Thursday, January 7, 2016

Book List of 2015

     For 2015, I proved my incredible foolishness, by deciding to do a book challenge. Perhaps this might not have been so bad had I picked a smaller challenge, and not one with 50 categories (I accidentally missed one because I misread the category), most of which were geared toward fiction books (I have been reading predominantly non-fiction lately), but, alas, I was intrigued by this large challenge, and once I decided to do it, there was no changing my mind. For the record, I have resolved to read less books in 2016 (partly because I'm still on rotations, partly because I feel I didn't have enough time to reflect on all of my 2015 books, partly because it took FOREVER to write all the reviews, but largely because of some challenging words from The Grand Paradox), but it's too late to make that resolution for 2015, so here's my monster of a list. This year's book list will be organized by the categories, and each book will only appear once, even though most books fit multiple categories. As a warning, not all books are in the category they BEST fit; in order to ensure there was at least one book in each category I sometimes had to put books in categories arbitrarily rather than ideally. I'm also going to be throwing in quotes from a few of the books: quotes that I either thought represented the book well, or that challenged me, or that I just loved (for the record, it was hard to only pick one quote from some books, so I mostly gave up and picked a few). And now, without further ado, my book list for 2015:
  • A book with more than 500 pages
    • The Name of the Wind (Patrick Rothfuss) -I chose to read this book because it was referenced by one of my favorite bands, The Oh Hellos, as one of the inspirations for their newest album. It turns out that another band I enjoy, Nightwish, is also a fan. I agree with both of them. I had a hard time putting this book down. I’ll wait to read the rest in the series before calling Rothfuss the “next Tolkien,” but I think he is building a similarly detailed and beautiful world of his own, with characters who are interesting and dynamic. I rather enjoy how his story is truly two stories: Kvothe’s retelling of his entire history (beginning in the past), and the story of what is happening in the present as Kvothe recites his narrative. There’s a tension of knowing that danger is closing in while Kvothe takes time to tell his story, as well as the mystery of how Kvothe came to be in such a humble place after his legendary life, plus a few other small mysteries thrown in as well. I also thought Rothfuss’ meditations on the use of story as a vehicle of truth are rather excellent, and I really liked the short discussion at the end on the relationship between “seeming” and “being.” I will certainly be reading the next book. 
  • A classic romance
    • Far From the Madding Crowd (Thomas Hardy) -This is the first Thomas Hardy novel I’ve ever read, but I don’t think it will be the last. I have really just one complaint with this book, so I’ll start with that. At times I felt like Hardy thought he knew women better than he really did because some of Bathsheba’s romantic decisions did not initially seem, to me, to fit in with her independent nature. That being said, watching the 2015 film adaptation made me notice things I’d forgotten and perhaps Hardy wasn’t so off after all (compliments go a long way when no one else has ever given you any). All in all, I enjoyed it thoroughly, and I certainly became emotionally involved in this story. I’m pretty sure I yelled at one character for their silliness, felt such pity for another, couldn’t understand why everyone didn’t love another, and I have rarely wanted a character to die as much as I did in this book.
  • A book with a love triangle
    • Fairest (Marissa Meyer) -This was a good little book to tide me over until Winter came out. I enjoyed getting a glimpse into Levana’s back story and understanding how she became the “evil queen.” It certainly garners her sympathy, though Meyer is also clear that, despite her tragic early life, her choices were still her own, and she is responsible for the horrors she caused.
  • A book published this year
    • Winter (Marissa Meyer) -I thought this book was a fitting end to The Lunar Chronicles. If you can call any ending to a sci-fi, political retelling of fairy tales “realistic,” then this would probably come close. I honestly didn’t know which characters would live and which would survive, so there was a sense of real danger, and even though you expected some form of happy ending, you knew it would not come easily and without sacrifice. I should add too that the characters are well developed and dynamic, so you are certainly invested in their outcomes by the end of this series. Well done, Meyer.
  • A book that became a movie
    • The Christmas Candle (Max Lucado) -This was an easy read to hit a couple categories, but not Lucado’s strongest work. It was a stereotypical Christmas story complete with miracles, happy endings, and schmaltz. Predictable, but enjoyable, though I probably won’t read it again, nor see the movie based on it.
  • A book written by someone under 30
    • Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality (Donald Miller) -I liked this book a lot. I’d certainly heard about it for a long time, and I’m glad I finally read it. Miller is funny, honest, and relatable. I appreciate that he was willing to share his own doubts and experiences and create a conversation, rather than gloss things over to make his life and faith seem perfect and unshakable. Sometimes allowing space for asking questions is more important than giving answers. Bonus points for the fact that Miller wrote this while he was living in Portland so I recognized many of the landmarks he mentioned, and hearing about his experiences at Reed were so easy for me to imagine since I’d visited there before.
  • A book with a number in the title
    • Twelve Years a Slave (Solomon Northup) -Painful to read, but something I’d still recommend. In short it is the true story of a freeman living in pre-Civil War America who was kidnapped and taken to Georgia where he spent 12 years as a slave. I appreciated that Mr. Northup told everything, including parts that could have been unflattering to his own character, because this openness gives his testimony greater credibility, and thus greater power, though his story is powerful no matter how you tell it. The crimes committed against him (and all the other slaves), and the sufferings he endured are bad enough on their own, but I realized that while reading the book it was easy to forget just how long he spent in slavery. I feel like my mind still cannot comprehend it, and it gets even worse when I remember that he was at least rescued eventually. I recommend this thoroughly to all Americans, not simply to get a better understanding of our past, but to understand how slavery was justified and thus how it was allowed to continue. Perhaps understanding this will help us better stop and prevent other injustices. If you haven’t seen it yet, the film is excellent. It is, quite frequently, painful to watch, and director Steve McQueen makes plentiful use of the longshot to linger on some of the horrors on the screen. Compared to the modern filmmaking styles of quick cuts, the long shots are noticeable and uncomfortable, which, I think, is a masterful decision on McQueen’s part. When watching a movie, it is far too easy to dismiss the story being told as simply a story, or merely something from the past, but the lingering shots force the audience to reflect and process what they’re seeing, hopefully letting the atrocities of a true story sink in.
  • A book with nonhuman characters
    • The Haunter of the Dark, The Thing on the Doorstep, and The Lurking Fear (H. P. Lovecraft) -Good ol' H. P. Lovecraft. I started listening to some of his stories on audiobook to prepare for the Salem Theatre's production of The Thing on the Doorstep (it was phenomenal, by the way), and I wish I'd made time to listen to even more. Oh well. Perhaps I'll just continue what seems to have become a tradition of listening to a few of his stories each October to get myself into the spooky mood until I run out of stories... and then I'll just start over. ;)
  • A funny book
    • Bossypants (Tina Fey) -I loved this book so much. I listened to it on audiobook, and if you’re thinking of reading it, I’d recommend going that route. It feels like you’re just having a cozy chat with Tina Fey over coffee while she tells you her life story, and you get to hear her do all the voices, as well as all the side comments she adds just for the audio version. I was hooked from the tales of her scar and her first experiences with puberty, and I just kept loving it as she pulled me along with her self-deprecating humor, her experiences as a woman in show business, her awkward dates, her days in the service industry, her tales of Don Fey, her catastrophe of a honeymoon cruise, her prayer for her daughter, her inside look at improv and SNL, and so much more. Read it or, better yet, let Tina Fey read it to you.
“I was a little excited but mostly blorft. 'Blorft' is an adjective I just made up that means 'Completely overwhelmed but proceeding as if everything is fine and reacting to the stress with the torpor of a possum.' I have been blorft every day for the past seven years.”
“Politics and prostitution have to be the only jobs where inexperience is considered a virtue. In what other profession would you brag about not knowing stuff? ‘I’m not one of those fancy Harvard heart surgeons. I’m just an unlicensed plumber with a dream and I’d like to cut your chest open.’ The crowd cheers.”
“Of course I’m not supposed to admit that there is triannual torrential sobbing in my office, because it’s bad for the feminist cause. It makes it harder for women to be taken seriously in the workplace. It makes it harder for other working moms to justify their choice. But I have friends who stay home with their kids and they also have a triannual sob, so I think we should call it even. I think we should be kind to one another about it. I think we should agree to blame the children.”
"To say I’m an overrated troll, when you have never even seen me guard a bridge, is patently unfair." 
Tina Fey in Bossypants
  • A book by a female author
    • The Queen of the Tearling and The Invasion of the Tearling (Erika Johansen) -I really enjoyed these books, and am eagerly anticipating the last book in the trilogy. If you’re looking for a Disney fairytale, then this might not be right for you, but if you’re looking for a more grown up story of politics, magic, intrigue, and a young heroine trying (but not always succeeding) to do right, then this is good. There’s also some good social commentary on our own times, and the sort of future we could be heading toward.
  • A book of short stories 
    • A Good Man is Hard to Find (Flannery O'Connor) -Oh Flannery. I love Flannery, yet I must also admit that her stories are not always the easiest to read. They’re rarely feel-good tales, and more often disturbing or end with unclear resolutions, yet they stick with you. Perhaps the best description comes from O’Connor herself who said, “all my stories are about the action of grace on a character who is not very willing to support it, but most people think of these stories as hard, hopeless and brutal.” O’Connor excels at pointing out a unflattering truths about our world, and you are forced to think about them and mull things over as the stories replay over and over in your head long after you’ve finished them.  I might not be able to read O’Connor, and only O’Connor, all the time, but one of her stories is almost always a good choice.
  • A mystery or thriller
    • The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) -Sherlock Holmes. I feel like that’s kind of all you need to say. I love him, and I love having lots of little stories to read, even though it took me a while to get through all of them. I certainly loved reading “A Scandal in Bohemia” and learning about “The Woman,” and I also really hope that “The Red-Headed League” is a part of the next Sherlock season just because it’s so ridiculous.
  • A book with a one-word title
    • Cinnamon (Neil Gaiman) -Moral of the story: run away with tigers. Ok, not exactly, but I thought this was a charming story of a princess who’d never spoken, and how it takes a tiger to teach her that she has something to talk about.
  • A book set in a different country
    • Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide (Nicholas D. Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn) -Everyone should read this book. Just do it. The husband-wife journalist team of Kristoff and WuDunn make a compelling case that gender equality might well be the great injustice of the 21st century, but also show how the oppression of women across the globe does not have to remain the status quo. Among other things, they discuss the gendercide of girls in China, the sex trafficking of girls from Nepal (and so many other places), the atrociously high maternal mortality rates globally, practices of female genital mutilation, and the low value placed on female education. If you’re like me, you will weep with anger and sorrow and frustration, gasp with indignation, be uncomfortable with the harsh realities, and be ashamed you knew so little, but you will also be inspired and moved to action. The good news is that Kristoff and WuDunn do not simply leave you with the bad news; they present stories of hope and describe many ways to help solve these issues. However, I will warn that they also describe the methods that have been tried and failed (or even made things worse), and it can be sobering to realize that actions performed with the best of intentions really can pave the way to hell… or at least not make hell any better. Read it. Watch the documentary. Make your friends join you. Then act.
"More girls were killed in the last 50 years, precisely because they were girls, than men killed in all the wars in the 20th century. More girls are killed in this routine gendercide in any one decade than people were slaughtered in all the genocides of the 20th century."
“Women aged fifteen through forty-four are more likely to be maimed or die from male violence than from cancer, malaria, traffic accidents, and war combined.”
“When a prominent dissident was arrested in China, we would write a front-page article; when 100,000 girls were routinely kidnapped and trafficked into brothels, we didn’t even consider it news. Partly that is because we journalists tend to be good at covering events that happen on a particular day, but we slip at covering events that happen every day—such as the quotidian cruelties inflicted on women and girls. We journalists weren’t the only ones who dropped the ball on this subject: Less than 1 percent of U.S. foreign aid is specifically targeted to women and girls.”
-Nicholas D. Kristoff and Sheryl WuDunn in Half the Sky
  • A book based on, or turned into, a TV show
    • Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy and Hard Times (Jennifer Worth) -I loved this book. I will say right now that I think I could recommend it to everyone. Read it for a glimpse at life in post-WWII England slums, for a history of midwifery and obstetrics, for a look at life with nuns and thoughts on faith, but most of all for the fascinating and sometimes tragic stories of ordinary people (including Princess Diana’s future bodyguard). I read it at the same time I was reading Half the Sky, and they played off each other well. Both covered the tough battles to make the medical world (and the world as a whole) realize the importance of maternal health and obstetric care, as well as horrors of girls dragged into prostitution, and so many other deeply troubling issues. However, as in Half the Sky, Call the Midwife also showed how positives changes can come about through the acts of ordinary people. Read it.
“Whoever heard of a midwife as a literary heroine? Yet midwifery is the very stuff of drama. Every child is conceived either in love or lust, is born in pain, followed by joy or sometimes remorse. A midwife is in the thick of it, she sees it all.”
“'Was it love of people?' I asked her.
'Of course not,' she snapped sharply. 'How can you love ignorant, brutish people whom you don't even know? Can anyone love filth and squalor? Or lice and rats? Who can love aching weariness, and carry on working, in spite of it? One cannot love these things. One can only love God, and through His grace come to love His people.'”
-Jennifer Worth in Call the Midwife
  • A book that came out the year you were born 
    • Spartina (John Casey) -Ugh. I did not like this book. I read it to fulfill the requirement of a book published the year I was born, and it had won awards, so it seemed promising. No. At first I was won over by the inside look into the life of a New England fisherman, but an unsympathetic main character, and a plot that seemed built purely on creating drama, not on logic, made this a somewhat painful read. Spoilers ahead because I need to rant a bit. Even though I could guess that an affair was coming, it didn’t seem to make sense once it actually happened, nor is it that likely that the chick would get pregnant after such few instances, and, really, what are the chances that a life-long fisherman would launch his new boat, the thing he’s been working on for the whole book, and not stop to check the weather first and notice that a GIANT HURRICANE was coming that day to the exact spot where he lives?! That defies belief. And I don’t care if the girl tells you she can do well on her own, if you get a girl pregnant, you automatically offer to help pay for the support of the child, and you don’t come to that conclusion as an afterthought. Lastly, tying up a crummy book with some “deep” thoughts about everyone being just small things floating in the waves of the universe is a stupid cop-out. Rant over.
  • A book that takes place in your hometown
    • Ramona and Beezus (Beverly Cleary) -Oh the joys of sisterhood. This was an oldie from my childhood, but it’s still good… and I still wonder how Linnea put up with me and Kristina. Plus, the illustration of Ramona on her tricycle has convinced me that she’s my spirit animal.
  • A popular author's first book
    • Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science (Atul Gawande) -Complications is a collection of essays that Dr. Gawande wrote during his surgical residency which look at the themes of fallibility, mystery, and uncertainty in medicine. Gawande covers topics such as how correct to clinicians when they make mistakes (something he expands on in his discussion of malpractice in Better), what to do when good doctors “go bad” (i.e. get burned out and dangerous), the cases that don’t fit the accepted medical knowledge, the issue of how much input doctors and patients should have in their care, and so forth and so on. Gawande is not shy about sharing his own mistakes and experiences, and his essays will leave you thinking.
  • A book that made you cry
    • Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance (Atul Gawande) -I loved both of the Gawande books I read this year, but Better edged out Complications for the top of my list partly because I think it’s applicable to everyone, not just people in a medical profession, and partly because the essays in this book have really stuck with me. This book is basically his discussion of how we become “better,” and, specifically, the three characteristics (diligence, morality, and ingenuity) he thinks are required for betterment. Once again Gawande uses feel life cases to make his points, everything from the astonishing effort being put in to eradicate polio, how the constant pursuit for “better” has led to dramatic increases in the lifespan of cystic fibrosis patients, the morality of healthcare providers being asked to provide lethal injections, healthcare spending, and on and on. His essay on malpractice (which you can find here) haunts me. The idea that medicine lacks a consistent and effective way to discuss and correct a clinician’s mistakes, and thus the only recourse is a punitive and damaging malpractice case, is horrifying. We are taught in PA school that we will all be sued at least once, no matter how good we are, and while the vast majority of malpractice cases are dismissed as unfounded, it’s still a terrifying prospect. It’s also sad that recognizing how much you’ll have to pay in malpractice insurance is something each provider has to recognize before selecting a specialty, and may actually scare good clinicians from “risky” specialties like women’s health. I don’t have a solution to the problem, and neither does Gawande, but I think this is an important discussion to begin.
  • A book from an author you love that you haven't read yet
    • The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith (Timothy Keller) -This was a good short book by Keller. I feel like he’s touched on these subjects in his other books, and maybe there were times when he stretched his material a bit, but it was still good. I think it was especially good to take the time to reflect on which brother you are most like, and how that can affect your relationship with God and others.
    • The Meaning of Marriage (Timothy Keller) -Obviously I’m not married yet, but really, you don’t need to be to find this book interesting and helpful. Keller talks about relationships at all stages (including singleness, and I appreciated his perspectives on the “single calling” Paul talks about) and goes through how different characteristics of a relationship (whether or not you’re friends first, how you deal with conflicts, importance of having common goals, the freedom of feeling safe, and whether you can act in love even when the feelings aren’t there) can be good indicators of whether or not two people might make a good married couple. There were a few things I’m not sure I’m convinced by, but I loved his description of being loved/being known, and I liked that his wife contributed to this book as well.
    • Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense (N.T. Wright) –I really like N.T. Wright. I’d read some articles and essays from him before, and two years ago I went through one of his Lenten devotionals, but this book solidified how much I like the way he writes and explains concepts. I’d thought that this book would be just another book like Mere Christianity or The Reason for God¸ but whereas Lewis’ point was to write a book defining the central beliefs all Christians hold, and Keller was writing specifically for skeptics, I felt Wright was writing for people who are already Christians and who need to be reminded of what they believe, and how their beliefs should direct their life. His insights into our relationships with God, with each other, with the world, and with the Bible are excellent and certainly things that should be discussed, and acted on, by the Church. And I do mean acted on because Wright demonstrates over and over that the life of a Christian should be a life of action, and participation in the new creation and the kingdom.
“In other words, the Bible isn’t there simply to be an accurate reference point for people who want to look things up and be sure they’ve got them right. It is there to equip God’s people to carry forward his purposes of new covenant and new creation. It is there to enable people to work for justice, to sustain their spirituality as they do so, to create and enhance relationships at every level, and to produce that new creation which will have about it something of the beauty of God himself. The Bible isn’t like an accurate description of how a car is made. It’s more like the mechanic who helps you fix it, the garage attendant who refuels it, and the guide who tells you how to get where you’re going. And where you’re going is to make God’s new creation happen in his world, not simply to find your own way unscathed through the old creation.”
"...we are all invited –summoned, actually- to discover, through following Jesus, that this new world is indeed a place of justice, spirituality, relationship, and beauty, and that we are not only to enjoy it as such but to work at bringing it to birth on earth as in heaven. In listening to Jesus, we discover whose voice it is that has echoed around the hearts and minds of the human race all along.” 
-N. T. Wright in Simply Christian
    • Evil and the Justice of God (N.T. Wright) –Another good one by Wright. Evil isn’t exactly an easy topic to address, but I liked how Wright began from viewing the problem, and mankind’s typical responses, from a purely secular view, and then moved to the Christian response. I greatly appreciated how he didn’t simply focus on the crucifixion and resurrection, but instead showed that the story of God’s response to evil forms one cohesive narrative from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation. Are all questions answered? No, probably not, but I’m not sure they ever will be, and this is at least a good place to start.
“This, the Evangelists are saying to us, is what ‘the kingdom of God’ means: neither ‘going to heaven when you die’ nor ‘a new way of ordering earthly political reality’ but something which includes both but goes way beyond them. What the Gospels offer is not a philosophical explanation of evil, what it is or why it’s there, nor a set of suggestions for how we might adjust our lifestyles so that evil will mysteriously disappear from the world, but the story of an event in which the living God deals with it.”
-N. T. Wright in Evil and the Justice of God
  • A book a friend recommended
    • Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life (C. S. Lewis) -I’d never known much about Lewis’ life beyond what he shared in his other books and his relationship with Joy Gresham as depicted in the film Shadowlands, so it was nice to get some insight into how he became the man he did. I feel like I’d never realized how many difficulties he faced. From his mother’s early death, to the fairly awful schools, to his experiences in WWI, Lewis certainly lived through a lot. I loved seeing how his imagination as a child fueled his later writings, and learning about his spiritual journey from childhood faith to quiet rejection of God upon the loss of his mother to rather vehement atheist to, years later, the “most reluctant convert” was quite interesting, especially since he is now regarded as a classic Christian writer. I just wished there was a volume two as this one ended only halfway through his life.
  • A graphic novel 
    • Watchmen (Alan Moore) -I really should have written this review sooner. I know I liked this book. I know it brought up some good questions of morality, heroism, and what it means (or takes) to save the world. I just wish I’d written my review right after I read it so that I could remember specifics and do this book justice. I will say that it lives up to what I’ve heard about it, and makes me interested in further exploring the world of graphic novels.
  • A nonfiction book
    • The God We Never Knew and Convictions: How I Learned What Matters Most (Marcus J. Borg) -Again, I should have written my reviews for these books sooner, and I apologize that I’m combining them, but I’m losing stamina for writing these. I have sort of a mixed feeling for Borg. On the one hand, I think his books provide valid criticisms of the modern church in America and offer positive ways that we could change and grow. His critique of American Christianity and his discussion of love and action in the life of the Christian at the end of Convictions is excellent. On the other hand, it seemed that he occasionally strays from orthodoxy (particularly in his discussion of Jesus in The God We Never Knew), and whether that is because his ideas really do or because I don’t rightly understand what he’s saying is hard for me to tell. I also think that he has a tendency to made sweeping assumptions that aren’t completely justified (e.g. using the image of God as “king” will automatically make everyone picture God as far off and impersonal). However, I also have to admit that, while I don’t think he is right to include everyone in these generalizations, his points usually have merit and are often issues I’ve heard raised by others. I might not agree with everything he says or suggests, and I definitely think that, in an effort to correct some problems he swings too far to the other side and potentially creates other problems, but I still think that he presents ideas worth considering and wrestling with. I’m sure I’ll read more from him in the future. Oh, and one last thing. Borg died last January, making Convictions his final work. It seems only fitting then that I should end this review with his final words from that book. 
"What's it all about? What's the Christian life all about? It's about loving God and loving what God loves. It's about becoming passionate about God and participating in God's passion for a different kind of world, here and now. And the future, including what is beyond our lives? We leave that up to God." 
-Marcus J. Borg in Convictions
    • A Year with G. K. Chesterton (edited by Kevin Belmonte) –I wanted to like this book more than I did. I do not blame Chesterton however; there were many challenging and/or interesting quotations that caused me to mark page after page of this book. No, I blame the editor. Mr. Belmonte had some great material to work with, but I was not fond of his set up. To quibble about minor things, I would have liked more consistency in the length of daily readings, and it seemed odd that he sometimes picked just a few words or a sentence for the verse of the day, rather than quoting the entire verse or passage. What really bothered me though was the lack of citation. Many of the selections were presented without listing their source, which makes it difficult to follow up for further reading if one is interested, and also meant that sometimes one could get partway through a passage and suddenly discover that it was written by another author about Chesterton, and was not actually a selection from his writings. I think I’d rather just read Chesterton’s works for myself.
    • Surprised By Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church (N. T. Wright) -This may be my favorite Wright book thus far, which is saying a lot. Like Rob Bell in Love Wins, Wright challenges the popular American notion that the point of Christianity is to “save souls” and instead contends that a fuller understanding of salvation, heaven and the resurrection will dramatically change how we live now. Wright is so thorough and writes so passionately that it feels impossible to give a quick summary (and narrowing down my quote choice to just a few seemed a Herculean task), so perhaps the best I can do is to say: the Kingdom starts now. As Christians we are called action, to work with God to truly make things on earth as they are in heaven, and this should affect every aspect of our life. It calls us to defy injustice and corruption, to care for all of creation, to treat everyone with love, to elevate the arts, to see ourselves as part of a community not simply as individuals, to relieve suffering –in short, to live as image-bearers of God. I could go on forever, but instead I’ll just say that you should read it and find out for yourself.
"In other words-to sum up where we’ve got so far-the work of salvation, in its full sense, is (1) about whole human beings, not merely souls; (2) about the present, not simply the future; and (3) about what God does through us, not merely what God does in and for us. If we get this straight, we will rediscover the historic basis for the full-orbed mission of the church.”
“When the church is seen to move straight from worship of the God we see in Jesus to making a difference and effecting much-needed change in the real world; when it becomes clear that the people who feast at Jesus’s table are the ones in the forefront of work to eliminate hunger and famine; when people realize that those who pray for the Spirit to work in and through them are the people who seem to have extra resources of love and patience in caring for those whose lives are damaged, bruised, and shamed, then it is not only natural to speak of Jesus himself and to encourage others to worship him for themselves and find out what belonging to his family is all about but it is also natural for people, however irreligious they may think of themselves as being, to recognize that something is going on that they want to be part of. In terms that the author of Acts might have used, when the church is living out the kingdom of God, the word of God will spread powerfully and do its own work.”
“Love is at the very heart of the surprise of hope: people who truly hope as the resurrection encourages us all to hope will be people enabled to love in a new way. Conversely, people who are living by this rule of love will be people who are learning more deeply how to hope.”
“Jesus’s resurrection is the beginning of God’s new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven. That, after all, is what the Lord’s Prayer is about.”
-N. T. Wright in Surprised by Hope
  • A book based on a true story
    • The Things They Carried (Tim O'Brien) -This one has been on my “to-read” list ever since I read the first segment in a lit class during my first year of undergrad. I’m sad that it’s taken me so long to get around to reading it, but I’m glad I finally did. I’ll admit that I’m woefully uniformed about the Vietnam War (high school history always seemed to end at WWII), so it was good to actually get a perspective on it from someone who lived through it. At times it was painful and disturbing to read, but I think that was at least partially the point: war is painful and disturbing. Perhaps if more people outside of the front lines were more frequently reminded of war’s realities they’d be less inclined to use war as a “solution.”
  • A book at the bottom of your to-read list (tough since I don't usually prioritize my list, it's just a long, running thing)
    • Choosing to Love the World: On Contemplation (Thomas Merton) -This was perhaps not the best book to select as my introduction to Thomas Merton since it is a selection of his writings, and writings primarily concerned with the life of a monk/contemplative, but I still really liked it. This was a book that challenged me, and I found myself highlighting page after page. There are still some things I don’t understand, and probably some things I’m not sure I wholeheartedly agree with, but overall I thought Merton’s words remain timeless and compelling, even 50+ years later to a non-monk. I will certainly read more from him in the future.
“I make monastic silence a protest against the lies of politicians, propagandists and agitators, and, when I speak, it is to deny that my faith and my Church can ever seriously be aligned with these forces of injustice and destruction. But it is true, nevertheless, that the faith in which I believe is also invoked by many who believe in war, believe in racial injustices, and believe in self-righteous and lying forms of tyranny. My life must, then, be a protest against these also. Perhaps against these most of all.” 
“My life is a listening; His is speaking. My salvation is to hear and respond. For this, my life must be silent. Hence, my silence is my salvation.”
"It is the song that each one of us must sing, the song of grace that God has composed Himself, that He may sing it within us. It is the song of His mercy for us, which, if we do not listen to it, will never be sung. And if we do not join with God in singing this song, we will never be fully real: for it is the song of our own life welling up like a stream out of the very heart of God’s creative and redemptive love.”
-Thomas Merton in Choosing to Love the World: On Contemplation
  • A book your mom loves (my mom requested this for Christmas one year, so I decided it counted)
    • Sacred Pathways (Gary Thomas) -This was a decent book. I should mention from the beginning that I sometimes found Thomas’ personal stories and commentary to detract from, rather than add to, his discussion of various worships styles (especially in his chapter on activists), but overall I thought his descriptions of nine worship styles (naturalist, sensate, traditionalist, ascetic, activist, caregiver, enthusiast, contemplative, and intellectual), with their strengths and weaknesses, were informative and helpful. Just as it’s good for teachers to understand the different learning styles of their students, I think it would be a good idea for church leaders to read this book and think of ways they could help their members of their congregations worship in the ways that might suit their personalities best. Certainly you can’t meet everyone’s worship styles each week, but thinking of ways to occasionally include outdoor outings for the naturalists, or sights and smells for the sensates, or times of campaigning for social justice with the activists, or so forth and so on, could be a good way to recognize that people are diverse and we feel close to God through different methods and scenarios.
  • A book that scares you (unclear if they meant horror, or just scares you by challenging you in ideas or size)
    • Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived (Rob Bell) –I think Greg Boyd might have described this book best when he said, “Many will disagree with Rob’s perspectives, but no one who seriously engages with this book will put it down unchanged.” Bell is certainly not afraid to call out modern Christians, especially Evangelicals, on how issues he thinks we have gotten wrong or should reconsider. Like N. T. Wright and Ken Wystma, he discusses how popular views of salvation, heaven, and end things (specifically that the sole point of Christianity is to “get people somewhere else”) have done great damage to how we live today and his description of a world in which that statement was assumed to be true is like a sucker punch to the gut, because it is far too close to our reality. So too his points that when Jesus talked about hell, it was not to the “heathens” but to the religious leaders, the ones who “considered themselves ‘in,’” are points that we should wrestle with and consider just who Jesus would be delivering his messages to today. Contrary to what might be reported, Bell does not say there is no hell; he simply walks through church history and presents all the options that have ever been considered, and, while his own view is definitely hinted at, he leaves it to his reader to wrestle with the evidence he’s presented. Some will (and have) argued with his evidence, but if all this book does is start a discussion about how Christians’ views of eschatology affect how they live and see the mission of the church, as well as how these views have changed through church history, then I’d say that’s not a bad thing.
“Our eschatology shapes our ethics. Eschatology is about last things. Ethics are about how you live. 
What you believe about the future shapes, informs, and determines how you live now.
If you believe you’re going to leave and evacuate to somewhere else, then why do anything about this world? A proper view of heaven leads not to escape from the world, but to full engagement with it, all with the anticipation of a coming day when things are on earth as they currently are in heaven.”
“Many have heard the gospel framed in terms of rescue. God has to punish sinners, because God is holy, but Jesus has paid the price for our sin, and so we can have eternal life. However true or untrue that is technically or theologically, what it can do is subtly teach people that Jesus rescues us from God.
Let’s be very clear, then: we do not need to be rescued from God. God is the one who rescues us from death, sin, and destruction. God is the rescuer." 
-Rob Bell in Love Wins
    • The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight: The Fate of the World and What We Can Do Before It’s Too Late (Thom Hartmann) –This is one of the books from this year that I will probably have to read again someday. I read and discussed it, but I honestly don’t remember it as much as I’d like and I’m not sure if it’s because I read it too quickly, or because I’ve already heard these ideas before, or what. I will say that I do know that I appreciated the level of research and scholarship that went into this book. One of my biggest problems with Daniel Quinn’s Story of B, which expressed many of the same ideas, was the lack of evidence and footnotes, and this book has them in abundance. I also appreciated how, while Hartmann painted a fairly bleak picture of our world, he expressed belief in the possibility of change and overall had more optimism than Quinn. While I don’t agree with everything he says, and I’m not sure that all of his facts will stand the test of time (his description of China as a country willing to take drastic steps to “survive” seems less than inspirational with the hindsight knowledge that China now has some of the worst pollution, and their one child policy led to the gendercide which served as the initial inspiration for Half the Sky, and which has now been repealed), I still think that his ideas have definite merit and should be read and considered by more people.  If you want an in-depth discussion of the state of the world, everything from our use of fossil fuels to how the love of Americans for burgers leads to deforestation to the issues decreasing diversity to how loggers replanting trees still leaves gaps in the water cycle to antibiotics in meats, check it out. Read, challenge, ponder.
  • A book more than 100 years old
    • Practice the Presence of God (Brother Lawrence) -I initially forgot that I read this book this year, and not previously, because I’ve certainly heard about it for much of my life. I was taken by surprise by the first section of the book, which is more a summary and description of Brother Lawrence’s sayings than his actual words, and I liked the book better when I got to the letters, but I still found all of it to be at once challenging as well as comforting. Brother Lawrence’s descriptions of finding God in everything, and always putting God first, can seem impossible or naïve (though desirable), but he uses his own life to show how it can be done and encourages the reader not to give up or settle for anything less.
  • A book based entirely on its cover
    • These Broken Stars (Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner) -This book I got just because the cover looked pretty and intriguing. Overall it was a decent sci-fi story/romance, and I liked it enough that I’d be up for reading the next book in the series. It had enough mystery and creativity that I didn’t know exactly what would happen, and even though I sometimes wanted to tell the characters to stop being stupid and just be more honest with each other, I actually liked both of the main characters quite a bit.
  • A banned book
    • The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald) -For some reason, this wasn’t required reading for me in high school, but I’m glad I finally read it now. So much has already been said on this book that I feel I have little I could add to the conversation. I will say that I liked it, that it gave me a view into another time while allowing to reflect on my own, and that seeing some of the film adaptations (particularly the 2013 version) helped me understand and actually have some (though not much) sympathy for Daisy.
  • A book you were supposed to read in school but didn't
    • Adam: God's Beloved (Henri Nouwen) -I was supposed to read this book for my undergrad anatomy class, and instead merely skimmed it before the final exam so I could pass some of the questions about it. I cheated myself by putting this book off until now. Nouwen’s book is not, as some might suppose, about the biblical Adam, but rather a young handicapped man that Nouwen worked and lived with during his time at the L’Arche Daybreak Community in Toronto. Although initially overwhelmed and uncomfortable with caring for Adam, Nouwen is changed by the experience, and comes to love their times together. By comparing Adam’s life to the life of Jesus, he shows now the life of one young man changed the lives of those who met him and demonstrated God’s love to the world. Along with pursuing this main theme, Nouwen also makes his reader reconsider the best way to care for those with physical and mental difficulties, and brings a respect to  a people that society too often sees as a burden best hidden away, by showing the blessing they truly are.
“Adam was sent to bring Good News to the world. It was his mission, as it was the mission of Jesus. Adam was—very simply, quietly, and uniquely—there! He was a person, who by his very life announced the marvelous mystery of our God: I am precious, beloved, whole, and born of God. Adam bore silent witness to this mystery, which has nothing to do with whether or not he could speak, walk, or express himself, whether or not he made money, had a job, was fashionable, famous, married or single. It had to do with his being. He was and is a beloved child of God. It is the same news that Jesus came to announce, and it is the news that all those who are poor keep proclaiming in and through their very weakness. Life is a gift. Each one of us is unique, known by name, and loved by the One who fashioned us." 
-Henri Nouwen in Adam 
  • A memoir
    • Flunking Sainthood: A Year of Breaking the Sabbath, Forgetting to Pray, and Still Loving My Neighbor (Jana Riess) -I really enjoyed this book. Riess decided to spend a year focusing on twelve different spiritual disciplines, and as she shares her successes or, more often, failures, she brings the reader along on a journey through traditions many of us have forgotten or taken for granted. Like Sacred Pathways, she recognizes that not all disciplines may be equally helpful for each person, but she still explores the roots of all of them and includes thoughts from Christians from all throughout church history to expand on her own experiences. By sharing her own failings, Riess encourages the reader to consider doing something similar because it becomes clear that perfection is not required for such an exercise to be a success. As a final note, I thought her discussion of hospitality, particularly as to how it related to Sodom and Gomorrah, was both unexpected and thought-provoking.
“Merton suggests that every moment of existence can be a grace. I love that because, paradoxically, it takes the pressure off Christians to be so freakin’ happy all the time. If every moment of existence is a grace, we can simply rest in God. It means our joy might just transcend our circumstances. Happiness in the present moment and lasting joy in God are not the same... Christians absolutely can be thankful and unhappy at the same time. In fact, we ought to be, because this world is not as God intended it. When we are in despair about a child getting leukemia, God is right there beside us feeling righteously pissed. And when we sting with the agony of betrayal, God aches too. The gratitude that Christians feel runs deep because we’re in love with a God who hates cancer even more than we do, and who knows firsthand the throb of treachery.”
“I suspect in my heart that vegetarianism points to this enmeshed, meddling Jesus who wants to live among us and sacralize everything. To this Jesus, even the birds of the air and lilies of the field warrant honor in God’s kingdom. Francis was on to something when he regarded the animals (and the moon, and the sun, and everything else in creation) as brothers and sisters. This Jesus did not weigh animals by their usefulness to human beings, or count them as mere instruments in a strict hierarchy of creation. This Jesus did not apparently question, as many of my fellow humans have done, whether animals have souls. He welcomed them as an integral part of the kingdom of God.”
-Jana Riess in Flunking Sainthood
  • A book you can finish in a day
    • Princess of the Midnight Ball (Jessica Day George) -I thought this was a charming retelling of the story of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. I liked it quite a bit and simply flew through this book. If you like fairy tale retellings, I’d recommend it.
  • A book with antonyms in the title
    • This Beautiful Mess (Rick McKinley) -For the sake of honesty, I must admit that I might be slightly biased in my love of this book since it comes from a pastor in Portland and I love and am encouraged by the impact his church has had so close to my home. Many of the other authors I read this year, especially Bell, Wright, and Wytsma, wrote about how Christians should be living and working with God to bring the Kingdom to earth, to participate in the already/not yet Kingdom. This book could be described as an account of how one church, Imago Dei, is doing just that. From the bridge ministries to help the countless homeless in Portland, to creating Learning Labs where children are encouraged to be creative and to learn about science and creation and pottery and caring for others, to having services outside, to cleaning an abandoned community park, to emphasizing being good stewards of money and making ethical shopping choices, to simply looking for a need in their community and asking how they can meet it, and so much more, Imago Dei seeks to be the Kingdom of God in their community. And it is indeed beautiful. There are so many ideas in this book that I’d love to see implemented in more churches, and I’d recommend this book to anyone, but especially to church leaders.
“This is Portland to me. It’s about buying back the ugliness and redeeming it for a better purpose. It’s about acknowledging that sometimes you cannot change your situation, yet choosing to look up anyway and stare hope straight in the eye.” 
–Jan Carson in This Beautiful Mess
"Americans tend to assume that we know what the people in the rest of the world actually need. Genuine relationships can help set us straight on that. Once we commit to knowing others, we’re likely to realize that what they say they need and what we think they need may be very different. We ought to lay down our arrogance and humbly assist them with their needs as they perceive them. They know their world, their people, and their culture. We suffer with them by letting them decide how we can best assist.
When we engage these relationships in a way that truly comes alongside to weep with those who weep, we start to taste the kingdom. We taste it in a way that is bitter and sweet at the same time. It breaks our hearts to feel what others feel daily, and it grows our hearts when we experience their reciprocal love. We are one family of kingdom people following the King. We suffer with them. That means we are brothers and sisters, not Western CEOs and third-world employees. Our relationships are familial, not contractual. Together we hurt and we feel and we love, and we are loved in return.”
-Rick McKinley in This Beautiful Mess
  • A book set somewhere you've always wanted to visit
    • North Country Christmas (Shelley Gill) -My parents brought this book back from Alaska for my older sister when I was little, and I can only assume that this, and my parent’s tales of our largest state, is a large part of why I’ve wanted to visit there since my childhood. Although I now recognize that I probably won’t ever drive a dogsled through the Northern lights with an Inuit Santa, I still think this book makes Alaska, and Christmas, seem simply magical.
  • A book with bad reviews 
    • Go Set a Watchmen (Harper Lee) -This book easily could’ve been under the heading of “book that scares you” because I was terrified to read it for fear that it would ruin my love of To Kill a Mockingbird. I don’t think it did but, much as I like to pretend that the first Pirates of the Caribbean was the only one made, I think I’d like to forget this book exists. It’s not like it was all horrible, and the theme of growing up and realizing that you might not always hold the same views as your parents is one I think many people can appreciate, and it does raise some good points about the difficulties of legislating moral changes before hearts and minds have changed, but even if you ignore the appalling changes to Atticus’ character, it’s not great. It’s been said that this was a first draft of what became To Kill a Mockingbird, and I readily believe that. As such, it should have remained unpublished, and should be treated as such now.
  • A trilogy
    • The Cosmic/Space Trilogy (C. S. Lewis) -I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this since the only other fiction I’d read from Lewis was his Chronicles of Narnia. I really enjoyed this trilogy, even though each book was rather different from the others. I could give whole reviews of each book, but for right now I’ll try to stick with just one or two things from each. Out of the Silent Planet had good insights into colonialism and the common problem of looking down on different cultures, as well as our lack of appreciation for nature, and thus some of our difficulty in living as part of it. Perelandra made me wish Venus was as he described it, and his retelling of The Fall was both tenser and more intriguing than I’d expected. I’m not sure I agreed with all of Lewis’ social commentary in That Hideous Strength, but I enjoyed his biting satire of our current media culture and the way words can be spun and twisted to get anyone to agree (intellectuals are duped easier than the common folk), as well as how he brought together the post-WWII world with the world of Merlin. I think I still prefer his tales of Narnia, but I will probably be returning to these in the future.
  • A book set in high school
    • The Blood of Olympus (Rick Riordan) -So this one doesn’t quite fit with the other books on this list, but I started with Riordan’s Percy Jackson series two years ago and had to follow it through to the end. Yes, this book (and the whole series) is written for a younger audience, but they’re well-written and fun, and sometimes your mind needs a break from learning all the diseases that ever existed, or from puzzling through deep theological issues.
  • A book with a color in the title
    • Green Revolution (Ben Lowe) -Too often Evangelicals can get caught up in petty and minor debates, while ignoring big picture issues and global calamities, so this book was a pleasant change. Ben Lowe is young, but makes a compelling case for the need for Christians (and Evangelicals in particular) to take up the issue of stewardship and creation care. He uses real life examples to demonstrate positive steps that have already been taken, and discusses where progress is still needed. I read this right around the time of Pope Francis published his encyclical letter Laudato Si, and I hope Evangelicals can join with their Catholic brethren to care for this world.
"If we take this assertion-that God is partly revealed through his creation-to its logical conclusion, then when we degrade and destroy God’s creation, we run the risk of diminishing his witness. Some Christians have likened it to tearing pages out of the Bible.  When we care for creation, we are adding to God’s witness in the world. In the case of the urban gardening projects, the little green space they create in the middle of a concrete jungle is the closest that many of their neighbors may get to God’s creation."
-Ben Lowe in Green Revolution: Coming Together to Care for Creation
  • A book set in the future 
    • The Heir (Keira Cass) -This was alright. I liked the first three books in The Selection series better, and I found the new main character of The Heir to be not the most likeable (or memorable, apparently, since I’ve actually forgotten her name), but I’m hoping for some character development, so I’ll still be reading the next book.
  • A book from your childhood
    • Rotten Ralph (Jack Gantos) -Moral of the story: don’t be a bad cat or you’ll be left at the circus.
  • A book by an author you've never read before
    • A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World (Paul E. Miller) –I read this book with the girls in my Bible study and I’m very glad we picked it. I’ll actually probably end up reading it again sometime soon since I often read our weekly chapters shortly before we met and didn’t allow myself time to really process and meditate on what I’d read. And there’s a lot to process. I think each girl in our group had some small quibble with Miller at least once, but most often they were small things that bothered us, like his phrasing, and overall I think we were all challenged and encouraged by his work on prayer. I’d recommend it.
    • The Grand Paradox: The Messiness of Life, the Mystery of God, and the Necessity of Faith (Ken Wytsma) -So very good. My favorite book of the year, in fact. I chose to read this book for Lent on a whim, and I found that Ken Wytsma seemed to speak directly to where I was in life as I was reading. It feels like I highlighted something on every page, and when I started skimming the book at Christmas to remind me of specifics for my review, I ended up just rereading it because it is so good. Wytsma has both great thoughts and great applications for the Christian life, and some of the changes that modern Christians may need to make. Other authors (including ones on this list) have made similar points, and it’s hard for me to put into words exactly what it is about Wytsma that sets him apart from the rest; I just know that it seemed like almost everything he said spoke to me -either convicting, challenging, encouraging, or comforting- and that I feel I can read it over again and keep gaining something new. I’m looking forward to reading his previous book on justice, and his upcoming book on creativity. In the meantime, everyone should read this one.
“A spirituality that leaves no room for doubts, questions, and messiness will inevitably lead to dire consequences.”
“When we are out in God’s creation, we open ourselves to an awareness of His power, His glory, His faithfulness, and His love...Incidentally, we are thereby aligning ourselves with God’s people throughout the ages, for whom creation served as the holy place where they found God and where He spoke to them.”
“Jesus’ mission, in His life as well as in His death and resurrection, was to bring about a world made new-a world made right-to initiate the process of restoring the whole creation, bringing it back in line with how God intended it to be. And the specific representations of brokenness that Jesus named -as stand-ins for all of the world’s brokenness that He came to redress- were the poor, the enslaved, the blind, and the oppressed. The good news is that God is setting about to make the world right in Christ, and through those who follow Him.
God’s plan is that justice would once again prevail on earth, and His will for each of His followers is that they work in concert with Him to that end. That being so, we need to understand justice as central to our walking by faith, as our prayers serve to align our will with God’s will for a just world.”
"I once heard the phrase, 'Your misery is your ministry.' It simply means that if something drives you crazy, then maybe you should do something about it."
"What is God's will for your life? Simple. It is that you live out His will for the world. That you bring goodness, truth, and beauty to the world." 
-Ken Wytsma in The Grand Paradox
  • A book that was originally written in a different language
    • Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible (Dietrich Bonhoeffer) -This book was alright. It was the first Bonhoeffer book that I’d read (rather than selections of his writings or books about him), and it was good, but wasn’t the most amazing of his material. However, I do have to admit that I feel inclined to like it more if only because I know that Bonhoeffer took a big risk publishing it (since it spoke highly of the Hebrew Scriptures and was written during the Nazi regime), and was, in fact, the reason why he was banned from publishing anything else.
  • A book you own but have never read
    • Touching Wonder (John Blase) -This one I also got for free as a deal from the publisher, and I think I join with many others in saying that it was an excellent addition to my Advent. It was broken into daily readings, but I took it once chapter at a time to give myself time to dwell on what was said. Beginning each chapter with a section of the Christmas story from The Message paraphrase makes the story seem fresh, and then Blase delves in and writes that section from the perspective of the main character and truly brings it alive. The letters to God at the end of each section suddenly made the story of each person in the Christmas story relevant to today and to my life. I loved this a lot and will certainly read it again.
    • Singing Mary's Song: An Advent Message of Hope and Deliverance (John A. Stroman) -I happened upon this book and grabbed it because I wanted something to read for Advent, and it was free. Like The Grand Paradox, this was another happy find. This Advent devotional discusses all characters of the Christmas story, but focuses on Mary and her Magnificat, delving into its message of hope, waiting, political justice, change, and worship. I found it both relevant to my life and modern life in general, and liked how it followed Mary through the entire life of Jesus. I would recommend it.
  • A book you started but never finished
    • Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (Gregory Maguire) -I’d started this book years ago and never finished, so I decided the time had come. I have to admit, I wasn’t thrilled. For me, this is one of those rare cases when the movie (or in this case, play) is better than the book. Perhaps better is the wrong word. I enjoy the musical much more than I enjoyed the book, though I will admit that the book dives much deeper into social commentary and religious musings, which I appreciated. I actually had little sympathy for Elphaba, which took me by surprise since I love her in the musical. Overall it was an interesting retelling, but I still prefer the play.  
  • A book set during Christmas
    • Christmas Trolls (Jan Brett) -Oh man. My sisters and I loved this book growing up. I still love it. It’s probably a big part of why we all love our Scandinavian heritage. The illustrations are gorgeous (not to mention a key part of the story as they reveal things not specifically mentioned in the text) and the story of a girl who meets some ridiculous trolls and teaches them about Christmas is simply charming. Read it with your kiddos.
  • A book with magic 
    • Phantastes (G. K. Chesterton) -This was my first “adult” MacDonald book, and I thoroughly enjoyed the tale of a young man wandering through Fairyland, learning about love, nature, and goodness. So much happened, and it all happened in a rather dreamlike way that was occasionally hard to follow, so it’s hard to summarize, but it had a haunting quality that stuck with me, and which I will probably have to revisit in the future.
  • A play
    • Magic: A Fantastic Comedy (G. K. Chesterton) -Supposedly George Bernard Shaw, who was not only a great playwright but also a close friend of Chesterton’s, pestered Chesterton for years to write a play, and Magic was the eventual result. It’s a short play dealing with doubt, faith, skepticism, opposing ideologies, one’s profession, and, of course, magic. The question I found myself asking at the end was, which character am I? Am I the arrogant American who is convinced all spirituality is bunk, the clergyman who is facing his own doubts, the skeptical doctor trying to care for a family he believes is mad, the girl who is thought crazy for believing in fairies, the conjurer who recognizes some magic is real but also terrifying, or the duke who tries to please everybody and thus pleases no one? Chesterton does not leave any character in peace as he reveals the weaknesses of each, flipping things on their heads and showing that perhaps “madness” is not as obvious as we assume. I’m still not sure which character I am, and I have probably been each at different points in my life, but I think it’s a good question to ponder.
  • A book written by an author with your same initials (between A. J. Jacobs and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, I covered the initials of my full name)
    • The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible (A. J. Jacobs) -I love A. J. Jacobs. I have yet to meet a book of his that did not make me laugh out loud as well, teach me something new, and make me consider things I’d never thought about before. In this book, Jacobs, who describes himself as agnostic, decides to explore his Jewish roots, and religion in general, by following the Bible as literally as possible for a year. He gets help from church leaders in multiple denominations of Judaism and Christianity to understand not just what the laws are in the Bible, but also how they’ve been interpreted throughout history. Along the way he drives his wife crazy, reflects on death, shows how everyone picks and chooses laws to follow, and begins to reconsider some of his previous conceptions. I especially liked his musings on the laws that don’t seem to have a clear rationale, and his comments on idolatry and the need for a “ugly president” seem especially relevant as we go into an election year. I’d recommend it to anyone, religious or not.
“The whole bible is the working out of the relationship between God and man. God is not a dictator barking out orders and demanding silent obedience. Were it so, there would be no relationship at all. No real relationship goes just one way. There are always two active parties. We must have reverence and awe for God, and honor for the chain of tradition. But that doesn't mean we can't use new information to help us read the holy texts in new ways. ”
“Ezekiel and his fellow prophets have become my heroes. They were fearless. They literalized metaphors. They turned their lives into protest pieces. They proved that, in the name of truth, sometimes you can't be afraid to take a left turn from polite society and look absurd.”
“Your next action could change the world, so make it a good one.”
-A. J. Jacobs in The Year of Living Biblically
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