I always love the places one may travel in books. I went from Neverwhere to an inside look at the lives of librarians and booksellers (a fun book for any bibliophile). I traveled with Israel, learning about their Tabernacle and followed the life and concert tours of Tina Turner. I got an insider look at the White House of the Kennedy and Johnson years and watched a couple of sleuths solve murders in rural English villages. I went on a journey with Saint Augustine and another with a boy, a mole, a fox, and a horse. There were journeys through worlds of ideas as well: catholicity, faith, our growing mental health crisis, getting beyond stalemated conversations, humility and hospitality, and chastity. Dr. Suess was right: “Oh, the places you will go!” All it takes is a few good books!
That I May Dwell Among Them, Gary A. Anderson. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802883063), 2023. A study of the tabernacle and sacrifice connections drawing out the idea of the incarnational presence of God in the physical structure of the tabernacle and the significance of the daily sacrifices for our understanding of atonement. Review
Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman. Avon Fiction (ISBN: 0380789019), 1996 (Link is to 2016 edition). When Richard Mayhew rescues a bleeding girl in the streets of London, he finds himself drawn into a world under London, the quest she is on and the evil forces set against her. Review
What is Faith?, J. Gresham Machen. Banner of Truth (ISBN: 9781800403598), 2023 (First published in 1925). An exposition of the Bible’s teaching on what constitutes vibrant and saving Christian faith. Review
Taken at the Flood, Agatha Christie. HarperCollins (ISBN: 9780062073846), 2011 (originally published in 1948). A young widow and her brother inherit a family fortune, stirring family resentments until a mysterious figure threatens blackmail and is found dead. Review
My Life as a Prayer, Elizabeth Cunningham. Monkfish Book Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9781958972106), 2023. A spiritual memoir describing the author’s journey from daughter of an Episcopal priest, through a variety of communities as a writer and multi-faith minister. Review
Dancing in My Dreams (Library of Religious Biography), Ralph H. Craig, III. Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802878632), 2023. A biography of the life of Tina Turner, centering on how her embrace of Soka Gakkai Nichiren Buddhism was transformative in the fulfillment of her dreams, including that of becoming a religious teacher. Review
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse, Charlie Mackesy. HarperOne (ISBN: 9781529105100), 2019. A graphic novel of the friendship of these four creatures who affirm the basic values of friendship, kindness, self-worth, and the love of cake! Review
Beyond the Clinical Hour, James N. Sells, Amy Trout & Heather C. Sells. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514001042), 2024. A proposal for collaborative efforts between mental health professionals and congregations to multiply the resources available to address the burgeoning mental health crisis. Review
Dancers in Mourning (Albert Campion #9), Margery Allingham. Open Road Integrated Media (ISBN: 9781504087315), 2023 (originally published in 1937). Mean-spirited pranks against the star actor-dancer in a musical becomes something more when as has-been actresses body is thrown of a bridge in front of the actor at his home. Review
Local and Universal: A Free Church Account of Ecclesial Catholicity (Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture), C. Ryan Fields. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514006719), 2024. A theological exploration of the contribution of churches in the free church, locally governed tradition, to the wider church’s understanding of catholicity. Review
From Broken Boy to Mended Man, Patrick Morley. Tyndale Momentum (ISBN: 9781496479860) 2024. The author takes us through his own journey of healing childhood wounds and leads through a process of reflection to identify childhood wounds, the ways they manifest in destructive behaviors, to finding healing and to shift perspective toward parents, other adults and one’s own children. Review
End the Stalemate, Sean McDowell and Tim Muehlhoff. Tyndale Elevate (ISBN: 9781496481153), 2024. Addresses how we move past impasses around disagreements to have meaningful conversations. Review
The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians, James Patterson and Matt Eversmann. Little, Brown, and Company (ISBN: 9780316567534), 2024. A collection of first-person accounts from booksellers and librarians about why they love doing what they do. Review
Humility and Hospitality, Naaman Wood and Sean Connable, editors. Integratio Press (ISBN: 9780999146354), 2022. Conference papers responding to a proposal that the virtues necessary for civility are humility and hospitality, particularly considering the qualifications that may be placed on this idea. Review
Chastity and the Soul: You Are Holy Ground, Ronald Rolheiser. Paraclete Press (ISBN: 9781640609471) 2024. An exploration of the meaning of chastity which has to do with far more than sex. Review
Remembering America: A Voice From the Sixties, Richard N. Goodwin. HarperCollins (ISBN: 9780060972417) 1995. A personal history of the 1960’s, written by an adviser to President’s Kennedy and Johnson. Review
On the Road with Saint Augustine, James K. A. Smith. Brazos Press (ISBN: 9781587434464) 2023. A “travelogue of the heart” exploring human longings and the heart’s true home. Review
What Hath Darwin to Do with Scripture?, Dru Johnson. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514003619) 2023. A study of Genesis identifying both remarkable continuities and important discontinuities with Darwinian and modern evolutionary theory. Review
Book of the Month: A group I was with in April raved about The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse, and after reading it I understand why. Handwritten and illustrated by an illustrator who doesn’t like reading (!), the conversations between the four creatures remind us of the qualities to which humans at their best aspire. It’s a book that can be read in minutes and lingered over for the rest of one’s life.
Quote of the Month. Ronald Rolheiser’s book, Chastity and the Soul: You Are Holy Ground, is about far more than sex, as this quote proposes:
“In essence, chastity is proper reverence, respect, and patience. And in a culture that is often characterized by irreverence, disrespect, and impatience, it is much needed. To be chaste is to experience people, things, places, entertainment, the phases of life, life’s opportunities, and sex, in a way that does not violate them or us. In brief, I am chaste when I relate to others in a way that does not violate their moral, psychological, emotional, sexual, or aesthetic contours. I am chaste when I do not let irreverence or impatience denigrate what is a gift, and when I let life, others, and sex, unfold according to their proper dictates” (p. 4)
This book is a gem, speaking joyfully of the recovery of a long-dismissed virtue.
What I’m Reading. I’m still plodding away at Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age, a book that demands to be read slowly, even as a charts our transition from a world framed by the transcendent to the disenchanted world of our age. Hope I can finish it this month. I’m enjoying reading and discussing The After Party by Nancy French and Curtis Chang, exploring how we might get to a better conversation about politics. I have a couple mysteries awaiting review: William Kent Krueger’s Boundary Waters, with a truly dark killer, and another Brother Cadfael. It seems I’m reading a number of books about humility of late including Michael W. Austin’s Humility: Rediscovering the Way of Love and Life in Christ. I’m finally sinking my teeth into David Cape’s Matthew Through Old Testament Eyes. I’ve loved this commentary series. Vishal and Ruth Mangalwadi sent me The Father of Modern India: William Carey and I am amazed at what this shoe cobbler accomplished as a pioneering missionary in India (and yes, they take on the question of colonizing, wait for my review). Jonathan Haidt’s new The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness makes a case for how the limiting of play and the uncontrolled use of smartphones is directly correlated to the steep rise in anxiety and depression we are seeing among Generation Z youth. Finally, I’ve just picked up Christopher Tolkien’s Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle–Earth. Lots of background to things alluded to in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
I always love to hear what others are reading, or what you thought of a book you read after reading about it at Bob on Books–even if you didn’t like it. Leave a comment!
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.