Browsers' Bookstore



home
Search our inventory

Search our inventory!

Where low prices meet high quality.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

The Gnostic Gospels. Elaine Pagels.

The Gnostic Gospels.
by Elaine Pagels.
Vintage: 1979.

Written by an academic who is an 'expert' in gnosticism, this popular work gives a brief introduction to the texts discovered at Nag Hammadi.

This book is far, far too short, and inspires me to read the complete translation of these early, unorthodox Christian texts. As short as it is, the book is dense with information and valuable interpretation.

Most interesting is the author's main argument that the conflict between orthodoxy and gnosticism was as much political as it was theological -- in fact, that doctrine comes more from politics than from the teachings of Jesus.

Pagels does a very good job of evoking the climate of A.D. 60-200, during the establishment of the Catholic church and its constant attacks against the gnostic Christians -- who were often part of the catholic church itself -- especially their belief in personal experiences of enlightenment, even though they did not necessarily disbelieve in having a "regular" church.

Labels: ,

Monday, November 13, 2006

The Five Flamboys. Francis Beeding.

The Five Flamboys.
Francis Beeding.

Little, Brown: 1929.

This mystery/adventure gets a regular guy involved in an international espionage scheme involving the overthrow of the Roumanian government. It's truly impressive the number of plot twists Beeding is able to invent.

Excellent Hitchcockian adventure, even though it predates Hitchcock. One interesting thing about reading pulp fiction from this era is that, because the authors generally didn't spend much time concerning themselves with high quality of writing (sort of like writing a blog, don't you think?), a lot of colloquialisms come through, rendering several sentences absolutely unintelligible. In this case, outdated British slang makes a few spots even harder to figure out...

Character-wise, the evil villain is fairly interesting, as well as self-reflective, and the super-spy who helps the narrator is flat, but very cool in a pre-James Bond sort of way.

Labels:

Saturday, November 04, 2006

'H' is for Homicide. Sue Grafton.

'H' is for Homicide.
Sue Grafton.

The two complaints that I hear most often about Grafton are that she's wordy and that all her books are alike. I read this book as an abridged audio book, which takes care of the first complaint, and I probably won't read another of her books, which takes care of the second.

Nothing really mysterious about this mystery. The reader and narrator both know that she's investigating a bad guy. This is more of a suspense novel without the suspense.

Kinsey Millhone is an insurance PI investigating false claims. The police persuade her to work under cover. She does, and does nothing too interesting, until the bad guy shoots someone, then she chases after him. No Poirotesque grey cells in action here: this is the new breed of mystery novel.

Labels:

Great Author Alert! Jean-Patrick Manchette!

The books I blog are generally ones I read 3-4 years ago (I keep a handwritten journal. I am a nerd.) So, rather than wait that long to tell you about a modern author, I will tell you now: Jean-Patrick Manchette. French. Noir. Crime. I'm on chapter four, and I can already tell it will be one of my favorites!

Labels: