engage Books

What is most courageous and touching about this book is not the words on the pages, but the actual life of the author. Having just met Mark this weekend (through the most fascinating of circumstances) I can now see that he is not just an insightful and clever man who has found an interesting and provocative point of view that he believes will sell books, but that he is a caring and courageous man who lives these words in the flesh and is committed to making a difference.

Mark's examples of human behavior within the Legal System are easily cross-reference-able into similar situations in the worlds of business, medicine, education, environment, race relations, you name it. He does not preach; he observes and examines. His intentions are clear; he has written a book that he can use to hold himself accountable for the rest of his life, and he invites others to join him. For that, I applaud him and wish him the best.

The only constructive criticism I have to offer is that some of the examples are rambling and not clearly relevant to the powerful points he makes later. The readers that persevere through this minor obstacle are richly rewarded, however, as the focus moves toward what can be done about lying and conflict in the world.

Above all, this is a book about living your life according to fundamental principles of honesty, respect for all people, empathy, and achieving effectiveness through learning. It is a book of hope, that even our most jaded institutions and professions can transcend the mediocre and commonplace if we care enough. Congratulations and thank you, Mark, for showing us the way.

I found the book interesting and very thought provoking. I'm surprised that someone out there hasn't made the preposterous claim of finding the bones of Jesus.

I had mixed feeling while reading this book. The plot was not original, Dr. Paul Maier's "A Skeleton in God's Closet" is much a much more realistic and informative treatment of this hypothetical. I also felt that this book ignored in a large part the "what if" implications for the reader if such an occasion were to occur.

The book attempts to be a thriller, and it achieves this somewhat. Through the political fallout that the discovery of Jesus' bones causes, the character dodges assassination attempts and stumbles upon evidence of presidential secrets. But I wasn't thrilled by any of the action which I found to be fairlu contrived.

I have to give the author props though in developing the main character's anti-christian bias and for maintaining it to the end of the book. Most christian writers would have the main character convert at the end, but this book is much more realistic about intellectual obstacles to faith.

In short I appreciated this dimension of the book but failed to enjoy any of the other dimensions. I do plan to read other books by this author, but if you are intrigued by the "What if Jesus' bones were found?" scenario, than read Paul Maier's book.

The initial premise is a fascinating one. But in the interest of maintaining a quick pace, Bowen rushes through the plot, making everything happen at an unrealistic pace. There's no way that followers of the Christian faith would so easily accept Wil's findings; there would be WAY more push-back. And his science seemed simplistic; he did little to investigate his unusual findings, beyond carbon dating. The idea that the rest of the tomb would not have been explored is hard to buy.

So I was disappointed. The first third was great, but then he had all the pieces fall into place too quickly, even stooping to employ the same tactic for illicitly entering the tomb TWICE, distracting guards with a pretty girl.

Overall, I wish he'd taken more time to flesh out such an interesting concept. I agree with several viewers that although the protagonist was (and remained) an atheist, the book got subliminally preachy at times.

I'd read more by this author, but I hope he digs deeper next time.

An interesting aside - I listened to the audio version of this book, which is read by the author. He has a tremendous voice, sounding like a professional actor - very impressive!

This really wasn't my type of book. It's an interesting premise, and I had heard various people recommend it, but it left me with a blah feeling. It is a fairly engaging adventure, and it's kinda fun following people through the story. But a lot of the stuff was really quite routine, and partially due to the fantastic nature of the book, a lot of it just seemed outlandish, even reading in a huh-wouldn't-it-be-interesting-if-this-happened mindset. It probably was not my cup of tea, but I was glad for the fast-moving plot: I was able to get on to another book as quickly as possible.

The most laughably written, most preposterous story line and the most contrived book I have ever read. No thinking person, let alone someone who can read, should be caught dead with this pathetic tale. Although I read it about 2 years ago, I still cringe at the memory of it. Just awful.