Book Review: The Mirror & The Light by Hilary Mantel

The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After achieving the ending of one marriage to allow another and doing it again, Thomas Cromwell seemed to be at the height of his power in the court of Henry VIII so of course it wouldn’t last. The Mirror & The Light is the final installment of Hilary Mantel’s historical fiction trilogy on the rise and fall of Thomas Cromwell detailing the last four years of his life from Henry’s marriage to Jane Seymour to Cromwell’s own execution.

Beginning immediately after Anne Boleyn’s execution, Mantel follows Cromwell’s rise in power and wealth while dealing with Henry VIII and the old noble families that look down their nose towards him. While Mantel is detailed is going in-depth over the course of Cromwell’s last four years from politics to legal issues and finally his personal life, however this was also a detriment as well due the book being 754 pages which almost doubled the previous installment and was the longest book of the trilogy. While the length did get to me a few times, I did appreciate Mantel weaving Cromwell’s complex relationships with Henry VIII, the old nobility, the rising families, and other lowborn men on the make that had inhabited the trilogy especially when it came to his sudden downfall. Overall, this was a fitting conclusion to a historical fiction trilogy about statesman who was a proponent of the English Reformation whose political power has been either dismissed or debated by historians over the course of history.

The Mirror & The Light while lengthy, brings Hilary Mantel’s historical fiction trilogy of Thomas Cromwell to a satisfying conclusion and was worth the time reading.

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Book Review: A Prophetic Gift: Connecting People with God by Anna M. Galeniece

A Prophetic Gift: Connecting People with God by Anna M. Galeniece
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The gift of prophecy is one of the 28 Fundamental Beliefs of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church especially given how it has impacted the history of the denomination. A Prophetic Gift: Connecting People with God by Anna M. Galeniece is the companion book of the Adult Sabbath School Bible Study (4th Quarter 2026) which focuses on the prophetic ministry of Ellen G. White. This book is not like other companion volumes connected with the Adult Sabbath School Bible Study which bring out something further in each chapter to go with the corresponding lesson. Instead, this book exclusively looks at White’s prophetic ministry from how she was called, how she received and delivered messages from God, how she is to be related to those prophets that wrote books of the Bible or were written about as well as those only mentioned in Biblical passages, how she is to be read and understood today, and many more over 13 chapters spread over 128 pages. Honestly this unique and different way of doing the companion book was a very good read, it also doesn’t need to supplement a Bible Study or anything else as it can be standalone read for anyone interested in the topic.

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Book Review: Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard

Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The “Binding of Isaac” in Genesis 22 is a story that has brought about great theological commentary in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam sources throughout the centuries then in the 19th Century it was treated to a philosophical commentary. Fear and Trembling is a philosophical work by Søren Kierkegaard who under the pseudonym Johannes de silentio examined the tension between ethical duty and faith though an analysis of Abraham’s psychological state on the journey to Moriah.

Kierkegaard core claim is that whether using ancient Greek philosophy, which was the closest to the time of Abraham, or Hegelian philosophy, then predominant within Europe, it is impossible to understand Abraham. His argument is that faith either transcends ethical reasoning or doesn’t exist, with him coming down in favor of the former. Kierkegaard uses various methods to come to an answer over the majority of the 108 pages of text which start of strong but as they progress grow confusing and at points makes one wonder if he’s going off on an unrelated tangent because he had an idea then tried to bring it back to the topic. I first learned about Kierkegaard in a Church History course in relation to his influence on Protestant theology and only learned later this work was influential in the development of existentialist philosophy, upon reading it I can see why both are true to an extent which makes me concerned about some Protestant theology now and worried about dipping my nose into existential philosophy in the future.

Fear and Trembling is Søren Kierkegaard explanation of his personal view of religion which was foundation in the creation of the philosophy of religion as well existentialism.

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Book Review: America Enters the World by Page Smith

America Enters the World by Page Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The succession of the nation’s youngest President kicked started a new era not only for the country but the Presidency as well, progressivism and reform come to the forefront of people’s minds. America Enters the World: A People’s History of the Progressive Era and World War I is the seventh volume of Page Smith’s A People’s History series covering American history starting in 1901 through the early 1920s which sees the continuing capital-labor conflict even as Theodore Roosevelt brings reform in his wake only for the reforming spirit to move to the Democratic party under Woodrow Wilson who leads the country into Great War.

In the near quarter-century covered in this volume that saw a massive change in governmental institutions, place of the United States on the world stage, and the continued battle between capital and labor that at first seemed to give labor some help only for the fallout from the Great War to make capital “patriots”. Smith emphasized Theodore Roosevelt throughout this volume, even how he was a thorn in Woodrow Wilson’s side when he came to the fore and became the primary focus. While Roosevelt and Wilson were emphasized, Smith when it focused on the capital-labor conflict focused on who he believed previous historiography did not focused enough on, namely those labor and radical leaders who crisscrossed the country to various strikes and other events to represent the working man or call for a change social justice. The American entry into the war and the Bolshevik takeover resulted in these individuals becoming “enemies” especially by the full propaganda weight the business community put behind it. Through almost 1100 ages of text, Smith’s writing brings to life the start of the 20th Century in a similar but also new way than other general histories. Like all previous volumes, Smith looks at art, culture, and various groups within American life during this time, for the first it seems that all are in some part connected to the big national themes he covers and only later goes into more detail into.

America Enters the World sees the launch of the influence of the United States beyond the Americas into Europe itself even while at home reform and progressive achieve a wave of support. Page Smith brings out in detail the events of these times and gives the reader a lot to behold over two plus decades of history.

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Book Review: First and Second Corinthians by Adenilton Aguiar

First and Second Corinthians by PhD Adenilton Aguiar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Corinth in the 1st Century wasn’t the best place to plant a church but Paul did, however that didn’t mean things were easy and Bible contains two epistles by Paul to the Corinthian church. First and Second Corinthians by Adenilton Aguiar is companion book of the Adult Sabbath School Bible Study (3rd Quarter 2026) which explores the problems that the Corinthian church and Paul’s solutions for them. Aguiar divides his analysis over 13 chapters with the first focused on Paul’s founding of the church as seen in Acts, the next seven chapters were focused on First Corinthians, and the last five chapters on Second Corinthians. Throughout the 128 pages, Aguiar gives the reader not only context but goes in-depth on a topic in each chapter that Paul wanted the Corinthians to understand in the portion of the book that particular chapter covers.

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Book Review: Lore Olympus Volume Eight by Rachel Smythe

Lore Olympus: Volume Eight by Rachel Smythe
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Persephone’s trial concludes and the fallout for Olympus, the Mortal Realm, and the Underworld are dire even before the reemergence of a titanic threat. Lore Olympus Volume Eight by Rachel Smythe finds Zeus looking to solve the problem that Persephone’s existence has brought about only for things to get extremely more complicated before the return of an ancient evil.

Covering episodes #180-206 of her webcomic, Smythe gives every reader the hope that everything will turn out okay only for her to pull the rug out from under their expectations and dooming her protagonists to forced separation. The fallout is chaos in all three realms especially as it allows Kronos to escape Tartarus and attempt to get his hands on a fertility goddess, which becomes easy when Persephone defies Zeus’ sentence to travel to the Underworld only for her to “eat the pomegranate” and upend the Titan’s coup attempt. Smythe’s artistic work continues to be top notch throughout the book, especially as Persephone’s character changed in various ways. This volume saw a lot of the secondary and side characters get some focus as Persephone’s banishment had an influence across the realms in various ways, as of now I’m fine with the lesser amount of time the two major protagonists were given due to the way the narrative was going at this juncture however given how the volume concluded that better be reversed. Overall, I found this volume a good read, getting through it quickly when I allowed myself the time to read it, and frankly Persephone’s design as Queen of the Underworld was worth the wait.

Lore Olympus Volume Eight sees Rachel Smythe swerve the expectations of her readers with how she charted the narrative only to give them the moment they’ve been wanting to see since the series started, an entertaining and satisfying misdirection.

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Book Review: Ring of Fire by David Mack

Ring of Fire by David Mack
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A research station situated close to a star that is slowly losing mass to a black hole is getting sabotaged and the closest Federation starship is the Enterprise. Ring of Fire by David Mack is the fourth book featuring the characters from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds in a novelization surrounding one of the latest Star Trek series.

Taking place between the third season episodes “The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail” and “What is Starfleet?”, the book follows the crew going to investigate sabotage and then murder on a suspicious Daystrom Institute research station whose research is “classified” by Starfleet. There are a lot of cliché elements introduced early on that the reader can easily figure out about how the overall narrative was going to progress; however, Mack’s writing made the “predictable” worth reading. As a fan of the show, I thought Mack wrote the characters well and nothing seemed strange. A highlight of the book was giving Erica Ortegas a prominent role as acting XO, which given that the show took nearly three seasons before giving her a dedicated episode is somewhat telling with the showrunners. There were some things that were annoying with the first being that unfortunately for Mack this was the second novel adaptation in a row that dealt with a temporal issue of some kind, the second was that Mack continually used the character’s last names which was very unlike the show for a lot of them. It was a good read, however it didn’t really “pop” for me.

Ring of Fire by David Mack is a good read and fits into the chronology of the third season when it’s set, though there were a few things that didn’t click for me.

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