Arte of Defence: An Introduction to the Use of the Rapier William E. Wilson

Black Dogs Part 1: House of Diamond Ursula Vernon

The Brotherhood of the Disappearing Pants: A Field Guide to Conservative Sex Scandals Joseph Minton Amann and Tom Breuer

By the Sword: A History of Gladiators, Musketeers, Samurai, Swashbucklers, and Olympic Champions ( Read more... )

I'm way behind on my book reviews and pretty far behind on my reading in general, so here's everything from the last four months.

Nurk: The Strange, Surprising Adventures of a (Somewhat) Brave Shrew
Ursula Vernon a.k.a. ursulavYou may recall that I gave Vernon's previous novel Black Dogs: Volume 1 a less than glowing review. I'm happy to report that with ( Read more... )

Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew
Bart D. EhrmanLost Christianities is an excellent beginner's overview of the early sects of Christianity, up to the fourth century. It is presented in three sections, the first examining some non-canonical gospels and other scriptures, the second looking at the beliefs and ( Read more... )

The Gnostic Paul: Gnostic Exegesis of the Pauline Letters
Elaine PagelsThe Gnostic Paul examines gnostic interpretation of the Pauline epistles, particularly on those of the Valentinians. If I had not already done some beginner's level reading on gnosticism, I would not have been able to understand this book, because it uses a lot of gnostic ( Read more... )

Jesus and the Lost Goddess: The Secret Teachings of the Original Christians by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy
This is the middle book of the Jesus Mysteries trilogy, the other two being The Jesus Mysteries and The Laughing Jesus, which I've already read. According the Jesus and the Lost Goddes, the original Christian (a.k.a. the Gnostics) worshiped ( Read more... )

The other night I watched a show on the National Geographic Channel called The Secret Lives of Jesus, about the non-connonical gospels from the Nag Hammadi Library and other sources. ( Warning: Controversial religious discussion )