The Month in Reviews

The Month in Reviews: October 2023

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Reviewing the list of books I read this month, what stands out is a lot of mysteries–two Cadfael’s, the first in Margery Allingham’s Campion series, and a previously unknown (to me) author Giles Blunt with detectives Cardinal and DeLorme in northern Canada. Some other standouts include a study of the history of dispensationalism in the U.S., John Irving’s latest, and supposedly last long novel (it is), a book on difficult conversations on race that was followed by one modelling a fictional dialogue on homosexuality and the Bible, what can also be a difficult conversation, and finally, a wonderful memoir by a bass player who spent his life in jazz ensembles and the theatre scene around Chicago, playing with a number of jazz greats. I’d also highlight Can You Just Sit with Me?, a sensitive book on walking with the grieving, Benjamin Laird’s book on the New Testament canon, and a forthcoming book by Jeff Haanan on Working From the Inside Out, a marketplace-focused book on spiritual transformation–concise yet rich!

Saint Peter’s Fair (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #4), Ellis Peters. New York: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road Integrated Media, 2014, (originally published 1981). The murder of a merchant from Bristol during Saint Peter’s Fair is the first of a string of break-ins culminating in another murder; even while two young men vie for the attentions of the merchant’s bereaved niece. Review

The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism, Daniel G. Hummel (Foreword by Mark A. Noll). Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2023. A history of the origins, rise, and eventual decline of dispensationalism within American evangelicalism, and its impact on the wider American culture. Review

Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul, Dorcas Cheng-Tozun. Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2023. How highly sensitive persons can also contribute to social justice efforts in ways consonant with their personalities. Review

Can You Just Sit With Me?, Natasha Smith. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2023. An extended reflection for Christians permitting ourselves and others to grieve well and how we may accompany those who are grieving. Review

Witness In The Academy, Rick Mattson. Madison, WI: InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministries, 2023. Offers both a framework for thinking about Christian witness among graduate students and faculty and a host of practical resources aiding in that witness. Review

The Last Chairlift, John Irving. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2022. The son of a former slalom skier tries to make sense of the ghosts he sees, the father he never knew, and the different ways people love, and fail to love. Review

How to Have Difficult Conversations About Race, Kwame Christian. Dallas: BenBella Books, 2022. Makes the case for the importance and unavoidability of workplace conversations about race, how we may overcome our fears, and offers a framework of practical skills in engaging these conversations. Review

Four (and a half) Dialogues on Homosexuality and the Bible, Donald J Zeyl. Cascasde Books: Eugene, OR: 2022. A fictional dialogue between four students representing four different interpretive approaches to the Bible regarding homosexuality and same sex marriage. Review

The Crime at Black Dudley (Albert Campion #1), Margery Allingham. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018 (originally published in 1929). A house party at a remote mansion results in the death of its one reclusive resident after a “lights out” game with a 15th century dagger, followed by the party being held captive by the head of an international crime syndicate. Review

Beguiled By Beauty, Wendy Farley. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2020. A book on the contemplative life encompassing all of life as well as specific practices, written on the “borderlands” of Christian faith. Review

Working from the Inside Out, Jeff Haanen. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, (Forthcoming December 12) 2023. In a disintegrating world, outlines how five dimensions of inner transfornation can, in turn, transform our outer world of work and our life in society. Review

What Jesus Intended, Todd D. Hunter. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2023. Written for those who have been disillusioned by the church and bad religion, offering hope that the rediscovery of Jesus and his aims can sustain and restore us. Review

King: A Life, Jonathan Eig. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023. A new biography of King that focuses not only on his civil rights leadership but his personal life and struggles. Review

Colour Scheme (Roderick Alleyn #12), Ngaio Marsh. New York: Felony & Mayhem, 2013 (first published in 1943). A struggling New Zealand spa by some sulphur springs becomes the scene of espionage, the visit of a famous stage actor, and murder. Review

Creating the Canon, Benjamin P. Laird. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023. A survey of the scholarly discussions about the production, formation, and authority of the New Testament Canon, including the composition and circulation of the books, the role of theological controversies and councils, and the importance of apostolicity. Review

Pauline Theology as a Way of Life, Joshua W. Jipp. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2023. A study of Paul’s theology as an invitation to a flourishing life through participation in Christ, observing parallels and contrasts with both ancient philosophy and modern positive psychology. Review

The Virgin in the Ice (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #6), Ellis Peters. New York: Myterious Press/Open Road, 2014 (originally published 1982). Three missing refugees, an amnesiac monk left for dead, and a dead young girl encased in ice amid civil war and marauding bands challenge the skills of Cadfael and Hugh Beringar. Review

Forty Words for Sorrow (John Cardinal and Lise DeLorme Mystery #1), Giles Blunt. New York: Berkley Books, 2000. When a missing teenager’s body is found in a mineshaft, John Cardinal is re-assigned to a case he’d been pulled off of and is joined by Lise DeLorme, who is also investigating him for corruption. Meanwhile, facts point to a serial killer when another body turns up and another missing youth is traced to their community. Review

We Survived the End of the World, Steven Charleston. Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2023. For a culture facing apocalyptic times, Charleston proposes we might learn from the prophets of the Native peoples of North America, who brought messages to help their own people face the apocalypse of the colonists and their successors. Review

Making the Low Notes: A Life in Music, Bill Harrison. Saint Louis: Open Books Press, 2023. A memoir of an accomplished former bass player, from his beginnings of learning to play an upright bass, learning from and studying with other players, playing with jazz greats, and the physical and financial challenges of making it. Review

Book of the Month. This month, the honor goes to Jonathan Eig for his new biography on Martin Luther King, Jr., King: A Life. Drawing on recently available materials, he goes deeper into the inner life of King, the FBI’s surveillance of King and the dynamics among civil rights leaders, including Abernathy’s steadying role in King’s life.

Quote of the Month. This quote from which Giles Blunt’s title Forty Words for Sorrow is drawn, expressing how often there are really no words for the inconsolable sorrows we confront:

“Eskimos, it is said, have forty different words for snow. Never mind about snow, Cardinal mused, what people really need is forty words for sorrow. Grief. Heartbreak. Desolation. There were not enough for this childless mother in her empty house” (p. 37).

What I’m Reading. I just finished Ronald Rolheiser’s The Holy Longing, exploring the relationship between our desires and our spiritual life. I think he is as insightful as any on the relationship between our sexuality and our spirituality. I’ve been working through a long, but lavishly illustrated volume on the life of Ramesses II by Peter J. Brand. Michael J. Rhodes thinks about how the Bible’s teaching on justice may be integrated into the church’s efforts to form disciples in Just Discipleship, a book that combines good biblical study with practical applications drawn from his experience in a multi-ethnic church on the south side of Memphis. Sundays on the Go takes the liturgical readings for Sundays in year B of the lectionary cycle (there is one for year A as well) and offers 90 second devotionals–a short reflection, prayer and question for each Sunday. For fun, I’ve just begun Salamandastron, the fifth in the Redwall series by Brian Jacques after a couple months away from the series, and the second in the Albert Campion series, Mystery Mile.

Like the squirrels in my yard collecting food for the winter and building nests in our trees, I’ve been collecting up new books to read and review in the colder months. I feature some in my “Book of the Day” posts on social media (Facebook, Threads, Instagram, and X). Just look for @bobonbooks on any of these sites. Is it a hibernation instinct to store up books for those cold winter nights, or just an excuse to buy books? At any rate, I hope I’ve offered you some ideas for your next trip to the bookstore or library!

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.

The Month in Reviews: September 2023

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It seemed that this was the month of similar titles. I read three with the word “enemy” or “enemies,” two with an “evil” or “Demon,” two with the homonyns “sun” and “Son,” and two on the church, one emphasizing what it could be, one focusing on what it needs to lose. There are several others that stood out to me. Danielle Treweek’s The Meaning of Singleness is hands-down the best book on theology of singleness I’ve read. Paul Louis Metzger’s More Than Things is an exploration of how the ethical approach of personalism bears on a wide range of issues. If you want to know the story of the man who articulated the strategy of containment that shaped U. S. policy in the Cold War, George F. Kennan by John Lewis Gaddis is outstanding. Every summer, I read a baseball book. This year’s is K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches by a talented young sportswriter, Tyler Kepner. I hope to read more of him. John Van Sloten has written a wonderful piece on how science and scientists help us hear God through the Creation. I finished the month reviewing Russell Moore’s Losing Our Religion, which puts into words my deep grief over what has happened in large swaths of evangelicalism while also offering wise counsel of how we ought to live in such times.

Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver. New York: Harper Collins, 2022. An adaptation of the David Copperfield story set in rural western Virginia, centering on a child, Demon Copperhead, raised by a single mom until she dies, the abuses of foster care he suffers, and after a football injury, the black hole of opioid addiction. Review

Monk’s Hood (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #3), Ellis Peters. New York: MysteriousPress.com/Open Road Integrated Media, 2014 (Originally published in 1980). When Gervase Bonel dies of poison from a dish sent by the prior, the sheriff is convinced it is his stepson Edwin, with whom he is on poor terms. Cadfael suspects otherwise but must seek proof. Review

The Meaning of Singleness, Danielle Treweek, foreword by Kutter Callaway. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023. A theology of singleness, rooted in a vision of the future, offering meaning, significance, and dignity in living as a single person within the Christian community and in the world. Review

More Than Things, Paul Louis Metzger. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023. Draws upon the theological and ethical framework of personalism to uphold the dignity of persons, with applications to a variety of medical issues related to human life and extending from immigration and drone warfare to space exploration. Review

K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches, Tyler Kepner. New York: Anchor Books, 2020. Summary: A New York Times sportswriter writes about ten different pitches in the repertoire of pitchers, how they are thrown, what they do, the pitchers who threw them, and how they worked or didn’t in famous games. Review

My Mortal Enemy, Willa Cather. New York: Open Road Media, 2022 (Originally published in 1926). The story of Myra Driscoll Henshawe, who forsakes a fortune to go with her love to pursue fortune and fame in New York City. Review

The Gospel According to Christ’s Enemies, David J. Randall. Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 2022. How the statements of Jesus’s enemies about him often proclaimed, in unintended ways, the very gospel truth about him. Review

The Bible in a Disenchanted Age, R. W. L. Moberly. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2018. Explores how one can privilege the Bible over other texts, ultimately as a way of encountering and believing God in Christ. Review

Evil Under the Sun (Hercule Poirot #24), Agatha Christie. New York: Harper Collins, 2011 (originally published in 1941). While Poirot is vacationing in Devon, Arlena Marshall, an actress who attracts men like moths to the flame, is found dead of strangulation on an isolated beach. Review

George F. Kennan: An American Life, John Lewis Gaddis. New York: Penguin Books, 2011. The authorized biography of this diplomat and strategic thinker who articulated the Western strategy of “containment” that curbed and ultimately resulted in the end of the former Soviet Union. Review

In Church as It Is in Heaven, Jamaal E. Williams and Timothy Paul Jones. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press|Praxis, 2023. Two pastors, one black, one white, describe the thick formative practices that have helped them foster a multiethnic church, following the form of liturgy used in their and others’ congregations. Review

Life in the Son (New Studies in Biblical Theology #61), Clive Bowsher. Downers Grove and London: IVP Academic/Apollos, 2023 (UK publisher link). A study of the idea of “in one another” participation in the Johannine literature. Review

God Speaks Science, John Van Sloten. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2023. Explores what we may learn from the creation through different fields of scientific research about the nature and works of God. Review

The Captain and the Enemy, Graham Greene. New York: Open Road Media, 2018 (orginally published in 1988). A boarding school boy is taken to live with a poor woman in a London flat by a confidence man called “The Captain,” who sporadically visits, provides money and seems to care for the woman, Liza, who become’s “Jim’s” mother. Only years later does he understand more about this mysterious figure, and the various relations in his life. Review

Losing Our Religion, Russell Moore. New York: Sentinal, 2023. A call to repentance, to come to Jesus, for an evangelical church that has lost its credibility, authority, identity, integrity, and stability. Review

Best Book of the Month. I thought Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead one of the best not only of the month but of this decade. The narrative voice of Demon is so distinctive as is the re-telling of the David Copperfield story in the context of rural Appalachia in a broken foster care system amid a burgeoning opioid epidemic.

Quote of the Month. I hear many bewailing the exodus of youth and young adult from the church. Russell Moore lays the onus not on them but on the church in this telling statement:

“The problem now is not that people think the church’s way of life is too demanding, too morally rigourous, but that they have come to think the church doesn’t believe its own moral teachings.”

What I’m Reading. I just finished another Cadfael, St Peter’s Fair, number four in the series. I loved the development of the friendship of Cadfael with Hugh Beringar as well as the character of the new abbot. Also, I just finished Daniel G. Hummel’s The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism, which I would contend is an excellent survey of the leading personalities and cultural impact of this movement. I’m just starting Rick Mattson’s Witness in the Academy, addressing how grad students and faculty who follow Jesus might bear witness to their faith in a setting where this may be risky to one’s reputation and career. Rick is a colleague whose thoughtfulness and passion I’ve appreciated and so I look forward to seeing what he has written here. Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul by Dorcas Cheng-Tozun is a good followup to Susan Cain’s Quiet exploring the ways introverts and socially sensitive persons may uniquely contribute to justice efforts. The Last Chairlift is John Irving’s latest and last long (according to Irving) novel. It is a long book with interesting characters and humorous and tender moments. At the same time it is laden with sexual descriptions of almost every imaginable form except a healthy heterosexual marriage. On a very different note, Natasha Smith has written a beautiful book on grief, Can You Just Sit With Me? Kwame Christian, who I knew as a law student, facilitates negotiations with businesses and brings those skills to bear in his latest, How to Have Difficult Conversations About Race. He takes an incredibly positive approach that encourages us that such conversations are not only possble but may lead to better work places.

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.

The Month in Reviews: August 2023

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In my reading this month I learned both about those who dig in the ground in Bible lands, and those, including six women, who soared into space. I read two more books in Ngaio Marsh’s Alleyn series, which I’m close to polishing off, read the second Cadfael book, and the fourth Redwall book. I love a good series. Speaking of series, I read another book in the Essential Studies in Biblical Theology series, on the arc from creation to new creation. Then there are new editions. I had the chance to finally review a standard introduction to theology that I’d been tempted to buy for many years. I couldn’t agree in all the particulars, but I loved the elegance and clarity of the work. Then there was a variety of special works from a presidential biography (of an Ohio president!), a history of the international collegiate ministry of which the college ministry I work with is a part, a fine monograph on Artemis of Ephesus (!), and best of all, a history and celebration of a Youngstown tradition — the cookie table! And that doesn’t cover it all!

Behold and Become, Jeremy M. Kimble. Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic, 2023. A classic yet contemporary evangelical account of the doctrine of scripture and how God works transformation through scripture in salvation and Christian growth and what this means for one’s engagement with scripture and its use in the life and leadership of the church. Review

President Garfield: From Radical to Unifier, C. W. Goodyear. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2023. A full-length biography of the twentieth president tracing his evolution from a Radical Republican to one who sought to unify his party and a country still riven by the Civil War. Review

The Cookie Table: A Steel Valley Tradition, Alice Crosetto. Charleston, SC: American Palate, 2023. The story of this northeast Ohio/western Pennsylvania wedding tradition, its beginnings and a description of the ins and outs of cookie-baking, table set-up, types of cookies, and etiquette, and some of the uses of cookie tables beyond weddings. Review

American Idolatry, Andrew L. Whitehead. Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2023. Drawing on sociological research showing the association of racism and xenophobia with Christian nationalism, argues of the dangers of the idolatries of power, fear and violence to the American church. Review

Your Body is a Revolution, Tara Teng. Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2023. Written by an embodiment coach and somatic practitioner, this book advocates for re-connecting with our bodies and names the different ways we have been estranged from our bodies through beliefs about the body, shaming, traumatic abuses, and political oppression and how we can learn to listen to and reconnect with our bodies. Review

The Beginning and End of All Things (Essential Studies in Biblical Theology), Edward W. Klink III. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023. Proposes that creation is not confined to beginnings but unfolds throughout the biblical story, concluding in the new creation. Review

Night at the Vulcan, (Roderick Alleyn #16), Ngaio Marsh. New York Felony & Mayhem, 2014, originally published in 1951. An actor is found dead in the actor’s dressing room at the end of a play. It appears to be suicide by gas asphyxiation, but Alleyn finds clues pointing to murder by someone in the company. Review

Nourishing Narratives, Jennifer L. Holberg. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023. Making sense of our lives and our faith through the stories that shape us. Review

Mariel of Redwall (Redwall #4), Brian Jacques. New York: Avon Books, 1991. Mariel the warrior mousemaid seeks revenge against Gabool, the pirate king, with a company from Redwall, while Redwall fends off a group of pirate fugitives led by rebel Captain Greypatch. Review

One Corpse Too Many (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #2), Ellis Peters. New York: Mysterious Press/Open Road, 2014 (Originally published in 1979). Burying 94 defenders of Shrewsbury loyal to Empress Maud, executed by King Stephen, Cadfael finds 95 bodies, one of which had been murdered. Could the killer be the young man seeking a daughter of a supporter of Empress Maud, hiding in the abbey under Cadfael’s protection? Review

The Priesthood of All Students, Timothée Joset. Carlisle, Cumbria, UK: Langham Global Library, 2023 (Also available in French and Spanish editions). Contends from historical, ecclesiological, theological, and missiological perspectives that the idea of the priesthood of all believers has been essential to the student-led, non-clerical character of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, and helps account for it global spread to 180 countries. Review

Good Catastrophe, Benjamin Windle. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 2023. Drawing upon the Book of Job and Tolkien’s idea of “eucastrophe,” proposes that when we face pain and adversity, we are at the place where great good can occur. Review

The Last of the Fathers, Thomas Merton. New York: HarperOne, 1981 (originally published in 1954). A brief life of Bernard of Clairvaux, published following the encyclical, Doctor Mellifluous, celebrating the eighth centenary of the death of Bernard, on August 20, 1153. Review

Catching Fire, Becoming Flame (Revised and Expanded Tenth Anniversary Edition), Albert Haase, OFM. Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2023. If God is the fire and spark who sets our lives aflame, how do we prepare the kindling for the transforming and empowering work of God? Review

The Six: The Untold Story of America’s First Women Astronauts, Loren Grush. New York: Scribner, 2023. Traces the story of the first six American women astronauts from their selection, through their training and missions, along with the special media attention they received. Review

Nobody’s Mother: Artemis of the Ephesians in Antiquity and the New Testament, Sandra L. Glahn. IVP Academic, 2023. Through a study of literature, epigraphic, art, and architectural evidence, proposes that Artemis, far from being a fertility goddess, was a virgin, who aided women in childbirth, and considers the implications for our reading of 1 Timothy 2:11-15. Review

A Continuous Harmony, Wendell Berry. Berkeley: Counterpoint Press, 2012. A collection of essays representing a cross-section on Berry’s critique of America’s consumptive culture as well as his ideas on good agriculture. Review

Faith Seeking Understanding, Fourth Edition, Daniel L. Migliore. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2023. An introduction to theology, covering all the major topics of systematic theology. Review

Excavating the Land of Jesus, James Riley Strange, Foreword by Luke Timothy Johnson. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2023. A description of the real work of archaelogists excavating sites in the biblical world from the time of Jesus, particularly the problems they seek to solve as they try +to understand how people lived in that time. Review

Last Ditch (Roderick Alleyn #29), Ngaio Marsh. New York: Felony & Mayhem, 2016 (originally published in 1976). Alleyn and Troy’s son Ricky finds himself in the middle of a murder of a young horsewoman and gets mixed up with a group of drug runners when all he wants to do is get away on a Channel island and write. Review

Best of the Month: My choice for this month is C.W. Goodyear’s President Garfield. Garfield is a fellow product of Ohio’s Western Reserve and Goodyear traces a life full of accomplishment tragically cut short. He was an educator, a Civil War hero, an abolitionist, a politician who brought people together. One wonders what he might have accomplished if he had served eight years instead of five months as president. Goodyear captures all these facets of his life, one not without failings, but certainly one fully lived.

Quote of the Month. A book I haven’t mentioned yet is Albert Haase’s Catching Fire Becoming Flame, on how we might prepare the kindling of our lives to be set aflame by the Spirit of God. It’s a rich book to be read repeatedly and taken on retreat. I liked this quote:

“Catching fire and becoming flame require more than the spark of the Spirit and our well-chosen kindling. They also demand an ongoing perseverance and a long-term patience forged from the awareness that God fervently desires to see us blaze with godly enthusiasm. That enthusiasm flares up as we willingly surrender to the communal process of being transformed by the Spirit of God sent to lovingly respond to the unmet need or required duty of the present moment.”

What I’m reading. I began the third Brother Cadfael today, Monk’s Hood. I love this monk who combines manliness and holiness! I’ve thoroughly enjoyed Demon Copperhead. Kingsolver creates in this character a compelling voice who narrates the hard life of growing up in the rural foster system and the burgeoning opioid crisis, and the vulnerabilities of an attractive young man who thinks of himself as trash because that is how he’s been treated most of his life. I’m also enjoying my baseball book of the summer, K: A History of Baseball in Ten Pitches. The ten pitches are everything from the fastball to the spitter. The author discusses who were the consummate pitchers of a particular pitch and famous moments when it was their “out” pitch. This is “inside baseball” at its best. Danielle Treweek’s The Meaning of Singleness explores singleness, not as a problematic state, but one of present significance in light of the eschaton. Finally, I’m taking a deep dive into the philosophy of personalism in More Than Things on the meaning and significance of all humans. I’m interviewing the author, Paul Louis Metzger later this month!

Because I’m in the middle of several longer books, you’ll see some other posts on some days. Meanwhile, take the time to catch up on the twenty reviews here, and maybe even read one or two! Happy reading!

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.

The Month in Reviews: July 2023

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I read quite a number of books each month. But there are so many books I never get to when they first come out. Sometimes I didn’t know about them. Other times I knew but they didn’t attract my attention at the time. As I compiled this post, I noticed how many books there were that were not recent publications. I read and enjoyed my first Cadfael story. It won’t be my last. I thoroughly loved my second William Kent Krueger novel, written ten years ago. I keep working through series by Ngaio Marsh and Brian Jacques, finding new things to love about each author. I finally pulled out an old set of essays by Neil Postman-witty, incisive, and, at times, extremely prescient.

Then there were a number of fine new books in addition to Watkin’s Biblical Critical Theory, a truly magisterial work. Jessica Hooten Wilson’s is a wonderful treatment of reading as a spiritual practice. François Clemmons, a fellow Youngstowner, offers a wonderful memoir of growing up there, coming out in college, and his time on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. One book offered hope for a renewal of people turning from atheism to faith and another points the way to post-pandemic renewal. Two others explored the failings of evangelicalism, including its early alliance with J. Edgar Hoover. Bob Katz offers a wonderful story of a teacher and class who “encircled” a dying classmate with love and presence and Kara Lawler’s delightful children’s book explores the presence of God in the changing seasons. Terence Lester helps us understand how an honest rendering of our nation’s history can promote solidarity and not enmity. And George Marsden helps us appreciate Jonathan Edwards at his best. Can you see why I like reading?

A Morbid Taste for Bones (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #1), Ellis Peters. New York: Mysterious Press/Open Road, 2014 (originally published in 1977). Cadfael is part of a group commissioned to retrieve the bones of a Welsh saint. When the one leading landowner who opposes the removal is murdered, Cadfael helps his daughter find the murder, avenging his death. Review

Conscientious Objections: Stirring Up Trouble About Language, Technology, and Education, Neil Postman. New York: Vintage, 1992. A collection of essays of social criticism, considering our communications media and rhetoric, education and its purpose, and technology and how it shapes society. Review

Reading for the Love of God, Jessica Hooten Wilson. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2023. An exploration of reading as a spiritual practice, including the reading practices of Augustine, Julian of Norwich, Frederick Douglass, and Dorothy Sayers. Review

Elaine’s Circle, Bob Katz. Madison, NJ: Munn Avenue Press, 2022. Elaine views Circle Time as key to building a learning community with her students. When one of them is diagnosed with a terminal illness, Elaine and her circle of students, including the one dying find ways to make that fourth grade a most extraordinary year. Review

Officer Clemmons, Dr. François S. Clemmons. New York: Catapult, 2020. An autobiographical memoir of Dr. François S. Clemmons, from his earliest years in Alabama, his youth in Youngstown, Ohio through his college years when he accepted that he was gay, his relationship with Fred Rogers, and subsequent performing and teaching career. Review

God, Right Here: Meeting God in the Changing Seasons, Kara Lawler, illustrated by Jennie Poh. Downers Grove: IVP Kids, 2023. A walk through the changing seasons and a reminder that the unchanging God is always present, always near and may be seen wherever we look in his creation. Review

All God’s Children: How Confronting Buried History Can Build Racial Solidarity, Terence Lester. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2023. A plea that we need to confront the history we try to hide of racial injustice and that real reconciliation can only happen when we stand together in soliarity against racial injustices. Review

Mattimeo (Redwall #3), Brian Jacques. New York: Ace Books, 1989. Mattimeo, the spirited son of Matthias the Warrior, along with four other children, are kidnapped as an act of revenge by Slagar the Cruel. When Matthias and other warriors pursue, including the Sparra folk, Redwall’s remaining inhabitants must fight off an invasion of magpies and ravens. Review

Biblical Critical Theory, Christopher Watkin. Grand Rapids: Zondervan Academic, 2023. An attempt along the lines of Augustine’s City of God to offer a comprehensive overview of how the biblical account from Genesis to Revelation to engage in a critique of late modern culture and the critical theories that have also attempted to analyze the culture. Review

A Clutch of Constables (Roderick Alleyn #25), Ngaio Marsh. New York: Felony & Mayhem, 2015 (originally published in 1968). Troy takes a spur-of-the-moment river cruise only to learn that her berth had belonged to a man murdered by an international criminal, who happens to be on the cruise with her! Review

The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God, Justin Brierly. Carol Stream: Tyndale Elevate, 2023. A journalist and podcast host makes the case that we may be seeing a new wave of people coming to faith in God and why this is so. Review

Testimony: Inside the Evangelical Movement that Failed a Generation, Jon Ward. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2023. A national journalist who grew up in an influential evangelical movement describes his separation from this movement as he witnessed its embrace of control and power, both within churches, and in increasingly authoritarian politics, at the expense of both truth and character. Review

The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover, Lerone A. Martin. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2023. A study of how J. Edgar Hoover worked in concert with sympathetic Christian leaders to foster his vision of a White Christian America. Review

From Pandemic to Renewal, Chris Rice. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2023. Addresses eight global crises exposed by the COVID pandemic and how Christians may be agents of healing and transformation. Review

An Infinite Fountain of Light, George Marsden. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023. A brief introduction to the life and thought of Jonathan Edwards, setting him alongside two of his contemporaries, Benjamin Franklin and George Whitefield. Review

Flood and Fury, Matthew J. Lynch. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023. A searching study of the biblical texts on the flood in Genesis and the conquest of Canaan, facing the issue of violence and God’s participation, against the backdrop of the shalom of God. Review

Ordinary Grace, William Kent Krueger. New York: Atria Books, 2013. Two boys in a rural Minnesota town encounter a series of deaths, including one within their family, and discover something of the “awful grace of God.” Review

Best of the Month. Chris Watkin’s Biblical Critical Theory has deservedly received a good deal of attention. Watkin shows how one might use the whole of scripture in a thoughtful critique of culture. It is wide-ranging, erudite and persuasive. Whether you agree with him in detail, he offers a challenge to engage our contemporary culture thoughtfully.

Quote of the Month: William Kent Krueger’s Pastor Drum, in Ordinary Grace, grieving for his murdered daughter, articulates the struggle of a person of faith to believe when facing such tragic loss:

“‘I confess that I have cried out to God, ‘Why have you forsaken me?’…’When we feel abandoned, alone, and lost, what’s left to us? What do I have, what do you have, what do any of us have left except the overpowering temptation to rail against God and to blame him for the dark night into which he’s led us, to blame him for our misery, to blame him and cry out against him for not caring? What’s left to us when that which we love most has been taken?

‘I will tell you what is left, three profound blessings. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Saint Paul tells us exactly what they are: faith, hope, and love. These gifts, which are the foundation of eternity, God has given to us and he’s given us complete control over them. Even to the darkest night it’s still within our power to hold to faith. We can still embrace hope. And although we may ourselves feel unloved we can still stand steadfast in our love for others and for God. All this is in our control. God gave us these gifts and he does not take them back. It is we who choose to discard them.“

What I’m reading. I’ve just finished Jeremy M. Kimble’s Behold and Become, a wonderful articulation of the transforming power of God through the scriptures. C. W. Goodyear’s President Garfield fills in the gaps in our knowledge of this president who sadly served only for months, leaving us to wonder what might have been if an assassin’s bullet and unenlightened medical practice had not taken his life. Timothée Joset’s The Priesthood of All Students studies the history of an idea that has shaped the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, a movement among college students in over 160 countries–namely that the best ones to minister to students are students. Your Body is a Revolution by Tara Teng critiques the ideas about the body she received in her evangelical upbringing and how her thinking has changed as an embodiment coach. While there is much I would take issue with, including the obliviousness of the book to older bodies, I recognize and grieve the defective theology against which she has revolted and would affirm aspects of her vision of the goodness of our bodies. American Idolatry is a concise study, drawing upon sociological research showingt the connection of Christian nationalism to white supremacy and xenophobia. as well as delineating the unbiblical falsehoods on which Christian nationalism is based. The Beginning and End of All Things explores the connections between creation and the new creation that we often miss in scripture. Night at the Vulcan is another Ngaio Marsh mystery set at theatre. I’m curious to see how this will differ from others she has written using this setting. And finally, Alice Crosetto, a classmate throughout my school years has written The Cookie Table: A Steel; Valley Tradition. If you are from Youngstown or Pittsburgh, you know that a proper wedding is not complete without a lavish cookie table with hundreds of dozens of cookies. If you are not, you probably have no idea what I’m talking about but you should, so read my review and buy Alice’s book!

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.

The Month in Reviews: June 2023

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Sometimes my books come in pairs. This month I read novels by Haruki Murakami and William Kent Krueger, two very different writers. I liked both enough that I want to read more of them. I reviewed two books by Carmen Joy Imes in preparation for an interview with her. What a fine and personable scholar, something coming through both in books and in person. I read two luminous books on the Christian life–Daniel Denk’s An Invitation to Joy and Jeff Crosby’s The Language of the Soul–rich in insights for the journey. Two monographs on key figures in church history, Augustine and Cranmer, offered insight into Augustine’s understanding of friendship and Cranmer’s influence on Anglican liturgy, emphasizing the idea of sola fide. Then there were theological works on the Holy Spirit and on theories of the atonement. A couple books dealt with life’s dark times–one on spiritual disillusionment, the other, a fictional portrayal of bipolar disorder. I read two edited collections of essays, one on spiritual formation in a global context, the other on the digital public square. Two works of history round out my “pairs” collection, one that explored American history through a particular clan, the Busters, and the other, David Grann’s latest, The Wager. Finally, I had a few that didn’t pair up but were worthwhile reads on their own: the classic Lies My Teacher Told Me, one of the better Ngaio Marsh Roderick Alleyn novels (in my opinion), and a collection of Umberto Eco essays on literature. Perhaps in one of these you’ll find something for your summer reading.

Lies My Teacher Told Me, James W. Loewen. New York: Touchstone, 1995 (Link is to 2018 edition with a different publisher). Based on an examination of twelve American history high school textbooks, looks at how these oversimplify, omit, distort, and sometimes perpetuate false myths of American history, and make the teaching of history boring in the process. Review

The Night is Normal, Alicia Britt Chole. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Refresh, 2023. A study of spiritual disillusionment, proposing that this “night faith” in times of pain may root us more deeply in God and ground us more firmly in reality. Review

A Bond Between Souls: Friendship in the Letters of Augustine (Studies in Historical and Systematic Theology), Coleman M. Ford. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Academic, 2022. A study of the correspondence of Augustine revealing the qualities of his friendships and a vision of friendship rooted in God, encouraging one another in Christian virtue and the love of God. Review

The Language of the Soul, Jeff Crosby (foreword by Suzanne Stabile, afterword by James Bryan Smith). Minneapolis, MN: Broadleaf Books, 2023. A survey of the deepest longings of the human soul, within ourselves, for our world, and for the eternal. Review

Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters, Carmen Joy Imes. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2019. What the law given at Sinai and the Old Testament has to do with the lives of Christians. Review

The Spirit, Ethics, and Eternal Life, Jarvis L. Williams. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023. The saving work of Christ in its vertical, horizontal, and cosmic dimensions is the reason for why the Galatians are able and commanded to walk in the Spirit, living lives of Spirit-empowered obedience, participating both now and into the age to come in eternal life. Review

Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami. New York: Vintage International, 2002. In two parallel plots Kafka tries to escape a curse and find his mother and sister (and himself) and Nakata tries to recover the part of him lost during a strange school outing incident in his youth. Review

The Book of Susan, Melanie K. Hutsell. Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2022. A woman who seems to have it all, a successful husband, beautiful son, and tenure-track position begins to struggle with apprehensions about another woman who has come into her circle, visions apparently from God, anger and the inability to focus. As life unravels, she is diagnosed with a bipolar disorder and begins a long journey of discovery. Review

The Buster Clan: An American Saga, K.P. Kollenborn. Kindle Direct Publishing, 2023. What began as genealogical research into the Buster family turns into an account of the American story from the Revolutionary War to the present. Review

Being God’s Image, Carmen Joy Imes (foreword by J. Richard Middleton). Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023. A study of what it means to be God’s images as representative rulers in God’s good creation, what was lost in the fall, how we might live well in a good but fallen world, and how we see in Christ’s coming the fulfillment of God’s image in humans and of God’s purposes for the creation. Review

Mapping Atonement: The Doctrine of Reconciliation in Christian History and Theology, William G. Witt and Joel Scandrett. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2022. A historical survey of the different models or metaphors for atonement, for what Jesus accomplished in his life, death, and resurrection, looking at leading proponents of those views. Review

Black as He’s Painted (Roderick Alleyn #28), Ngaio Marsh. New York: Felony & Mayhem, 2015 (originally published in 1974). The President of Ng’ombwana is coming to England. A man with known enemies, his old school friend Alleyn attempts to persuade him to accept Special Branch protection but fails to prevent a murder at an embassy reception. Review

The Wager, David Grann. New York: Doubleday, 2023. An account of the shipwreck of the Wager, part of a naval squadron in one of England’s wars against Spain, and the effort of her captain to maintain order as the survivors struggled just to eat, and the divisions and mutiny of those who wanted to sail back to Brazil. Review

The Digital Public Square, Jason Thacker, editor. Brentwood, TN: B & H Academic, 2022. A collection of essays exploring the contours and complexities of the digital public square, specific issues that have arisen, and the call of disciples as they engage the digital public square. Review

Spiritual Formation for the Global Church, Ryan A Brandt and John Frederick, editors. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2021. A collection of contributions reflecting the global and catholic conversation around spiritual formation including theological study, elements of worship, and mission in contemporary cultures as formation. Review

On Literature, Umberto Eco. New York: Harper Via, 2005. A collection of occasional writings on literature and literary criticism, many adapted from conference presentations given over several decades. Review

An Invitation to Joy, Daniel J. Denk, foreword by Christopher J.H. Wright. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2023. Reflections on the source of joy and how we may rediscover it. Review

This Tender Land, William Kent Krueger. New York: Atria, 2019. Four orphans fleeing the Lincoln Indian Training School due to a crime of self-defense embark on a journey to and on the Mississippi to find a relative they hope will provide a home and shelter. Review

Worship By Faith Alone (Dynamics of Worship). Zac Hicks, foreword by Ashley Null. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023. Addressing the contemporary concern for “gospel-centered” worship, looks at how Thomas Cranmer, deeply committed to justification by faith alone in Christ alone, reformed the worship, liturgy, preaching and devotion of the Church of England. Review

Best of the Month: Murakami’s Kafka By the Shore was a wonderful introduction to this author. I appreciated the way he wove the stories of Kafka and Nakata together, both seeking something lost. This is a book I keep thinking about long after having finished it.

Quote of the Month. I liked this definition of “joy” in Daniel J. Denk’s An Invitation to Joy:

“Feelings tend to be fleeting. They are fickle. Joy, on the contrary, is a steady disposition about life, very much connected to peace and hope. We might say that joy is a hopeful and peaceful outlook on life, a deep-seated sense of well-being.”

What I’m Reading. I’ve just finished the first of Ellis Peters “Cadfael” books. Now I understand why so many friends like them. I also just completed a set of essays by Neil Postman, Conscientious Objections, filled with sharp humor and his cogent critique of modern media, education, and technology. I’ve finally sunk my teeth into Christopher Watkin’s Biblical Critical Theory, which is an attempt to make a comprehensive and thoroughly Christian cultural critique from the whole arc of biblical narrative. It’s an ambitious project! I always love books on books and Jessica Hooten Wilson’s Reading for the Love of God is an extra treat as she looks at reading as a spiritually edifying practice. Bob Katz is a fine author I was introduced to in the last year. Elaine’s Circle is the true story of a skilled and caring teacher faced with the terminal diagnosis of one of her students, and how she and her class come together around him. I recently discovered that Dr. François Clemmons, an accomplished singer, who played Officer Clemmons on Mr. Rogers Neighborhood, grew up in my hometown of Youngstown, and so I picked up his memoir, Officer Clemmons. Finally, I’m just beginning #3 in the Redwall series by Brian Jacques, Mattimeo. I start vacation today and this is a fun read to begin it on.

Whatever your summer plans, I hope some good books are a part of them. Drop me a line in the comments if you are still looking for ideas.

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.

The Month in Reviews: May 2023

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Two mysteries by Ngaio Marsh. Books by an Ann and an Anne. Two excellent novels by Zafon and Patchett. David Grann’s riveting account of the Osage murders and Roger Angell’s elegant essays on baseball. Poetry, fantasy, and essays on what matters most. Theology on Paul, the Trinity, God’s emotions, and from an Asian-American perspective. A new edition of a classic work by Dorothy L. Sayers, a shorter piece on why we get out of bed, and a surprisingly good collection of Christian poetry. So many delightful reads this month! Part of what I love about this blog is the chance to share them with you. So here they are.

The Apostle and the Empire, Christoph Heilig (foreword by John M. G. Barclay). Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2022. Focusing on 2 Corinthians 2:14, Heilig argues for an alternative to either hidden or unexpressed criticism of the empire in Paul’s writings, proposing that we might also consider texts that have been overlooked. Review

The Trinity in the Book of Revelation (Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture), Brandon D. Smith (Foreword by Lewis Ayers). Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2022. A Trinitarian reading of Revelation, drawing upon the insights of the pro-Nicene fathers to elucidate John’s vision both of the One God and the working of the Father, Son, and Spirit. Review

Photo Finish (Roderick Alleyn #31), Ngaio Marsh. New York: Felony & Mayhem, 2016 (originally published in 1980). A New Zealand trip for Alleyn and Troy goes sideways when Isabella Sommita, a soprano and diva is murdered after she debuts a badly written opera composed by her latest love interest. Review

The Emotions of God, David T. Lamb. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press. 2022. A study of the emotional language used of God in scripture, considering seven emotions spoken of both in Old and New Testaments. Review

Why the Gospel?, Matthew W. Bates (Foreword by Scot McKnight). Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2023. Instead of asking what the gospel is, explores why has God made this proclamation of good news, centering on the kingship of Jesus and what this means for those who place allegiance in him. Review

The Shadow of the Wind, Carlos Ruiz Zafón (Translated by Lucia Graves). New York: Penguin Books, 2005. Daniel Sempere’s life is changed when he finds a mysterious book in the Cemetery of Lost Books, and embarks on a quest to learn the true story of its mysterious author, one that places him in great peril. Review

Things That Matter Most, Christopher de Vinck. Brewster: MA: Paraclete Press, 2022. A collection of essays that remind us that the things that matter most are as close as the beauty of things around us from fireflies, to Fred Rogers, to friends and family, and to the tip of our fingers. Review

On Getting Out of Bed, Alan Noble. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2023. Written for those whose experience of life or mental state make even getting out of bed a challenge, offering encouragement that even this is courageous and testifies to the goodness of God, and of life. Review

Divine Love Theory, Adam Lloyd Johnson. Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic, 2023. Proposes that the love within the Trinity serves as the objective basis and foundation for living moral lives and engages the competing atheist theory of Erik Weilenberg proposing an objective basis for morality apart from God. Review

Season Ticket, Roger Angell. New York: Open Road Media, 2013 (originally published in 1988). A collection of essays covering the 1982 to 1987 seasons, from spring training to the drama of the championships, and all the skills of players and managers and owners required to compete at the major league level. Review

Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann. New York: Doubleday, 2017. The true crime account of a series of murders of Osage tribal people motivated by money and the FBI agent who arrested some of the major figures involved in the deaths. Review

You Are Us, Gareth Gwyn. Austin: River Grove Books, 2023. An account using case studies showing how self-understanding and inner work allows individuals to become leaders in healing polarized relationships. Review

Christian Poetry in America Since 1940, Edited by Micah Mattix and Sally Thomas. Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2022. An anthology of poetry written by a wide variety of poets who identify as Christian, born between 1940 and 1989. Review

The Dutch House, Ann Patchett. New York: HarperCollins, 2019. Two siblings, Maeve and Danny, seek to come to terms with past losses of parents, and their childhood home, a striking three-story home built by a Dutch couple. Review

Mossflower (Redwall #2), Brian Jacques. New York: Avon Books, 1988. A prequel to Redwall, narrating the quest of Martin the Warrior and his companions to deliver Mossflower from the attack of the cruel wildcat Tsarmina, ruling from the fortress Kotir, next to Mossflower Wood. Review

Doing Asian-American Theology, Daniel D. Lee. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2022. A book laying out a framework for doing Asian-American theology considering both the shared and diverse cultural contexts of Asian-American peoples. Review

Dusk, Night, Dawn: On Revival and Courage, Anne Lamott. New York: Riverhead Books, 2021. An exploration of the values that sustain us when we see a world as well as our own bodies falling apart. Review

The Man Born to be King (Wade Annotated Edition), Dorothy L. Sayers, edited by Kathryn Wehr. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023. A new annotated edition of Sayers’ cycle of twelve plays on the life of Christ. Review

Death of a Fool (Roderick Alleyn #19), Ngaio Marsh. New York: Felony & Mayhem, 2014 (originally published in 1957). A fertility dance culminating in a ritual beheading of a fool, followed by his resurrection, ends with the fool having been truly decapitated. Review

Best of the Month: Dorothy L. Sayers The Man Born to Be King cycle of twelve radio dramas on the life of Christ, along with C. S. Lewis’s lectures on “mere” Christianity, helped sustain England during the depths of the Second World War. Now, Kathryn Wehr has edited a wonderful new edition of these plays with helpful introductions to each play and annotations throughout on the original text including Sayers’ Introduction, notes for each play and the text of the plays. An invaluable resource for Sayers’ scholars and lovers, and for any who want to explore her imaginative exploration of the life of Jesus the King, using the vernacular of her day. This is a tour de force!

Quote of the Month: Christopher de Vinck, in What Matters Most, made this probing observation to students he was teaching in a literature course on finding themselves in the literature they read:

“When we know who we are we can build a life upon wisdom, love, and compassion, and set the footprint of our lives firmly onto the earth for others to find who need the evidence and the inheritance of goodness as a guide for the future. When we know what matters most, we know where we are going” (p. 18).

What I’m Reading. I just finished Lies My Teacher Told Me. Written in the mid-Nineties, it reminds me that whitewashing American history is not just a current political fad but something we have been doing for a long time. The Language of the Soul by Jeff Crosby is a literate reflection on ten of our deepest longings. Alicia Britt Chole’s The Night is Normal is a deep dive into how we handle disillusionment. A Bond Between Souls is a scholarly study of Augustine on friendship, based on his letters to his friends. The Buster Clan, inspired by genealogical work, studies one Virginia family’s history, the Busters/Bustards, through American history. I’ve just put Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore on my reading pile. I’ll let you know what I think–I’ve not read him before. I’m also in the middle of two books for book clubs. Carmen Joy Imes Being God’s Image explores what it means that we were made as images of God. Matthew Lynch’s Flood and Fury explores God’s acts both in the flood and the invasion of Canaan resulting in great loss of life.

I’m looking forward to the more relaxed schedule of summer to enjoy these and other books on my TBR pile. As always, would love to hear what you are reading!

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.