Quick Book Reviews Blog

The Meditations of Pedro Luis Adames Valdez The topic of religion is one that's becoming increasingly contested with the advent of globalization as it became apparent that there are many more faiths out there than meet the eye. Each and every one has its own belief system and designations, with a few being much more heavily-proliferated and discussed than others, namely Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

The meaning of life is probably the oldest question we've been struggling with, one to which the majority of us don't expect to find an answer to, not any time soon at least. The lines of thought vary greatly why each and every one of us lives, ranging from the fulfilment of a unique destiny to complete meaninglessness and nihilism. Some of the greatest thinkers, however, never give up on the question and strive to uncover the essential element behind our reason for being... and thankfully, many of them happen to be authors, like the renowned Paulo Coelho.

Up until the 20th century it can be said that the evolution of music was relatively slow, with certain genres and composition styles staying popular for decades upon decades, if not centuries. For instance, classical music has been evolving for hundreds of years while countless folk songs have gone unchanged since the dawn of time.

The world as we have come to perceive it on a daily basis is something we refer to as reality, something that we take for granted and established. We cannot even fathom the idea that things are not as they appear to seemingly all of us, and yet that is the underlying philosophy of a warrior that hunts for knowledge: what they perceive is referred to as a description of the world, rather than being a reality.

To begin with, I feel I must open with the statement that this series of books by Castaneda needs to be read in the order they were published in; otherwise, you are going to have a hell of a time comprehending, analyzing, following and being entertained. If you haven't read The Teachings of Don Juan yet, I would suggest you begin your journey into this wondrous world over there.

There are numerous versions of the Bible currently in circulation in our world, and if we talk about holy books in general, there is no telling how many there are and the number of variations they come in. Apart from those who fervently hold the belief that the Bible was passed down verbatim from God to Man and everything in it is to be taken as a literal truth, most of us realize that the Bible we know today is a far cry from what it was at the outset.

Though religion can certainly instruct people to live on a righteous path filled with love and kindheartedness, when taken too far it can very well lead to tragedy. In Under the Banner of Heaven Jon Krakauer focuses on the religious communities in America isolated from the rest of the world, mostly Mormon fundamentalists.

It is no secret that on this planet, the majority of people follow some kind of religion out of faith rather than proof. The many spiritual realities people have come to believe do not seem to require any kind of concrete evidence or proof, at least in the traditional sense. The whole thing relies on faith, and there are many people out there, more logically-oriented ones, who discard any beliefs which cannot be demonstrated in the physical world.

Those of you who know John Hagee probably either hate him or love him. He is the very opinionated senior pastor of the Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, and recently he has written a book titled Four Blood Moons . Before venturing onwards, I should warn you that the book I am going to discuss is nonfiction and pertains to the reality of those who belong to Christianity .

We read plenty of books throughout our lifetimes, and sadly, most of them end up being forgettable, with only the titles being retained by our minds. However, very rarely, we end up stumbling on a piece of writing that touches us to the very core, challenging our perceptions of the world and making us rethink about what is in front of our very eyes. For me, The Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda is such a book.

The First Phone Call from Heaven is a rather unique and peculiar novel written by Mitch Albom, focusing on the citizens of a small town who have allegedly started to receive phone calls from those in the afterlife. As far as the people are concerned, the calls seem real enough and there is not a single indication that it may, in fact, be a hoax.

An ad is placed in the paper, telling only of a teacher seeking pupils. A disillusioned writer applies, only to come face to face with a surrealistic creature in the shape of a gorilla, named Ishmael.  The book itself, also titled Ishmael , written by Daniel Quinn, is the story of how the writer and the gorilla telepathically debate through a philosophical dialog on various aspects, morals, actions, events and beliefs of human history, trying to get at the core of our problems, and how we may yet salvage ourselves.

Perhaps we will never figure out how this universe works and what precisely, if anything at all, governs over our fates, but we certainly have a lot of time left to figure things out, and David Wilcock has attempted to take us one step closer to the truth with the help of his book titled The Synchronicity Key .

In the scientific world there are two main flow courses: there is mainstream science, and there is fringe science. What differentiates the two is that it is believed that mainstream science is more grounded in facts and reality while fringe science is about the exploration of the wilder theories about this universe.  For this reason, many do not take fringe science seriously, but the way I see it, The Source Field Investigations by David Wilcock will change all of that. 

Jesus of Nazareth is arguably one of the most important historical figures on this planet, for he contributed more than anyone to the creation and spread of Christianity . Those who follow on of Christianity’s religious paths see Jesus as the son of God, a savior who preaches peace, compassion and understanding. For what I am about to discuss here it is important to make a distinction between Jesus as a historical figure, and Jesus as a religious figure; the former one refers to the man who existed in first-century Palestine, while the latter one refers to the meaning attributed to him in religion.

Quite recently it seems that a bigger division was created between “believers” and “non-believers” (for lack of better words), mainly due to Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett who basically started the anti-religion wars by scrutinizing the beliefs people have been holding dear to heart for over a thousand years now.  Though many people like to think of Richard Dawkins as a bully, it cannot be denied that the man seeks to learn the truth through the scientific method, and in his book The God Delusion , he examines the whole concept of religion through the scientific lens.

The Rite by Matt Baglio, also made into a movie with Anthony Hopkins, is a harrowing and yet captivating look into the darker side of the Christian faith, namely, exorcism . The book’s author, Baglio, is actually a journalist who followed Father Gary Thomas from California all the way to the Vatican, where he was trained in the rite of exorcism.  In other words, this is a book where Baglio basically chronicles what it is like to become an exorcist, digging deep into an aspect of religion most of us know best through Hollywood fantasies.

First off, I’m going to say that even though I do believe that there is some kind of higher power out there, I’m not a religious person. Though I was baptized as an Orthodox Christian , I decided to stop following the teachings of religious groups (mostly due to the club mentality of it all), attempting to find out the truth for myself.  Regardless of what I have found and come to believe, I cannot help but pay attention to The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren, the second most published book on Earth, after the Bible of course. It focuses on giving an answer to a question most of us have probably pondered time after time without results: what is our purpose in life, and how do we live it?

I believe that regardless of what it is we are doing with our lives, every single person on Earth has the same goal: to achieve happiness. Naturally, what makes a person happy is really something which ought to be studied case-by-case, but the fact remains that we are all chasing after a certain feeling. If you are anything like me, then chances are moments of happiness serve as interludes to a great, long-lasting period of problems and frustrations.

Those of us who know about Scientology content ourselves by referring to it as that crazy religious sect with beliefs so out-of-this-world that it’s not even funny. More prominently, there are a few celebrities, such as Isaac Hayes and Tom Cruise , who have openly embraced the Church of Scientology, which did make a few of us raise our brows in disbelief.