Rev. Dr. Jeff Garrison
Jesse Cole, Find Your Yellow Tux: How to be Successful by Standing Out (Lioncrest Publishing, 2018), 303 pages, some photos. The Back Story: One of the most amazing things I’ve seen while living in the Savannah area is the development of a summer league baseball team for college players, the Savannah Bananas. Before the Bananas … Read more Would You Wear a Yellow Tux?
Things have been busy at my house as we are now showing it and trying to begin packing for our move to Virginia… But the busyness hasn’t kept me from sailing, as I crewed a boat up to Hilton Head on Friday and then on Saturday, we raced back to Skidaway (I’ll have to do … Read more The Years of Lyndon Johnson (Volume 4)
David Lee, Mine Tailings (Boulder, UT: Five Sisters Press, 2019), 79 pages. David Lee was formerly the poet laurate of Utah and has been affectionally referred to as “the Pig Poet.” About the time I was leaving Utah, Lee retired as head of the English Department for Southern Utah University. Ever since I left … Read more Three Collections of Poems
James H. Cone, (Marynoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2011), 202 pages including notes and an index. The late James Cone (1938-2018) tackled a tough topic, linking together the most powerful symbol for Christians, the cross, and the most shameful symbol of white supremacy, the lynching tree. The shame of the latter has been with me … Read more The Cross and the Lynching Tree (with a personal note)
David Zucchino, Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2020), 426 pages including notes, bibliography, and index along with 12 additional pages of prints. On November 10, 1898, Wilmington, North Carolina erupted into violence. It began with an armed mob of white men burning … Read more Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy
Michael P. Cohen, Granite and Grace: Seeking the Heart of Yosemite (Reno: University of Nevada, 2019), 220 pages. A few hand drawn maps and line drawings at the top of each chapter by Valerie Cohen. When most people think of Yosemite, they think of the valley with its huge waterfalls and sheer-faced granite cliffs where, … Read more Rocks, Water, and a Personal Note
Steven Pressfield, Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermoplyae (New York: Bantan Books, 1998), 386 pages. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel that is based on ancient Greek historians’ writings, especially Herodotus. The story is told through the eyes of Xeones, who was from the city of Akarnania. He alone had been … Read more Ancient History, Poems, and a Baseball Story: Three Book Reviews
Nancy Koester, Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Spiritual Life (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2014), 371 pages, B&W photos, notes. Harriet Beecher Stowe is best known for her novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin. The novel’s popularity fueled the anti-slavery movement in the North and helped change the narrative of the American Civil War from an attempt to restore the … Read more Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Spiritual Life
Eric Goodman, Cuppy and Stew: The Bombing of Flight 629, A Love Story (San Francisco: IF SF Publishing, 2020), 220 pages with a few photographs. The narrator is Susan, the youngest daughter of Cuppy and Stew, who died in the crash of United 629 in 1955. She and her sister, Sherry, are orphaned and sent … Read more Cuppy and Stew (and a moon-rise)
What are you reading this days? Looking for a good book while you isolate yourself? Here are three books from books I recently read. It’s by sheer accident that two of them discuss Epictetus (but different parts of his philosophy): P. M. Forni, The Civility Solution: What to Do When People are Rude (New York: … Read more Three Books: Civility, Theology, & Poetry