Scott J. Pearson

Demystifying Shariah: What it is, How it Works, and Why it’s Not Taking Over Our Country

By Scott J. Pearson | September 27, 2020September 27, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

The author Ali-Karamali is the daughter of immigrants from India, a Stanford graduate, a corporate lawyer in America, and is trained Islamic Law. A patriotic American, she seeks to describe why modern Islam, in the main, is not a threat to American values. She attempts, and for the most part succeeds, to present Islamic (shariah) law as a peaceful force for universal social justice in world history. Obviously, this is a politically laden topic in…

One Writer’s Beginnings by Eudora Welty

By Scott J. Pearson | September 24, 2020September 24, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Eudora Welty, master of the American short story, needs no introduction. Her writing chronicles life in Mississippi before and during the Depression era. This memoir was originally given as three lectures at Harvard University in April, 1983. Together, they constitute a repository of our knowledge of Welty’s upbringing and early adulthood – and importantly, her literary influences. Welty focuses on her family history and varied inspirations for her characters. Through her family and travels, she…

Biography-Memoir Healthcare

The Doctors Blackwell: How Two Pioneering Sisters Brought Medicine to Women and Women to Medicine

By Scott J. Pearson | September 21, 2020September 22, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Elizabeth Blackwell, MD, is well known as the first woman doctor in America. Less well known is her sister Emily in becoming a physician. Emily followed Elizabeth’s path through the hardships of initially not receiving a degree despite doing the work. They co-founded a women’s hospital in New York City along with a women’s medical college. Today, around half of all medical students are female. Their careers are the Blackwell sisters’ legacies. Florence Nightingale saw…

Biography-Memoir

Johnny Cash: The Life

By Scott J. Pearson | September 18, 2020September 18, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Johnny Cash is both a great and an enigma to most music fans: So much public yet so much unknown. His combination of country and folk music with a deeply baritone voice entertained audiences for nearly 50 years. The timelessness of his takes on American life reached for the heavens. Anyone who can elicit praise from Bob Dylan for musical acumen deserves to be remembered. Hilburn unearths Cash’s life in this in-depth biography. Though both…

Biography-Memoir

Found in Transition: A Mother’s Evolution During Her Child’s Gender Change

By Scott J. Pearson | September 17, 2020September 17, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

I did not know what to expect when I picked up this book. I hoped for something thoughtful and self-aware, something becoming of an MD. Fortunately, Hassouri did not disappoint. She shows an incredible, heartfelt openness that transcends her education and professional training. In many ways, this memoir can be used as an exemplar of supportive parenting. Likewise, it can be used as a guide of how to be rigorously honest in one’s writing. She…

Fiction-Stories Humanities

The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy

By Scott J. Pearson | September 14, 2020September 14, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Throughout recorded time, humans have wondered about the afterlife and its relationship to this life. Tolstoy takes a spin on that and focuses on the interface between the two. What exactly happens as one approaches death? Few have experienced near-death, but no one has experienced death fully. What is dying like? Tolstoy provides his answer in this short depiction of a Russian lawyer Ivan Ilych. He lives a normal, even boring, life and suddenly gets…

Fiction-Stories Humanities

A Single Swallow by Zhang Ling

By Scott J. Pearson | September 12, 2020September 12, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

This tale, translated from the original in Chinese, centers on events surrounding one Chinese woman during the Second World War. It is told through the perspectives of the ghosts of three men who loved her and who she loved back, albeit in different ways. It narrates how war augments human stories of love, family, and relationships. The translation is generally excellent and fluent. Only the prevalence of Chinese customs make it obvious that this story…

Biography-Memoir History Leadership

His Truth is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope

By Scott J. Pearson | September 6, 2020September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

The recently deceased congressman John Lewis has been a public light to the United States for over fifty years. Nicknamed “the conscience of Congress,” he courageously campaigned for civil rights since a college student in Nashville. The author Jon Meacham, surely one of America’s greatest biographers, writes this history of Lewis’ doings in the 1960s. With extreme acuity, gravity, and imagery, he captures what the civil rights movement resembled on the inside. In so doing,…

Biography-Memoir History Religion-Philosophy

Sinner Saint: A Novel of Francis of Assisi

By Scott J. Pearson | September 5, 2020September 5, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

The twelfth-century monk Francis of Assisi lived one of the most interesting and impactful lives in the history of Christianity. In this novel, Price tells the story of his life using the techniques of historical fiction to bring out Francis’ illustrious personality. Francis attempted to bring out Gospel living in an age of church hypocrisy. In so doing, he shares a tale with us all that lifts our spirit and inspires readers to excel in…

Books

Books I’m Reading in September, 2020

By Scott J. Pearson | September 1, 2020September 1, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

His Truth is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of HopeBy John Meacham This book was on my “To Read” list before Lewis’ well-reported death last month. His passing moved this book onto my high-priority list. John Lewis impacted history with his personality like few others in American history. He went from oppressed outcast to respected congressman throughout his life. That type of ascent is something that we all can learn from. But his…