erstwhile Starship Captain, finds a society with the ultimate in lines of palliative care.

Plunging straight into the storyline, Engdahl takes us into the nastier side of this society, making it easy to forget as we learn to hate it, that we live in a society that could very easily be the one about which we read.

Along the way, as we follow Jesse’s adventures into more esoteric fields, we are treated to some interesting ideas about Mind and, although I’m not sure Engdahl means it, Spirit.

It is something I have noticed a lot around our society – there is almost a sense of puzzlement and certainly a good deal of ignorance about the body, brain, mind and spirit combination. I seem to see some of that here where, to me, Mind and Spirit are being interchanged. Perhaps Engdahl has further stories in mind to explore these boundaries, but already in this one she is distinguishing nicely between Brain and Mind – something many in the psychology and psychiatric fields seem unable to do.

Engdahl writes well, if perhaps she is a little ‘soft’ in style for my tastes. While it is fully understandable, given who her main characters are, that they would seem a touch naive, I think the story needs a baddie, a villain to give some vibrancy and colour, in the forefront of the tale. The conflict in most of the book is sort of second hand, being talked about rather than up front and personal to the reader.

One area of disappointment for me was something that is prevalent in many writers these days, even some very successful ones – I am unsure if it is a result of TV or whether our Education system has failed us so completely that writers have to dumb things down or lose their readers.

There is a central mystery about the reasons why the underground group want Jesse – and it is telegraphed probably 200 pages before the characters find out. And it isn’t a particularly hidden reference; it comes up over and again and, to me, provided a moment of disappointment when it came to pass just as I had seen early in the book.

I like my mysteries to be a little more difficult to work out.

Stewards of the Flame is a good book to read, containing a decent story, a message for our times, and some interesting thoughts on the future of Humans and the Mind. Utilising even current biofeedback, some of the things Engdahl uses as story structure could be achievable even now. And it is easy to see how the book could be the start of a series that either follows on from this one or perhaps goes off exploring some of the aspects left untouched here.

I’d recommend it as a read, and it is suitable for both younger readers and adults. Some may even find it kick starts their journey into their own minds and it should also get some people thinking about how they should be using Medicine.

Football is for Lovers by Bob and Kaye

Football is for Lovers
Bob and Kaye

Bob and Kaye set out to write a guide to those who don’t understand and/or don’t like Football. Bob and Kaye have published the book under just those names – one has to look at the Copyright notice to find a surname (well, two, actually, as in one each)

The book is written in what I, an Aussie, would call a down-home, folksy tone. The information is there but it is presented in a friendly way with lots of repartee, asides and modifiers. It is a fun read that imparts quite a bit of raw information along the way, from how football is played, through some of the strategy and tactics in use, to factoids that can be used to give an impression the newbie to football knows more than they actually do.

I’m (as stated) an Aussie. The football in the book is Gridiron, the US version of football. Prior to this, my impression of gridiron was that it was similar to Rugby, but with padding. I wasn’t particularly impressed by it as mostly it seemed very start-stop play and I am used to the more constant action of Aussie Rules or even Rugby. (either code) With rare exceptions, to me, gridiron seemed to spend most of its time lining up players into pretty patterns without much play going on.

Oh… and the rather silly number counting as the play gets ready to start – I did know enough to know that was about pre-set plays.

Now, I know quite a bit more about gridiron and I can see why it is like it is. We don’t get a lot of the games on the TV over here, but I am looking forward to the next time one is on. The book works well at its stated purpose – helping relationships go well by assisting the non-footy partner to come to understand and enjoy the game.

It might even improve sex lives – the logic seems good.

I found some parts a little confusing – given the nature of the game, I thought at first that was the reason, but when I went back over those parts, I realised it was more about the style of writing. I think there’s a little too much humour in the writing.

So, let me talk about what I mean. USA humour is quite different to that of Australia or the UK. The jokes are more obvious, the TV shows normally provide an explanation of why we’re meant to think it funny, & they rely heavily on laugh tracks.

As an example, take a look at US sitcoms – these days a large percentage of the shows involve the following – a character does something silly. They then lie about it. The rest of the show is an in-depth look at where the lies go, ever more complicated scenarios arise, all based on trying to make out they didn’t lie.

So I thought maybe it was just the difference in humour styles. Then I thought maybe there were too many jokey asides, too many try-hard asides that after a while became wearing. But it wasn’t any of those – the humour is there, and the asides contribute to the book’s ‘atmosphere.’

The problem I had, I noticed, was in the parts of denser information, where Bob & Kaye were trying to explain the detail of the game or of a strategy. In my opinion, at those times, the jokey writing should give way to a serious discussion of what we need to know – when I was trying to understand and picture what they were telling me, the digressions for humour’s sake got in the way of learning.

Once I realise that, I enjoyed the book much more – I could skip the parts (and they are mostly single sentences) that interrupted my learning and move on with the book.

Overall, a good read, a well presented book and it achieves (I think) its goal. Mind you, I’m not really able to try it out – my wife is from the US and she LOVES Aussie Rules, so I don’t even have a need to adapt Bob and Kaye’s techniques for the local game.

Rain Dance by Joy DeKok

Rain Dance
Author: Joy DeKok
Publisher: Sheaf House

Rating: 
Reviewed by:  Cheryl Malandrinos 

A touching story of unexpected friendship comes to life in Rain Dance by Joy DeKok.

Jonica and her husband Ben decide to stop fertility treatments. While at the doctor’s office for her final visit, Jonica meets Stacie, a young woman with a promising law career looking to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. While their meeting is brief, the moments they share will change both their lives forever.

Both dealing with loss, Stacie and Jonica reach out to each other and forge an unusual friendship that could transform them, and their future.

Writing from her own experiences, DeKok puts together this engaging story of two women whose loss draws them together. As Jonica deals with giving up her dream of having children, Stacie mourns the baby whose life was abruptly ended by a procedure whose emotional repercussions she had never given thought to. Rather than using her faith to preach about the horrors of abortion, the author paints a realistic picture of what many post-abortive women experience. Rain Dance isn’t about conversion, it’s about healing; and that’s where its power lies.

The other thing DeKok handled very well is Stacie’s husband’s reaction to finding out about the abortion. In a society that often instructs that it is the “woman’s” right to choose, this novel provides insight into how being left out of such an important decision can impact a man.

Rain Dance is also about the difficulty in being judged by those who can’t understand the pain of infertility. How is it that even people in her church suddenly doubt Jonica’s ability to nurture children solely because she’ll never have a child of her own?

Whether you’re a Jonica or a Stacie, or know one, this is a powerful, touching, and captivating story of an uncommon friendship, and how one woman uses her faith to deal with the loss of her dream and find a way to use that loss to glorify and honor God.

My Son, John by Kathi Macias

My Son, John
Author: Kathi Macias
Publisher: Sheaf House

Rating: 
Reviewed by:  Cheryl Malandrinos 

My Son, John might just be the most powerful novel on forgiveness and unconditional love that you’ll ever read!

When Liz Peterson’s elderly mother is brutally murdered, Liz and her family try to understand how a woman loved by everyone met such a horrible death. But nothing could have prepared her for the day her grown son, John was arrested for his grandmother’s murder. The Petersons’ once simple life is now cast into chaos, where a mother, a father and a young sister who worshipped her older brother now struggle with the thought that John could have done something so despicable. Undoubtedly their faith is shaken, and the concept of unconditional love seems challenging in a way it never did before. Can God’s grace place them on the path of healing, and ultimately forgiveness?

I have been a fan of Kathi Macias’s nonfiction for quite some time, but I have never read any of her novels. Now, I want to scoop up each one and read them cover to cover. The emotional roller coaster ride that My Son, John takes you on is unbelievable. You will be forever changed once you read this book.

To say that this book touched me is an understatement. Macias has the ability to get right to the heart, touch you where it matters, get you thinking, and show you the might and power of an all-knowing, loving God without preaching, without hitting you over the head, and without speaking down to you. In My Son, John she is dealing with real issues, challenging issues where she pushes her characters right to the edge and you benefit from it. Not only because this is a book you won’t be able to put down once you start, but also because her words and her faith draw you in and open your mind to the possibilities that exist there. When I am reading a book from Kathi Macias–fiction or nonfiction–I am so entranced that I forget I’m supposed to be reviewing the book and need to go back and reread portions of it with a more critical eye.

One thing I discovered when I took the time to step back was the majority of the story is told from Liz’s perspective, but John’s and Sarah’s (Liz and Charles’s teenage daughter) point of view also get a fair amount of time. Charles seems to get the short end of the stick and I’m curious as to why. The reader spends most of the time figuring out how Charles feels about things through his dialogue and Liz’s impressions. It certainly doesn’t take away from the story at all, but the writer in me wonders why the author decided to take this route.

If you have never read one of Macias’s books, I strongly suggest you start with My Son, John. It is without a doubt her best work yet!

Homer’s Odyssey by Gwen Cooper

Title: Homer’s Odyssey
Author:  Gwen Cooper
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Pub. Date: August 2009
ISBN: 038534385X
304 pp
Rating: 
Reviewed by: Dorothy Thompson

Homer’s Odyssey is the beautiful account of one blind cat and a woman who learned about life through the sightless eyes of a cat that was doomed (or so it seemed) from the beginning. In this first person narrative written by Gwen Cooper, the reader is taken on a journey into Gwen’s life as a single woman dealing with an underpaying job and a recently broken heart.  Adopting another cat when she already had two was the last thing on her mind, especially a “special needs” cat.

But Homer turned out to be quite the opposite.  Of all the books about dogs and cats on the shelf today, Homer’s Odyssey has got to be not only the best book I have ever read but also the most memorable one. As the owner of many cats in my past, I understand the personalities of cats, but Homer was beyond extraordinary.  Take this for example:

“The first time I discovered his latest achievement was by accident.  I awoke early one morning and stumbled into the bathroom.  Flipping on the light, I fount that it was…already occupied.  Homer balancing one the edge of the toilet seat.”

Another hilarious part:

“Homer, in those days, was particularly enamored of playing with tampons.  Having encountered one by chance, he was fascinated by the way they’d roll around, and by the string at the end.  He liked them so much, he figured out where I kept them stored in teh cabinet below the bathroom sink and – with unerring patience and accuracy – mastered the task of forcing open the cabinet doow and rading the tampon box…When I walked in with my date, Homer rant to greet me at the door.  And there, hanging from his mouth, was a tampon.”

Keep in mind this is a blind cat and this is only a very small part of his amazing abilities.

One part that was rather miraculous was not only could he scale seven-foot bookcases and leap five feet into the air to catch flies, but he was incredibly adept at chasing burglers out of Gwen’s bedroom and saving Gwen’s life.

The part that really touched me was when he survived being trapped alone for days after 9/11 in an apartment near the World Trade Center.  Gwen frantically tried to get to him but no one was allowed in the area where the World Trace Centers went down.  Here’s a bit from that:

“…I walked for more than three miles, and that entire time I didn’t see or hear another living soul – not a car, not a person, not a bird in a tree.  It felt eerie, almost post-apocalyptic, as if I were the only living human left in Manhattan.  I had never seen or even heard of a completely deserted New York City street.  No matter how late the hour or how queit a neighborhood, there was always something or someone else – a woman walking a dog, a man delivering produce to a twenty-four-hour grocery stor, lights in windows.  You were never so far from a jamor thoroughfare as to be unable to hear cars whizzing by like comets in teh distance.  But now there was nothing but silence.  Smoke and silence.”

A truly remarkable book and one in which I enjoyed tremendously.

Homer’s Odyssey is the once-in-a-lifetime story of an extraordinary cat and his human companion. It celebrates the refusal to accept limits—on love, ability, or hope against overwhelming odds. By turns jubilant and moving, it’s a memoir for anybody who’s ever fallen completely and helplessly in love with a pet.

This book will not only bring a smile to your face, but a smile to your heart. Excellent book and highly recommended!

For more information, visit the author’s website at www.gwencooper.com.  To purchase your copy of Homer’s Odyssey, click here to take you to Amazon.

Coming for Money

Coming For Money
Author: F.W. vom Scheidt
Publisher: Blue Butterfly Books
Rating:

Reviewed by: Cheryl Malandrinos

 

In the fast-paced world of international finance, the money never sleeps.

In Coming For Money, international investment broker Paris Smith finds himself in a high-stakes gamble to save his career. In order to close this multi-million dollar deal, Paris must travel halfway around the globe and back again, unaware of the treachery and deceit that shadows every move he makes. Still reeling from the sudden death of his wife, Paris has thrown himself into his work. Always the star of his firm, people think he might have lost his edge. Can this deal put him back on top again? And where there is new hope, might there be love?

In this literary novel by F.W. vom Scheidt, the reader is treated to eloquent writing and a list of complex characters and situations. Intriguing and unique, Coming For Money is claimed to be part John Grisham and part John Updike. And though I see comparisions to The Firm, I also find the work original in its ability to depict one man’s battle against himself. While his wife complained that he followed the money, and he never could quite deal with her depression, he seems powerless to break the cycle. When the stakes are this high, can he afford to?

Vom Scheidt puts his years as director of an international investment firm to excellent use in Coming For Money. It is obvious to the reader that those experiences formed a strong foundation for the novel. While a tad heavy on the similes and metaphors, this is an engaging read.

I am interested to see what F.W. vom Scheidt comes out with next.

Meggie’s Remains

Meggie’s Remains
Author: Joanne Sundell
Publisher: Five Star-Gale

Rating: 
Reviewed by:  Cheryl Malandrinos 

 

 Meggie’s Remains is a superb romantic suspense novel that will capture you from the very first moment you enter Colorado Territory.

Meghan McMurphy flees Boston and her past with few belongings and her copy of Jane Eyre. Arriving in Denver, she hopes to lose herself in the city where the nightmares might not reach her. When dashing Ethan Rourke stumbles upon Meggie on a snowy Denver street, he believes the woman must be insane. But Ethan has no idea of the life she’s lived or the secret she is determined to keep hidden.

Assuming the name Rose Rochester, Meggie is hired as a teacher in an isolated mountain town in rugged Ute country. Settling in to make a life for herself–and hoping for a life simliar to that of the main characters of her beloved romance novel–Meggie knows that somehow and someway, the monstrous changeling from her nightmares will find her, killing any possibility of a life at all.

Sundell creates two multi-faceted and intriguing characters whose experiences are as different from each other’s as night is to day; develops feelings between them that neither is willing to accept or act on; and comes out with a huge winner.   Meggie’s story is one of pain and terror while Ethan’s is a story of tragedy and loss. Battling against their growing feelings, each time that it seems Meggie and Ethan will end up together, Sundell tears them apart and keeps the reader turning the pages. And as if that isn’t enough, Meggie’s past is slowly creeping up to get her, and she knows it!

In addition to historical accuracy and attention to detail, Sundell’s ability to create realistic characters makes Meggie’s Remains an excellent read. You can tell that she has lived and breathed each of the characters she has created: Meggie and Ethan, their friends and associates, even the villain.

With a touch of the paranormal, this book becomes an engaging and intriguing read. Anyone who enjoys romantic suspense, an historical love story, complex characters and a book that you can’t put down will want to read Meggie’s Remains.