Introduction
We’re a month into the new year, and already, I’ve read some great books. I finished the last of The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael (I wish this one could go on!). William Kent Krueger’s Cork O’Connor series just gets better. I delighted in Amy Tan’s Backyard Bird Chronicles. I savored the writing and story-telling art of Ann Patchett’s Tom Lake and the very different style and plotting of Gabrielle Levin’s Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow. Deep Reading included reading practices that I incorporated into my Reading Challenge for this year. Nadya Williams’ Mothers Children, and the Body Politic makes the contention that as a culture we de-value motherhood and children. Ed Uszynski, a fellow Buckeye, does a great job of explanation and critique in Untangling Critical Race Theory and Michael R. Licona offers what I think a helpful and clear discussion of the discrepancies in the gospel narratives in Jesus, Contradicted. And I haven’t even mentioned all the good books in the reviews (21 of them!).
The Reviews
Unlikely General: “Mad” Anthony Wayne and the Battle for America, Mary Stockwell. Yale University Press (ISBN: 9780300251876) 2018. A biography of “Mad” Anthony Wayne centered on his successful campaign to defeat Native tribes in the Northwest Territory. Review
The Concept of Woman, Sister Prudence Allen, RSM, edited by Sister Mary Cora Uryase, RSM, foreword by John C. Cavadini. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802883889) 2024. Surveys philosophers and theologians from ancient Greece to today tracing the concept of woman. Review
Plundered: The Tangled Roots of Racial and Environmental Injustice, David W. Swanson. InterVarsity Press (ISBN: 9781514007747) 2024. The tangled roots of racial and environmental injustice. Traces exploitation and oppression of people and land to a common root of greed. Review
The Backyard Bird Chronicles, Amy Tan (text and illustrations). Alfred A. Knopf (ISBN: 9780593536131) 2024. Four years of journals on the birds visiting Amy Tan’s backyard, with sketches and detailed drawings. Review
Brother Cadfael’s Penance (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael Number 20), Ellis Peter. Open Road Media (ASIN: B00LUZNZB0) 2014 (first published in 1994). Olivier, Cadfael’s son from his crusading days, is held hostage without ransom. Cadfael forsakes his vows to save him. Review
Deep Reading, Rachel B. Griffis, Julie Ooms, and Rachel M. De Smith Roberts. Baker Academic (ISBN: 9781540966957) 2024. Practices to grow in attentive reading that subverts distraction, hostility, and consumerism. Review
The Love Habit, Rainie Howard. Broadleaf Books (ISBN: 9781506496740) 2024. Learning to manage emotions, expectations, and relationships through daily habits enabling becoming the love one desires. Review
Tom Lake, Ann Patchett. HarperCollins (ISBN: 9780063327528) 2023. Lara, while cherry-picking with her daughters, recounts her love affair with actor Peter Duke, and how she met the girls’ father. Review
Mothers, Children, and the Body Politic, Nadya Williams. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514009123) 2024. Parallels the Western disdain for mothers and children with ancient Rome, and what early Christians can teach us. Review
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin. Vintage Books (ISBN: 9780593466490) 2022. Childhood friends, Sam and Sadie collaborate as game developers, in a different kind of love story. Review
The Gospel of Jesus Green, Neil J. Whitehouse. Wipf & Stock (ISBN: 9798385200245) 2024. Weaving scripture, theology, systems thinking, and science, concludes that Jesus is Green and preached a home for all. Review
Seeking the City, Chad Brand and Tom Pratt. Kregel Academic (ISBN: 9780825443046) 2013. A biblical, historical, and political economic argument defending responsible free-market capitalism. Review
Cheaper, Faster, Better. Tom Steyer. Spiegel & Grau (ISBN: 9781954118645) 2024. A climate activist and investor argues we can win the climate war through clean tech and free market capitalism. Review
The Mind Readers (Albert Campion Number 18), Margery Allingham. Open Road Media (ASIN: B08CRRYGK7), 2020 (First published in 1965). When Amanda’s nephews, playing with telepathic devices, are nearly kidnapped, Campion gets involved in a deadly quest. Review
Defiant Hope, Active Love, Jeffrey F. Keuss, editor. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802883919) 2024. What young adults seek in places of work, faith, and community and how churches may respond hospitably. Review
Between Two Sounds, Joonas Sildre (text and illustrations) Adam Cullen (translation). Plough Publishing House (ISBN: 9781636081342) 2024. A graphical biography of Arvo Pärt tracing his faith, musical journey and clash with Soviet artistic censorship. Review
Untangling Critical Race Theory, Ed Uszynski. InterVarsity Press (ISBN: 9781514004814) 2024. By explaining the central assertions of critical race theory, offers constructive and critical assessment. Review
An Essay on Christian Philosophy, Jacques Maritain. Open Road Media (ISBN: 9781504081245) 2022 (first published in 1955). Explores what is distinctive about Christian philosophy with notes on apologetics and moral philosophy. Review
Red Knife (Cork O’Connor Number 8), William Kent Krueger. Atria Books (ISBN: 9781416556749), 2008. Cork O’Connor is asked to help end a series of apparent revenge killings threatening a war between the Ojibwe and Tamarack County. Review
Jesus, Contradicted, Michael R. Licona. Zondervan Academic (ISBN: 9780310159599) 2024. Addresses the discrepancies in gospel accounts drawing upon the conventions of ancient biography. Review
A Rare Benedictine, Ellis Peters. Open Road Media (ISBN: 9781497671676), 2014 (first published in 1988). Three short stories set prior to the Chronicles, explaining how Cadfael became a monk and his early adventures. Review
Best Book of the Month
There were so many good choices this month! Among these, Joonas Sildre’s Between Two Sounds stands out. This may be the first time I’ve picked a graphic work as a “Best Book.” I loved the portrayal he offers of Arvo Pärt’s artistic journey. The drawing and black and white palette capture something of Pärt’s compositional style. And the publisher’s website includes tracks of several of the most significant works mentioned in the account.
Quote of the Month
David Swanson is a pastor committed to a ministry of racial reconciliation on the south side of Chicago. In the course of his ministry, he has observed the ways racial and environmental injustices are entangled, which he explores in Plundered. Here he describes the patient work that is involved in unraveling these injustices:
“Caretaking in the ruins of industrialized extraction and exploitation is a generational commitment. Who can say how long it will take for a racialized people centered on Jesus and pursuing repair together to find that creation has re-exerted its formational power over them? How long will it take for a people who’ve been severed from the earth to learn to walk humbly and gently among their creaturely neighbors? There is no program for this, no curriculum or metrics. There is only the good and slow work of learning together how to exist as a blessing and a gift.”
What I’m Reading
I’m a bit more than half way through Haruki Murakami’s The City and It’s Uncertain Walls. It is something of a puzzle palace of a work but his narrative style, and the surprising turns he takes have kept me engaged. Conceived by the Holy Spirit is a rich study of the virgin birth of Christ and why that doctrine matters. It makes a great read for Advent and a wonderful resource for any pastor preaching the birth narratives of Jesus. The Pursuit of Safety considers the “safetyism” of our culture and how we might think biblically about safety and risk. Hunger for Righteousness is series of Lenten meditations tied to the fast of Lent, grounded in the Coptic Orthodox tradition–a different world for me. I’m grateful for these chances to learn from Christians outside my “sphere.” Lastly, I’ve just picked up Jill Lepore’s The Story of America, which explores the different ways we tell our national story, seen through the lens of particular figures and events.
It’s Black History Month and I hope to get to David Greenberg’s John Lewis. I deeply admire Lewis as a Black civil right’s leader and politician who sought to live out his faith and live with hope through all the adversity he faced. I’d love to hear if there are works of Black History that have inspired you.
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.