Book Reviews and Reflections
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Welcome to the Reviews and Reflections page. I am Larry the Librarian. I earned a bachelor of arts at Bethany Bible College. I was a Theology major and a History minor. I first developed my love of research there while writing a paper on the early church's debates on the Trinity. (There is a certain irony that I am now the librarian at Trinity Library.) I also received a Masters Degree at San Francisco Theological Seminary were I experienced and enjoyed the Graduate Theological Library in Berkeley. While at Princeton I was privileged to use the Wright Library to complete my Doctoral work on religious initiation from both theological and sociological perspectives. We are a truly literary church. We have a modest but mighty book collection. I will be highlighting aspects of that collection on this page.
The Autobiography of Malcom X as told to Alex Halley
In the searing pages of this classic autobiography, originally published in 1964, Malcolm X, the Muslim leader, firebrand, and anti-integrationist, tells the extraordinary story of his life and the growth of the Black Muslim movement. His fascinating perspective on the lies and limitations of the American Dream, and the inherent racism in a society that denies its nonwhite citizens the opportunity to dream, gives extraordinary insight into the most urgent issues of our own time. The Autobiography of Malcolm X stands as the definitive statement of a movement and a man whose work was never completed but whose message is timeless. It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand America. (Review reprinted from Amazon)
Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now by Maya Angelou
Maya Angelou, one of the best-loved authors of our time shares the wisdom of a remarkable life in this bestselling spiritual classic. This is Maya Angelou talking from the heart, down to earth and real, but also inspiring. This is a book to be treasured, a book about being in all ways a woman, about living well, about the power of the word, and about the power of spirituality to move and shape your life. Passionate, lively, and lyrical, Maya Angelou's latest unforgettable work offers a gem of truth on every page. Maya Angelou speaks out . . . On Faith- "I'm taken aback when people walk up to me and tell me they are Christians. My first response is the question 'Already?' It seems to me a lifelong endeavor to try to live the life of a Christian. It is in the search itself that one finds ecstasy." On Racism- "It is time for parents to teach young people early on that in diversity there is beauty and there is strength. (Review from the Website of Thrift Books)
The Tuskegee Airmen: The Men who Changed a Nation by Charles E. Francis
This book tells that story of Black Airmen recruited from the Historically Black Tuskegee College. The first section of the book describing their exploits in the air became a movie. I was more memorized however by the second section of the book. This describes in detail the battles they fought against racism and alienation after the war. It is a snapshot of a deeply disturbing era in our history, when heroes came back not as heroes but as “colored”. This is a good but lengthy read. Review by Larry the Librarian
This book was translated into an academy award winning documentary. To compose his stunning documentary film I Am Not Your Negro, acclaimed filmmaker Raoul Peck mined James Baldwin's published and unpublished oeuvre, selecting passages from his books, essays, letters, notes, and interviews that are every bit as incisive and pertinent now as they have ever been. Weaving these texts together, Peck brilliantly imagines the book that Baldwin never wrote. In his final years, Baldwin had envisioned a book about his three assassinated friends, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King. His deeply personal notes for the project have never been published before. Peck's film uses them to jump through time, juxtaposing Baldwin's private words with his public statements, in a blazing examination of the tragic history of race in America.