books
- I read 76 books in total. (This is the most for any year since I started logging in 2007.)
- 40 were non-fiction - primarily biography, history, and theology
- 36 were fiction - pretty heavily sci-fi and fantasy this year.
- The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson. This is a wonderfully-told story of the migration of blacks from plantations in the south to cities in the north during the early-to-mid 1900’s. Sure, I’ve heard stories of the mistreatment blacks went through, but to have it brought so recent (some of the people in this book were still living circa 2004!) was sobering.
- Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda. It’s Hamilton. What else do I need to say?
- Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness: Following the Lamb into the New Creation by Michael J. Gorman. I read this as we were wrapping up a sermon series on Revelation at church. I find Gorman’s take on that apocalyptic text to be highly compelling. I blogged about it earlier this year.
- The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett. I found this on a pre-teen recommended reading list and read it along with my oldest daughter. We enjoyed it so much we decided to make it a read-aloud book for the whole family. Crivens!
- All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. Lots of people have written better about this than I can. A beautiful story, beautifully told.
- Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry. Berry has a unique voice and his stories of Port William, Kentucky, are treasures.
- Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters. Imagine, if you will, that slavery was still legal in the US South, and that Underground Railroad-type activities were still happening. Interested in what happens next? Go get this book.
Finished Reading: The Day the Revolution Began by N. T. Wright
When the good Bishop N. T. Wright has a new book out it’s an automatic purchase for me at this point. And Wright does not disappoint with The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus’s Crucifixion. Wright examines the meaning of Jesus' death in his usual lucid style, with a focus on what understanding the first-century Christians would’ve had of that death.
Wright keys on Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 15 that “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures”. This launches him on a review of the Old Testament idea of salvation and forgiveness of sins, and how for Israel “forgiveness of sins” was closely tied to the covenant promise of restoration from exile.
Wright then takes the reader through the various New Testament discussions of the meaning of the crucifixion to make the case that “salvation” isn’t really primarily about individual salvation (though individuals are saved), but is rather about the restoration and blessing of the whole earth through Israel in fulfillment of God’s covenant promise to Abraham.
Wright, as usual, says some things that undoubtedly set some conservative theologians on edge. Notable among these is his contention that Jesus' death isn’t really about some sort of penal substitution. That, says Wright, is still buying into a system of works righteousness - even if the works aren’t our works - that isn’t borne out in the Bible’s view of God’s love as shown in His covenant promises.
Wright makes the case that salvation is really about much more than we are led to believe. And while he acknowledges that theologians will typically provide a more nuanced view, he believes (and I agree) that at the lay level in evangelicalism, the understanding of salvation is very individual and transactional - people sin, which makes God angry, a price must be paid, Jesus pays that price to step in the way of God’s anger, people are saved to go to heaven. I don’t think that Wright would disagree with any of those statements… from a certain point of view. However, his picture of salvation is much wider and more appealing. It’s really worth a read and consideration.
This volume would be a nice companion piece to go alongside Surprised by Hope - which itself is still the volume I’d encourage people to read if they need an intro to Wright. Good stuff.
Finished reading: a quick compendium
Because I’ve been lazy and not keeping up:
The Big Screen: The Story of the Movies - and What They Have Done to Us by David Thomson An extensive trip through the history of filmmaking. I’m interested in movies far more than I get the opportunity to watch them, so this was an interesting read and gives me lots of movie watching gaps to fill in.
City of Dreams: The 400-Year Epic History of Immigrant New York by Tyler Anbinder This came on the tail of visiting Manhattan for a week for work. A really fascinating read starting with the first white settlers in New York and carrying on through the late 20th century.
The Believer by Joakim Zander A thriller novel that hits a little too close to home, including a wanna-be jihadist and shady government forces at work.
Last Year by Robert Charles Wilson A time-travel novel in which the present day has a gate into one possible past, but only to a specific time the 1870s. More thoughtful than I anticipated.
Dune by Frank Herbert Caught up with a classic I’d never read. Really enjoyed it. Now I suppose I’ll get sucked into the whole series.
Finished reading: Now: The Physics of Time by Richard A. Muller
Another random library selection, and a nice change of pace from history and theology. In Now, Cal Berkeley professor Richard Muller sets out to provide a layman’s-level discussion of the nature of time and how the domain of physics interacts with and helps explain it.
Muller provides an engaging discussion about relativistic time dilation, the big bang, quantum effects and “spooky action at a distance”, and his own thoughts about what it is that causes time to move only forward. It’s not entirely for the faint of heart, but he at least is good enough to leave his derivation of equations into appendices rather than embedding them within the body text. The Goodreads reviews of the book seem to be a bunch of physics nerds giving the author flack for his approach, but to this engineering nerd who isn’t deep into physics, it was just fine.
Finished reading: Instrumental: A memoir of Madness, Medication, and Music by James Rhodes
I’ll confess I’d never heard of James Rhodes prior to picking this book up at the library. Turns out he’s about my age, and a British classical pianist who has had some amount of popular culture impact in Britain trying to make classical music less culturally stuffy and more accessible to the masses.
Instrumental isn’t nearly so much about music as it is about a man trying to come to grips with the effects of some horrifying abuse he underwent as a young boy in primary school. I’ve never read an account that so directly describes the horror and brokenness that an abuse victim can feel. One of Rhodes' escapes is music, but he vividly describes others that are much less beautiful and much more self-destructive.
Rhodes does mention a couple handfuls of favorite classical pieces through the book, which someone has already arranged into a convenient Spotify playlist.
Instrumental is a worthwhile read but not for the faint of heart.
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Finished reading: A Wretched and Precarious Situation by David Welky
Found this one on the New Books shelf at the library and figured hey, why not? Welky tells here the story of a handful of Arctic explorers who followed up on Robert Peary’s claim to have seen an Arctic continent he called “Crocker Land” (named after one of his financial sponsors).
Want to trek for multiple years living off pemmican, hardtack, and the internal organs of whatever bears and musk oxen you can hunt? Lose your toes to frostbite? Go (in some cases, at least) more than a bit loony? Early 20th century Arctic exploration might be for you!
Welky’s writing is engaging and the story is an adventurous one. After reading it, I think it’ll be at least a week before I stop feeling cold.
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A Wretched and Precarious Situation: In Search of the Last Arctic Frontier
Finished reading: The Whistler by John Grisham
Because sometimes you need some thoughtless entertainment. Even at that, Grisham is just coasting on his reputation at this point. Meh.
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Finished Reading: Reclaiming Hope by Michael Wear
The buzz on this one had been going around Twitter for a while, so I was glad to pick up a copy and read. Michael Wear is a young guy who, not even out of college, worked as the White House lead for evangelical outreach during President Obama’s first term. Reclaiming Hope is part memoir of those years and partly Wear’s suggestions for how to repair political engagement with religion.
On the whole, I think Wear did a good job of identifying points where both the right and left failed in opportunities to find common ground that could’ve made legitimate progress on issues important to religious conservatives. However, I think his admiration for President Obama causes him to pull his punches in the second half of the book.
In the first half of the book, Wear reveals himself as something of an Obama fan boy as he details all of the President’s speeches that reveal the depth to his personal faith. (I’m not disputing these - I have great admiration for Obama’s faith - but the tone is pretty fawning.) When Wear starts assigning blame in the second half of the book, though, the blame is never to Obama directly, but always to the “administration” or the “White House”.
Overall, it’s a good little memoir, and Wear has some good thoughts to share about how we might find progress forward on issues significant to people of faith.
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Reclaiming Hope: Lessons Learned in the Obama White House About the Future of Faith in America
Finished reading: A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
History, it is often said, is written by the winners. Zinn, though, undertakes to tell a history of America from the perspective of the losers, the poor, the oppressed. Think the arrival of the explorers from the perspective of the Native Americans. The colonial and early US history from the perspective of the slaves. The early 1900s from the perspective of poor workers banding together into labor unions.
Zinn is not trying to be even-handed here, but this volume would serve as an excellent companion to any more traditional history of the United States. It also serves as a good reminder that while things may seem bleak in our current political era, they have been much worse, and our country has withstood far more.
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Finished reading: Introduction to the Old Testament by J. Alberto Soggin
John Halton’s review set me on this one, and I had much the same response to it that he did. Soggin’s work looks at the Old Testament from a historical perspective and dives heavily into textual criticism.
It is eye-opening for this conservative evangelical to see how far the academically-accepted historical background of the OT differs from the one we are taught by our church leaders, but rather than causing me to look askance at the OT now, it causes me to appreciate more how God has brought together these texts in a way that is meaningful for us as believers today. (It also cements in my mind that defining “infallibility” for the Scriptures is an impossible task, and that “inspired” or “God-breathed” makes much more sense.)
Glad I read this one… and ready for something a little less academic now as a palate cleanser.
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Finished reading: How to Survive a Shipwreck by Jonathan Martin
Read this one on a business trip this week. Having nothing to do with actual nautical survival skills, this book is Martin’s personal confessional and memoir of the breakup of his marriage and leaving the pastorate at his church.
Martin is a very talented writer, and while some of the initial Scripture applications are a stretch (Paul, after his shipwreck, told the people to eat, therefore, when our lives are in metaphorical shipwrecks, we should be sure we eat via participation in the Eucharist), the book shines in the latter chapters when he focuses in on grace in a way that will sound familiar to readers of Robert F. Capon.
There’s a part of me that’s skeptical of the value of an author writing this instructionally when he was clearly still in the midst of learning the lessons he’s communicating, but it was still an encouraging read. My prayer for Jonathan is that he continues to heal and grow in grace in the days to come.
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How to Survive a Shipwreck: Help Is on the Way and Love Is Already Here
Finished reading: Broken Trust by W.E.B. Griffin
I got sucked into Griffin’s Badge of Honor series years ago. This is book #13, and the hero is still only 27 years old, and opens the story still suffering from the wound he suffered in book #12. Hey, if Griffin is still making money cranking these out at age 87, good for him. But let’s not pretend they’re any more substantive entertainment than your average 1.5-star franchise action movie. Meh.
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Finished reading: Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America by Ibram X. Kendi
Found this on the library shelf and was a challenging read to start the year. Is Kendi making an effort to be super-even-handed? Nope. But he has enough facts on his side to make a compelling account. From the first white settlers colonizing through the beginning of the 21st century, he highlights the terrifying history of racism in the USA. It can feel like a stretch at times - King Kong subliminally picturing white’s fear of blacks? sure, but the Rocky movies continuing to do so with the white hero taking on black opponents? Maybe from a certain point of view.
Some progressive reading isn’t gonna hurt me, I guess. (I just borrowed Zinn’s History from the library the other day.)
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Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
Books I Read in 2016
Another year, another book list. I think this year I can at least say that the unread book pile gathering dust by my bed is a little smaller than it has been in previous year.
My reading list for 2016 is on Goodreads. To summarize my year in reading:
My favorite non-fiction:
My favorite fiction:
I don’t know if I’ll get to 76 books again this year - I know I already have a few really thick ones on the to-read list that might slow me down - but as always it’s fun to read, fun to review at end-of-year, and fun to have books to recommend and give to others.
Recommended reading: The
I’ve got a soft spot in my heart (and on my reading list) for science fiction. It probably started when I was reading Michael Crichton as a 12-year-old. OK, Crichton might not be the first one you think of when I said “science fiction”, but Crichton’s mix of legit science into thriller novels was an appealing first taste. (Jurassic Park? eh, fine. The Andromeda Strain? Better.)
There’s an awful lot that gets passed through in the name of “science fiction” these days, though. For some incomprehensible reason, our libraries lump sci-fi and fantasy together, which means you’ve gotta be careful or instead of picking up a hard-science space opera you’ll end up with some multi-volume epic starring sexy telepathic cat people on a far-away planet that resembles nothing so much as medieval England. But I digress.
I started with Crichton, but progressed quickly to Asimov and Arthur Clarke. Later on I enjoyed Stephen Baxter’s Manifold trilogy and some of Robert Sawyer’s stuff. I still browse the New Sci-fi shelf at the library on a regular basis, but most of the time when I pick up an interesting-looking volume, it turns out to be Volume 17 of some big space opera, and ain’t nobody got time for that.
A couple years ago, though, The Incomparable podcast devoted an episode to Hugo Award nominees, and somebody brought up Cixin Liu’s The Three Body Problem. I was unacquainted with Liu, but found that this prolific Chinese author was finally getting a book translated into English. And what a book.
The Three Body trilogy continues with The Dark Forest and wraps up with Death’s End, the translation of which just released this fall. I finished reading Death’s End last night and wow, what a epic, sweeping trilogy. It begins as a current-day encounter with an alien race of such advanced technology they can hardly be understood, and traverses time and space to some distant future where the universe collapses in on itself only to explode again in another Big Bang.
Liu digs in to communication via gravitational waves, the survival strategies of intergalactic civilizations, and lightspeed travel, while telling a story expansive in spacetime in a way that hearkens back to Clarke and Asimov. The English translations are excellent, and while the books aren’t short, they kept me engaged through the final page.
If you’ve stuck with this post this far, The Three Body Problem might be one you want to pick up.
Finished reading: The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
I haven’t been posting on every book I’ve read, but wow, this was a good one.
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson is a history of what she calls “America’s great migration” - the movement of African Americans from the south to northern, midwestern, and western urban areas between 1930 and 1970. She follows three primary characters through their journeys from the Jim Crow south to new jobs and lives in New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
Wilkerson weaves together their stories with the bigger picture of a changing country, where racial discrimination stubbornly persisted (persists?) even in states where the Jim Crow laws didn’t exist.
Given the unrest in the country at present this was a timely read. It struck home more than history often does because its time frame was so close to the present. It’s easy for me to think of even the 1960s as an old, black-and-white time; each of the characters Wilkerson follows, though, live at least into the 1990s… which I remember well.
Our history in this country is short, and this book was a good reminder that the racial tension we have today isn’t far removed from a long history of racism and slavery. We have so much yet to learn.
Reading Revelation Responsibly by Michael J. Gorman
We’ve been in a sermon series on Revelation at church, so when a couple recommendations for Reading Revelation Responsibly came across Twitter, I had to pick up a copy. Dr. Michael J. Gorman, the author, is a United Methodist professor of Biblical Studies and Theology at the very Roman Catholic St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore, Maryland.
Gorman makes the case that the book of Revelation is a book of prophecy, but, he says,
prophecy, in the biblical tradition, is not exclusively or even primarily about making pronouncements and predictions concerning the future. Rather, prophecy is speaking words of comfort and/or challenge, on behalf of God, to the people of God in their concrete historical situation.
Gorman suggests that Revelation encourages the church to resist the allure and pressure of un-sacred civil religion.
Calling Revelation “resistance literature” is appropriate because one of the primary prophetic purposes of Revelation is to remind the church, both then and now, not to give in to the demands or practices of a system that is already judged by God and is about to come to its demise.
One is reminded of N. T. Wright’s line that saying ‘Jesus is Lord’ was (is) a political statement, because if Jesus is Lord, then Caesar is not. Gorman argues that this un-sacred civil religion is similarly prevalent in modern America as it was in ancient Rome. As such, he says, the lesson for the church today is to resist the call of our civil (political) religion, because it will undoubtedly conflict with our call to follow Jesus.
The early church had a natural suspicion of Roman civil religion because it was so blatantly pagan and idolatrous—though even it could be appealing. Contemporary Christians can much more easily assume that Christian, or quasi-Christian, ideas, language, and practices are benign and even divinely sanctioned. This makes American civil religion all the more attractive—that is, all the more seductive and dangerous. Its fundamentally pagan character is masked by its Christian veneer.
What becomes clear from Gorman is how timely the message of Revelation is for us today. Not because it is giving us some sort of end-of-days timeline, as the popular dispensational position would claim, but because it calls us to recognize the danger of buying in to any empire or lord except Jesus and His kingdom. Our systems of government and power today are modern representations of Babylon.
Babylon makes promises, demands, and claims that are appropriate only for God to make. It sacralizes, even divinizes, its own power, and then it requires absolute allegiance to that power. The progression of this course, as Revelation 18 makes especially clear, is the pursuit of luxury and the neglect of the poor, first by Babylon itself, then by its clients, then by its everyday citizens. One inevitable result is the treatment of certain human beings as goods to be traded (18:13), and the elimination of others for their failure to offer absolute allegiance. Another is violence and war, death and destruction, hunger and famine (ch. 6). The final inevitable result is the destruction of the earth without fear of consequences, temporal or eternal (11:18).
(I think Gorman has also probably read his Stringfellow - I’m reminded of reading An Ethic for Christians and Other Aliens In a Strange Land a few years back.
I’d highly recommend Reading Revelation Responsibly for anyone who wants to give Revelation serious consideration. It’s not a difficult book - 10 chapters, and written at what might be considered just a slightly advanced popular level. It’s an insightful, encouraging volume that’s worth the time.
Finished reading: Partners in Christ: A Conservative Case for Egalitarianism by John G. Stackhouse Jr.
I put this one on my Amazon wishlist after reading a few posts on Scot McKnight’s blog about it. Shortly thereafter my Mom bought it for me for my birthday. Thanks Mom!
I appreciate the direction Dr. John Stackhouse takes with Partners in Christ. He wants to maintain a faithful, high view of Scripture; not to dismiss difficult passages or write them off, but to look at the Scripture as a whole and try to come to a position on male/female roles/dynamics in the church.
The title gives his conclusion away: Stackhouse comes down on the side of egalitarianism - in other words, that men and women should have equal standing and ability to have leadership roles in the church. But wait, the reader will say, what about 1 Timothy 2 (“I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet”) or 3 (“an Elder shall be the husband of one wife”)? Well, Stackhouse counters, what about 1 Cor 11 which assumes that women will be praying and prophesying? Or about Priscilla, who with her husband Aquila taught Apollos? Or Junia, who is mentioned among “the apostles” in Romans 16?
Stackhouse has an interesting approach here, which on first read makes a lot of sense - that God has an ideal end state in mind, and that at each era through history he has revealed himself and his will in ways that would stretch his people toward that end state without snapping them past the breaking point.
So, in the Old Testament, God reveals himself to the Israelites as a god in many ways different, though in many ways similar to the gods of the countries around them. He establishes a sacrificial system that is different, not but that different. When Jesus comes, he chooses men as his apostles, because choosing any women would’ve been a challenge past the stretching point of the culture. Still, he challenged the status quo by treating women more as equals than anyone in that culture would have.
So, Stackhouse argues, while Paul writes directing how men would be leaders in the church, that direction isn’t intended to be fixed for all time, but was the accommodation of the church to the culture at the time.
Stackhouse acknowledges that some will want to take this argument and run with it down other controversial paths, e.g. the debate over homosexuality. He differentiates that case by saying that the Bible appears to be progressively loosening on the gender equality issue, while staying consistent in its position regarding homosexuality.
I’m gonna need to do a re-read and think through it some more, but I appreciated Dr. Stackhouse’s take here. Worth a read if you’re interested in the subject.
Finished reading: The Christian Tradition, Vol 2: The Spirit of Eastern Christendom (600-1700) by Jaroslav Pelikan
I picked up The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Vol. 2: The Spirit of Eastern Christendom (600-1700) (Volume 2) from an online recommendation, not really knowing what I was getting myself into. Sure, I was diving into Volume 2 of a 5-volume set, but hey, why not?
I’d heard Pelikan’s name before but really knew nothing about him. But it didn’t take long after starting the book to realize the immense brilliance of the author. The book starts with a list of primary sources, texts from the 7th - 17th centuries… that list is several pages long. (The list of secondary sources at the end is probably twice as long. Goodness.) Pelikan blessedly eschews footnotes in favor of a wide margin design where all the references are annotated in the margin, aligned with the relevant text. And goodness, there are references.
Pelikan manages pull together these sources to overview the development of Christian thought in the Eastern Church that is both detailed and accessible. In my terms, that means I couldn’t skim - had to pay attention - but it kept me interested and engaged. Which is awesome. I enjoyed it enough that I ordered Volume 1… wouldn’t be surprised if I end up with all of them by the time I’m done.
Finished reading: a couple more
I had three books going in parallel before finishing these two, which was making me twitchy. (Now I’m back to one at a time. Ahhhhh.)
The Bone Labyrinth by James Rollins
Random selection off the library shelf. Apparently this is number 11 in a series, but read fine as a stand-alone thriller. The writing itself was good, though the story was sort of a disappointing Michael Crichton / DaVinci Code mashup. Quick, reasonably entertaining read, but I find myself unlikely to pick up another one by Rollins.
Man Enough: How Jesus Redefines Manhood by Nate Pyle
In a generation of Wild at Heart-esque books on Christian manhood, where wilderness adventure and military activity are primary examples pushed as “how to be more like a man”, pastor Nate Pyle’s book is a breath of fresh air. Pyle emphasizes gentleness, vulnerability, and a focus on the example of Jesus as better qualities to pursue. This is a short, easy read that I’d enjoy sneaking into a pastor’s hand the next time they’re pushing men’s small groups.
Finished reading: The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis
I picked The Mechanical by Ian Tregillis off the library shelf on a whim. Well, more accurately, I picked up the second book in this series on a whim, saw that it was book 2, and then went and tracked down book 1, The Mechanical. It was time for some sci-fi/fantasy.
This story is set in an alternate past wherein the Dutch have invented “mechanicals” - sentient robot humanoids that are governed (or enslaved, depending on your perspective) by Asimovian rules of behavior that all work just great until one of them develops free will.
On the other side of the equation are the French who lack the mechanical alchemy and have retreated to Canada where they work on chemical solutions to fight the Dutch “Clackers”.
It’s a good concept and Tregillis writes brisk prose and keeps it interesting. I enjoyed this one, and now need to go find Book 2 in the series again. I wonder what are the odds that it’s still on the library shelf?