Jonathan Cahn. The Josiah Manifesto. Front Line, 2023.

This past year we happened to see a television interview with Jonathan Cahn on his latest book, The Josiah Manifesto. It sounded intriguing, and when we saw that one of the local libraries had a copy, we were able to read it. It certainly suggests something about the power of God, and that He truly observes what is going on in the world.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part is largely a study of the biblical concept of Jubilee and how that applies to things going on today. The second part is the titular manifesto, a call to action based on the figure of King Josiah in the Bible.

The concept of Jubilee is that every fifty years the nations of Israel and Judah were to restore things to their original state among the people. That meant property that had been bought and sold was to revert to its original owners, that any slaves or indentured servants were to be released, and that any debts were to be forgiven. Cahn basically sees this as a restoration to the way things were and a way to start from the point that God intended.

Without going into too much detail, he notes a couple of “jubilees,” fifty year restorations of justice from injustice. The most important which he discusses at length is the overturning of Roe vs. Wade, the court ruling that legalized abortion on demand in the United States. The restoration of protection for the vulnerable babies in the womb was fifty years after the original ruling.

He notes also that in 1970 the first two states in the Continental United States legalized abortion: New York and Washington. In 2020 they were the two states most in the news over Covid-19. The first case in the country was in Washington and the most and deadliest cases were in New York. To him this is not coincidence.

As a biblical parallel, he notes that the first of the ten plagues of Egypt under Moses was the Nile River turning to blood. This paralleled the drowning of babies in the river when Moses was a baby. “…the waters of the Nile would turn to blood just as the blood of the Hebrew children had once reddened its waters.” (126)

He notes that the United States and a few other nations finally recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 2017, fifty years after Israel began ruling there in 1967. Cahn also speaks of an interesting series of events after fifty years of Communism in Cuba, events which he observed.

The second part is the actual Josiah Manifesto. Cahn sees King Josiah of Judah as a leader of a nation in a condition similar to that of America and most of the Western world. When Josiah became king, the nation had been ruled by a succession of ungodly rulers who promoted idolatry—including child sacrifice—and persecuted and killed the prophets. Josiah rediscovered the Hebrew Scriptures and restored worship of the true God and a just government.

King Manasseh, Josiah’s grandfather, had embarked on a campaign to further the worship of foreign gods, to erect pagan shrines and altars, and to bring the practices of the pagan world into the land. In its initial stages it could be championed in the name of tolerance, acceptance, freedom, and openness to the new.

But once things were legitimized, established, and enshrined, the banner of openness and tolerance was withdrawn and replaced by an iron rod of coercion, oppression, persecution, and cultural totalitarianism. It is no accident that Manasseh is recorded as having “shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another.” [see II Kings 21:16] It was the inevitable flip side of the coin. It was inevitable that the same culture that called evil good would call what was good evil. If one embraces evil, one must end up waging war against the good. (194)

The Josiah Manifesto, then, becomes a study of Josiah and how people in today’s world, especially the West, can promote justice and recover a lost worldview. Throughout, it exhorts the reader to trust in God. There are few specifics, but a general call to be courageous and stand for the truth.

The more a culture departs from the ways of God, the more revolutionary it will be to walk in them. Every godly act will become a revolutionary act. Every godly word will become a revolutionary world. And every godly life will become a revolutionary life. The people of God must increasingly live as a revolutionary people. Those who follow Messiah must increasingly return to their first of all states, the state of revolution. (206)

A culture that has fallen from God will always seek to justify its altered state by altering standards, redefining values, and reframing reality. (225)

But, as Joshua would have said, the righteous are to “be strong and of good courage.”

The righteous must ultimately be defined by that which they stand against but by that for which they stand. Their lives must bring forth healing, restoration, salvation, and redemption. Their impact on the world must be positive. They must love in the face of hatred, bless in the face of persecution, return good for evil, and manifest heaven in the face of hell. (239-240)

It is impossible for a universe to come forth out of nothing, for a sea to part in two, for a man to shut up the heavens, for a virgin to conceive a child, for the dead to rise to life, for a weak and broken band of disciples to change the world, and for a nation that has been dead for two thousand years to come back to life. But God is the God of the impossible. And those who follow Him, especially in times of adversity and impossibilities, must live against the odds, above the laws of the natural, and by the power of the impossible. With God all things are possible, and nothing will be impossible. (271)

May it be, Lord. May we be found faithful.

The last chapter brings the two parts of the book together. Without creating any spoilers, let us just say that it reminds us that, regardless of what seems to be going on, God is still on His throne.

Wilson H. Faude. Hidden History of Connecticut. History Press, 2010.

Hidden History of Connecticut is for Connecticut residents and those who are visiting the state. While each short chapter describes a historically significant event or person, each includes some location or landmark that the reader can visit. In most cases, these places are not well known, even to the average resident of the state.

The landmarks include some historical houses and buildings. Many chapters deal with artists who lived or settled in Connecticut such as Frederic Church or the “Harvard Five” architects. You will not find the Mystic Seaport or any university museum here. There are, however, descriptions of the New Britain Museum of American Art—the first museum in the country dedicated just to American artists—and the Florence Griswold Museum which housed a large artists’ colony a hundred years ago.

We also learn of certain significant historical events. Most people in the state are aware that Connecticut, when it was a colony, had the first written constitution of any government in the world. Here we learn a little more about it and especially the famous, if legendary, story of the Charter Oak.

The meeting in Connecticut in 1780 between American and French military leaders including Washington and Rochambeau would lead to the success of the Revolution a year later. The author believes this would have led to annual celebrations and re-enactments in many places, but Connecticut tends to be low-key. So it is with the house of Oliver Ellsworth in Windsor who proposed the Connecticut Compromise which saved the American Constitution.

An easily-overlooked set of plaques commemorates the Washington-Rochambeau event. That is all. An even easier-to-miss plaque notes a meeting in 1976 between William Buckley and Ronald Reagan that gave some direction to Reagan’s eventual successful presidency as well as some direction for Ronald, Jr., in pursuing ballet.

While some historical places are known for festive Christmas celebrations, Hidden History of Connecticut tells of at least four places that have interesting Christmas presentations of one kind or another that are often overlooked. This includes the Butler-McCook and Harriet Beecher Stowe houses and the Boar’s Head Festival, all in Hartford, and the Hill-Stead House in Farmington.

There are many more gems and touching stories. Some perhaps more trivial than others, but all noting historical curiosities and interesting places to visit in the Nutmeg State.

Marissa Hale. American Wild. Publish Pros, 2023.

The title of American Wild has a double meaning. Yes, it is a novel set in the wilderness of North America west of the Appalachians mostly in the 1780s, but it is also a wild story. And like The Frontiersmen, about a similar time and location, it is the novelization of true events.

In some ways, one could look at this as The Frontiersmen from a woman’s perspective, not only that the author is female, but that the main character is a lady. And we mean a lady. She is a French noblewoman whose fiancé is an officer fighting for France in the American Revolution. When Captain LeClerc returns after six years in North America, they marry and return to America. He sees more opportunity and freedom than he could experience in France in 1783.

However, he does not settle in one of the coastal cities or even one of the original thirteen colonies, He wants land to work over the mountains in the wilderness that is opening up. Much of the story takes place in what would become Kentucky. Not far from Mammoth Caves in western Kentucky there is a prominent hill, now a state park, called Frenchman’s Knob. Among other things we learn how the place got its name. Like The Frontiersmen, the story is based on much detailed research, and a reminder that even in the eighteenth century, people were coming to North America to start a new life from many countries.

And on the frontier it was a completely new life. Communication with the old world was sporadic at best and nonexistent for most. For many it was a new language and a new kind of government. When adding in the challenges of mere survival in the wild, we can only admire what some of our American forebears endured.

Victoire “Vittorie” Monet LeClerc is our main character. She is more than a mere fish out of water. Raised in the literal lap of luxury, her father took part in the Treaty of Paris. She had met Ben Franklin and John Adams when they came to France after the Revolution to negotiate America’s independence. Now she has come to their country, but not to Boston or Philadelphia, or even to someone’s Virginia plantation.

With her husband Gilbert, she does visit Virginia at first, but Lexington, Virginia, west of the Blue Ridge. The book mentions two of the main figures in The Frontiersmen, Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton, but the historical figures besides Captain and Mme. LeClerc are other scouts, notably William Smuthers and Henry Skeggs.

Skeggs (a.k.a. Scaggs) is another one of those woodsmen like Kenton who seems to have been everywhere. He knows the way to the land Gilbert has purchased and seems to know everyone else as well, including Ohio River pirates and the various Native Americans who pass through. (As The Frontiersmen suggests, there were apparently few Indians in Kentucky at the time it began to be settled.)

American Wild shows us the challenges of life in the wilderness—outlaws of various kinds, the necessity to produce everything to live on yourself, the loneliness. In the case of Mme. LeClerc, the loneliness was compounded because she spoke only French. A few other French speakers besides her husband show up from time to time, but until she masters English (about half a dozen years) she is on her own.

Still, most people settling the American wild are in similar positions and understand and care for each other. Even in small settlements, people begin to discover who has specific skills, and a division of labor naturally evolves. There is hard work and not much play, but American Wild tells a tale of struggle and ultimately success. Hard times, yes, but those things makes us appreciate what we have and what those who went before us accomplished. We personally have no horse in the Kentucky race, but American Wild and The Frontiersmen together weave a picture of historic America that readers will not be able to forget.

Carl Hiaasen. Wrecker. Knopf, 2023.

Whether Carl Hiaasen is writing for young teens or adults, his stories are usually set in Florida with some distinctive characters. Wrecker is no different in that respect, though it is very much an original tale.

Valdez Jones VIII, fifteen years old, is known as Wrecker because he comes from a long line of Key West salvage operators. That family tradition goes back to the 1700s with Valdez Jones I, who came from the Bahamas to Key West and stayed on. The only exception to that tradition is Valdez Jones VII, Wrecker’s father, who gets seasick.

Wrecker attends high school, but his real love and interest is boating. He owns a small outboard boat and spends much of his spare time fishing and diving around reefs and wrecks. He also has a unique after school job. A retired man who lives near him pays him fifty dollars a week to clean the gravestone of his sister every day it is not raining. The resident iguanas and feral chickens keep the cemetery markers dirty and defaced.

He usually does this after dark by climbing over the cemetery fence with a ladder and using a hose from a neighboring house. One night he hears a girl or woman singing in Spanish next to a gravestone. She disappears before he can start up a conversation.

The two gravestones catch his interest. The one he cleans has the legend “The rumor is true.” The gravestone where the singer left a vase of roses belonged to a black man hanged by the Ku Klux Klan in Key West around 1920. He wonders who would even remember that man today. Wrecker himself has a black father and white mother and tries to imagine what it would have been like back then.

One day while he was out fishing, he tries to help a speedboat that has run aground. His sixteen-footer is too small, but the man in charge of the cigarette outboard, known to us only as Silver Mustache, tosses Wrecker some money for the help. Soon Silver Mustache contacts Wrecker to drive his boat on occasion and to clean another gravesite in the cemetery. In this case there is more than just a marker, it is a mausoleum for one Bendito Vachs. This also strikes Wrecker as unusual, not because the outside of the crypt gets fouled, but because the date of death on the grave is still a few days in the future.

There are some interesting subplots, too. Wrecker’s father (“number seven”) abandoned him and his mother a long time ago to pursue an unsuccessful career at singing and writing songs. However, Wrecker does not live with his mother and stepfather but rather with his twenty-three year old stepsister. She is paralyzed from the waist down from when she was hit by a drunk driver. The settlement was generous, so she does not have to work but spends her time as an environmental activist, especially concerned with protecting the waters around the key.

Like the other book we recently reviewed, this takes place during and shortly after the Covid-19 shutdown. Wrecker’s stepfather is quite ill from the virus but does survive. His mother has different medical concerns, namely plastic surgery. Her latest attempts at beautification include a Reese Witherspoon chin and Nicole Kidman eyes.

Things get very complicated. One day while fishing, Wrecker sees a sunken speedboat that looks a lot like the one that he tried to help earlier. He dives and sees “dozens” of tightly wrapped and taped pizza boxes on the boat. He brings many of them up to his own boat, but it is weeks before the reader learns what the boxes contain. He figures the men were smuggling something, and maybe the boxes could be leverage. After all, his Valdez Jones ancestors used to brings things in from Cuba during Prohibition.

Valdez becomes friendly—just friends—with Willi, a girl in his class at school. Together they soon realize that Wrecker is in over his head. Silver Mustache’s business is indeed smuggling, among other things. The men he works with are armed bodyguards. Also Silver Mustache seems to have learned a lot about Wrecker’s family including his sister and her activism. He knows Wrecker’s phone number, and it seems as though Mr. Mustache is always changing his own phone number.

Wrecker and Willi realize that they have gotten into a relationship with people they would rather not have ever known. They want to come up with a plan to extricate themselves from that relationship before it turns deadly or Wrecker becomes a criminal in order to survive.

The story of Valdez VII, the singer, is humorous. He calls himself Austin Breakwater and seems to be ripping off Jimmy Buffett. His first song “Tequilaville Sunset” actually breaks the Billboard 100 one week because of the publicity around a lawsuit. No, Buffett is not suing him for stealing from “Margaritaville,” the Eagles are suing him for stealing from “Tequila Sunrise.”

There are a number of clever references to popular culture here, even though Wrecker himself is more interested in other things. He chooses a lock combination of 2003 because that was the year the Marlins won the World Series. He was not alive back then, but he heard talk of it so it is an easy number to remember. Willi’s favorite author is Judy Blume.

When “Austin Breakwater” is explaining to Wrecker why he is trying to make a career of singing and songwriting, he says, “This is how Jimmy Buffett started. James Taylor. Bonnie Raitt. All the greats” (86). It just so happened I saw Bonnie Raitt play at least twice that I recall before she had recorded anything. She was a terrific steel guitar player.

One of the times, she opened for James Taylor before anyone had heard of him. (It was supposed to be Chris Kristofferson, but he could not make it.) Back then, I recall Taylor being tall and very mellow. Both were at the same small venue, but the audience could really enjoy the music without having to deal with any hero worship or avid fandom as they do when the musicians become more famous and play for bigger crowds.

Wrecker is an entertaining and ecologically aware tale that YA readers will enjoy. They may even pick up bit of history and pop culture.

Gordon Korman. Mixed Up. Scholastic, 2023.

Mixed Up is more serious than many of Gordon Korman’s novels, but he still our favorite YA author. Mixed Up is worth reading as it deals with some serious ideas.

We were reminded of a couple of movies as we read Mixed Up. One film was Yesterday. Readers who saw that recall that there was some kind of “anomaly” in nature that caused everyone in the world except for a handful of people to forget all about the Beatles. A young, struggling British musician was not affected and became a rock superstar by playing the Beatles songs as his originals.

Mixed Up has a different kind of anomaly. Two twelve-year-old boys who live in the same city but in different neighborhoods begin sharing each other’s memories. Theo begins to remember things that happened to Reef and vice versa. It becomes more complicated as these memories begin to become more real than the things that actually happened to them.

Reef was raised by a single mother who died recently. He was taken in by the family of Jenna, his mother’s best friend, and Willis with three kids of their own. The two older kids in high school pretty much ignore him, but their younger son Declan is downright evil in the way he torments Reef (e.g., he calls him Reek). He has a way of doing things that would get him into trouble except that he makes it look like Reef did it.

However, because of this “mixed up” memory situation, Reef reaches a point where he cannot even remember what his mother looked like if it were not for photos he kept on a cellphone—but he knows what has been happening to Theo.

Theo’s family is intact, but he has been a big disappointment to his father. His father was a jock type who “ruled the school” when he was in middle and high school. Theo is simply not interested in those things. He would rather keep a vegetable garden and keep to himself. His father is really demeaning to him, but Theo seems to handle it about as well as he can. But things get more complicated as Theo begins having memories about his mother dying and having an adopted brother who torments him.

Eventually Theo and Reef meet up. This is somewhat awkward for both of them. They know that they can probably help each other, but they are not sure what to do.

It also becomes a little complicated as Reef blames himself for his mother’s death. Portia, a girl he really liked, invited him to a party. After the party, Portia got sick and was out of school for three weeks. A week later, Reef and his mother both came down with Covid—this is right before the Covid shutdown. The virus killed his mother, so Reef blames himself for his mother’s death.

So we have Reef mourning and Theo not able to live up to his father’s expectations. These are problems that many people can identify with to some degree. And then there is the memory mix-up. The two boys are forced to help each other get through this.

Things get more complicated. Theo begins to volunteer at a food bank near Reef’s school so he can stay in contact with Reef. Portia also volunteers there, and Theo develops a crush on her, too. Reef had used to be outgoing, but since his mother’s death he has withdrawn. Portia and a lot of others who knew him feel sorry for him but do not know what to do to help. Theo and Reef both want to help each other to somehow change their memories.

Even though this is more serious than many of Korman’s stories, it still has a kind of crazy ending that many of his tales have. Without spoiling anything, let’s just say that the wrap-up might remind some readers of the movie Back to the Future.

Except for obvious science-fiction element of the memory mix-up, Mix Up is honestly realistic. It speaks to many of us because the problems the boys encounter are not uncommon. There is not a perfect ending, but it is one that shows us that some things we have to accept and learn to live with.

As kind of a postscript, Mixed Up also has another message. Even though sometimes we wish we knew what other people were thinking, it is a good thing that we do not. I would say to my students, “If we could read one another’s minds, the school would have fired me a long time ago.” The students usually chuckle at that and perhaps imagine some of the things I might have been thinking. Then I add, “And the school probably would have kicked out half of you!” The students usually laugh at that, too. We have enough problems dealing with our own thought lives without having to worry about what others are thinking.

M. C. Beaton. Death of a Celebrity. Warner, 2002.

We have enjoyed the various Hamish Macbeth mysteries we have read and reviewed, and it has been a while since we have read one. Death of a Celebrity reached a point where I had to read past my bedtime to find out what was happening.

From the title, the reader can guess immediately who the victim will be. A beautiful emcee of a Highlands-based television program has made some enemies. Like some talk show hosts, Crystal French deliberately observes and interviews Highlanders to put a negative spin on them. She gets lots of hate mail, but her ratings are climbing throughout the U.K.

She is doing piece on the allegedly amateurish police work in the Highlands and is on her way to interview Hamish in Lochdubh when she is murdered. There are multiple suspects. Yes, folks who wrote nasty letters and phoned in threats are among them, but those things happen to all celebrities. There are people closer to her that deserve more investigation.

What about all those people she interviewed and made to look like idiots on television? And then there are people at the television station. What about Felicity, the woman whose show was replaced by Crystal’s? We learn that Crystal slept around to get herself promotions. What about one of her paramours—or one of their wives? She seemed to rub everyone the wrong way.

Some of the usual supporting cast is here. The alcoholic sergeant Jimmy Anderson shows up as does Inspector Daviot. It turns out Daviot and one of the television executives belong to the same fraternal lodge, which puts pressure on Hamish. Hamish’s true nemesis, Blair, is out of town in this one, replaced by one Carson from Inverness. Carson goes by the book—he insists Hamish call him “sir,” for example—but he is much more tolerant of Hamish and willing to consider his ideas.

As always, Hamish is trying to balance doing a good job but avoiding promotion so he does not have to leave Lochdubh. This is an earlier novel than some we have read, late enough so his dog is Lugs rather than Towser, but he has no cat yet.

Also this is the book that introduces us to Elspeth, one of Hamish’s two ongoing love interests. Hamish learns that is ex-fiancée, Priscilla, is engaged, and he has decided to have nothing more to do with women. Elspeth arrives in Lochdubh as a reporter who does the regular horoscope column. Other books remind us that her mother came from the gypsies. Hamish suspects some of the horoscopes are geared consciously towards certain people. For example, one the day she is murdered, Crystal’s horoscope warns her to stay home.

Elspeth helps with the investigation, and she and Hamish develop a mutual attraction. Alas, in typical Hamish fashion, there is enough mutual misunderstanding to make the relationship rocky. Hamish at one point sounds like a “Teenager in Love”:

Women, thought Hamish. I cannae figure them out at all. You want them, they don’t want you, you don’t want them, they want you. (191)

As always, this is a source of humor as well as some frustration.

The plot itself becomes a real page turner as more and more facts are learned. It seems as though the evidence is pointing pretty clearly to one suspect when that suspect gets murdered, too. And that murder sounds like a setup, perhaps associated with organized crime.

Without going into too much detail, neither murder mentioned here is the last of the body count…

There are no real dead ends or red herrings, just many complications that keep Hamish looking and keep readers reading. There will be a few surprises and humorous interludes on the way, but we know that Hamish will never transfer out of Lochdubh in spite of his ability to solve crimes. If nothing else, he knows his people. And M. C. Beaton knows Hamish.

Gene Edwards. The Divine Romance. Tyndale, 1992.

I had heard good things about The Divine Romance, so I picked it up last summer at a book store and finally got around to reading it. I was not disappointed. This book is lovely.

Its theme is very simple. The Bible calls the body of believers the Bride of Christ. This book narrates the “romance” of God the suitor from eternity past to eternity future in the form of a novel. Edwards does a good job of presenting the idea as a mystery—as something not really understood well but gradually revealed. It begins with a quotation from Paradise Lost, and there were scenes in it, especially those in the Garden of Eden, which echoed that epic.

While not quoted per se, the concept is clearly based on a few verses from the New Testament. When discussing Jesus’ ministry, John the Baptist refers to Jesus as the bridegroom:

The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. (John 3:29)

Paul picks up on this when he writes about marriage in Ephesians 5:28-32:

He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

He uses the word mystery and compares the “oneness” of a husband and wife with the relationship between Christ and His followers.

Then, the Book of Revelation, which is mostly prophecy about the future, describes the followers of Jesus as the Bride getting ready to be married to the Lord.

“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
and his Bride has made herself ready…” (Revelation 19:6-7)

The very end of the Bible, which is an invitation to follow Jesus, has these words:

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” (Revelation 22:17)

Edwards does a magnificent and moving job of sharing the mystery with his readers.

Without going into too much detail, Edwards begins with creation, specifically the creation of the angels. Then as the Lord created the earth and all its creatures, we note that all the visible creatures had a mate except man. After all, God created man in His image, and He had no mate.

The creation of woman is described beautifully. Again, one cannot help thinking of Paradise Lost as we see Eve being formed from a rib of the man. Now man had a mate. The angels speculate. Adam had a partner inside him. Does God have someone inside Himself?

“I suppose if there is someone now hidden in God, then it might follow that one day God shall be hidden in that someone.” (50, emphasis in original)

Incarnation? Does God have a bride?

When God becomes incarnate in Jesus, we see a few episodes that suggest brides or partners. So at the miracle of the wedding at Cana, we are reminded that it appeared the best wine was saved for last (John 2:10). But Edwards suggests something more. Perhaps God will be saving His best for last. If the prophets would envy the apostles who got to see Jesus (cf. Luke 10:24), will those living through the end times be even more enviable?

When Jesus forgives the prostitute who washes His feet at Simon the Leper’s house, Jesus says “Go, and sin no more” (cf. Luke 7:48-50). Edwards has her say: “I am cleansed…and I shall sin no more. But I shall never…never…go away.” (124)

There is so much more. We are reminded from time to time not only of what Jesus did, but that a love relationship like a marriage relationship grows. “She is learning to love me,” says Jesus (230) the way we have to learn to love our spouses as the marriage matures.

We get a sense of the spiritual battles Jesus fought—when He cast out demons, yes, but especially on the cross. But why the battle? For His bride. There is perhaps even a greater mystery than the incarnation: not God hidden in man, but man hidden in God:

“And now, at long last, I will reveal to you—from ages unknown—the Mystery hidden in God.” (185 emphasis and capitals in original)

This is a profound mystery. Read Colossians where it is written:

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3)

We humans usually see this meaning something like God is our hiding place, where we can run to protection. But Edwards is suggesting something more profound: that to God we are like Adam’s rib, hidden in Him and a part of Him in some profound way like the way a husband and wife are one.

The Divine Romance is exquisitely written with lines of poetry interspersed from time to time. Even much of the prose is poetic. It deeply demonstrates God’s eternal plan for man from His perspective. Read it and be moved. Read it and be very blessed.

David Day. An Encyclopedia of Tolkien. Canterbury Classics, 2019.

Yes, An Encyclopedia of Tolkien is a reference book. But unlike most reference works, this is a book your reviewer read from cover to cover (well, not the endnotes or index). It is truly a literary approach to the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. Anyone interested in the inspiration and main themes of his work, this is your book.

The entries are about evenly divided between items that appear in Tolkien’s legendarium and items that inspired or influenced his work. For example, we read about Galadriel, Middle-Earth, and Aulë. We also encounter entries about White Ladies from Welsh mythologies, Midgard (Middangeard) from Norse and Anglo-Saxon legends, and the trio of Hephaestus, Vulcan, and Wayland legendary smiths from Greek, Roman, and Norse myth—the characters and places from older works that inspired the elf queen, the land, and the skilled smith from the Tolkien tales.

This is not a dictionary or glossary. The appendices that appear in the Christopher Tolkien edited works such as The Silmarillion or Unfinished Tales contain those. The entries here may describe the character, place, or theme from Tolkien’s work but the focus is on the literary connection and significance.

In other words, if you want to find out what Galadriel did or who she is, you will have read the applicable works. In her case, she appears in The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion (“The Rings of Power”), and Unfinished Tales. What An Encyclopedia of Tolkien tells us is that she is an immortal elf queen, daughter of Finarfin and ruler of Lothlórien. Its appendix lists the works of Tolkien where she can be found. It also names works that Tolkien read that may have inspired her creation.

Throughout the book we are reminded that Tolkien was a Medieval scholar. He was familiar with both the tales and the history of Europe during that time period. So, yes, there are entries about the Ring Cycle, King Arthur stories, and the Kalevala. There are entries about the Holy Roman Empire and the Battle of the Catalaunian Fields of A.D. 451.

That battle in what today is northeastern France put an end to the expansion of the empire of Attila the Hun. The empire would fall apart altogether a few years later after Attila’s death. The victory was caused by an alliance of traditional enemies, the Romans and the Visigoths, who understood that the Huns were a threat to both of them. Tolkien based his battle of Celbrant described in The Two Towers on this historical event.

A recurring theme is that Tolkien sought to improve or make more interesting some of the Medieval tales (or tales set in Medieval times). For example, he thought the prophecy in Macbeth about Birnam Wood coming to Dunsinane Castle was sketchy. After all, it was not the woods itself that moved, but simply cut branches used for camouflage. What if there were really actual trees that moved? That is where the Ents come in. By the way, The Encyclopedia of Tolkien does share derivations of many words Tolkien invented. Ent in Anglo-Saxon means “giant.”

Jewel and ring legends were popular throughout Medieval Europe. Tolkien clearly was inspired by the rings of the Volsungaga and Niebelungenlied as well as the Sampo of the Kalevala and even the Holy Grail of the Arthurian tales. Tolkien, according to Day, made his versions more chaste for the most part. He wanted to concentrate on the story, no the sensationalism.

The Appendices have some interesting additions. There are charts listing the ancient Valar of Middle Earth and comparing them with the gods and heroes of the Greek, Roman, and Norse myths. There is a outline of the history of Middle Earth which Day tells us covers 37,000 years. There are descriptions of key battles, some genealogies, and few miscellaneous timelines.

Particularly interesting and helpful to readers and researchers are summaries of the three Norse ring legends: the Volsungsaga, the Niebelungenlied, and Wagner’s Ring Cycle. A fourth essay probably reflects the editor’s own experience in becoming a Tolkien student. It details how The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings became adopted by the hippie counterculture of the sixties. My one reaction to that—there were also many non-hippies and non-peaceniks from that era who enjoyed Tolkien, too.

While there is not exactly a glossary of Middle Earth, the appendix contains a list of people, places, and events with references of where to find them in the Tolkien oeuvre. For example, if we want to read about Galadriel, look in “S Quen, RofP, App; UT II 4; LR II 7,9; III 6, V 2, App. A.” In other words The Silmarillion (“Quenta Silmarillion,” “On the Rings of Power,” and the Appendix); Unfinished Tales Part 2 Section 4; The Lord of the Rings, Book 2 chapters 7 and 9, Book 3 chapter 6, Book 5 chapter 2, and Appendix A. There are many more names in the list than entries in the encyclopedia’s body. Day uses the abbreviations to save much space as many reference works do.

Clearly, there is much more. Use The Encyclopedia of Tolkien for research, literary studies, background, and references in the Tolkien legendarium. There is a lot to it.

Spencer Quinn. Mrs. Plasky’s Revenge. Forge, 2023.

I recall reading about a performance of Hamlet done for students in the upper elementary grades. True, some of the philosophical musings and allusions went over the audience’s heads. But they applauded vigorously when Hamlet stabbed King Claudius. We all understand revenge. It is sweet.

Well, Mrs. Plasky’s Revenge is hardly Hamlet or The Sons of Katie Elder. Imagine a version of Ocean’s Eleven written by Alexander McCall Smith. Quinn is known here for his mysteries narrated by pets, notably Chet the Dog in the Chet and Bernie mysteries. Mrs. Plasky’s Revenge is not like that.

There is some humor, but not like Chet. Romanian teen Dinu is trying to learn American English from an English tutor whose brother has emigrated to America. His tutor speaks:

“My point,” he went on, “is that no American says ‘it is I.’ They say ‘it’s me.’ The grammar is wrong but that’s how they say it. You must learn the right wrong grammar. That the secret of sounding American.”

“How will I learn?”

“There are ways. For one you could go to YouTube and type in ‘Country Music.’” (2)

There are little things like that interspersed in what is otherwise a serious story. Later in the story, for example, Dinu mentions a coal miner’s daughter. He has been listening to Country Music!

If you have ever seen the old television show Columbo, you might get a sense of how this tale unfolds. Viewers saw the crime being committed in the opening scene. We knew right from the beginning who committed the crime. It is no mystery to the audience. The enjoyment is watching Detective Columbo trap the criminals. So here, we know whodunit from the first page.

In Mrs. Plansky’s Revenge, however, the word trap might be too strong. Discover or even stumbles upon work better. She is a naïve who get ripped off by a common scheme. A retired widow, she gets a phone call from someone claiming to be her grandson Will. Will has been arrested and needs bail money. She falls for the story and sends money to a “Safemo” account.

The next day she learns that both her bank account and her investment account have been cleaned out to the tune of 3.8 million dollars. (She and her late husband had successfully sold an invention of theirs—the toaster knife, a knife that slices bread and toasts it at the same time.)

Her banker and broker get the authorities involved right away. While the FBI agent understands what has happened and maybe has an idea of where the crime originated, there is little they can do because of the politics and diplomatic matters with Russia and Eastern European countries.

After doing some downloads from her cell phone, the authorities determine that it is likely the call came from Romania. The second half of the book, then, takes Mrs. Plasky to Romania. She does get her revenge—not in the way Hamlet or Mrs. Elder’s sons get theirs, but she manages to muddle through to a somewhat satisfying conclusion.

The reason I earlier stated that the tone is somewhat like Alexander McCall Smith’s is that it is lighthearted, humorous in places, and even the bad guys are really not that bad. We also get a somewhat sympathetic view of Romania and post-Communist Eastern Europe in general. Do not expect anything like another Chet and Bernie or even Archie and Queenie. Mrs. Plansky learns two Romanian words: frigorific and noroc. Frigorific means “cold.” She is there in the winter. Noroc means “luck.” That is the essence of the tale.

Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers. 1836-1837; Amazon, 2012.

The Pickwick Papers was Charles Dickens’ first novel, if you want to call it a novel. If this were the only novel he wrote, it would probably still be remembered. It certainly does not have the force of some of his later work, but it has a cast of appealing characters and some tight fixes. However, do not expect a plot to run through the whole book.

Dickens wrote The Pickwick Papers as a series for a magazine with each episode of two or three chapters coming out every month for over a year. Most of the same characters, notably Mr. Samuel Pickwick, appear throughout and have an array of interesting and usually humorous experiences as they travel around the English countryside. It would be comparable to a television situation comedy in which most episodes stand by themselves, though there are some plot threads that run through several episodes. And like many such comedies, the writers will throw in a few serious episodes as well.

The reason that it would still be remembered today even if it were Dickens’ only work is that it sketches everyday life of Englishmen during the time it was written. Mr. Pickwick is a retired middle class and middle aged businessman who gathers a few mostly younger men around him to enjoy life. They travel from place to place through Kent, north to Birmingham west to Bath, and to various places in the vicinity of London. Usually they stay in inns or taverns. I was reminded of a line from A Tale of Two Cities: “Those were drinking days.”

We meet various people in these different places from paupers to nobles. Mr. Pickwick seems mostly to be a good judge of character, but even that virtue can get him into scrapes. Dickens clearly was drawing somewhat on his experience as a court reporter as well as his father’s experience with debtors’ prison. Most of the lawyers in the story do not come across especially well.

One lawyer explains that in a court of law, especially with juries, “much depends upon effect.” (6449) We think of various trials in Dickens’ later work such as the trials of Magwich and Compeyson in Great Expectations or the various trials in A Tale of Two Cities, among other works of Dickens.

One episode seems especially noteworthy in today’s political climate. They visit a town where two men are standing for election to parliament. The two newspapers in town take opposing views—not just on the candidates but on everything. The two parties, called the Blue and the Buff, both claim the other is far too extreme and stand for the end of civilization as we know it. A Blue politician refers to his opponents as “ultra Buff.” (10811) In other words, things have not changed much.

Besides politicians and lawyers, there are people from a variety of other occupations. The stingy beadle in The Pickwick Papers, for example, may remind some readers of Mr. Bumble in Oliver Twist.

While much of the tale propels Pickwick and his buddies forward, there are also chapters where people tell stories, some allegedly true, others clearly more parabolic. While the whole novel is sometimes called picaresque because it is a tale about travels from place to place, the inserted stories suggest part of The Pickwick Papers could be called a frame story. Indeed, one chapter is titled “The Stroller’s Tale,” a nod to The Canterbury Tales.

One character in one of the tales is guilt-wracked and imagines insects and all kinds of tortures upon himself. We are told “he struggled madly for life.” (654) I recall in college being told that Dickens would influence Dostoyevsky. While the Russian’s works are much more serious than The Pickwick Papers, reading episodes like this tells us not only that Dickens understood people, but we can see the influence of such novelistic psychology in most of the works of Dostoyevsky. Think of Svidrigailov’s vision of hell as being full of spiders in Crime and Punishment.

There are at least two stories of evildoers repenting and changing their lives. While they might not be as well known as Ebenezer Scrooge, we can see that Dickens did hold out hope for the possibility of change. In one case the change comes about because Mr. Pickwick treats one of the criminals in a manner which he does not deserve but which surprises him and brings about a change of heart.

One character, who ultimately has no change of heart, sounds a lot like the pre-conversion Scrooge: “[H]e’s a malicious, bad-disposed, vorldly-minded, spiteful, windictive creetur, with a hard heart as there ain’t no soft’nin” (9205). Still two of Pickwick’s converts “became, in time, worthy members of society” (11949). (Like Joe Gargery, some of the characters here have Kentish accents.)

One sketch describes someone trying to explain the game of cricket. I had to laugh because I do not understand it, and neither did the listeners in the Dickens story. But many folks do not understand baseball or American football, either. I did note that even back then, cricket players from the West Indies were admired, though I suspect that the term Windies for them came later.

There are also a couple of ghost stories. One is a very wild one about a man’s uncle who is taken for a ride on a ghostly stagecoach and saves the life of a beautiful woman. I suspect this may have been some part of English or Scottish oral tradition that Dickens picked up on. Dickens’ most famous ghost story would come later—and it involves the change of heart of a wicked man, but he is taken on some ghostly rides as well.

There is at least one episode with a tender, moving—some would say exploitative—scene of a dying child, something Dickens would become known—or notorious—for.

There is also one scene that may have been inspired by an earlier novel. There is a somewhat wild card party. While the Pickwick Club often has parties to eat and drink, the card party was exceptional. It may have echoes of the card party in Maria Edgeworth’s Belinda, though scandalous in a different way.

Because the Pickwick Club spends a lot of time eating and drinking, we hear some likely exaggerated stories about food and drink. There is the story of a sausage maker that sounds a lot like it could have been based on the oral tradition of the Johnny Brubeck” song. Another man is described as “purveyor of cat’s meat to the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs.” (6894)

The Pickwick Papers also satirizes the medical profession. Going back at least to Chaucer, it seems as though physicians are not always portrayed well in literature, at least until the twentieth century. That may well be because a lot of medicine was hit or miss. One of the medical professionals was known as Nockemorf (“knock ‘em off”).

Another “scientist” is flattened in a humorous attempt of one of the Pickwick Club members to meet a sheltered young lady. The scientist would later ascribe this as a new discovery about the properties of lightning which “which caused him to be considered a light of science ever since” (8382). This reader was reminded of Mark Twain’s satires of science such as we find in Life on the Mississippi and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.

While there is much good humor, we can see there is also quite a bit of seriousness as well. After all, we come across injustice, death, crime, con artists, and even false accusation and imprisonment. Still the drama ends happily, not unlike a Shakespeare comedy. After all, by the end of the approximately two year span of the novel three young couples have been married. Because it is a novel and not a play, they do not all get married at the same time as the couples in As You Like It or A Midsummer Night’s Dream do, but it is still fun, and we are happy for them.

If the reader accepts the serial format of The Pickwick Papers, there is a lot to enjoy from this tale. It might remind us that in spite of the hardships, even prison time, there is a lot to enjoy in life.

N.B.: References are Kindle locations, not page numbers.