God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question — Why We Suffer
by Bart D. Ehrman, read by L. J. Ganser
c.2008, HarperAudio
$39.95, 8 CDs / 10 hours

This morning, while you enjoyed your coffee and your newspaper, hundreds of children died of starvation.
As you drove to the office, sipping from your water bottle, women in other countries walked several miles to fetch water.
While you grumbled about extra work today, people overseas worked more hours than you did, and for a fraction of your salary.
Do you ever wonder why we have abundance while others lack? In the new audiobook “God’s Problem,” author Bart D. Ehrman examines the Bible, sinfulness and suffering.
Once upon a time, Ehrman was born again in the Spirit. He spent his youth steeped in church events. He became a minister and an evangelist, and led people to Christ. One day, he began to ponder faith vs. fact. If God exists and He is loving, why do humans suffer so brutally?
Theologians and ministers might say that we suffer because we sin. Adam and Eve brought that upon us in the Garden of Eden. But, Ehrman asks, how do we explain a God who allowed the torture and death of millions of Jews in the Holocaust? Were Cambodians murdered by Pol Pot deserving of their suffering? Would a compassionate God make children starve in Darfur because, say, we Americans are sinners?
Looking at the Bible, Ehrman says that suffering is a recurring theme in both the Old and New Testaments. Conquering armies, stoning and violent attacks are found in verse after verse. Men offer their women up to mobs and children are “dashed against rocks.” Is that, Ehrman asks, the work of a loving God?
Or is it possible that we suffer because of others’ sins? Does a cancer patient, for instance, suffer because someone else sinned? Is suffering good, maybe a path to redemption or perhaps a Divine test of some sort? What about natural disasters? Are they designed by God to punish everyone, including those who did no wrong?
Ehrman says that he was once “born again” but now is “dead again,” meaning that he turned from deep faith to agnosticism. He says that he stopped believing years ago, yet he quotes the Bible over and over in his zeal to back up his opinions.
That’s all well and good. Individual Biblical interpretations have always caused disagreement and lively conversation. With a premise like this, you would expect references to Biblical teachings.
What’s particularly discomforting about this audiobook, though, are the gruesome, detailed, way-overly-lengthy descriptions of suffering, torture and death. This is absolutely not an audiobook for the kiddies.
If you enjoy hot-button theological discourse, “God’s Problem” will start some fiery discussions. If you’re a believer in God’s divinity, though, you won’t have a prayer of enjoying this audiobook.

Accidental Branding
by David Vinjamuri
c.2008, Wiley
$24.95, 212 pages, includes index

For the last three or four days, it’s been driving you nuts.
Around and around and around in your head, some slogan or jingle has been swirling like brandy in a snifter. You can’t shower, you can’t sleep, it’s relentless. Just when you think it’s gone, someone says something that reminds you of it, and you’re off again.
You’ve been branded, my friend. Now how can you do that same thing to your customers or clients?
Author David Vinjamuri recently studied entrepreneurs to find out why some brands succeed in ways that are a little out of norm. In his new book “Accidental Branding,” you’ll read seven case studies of businesses and the people who started them.
As a marketing teacher at a New York University, author David Vinjamuri asked his students to write profiles on people who weren’t schooled marketers or MBAs, but became successful nonetheless. His students didn’t disappoint him; in fact, they stunned him.
Vinjamuri realized that there were more stories than most people probably knew, and he wondered what attributes made these entrepreneurs so successful. What moxie was inherent in Roxanne Quimby (of Burt’s Bees) that made her go from a single mom living in a tent with her children to a New England and millionaire? How did a guy living in a garage with his dog become the owner of Clif Bars, the energy food used by elite bikers? Was their success as accidental as it seemed?
By studying these entrepreneurs and spending time with them, Vinjamuri discovered that most Accidental Branders share traits that gave them a leg-up. All were focused on the small details in their businesses: Gert Boyle of Columbia Sportswear personally signs every check that goes out. All were willing to pitch in: J. Peterman never does something he wouldn’t ask someone else to do. All were willing to take risks: Myriam Zaoui and Eric Malka of The Art of Shaving planned a second store within three months of opening the first one.
And shortly after Julie Aigner-Clark released Baby Mozart, a scientific study was released that indicated listening to Mozart helped a baby’s brain develop. That example, among others, pointed Vinjamuri at one more thing: Accidental Branders are the fortunate recipients of timing and a little luck.
Although the title of this book is somewhat of a misnomer (it’s more about Accidental Brands than Accidental Branding), it’s hard to ignore success stories like the ones Vinjamuri uncovered. I enjoyed how he steps aside to let us see entrepreneurs and their companies intimately, including heart-in-the-throat moments of near-disaster and the single-mindedness of those who simply could not let failure happen.
I think you’ll love “Accidental Branding” so much that you’ll shut the back cover of this wonderful book with renewed excitement about your own endeavors, and you’ll be looking for a sequel.