The Story of Christianity, Volume 1 (Justo Gonzalez)

In the first volume of his history of Christianity, Justo Gonzalez covers the beginnings of the church to the dawn of the Reformation (AD ~30-1500), broken into sections of the early church, imperial church, medieval church, and colonial church.

Summary
Christianity had humble beginnings.  The followers of Jesus Christ were commanded to 'go and make disciples,' and that they did.  Though Christians generally didn't cause any problems for local governments, and their numbers were small, the first few centuries of the church were ones of consistent persecution.  In addition, the early years featured defense/codification of the faith and formation of now-familiar traditions (in church organization and worship).  In the early 300s, everything changed with the conversion of the Roman Emperor Constantine. 

Constantine decreed Christianity the official religion of the Empire.  Now the Church, persecuted for centuries, found itself suddenly in a position of power, which
- tempted the true believers,
- attracted non-believers, and
- tied church and state in a union which would soon prove detrimental to both.
Because the church was an important unifying factor in the empire, the state began to weigh in on theological disputes, with civil interventions into religious matters.  And in the other direction, the heads of the church would become exceedingly powerful over the years, especially in the western Empire, where demise of the state (Rome fell in 476) left a political power vacuum that the church filled.

Many within were displeased with the church's new position of power, and monastic orders- where believers sought to escape and devote themselves to God- arose as a reaction.  Indeed, the church's civic entanglements would lead to no end of problems, and most attempts to reform from within over the medieval centuries failed.  Ultimately, this volume leaves off with the Protestant Reformation on the horizon, which would eventually tear the church (already divided into western Roman Catholic and eastern Orthodox branches) into myriad sects, as it stands today.

Review
This is an excellent read.  It's clear, succinct, fair, informative, fascinating, and well-written.  Gonzalez covers major events and personalities impressively.  Highly recommended for anyone (Christian and non) who wants to understand this highly influential institution and how it obtained its present form.

Rating: A

Cathedral: The Story of Its Construction (David Macaulay)

In Cathedral, David Macaulay walks kids (and adults) through how a cathedral was constructed, using the fictional French Gothic cathedral to do so.  Each page has lavish pen-and-ink drawings (example below) illustrating the text.

This is a wonderful book.  Meant for kids but useful, informative, and enjoyable for all, I may get this to add to our home library.  Not only is Macualay's art impressive, but he helps convey the complexity and challenge of cathedral construction (and associated realities, like stoppages in construction and death of participants, since they took generations to build) in simple terms.  Highly recommended.

Rating: A

Space Base

Today's review is of the 2018 release, Space Base.  For 2-5 players, it takes 30-75 minutes.

Overview
You are a fleet commander, charged with managing your ships efficiently to reap the greatest benefits.  You have room for 12 'active' ships (in slots numbered 1-12), and start the game with one ship in each slot.

On your turn,
- Roll two dice.  Choose whether to use each die individually or together to reap the benefit of the ship(s) in those slot(s).  Example: if you roll a 3 and 5, you can get the benefits of two ships (in slots 3 and 5) or one ship (in slot 8).  Most ships grant gold, influence, or victory points (increasing your values on the three tracks on the bottom of your game board).  Ships have 'active' and 'deployed' values.  The active values (in blue) are larger, but the deployed values (in red) are more likely (see below).
- Purchase a ship.  You can purchase only one ship, and unused gold is wasted (as your gold is reset to your influence value after your turn), so choose wisely!  Purchased ships go in the slot corresponding to their slot value. The ship kicked out of the active slot gets flipped and put above that slot ('deploying' it).

On everyone else's turn,
- Pay attention to the die roll.  Why?  Because your deployed ships can get you stuff no matter who's playing!  For example, let's say you've had three turns, and purchased ships in the 4, 6, and 10 slots.  That means you have three ships deployed above the 4, 6, and 10 slots.  Your opponent rolls a 6 and a 4.  You choose to gain the deployed benefit of either two ships (slots 4 and 6) or one (slot 10).

Play proceeds until one person reaches 40 points.

game in progress; image from here

Review
This is a nice game.  It reminds me of Machi Koro and (a little) bit like Catan, but I prefer this one to both.  The best feature (in my opinion) is the "get stuff every turn" mechanic, which keeps you engaged even when it's not your turn.  My only ding is an apparent snowball effect- it may be difficult to catch the early leader.  That aside, check this out.

Rating: A-

The Metamorphosis (Franz Kafka)

One morning, Gregor Samsa woke up transformed into a giant bug.  His life goes considerably downhill from there until he dies.  That's The Metamorphosis in two sentences.

I wasn't impressed with this (as is likely obvious).  It's a classic, but I don't know why.  Supposedly it's about alienation and loneliness, which makes sense, but it's not presented in a compelling way.  I wanted to feel bad for Gregor, but spent more time dwelling on his condition (and how it happened) than analyzing the symbolism.  Yes, he was rejected, but you'd expect the family to do so- dude's a giant bug.  At least it was short (80 pages).

Rating: C-

Games: Learn to Play, Play to Win (Daniel King)

In Games, chess master Daniel King covers a history of the hobby, followed by brief introductions to:
- board games like Nine Men's Morris, Backgammon, Go, Chess, Mancala, and Checkers
- card games like Rummy, Cribbage, Whist, Spades, Hearts, Blackjack, and Poker

Unfortunately, this book wasn't great; both the history and game overviews felt too short to be useful.  That said, I did learn a few things of interest:
- Go is said to have been invented ~2000 B.C. in China by the Emperor to strengthen the mind of his son; or "it may have developed from a way of predicting the future from the stars"
- Archaeologists have found evidence of board games in ancient Middle Eastern, Indian, and Chinese civilizations; many "appear to have developed from religious ceremonies in which an early type of die was thrown in order to predict the future."
- Backgammon was popular in medieval Europe
- A Book of Games was written in 1282 for the King of Castile, Alfonso the Wise
- "The oldest complete game board was discovered in the royal graves of Ur"
- The royal game of Ur dates back to ~2500 B.C. in the Middle East
- Mancala is African in origin; Chess Asian (the latter dates from around A.D. 600)
- Playing cards "arrived in Europe in the 1370s from the Middle East"; by the 1400s the craze was present in all levels of society

Tidbits aside, this can be skipped.

Rating: C

Castles and Cathedrals (David Hilliam)

Castles and Cathedrals is a short (~50 page) introduction to these massive, important, and beautiful Medieval structures.  Geared towards teens, it looks at how both types of buildings came about and evolved over the centuries, and defines terminology important to understanding their basic components (like 'nave'). 

This was a surprisingly good read.  Fifty pages is hardly enough to be thorough, but Hilliam does a good job providing an overview; this is a solid introduction to those interested in the topic.  For me, I'm hoping to become more informed in my future castle/cathedral visits, understanding and recognizing style(s), features, and time period of construction (rather than my typical reaction: "ooh, that's nice").  This book is a good start.

Rating: A-

Siddhartha (Hermann Hesse)

Young Siddhartha yearns to understand ultimate reality.  An Indian Brahmin, he leaves that path to explore others.  After years as an ascetic, he encounters the Buddha, but soon spurns all teachers to pursue indulgence and pleasure.  Still dissatisfied, he turns to the simple life of a ferryman and learns from the river.*  In his waning years, he concludes that "wisdom cannot be communicated," it must be experienced.  And regarding the world, he feels "the world is perfect at every moment, all sin already contains grace, all youngsters already contain oldsters, all babies contain death . . . everything is good, everything perfect, everything is Brahma."   He argues "that I greatly needed sin, I needed lust, vanity, the striving for goods, and I needed the most shameful despair to learn how to give up resistance, to learn how to love the world, to stop comparing the world with any world that I wish for, that I imagine, with any perfection that I think up; I learned how to let the world be as it is, and to love it and to belong to it gladly."

What?  Oi.  I applaud Hesse for exploring our ultimate meaning, I understand how Siddhartha would try different paths (like Solomon in Ecclesiastes), and it was good to see the character fail and fail again.  But he draws a markedly incorrect conclusion- rather than face the evil in the world, he calls it all good and 'rolls with it.'  And throughout the book is this undercurrent of self- that we can't be taught by others, but it's all about finding the way ourselves (which is an aspect of Buddhism).  Unwise.  Incorrect conclusions aside, this quick read does make one think, so look through it and chew on the concepts discussed.  What gives life meaning?

Rating: C+

*Yes, you read that right.  I don't get it either.