Jack Zulu and the Waylander’s Key is an enchanting adventure in the tradition of Tolkien …
A fantastic down-to-earth fantasy
5 stars
I read this book to my kids (eight and ten years old), and we all loved it! Being fans of S.D. Smith's earlier books, we were intrigued to see that he was writing a book with his son... and there were no rabbits. Despite my initial skepticism, the lack of rabbits in this book in no way held it back. However, the feel of this book is a departure from the Green Ember series, and it might not be for everyone. This book felt like equal parts Stranger Things and Adventures in Odyssey, which is a strange combination, but it works.
As the first book in a new series, the Smiths do an excellent job introducing the characters who will hopefully have many more adventures together. Jack is a kid who appears to have a lot of advantages - he is well-liked, a promising athlete, and a genuine friend. However, …
I read this book to my kids (eight and ten years old), and we all loved it! Being fans of S.D. Smith's earlier books, we were intrigued to see that he was writing a book with his son... and there were no rabbits. Despite my initial skepticism, the lack of rabbits in this book in no way held it back. However, the feel of this book is a departure from the Green Ember series, and it might not be for everyone. This book felt like equal parts Stranger Things and Adventures in Odyssey, which is a strange combination, but it works.
As the first book in a new series, the Smiths do an excellent job introducing the characters who will hopefully have many more adventures together. Jack is a kid who appears to have a lot of advantages - he is well-liked, a promising athlete, and a genuine friend. However, tragedy in his family and the color of his skin mean that his personal life is sometimes an uphill battle. Benny is Jack's goofy best friend and the son of the town's foremost pizza chef. Michelle is a sensitive and caring girl who tries to support Jack in his trials. Mr. Wheeler is a mysterious coveralls-clad groundskeeper/book shop owner/sage warrior. Together, they must overcome a foe who forces them to introspect about their capacity for evil.
An excellent exploration of non-traditional interpretations
5 stars
When I started this book, I wanted to find an open-and-shut case against the type of evangelical complementarianism I grew up with. I did not find that, but what I did find was even better. In this book, Dr. Westfall poses the plausibility of an interpretive grid that allows us to understand Paul as a champion for women's rights and a minister who highlights the Gospel's implication towards our understanding of the role of women. Westfall walks through each of the paradigmatic passages that underpin the complementarian perspective and demonstrates that there are at least equally compelling interpretations that preserve the full equality of women.
When taken together, the interpretations that Westfall puts forth form a picture of Paul as a minister who is primarily concerned with the spread of the Gospel as well as an instructor in the implications that the Gospel has on the social order within the …
When I started this book, I wanted to find an open-and-shut case against the type of evangelical complementarianism I grew up with. I did not find that, but what I did find was even better. In this book, Dr. Westfall poses the plausibility of an interpretive grid that allows us to understand Paul as a champion for women's rights and a minister who highlights the Gospel's implication towards our understanding of the role of women. Westfall walks through each of the paradigmatic passages that underpin the complementarian perspective and demonstrates that there are at least equally compelling interpretations that preserve the full equality of women.
When taken together, the interpretations that Westfall puts forth form a picture of Paul as a minister who is primarily concerned with the spread of the Gospel as well as an instructor in the implications that the Gospel has on the social order within the church. She convincingly demonstrates that Paul pushes against the patriarchal norms of the day to the extent that he can without compromising the mission of the Gospel. He was not primarily the leader of a social revolution, but he knew that his message must eventually bring about social evolution to align with the heart of Christ.4
Given Paul's focus, it is not surprising, asserts Westfall, that Paul still corrects cases of women who were engaging in disruptive behavior or were uniquely responsible for the spread of certain false doctrines. However, she also points out the passages where Paul's instructions to men and women are both distinct and parallel.
I especially appreciated how in the concluding chapter, Westfall makes the point that given the plausibility of egalitarian interpretations and the abuse that has become systematic under complementarianism, we should consider the fruits of our doctrines as an indicator of their faithfulness to Scripture and Scripture's God.
This is an excellent introduction to semantic web technologies that focuses on data modeling and use cases.
What I liked:
Given the target audience of "working ontologists," this book hits the mark. The sequencing of material is logical: the topic is introduced well, using good motivating examples; then the technological details and data modeling principles are introduced such that each chapter builds on prior chapters. Also, the chapters that introduce new semantic web tools and techniques are interspersed with chapters containing extended examples and case studies, so the material is kept interesting, relevant, and well-paced.
Coming into this book, I was familiar with RDF and basic datalog-style inference capabilities, but I only had cursory exposure to RDFS, SHACL, SKOS, and OWL. Now, I have a good understanding of what these technologies are, how they are related, and how they can be used in a semantic web/knowledge graph project.
What could …
This is an excellent introduction to semantic web technologies that focuses on data modeling and use cases.
What I liked:
Given the target audience of "working ontologists," this book hits the mark. The sequencing of material is logical: the topic is introduced well, using good motivating examples; then the technological details and data modeling principles are introduced such that each chapter builds on prior chapters. Also, the chapters that introduce new semantic web tools and techniques are interspersed with chapters containing extended examples and case studies, so the material is kept interesting, relevant, and well-paced.
Coming into this book, I was familiar with RDF and basic datalog-style inference capabilities, but I only had cursory exposure to RDFS, SHACL, SKOS, and OWL. Now, I have a good understanding of what these technologies are, how they are related, and how they can be used in a semantic web/knowledge graph project.
What could be improved:
While the structure and content of the book are good, the low-level editing and production is lacking. There are quite a few typos and minor issues throughout the book, including a couple that are copy/pasted several times. There is also a place where a malformed typesetting directive made it into the book. Also on the topic of typesetting, some of the figures are significantly separated from the text that references them, and in one case, the figures got mis-numbered at some point in the chapter. That said, my main issues are with the production and not the content itself.