Dale Denton ( of The Sky We Touch)

Dale rated a book really liked it The Way of the Samurai by Inazō Nitobe	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Inazo Nitobe’s The Way of the Samurai, also known as Bushido: The Soul of Japan. Written in 1899 to explain the “Way of the Warrior” to a Western audience, Nitobe drew parallels to European chivalry while detailing the principles of rectitude, courag ...more
Oct 12, 2026 01:21PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Way of the Samurai by Inazō Nitobe. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Way of the Samurai by Inazō Nitobe <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Dale rated a book The Lost Daughter of Sparta by Felicia Day (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This is a different kind of fantasy than the norm. This is very much about myth and legend, especially Homer’s Odyssey, and other surrounding myths. You’re probably aware of this lost daughter’s sisters. You may remember Helen of Sparta, who ran off w ...more
Oct 12, 2026 01:02PM · like · see review
Dale rated a book The Hanged Man (Her Majesty's Psychic Service, #1) by P.N. Elrod	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
It is Christmas Eve in Victorian London, 1879, and there’s a death. More specifically, a hanging. Alexandrina Victoria Pendlebury of Her Majesty’s Psychic Service is called out, going to a house on Baker Street to do a forensic reading of the death s ...more
Oct 12, 2026 12:58PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Hanged Man by P.N. Elrod. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Hanged Man by P.N. Elrod <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Dale rated a book God's Monsters: Vengeful Spirits, Deadly Angels, Hybrid Creatures, and Divine Hitmen of the Bible by Esther J. Hamori	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This book contains both humor and shock value as to what the Bibles ‘monsters’ really are and do, as opposed to how they have been sanitized over the centuries. As to the monsters, let’s start with the seraphim. These are sometimes confused as angels, ...more
Oct 12, 2026 12:52PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of God's Monsters by Esther J. Hamori. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — God's Monsters by Esther J. Hamori <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Dale rated a book really liked it A Dark Traveling by Roger Zelazny	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
First, a bit about the author. Roger Zelazny was an SF, fantasy, and science fantasy writer, whose life was cut short by aggressive colon cancer. He won multiple Hugo awards, was nominated for several others as well as several Nebula awards. He tende ...more
Oct 12, 2026 12:44PM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of A Dark Traveling by Roger Zelazny. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — A Dark Traveling by Roger Zelazny <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Dale rated a book really liked it Accordion Man by Myron Floren	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Accordion Man is an autobiography written by Myron Floren (who else?) and Randee Floren (one of his 5 daughters and a writer), and it includes a foreword by Lawrence Welk. You know the guy. “A one and a two…” Myron Floren was born in 1919 in South Dak ...more
Sep 09, 2026 12:26PM · like · see review
Dale rated a book it was amazing Stamped from the Beginning [Graphic Edition]: A Graphic History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Sep 09, 2026 12:25PM · like
Dale rated a book it was ok The Widow by John Grisham (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
My first John Grisham book, and it was a total disappointment. Long and boring. Everything seemed stereotypical. Main character is a lawyer whose marriage has been on the rocks for years, held together for the kids, and he has a gambling problem. He ...more
May 13, 2026 11:18AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Widow by John Grisham. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Widow by John Grisham <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Dale rated a book it was amazing The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 1 by Martha Wells (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Volume 1 has two novellas, the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novella All Systems Red and its sequel Artificial Condition. If you were wondering, The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements ...more
May 13, 2026 11:17AM · like · see review
Dale rated a book really liked it Paul and Jesus: How the Apostle Transformed Christianity by James D. Tabor	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This was an interesting book. Dr. Tabor’s thesis is that Paul’s letters heavily influenced the Gospels, especially the Synoptic Gospels, overriding the teachings of Jesus’ brother James, Simon Peter, and other Jerusalem-based apostles. Understand that ...more
Mar 11, 2026 03:38PM · like · see review

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Inazo Nitobe’s The Way of the Samurai, also known as Bushido: The Soul of Japan. Written in 1899 to explain the “Way of the Warrior” to a Western audience, Nitobe drew parallels to European chivalry while detailing the principles of rectitude, courag ...more

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The Lost Daughter of Sparta
by Felicia Day (Goodreads Author)

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This is a different kind of fantasy than the norm. This is very much about myth and legend, especially Homer’s Odyssey, and other surrounding myths.
You’re probably aware of this lost daughter’s sisters. You may remember Helen of Sparta, who ran off w ...more

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The Hanged Man (Her Majesty's Psychic Service, #1)
by P.N. Elrod

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It is Christmas Eve in Victorian London, 1879, and there’s a death. More specifically, a hanging. Alexandrina Victoria Pendlebury of Her Majesty’s Psychic Service is called out, going to a house on Baker Street to do a forensic reading of the death s It is Christmas Eve in Victorian London, 1879, and there’s a death. More specifically, a hanging. Alexandrina Victoria Pendlebury of Her Majesty’s Psychic Service is called out, going to a house on Baker Street to do a forensic reading of the death scene. Using her psychic abilities as a Reader, she can pick up on emotional traces left behind, though these fade with time. And, in this case, she can pick up on a total lack of emotions where they should exist.
Between that anomaly and some physical evidence discovered because of this strangeness, she ascertains that this was not a suicide, but a murder. However, there are some things she misses. Because the body faced away, she didn’t see the face of her father, who she assumed was still in the Far East. The other thing she missed was that this was the start of an investigation that would send ripples through the British peerage and uncover a plot against the throne of her not-so-distant relative, Queen Victoria.
Alexandrina, better known as Alex, is part of this peerage, albeit at a relatively low level, with relations on both sides of her family, and is not on the best of terms with any of them, in part due to her abilities and the fact that she works, having essentially been conscripted due to those abilities. Did I say that by the end of the evening, she will also witness the assassination up close of Lord Richard Desmond, third ranking under the Queen and lead of the Psychic Service, which throws the Service and a lot else into a complete tizzie involving the paranormal with bits of steampunk and otherworldliness together for a delightful story.
As told, the language is rich and very British (add markings here). You would not know by the writing that our author, Pat Elrod, resides in nearby Arlington, and is Texan, not English. I’ve read over a dozen of her books prior to this one, and they are all about vampires, including the 10-volume The Vampire Files series as well as others. Things are set up in this book in a manner that I was expecting this to be another vampire book, but was pleasantly surprised to find that I was mistaken. I highly recommend this book as highly entertaining, and while not about Christmas, sumptuous Christmas dinners are in abundance, and sometimes even eaten. ...more

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God's Monsters: Vengeful Spirits, Deadly Angels, Hybrid Creatures, and Divine Hitmen of the Bible
by Esther J. Hamori

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This book contains both humor and shock value as to what the Bibles ‘monsters’ really are and do, as opposed to how they have been sanitized over the centuries.
As to the monsters, let’s start with the seraphim. These are sometimes confused as angels, This book contains both humor and shock value as to what the Bibles ‘monsters’ really are and do, as opposed to how they have been sanitized over the centuries.
As to the monsters, let’s start with the seraphim. These are sometimes confused as angels, but they’re not. They are a network of related creatures, all called by that name. The most famous are described in Isaiah’s vision of God on his thrones, who call to one another “Holy, Holy, Holy!” [6:1], and at the sound of their voices, the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. One touches Isaiah’s mouth with a live coal to burn away his sin.
These seraphim have six wings, two that cover their eyes (protection from God’s radiance), two that cover their…ahem…feet (usual Hebrew euphemism for genitalia), and two to fly with. From artwork from that time, they have serpentine bodies. This seems the constant for all the types of seraphim. Seraph indicates fiery, which is another constant.
Another place we find seraphim, though changed in most English translations, is Numbers 14. The Israelites have wandered the wilderness, and with God declaring that during the forty years, “Your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness!” When they cry out about being brought out of Egypt only to die in the wilderness, God does the Dad thing, saying essentially, “I’ll give you a reason to cry out,” and sends venomous seraphim (or fiery snakes) to bite them (She titled this section Snakes on a Plain). A mass execution by God of his people. This is when Moses (as instructed by God) makes a bronze snake and puts it on a pole, and anyone bitten by the snakes could look at the bronze effigy and live. A God-controlled monster that’ll put the fear of God into you.
After that, in Deuteronomy, Moses exhorts the people to keep God’s commandments “so that they may live.” Not live long, fully, or well. Just live.
Then there are the cherubim. We know them…those cute little baby angels with wings flitting about. Wrong! They were guardians…composite creatures…chimera. Think the human-headed winged lion or human-headed winged bull and you’ll be close.
Let’s go to the Garden of Eden in Genesis. God creates Adam, and tells him “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” Presumably, Adam relays that to the woman once she’s created. The serpent comes to the woman and says to go ahead and eat, and that she (they, actually, since Adam was standing right by her) won’t die, but instead, “you will be like God,[a] knowing good and evil.” She takes a bite. Adam takes a bite. They realize they’re naked.
Next thing you know, God shows up, curses the serpent, the woman, and the man. Then God says, though not to them, “See, the humans have become like one of us, knowing good and evil, and now they might reach out their hands and take also from the tree of life and eat and live forever.” It seems they hadn’t eaten from the tree of life, even though it wasn’t forbidden. Anyway, God verifies everything the serpent said, including that they weren’t dying that day, then kicks them out of the Garden, and “he placed the cherubim and a sword flaming and turning to guard the way to the tree of life.” Cherubim are not cutsie in any way. Oh yeah, and Adam finally names Eve right as they’re getting kicked out. The author compares God at this point to Walter White in Breaking Bad, who puts down everyone “who sees through his innocent façade.”
We next see cherubim when God dictates his dwelling place or tabernacle. Like at Eden, he stations cherubim to guard the holy of holies, the Ark itself has two gold cherubim on top, overshadowing the mercy seat, and that cherubim be embroidered on the partition separating the holy of holies from the rest, and even more onto the outer curtains. In short, the cherubim guard not only places, but places between realms.
Similarly, Solomon puts cherubim in the temple. And no, they’re not angels either.
Now for the adversary, like in Job. God’s there with his divine council (Sons of God), and the adversary comes by. After a brief conversation, God says, “Hey, Job’s a pretty good guy,” and the adversary replies, “Bah, he fears You for nothing. You’ve blessed him and his family too well.”
God says, “Is that so? Well, you now have power over all that he has, just don’t hurt him.” The adversary accepts that power from God, and you know the story. This is one case where it’s not good to be the child of a righteous man.
That doesn’t break Job, and God tells the adversary that he can now torture Job, just not kill him. Short story is, Job never breaks, but the point is that the adversary has to have permission from God to harm.
Now to angels, but without leaving the adversary. Balaam’s donkey. Short story is, Balaam’s donkey balks and turns away three times, and each time Balaam beats the donkey. The donkey balks because he sees an angel with a sword. The angel is sent there by God as an adversary to kill Balaam…for doing exactly what God told him to do. Since the donkey protected Balaam, the angel shows himself and say he now won’t kill Balaam, and he should go ahead and do what God had told him to do. Yeah, I’m confused, too.
More to angels. God sends them as messengers, but also to kill. These are God’s destroyers. It’s an angel who administers the tenth plague on Egypt, the death of the firstborn. “The Lord will pass through to strike Egypt…he will pass over the house marked by blood and will not let the Destroyer come into your houses to strike you.”
A destroying angel punished King David by killing seventy thousand innocent people via pestilence. With Hezekiah, an angel of the Lord slaughters 185,000 Assyrians while they sleep. In Matthew, Jesus says that, “The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin[h] and all evildoers,” and so on. Seven angels releasing plagues in Revelation.
I’m not even halfway through the book. Demons work for God until New Testament Satan (the ultimate Adversary) seems to take them over, but does he? Jesus easily commands them time and time again. There are spirits, including the one who lies for God to King Ahab’s four hundred prophets and to Micaiah, who finally tells him that God is having everyone lie so Ahab will die.
There are sea monsters, the greatest being Leviathan. Most stories tell of God defeating Leviathan, except Job, where God waxes poetic about his love of Leviathan in a manner similar to the poetry in Song of Songs.
Then there are shades, ghosts, and the living dead (all are different), and of course, giants. The Nephilim. Drowned in the Great Flood, but like Jason or Michael Meyers, they come back later in the form of Goliath or those who live in the desired Land of Milk and Honey.
This has been the long way to explain what this book is about. The author uses a lot of movies, tv shows and modern books to tell us about what the Bible really says. She does it with humor and incisive knowledge. I highly recommend it. ...more

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A Dark Traveling
by Roger Zelazny

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First, a bit about the author. Roger Zelazny was an SF, fantasy, and science fantasy writer, whose life was cut short by aggressive colon cancer. He won multiple Hugo awards, was nominated for several others as well as several Nebula awards. He tende First, a bit about the author. Roger Zelazny was an SF, fantasy, and science fantasy writer, whose life was cut short by aggressive colon cancer. He won multiple Hugo awards, was nominated for several others as well as several Nebula awards. He tended to write big. His characters built worlds, could walk between worlds, were considered gods (even though they weren’t), and used different religions as a basis for his post-earth science fiction novels.
This one is a little different. It was written as a YA book, his only foray into that arena. There is hard science fiction here, utilizing one of the multiverse theories that certain events can create a decision point that leads to an alternate parallel universe or world, such as one where Hitler won World War II. The SF comes in where a group of people figure out how to travel from one of these worlds to others. Our main characters are part of that group, using a Transcomp (transportation computer) to traverse the different worlds: lightbands (friendly), graybands (to be influenced), deadbands (ruined civilizations), and darkbands (exploiters of other bands with lower tech).
But Roger isn’t satisfied with that. He adds fantasy to the mix. From Chapter 1:
(read from book)
This is where we start, and with this. They find that, after hearing a gunshot within their building, their dad is missing, there’s blood on the ground near the Transcomp, and the Transcomp has been damaged where it can’t transmit, but can receive. The teens have to figure out what happened, and they are, of course, unsupervised.
While the Transcomp can’t transmit, Becky knows a more magical way to transverse to other worlds, sending Barry to Uncle George’s world and Jim to a dead world, each that Dad may have gone to. Except that she mixes those up with Jim in this world he’d never been into because the shapeshifting influences are stronger there…and it’s a full moon.
Without giving too much else away, a war on a darkband world ensues, in which the teens play a pivotal role in winning and ultimately leading to the transformation of the darkband world into a lightband world. However, this causes another parallel world to split off, which remains a darkband, and where they lost and died.
Jim, our main protagonist, is in many ways, your typical 14yo boy, immature and at odds with his siblings at times. As an example, he finds out that he doesn’t know things his siblings and even Barry knows. As an example with Becky,
”Everybody knows stuff I don’t!”. . .”Even you! And you’re a lot younger! How come Dad told you all this stuff when he didn’t tell me?”
At times, Roger uses prose poetry in his stories, and this book is no exception. When Jim transforms into a werewolf on that other world, Roger uses this form of poetry:
Dreaming.
Running at a steady lope, the night alive with sounds and scents. Down hillside, along stream's dark bank. Pausing to drink the cold black water. All shapes are gray. The earth is signed with the smell of smaller game. I take a trail, follow for a time, lose it, try another. Moving quickly now, shadow amid shadows. Slipping ghostlike through brush and bramble. My senses extend me beyond my skull. I am become a piece of the night.
It is hunger, the rush of events, the heat of the hunt. Ahead, I hear movements. It knows I am coming. It flees. I taste the darkness, I hear the song the moon sings…
There is no time, and as for space, it seems I move with such ease that the world rushes to meet me. I am suspended in the dark dream of the hunt, where reason sleeps as the scroll of sensation unwinds. I am dog-shaped death within the wood of the world, thing of fang and hunger. Beneath sky's eyes beast to feast blooding moon-turned hours …
I was lost within the bitter dream of predator and prey, time without time, as night washed me and carried me far away.

Both my son and I enjoyed the book, and I chose it in part because I’ve incorporated the basic science and SF concepts from this book into my own SF/multiverse series of books. I didn’t use the fantasy elements Roger used, though, since the first book takes place mostly in a 14th-century feudal parallel world Texas Hill Country, I do tease fantasy aspects of sorcery and magic in the story. ...more

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Accordion Man
by Myron Floren

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Accordion Man is an autobiography written by Myron Floren (who else?) and Randee Floren (one of his 5 daughters and a writer), and it includes a foreword by Lawrence Welk. You know the guy. “A one and a two…”

Myron Floren was born in 1919 in South Dak Accordion Man is an autobiography written by Myron Floren (who else?) and Randee Floren (one of his 5 daughters and a writer), and it includes a foreword by Lawrence Welk. You know the guy. “A one and a two…”

Myron Floren was born in 1919 in South Dakota and has Norwegian ancestry. He tells of growing up on a farm, getting an accordion (the first of many), and falling in love with it. He said that his trademark smile is real. It’s because he loves to play music, and after reading this book, I believe it.
He writes of growing up with two brothers and four sisters, going to college where he worked and played at the local radio station, and was known then as “The Melody Man. He also taught accordion lessons to help bring in cash to stay in college.

Then World War II came, but he’d had rheumatic fever as a teen, which caused heart damage, and he couldn’t enlist, so instead, he went to Europe with the USO, saw and heard the bombs falling on London as well as other destruction on the Continent as he and many others performed for the military, and for civilians in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and even Germany. During that time, he played with many musicians and actors, including Marlene Dietrich
After the war, he returned to South Dakota and married his sweetheart, Berdyne Koerner in 1945. By 1950, he played with the group “The Buckeye Four.” He went to a dance in St. Louis where the Lawrence Welk Orchestra was playing. Welk recognized him and had him come up and play Welk’s accordion, and you could say the rest was history, with him ending up as Welk’s second during that 32-year period. The book covers much of his history with the band, his wife, and five daughters (no sons).

The book was published in 1981, when he was still with Lawrence Welk, Even after the show went off the air in the 80s, he continued performing on the road. I got to meet him in the late 1990s at Westfest, where he played both solo and with Brave Combo, and that was only one of his 200+ gigs a year; he was in his late 70s, though he didn’t look it. Perhaps it was that smile. Smiles don’t leave wrinkles the way frowns do. His writing is almost always positive, even in telling about sadness and death. He definitely was the Happy Norwegian. He passed away in 2005 at age 85. ...more

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Stamped from the Beginning [Graphic Edition] by Ibram X. Kendi

Stamped from the Beginning [Graphic Edition]: A Graphic History of Racist Ideas in America
by Ibram X. Kendi (Goodreads Author)

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The Widow
by John Grisham (Goodreads Author)

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My first John Grisham book, and it was a total disappointment. Long and boring. Everything seemed stereotypical. Main character is a lawyer whose marriage has been on the rocks for years, held together for the kids, and he has a gambling problem. He ...more

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The Murderbot Diaries Vol. 1
by Martha Wells (Goodreads Author)

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Volume 1 has two novellas, the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novella All Systems Red and its sequel Artificial Condition. If you were wondering,
The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements Volume 1 has two novellas, the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novella All Systems Red and its sequel Artificial Condition. If you were wondering,
The Hugo Award is an annual literary award for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year, given at the World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) and chosen by its members, ie, the serious fans. And The Nebula Awards annually recognize the best works of science fiction or fantasy published in the United States. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association (SFWA) is the organization who give the awards. So both fans and professionals think highly of it, and so do I. And so does Apple+ streaming service, as it’s created the sf action comedy show Murderbot
The protagonist is a self-aware, cynical security android (meaning part robot, part organic) that has hacked its own governor module. It’s designed for violence, but the SecUnit (security unit)—which refers to itself as "Murderbot"—has developed autonomy but prefers to spend its time watching endless hours of media, soap operas, and sci-fi feeds, rather than harming humans.
Throughout the two stories, it tries to hide its independence from the humans because that would be a bad thing and it would be shut down and dismantled. Since hacking its own governor module, it’s finding a growing capacity for human emotion and loyalty, rather than the governor-enforced loyalty from before.
In All Systems Red, Murderbot is assigned to protect a scientific survey team on a remote planet, when a neighboring mission goes silent, revealing a deadly conspiracy involving corporate sabotage, and at the end, the team’s leader, Dr. Mensah realizes Murderbot’s sentience and freedom, and has her research company purchase it to protect it from discovery.
In Artificial Condition, Murderbot strikes out on its own to the mining facility where it originally went rogue. It’s searching for a past incident where 57 humans were killed, and he’s pretty sure he was a part of it, but his memory has been mostly wiped of what happened. He is also hired by some researchers who were screwed out of their data and want it back, and he’s their protection against a potential double-cross. At this point, it’s been altered to be able to pass as an augmented human…for the most part.
Murderbot is socially awkward, witty, sarcastic, and learning how to deal with humans as a human, which it’s not. The book’s humorous action is relatively unique and fun. Definitely fun.
Highly recommended. ...more

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Paul and Jesus: How the Apostle Transformed Christianity
by James D. Tabor

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This was an interesting book. Dr. Tabor’s thesis is that Paul’s letters heavily influenced the Gospels, especially the Synoptic Gospels, overriding the teachings of Jesus’ brother James, Simon Peter, and other Jerusalem-based apostles.
Understand that This was an interesting book. Dr. Tabor’s thesis is that Paul’s letters heavily influenced the Gospels, especially the Synoptic Gospels, overriding the teachings of Jesus’ brother James, Simon Peter, and other Jerusalem-based apostles.
Understand that while there is disagreement as to the exact years and order of the writing of his epistles, he began writing them possibly before 50CE with the last being 62CE. Scholars believe that the Great Fire of Rome in 64 CE led to Paul's execution in Rome by beheading during the persecution of the Jews and Christians by Nero that follow the fires. Scholars also believe Peter's crucifixion occurred around the same timeframe.
That said, The Gospel of Mark wasn’t written until somewhere around 70CE, somewhere around the time of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, this according to most scholars. Tabor leans toward a later date for Mark, more toward 80CE. Matthew and Luke both rely heavily on Mark’s writings, so later dates are given: 75-90CE for Matthew and Luke, and 90-100CE for John. Again, Tabor leans toward the latest dates for these.
Paul wrote at least seven letters that we still have, possibly more, with the other six letters being debated to varying degrees. We also know he wrote other letters which are no longer extant (or are waiting in some cave somewhere to be discovered, like the Dead Sea Scrolls or the Nag Hammadi codices). The argument that Tabor puts forward is that his letters were well known within the newly-formed Christian community and heavily influenced the writings of the Gospels.
Paul never met Jesus in person, only through visions, first on the road to Damascus, and later ones including where Paul writes about traveling into the wilderness and receiving instructions directly from Jesus through visions, making him an apostle and not the least of them. Also in his letters, he writes of the differences between what Jesus told him and what the Jerusalem apostles (James, Peter, John, and the others) are preaching, Paul seeing a more spiritual Jesus while the others speak of a more earthly Jesus. In Paul’s last letters, he shows more frustration with those Jerusalem apostles, and if you follow Tabor’s line of thinking, where Paul warns of false apostles, these warnings include the apostles from Jerusalem.
With this animosity between Paul and the other apostles, and the differences in beliefs between these two groups, there was a split. While we aren’t sure about some things, like the author of Mark being John Mark, the follower of Peter mentioned in Acts, we know that Luke, who wrote Acts, was a follower of Paul and traveled with him.
The Epistle of James is in the Bible, and scholars consider it to be a genuine letter from James the Just, brother of Jesus. When reading it, the beliefs and philosophy James espouses differ greatly from those taught by Paul. While some of those appear within the Gospels, the writings of Paul show up far more frequently. Therefore, the message we get about Jesus, his life and resurrection, and his teachings, are much more Pauline than Jamesian.
I recommend the book, though with the usual grain of salt you should give any scholarly writing about the Bible. ...more

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	The Sky We Touch: An Anthology by Scott Taylor, Ed Wooten, Dale Denton (Goodreads Author) it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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