Things Are Heating Up Between Our Heroes: Books I Read in 2025, Vol. III

 

THE END GAME: A Brit in the FBI Novel
Catherine Coulter and J. T. Ellison

FBI agent Nicholas Drummond and his partner, Mike Caine, are deep into an investigation of COE  -  Celebrants of the Earth  -  a violent group known for widespread bombings of power grids and oil refineries across the country. While the agents investigate a tip about a possible bombing plot, the Bayway Refinery in New Jersey explodes. Nicholas and Mike race to the scene and barely escape being killed by a secondary device. CIA agent Vanessa Grace is undercover in COE; her assignment is to steal the tiny undetectable bombs invented by COE's leader. Someone else has infiltrated COE: the infamous assassin Zahir Damari, whose mission is not only to steal the bombs but also to assassinate the president and vice president.

When I start to read a novel, it's always a challenge to learn the names and relationships of all the characters. And at the beginning of a book like this, you never know how many pages it will be before the person you just created a mental image for is going to get killed...or you find out that they're not that important. Maybe that's why I like reading series of books like this and Longmire and Alex Cross. At least I know who the important good guys are. As for the comment about "things are heating up" in my title, Drummond and Caine go past mutual respect and start experimenting with mutual intimacy this time around. ("Mike" is the nickname of the very-much-female Michaela Caine.) Fun Fact: Each of this book's 82 chapters is titled with one of the 82 moves in "The Game of the Century" between Bobby Fischer and Donald Byrne, played in 1956.

First Line: Zahir Damari watched the coyote turn to face the ragged band of Hondurans on the sloping Texas side of the Rio Grande.

Page 56 / Line 5: He shook his head.

A Good Line from Somewhere in the Middle: So many people in this world filled with hate, so many people who see violence as the only solution, who see murdering other people with dissimilar views as the right thing to do, as the only thing to do.

Last Line: I need your help.

The Unbreakable Boy: You'll Laugh. You'll Cry. You'll Want to Be Like Him

 

THE UNBREAKABLE BOY
A Film by Jon Gunn

"A young boy is born with both a rare brittle-bone disease and autism. But what makes him truly unique is his joyous, funny, life-affirming worldview that transforms and unites everyone around him."

Beloved and I saw the trailer for this when we saw The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever and immediately said to each other, "Yep!"

And we are both very glad we did.

It begins with some voiceover narration by the autistic son, Austin, so you aren't wrong in thinking this is a story about a kid who was born behind the eight ball and how he becomes a great person. And it IS that. But it's also the story of a broken mom and an alcoholic dad and a younger brother who is amazingly well-adjusted. It's about optimism and empathy. It's about...well...it's about the best film I've seen in a while.

And oh yeah...it's a true story.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

I know I said "You'll Cry" in this post's title, but don't get me wrong. This is no sappy "tear-jerker" of a movie. The dampness of my eyes was more a result of joy than anything else.

When we left the theater, I turned my phone back on and immediately started researching Jacob Laval, the actor who portrayed Austin. No exaggeration, he was jaw-droppingly amazing. I seriously think a Best Actor Oscar nomination is in order.

So yes. Yes you should go see this as soon as possible.

Rethinking God: Books I Read in 2025, Vol. II

 

CURVEBALL: When Your Faith Takes Turns You Never Saw Coming, or, How I Stumbled and Tripped My Way to Finding a Bigger God
Peter Enns

World tragedies, devastating personal losses, the incomprehensible vastness of the universe next to the fragility of our planet  -  there's no preparing for the inevitable curveballs blowing past us from all angles. We're often left doubting God, the Bible, our faith, and even ourselves. Many Christian traditions see these crises as problems that need to be overcome, something Peter Enns tried and failed at. But he found help from an unexpected source  -  the Bible itself. Rather than denounce our reservations, the Bible models how we need to face them and wrestle with them. Rethinking faith according to life's evidence is part of God's plan. God wants us to question, because doing so actually leads us to building a stronger, more resilient faith.

I read this alongside a friend who was going through our church's elder apprenticeship. I was told the author was well-known for having "deconstructed" his faith, so I was kind of On Guard as I read this. It was interesting to slowly realize that he NEEDED to deconstruct his faith; it was originally a faith in a small, comprehensible diety that didn't match the Bible's picture of a glorious, infinite, too-wonderful-for-words being of perfect love and justice. The author seems to have had trouble accepting a God who is beyond comprehension, but dabbling in quantum physics seems to have cured him of the worship of his own intellect...and that's a good thing. So...though I started reading this with a readiness to rip it apart, I end it saying to Mr. Enns, "It's about TIME you figured it out that you can't figure it out!"

First Line: I spent much of my life unknowingly abdicating the task of taking full responsibility for my faith.

Page 56 / Line 5: John's Gospel (probably written in the 90s CE) comes somewhat close to this way of speaking, but we generally don't find this language in the New Testament.

A Good Line from Somewhere in the Middle: That is the God I want  -  not the God of my logical deductions, not the God who behaves according to Newton-like, predictable, deterministic, cause-and-effect, theological laws, but the God I cannot control.

Last Line: And what we decide will make all the difference.