Finished reading: 2018, part three
Books I’ve read the past couple months:
Waypoint Kangaroo by Curtis C. Chen
A fun little sci-fi story I discovered on the library shelf. A sort of space-based adventure / mystery story where the main character has a special ability that comes in quite handy at times.
A not-so-memorable spy novel.
Immeasurable: Reflections on the Soul of Ministry in the Age of Church, Inc. by Skye Jethani
A hit-and-miss collection of essays. When Jethani is on, his insight into the issues in evangelicalism are really good.
Kangaroo Too by Curtis C. Chen
Hey, I liked the first book in the series… The second one was pretty good, too.
The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve by Stephen Greenblatt
An overview of the various historical perspectives on Adam and Eve. Easy to read, fairly interesting.
City of Endless Night by Douglas Preston
I have always enjoyed the Agent Pendergast series from Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. This one was no exception.
What Are We Doing Here? by Marilynne Robinson
I typically love Robinson’s essays, but this book left me a bit cold. Its themes are more repetitive than her previous books of essays - perhaps because they’re condensed from various talks she’s given?
Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
A fascinating account of growing up as an unschooled Mormon survivalist in Idaho and the journey out to the real world. And it has some really great cover art.
Streams of Living Water: Celebrating the Great Traditions of Christian Faith by Richard J. Foster
Foster reviews key contributions to the Christian faith from various Christian traditions. Encouraging precisely because it recognizes first that these truly are all strands of the Christian faith (an angle that too many in my current flavor of evangelicalism would dispute) and second, that they provide rich value to believers.
The Night Trade by Barry Eisler
Eisler knows how to write a thriller.
The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World by Catherine Nixey
I picked this one up from the library against my better judgment, but thought the topic was interesting and that I’d go into it with an open mind. The author admits in the preface that she is telling a one-sided story, and then she grinds that axe for the entire book. Sure, Christianity has a checkered history, but to hear Nixey tell it the world would be a rich nirvana of love and learning were it not for centuries of hateful narrow-minded Christians.
The Deceivers by Alex Berenson
I’d never read Berenson before. This one’s a passable spy thriller adopting a ripped-from-the-headlines plot of Russian interference in a US presidential election. They just don’t make spy novels anymore like Tom Clancy used to.
Following my sad pattern of being prompted to read famous authors after hearing of their deaths, I picked this one up after Tom Wolfe passed away last week. Now I’m gonna have to go find some of his other books. While the story of the test pilots who became the first round of US astronauts in the late 1950s is interesting enough on its own, what’s truly memorable is Wolfe’s voice and style.