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Wednesday, February 16, 2011

What I've Been Reading...

Here's what I've read in the last few weeks....

A Retrospect, by James Hudson Taylor



A compact, easy to read version of his much longer (and better) biography.  I have a son named after Hudson Taylor, don't you know....



Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream, by David Platt



I see where this book was going- honestly, though it had some great points, and acts as an honest mirror for Christian culture in America....  I'd just read Generous Justice for a stronger approach to the heart of the subject.


The Story of God, the Story of Us: Getting Lost and Found in the Bible, by Sean Gladding



If you, or someone you know, is a new Christian, if you'd like to have an introduction to the Bible as a whole, this is a wonderful way to get it- it's a narrative structure, from a storyteller's perspective- hitting all the main points of the Bible from beginning to end.  It comes with a reading guide to follow through the Bible as you read the story.  Very easy to get into.


Besides the Bible: 100 Books that Have, Should, or Will Create Christian Culture, Gibson, Pattison, Green, and others.



This book is great- not a "book" really, more like a series of very well-written and thoughtful Wiki entries for 100 books that we "should" read.  It's great for reference, for editorial thoughts on books you've already read, and for stocking up future reading lists.  If you've never read a book, but you read about it here, you'll at least have a frame of reference if it comes up in conversation, etc.  You'll sort of feel like you read it.


Water for Elephants, by Sara Gruen



It's like The Notebook meets The Grapes of Wrath meets the Circus.  Just a good bit of fiction.


The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe by Charles Edward Stowe



Harriet Beecher Stowe and Abigail Adams are two of my favorite American heroes.  They. were. women.  Author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, when she met Abraham Lincoln he joked,  "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war."

This is the longest and best biography of HBS that I've read, and it was particularly good as it relied heavily on actual correspondence. However- Eric Metaxas could do her biography right.

I like to hear about what you're reading, by the way...

3 comments:

Justine Lueth said...

I love these posts about what you're reading, so I've decided to participate.

I recently read "Eating Animals" by Jonathan Safran Foer and it was shocking. Of course, I half expected it to be so given its title and premise, but I still found myself taken aback. It reminds me of reading a book on the Holocaust or slavery: you know it's going to be bad, but you're still not prepared for the specifics. You can't brace yourself for some things. It broke my heart--no matter how much that may make me sound like a crazed animal activist (which I don't believe I am, by the way). Anyways, I have to commend Mr. Safran Foer for writing such a book and undergoing all the research for an industry most of us are reluctant to think about.

Speaking of the Holocaust, I also read a fantastic book about a year ago from that era: "Every Man Dies Alone" by Hans Fallada. It's about an average German couple under the Nazi regime and their small acts of defiance. Really powerful.

Phil Wiseman said...

Those books look great! I want to read them all. I saw Mark Noll's book at your house last time I was there...I've been meaning to read "The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind." How is it?

Megan O. said...

Just checking in on you. Missing your posts and hoping all is well.