Wow, I can’t really say this book is my cup of tea.  History just isn’t my thing.  I’ve been at Ohio State and have yet to take a history course.  I wished I would be interested in history but I just can’t get my self excited about it.  So I guess this is saying that this is more than a “tough read” for me.  The book so far seems to be ancient history.  About 1100-400 BCE if I remember correctly. 

One thing that I wanted to point out is the style of the writing.  I am not a fan.  A pet peeve of mine throughout these first 78 pages was the “J” “D” and other one letter abbreviations.  I did enjoy the maps, and thought they were appropriately placed.  Without them I would have been 100 percent lost.  I enjoyed the italicized sayings, such as the one on page 75.  I tried to say these aloud as I reading for emphasis.  I found some of the present-day pictures such as the one on page 43 misplaced.  I was thinking that we were talking about history some 3000 years ago then the transition to present-day was too sudden and unconnected.

As far as some other points that I would like to make note of was the Hebrew that was included.  This was something that was relatively new to me.  The book did an excellent job to explain the Hebrew words’ meanings.   I would like to learn more about Yahweh and Yahwism.  A few times the book talked on sacrifice, in particular human sacrifice.  In my opinion the book is way too factual.  The author(s) should have come out against this practice and explained the practice further.  As far as the rest of the book, I hope that history speeds up to closer to modern times.  Also, I would like to see the Christian and Islamic stories of this land.  Islam is a religion that I know little about but yearn to learn more.