Mystery and suspense fiction are some of my favorite kinds of fiction. And while The Angels’ Share isn’t necessarily suspense, it will keep you reading until you finish the book.
Set in the early 1930s, after World War 1 and Prohibition have ended, The Angels’ Share is the story of a young man trying to find his way, and a way for his broken family. The family owned a bourbon distillery in the hills of Kentucky. When Prohibition shut it down, and the family experienced the death of their youngest child, it seems like they have been beaten beyond recovery.
But a transient is buried in the potters graveyard nearby, and many believe that he was Christ returned to earth. The story unfolds, exposing dirty secrets, incredible miracles, and flourishing love, love between a man and a woman, and love for mankind as a whole.
The Angels’ Share is a great story, set in a historical context that is rare to find. And although it is centered around a bourbon distillery, the pros and cons of alcohol consumption are not a prominent part of the storyline.
I found The Angels’ Share a difficult book to set aside, and was captivated until the very end. I look forward to reading more fiction from James Markert in the future.
The Cold War era is a period of history I know very little about. I have read extensively on earlier periods of the twentieth century, and lived through much of the latter portion of it. But that period covering the 1950s, 1960s and into the 1970s has always been of lesser interest to me.
That changed somewhat when I was able to read The Tunnels, a history of the earliest years of the Berlin Wall. The Tunnels focuses on the escapes from East Berlin to the West, and those primarily achieved by using tunnels dug under the Wall and the death strip that buffered it in the East.
While many attempts were made, only a few succeeded, and only a couple really succeeded well. One such was a tunnel that was financed and filmed by NBC, in order to produce a documentary that would raise American awareness of the trials that East Berliners faced under oppressive rule. With the Cuban crisis looming in the Caribbean, the last thing the Kennedy Administration needed was another crisis in Europe. As a result, the media was pressured to hold off, or even to squelch this documentary and others like it.
On this day in history: In 1827, New Orleans held its first Mardi Gras celebration. In 1867, Dr. William G. Bonwill invented the dental mallet. And in 1951, the 22nd Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, limiting U.S. Presidents to two terms.
Third Wave Coffee – Third wave is the most recent wave of coffee to impact our culture, and is the current state of the coffee industry. Where will it go from here?
The Most Amazing Bowling Story Ever – It really is. It’s incredible and inspiring. Take some time, slow down, and read this article from beginning to end.
Clean Up Your Phone For Increased Productivity – This is an area that many people neglect, and their phone gets clogged up with unnecessary apps and sludge. Take some time now and delete apps that you don’t use, clean up the storage that gets filled up with, well, nothing really, and speed up your phone and your own productivity.
Squadron Of Hope – This is a beautifully filmed video of a protected reef near Indonesia. Hit the full screen button and enjoy.
Peter shifts from his instructions to wives to speak to husbands in this week’s passage, and he gives some very specific directions. Take a look at what he says in 1 Peter 3:7.
Peter has been addressing the attitude of submission, specifically in three areas: submission to the governing authorities, submission of slave to their masters, and submission of wives to their husbands within the realm of marriage. I find it interesting that in two cases, these directions are one sided. Peter does not give any direction to the governing authorities, nor does he speak to the masters of the slave. But he does address the husbands in the third section.
In all three cases, Peter addresses the ones who were likely to experience oppression from those in authority over them. It was, and is, quite common for governments to persecute their people, for masters to abuse their slaves, and for husbands to treat their wives poorly. But out of the three, Peter gives some specific instructions only to the last one, the husband.
Peter’s instruction begins with an imperative here. Most English translations soften it simply because it is difficult to put in English smoothly, but it should be translated more along the lines of “live with your wives according to your knowledge of what God requires.” Husbands are to live with their lives, informed of how God requires them to live, informed with knowledge of God’s will. Why? Because the wife is the weaker vessel, the weaker partner.
If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled.
OCC Preaching-Teaching Convention
Each year, I anticipate Ozarks Christian College’s Preaching-Teaching Convention. This was something that I attended as a student there, and have returned occasionally ever since. However, for the past few years, I haven’t missed it. It’s a great opportunity to refresh and refuel myself without a whole lot of expense.
First, it is close, and I have family in the area. That makes it an easy trip. Second, it is usually filled with top notch speakers and workshops, making it a great opportunity to refuel my soul. And third, I am able to reconnect with several friends that I don’t usually get to see all that often. That’s always fun
Any one of those reasons make it worthwhile to take in the Preaching-Teaching Convention. All three of them make it a no brainer.
I’ll be there through the middle of this week, making it a short week at home. I’ll probably write a little less than normal as a result. Things should get back to normal next week though.
In the meantime, I’d appreciate your prayers for me as I travel, and as I take in some much needed refreshing.
One of my favorite regions of the US is the American Southwest. I love the terrain, I love the mountain, and the desert, and I love the weather. Here’s a video of the ever-changing weather in Arizona showing just how magnificent this region is.
