1 to 7 of 7
Review Date: 8/26/2011
Certainly an interesting little book, but it could have used a lot more detail.
Review Date: 12/19/2009
The book presents plenty of reasons for abolishing the death penalty. Most important is realizing the dignity, granted by God, in every human being, and not snuffing out that spark. Unfortunately, I don't think Sister Helen Prejean did all that great a job of really showing the human face of either of the two men she helped through their last days.
Review Date: 8/3/2013
The life of St. Francis certainly works well as fiction because a novel can look further into his soul than non-fiction. "Francis and Jesus" gives some insight that can't be found in other books on the saint, but the writing was at times so weak that it was distracting from the story. I'd certainly recommend Nikos Kazantzakis' novel on Francis before this one.
Review Date: 7/31/2010
Helpful Score: 3
As a person with at least a fairly strong faith in both God and science, I found this book incredibly disappointing. The title and the author's role as head of the human genome project led me to believe this would be focused on the beauty within DNA. That's not what this is. It's basically just a good commentary on the culture war between the two sides -- not anything that will delve any deeper who aren't on one side or the other. If you're religious and troubled by science, or rationalistic and troubled by pangs of the supernatural, this would be a great book for you. Even if you' re an atheist, it should at least convince you that not all of us on the other side are dimwits.
If you're comfortable with both, there's a little interesting, but not much outside of the appendix on bioethics.
If you're comfortable with both, there's a little interesting, but not much outside of the appendix on bioethics.
Review Date: 7/5/2013
Very good book, but the ending was too dark, even for a Cormac McCarthy novel.
Review Date: 3/2/2010
I generally like G.K. Chesterton, but I had trouble making it through this. Chesterton calls the book an introduction to the saint, but there are only about 10 brief anecdotes sprinkled throughout his rants against modern views of saints, etc. As a biography, it is worthless. As commentary, it's probably a little better.
Review Date: 8/29/2010
I found the footnotes in this version fairly odd. I haven't read any Shakespeare since high school, so I don't know if they're better or worse than others, but they were lacking. There were translations for some words that certainly didn't need it (for instance "obey" was updated to "submit to"). There were other times when I was hoping for a little more context, and I didn't get any information.
Although I have none to recommend, I'd take my chances with a different edition of this title.
Although I have none to recommend, I'd take my chances with a different edition of this title.
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