Storm Front (The Dresden Files Book 1) by Jim Butcher

Harry Dresden, the central character of sci-fi/fantasy author Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series, is a sort of wizard for hire/private detective. The concept sounds a little silly but Butcher makes it work by invoking the style of the great Raymond Chandler, creator of probably the most compelling and certainly the best written private dick in all of literature, Philip Marlowe.

Like virtually all detective stories the premise of "Storm Front" is a basic murder mystery. Well, almost. In this case, the murder, which soon becomes a series of murders, was done via magic, with the victims hearts spontaneously bursting from their chests. Pretty grizzly stuff but I have to admit it got my attention.

The first few chapters read like a classic detective story however, the book falls off the rails slightly when Dresden starts performing magic. Some of the scenes that involve magic are entertaining in a Harry Potter fashion, while others are just plain hokey. Overall though, I found the book interesting enough to keep me turning the pages and the central, and seemingly reoccurring, characters were likable enough to make me want to read the next book in the series, "Fool Moon."

It also made we want to revisit the works of the great Raymond Chandler which, are required reading for anyone interested in fiction. Chandler was truly one of the great writers of the twentieth century. Jim Butcher is by no means in Chandler's league but "Storm Front" is an entertaining and fun story.

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

If you are unfamiliar with Richard Dawkins, he is a fairly famous evolutionary biologist and an even more famous atheist. The God Delusion is his complex inquiry into the existence of God.

I was drawn to this book after hearing an interview with Dawkins on NPR and, for the most part, found the it compelling. There were, however much I hate to admit it, sections of the book that were a bit over my head or at least more complex than what I signed on for. I'm sure that the author felt like he was explaining Darwin's theories of evolution as if speaking to a child but, he still managed to lose me a few times.

Overall though, the book was an interesting read and I'd have to say that I recommend to anyone who has ever seriously contemplated the existence of God. My personal feeling on the issue has always been that it really doesn't matter whether there's a God or not. The existence or lack of an "after life" holds no motivation for me in my behavior. In this book, Dawkins makes a good case that the tendency of human beings to "be good" if you will, is rooted in Darwin's theories of evolution.

No matter what your religious beliefs, I think anyone with an open mind could learn something from reading this book. Will it make believers into atheists? I doubt it, but it does late out a compelling argument that any believer should be willing to see and respond to.