Book Reviews by Clif

  Everybody Loses: The Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Gambling by   Danny Funt Clif Hostetler 's review Aug 31, 2026   ·    edit liked it bookshelves:  current-events This book provides a history of sports gambling and reviews the many years through which it was the general consensus that it should not be allowed because it would threaten the integrity of the game. It’s true that illegal betting took place, but that required connections and knowledge and remained largely hidden from the public. The 2018 Supreme Court decision legalizing sports betting brought a dramatic change in direction. Major sports leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL) shifted from opposing gambling to embracing it after discovering the massive profit potential in television and media partnerships. Most States saw it as a way to fill gaps in their budgets so they rushed to legalized sports gambling with little or no concern for the harm it might cause. Now suddenly anyone with a smartp...

  Beyond Deconstruction: Building a More Expansive Faith by   James F. McGrath Clif Hostetler 's review Aug 28, 2026   ·    edit liked it bookshelves:  religion Deconstructing religion is the process of critically examining, questioning, and dismantling the religious beliefs, traditions, and authority structures with which a person was raised. This book is addressed to readers who are in the process of deconstruction or have already done so, and the book's intention is to provide suggested directions other than being the polar opposite of what they used to be (i.e. Atheist fundamentalist instead of Christian fundamentalist).  I've read other books of this genre and my motive to reading this book was to see what sort of approach he took. I'm not the intended audience for this book because I've been exploring the ragged edge of heresy for so many years that this author appears to me to be quite orthodox.  Some excerpts: Rhetoric about a stark e...

  Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews by   James Carroll Clif Hostetler 's review Aug 25, 2026   ·    edit liked it bookshelves:  religion ,  history ,  memoir This book contains a deep dive into the history of Christian/Jewish relations, but it is also part personal memoir by the author sharing his spiritual journey striving to hold on to his Catholic faith that he perceives to be rooted in anti-jewish origins. Thus it is a scholarly written history amplified with a personal perspective that combines to create a compelling reading experience.   The book’s narrative is framed around a beginning and ending which discusses the post-war controversy at Auschwitz where a Christian cross—and for awhile many crucifixes—were erected outside the perimeter of the former death camp. Some Jewish groups took offense at their presence. Near the end of this book the author returns to that controversy and shares his opinion of what should be do...

  Vermeer: A Life Lost and Found by   Andrew Graham-Dixon Clif Hostetler 's review Aug 14, 2026   ·    edit really liked it bookshelves:  biography The Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer has been a challenge for art historians because he created few contemporaneous records within the art market of his own era. Furthermore, his enigmatic paintings never seem to tell a clear story though their beauty and art are compelling. Vermeer’s paintings were largely lost to history for nearly two centuries after his 1675 death until they were rediscovered by Théophile Thoré (1807-1869) who rescued them from oblivion and gave Vermeer the descriptive nickname, the "Sphinx of Delft." Graham-Dixon has achieved insight into the story and meanings of Vermeer’s paintings by researching his neighbors, associates, and patrons. That together with an understanding of the social and political history of the Dutch Republic and its slow progress toward a culture tolerant of numerou...

  The Way We Live Now by   Anthony Trollope Clif Hostetler 's review Jun 22, 2026   ·    edit liked it bookshelves:  novel This book by Anthony Trollope was published in 1875 inspired by financial scandals of the early 1870s though the plot also contains plenty of domestic affairs relating to prospective marriage matchups. Trollope’s "now" (from the book's title) is not so different from our own "now"—preoccupied by money and marriage. This novel can be studied on many levels as the lives of its multiple characters deal with concerns about fraudulent perceptions of wealth, successful and failed attempts of marriage, and a problematic prodigal son.  There are so many story lines in this book that it's easy to loose track of a central theme, but I suggest that Lady Carbury and her two children, Hetta and Felix, are the central characters followed from the beginning of the book to its end. These two adult children are of great concern to Lady Carbury...

  The Calamity Club by   Kathryn Stockett   (Goodreads Author) Clif Hostetler 's review Aug 04, 2026   ·    edit it was amazing bookshelves:  novel The paths of two protagonists, a twenty-four year old woman and an eleven year old girl, are followed in this novel as they do what they have to do in order to survive in the midst of the 1930s depression in Oxford, Mississippi. Their two paths intersect for only a week and a half period as their stories are told in alternating first person narratives, but their stories include many overlapping sets of characters that bring depression era Mississippi to life. This is a big novel (656 pages, 28 hrs and 44 mins audio) informed by sufficient historical research to make note of some social and political realities of the time that now appear to be barbaric. Not only are the economic hardships caused by the depression portrayed, but also included is the injustice of arrest and enforced sterilization of women...