I've been a very slow reader this year. No particular reason.
Right now, on a friend's recommendation, I'm reading Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore. It's a great premise: what happened to Jesus in those 30-odd years not covered by the official Gospels? Enter the narrator Levi who is also called Biff, a smart-arse, sarcasm-inventing sidekick who, 2,000 years ago, loved Jesus as a friend while recognizing that his playmate was also the Son of God. He is resurrected into the present day by the archangel Raziel, and commanded to compose a new Gospel, his own remembrances of Jesus's life. It covers where Jesus travelled (with Biff of course) and where and how he learned to be the Messiah, a very new and revolutionary spiritual leader.
It's irreverant, absurd and mocking to everything BUT Jesus and the faith he inspired and the basic beliefs of Christianity. As a reviewer noted, it can be read by Christians without offense, and it might even bring non-believers into the fold. If you have some biblical knowledge, you can delight in the puns and double-entendres. Otherwise it's just a really good read.
And I can't help being intrigued by an author some of whose other works are titled Island of the Sequined Love Nun, Bloodsucking Fiends and The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove.
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