Following Jesus by N. T. Wright
Non-Fiction: Christianity. Paperback from Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.. Published in 1994. 114 pages. On loan from the Kent District Library, Grand Rapids Main Branch. 
N. T. Wright always offers me new concepts to consider, and this book was no exception.
Publisher's summary:
"The longer you look at Jesus", writes N. T. Wright, "the more you will want to serve him in his world. That is, of course, if it's the real Jesus you're looking at."
Plenty of people in the church and outside it have made up a "Jesus" for themselves, an invented character who makes few real demands on them. He makes them feel happy from time to time, but he doesn't challenge them, doesn't suggest they get up and do something about the plight of the world -- something the real Jesus had an uncomfortable habit of doing.
N. T. Wright has already written about the search for Jesus in his book Who Was Jesus? In Following Jesus Wright talks about the "so what?" that necessarily follows from that search.
The twelve exhilarating meditations in this volume explore what it truly means to follow Jesus today. Wright first outlines the essential messages of six major New Testament books -- Hebrews, Colossians, Matthew, John, Mark, and Revelation -- looking in particular at their portrayal of Jesus and what he accomplished in his sacrificial death. He then takes the six key New Testament themes -- resurrection, rebirth, temptation, hell, heaven, and new life -- and considers their significance for the lives of present-day disciples.
To view on amazon.co.uk, click here: Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship
on amazon.com, click here: Following Jesus: Biblical Reflections on Discipleship
and on Audible.com, here: not currently available on audio
Since we are on holiday in England, I've been borrowing from Pauline's bookshelf. Since I had thought that I might like to read the next in the Isabel Dalhousie series, I picked this one up, thinking to see if it would improve any with the next book. I didn't look carefully enough though, and this book is a different set of characters, and not even a "detective' novel. I read it all the way through, though I was tempted to just give up a couple of times and got to the point I was just skimming whole pages to see if anything happened in the way of plot advancement. It was equally slow. Smith does do a lot of philosophizing and makes some good points. But, it was heavy on the philosophy and low on action.
I was not overly impressed with this book. It took a long time to go next to nowhere. I liked the characters well enough, but the only appearance of a Philosophy Club was a couple of mentions of how the group never got together anymore. However, if there is another in this series, I might give it a try.
Publisher's summary:
This title came to my attention through a post on 
This is Book Four of A Song of Ice and Fire. I listened to the audio versions of the first three of these, and was looking forward to listening to this fourth installment. When I went to buy it I noticed that they had used a different narrator than the previous three. In the comments section people were complaining that the new narrator didn't pronounce the names in the same way as the original reader and generally did not come up to the same standard. I decided instead to try reading this one instead of listening. So, I'm not sure if my dissatisfaction with this volume comes from not having the superb narration of Roy Dotrice and having to rely on my own reading skills, or if the story wasn't as good. I didn't really feel like that much happened. I was vastly disappointed that Martin chose to take about half of the characters out and put their stories into the next book. (Each chapter of this series is from the point of view of a different one the major characters.) This means that it will take twice as long to get to the conclusion of the series, because the next book is not likely to go any further along in the story than the one I just finished. But, Martin had his 
