The Divine Mr. M

Flippin’ the pages, yo.

Introducing the New Testament: A Historical, Literary, and Theological Survey by Mark Allan Powell

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It’s always strange to review a textbook, but I got a Goodreads Reading Challenge quota to meet, so why not? Anyway, this was for a class, of course. And as the name implies, it’s an academic introduction to the New Testament, though in this case “academic” doesn’t mean dense or inaccessible. Powell has a fairly breezy writing style, so as textbooks go, it’s actually an interesting and informative read.

What works even better is that Powell makes very good use of sidebars for handy reference when you need to look things up quickly (for example, to illustrate similarities and differences between the four gospels). Even better is the various artworks scattered throughout the book that illustrate various parts of the NT as seen from different cultures around the world, not just the usual Western European Christian art.

Anyway, Powell does a great job explaining the content and historical context of each book and letter, who (probably) did or didn’t write what, and the various theological interpretations and arguments that are still ongoing to this day. Some might find it a bit simplistic, but it IS meant as an introduction to a vastly complex and multi-faceted topic, so it worked great for me.


Rocket to the Morgue by Anthony Boucher

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Never read Anthony Boucher before, but came across this 1942 novel as a Kindle deal that sounded interesting, as the central mystery (written under his pen name H.H. Holmes) revolves around the Mañana Literary Society, a real group of pulp science-fiction writers which Boucher was a member that held informal meetings hosted by Robert A. Heinlein. So the novel serves as both a murder mystery and a fictionalised snapshot of the community of pre-WW2 Golden Age SF when it was still relatively obscure. The book is also the second Boucher/Holmes novel to feature police detective Terry Marshall and Sister Ursula, a nun and amateur sleuth.

The premise: the murder of a drifter named Tarbell leads Marshall to Hilary Foulkes (son of the late great Fowler Foulkes, author of the popular Dr Derringer mysteries), who thinks someone is trying to kill him – Marshall thinks so too, not least because someone mails a bomb to Foulkes during their first meeting. It turns out Foulkes has a long list of enemies in the pulp publishing field due to being notoriously ruthless about his management of his father’s intellectual property. And one attempt on Foulkes’ life results in the arrest of Marshall’s friend (and aspiring SF pulp writer) Matt Duncan.

Boucher evidently intended this book in part as an attempt to capture the community of the early pre-WW2 Golden Age SF authors before SF became more of a mainstream pop culture staple. Supposedly this is one reason it’s one of the few Boucher novels still in print. The actual mystery is beside the point – which is as well, since it’s underwhelming as mysteries go, and the dialogue shoots for Hammett-style Nick and Nora banter and misses more often than not. That said, even the Golden Age SF only really works if you are obsessively familiar with even the most famous writers (Heinlein, Campbell, Hubbard, etc) outside of their actual stories. The target audience might like it, but the odds of me reading more Boucher seem pretty low.

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Rocket in my pocket,

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