"Christian" fiction on Vyrso

This may be a matter of taste, but I have been disappointed in the "Christian" fiction books I have bought and read on Vyrso. Facade, Hood, there comes a Horseman (I think that was the title). I found the level of violence in them was worse than in Ludlum etc, of which I read too much and it doesn't do me much good. I felt these books came into the same category and I didn't feel they were redeemed by someone getting converted toward the end. I didn't waste much money, as they were very cheap. But I shall not be getting more of that genre. If I'm going to read about violence, I prefer it to be unashamedly godless violence! Incidentally, with the iPad and Vyrso (and Kindle for non-logos books), I have so many good books to read that I don't need to resort so much to violent spy etc stories.

It probably is a matter of taste. I noticed someone else recommended Hood. What do other people think?

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MJ. Smith

[*-)]Shall we say my idea of Christian literature is more apt to contain Ismail Kadare than many Vyrso authors.

JT (alabama24)

I have been disappointed in the "Christian" fiction books I have bought and read on Vyrso.

The major players in the "Christian" publishing business are secular owned. Trade books that are sold in "Christian" bookstores often reflect the secular ownership of the publishing company. I read and liked Hood, but I did not consider it a "Christian" book. I have not read Ludlum before, but I appreciated that Hood was not filled with gratuitous sex scenes and foul language.

nicky crane

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/303867#Comment_303867

I have been disappointed in the "Christian" fiction books I have bought and read on Vyrso.

The major players in the "Christian" publishing business are secular owned. Trade books that are sold in "Christian" bookstores often reflect the secular ownership of the publishing company. I read and liked Hood, but I did not consider it a "Christian" book. I have not read Ludlum before, but I appreciated that Hood was not filled with gratuitous sex scenes and foul language.

The sex scenes are easy to skip over without detracting from the story.

MJ, I'm delighted that you enjoy Kadare. In fact I think his later books are no way as good as his earlier ones, which was endorsed by an Albanian I mentioned this to (I think a bookseller). (Kadare is possibly the best contemporary Albanian writer, for the information of the uninitiated. Sadly he emigrated after the transition to democracy, and is now living in France. He's a Muslim, practising or not, I don't know).

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/303932#Comment_303932

He's a Muslim, practising or not, I don't know

I would also point out that at least one of his books deals with Christian-Muslim relations and another with a Christian legend. I wasn't being a smart-aleck labeling his work as Christian literature. I'd gladly include his work in a Christian book-club.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/303935#Comment_303935

Just for the fun of it, this is an edited collection of 3 reading lists for a Christian book club from Amazon. The books are recommended for one of three reasons:

they retell a Biblical story
they are explicitly religious - by plot or character
they raise important moral issues

The list is slanted because there have been no updates since 2002.

Moscow to the End of the Line by Venedikt Erofeev
Brother Jacob by Henrik Stangerup
Dreamers by Knut Hamsun
A Month in the Country by J. L. Carr
River Angel: A Novel by A. Manette Ansay
The Night Trilogy: Night, Dawn, The Accident by Elie Wiesel
The Man in the Box by Thomas Moran
Lying Awake by Mark Salzman
On Parole by Akira Yoshimura
Quarantine: A Novel by Jim Crace
Mariette in Ecstasy by Ron Hansen
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
Sparrow : A Novel by Frances Frenaye
The Lark. by adapted by Lillian Hellman Jean Anouilh
The Name of the Rose: including the Author's Postscript by Umberto Eco
The Three-Arched Bridge by Ismail Kadare
Eleazar, Exodus to the West by Michel Tournier
Yosl Rakover Talks to God by Carol Brown Janeway
The Blue Lantern: Stories by Victor Pelevin
Gospel: A Novel by Wilton Barnhardt
Parrot's Perch by Michel Rio
Jesus tales: A novel by Romulus Linney
The Angel of Galilea by Laura Restrepo
The Miracle Hater by Shulamith Hareven
A Mass for Arras by Andrzej Szczypiorski
Aunt Safiyya and the Monastery: A Novel by Bahaa' Tahir
Saving Grace by Lee Smith
Doruntine by Ismail Kadare
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov
The Diary of a Country Priest: A Novel by Georges Bernanos
God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse by James Weldon Johnson
Mirabilis by Susann Cokal
The Old Religion: A Novel by David Mamet
The Journal of Hildegard of Bingen by Barbara Lachman
Old Rosa by Reinaldo Arenas
The Work of Betrayal by Mario Brelich
Navigator of the Flood by Mario Brelich
Tears and Saints by E. M. Cioran
The Book of Shares by Edmund Jabes
Saint Francis by Nikos Kazantzakis
Night's Lies by Gesualdo Bufalino
In the Company of Angels: A Novel by N. M. Kelby

Now this is what I'd buy to read on Vyrso. Think Logos will take me up on it? And yes, these were real recommendations from & for a real Christian book club meeting monthly.

nicky crane

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/303935#Comment_303935

He's a Muslim, practising or not, I don't know

I would also point out that at least one of his books deals with Christian-Muslim relations and another with a Christian legend. I wasn't being a smart-aleck labeling his work as Christian literature. I'd gladly include his work in a Christian book-club.

MJ, I would never accuse you of being a smart-aleck. I understood you as meaning the sort of books Christians could gain from reading. I mentioned that Kadare was a Muslim from his name. Of course there are Albanians with Muslim names who are Christians, and with Christian names who are Muslims, as well as Muslims who have come to faith in Jesus and may or may not still call themselves Muslims, identifying with their Muslim origin and culture. Though I haven't heard anything about Kadare coming into one of these categories.

Which are the books you referred to as dealing with Christian-Muslim relations, and with a Christian legend? I haven't read them all. His vocabulary is so wide that at the last attempt I still couldn't cope with reading him in the original. And I don't keep in touch with all the new translations that come out. Have you read ?Broken April, by the way? If not, get it!

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/303954#Comment_303954

dealing with Christian-Muslim relations

The Three-Arched Bridge - although there is also one set in a Christian/Muslim war ... the title escapes me

with a Christian legend?

Doruntine

MJ, I would never accuse you of being a smart-aleck. I understood you as meaning the sort of books Christians could gain from reading.

I trusted you. However, I didn't trust that people new to the forums would know me well enough to realize that I could seriously suggest a Muslim writer as Christian fiction.

Lynden O. Williams

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/304122#Comment_304122

Nicky and MJ, you ladies are well read. Some of the authors that are mentioned in the forum draw a blank from my brain. Keep it up, it inspires me to read more.

nicky crane

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/311802#Comment_311802

Lynden, Kadare is poossibly the best contemporary Albanian author, so I, living in Albania, jolly well ought to know him. MJ, who as far as I know has no particular link to Albania, strikes me as impressively well read. She not only knows Kadare, but has read possibly more of him than I have.

I was much impressed with On Sparrow Hill, which struck me as very well written, and Gospel centred.

MJ. Smith

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/311964#Comment_311964

who as far as I know has no particular link to Albania

No ties to Albania. The closest I can come is a cousin married to a Croatian, a mother-in-law raised in Greece (Greek/French parents) and a friend translating for an international aid organization to refused to leave Kosovo[:)]