I set a new record for books reviewed in a month in April–twenty-one. So I’ll just highlight a few that stood out. I like anything that Richard Mouw writes and his Divine Generosity breaks the Reformed stereotype that only a few will be elect in exploring within the doctrines of the Reformed the idea that God will save widely. As is always the case, N.T. Wright brought new insights to one of my favorite passages, Romans 8, along with new questions. Edith Humphrey’s Down the Valley is a delightful children’s story introducing us to the lives of the saints and a wonderful family, that I suspect mirrors her own. David Brooks strikes me as the consummate learner and in How to Know a Person, he takes us along his own learning journey of what it means to know and be known deeply. Finally, I cannot say enough good about Moms at the Well, a new Bible study addressing with great sympathy and constructive hope, the struggles of every mom I know. The guide offers creative exercises for personal reflection and for rich group experiences and is an exquisite piece of work typographically as well.
I’ve made a change in the publication data I include. Following the move of The Chicago Manual of Style that has made place of publication optional, I am no longer including this. Instead, I am including ISBN numbers, which seem more useful in searches for a book. Of course, I continue to link in the title to the publisher’s website. I do this to avoid preferring a particular bookseller as well as offering you the resources the publisher offers for the book (sometimes excerpts or book trailers, or even supplemental free material). Let me know if you have an opinion about these changes.
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, Daniel G. Amen, MD and Charles Fay, PhD. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Refresh, 2024. Two clinicians, one a neuroscientist and the other a mental heath practitioner, explore how the findings in their two fields may combine to raise mentally healthy, loving, responsible, and resilient children. Review
An Excellent Mystery, (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #11), Ellis Peters. New York: Mysterious Press/Open Road Media, 2014 (first published in 1985). A dying monk, a refugee from Maud’s wars, arrives at Shrewsbury Abbey with a mute brother as helper and a former aide of the monk discovers that the monk’s former betrothed is missing. Review
Blessed Are the Rest of Us, Micha Boyett. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2023. A mother with a Down’s Syndrome child discovers in the Beatitudes a relationship with God based on God’s love rather than our accomplishments. Review
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, Katherine May. New York: Riverhead Books, 2020. A memoir exploring the importance of winters in our lives and the importance of the inward turn and care for ourselves in such seasons. Review
Divine Generosity, Richard J. Mouw. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802883902), 2024. A discussion from a Calvinist perspective of how widely God’s saving mercy extends. Review
Passenger to Frankfurt, Agatha Christie. William Morrow Paperbacks (ISBN: 9780062094452), 2012 (Originally published in 1970). Sir Stafford Nye helps a woman in the Frankfurt airport by giving her his cloak, passport, and boarding ticket to England and finds himself caught up in a global plot. Review
Creator: A Theological Interpretation of Genesis 1, Peter J. Leithart. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514002162), 2023. Considering philosophical discussions of the being of God, turns to Genesis 1 which reveals the Triune Creator who speaks and sees, who loves and is good. Review
The Case of the Late Pig (Albert Campion #8), Margery Allingham. Open Road Media (ISBN: 9781504087308), 2023 (Originally published in 1937). When Campion is invited to the second funeral in six months for an old school acquaintance, he finds him drawn into a murder investigation where the murders keep coming. Review
The Spirituality of Dreaming, Kelly Bulkeley. Broadleaf Books (ISBN: 9781506483146), 2023. A dream researcher explores both the science and spirituality of dreaming. Review
Into the Heart of Romans, N.T. Wright. Zondervan Academic (ISBN: 9780310157748), 2023. A close reading of Romans 8, focusing on the purpose, presence, and profound love in Christ for all who believe meant to assure them of not only their ultimate destiny but of God’s favor even as they share in the sufferings of Christ amid a groaning creation. Review
The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store, James McBride. Riverhead Books (ISBN: 9780593422946), 2023. A story centered around a grocery store in the midst of Pottstown’s Chicken Hill district, inhabited by immigrant Jews and the local Black community. Review
Beyond Ethnic Loneliness, Prasanta Verma. InterVarsity Press (ISBN: 9781514007419), 2024. An Indian American immigrant describes the distinctive experience of ethnic loneliness and steps those experiencing that loneliness and those who care for them can take toward healing. Review
Down the Valley, Edith M. Humphrey. Cascade Books (ISBN: 9781666772067), 2024. Further adventures beyond the gate of the white fence where the children at “Gramgon’s” house and an older friend meet the saints after whom they are named. Review
Fundamentalists in the Public Square (Studies in Historical and Systematic Theology), Madison Trammel. Lexham Academic. (ISBN: 9781683597186) 2023. A counter-argument to the contention that fundamentalists retreated from activism in the public square after the Scopes trial, based on a study of newspaper reports. Review
Hope Ain’t a Hustle, Irwyn Ince (Foreword by Christina Edmonson). InterVarsity Press (ISBN: 9781514005743), 2024. A series of messages from the book of Hebrews making the case for the confidence we may have in Christ, our great high priest who endured the storm, who sustains our hope, and calls us to enduring faithfulness. Review
Ethics@Work, Kris Østergaard, ed. Re:humanize Publishing (ISBN: 9788797284100), 2022. An anthology of essays on workplace ethics in the context of near future challenges, focusing on the systemic context, the inner life of an organization, and the humans at the core of every enterprise. Review
How to Know a Person, David Brooks. Random House (ISBN: 9780593230060), 2023. An exploration of how we might see people deeply and help them know that they are seen. Review
God’s Revolution: Justice, Community, and the Coming Kingdom, Eberhard Arnold. Plough Publishing (ISBN: 9781636080000), 2021. A collection of the writings of Eberhard Arnold, describing the life of discipleship embodied in the Bruderhof, as a radical alternative to the institutional church. Review
Character in the Garden, Doris Erika Brocke. Brocke House Enterprises (ISBN: 9780991835515), 2021. A compilation of photographs from the author’s surroundings combined with quotations focusing on the qualities of character. Review
The Raven in the Foregate (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #12), Ellis Peters. Mysterious Press/Open Road Integrated Media (ISBN: 9781497671386), 2014 (Originally published in 1986. A graceless priest comes to Holy Cross church in Foregate and alienates his parish and is found dead, while a young man who came with him, assigned to Cadfael, is not what he seems. Review
Moms at the Well, Tara Edelschick and Kathy Tuan-Maclean. IVP Bible Studies (ISBN: 781514006788), 2024. A seven week Bible study experience addressing the struggles moms face in parenting, looking at women in scripture and how God encountered them. Review
Book of the Month. James McBride’s The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store is an exquisitely told story of how two minority communities, connected by the generosity of the Jewish proprietor of the title grocery store, come together to right an injustice (or two). This book won all kind of awards, which doesn’t surprise me a bit.
Quote of the Month. I had the chance to read Prasanta Verma’s Beyond Ethnic Loneliness, which talks about the distinct forms of loneliness Blacks and other persons of color experience as they struggle with the question “What Am I?” Verma wrote poems at the end of each chapter on this theme and here’s one:
So, What Are You?
You are beloved
You are not invisible
You are whole
You are wanted
You are seen
You are loved
Just the way you are
You belong to yourself
You belong to others
You belong to God
So, what are you?
You are a gift of joy
You eat at the table
Of belonging
You are a Home
Of belonging
To others
And yourself
And if the topic is of interest to you, I also had the chance to interview the author and here is the interview:
What I’m Reading. I’m wading through Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age which may take a couple more months. His learning is so vast and he brings all of it to bear to trace the intellectual and cultural shift from a cosmos filled with the grandeur of God to a universe with either a distant deity or none, and without relevance to daily life. I’m most of the way through Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, an early work set in an underworld beneath modern London into which a young man from the upperworld falls and becomes part of an epic conflict. I always enjoy a good Poirot, and Taken at the Flood is one I haven’t read. I most of the way through J. Gresham Machen’s What is Faith? and just beginning My Life is a Prayer, a memoir by Elizabeth Cunningham and C. Ryan Fields’ Local and Universal, a book on the doctrine of the church.
The Month in Reviews is my monthly review summary going back to 2014! It’s a great way to browse what I’ve reviewed. The search box on this blog also works well if you are looking for a review of a particular book.