Author: rtrube54

Bob on Books 2025 Reading Challenge

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It’s that time of the year again! Time for the Bob on Books 2025 Reading Challenge. For those who know me, you know that my reading challenges are not about the number of books or pages read. You don’t need a spreadsheet or a book app to do this challenge. For this year, my reading challenge focuses around reading deeply. In an age of web browsing, surfing from hyperlink to hyperlink, and push notifications on your smartphone, much of our reading is hurried, distractive, and often so broken up that we lose an author’s train of thought or the plotline of a story. The challenges here focus on developing our ability to read with attentiveness, to truly enjoy the gift of a good book, allowing it deeply into our lives

A word on the challenge. There are no awards for completion. The way you complete each challenge is up to you. Sometimes, by completing one challenge, you may find you’ve completed another. And you are welcome to choose to do some challenges and not others. We’re adults here (although I think the challenges are suitable for children as well). The point is for all of us to grow in our capacity to engage with and enjoy the books we choose. So, here are the challenges.

Twelve Challenges

Read a book with all screens elsewhere. Many of us live with our phones/tablets/computers/TVs. Push notifications, texts, new emails are all distractions. Try reading one book away from all these, even for 30 minutes at a sitting. For this, don’t read a book on a device with a screen unless it is a dedicated e-reader with no other apps or notifications. The book I read:_____________________________________

Read a book wide awake. When we are tired we have a more difficult time absorbing what we read. Falling asleep mid-sentence makes following an argument or plot harder. Read something when you are most wakeful. Choose something that keeps your attention. Wasn’t that fun? (BTW, if you can’t read without dozing, you might need help getting more sleep–lack of sleep has all kinds of health impacts!). The book I read:______________________________________________

Read a book slowly. Some books can’t be read quickly but are worth reading. Works of religion and philosophy, history, some fiction and others are worth slowing down to read well. You might take notes or outline. Reading books with complex sentences aloud can help. The book I read: __________________________

Read a book of poetry. Read a collection from a poet you like or an anthology, if you are new to poetry. Poetry invites us to pay attention to words rather than let them flow over us. Take time to read and re-read. If you want, you can use this challenge to fulfill the previous one! The book of poetry I read: __________________________

Re-read a book that has been meaningful to you at some point in your life. Good books often grow as we do. We see things because of life experiences we did not ten, twenty, or more years ago. If you are ambitious, re-read one fiction and one non-fiction book. The book I read:______________________________

Read a book published before 1900. C.S. Lewis famously counselled that we ought to read one old book for every new one. People writing from another time often see things differently than we, for better or worse. Reflecting on that difference can be valuable. Unlike Lewis, I’m only suggest you read one old book for the year! This may be another one for which you accomplish several challenges. The old book I read:___________________________________

Choose an author you like and try to read as much of what they’ve written as you can. You could focus on this challenge for a month or all year. As we do we see recurring ideas or themes, notice writing styles, how their thought developed, etc. And isn’t it fun to become something of an “expert” on your favorite author? The author I read:____________________________________

Choose a subject to read up on. This can be anything from AI to zookeeping! The key is that it interests you. It can be fun to go deeper into something we find intriguing. A Google search or a conversation with your librarian or bookseller can get you started. Try to read several books if you can. The subject you chose:___________________________________________

Read one book “against the grain.” Choose one book you are pretty sure you will not agree with. Feel free to argue with the book in your head or in notes. But I would also suggest asking yourself how the writer reaches such different conclusions from you and what the appeal of this writer is for intended readers. The book I read:______________________________________

Read one book written by someone of a different generation than yours. If you are a Boomer, read a Gen Z writer or a Millennial. Each generation has to confront the human condition but does so in different ways. Might we learn from each other? The writer of a different generation I read:_______________________

Read a translated work. This is a good way to ensure reading works from a different cultural/ethnic perspective. Anything from Tolstoy to Murakami counts! The translated work I read:_______________________

Read a book to nourish your inner life. Regardless of what we believe, we need works to enrich our interior lives. In one sense, most books do that. You could choose a sacred text, a devotional work, or even a biography or memoir of someone you admire. The book I read:__________________________

I’ve been reading for sixty-five years. I don’t think I’ve exhausted what it means to be a good reader, one who reads deeply and attentively. I want to grow as that kind of reader this year. These challenges reflect the ways I hope to challenge myself toward that end. I hope you will use these challenges as you find them helpful. And remember, you are welcome to use the same book to meet more than one challenge! Have fun, and let me know how it goes.

The Weekly Wrap: December 29-January 4

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Reading Goals

I’ve observed there are two kinds of bibliophiles. Obviously, both types love to read. And usually, both read lots of books. But one type enjoys setting goals for themselves from pages and books read, to reading particular types of books. Meanwhile, the other type just likes to read, going where their whims take them. Personally, I don’t think there is anything wrong with being either type. After all, we’re reading when much of the world isn’t!

I tend toward the goal setters, not only in books but in other things. Goals stretch me and help me grow and I’ve lived long enough to be realistic. And they are my goals–not someone else’s.

I sign up for the Goodreads Reading Challenge every year. I set it below what I read the past year, but a little more than last year’s goal. Over time, my goals exceed what I once read, but are well within reach for me–so I don’t stress.

But the goals that matter are what make me a better reader. Probably a big one for me this year is to read with greater attention–probably to compensate for my diminishing brain cells. Probably the two things I want to work on is to not mix reading and phones. The other is to get enough sleep so that I am not reading tired.

I’d like to take at least minimal notes on more challenging books–perhaps outlining an argument for example. I might start with one or a few books. I usually don’t take written notes, just mentally reviewing as I go along.

Another thing I want to do is re-read at one book that has been significant to me in the past. The occupational hazard of reviewing is having so many new books to read. Perhaps I’ll even try for a fiction work and a non-fiction work.

Finally, I’ve been reading more poetry. I have collections of poetry of Donne, Dickinson, Sandburg, Eliot, and Langston Hughes among others. I want to read slowly through at least one of these.

Every year, I post a “reading challenge.” This year’s will go up on Monday. No doubt, some of this will be there and some others. And I’d love to hear about your reading goals!

Five Articles Worth Reading

We lost Jimmy Carter this past week, our longest-lived president, at 100. Numerous tributes have appeared about his humanitarian efforts. He was also a prolific author, publishing 32 books. “Jimmy Carter: Poet, Novelist, Memoirist, Philosopher” celebrates his literary legacy.

In 1988, Kurt Vonnegut, wrote a letter for people in 2088. Benedict Cumberbatch gives us an early preview in “Benedict Cumberbatch Reads Kurt Vonnegut’s Letter of Advice to People Living in the Year 2088.” It’s a profound letter and well-read.

Speaking of letters, Cynthia Ozick, in “Voices from the Dead Letter Office” reflects on what we’ve lost with the end of letter-writing.

Ever since my freshman year, when I read one of the coillections of Flannery O’;Connor’s short stories, I’ve been both perplexed and fascinated by her writing. I totally missed Wildcat, a film exploring her life through the lens of the period when she learned that she, like her father, was suffering from lupus, a disease that would claim both of their lives. In “The Peacock’s Tail,” Jeff Reimer reflects on the movie and the connection between O’Connor’s suffering and creativity.

Several years ago, it seemed everywhere I looked, I encountered articles about the New Atheists. Now, increasingly, I’m reading of intellectuals who are coming to faith, like historian Niall Ferguson, who recently converted from atheism to Anglican Christianity. In “How Intellectuals Found God” Peter Savodnik chronicles this trend. The professions of some may surprise you and I think for any of us, the test is “by their fruit you will know them.” But it’s a fascinating account.

Quote of the Week

J.R.R. Tolkien was born on January 3, 1892. We would do well, I think, to follow this advice from him:

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”

Miscellaneous Musings

Jimmy Carter was not only a prolific author, but like many of our presidents, a prodigious reader. I enjoyed “In His Reading Life, Jimmy Carter Favored ‘Anything but Politics’” in this week’s New York Times. It’s hard to make excuses about finding time to read when we read of people like him!

I’m reading Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. I’ve admired her writing but not always the endings of her books. I thought The Dutch House got it right. Hoping for two in a row. Watch for my review!

Goodreads has tweaked its Reading Challenge this year to include integration with Kindles and monthly reading challenges, cumulative challenges, and community challenges. The monthly challenge is a pretty low bar–finish one book each month–but 12 books is more than many Americans read.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Bob on Books 2025 Reading Challenge

Tuesday: David W. Swanson, Plundered: The Tangled Roots of Racial and Environmental Injustice

Wednesday: Amy Tan, The Backyard Bird Chronicles

Thursday: Ellis Peters, Brother Cadfael’s Penance

Friday: Rachel B. Griffis, Julie Ooms, and Rachel M. De Smith Roberts, Deep Reading

Well, that’s The Weekly Wrap for December 29, 2024-January 4, 2025!

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

Review: The Concept of Woman

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Cover image of "The Concept of Woman" by Sister Prudence Allen, RSM

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.

Summary: Surveys philosophers and theologians from ancient Greece to today tracing the concept of woman.

What does the word “woman” signify? I suspect the question might elicit some snide quips, most likely from men. However, this volume surveys the ways philosophers and theologians from ancient Greece, the early church, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and down to the present have answered this question. This work constitutes a synthesis into one volume of a three volume work by Sister Prudence Allen, RSM. In all, she summarizes, if my count is correct, the thought of 163 people!

A key element of this work is Allen’s use of John Henry Newman’s Development of Doctrine. Newman proposes a process of development of Christian doctrines from their first appearance in scripture through the history of the church. His proposal is that while while the truth of a doctrine is fully present in its origins, it also has the capacity to develop as Christians address different contexts. Yet all these developments may be anticipated in the earliest form, which enjoys a “chronic vigour” through time.

Allen’s aim is to demonstrate that Pope John Paul II’s enunciation of “integral gender equality” reflects a true development of the concept of woman through the history of the church, surviving corruptions, along the way to coming to its fullest (so far) exposition in the works of recent Catholic theologians, culminating in Karol Wojtyla’s (Pope John Paul II) work.

She traces the development of four key ideas, beginning with scripture:

  1. The equal dignity of men and women (Genesis 1:26).
  2. The significant difference between a man and a woman (Genesis 1:27).
  3. The synergetic relation of a woman and a man (Genesis 1:28; 2:24).
  4. Intergenerational fruition (Genesis 5:1-32).

Through history she traces various ideas reflecting equality with or without complementarity, forms of polarity that usually devalued women, and forms of complementarity that affirmed equal dignity. Among the ancients and medieval thinkers, Hildegard of Bingen stands out as a defender of integral.

The Renaissance, Modern, and Nineteenth century are a mixed bag. On one hand, satires reinforced ancient polarities that diminished women. By contast, humanists affirmed women’s identity and women were found to be writing, speaking, and in the case of Joan of Arc, fighting. Cartesian dualism strengthened gender equality but fractured any sense of unity.

The final part shows the “chronic vigour” of integral gender complementarity while confronting what the author considers corruptions in modern sex/gender ideologies. She introduces many of us to formidable Catholic thinkers from Lonergan and Maritain, to von Balthasar and von Speyr, as well as to her own formulations and Karol Wojtyla’s personalism.

It is nothing short of an intellectual tour de force to summarize over twenty centuries of thought into four hundred pages. Thus, Allen offers the reader what amounts to a comprehensive intellectual history of the concept of woman. What is striking is that the contemporary discussions of egalitarian and complementarian positions within evangelicalism do not warrant mention. By the same token, evangelical discussions don’t mention the development of the doctrine of woman (and man) in the Catholic church. What is striking to me is the absence in the idea of integral gender complementarity of the sharp bifurcation that exists between the two evangelical camps. Equality and complementarity are held together.

At least mostly. The question of the priesthood is not discussed, a glaring silence it seems to me. At least here, the difference between women and men overrules equality. Some discussion of this seems warranted.

Nevertheless, this is an important resource, particularly for its trenchant critique of modern and post-modern sexual and gender ideologies. The synthesis of her earlier three-volume text makes it useful as an academic text. Along the way, she acquaints us with the centuries of rich thought from Augustine, Aquinas, Hildegard, the Maritains, and Wojtyla. There is much of benefit for Catholic and non-Catholic readers alike.

_____________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Unlikely General

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Cover image of "Unlikely General" by Mary Stockwell

Unlikely General: “Mad” Anthony Wayne and the Battle for America, Mary Stockwell. Yale University Press (ISBN: 9780300251876) 2018.

Summary: A biography of “Mad” Anthony Wayne centered on his successful campaign to defeat Native tribes in the Northwest Territory.

For three years I lived one block from the Anthony Wayne Trail (part of US 24) in Toledo, Ohio. I knew little more than that it was the fastest way to downtown Toledo from our apartment, and that Anthony Wayne had fought against Native tribes in that part of northwest Ohio, and that Fort Wayne, southwest on US 24, was named after him.

Mary Stockwell’s biography of Wayne renders a far more complicated portrait of this man and explains why he succeeded where others before him failed on what was then the northwest frontier of the young country. Wayne had been one of Washington’s “warhorses” during the War for Independence. He led successful campaigns at Ticonderoga, Germantown, Stony Point (a signature victory against a British strong point), and after Yorktown, in Georgia, leading to the disbanding of British forces in the South.

Yet Washington was ambivalent about him. He reminds me of Grant. He was an aggressive fighter in contrast to the more cautious Washington, sometimes exposing himself to risks. Stockwell describes this ambivalence. Wayne did all asked of him by Washington and would do more. Yet others advanced past him. Stockwell interleaves Wayne’s Revolutionary War career with the account of Wayne’s campaign in the Ohio country of the Northwest Territory. By doing so, we meet a general at once an aggressive fighter and disciplinarian, yet one who struggled with self doubts.

Like Grant, Wayne struggled with what to do when he was not fighting. He endangered his estate in Pennsylvania with bad land acquisitions in the South. He briefly served in Congress. He at least flirted with an affair. He drank, suffered from old war injuries, and gout.

Yet American affairs were going badly. The British refused to settle a string of forts in Ohio and what is now Michigan. They enlisted a confederacy of tribes to fight for them in an effort to prevent settlement north of the Ohio River despite an agreement in 1785 by some tribes to allow settlers to settle in the southern half of what is now Ohio. In 1791, General Arthur St. Clair who was also governor of the Northwest Territory, was routed in a battle against Little Turtle near Fort Recovery in western Ohio near the present Indiana border. General Harmar, who had preceded him also was defeated in 1790.

Stockwell recounts how now-President Washington, after rejecting other candidates called Wayne out of retirement in the spring of 1792. She narrates the formation of a new, larger force, the Legion of the United States and Wayne’s move to Pittsburgh, at the head of the Ohio River, to recruit the army.

Both in his initial training camp in Legionville, near Pittsburgh, and later in Greenville, in western Ohio, Wayne built a fighting force for a different kind of warfare, marked by vigilance, discipline, and drills. Other troops had fled under fire. He wanted his to hold or advance and to know what to do. He became known by native scouts as “the General that does not sleep.”

Stockwell recounts the adversity he endured, from delayed supplies to desertions of Kentucky volunteers. Worse was the covert betrayal of General James Wilkinson, his second in command, who was secretly feeding negative reports to congressmen about Wayne and undercutting supply efforts. It later came out that he was collaborating with a foreign power, Spain.

By the summer of 1794, Wayne was ready to advance north. Natives fled ahead of him as he marched north to the Maumee River, building Fort Defiance at the junction of the Auglaize and Maumee Rivers. He then marched downstream toward the British Fort Miami. The Native tribes of the Confederacy sought refuge but the British, not wanting open war with the United States, shut them out, betraying their alliance. This led to the decisive Battle of Fallen Timbers, where Wayne defeated the Confederacy on the battlefield. He subsequently seized a center of the Confederacy, Kekionga, which he transformed into Fort Wayne.

Stockwell shows how Wayne transitioned from winning on the battlefield to wooing tribal leaders who had been abandoned by the British. He offered a settlement with minor adjustments of the 1785 agreement, allowing tribes to remain in northern Ohio while Americans could settle in the south. The Treaty of Greenville was agreed to in 1795. The location of my home in central Ohio is on land ceded by this treaty. Following the treaty, Wayne supplied food and farming supplies to the Native people.

Sadly, Wayne’s wife, from whom he was estranged, died during this campaign. His daughter and son were as well, although he re-established a relationship with the latter. A year later, Wayne was dead, from his old war wounds. Stockwell portrays a man good at one thing, winning battles and securing territory for his country.

While Stockwell offers an illuminating portrayal of Wayne, and one that portrays him magnanimous in peace with tribal leaders, she treads lightly on the larger issues at stake in America’s advance on tribal lands. She mostly focuses on the British exploitation of the tribes. There is little about their displacement from eastern lands. Nor does she discuss how quickly settlers moved north of the treaty line, displacing the tribes further west after the defeat of Tecumseh. By 1803, Ohio as it is presently configured, achieved statehood.

She observes Wayne’s apprehension of the threat the British and their tribal allies posed on the American frontier. Part of it was that the British had not honored their agreements from the Treaty of Paris in 1783 and were using the tribes for both trade benefits and to hold onto what was no longer theirs. But there seems to be no questioning of the fact that all of the conflict was over who would control these tribal lands, assuming the eventual displacement of Native tribes, first in southern Ohio, then all of the state, after Wayne’s death.

What Stockwell does do is establish Wayne as one of our outstanding early military leaders, despite Washington’s uncertainties. We also see a man whose love of country left little room for family. Like Grant, he was really good at one thing–fighting.

The Month in Reviews: December 2024

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Cover image of "Pillars of Creation" by Richard Panek.

Introduction

Happy New Year to you all! It was a record year at Bob on Books. Over the course of the year I posted 237 reviews, including the 20 that are listed below for December. I retired in August and that has afforded some additional reading time.

This month included some wonderful reads. Taking the last first, Katherine Rundell’s Impossible Creatures is a wonderful new entry in the world of fantasy literature by a john Donne scholar, no less. Why I Am Roman Catholic by Matthew Levering is a wonderful testimony to his faith and reminded me of an amazing conversation we had a number of years ago. I loved Plough’s graphic biography of the life of Jakob Hutter, one of my Anabaptist forebears. Quentin Schultze You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out is a delightful reflection on The Christmas Story, and his relationship with screenwriter Jean Shepherd. Matthew Desmond’s Poverty, By America is a hard-hitting critique of the economic structures that keep people in poverty in the U.S. Meet Me At the Lighthouse is a delightful poetry collection by Dana Gioia.

Finally, I read Georges Simenon’s Maigret and the Wine Merchant at the time of the murder of the CEO of a major healthcare company. Maigret’s murder victim was despicable, and yet it was his conviction that this also was a human being that drove him to seek the killer. It seems to me right to ask whether corporate algorithms that deny needed, life-giving care amount to corporate murder. But Maigret teaches me that nothing justifies murder, nor the valorizing of the murderer.

The Reviews

One, Two, Buckle my Shoe (Hercule Poirot Number 23), Agatha Christie. William Morrow Paperbacks (ISBN: 9780062073778) 2011 (originally published 1940). Poirot seeks the murderer of his dentist, found dead not two hours after Poirot visited him. Review

Orbital, Samantha Harvey. Grove Press (ISBN: 9780802163622) 2024. A day aboard the International Space Station as six people recount their work, weightlessness, and the wonder of earth below. Review

Meet Me at the Lighthouse: Poems, Dana Gioia. Graywolf Press (ISBN: 9781644452158) 2023. A collection of poems reflecting memories of people from several generations as well as the places of Gioia’s life. Review

The Church in Dark Times, Mike Cosper. Brazos Press (ISBN: 9781587435737) 2024. Understanding and resisting the evil that seduced the evangelical movement, drawing on the work of Hannah Arendt. Review

The New Anabaptists, Stuart Murray. Herald Press (ISBN: 9781513812984) 2024. An effort to describe the practices emerging Anabaptist communities embody with three case studies as examples. Review

Lieberman’s Day, Stuart M. Kaminsky. Open Road Media (ISBN: 9781480400207) 2013 (first published in 1994). Abe’s nephew is killed and his wife shot in a mugging while a murderer stalks the abused ex-wife Hanrahan is sheltering. Review

Poverty, By America. Matthew Desmond. Crown (ISBN:9780593239933) 2024. An argument that poverty in America is the result of choices made knowingly or not by affluent who benefit as a result. Review

You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out!, Quentin Schultze. Edenridge Press LLC (ISBN: 9781937532017) 2024. Life lessons from the movie “A Christmas Story” from a friend of storyteller and screenplay writer Jean Shepherd. Review

By Fire: The Jakob Hutter Story (Heroes of the Radical Reformation, Number 2), Jason Landsel, Richard Mommsen, Sankha Bannerjee. Plough Publishing House (ISBN: 9781636081434), 2025. A graphic biography of this early leader of the Anabaptist movement, marriage to Katharina, and martyrdom. Review

Answering the Psalmist’s Perplexity (New Studies in Biblical Theology Number 62), James Hely Hutchinson. IVP Academic/Apollos (ISBN: 9781514008867) 2024 (Apollos-IVP UK website). How would God fulfill the promise of an everlasting Davidic throne when the kingship had ended in exile? Review

The China Governess (Albert Campion Number 17), Margery Allingham. Open Road Media (ISBN: 9781504087247) 2023 (First published in 1962). An engaged orphan adopted by the Kinnits hires Campion to find his roots, stirring up a crime spree and a family secret. Review

Thunder Bay (Cork O’Connor Number 7), William Kent Krueger. Atria Books (ISBN: 9781439157824) 2009. A search for Henry Meloux’s son leads to an attempt on Meloux’s life and a love story from the 1920’s. Review

Eight Million Exiles, Christopher M. Hayes (foreword by Robert Chao Romero). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing (ISBN: 9780802882394) 2024. How theologians, researchers, and local church leaders teamed up to support Columbia’s internally displaced persons. Review

Good Book: How White Evangelicals Save the Bible to Save Themselves, Jill Hicks-Eaton. Fortress Press (ISBN: 9781506485850) 2023. An argument that evangelicals try to explain away the misogyny and patriarchy that the author finds inherent in the biblical text. Review

Maigret and the Wine Merchant (Inspector Maigret Number 71), Georges Simenon (Translated by Ros Scwartz). Penguin (ISBN: 9780241304280), 2020 (First published in 1970). Maigret investigates the murder of a wealthy wine merchant, a womanizer and a ruthless employer. Review

Pillars of Creation, Richard Panek. Little, Brown and Company (ISBN: 9780316570695) 2024. The development of the James Webb Telescope and what scientists have discovered about the cosmos in its first years. Review

Why I Am Catholic, Matthew Levering. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514003145) 2024. A Catholic theologian explains why he is Christian and Catholic and what it means to embrace this tradition. Review

The Way of Christ in Culture, Benjamin T. Quinn & Dennis T. Greeson. B & H Academic (ISBN: 9781087775111) 2024. How those walking in the way of Jesus might live faithfully in all aspects of our cultural life. Review

A Simply Healthy Life, Caroline Fausel. Tyndale Refresh (ISBN: 9781496486905) 2025. A guide to health focusing on our bodies, our homes, our relationships, and our spirituality. Review

Impossible Creatures, Katherine Rundell, illustrated by Ashley Mackenzie. Alfred A. Knopf (ISBN: 9780593809860), 2024. Christopher helps Mal, a young girl who can fly, as she flees a murderer and seeks the reason why the magic is fading. Review

Book of the Month

Reading Richard Panek’s Pillars of Creation was a journey of wonder in learning what we’ve already learned in the first two years of the James Webb Telescope. Our universe, even our own solar system is more wonderful than I imagined. I posted this review on Christmas Day, so if you missed it, take a look. Great science writing!

Quote of the Month

My quote of the month also comes from space. Samantha Harvey’s is a science fiction work based on the observations and thoughts of seven people during a single day on the International Space Station, during which they orbit Earth sixteen times. Many of us have been awed by the aurora borealis in this years night skies. Harvey describes what it is like from space:

“The airglow is dusty greenish yellow. Beneath it in the gap between atmosphere and earth is a fuzz of neon which starts to stir. It ripples, spills, it’s smoke that pours across the face of the planet; the ice is green, the underside of the spacecraft an alien pall. The light gains edges and limbs, folds and opens. Strains against the inside of the atmosphere, writhes and flexes. Sends up plumes. Fluoresces and brightens. Detonates then in towers of light. Erupts clean through the atmosphere and puts up towers two hundred miles high. At the top of the towers is a swathe of magenta that obscures the stars…”

What I’m Reading

Since I preview the coming week’s reviews each Saturday in The Weekly Wrap, I won’t do that here. I’ve always enjoyed the writing of Ann Patchett and she has drawn me into the plotline of Tom Lake. I’m also reading Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, the thirty year story of Sadie and Sam, their fraught friendship and collaboration as game developers. It’s not a world I inhabit, but I’m 80 pages in and drawn into what seems an unusual and exceptionally written story.

Mothers, Children, and the Body Politic by Nadya Williams explores the devaluation of motherhood and child-bearing in our culture, and looks at the countercultural way early Christians valued women and children in a Roman culture that didn’t. Intrigued by the idea. I’d love to know how she deals with the fear of Handmaid’s Tale scenarios. Seeking the City is a big book surveying scripture and western history in defense of free-market capitalism. Finally, The Love Habit is a book on self-care that seems a current version of The Power of Positive Thinking. As you may guess, I’m not that keen on the book but want to give the writer a chance.

I so appreciate you reading with me this past year. Just from the books on my TBR pile, I think I have some great books to talk about in the coming weeks of the new year.

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.

Review: Impossible Creatures

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Cover image of "Impossible Creatures" by Katherine Rundell

Impossible Creatures, Katherine Rundell, illustrated by Ashley Mackenzie. Alfred A. Knopf (ISBN: 9780593809860), 2024.

Summary: Christopher helps Mal, a young girl who can fly, as she flees a murderer and seeks the reason why the magic is fading.

A young boy, Christopher, visits his grandfather, in Scotland. Before he knows it, he rescues a griffin, coming face to face with the mythical creature, and escapes a vicious wolf-like creature called a kludde. Then he follows a girl to the bottom of a pool into a hidden world, the Archipelago. This is a collection of islands on Earth, hidden from the rest of the planet.

They arrive only to confront the man trying to murder Mal, the young girl. He has already killed her great aunt. But they fend him off, flee with the help of unicorns, and jump from a cliff onto a boat captained by Nighthand. Something Mal says about the Immortal stops him from throwing them off the ship.

Besides fleeing a murderer out to kill her for reasons unknown, she is trying to figure out why the glimourie, the life force that sustains the Archipelago, is weakening. Nighthand agrees to assist them. Kraken attack them. They seek help in turn in the City of Scholars and from the sphinx, who will help only after you answer riddles. A wrong answer, and they will eat you. They learn that only the Immortal can gain access to the glimourie tree through a labyrinth. But the Immortal is lost. The last renounced his powers, and, although a new Immortal was born when he died, no one knows who the immortal is.

Yet there is something more to Christopher, Mal, and Nighthand than meets the eye. Christopher’s grandfather is a Guardian of the Archipelago. From the way animals treat him, is he as well? Nighthand is more than a captain. He is the defender of the Immortal, a kind of bodyguard. And Mal? She can fly with her magical cloak. But why is she burdened with concern for the fading of the glimourie? Who is she, really, and why does someone want to kill her? So much of the story turns on her coming to understand and accept her identity. The life of the Archipelago, indeed all Earth, hangs upon it.

This is a story to set one’s spirit soaring along with Mal. Between the characters we see courage, compassion, and sacrifice, along with sheer determination. But be warned, there are moments that will break your heart as well. Along the way we encounter dragons and centaurs and a host of other mythical creatures (Rundell even includes an illustrated bestiary at the back of the book). Rundell’s writing combines beauty, memorable characters, and a fast-paced plot. Ashley Mackenzie’s illustrations capture key scenes and feed our imaginations.

I loved the story as an adult even though it is written for middle-graders. I understand the comparisons to Tolkien and Philip Pullman. And perhaps this is fitting. Rundell is a fellow in two of the Colleges of Oxford and has written academic works on John Donne, including a Baillie Gifford prize winner. Therefore, it is thrilling that this is the first of a series. After all, what’s not to like about an adventure fantasy filled with mythical creatures and noble quests?

Review: A Simply Healthy Life

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Cover image of "A Simply Healthy Life" by Caroline Fausel

A Simply Healthy Life, Caroline Fausel. Tyndale Refresh (ISBN: 9781496486905) 2025.

Summary: A guide to health focusing on our bodies, our homes, our relationships, and our spirituality.

Caroline Fausel was often sick as a child. As an adult, she figured out that food, for her, had been a big part of the problem, and could be the cure as well. This led to her becoming a certified health and wellness coach. One of her core convictions is that health begins with intentional choices. Either we choose or life chooses for us. Also, health is holistic, how we care for our bodies, our environment, beginning with our homes, our relationships, and our faith our spirituality. This book collects and distills the information and experiences collected from her coaching work.

Before getting into the four areas of health, she begins with a chapter on the power of habit. She offers tips for forming habits including starting small, and one thing I’ve not heard of before, habit-stacking, in which we add a habit to one already established, like focusing on something for which we are grateful whenever we wash our hands. She also addresses bad habits, inviting us to consider how we feel when we engage in a negative behavior and identifying a positive behavior to swap in when we feel that way. Gradually, as we cultivate good habits and stack them upon each other, Fausel suggests we might frame these as a “rule of life,” one of the most constructive ways I’ve seen for developing a rule.

She then turns to care for our bodies. Fausel looks at what makes food healthy or unhealthy. She is realistic in recognizing that we cannot easily eliminate all unhealthy foods and suggests thinking in terms of “all the time” and “sometimes” foods. In general, the less processing and additives the better, and she gives a number of specific suggestions (as well as recipes in the back!). One suggestion I would question is her commendation of raw milk, given the current bird flu epidemic and the health risks associated with raw milk consumption. However, this chapter is chock full of good ideas, particularly in reducing the amount of sugars and additives in our diets.

She moves on to exercise, making suggestions for the important triad of cardio, strength training, and stretching. And moving hard, as she puts it, helps us sleep hard. She offers helpful suggestions for sleep hygiene. Finally, in a chapter on optimal functioning, she addresses hydration, skin care, and our need for fiber. Hydration, fiber, and even sweating are important components of our body’s detoxification systems.

Fausel also believes our environment is important to health. She addresses the indoor air quality in our homes and how cleaners, VOCs, and plastics affect us, and suggests safe cleaning practices. Fausel also believes healthy homes are uncluttered and she offers helps for purging, room by room. Not only this, but she addresses the root of clutter in our consumerism and commends generosity as an alternative. Finally, she addresses the environmental implications of our home lives–transportation, the products we buy, and our energy use, and even composting as a way to lower our carbon footprint.

Our emotional and relational health is another piece of a healthy life. Fausel begins with practices for cultivating mental resilience and reducing stress. Good emotional health is also tied to good friendships. The author offers tips for building and prioritizing friendships as well as for knowing when to end a friendship. Lastly, in this section, is a discussion of building harmonious family relationships, including the time of intentional time together as a whole family, and with each child.

The last section of the book concerns healthy spirituality. While Fausel is openly Christiian, the material on sabbath and finding your purpose is widely applicable. She encourages the practice of setting aside one 24 hour period a week to rest and stop working and offers suggestions for how this can be a lifegiving practice. Finally, citing longevity studies, she advocates for having a clear sense of one’s purpose. She suggests journaling several questions:

  • What do you love?
  • What did you enjoy as a child?
  • What makes you angry about the world?
  • What are you good at?
  • What are the pain points in your life?

The challenge of this book is that it offers so many ideas about healthy living. But the author helps us in several ways. Each chapter concludes with three levels of challenges: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. The foundation of habits and starting small is important. The author helps us take “baby steps” to a healthier life while offering us the big picture. This is a book to be lived with. With the turn of the year, this might be a good resource to acquire to sustain healthy living in 2025.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

The Weekly Wrap: December 22-28

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parcels in beige wrapping paper and christmas decorative lights
Photo by Nur Yilmaz on Pexels.com

Culture-Keeping

It’s a popular pastime. There is no shortage of those who will tell us what is wrong with our culture. And some who do this want to rid us of the things they think wrong. It might be an academic program, a book, a public health measure, or simply investment in the arts.

I want to think about culture-keeping. What is the good, the true, and the beautiful that we want to preserve and extend? It seems to me that if we don’t answer this question there are many good and precious things we will sacrifice to a banal mass culture whose main object is simply to keep us happy and well-fed.

If you were to ask me the mission of this blog over the past eleven-plus years, it comes down to culture-keeping. Books are one of the means by which we may purvey the good, the true, and the beautiful. Books that lift our eyes to heaven. Texts that instruct us in the intricacies of our world. Books that rouse us to action for the common good. Stories that capture our imagination and inspire us to live with courage, integrity, and compassion.

I’ve written and conversed with you about all of these. It’s the small contribution I feel I can make to the culture-keeping work that needs many hands. In the world of books, I think there are several important culture-keeping priorities. One is to protect our speech freedoms, which give people the right to say things we don’t agree with. Another is to protect our libraries. Access to books and other information sources for all people, especially those with limited resources is an important act of culture-keeping. Finally, we need to protect intellectual property in an AI age where it is free for the scraping.

I recognize there is much more I could write about culture-keeping. What I really hope, however, is to enlist us all in this important work.

Five Articles Worth Reading

One of my regrets in life is that I never learned Latin. In “LatinGate: A Teacher’s Lament,” J.S. Ubhi asserts, “Latin teaches an acuity of language unparalleled anywhere else in the secondary-school curriculum; institutions that offer it do so at a time when the brain’s neuroplasticity is highest.” His lament is that the new government in the UK has cut funding for Latin programs and that this is a great loss.

One of my Christmas traditions is to listen to one of my recordings of Handel’s Messiah, sometimes with musical score in hand. In “The Glorious History of Handel’s Messiah,” Jonathan Kandell recounts the history of this famous composition, a part of Christmas for so many of us.

Forgiveness is hard, yet necessary, if, as Jesus says, we are to live in God’s forgiveness. “On Literary Forgiveness” explores the difficult work of forgiveness in literature.

One of the delicious things of long, cold winter nights is to curl up in our favorite chair with a warm drink and a good books. We may not have a fireplace, but we can still enjoy the “Six Books to Read by the Fire” recommended by Amanda Parrish Morgan.

But if those recommendations don’t excite you, you might look over “The Most Popular Books in US Public Libraries 2024.”

Quote of the Week

My quote of the week is from fellow Ohioan, Louis Bromfield, a popular novelist in the first half of the twentieth century. He was also a pioneer in sustainable agriculture, ahead of his time, as reflected in this comment:

“As soils are depleted, human health, vitality and intelligence go with them.”

Bromfield was born December 27, 1896.

Miscellaneous Musings

We recently visited Wild Birds Unlimited’s store near us for gifts for a bird-loving friend. I’ve been reading Amy Tan’s Backyard Bird Chronicles and it is a walking endorsement for the store. I can’t believe how much this woman spends on feeding the birds in her backyard. But it has resulted in an exquisite birding journal of observations written and drawn over several years.

Earlier, I mentioned stories of courage, integrity, and compassion. Katherine Rundell’s Impossible Creatures was an utter delight to read for this reason. It is written for middle grade readers but this much older reader thoroughly enjoyed it.

I’m coming to the end of The Chronicles of Brother Cadfael after a year and a half of discovering this wonderful series from the 1980’s. In this, we consider Father Cadfael, an the extraordinary offer he makes to give his life for that of the son he had unknowingly fathered before he entered the Benedictines. Peters offers a powerful exploration of the dynamic of the relations of fathers and sons, and of other loyalties, not of blood.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Caroline Fausel, A Simply Healthy Life

Tuesday: Katherine Rundell, Impossible creatures

Wednesday: The Month in Reviews: December 2024

Thursday: Mary Stockwell, Unlikely General: “Mad” Anthony Wayne and the Battle for America

Friday: Sister Prudence Allen, RSM, The Concept of Woman

Well, that’s The Weekly Wrap for December 22-28, 2024!

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

Review: The Way of Christ in Culture

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Cover image of "The Way of Christ in Culture" by Benjamin T. Quinn and Dennis T. Greeson

The Way of Christ in Culture, Benjamin T. Quinn & Dennis T. Greeson. B & H Academic (ISBN: 9781087775111) 2024.

Summary: How those walking in the way of Jesus might live faithfully in all aspects of our cultural life.

It is not uncommon to hear Christians speak of Jesus as the Lord of all of life. But what does that mean? How does the biblical story intersect with all the ways we live life everyday? That is the question addressed in this book.

The authors begin by articulating the way of Christ in the biblical story. Then they ask the question of what is culture? Their simple definition is that “culture consists of the ways and products of creatures in creation.” This reflects an approach that sees culture as an expression of our God-created creaturely existence. Culture exists because God created humans in his image. But since the fall, culture can go either with or against God’s ways.

What was once a single story became divergent stories. Thus the question is how to relate to ways and products that do not always correspond to the way of Christ. The authors consider the classic typologies of how Christians have approached culture. After assessing various typologies, they draw upon Herman Bavinck to articulate a “Grace Infuses and Restores Nature.” approach. This means God is already at work in the world impelling Christians to join him in his restorative work.

In “Creator and Creatures,” the authors elaborate a theology of how we relate to the Creator. This means considering both who God is and who we are as God’s imagers. They conclude, “our purpose, our vocation, is to walk wisely in the world, at all times and in all places.” The following chapter considers the idea in scripture of walking in wisdom, concluding with loving obedience to Christ in community with his people.

The final two chapters offer practical questions to offer a framework of how we engage with our culture. They propose three questions that help us “triangulate.” First, we ask “When are we?”, understanding how we live between the times. Second, we ask “Where are we?”, discerning what is true, good and desirable. Third, we ask, “How do we get there?”, discerning how we walk and who we can follow. In particular, they offer examples of several figures who have engaged culture.

Perhaps the most valuable aspect of this book is the approach to culture. Specifically, grace infusing and restoring nature means God is at work in culture as well as in the Christian. He can guide us in the way of Christ, the way of wisdom. This book is the first in a “Christ in Everything” series, offering a solid and concise foundation for those that follow.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Why I Am Roman Catholic

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Cover image of "Why I Am Roman Catholic" by Matthew Levering

Why I Am Catholic, Matthew Levering. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514003145) 2024.

Summary: A Catholic theologian explains why he is Christian and Catholic and what it means to embrace this tradition.

At a time when many people are fleeing any organized religious tradition, theologian Matthew Levering unabashedly asserts “I love being Catholic”. In this book Levering explains how he came to faith and why he entered the Catholic Church. He describes the book as “an unfinished meditation on my Catholic life.” Throughout he weaves in his reading of Catholic saints and theologians with his own experience.

He begins by explaining how he came to Christian faith. For him, it was his sense of his own frailty and the reality of death that prompted his search. He was drawn by the cross of Christ, aware that he desperately needed it. Third, he was drawn by the awesomeness of the Triune God, a theme running through the book. Fourthly, the coherence and harmony of the two testaments was convincing.

He read himself into the Catholic Church, devouring works of John Paul II, von Balthasar, and Ratzinger. The unifying authority of the Petrine office drew him, Mary as Mother of the Lord Incarnate who intercedes, the beauty of the Eucharist, and Catholic teaching on marriage. The Church’s teaching on marriage is also one of the things he considers most beneficial as a context to nurture love and teach us the self-giving of Christ. In addition, he finds the Church’s teaching on humility and the providence of God beneficial.

However, being Catholic is not without its difficulties, which Levering admits with candor. He would be on the side of those troubled by accommodations to the secular world post-Vatican II. Yet he is even harder on himself, and the temptations to worldliness with which he struggles. Likewise, he finds the scandals of clerical sexual abuse disheartening. He forthrightly advocate support for victims, transparency, and believes turning to Christ’s saving power can bring real holiness out of the ruins.

While Levering warmly embraces Catholicism, he also speaks warmly of his ecumenical relationships. He acknowledges the polemics of the past. Likewise, he remains firm in his conviction that the Catholic Church is the one church founded by Christ. Thus, he opposes any ecumenism seeking to restore a lost unity. Rather, he sees ecumenism as an exchange of gifts, a means to foster warm relationships, and as a way to anticipate the unity of the church in the eschaton.

Finally, he concludes the book by offering an example of Catholic theological exegesis. He focuses on Genesis 1:1-3, weaving in all of scripture and drawing on theologians from Athanasius to his contemporaries. He concludes personally, speaking about how it is this God who has shown his light into Levering’s heart.

I spent one of the most remarkable hours of my life several years ago in an interview with Matthew Levering. I have rarely met someone who combined such theological learning with such passionate love for the Triune God. As he spoke of his faith, I was in awe and wonder, not of Levering, but of the Triune God of whom he spoke. And this is what I encountered afresh in this book. He did not persuade me to become Roman Catholic. But he clearly bore witness to how the Catholic Church is the place where he has encountered the living God, enriching all of his life.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.