Blameless in Abaddon, the sequel to Morrow’s award-winning Towing Jehovah, delivers the exact same level of humor, oddities and religion as the first book. Contrary to what we were lead to believe in Jehovah, God is in fact not dead–he is in a coma.
In addition, God’s body is no longer under the control of the Vatican. After falling on hard times, the Catholic regime was forced to sell His body to the Baptist Federation. They have, in turn, made the corpus dei into the main attraction at a new amusement park dubbed Celestial City. If you are already offended, you should probably leave now.
Our protagonist, Martin Candle, enters the book as an eclectic justice of the peace before suffering the death of his wife and the onset of terminal prostate cancer. In true Jobian fashion, Candle decides to fight back against a God he believes has caused endless pain and countless (needless) deaths across the world. After a short struggle, Candle is able to convince the International World Court to hear International 227 Martin Candle vs. God.
Hidden amongst the satire, Candle outlines some very real theodicies concerning our purported creator. Pondering defenses such as “hidden harmony,” lovingly stated as “It is not okay for a father to molest his daughter all Winter as long as he plans on taking her for ice cream in the Spring.” Thought the analogy might be crude, Morrow uses several such analogies to explain theodicies that have been fought over for millenia.
Though considerably long-winded in some sections, and lacking the outright surprises and excitement of Towing Jehovah, Morrow has weaved himself an excellent sequel. The ending will surprise, and possibly alarm, you. As I stated somewhat in my review of Towing Jehovah, do not read this if you’re a biblethumper with no sense of humor. Not only is this satire amusing, it poses some questions about religion and God that every man, woman and child should be asking themselves.
-Chad 2
Currently Reading:
Nothing!! Suggestions? (and God help the first asshole that says Twilight)
I’ve started to throw my Maxim magazines away. To some of you, that may seem like a completely normal thing to do. Not for me, however. Since I started reading Maxim, beginning with the legendary Jennifer Love Hewitt issue in November of 1999, I’ve never thrown a single issue in the trash. No, much to the dismay of my mother and my wife, I’ve painstakingly kept all those old editions boxed up in a closet.
Back in my teenage years, I was receiving over 500 pages of literary genius delivered monthly. Now, with Stuff gone, I’m barely getting 90 pages out of Maxim. If FHM wasn’t an exorbitant $86 a year to subscribe (it is based out of the UK), I’d be on that bandwagon in a heartbeat. I think that my final straw came when Maxim listed Michelle Obama as the 93rd Sexiest Woman in the World, stating that she was a “stimulus package we could all use.” I’m not denying The First Lady is beautiful, nor will I get dragged into that debate, but really? Why is she even on that list? I could find 100 women sexier than her in my own city.
Ben Bova has constructed another space opera centered around the Earth’s only moon. Moonwar, the sequel to Bova’s Moonrise continues the story of one Doug Stavenger. Stavenger stands as the head administrator of Moonbase, a burgeoning colony of men and women set against the harsh backdrop of the moon. Unfortunately, Doug and his team utilize nanotechnology to run their day-to-day operations which has sense been outlawed entirely back on Earth. Now, with the backing of fearful 
I’ve been a loyal reader of A.J. Jacobs since he wrote 
Max Brooks’ career began auspiciously enough with the release of The Zombie Survival Guide. The guide was little more than a cheeky satire about surviving an impending attack by the vicious undead. Intermixed between articles about what weapons to use or how to best counter an attacking zombie were small stories of “real attacks” suffered by humans throughout history. This part of the Guide proved to be so popular that Brooks eventually tasked himself with writing a vision of the world wherein zombies had won.
I actually picked up Jasper Becker’s Rogue Regime: Kim Jong Il and the Looming Threat of North Korea on a whim. I had wanted to learn more about the minuscule dictator and the majority of what I read online or saw on the Daily Show (obviously) was satire. Though every American thinks he is simply a psychopathic ruler, I knew there had to be more to the man that was able to rule an entire country with an iron fist.
Yet another book that I could not wait to purchase the paperback edition, In The President’s Secret Service by Ronald Kessler. I am the sort of person who will read just about anything, especially if I have no prior knowledge of the topic. Thusly when I saw an interview of the author for this book and heard a few of the anecdotes from it, I had to own it. $26 later, I was the proud owner of my next paper weight.
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell may have single-handedly destroyed my faith in humanity. Not because of what is actually written in the book, but more so that it actually made the New York Time’s Bestseller list. The author, Tucker Max describes the book in his own words: “My name is Tucker Max, and I am an asshole. I get excessively drunk at inappropriate times, disregard social norms, indulge every whim, ignore the consequences of my actions, mock idiots and posers, sleep with more women than is safe or reasonable, and just generally act like a raging dickhead.”
After 
Subtitled One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible Literally, AJ Jacobs’ book is quite possibly one of my top ten favorite non-fictions of all time. The story begins when Jacobs begins to consider the social ramifications of the bible and how it is followed in modern day society. Being a self-proscribed Starbucks-drinking secular city boy, the notions presented by the ”good book” are somewhat foreign to the author. Raised in a Jewish household that rarely adhered to stout Jewish beliefs, Jacobs had never experienced devout religion before.
