Bestseller Bytes

by Daisy Maryles, Religion BookLine -- Publishers Weekly, 4/18/2007

Controversy continues to surround The Jesus Family Tomb by Simcha Jacobovici and Charles Pellegrino. In the April 10 Jerusalem Post, several scholars who had been interviewed for the eponymous documentary that suggests Jesus and his family members were buried in a nondescript burial cave in ancient Jerusalem revised their conclusions, including the statistician who claimed that the odds were 600:1 in favor of the tomb being the family burial cave of Jesus of Nazareth. University of Toronto statistician Andrew Feuerverger now says that his numbers refer to the probability of a cluster of such names appearing together. Israeli archeologists have said that the similarity of the names inscribed on the ossuaries to those of Jesus' family was a coincidence—these names were commonplace in the first century CE.

In PW's review of Stephen Prothero's Religious Literacy, we note: "This book is a must-read not only for educators, clergy and government officials, but for all adults in a culture where, as Prothero puts it, 'faith without understanding is the standard' and 'religious ignorance is bliss.' "

Bestselling and prolific author Karen Kingsbury claims she can draft a 100,000-word novel in two to three weeks. She likens her intense writing blocks to "swimming across the ocean." Kingsbury holes up in her writing room 10 hours a day, emerging only to eat dinner with her family. As she writes, she listens to classical music or nature sounds on headphones. And she times herself. "If the CD is 56 minutes long, when I hit start I write my word count down. When the CD stops, I take a break and write down the word count again. I try to keep breaking my own personal best on how many words I can get in an hour." Her record is 24,000 words in one day.

John Hagee, author of Jerusalem Countdown, is a fervent and outspoken supporter of Israel and the Jewish people, and he explains why on his Web site: "The support of Israel is a biblically based mandate for every Christian. All other nations were created by an act of men, but God Himself established the boundaries of the nation of Israel. God gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob a covenant of land that was eternally binding, and it's recorded in the book of Genesis. God also told Abraham that He would make Abraham's descendants into a great nation.... In the same passage, God said He would 'bless those who bless you' (Abraham), and 'curse him who curses you.' That gets my attention. I want to be blessed, not cursed, by God."