Book summaries

The Month in Reviews: July 2024

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Cover image of "Diary of an Old Soul by George MacDonald, Introduction and notes by Timothy Larsen.

Summer is a good time for mysteries and thrillers. In this list are two Albert Campions, a Brother Cadfael, my first read of an Abe Lieberman mystery, and the third in the Cork O’Connor series by William Kent Krueger. On the theology front, I reviewed an interesting work on Pauline theology, a study on righteousness, Marilynne Robinson’s reading of Genesis, and a critique of neurotheology. I finally read Maus I and II and can’t understand the kerfuffle about these books unless one wants to suppress truth about the holocaust. There’s a thought-provoking proposal for “reclaiming the courageous middle” and a wonderful set of reflections on aging gracefully, written by a friend. And there are books on Dante, Flannery O’Connor, George MacDonald and Marvin Olasky and even a fascinating account of the social life of books in the 18th century! And I cant forget Percival Everett’s magnificent James!

The Fashion in Shrouds (Albert Campion, 10), Margery Allingham. Open Road Integrated Media (ISBN: 9781504088367), 2023 (originally published in 1938). Albert Campion investigates three deaths connected to a fashionable actress, Georgia Wells, whose fashion designer is Campion’s sister Val. Review

Paul and Time, L Ann Jervis. Baker Academic (iSBN: 9781540960788), 2023. A proposal that believers live, not at the intersection and the age to come, but that we have been delivered from the present evil age to live in Christ, including living in his time. Review

Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History, Art Spiegelman. Pantheon Books (ISBN: 9780394747231), 1986. Volume one of a graphic novel rendering the tightening control over Polish Jews, portrayed as mice, which ends at the gates of Auschwitz. Review

Diary of an Old Soul, George MacDonald, with introduction and notes by Timothy Larsen. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514007686), 2024 (originally published in 1880). A new edition of MacDonald’s extended devotional poem, with seven line stanzas for each day of the year. Review

Purgatory Ridge (Cork O’Connor, 3), William Kent Krueger. Pocket Books (ISBN: 9780671047542), 2002. A murder investigation becomes far more when a kidnapping plot involves Cork’s own family as well as that of a prominent mill owner. Review

Righteousness: Volume 1: History of Interpretation, Jeffrey J. Niehaus. Pickwick Publications (ISBN: 9781666738018), 2023. The first of three volumes, beginning with a history of defining biblical righteousness, considering the leading interpreters in the light of the author’s own definition. Review

The Social Life of Books: Reading Together in the Eighteenth-Century Home, Abigail Williams. Yale University Press (ISBN: 9780300240252), 2018. A study of reading together in the eighteenth-century home, looking at how books were used and contributed to social life. Review

Dear Dante, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell. Iron Pen | Paraclete Press (ISBN: 9781640609372), 2024. Summary: An imagined conversation with Dante responding to the three sections of the Divine Comedy in sonnets and terza rima. Review

Flannery O’Connor’s Why Do The Heathen Rage, Jessica Hooten Wilson with illustrations by Steve Prince. Brazos Press (ISBN: 9781587436185), 2024. The text of O’Connor’s unfinished work with commentary on her literary process and the tensions she wrestled with in writing. Review

The Hermit of Eyton Forest (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael, 14), Ellis Peters. Mysterious Press/Open Road (ASIN: ‎B00LUZNWNG), 2014 (originally published in 1987). A hermit’s arrival brings death and mayhem in a quarrel over a boy’s fate, damage to Eyton Forest, and a search for a fugitive villein. Review

Reading Genesis, Marilynne Robinson. Farrar, Straus and Giroux (ISBN: 9780374613440), 2024. Marilynne Robinson’s interpretation of Genesis, exploring the problem of evil in the world and the goodness of God. Review

Maus II: A Survivor’s Tale: And Here My Troubles Began, Art Spiegelman. Pantheon Books (ISBN: 9780679729778), 1992. Volume 2 of a graphic novel on surviving Auschwitz, the story of Art Spiegelman’s parents and his struggle to care for his father. Review

Claiming the Courageous Middle, Shirley A. Mullen. Baker Academic (ISBN: 9781540967046), 2024. Claiming the courageous middle in a polarized time as a risky and redemptive adventure of pursuing a hopeful future. Review

The Last Dark Place (Abe Lieberman, 8), Stuart M. Kaminsky. Mysterious Press/Open Road Media (ASIN: B00AYRI5DI), 2013 (originally published in 2004). Who ordered the hit on the hitman? That’s what Lieberman, who was transporting him back to Chicago tries to figure out as he tries to head off a gang war and pay for his grandson’s bar mitzvah. Review

Have We Lost Our Minds?, Stan W. Wallace. Foreword by J. P. Moreland. Wipf & Stock (ISBN: 9781666789133) Have we lost our minds to neuroscience? A challenge to neurotheology’s eclipse of the soul and reduction of mental events to brain events. Review

James, Percival Everett. Doubleday (ISBN: 9780385550369), 2024. A retelling of a Mark Twain classic in which the slave, James, rather than Huckleberry Finn, is narrator. Review

Traitor’s Purse (Albert Campion, 11), Margery Allingham. Open Road Media (ISBN: 9781504087254), 2023 (Originally published in 1941). Amnesiac Campion thinks “fifteen” of vital importance. It holds a key to a vital mission he tries to fulfill, though he knows not what it is. Review

Growing Old Gracefully, David J. Claassen. Elk Lake Publishing (ISBN: 9798891341890), 2024. Navigating the transitions of our senior years with grace and joy. Review

Pivot Points, Marvin Olasky. P & R Publishing (ISBN: 9781629959535), 2024. Pivot points of a compassionate conservative, a memoir tracing the journalistic and writing career of Marvin Olasky, former editor in chief of World magazine. Review

Book of the Month

There were so many good ones in this collection, it was a hard choice. I’m going to go with George MacDonald’s Diary of an Old Soul. It is a new edition of a classic, in which MacDonald offers a seven line devotional poem for each day of the year. The facing pages are left blank for the reader to add personal reflections. A wonderful Christmas gift.

Quote of the Month

Marilynne Robinson captures in these words, from Reading Genesis one of the major themes, for me, of the Bible:

“The Bible is a theodicy, a meditation on the problem of evil. This being true, it must take account of things as they are. It must acknowledge in a meaningful way the darkest aspects of the reality we experience, and it must reconcile them with the goodness of God and of Being itself against which this darkness stands out so sharply.”

What I’m Reading

I’ve spent the month of July working my way through Gary Habermas’ On the Resurrection Volume 1: Evidences. This is the first of a four volume work, volume 1 running to over 1000 pages. Habermas writes well, and carefully lays the groundwork for evidence supporting the bodily resurrection of Jesus. Another, not quite so long book, is Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend, recommended by a friend on Mays’ passing this summer. It takes the measure on the greatness of his performance and character without overlooking his flaws.

Galatians: A Life in Letters by Johannes W H Van Der Bijl is a recreation of what it was like for Paul to write Galatians, the thought process behind the letter. Story, Ritual, Prophecy, Wisdom: Reading and Teaching the Bible Today considers these four aspects of the Bible and how they influence Christian education. After a hiatus of several years, I’ve picked up another Stanislaw Lem book, The Star Diaries: Further Reminiscences of Ijon Tichy. Lem has a way of pursuing serious philosophical questions with a mixture of wit, tomfoolery, and incredulity.

Well, that’s the Month in Review for July. Hope you get some good reading time in during what remains of summer.

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 2024

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Cover image of "The Women" by Kristin Hannah

I love writing about books. This month, I read and reviewed eighteen of them. Great reads, important topics, informative presentations, and beautiful writing. On this last, I loved a collection of poetry by 95 year-old Luci Shaw and a delightful short-story collection by Peter Kostoglou. Significant non-fiction reads: Jonathan Haidt on the devastating effects of smartphones on teens, Austin Knuppe on how ordinary Iraqis survived the Islamic State, and Charles Taylor’s magisterial analysis of secularity. John Fea makes a great case for why we should read history.

Then there were so many riveting fiction reads. Kristen Hannah’s The Women, like so many of her books was one I kept thinking about when I wasn’t reading it. I’m amazed at William Kent Krueger’s ability to write so well and make you turn the page in his Cork O’Connor stories. I continue to enjoy the Brother Cadfael stories, reading number 13 in the series this month.

I always read a selection of Christian books, both popular and serious. Nancy French and Curtis Chang have written a must read for anyone looking for a better approach to our politics in The After Party. I read a fascinating biography of William Carey and a tale of a recently discovered diary revealing the story of a group of Christian abolitionists centered around Oberlin College. Robert Cochran’s The Servant Lawyer is a great treatment of the calling of lawyers and the great good they may accomplish.

Here’s the whole list, with links to the publisher’s website in the title and a link to the full review at the end of each summary.

Boundary Waters (Cork O’Connor #2), William Kent Krueger. Simon & Schuster (ISBN: 9780671016999), 2000 (link is to a different edition in print). A young country-western singer hiding in seclusion in a Boundary Waters cabin is pursued by a man claiming to be her father, FBI agents, a father and son from an organized crime family–and a couple of cold-blooded killers for hire. Review

The Rose Rent (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #13), Ellis Peters. Mysterious Press/Open Road Integrated Media (ISBN: 9780446405331), 2014 (originally published in 1986). Two deaths and the abduction of a widow seem tied to a white rose bush from which the annual rent of a Foregate property is paid in the form of one white rose. Review

Humility: Rediscovering the Way of Love and Life in Christ, Michael W. Austin. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802882103), 2024. A study of the Christian virtue of humility understood as following Jesus, being formed in his character of humility and love through his people and through spiritually transformative practices. Review

The Father of Modern India: William Carey, Vishal & Ruth Mangalwadi. Sought After Media (ISBN: 9798988783107), 2023. Proposes that missionary William Carey, and not Mahatma Gandhi, is rightly to be considered the father of modern India. Review

The Anxious Generation, Jonathan Haidt. Penguin Press (ISBN: 9780593655030), 2024. Explores the connections between the decline in independent play in childhood, the advent of smartphones, and the sharp rise in anxiety and depression, among adolescents and young adults. Review

Matthew Through Old Testament Eyes, David B. Capes. Kregel Academic (ISBN: 9780825444784), 2024. A commentary on the Gospel of Matthew showing both obvious and subtle references to the Old Testament of how the life and ministry of Jesus fulfilled the plan of God articulated in these passages. Review

Awakening to Justice, The Dialogue on Race and Faith Project, Jemar Tisby, Christopher P. Momany, Sègbégnon Mathieu Gnonhossou, David D. Daniels III, R. Matthew Sigler, Douglas M. Strong, Diane Leclerc, Esther Chung-Kim, Albert G. Miller, and Estrelda Y. Alexander. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514009185), 2024. How a long-forgotten journal led a team to recover the stories of three abolitionists and their times. Review

Sillies, Fancies, & Trifles, Peter Kostoglou. Resource Publications (ISBN: 9798385207695), 2024. Summary: A collection of seven short stories, all with an element of the fantastic, inviting us into the mystery of beauty, the deep joy in the world, and the power of love. Review

Why Study History? (Second Edition), John Fea. Baker Academic (ISBN: 9781540966605), 2024. A Christian historian explains why the study of history is important to us, what historians do, and helpful and unhelpful ways to relate our faith to the study of history. Review

The After Party: Toward Better Christian Politics, Curtis Chang and Nancy French. Zondervan Books (ISBN: 9780310368700), 2024. How we might shift toward a better Christian politics through humility and hope. Review

Gospel Media: Reading, Writing, and Circulating Jesus Traditions, Nicholas A. Elder. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802879219), 2024. Addresses myths and generalizations about reading, writing, and publication in the Greco-Roman world shaping ideas of how the gospels were composed, used, and circulated. Review

The Women, Kristin Hannah. St Martin’s Press (ISBN: 9781250178633), 2024. A historical fiction account of the experiences of women nurses who served in Vietnam war combat areas and what it was like to come home. Review

Reversing Entropy, Luci Shaw. Paraclete Press (ISBN: 9781640608702), 2024. Poems that address the decay in the physical world and how human creativity and transcendent hope reverses entropy. Review

Unfinished Tales Of Numenor And Middle-Earth, J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien. William Morrow (ASIN: B00796E7CA), 2012 (originally published by Houghton Mifflin, 1980). A collection of stories, many in unfinished state, by J.R.R. Tolkien providing background information on the three ages of Numenor and Middle Earth, edited by his son. Review

The Servant Lawyer: Facing the Challenges of Christian Faith in Everyday Law Practice, Robert F. Cochran Jr. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514007228), 2024. An exploration of the real work lawyers do and the challenges and opportunities for Christians who practice law. Review

Say Good, Ashlee Eiland. NavPress (ISBN: 9781641587006), 2024. Offers a four-part process for finding one’s voice to navigate the tightrope of challenging public discussions, using one’s voice to “say good.” Review

Surviving the Islamic State, Austin J. Knuppe. Columbia University Press (ISBN: 9780231213875), 2024. A comprehensive study of how civilians survived Islamic State occupation in various communities throughout Iraq. Review

A Secular Age, Charles Taylor. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (ISBN: 9780674026766), 2007. How Western society moved from a shared belief in God to a secular age in which belief was one option of many. Review

Book of the Month. As I mentioned above Kristin Hannah’s The Women is a powerful book on the women nurses who served in combat areas of Vietnam. Through the experiences of Frankie McGrath, we learn of the traumatizing experiences nurses faced on the battlefield and the hostility and lack of recognition and PTSD they experienced at home. Like all her women characters, McGrath is a character who discovers her strength, but also her vulnerability.

Quote of the Month. Humility is a quality not often aspired to. Michael Austin’s wonderful little book on humility as following Jesus had this quote that caught my attention:

“What is the person like who follows Christ in his humility? The humble person fights to descend the social ladder, rather than climb it. The humble person makes the interests of others their priority, rather than their own. Instead of always grasping for what they want, the humble person serves others, for their good, often in sacrificial ways. The humble person focuses on God and others, rather than themselves. The humble person is steeped in the love of God, and that love flows from God through them to others” (p. 35).

What I’m Reading. I just finished Margery Allingham’s The Fashion in Shrouds, the tenth in her Campion series. It was not my favorite–I didn’t like any of the characters, even Campion’s sister. I picked up Maus after it was banned for use in eighth grade classes in a Tennessee school district. Why don’t we want eighth graders to read this account of the Holocaust? I haven’t found anything inappropriate for adolescent readers. Paul and Time by Ann Jervis is a fascinating proposal challenging the ” this age/the age to come” paradigm. She proposes instead that we live either in the present evil age or we live in Christ, and to be in Christ is to be in his time, the time of the resurrection. She calls this “life time.”

Righteousness by Jeffrey J. Niehaus is the first of a three-part study on this biblical idea in which he lays out his proposal and does a survey of other theologians. He proposes that righteousness is conformity to God’s being and doing. I’m on to the third Cork O’Connor, Purgatory Ridge, just as riveting as the first two. Finally, I always enjoy books on books and reading. The Social Life of Reading is a study of how people read together in the home in the eighteenth century. It makes me wonder what we lose when we no longer read aloud to each other.

Well, I hope I’ve offered you a few ideas of some good things to read on those hot summer days.

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 2024

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Cover image of "The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse" by Charles Mackesy

I always love the places one may travel in books. I went from Neverwhere to an inside look at the lives of librarians and booksellers (a fun book for any bibliophile). I traveled with Israel, learning about their Tabernacle and followed the life and concert tours of Tina Turner. I got an insider look at the White House of the Kennedy and Johnson years and watched a couple of sleuths solve murders in rural English villages. I went on a journey with Saint Augustine and another with a boy, a mole, a fox, and a horse. There were journeys through worlds of ideas as well: catholicity, faith, our growing mental health crisis, getting beyond stalemated conversations, humility and hospitality, and chastity. Dr. Suess was right: “Oh, the places you will go!” All it takes is a few good books!

That I May Dwell Among Them, Gary A. Anderson. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802883063), 2023. A study of the tabernacle and sacrifice connections drawing out the idea of the incarnational presence of God in the physical structure of the tabernacle and the significance of the daily sacrifices for our understanding of atonement. Review

Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman. Avon Fiction (ISBN: 0380789019), 1996 (Link is to 2016 edition). When Richard Mayhew rescues a bleeding girl in the streets of London, he finds himself drawn into a world under London, the quest she is on and the evil forces set against her. Review

What is Faith?, J. Gresham Machen. Banner of Truth (ISBN: 9781800403598), 2023 (First published in 1925). An exposition of the Bible’s teaching on what constitutes vibrant and saving Christian faith. Review

Taken at the Flood, Agatha Christie. HarperCollins (ISBN: 9780062073846), 2011 (originally published in 1948). A young widow and her brother inherit a family fortune, stirring family resentments until a mysterious figure threatens blackmail and is found dead. Review

My Life as a Prayer, Elizabeth Cunningham. Monkfish Book Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9781958972106), 2023. A spiritual memoir describing the author’s journey from daughter of an Episcopal priest, through a variety of communities as a writer and multi-faith minister. Review

Dancing in My Dreams (Library of Religious Biography), Ralph H. Craig, III. Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802878632), 2023. A biography of the life of Tina Turner, centering on how her embrace of Soka Gakkai Nichiren Buddhism was transformative in the fulfillment of her dreams, including that of becoming a religious teacher. Review

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse, Charlie Mackesy. HarperOne (ISBN: 9781529105100), 2019. A graphic novel of the friendship of these four creatures who affirm the basic values of friendship, kindness, self-worth, and the love of cake! Review

Beyond the Clinical Hour, James N. Sells, Amy Trout & Heather C. Sells. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514001042), 2024. A proposal for collaborative efforts between mental health professionals and congregations to multiply the resources available to address the burgeoning mental health crisis. Review

Dancers in Mourning (Albert Campion #9), Margery Allingham. Open Road Integrated Media (ISBN: 9781504087315), 2023 (originally published in 1937). Mean-spirited pranks against the star actor-dancer in a musical becomes something more when as has-been actresses body is thrown of a bridge in front of the actor at his home. Review

Local and Universal: A Free Church Account of Ecclesial Catholicity (Studies in Christian Doctrine and Scripture), C. Ryan Fields. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514006719), 2024. A theological exploration of the contribution of churches in the free church, locally governed tradition, to the wider church’s understanding of catholicity. Review

From Broken Boy to Mended Man, Patrick Morley. Tyndale Momentum (ISBN: 9781496479860) 2024. The author takes us through his own journey of healing childhood wounds and leads through a process of reflection to identify childhood wounds, the ways they manifest in destructive behaviors, to finding healing and to shift perspective toward parents, other adults and one’s own children. Review

End the Stalemate, Sean McDowell and Tim Muehlhoff. Tyndale Elevate (ISBN: 9781496481153), 2024. Addresses how we move past impasses around disagreements to have meaningful conversations. Review

The Secret Lives of Booksellers and Librarians, James Patterson and Matt Eversmann. Little, Brown, and Company (ISBN: 9780316567534), 2024. A collection of first-person accounts from booksellers and librarians about why they love doing what they do. Review

Humility and Hospitality, Naaman Wood and Sean Connable, editors. Integratio Press (ISBN: 9780999146354), 2022. Conference papers responding to a proposal that the virtues necessary for civility are humility and hospitality, particularly considering the qualifications that may be placed on this idea. Review

Chastity and the Soul: You Are Holy Ground, Ronald Rolheiser. Paraclete Press (ISBN: 9781640609471) 2024. An exploration of the meaning of chastity which has to do with far more than sex. Review

Remembering America: A Voice From the Sixties, Richard N. Goodwin. HarperCollins (ISBN: 9780060972417) 1995. A personal history of the 1960’s, written by an adviser to President’s Kennedy and Johnson. Review

On the Road with Saint Augustine, James K. A. Smith. Brazos Press (ISBN: 9781587434464) 2023. A “travelogue of the heart” exploring human longings and the heart’s true home. Review

What Hath Darwin to Do with Scripture?, Dru Johnson. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514003619) 2023. A study of Genesis identifying both remarkable continuities and important discontinuities with Darwinian and modern evolutionary theory. Review

Book of the Month: A group I was with in April raved about The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse, and after reading it I understand why. Handwritten and illustrated by an illustrator who doesn’t like reading (!), the conversations between the four creatures remind us of the qualities to which humans at their best aspire. It’s a book that can be read in minutes and lingered over for the rest of one’s life.

Quote of the Month. Ronald Rolheiser’s book, Chastity and the Soul: You Are Holy Ground, is about far more than sex, as this quote proposes:

“In essence, chastity is proper reverence, respect, and patience. And in a culture that is often characterized by irreverence, disrespect, and impatience, it is much needed. To be chaste is to experience people, things, places, entertainment, the phases of life, life’s opportunities, and sex, in a way that does not violate them or us. In brief, I am chaste when I relate to others in a way that does not violate their moral, psychological, emotional, sexual, or aesthetic contours. I am chaste when I do not let irreverence or impatience denigrate what is a gift, and when I let life, others, and sex, unfold according to their proper dictates” (p. 4)

This book is a gem, speaking joyfully of the recovery of a long-dismissed virtue.

What I’m Reading. I’m still plodding away at Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age, a book that demands to be read slowly, even as a charts our transition from a world framed by the transcendent to the disenchanted world of our age. Hope I can finish it this month. I’m enjoying reading and discussing The After Party by Nancy French and Curtis Chang, exploring how we might get to a better conversation about politics. I have a couple mysteries awaiting review: William Kent Krueger’s Boundary Waters, with a truly dark killer, and another Brother Cadfael. It seems I’m reading a number of books about humility of late including Michael W. Austin’s Humility: Rediscovering the Way of Love and Life in Christ. I’m finally sinking my teeth into David Cape’s Matthew Through Old Testament Eyes. I’ve loved this commentary series. Vishal and Ruth Mangalwadi sent me The Father of Modern India: William Carey and I am amazed at what this shoe cobbler accomplished as a pioneering missionary in India (and yes, they take on the question of colonizing, wait for my review). Jonathan Haidt’s new The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness makes a case for how the limiting of play and the uncontrolled use of smartphones is directly correlated to the steep rise in anxiety and depression we are seeing among Generation Z youth. Finally, I’ve just picked up Christopher Tolkien’s Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle–Earth. Lots of background to things alluded to in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

I always love to hear what others are reading, or what you thought of a book you read after reading about it at Bob on Books–even if you didn’t like it. Leave a comment!

The Month in Reviews is my monthly review summary going back to 2014! It’s a great way to browse what I’ve reviewed. The search box on this blog also works well if you are looking for a review of a particular book.

The Month in Reviews — March 2024

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Such a diverse selection here! A classic Ellis Peters mystery started the month and a new science fiction novel that has received early critical recognition. A narrative of the 2016 Fort McMurray fire, asking if this heralds more intense “fire weather” and the internal weathering resulting from racial injustice. Modern classics from Joan Didion and Howard Thurman. Fresh approaches to scripture on women, evil, and, peace. Mysteries from Margery Allingham and yet another brilliant Giles Blunt. A history of Haiti and an exploration of God’s providential history at the very beginnings of creation. An Irish collection of essays and prayers and a Lenten devotional centered on the women who traveled with Jesus. A fine refection on servanthood. A few other treasures as well–nineteen in all.

The Pilgrim of Hate (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #10), Ellis Peter. New York: Mysterious Press/Open Road Media, 2014 (Originally published in 1984). The Feast of the translation of St. Winifred is the occasion of new found love, a fugitive fleeing from murder, thievery, and a miracle, all of which engage Cadfael’s attention. Review

Leadership or Servanthood?, Hwa Yung. Carlisle: Langham Global Library, 2021. Contends that, contrary to our focus on developing or training leaders, Jesus was concerned with the formation of servants. Review

Fire Weather, John Vaillant. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2023. An account of the Fort McMurray fire of 2016, when a forest fire consumed a town and became a harbinger of things to come in a hotter, drier world. Review

On the (Divine) Origin of Our Species. Darrel R. Falk. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2023. Accepting the evidence for our evolutionary origins, considers God’s providential activity through his hovering Spirit and how that shaped our evolution. Review

Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays, Joan Didion. New York: Open Road Media, 2017 (Originally published in 1968). A collection of essays, most originally published as Saturday Evening Post articles describing Didion’s first years back in California, during the height of the hippie movement. Review

The Minor Prophets: A Theological Introduction, Craig G. Bartholomew & Heath A. Thomas. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023. Combines introductory discussions of the last twelve books of the Old Testament with an exploration of the theological themes of each book as well as the theological significance of the whole corpus. Review

Being Here: Prayers for Curiosity, Justice, and Love, Pádraig Ó Tuama. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2024. A book of essays and prayers, including 31 days of readings and prayers, focused on being in communion with God as we seek to live lovingly and justly in our own places. Review

The Delicate Storm (John Cardinal and Lise DeLorme #2), Giles Blunt. London: HarperCollins, 2004. A gruesome murder in the woods is soon followed by another, leading to an international investigation, a terrorist plot from the ’70’s, and a shrewd murderer on the loose, climaxed by an epic ice storm. Review

Strange Religion, Nijay K. Gupta. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2024. Roman society thought Christians weird for both their beliefs and practices, and yet oddly compelling. Review

Flowers for the Judge, Margery Allingham. Avarang Books, 2023 (Originally published in 1936). Campion is called in when a member of a publishing family disappears, only for him to be found dead in the firm’s vault, with all the evidence pointing toward younger cousin Mike as the murderer. Review

Eve Isn’t Evil, Julie Faith Parker. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2023. Feminist readings of biblical texts involving women, mostly from the Hebrew Bible. with one chapter on the New Testament. Review

The Bible is not Enough, Scot McKnight. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2023. In reaction to the embrace by American Christians of “humane” approaches to war and Christian nationalism, calls for an imaginative and improvisational approach to living out the Bible’s vision of a peaceful world. Review

C. S. Lewis in America, Mark A. Noll with Karen J. Johnson, Kirk D. Farney, and Amy E. Black. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023. An analysis of how C. S. Lewis’s works were received in the United States, considering Catholic, secular, and Protestant/evangelical critics evaluating his work between 1935 and 1947. Review

Weathering: The Extraordinary Stress of Ordinary Life in an Unjust Society, Arline T. Geronimus. New York: Little, Brown Spark, 2023. A study of the chronic stress marginalized persons experience and the health impacts resulting in the earlier onset of debilitating diseases and shortened life expectancy. Review

Jesus and the Disinherited, Howard Thurman (Foreword by Vincent Harding. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996 (Originally published 1949, link is to 2022 edition). Explores the significance of Jesus for the disenfranchised, the discriminated against, and those marginalized by various forms of injustice and equity. Review

Haiti: The Aftershocks of History, Laurent Dubois. New York: Picador, 2013. A history of Haiti, from colonial rule under France up to the earthquake of 2010. Review

Women Who Followed Jesus, Dandi Daley Mackall. Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2024. 40 reflections through the eyes of women who followed Jesus to the cross and witnessed the resurrection. Review

Demystifying Evil, Ingrid Faro (Foreword by Heather Davediuk Gingrich). Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2023. A biblical study of the evil and God’s work in the world illustrated by the author’s own wrestling with evil. Review.

The Limits of My World, Gregory Coles. Loveland, CO: Walking Carnival Books, 2023. A small group of people from two races encounter, and in the process, discover the challenge of communicating across two languages and a larger reality beyond their known universe. Review

Book of the Month. I found Nijay Gupta’s study of what set Christians apart in Roman society to be fascinating. They weren’t trying to be different but their beliefs and practices not only were weird but also compelling.

Quote of the Month: I loved this expression of God moving toward us as we move toward God in Pádraig Ó Tuama’s Being There.

     Turning to the light
     the light turns to us.
     Moving toward the source
     the source moves toward us.
     Holding on to hope
     hope holds on to us.

What I’m Reading. I just finished a couple books I’ll be reviewing soon, An Excellent Mystery by Ellis Peters and Raising Mentally Strong Kids–chock full of helpful ideas. My appreciation of Richard Mouw is only growing in reading Divine Generosity, a Calvinist study of the scope of God’s saving work–far greater than you might think. Micha Boyett’s Blessed Are the Rest of Us is a very personal exploration of the Beatitudes by the mother of a child with Down’s Syndrome diagnosed later with autism. Wintering is an exploration of rest and retreat from a non-religious but spiritual writer. Peter Leithart’s Creator explores our theology of God through the lens of the first chapters of Genesis with an engagement with Greek philosophy. In Agatha Christie’s Passenger to Frankfurt Sir Stafford Nye has an unusual encounter with a mysterious woman in the Frankfurt airport that won’t be the last. Finally, Tomorrow a friend and I begin working our way through Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age–a huge and important book. So many good things to read.

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: February 2024

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This has been a month of considering both the current state of the church and what it could be. Tim Alberta’s book, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory and Mike Cosper’s Land of My Sojourn are outstanding examples of the former. Humility Illuminated and Loving Disagreement were examples of the latter. A couple other books centered on the value of two other groups often marginalized in our congregations–children and the disabled. Season of Beauty combines a collection of great writing with great art for our journey from Lent to Holy Week through Eastertide. Some other reading highlights included a mammoth biography of The Beatles, a delightful memoir titled The Bookseller at the End of the World, Paul Lynch’s Prophet Song, the 2023 Booker Prize winner, and Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger. There were some spiritually enriching books on how God guides us personally and how God may form us through suffering. And I continue with great delight to work my way through the Cadfael and Campion series

Dead Man’s Ransom, Ellis Peters. New York: Open Road Media, 2014 (Originally published in 1984.) Following the Battle of Lincoln, Hugh and Cadfael arrange a prisoner exchange between a young Welsh nephew of Owain of Gwynedd for Sheriff Prestcote, which becomes a murder investigation when Prescote is smothered before the Welsh can depart. Review

God Leads Personally: Why It’s True and How It Works, Robert DiSilvestro. Seville, OH: Bezalel Media, 2023. A biblical exploration of how God leads people, concluding that God leads people personally and not just by general principle, and how we may be led by God and avoid deception. Review

The Bookseller at the End of the World, Ruth Shaw. Auckland, NZ: Allen & Unwin, 2022. The story of two small bookshops and their customers in the southernmost part of New Zealand, and the long journey of the bookseller running from trauma, broken dreams, and adventures until re-united with her first love and her work as a bookseller. Review

Persuasive Apologetics, Jeffrey M. Robinson. Grand Rapids: Kregel Academic, 2023. Discusses how we use various apologetic approaches adapted to the various people we meet, thoughtfully and gently seeking to undercut their objections, giving reasons for our hope in Christ. Review

Hope for God’s Creation: Stewardship in an Age of Futility, Andrew J. Spencer.Brentwood, TN: B & H Academic, 2023. A theology of creation care that grounds an ethic of stewardship and hopeful practice, anticipating the new creation. Review

Prophet Song, Paul Lynch. New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2023. A mother tries to hold her family and life together as Ireland descends into authoritarian rule. Review

Land of My Sojourn, Mike Cosper. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2024. The narrative of a former church leader who stepped away from a toxic leadership culture, the disillusionment that followed, and how reflections from a sojourn in Israel helped him process and find restoration. Review

Loving Disagreement, Kathy Khang & Matt Mikliatos. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2023. Moving beyond impasses or civil discourse to loving one another in Christian community while honestly engaging our conflicts through the working out of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. Review

Season of Beauty, compiled by Editors at Paraclete Press. Brewster, MA: Paraclete, 2024. A collection of scriptures and reflections of great Christian writers along with reproductions of great works of art for Lent, Holy Week, and Eastertide. Review

The Kingdom of Children, R. L. Stollar, Foreword by Cindy Wang Brandt. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2023. Summary: A liberation theology of the child that centers children in our theology and ecclesial life, arguing for their full humanity and their place as participants in the life of the whole church. Review

How Ableism Fuels Racism, Lamar Hardwick. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2024. An argument that ableism is an important lens through which to understand racism, because both create a hierarchy of superior and inferior bodies. Review

The Beatles: The Biography, Bob Spitz. New York: Little, Brown, 2005. A biography of the band from its beginnings, rise, Beatlemania, studio work, and demise, with mini-biographies of each of the Beatles, their manager, Brian Epstein. Review

Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World, Naomi Klein. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023. Naomi Klein, a liberal activist and writer finds herself being confused with another Naomi, once a feminist now become an anti-vax advocate and darling of the extreme right. Review

Wisdom from the Witch of Endor, Tikva Frymer-Kensky. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2024. A modern midrash on the witch of Endor and four lessons or rules we may draw from her story. Review

The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope, Curt Thompson, MD. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2023. Drawing on the experience of Paul, described in Romans 5 and using the insights of neurobiology, a psychiatrist explores how hope may grow out of suffering as one learns one is secure in the presence of God and of a caring community. Review

Death of a Ghost (Albert Campion #6), Margery Allingham. New York: Avarang Books, 2023 (first published in 1934). Campion and Stanislaus Oates investigate two murders connected to the house of Belle Lafcadio and the unveiling of famous works of her deceased husband John. Review

Gentilly Terrace, Gordon Peter Wilson. Austin: Greenleaf Book Group Press, 2023. A tale of petty and systemic graft interwoven with a troubled family, an FBI investigation and a budding love affair, all centered around a Vietnamese grocery in East New Orleans. Review

Humility Illuminated, Dennis R. Edwards. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023. A study of humility throughout scripture, showing it as the distinctive identifier of those who follow Jesus. Review

The Kingdom, The Power, and the Glory, Tim Alberta. New York: HarperCollins, 2023. A several years-long study of why much of the evangelical movement turned to hard right, nationalist politics, ignoring character and embracing the pursuit of power to enforce its vision of American greatness. Review

Book of the Month. This was a clear choice. Tim Alberta’s The Kingdom, The Power, and the Glory combines thorough reporting with personal engagement and a clear passion for God. This is not the angry hatchet job of an exvangelical, but rather a man of deepening faith, who has persisted out of love for a church he sees straying far from God’s purposes.

Quote of the Month. This William Butler Yeats poem was going through my mind as I read Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger and came up again in a collection of Joan Didion essays I began reading today:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

What I’m Reading. As I mentioned, I’ve just begun Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem, a collection of essays she wrote in the 1960’s when she was living in California. I just finished The Pilgrim of Hate number 10 in the Cadfael series. There is a finely written description of a miraculous healing that was worth the price of admission, and Cadfael has a reunion with Olivier and confesses his relationship with Olivier to Hugh. Fire Weather chronicles the Fort McMurray fire of 2016, and the sheer power of these fires and the disbelief that it could overrun this oil industry town. Leadership or Servanthood builds on the intriguing observation that while there are many calls to servanthood in the Bible, nowhere are we exhorted to train “leaders.” On the (Divine) Origin of the Species builds on an acceptance of evolutionary biology to explore how the qualities that make us distinctly human, particular that capacity to collaborate with others, reflects both evolutionary processes and the hovering Spirit of Creator God. Craig Bartholomews’s The Minor Prophets is a deep dive into The Twelve, the books at the end of the Old Testament that are anything but minor in their message.

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: January 2024

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With the cold weather we had for a couple weeks in January, I ended up reading twenty books this month. Admittedly one was an illustrated children’s book by Ned Bustard on St. Valentine and another was a chapbook of poetry by Vermont writer Amy Allen. That balanced Abraham Verghese’s eloquent but lengthy The Covenant of Water and some longish theology books on the Wesleyan doctrine of holiness and a book on reading the prophets in the light of Christ’s work. I enjoyed Richard Middleton’s Abraham’s Silence on the sacrifice of Isaac, although I differed at points with the author. He saw my review and was kind enough to send written responses that addressed my differences. I love that. And the book made me think more than many.

I would highlight three other books. One was Ann Patchett’s These Precious Days, a collection of essays–the title essay of which is a powerful true story. The other was a biography of Paul Laurence Dunbar, an early Black poet and Ohioan. At the encouragement of another reviewer I follow, I really must get over to his house in Dayton, a historical landmark. The third is a history of Christian missions originating in the West from the late Andrew Walls. There are several other books here on Christian theology and spirituality, my latest reviews from two mystery series I’m reading, an early Graham Greene and a George Simenon and a few other delightful books I’ll let you discover.

Holiness: A Biblical, Historical, and Systematic Theology, Matt Ayars, Christopher T. Bounds, and Caleb T. Friedeman. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023. A biblical, historical, and theological argument within the Wesleyan tradition for holiness understood as “entire sanctification” or Christian perfection, able not to sin and to wholeheartedly love God and neighbor. Review

The Devil’s Novice (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #8), Ellis Peters. New York: Mysterious Press/Open Road Media, 2014 (Originally published in 1983). Meriet Aspley is called the “Devil’s Novice” for his nightmares, his awkwardness among the brothers, and an attack leaving him consigned to Brother Mark, where he finds the body of a man he later confesses to have murdered. Review

The Prophets and the Apostolic Witness, Edited by Andrew T. Abernethy, William R. Osborne, and Paul D. Wegner. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023. An exploration of how Christians should read Old Testament prophets in light of the work of Christ and of how the apostolic witnesses read them. Review

Abraham’s Silence, J. Richard Middleton. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2021. Challenges the traditional reading of the binding of Isaac that valorizes Abraham’s silence as unquestioning obedience and faith, contending that God wanted more than silent obedience. Review

The Covenant of Water, Abraham Verghese. New York: The Grove Press, 2023. The story of three generations of the family of Big Ammachi of Parambil, the ever present reality of “the Condition” resulting in a drowning in every generation, a story both of love and the hope in advances in medicine. Review

These Precious Days, Ann Patchett. New York: Harper Collins, 2022. Essays on family, friendships, the life of writing and bookselling, and mortality. Review

The Yellow Dog (Inspector Maigret #6), Georges Simenon. New York: Penguin Books, 2014 (Originally published in 1931). Maigret is called in when a distinguished wine merchant is shot, followed by a murder, a disappearance and another shooting in which a common element in several instances is a yellow dog. Review

A Non-Anxious Life, Alan Fadling. Downers Grove: IVP Formatio, 2024. Proposes, as an alternative to an anxiety-driven life of hurry, restlessness, worry, and performance, a life under the non-anxious presence of Jesus of stillness, rest, peace, and fruitful love. Review

After Dispensationalism, Brian P. Irwin with Tim Perry. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2023. A study of the history, key beliefs, and teachers of dispensationalism with an assessment of the movement’s strengths and weaknesses along with a treatment discussing reading prophetic and apocalyptic books within their context. Review

Pray This Way To Connect With God, Hal Green. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2023. A book on learning to pray, focusing on God’s initiative toward us to teach us to pray and prayer as focused on deepening our relationship with God. Review

Sweet Danger (Albert Campion #5), Margery Allingham. New York: Open Road Media, 2023 (Originally published 1931). Campion and friends seek to prove a rural family to be the rightful heirs of Averna, an oil-rich seaside village on the Adriatic while pursued by an unscrupulous financier. Review

Paul Laurence Dunbar: The Life and Times of a Caged Bird, Gene Andrew Jarrett. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2022. Perhaps the definitive biography of Paul Laurence Dunbar, one of the first African writers to achieve fame for his poetry and other writings. Review

Creation Care Discipleship: Why Earthkeeping Is an Essential Christian Practice, Steven Bouma-Prediger. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2023. A discussion of why and how earthkeeping is integral to following Christ, drawing upon scripture, Christian theology and Christian thinkers throughout the breadth of the church. Review

The Missionary Movement from the West (Studies in the History of Christian Missions), Andrew F. Walls, edited by Brian Stanley, foreword by Gillian Mary Bediako. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2023. A history of the last five hundred years of Christian mission efforts from the Europe and North America. Review

A Gun for Sale, Graham Greene. New York: Open Road Media, 2018 (originally published in 1936). A paid assassin murders a foreign minister of war, creating an international crisis that could lead to war but is betrayed by the middleman who paid him, who he pursues even as the police pursue him. Review

Renaissance, Susan Fish. Brewster, MA: Raven | Paraclete Press, 2023. Approaching fifty, Elizabeth Fane suddenly leaves work she loves as an executive director of a non-profit and a family that has been her life, to work in the gardens of a convent in Florence, Italy. Review

The Spiritual Art of Business, Barry L. Rowan. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2023. An exploration of how God can work both in us and in our world through our work. Review

Saint Valentine the Kindhearted, Ned Bustard (text and illustrations). Downers Grove: IVP Kids, 2024. A retelling in verse and woodcut illustrations of the story of Saint Valentine, centered on not only his kindheartedness, but that there is more to love than romance. Review

Mountain Offerings, Amy Allen. Montpelier, VT: Rootstock Publishing, 2024. A chapbook of narrative verse capturing memories of childhood, summer vacations in the mountains, growing love, parenting, and loss. Review

The Spacious Path, Tamara Hill Murphy. Harrisonburg, VA: Herald Press, 2023. In our fragmented world, discusses how the idea of a rule of life, not as an ill-fitting structure but an intimate walk of listening and love with Jesus, may bring wholeness into our lives. Review

Book of the Month. Hands down, my choice has to be The Covenant of Water. The story features extraordinary characters like Big Ammachi and her namesake granddaughter Mariamma, who makes a crucial medical discovery of the cause of a medical malady that has afflicted the family. The narrative spans three generations, set in the Mar Thoma Christian community of South India in a time of national upheaval and transformation. It’s a big book but the skilled writing and flowing prose of Verghese, a medical doctor, drew me along.

Quote of the Month. I’ll leave you with a page of verse from Ned Bustard’s Saint Valentine the Kindhearted, published just in time for Valentine’s Day:

Roses are red, violets are blue,
sugar is sweet, and so are you.
This is the poem many share
to show how much they love and care.
Flowers and candy sent our way
ev’ry year on Valentine’s Day.
But why the cards that say, “Be mine”?
That’s all from dear Saint Valentine!

      –Ned Bustard

What I’m Reading. I’ve recently finished several books that you’ll see reviews of in the next days. One is the ninth in the Brother Cadfael series. Another both makes the case for God’s personal leadership in our lives and how we experience. The third is a memoir by a bookseller with a compound of small bookshops in the southernmost reaches of New Zealand, appropriately titled The Bookseller at the End of the World.

I’m a bit over 200 pages into Bob Spitz’s massive biography, The Beatles. All of what I’ve read so far is the arduous process undergone by this group, under several names and different personnel, before they became the Fab Four. Matt Mikalatos and Kathy Khang team up on Loving Disagreement, a far more spacious conception than mere civility for how Christians may differ, shaped by the fruit of the Spirit. Hope for God’s Creation is an effort by a Baptist theologian to articulate the theological framework that ought ground our care for creation. Persuasive Apologetics makes the case for persuasion and the use of an “eclectic” apologetic in Christian witness. Finally, I’ve just begun Paul Lynch’s Booker Prize-winning Prophet Song. Set in Ireland, it envisions a turn to an authoritarian state that suspends rights like habeas corpus and “disappears” opposition, claiming emergency powers and using Orwellian tactics turning language inside out. Chilling to any of us who think “it can’t happen here.”

I hope these twenty books suggest a few reading possibilities for you. And, as always, do return the favor and tell me 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.

The Month in Reviews: November 2023

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If you skim over this list, you will recognize that I’m in a season of working through vintage series–Brian Jacques’ “Redwall,” Ngaio Marsh’s “Roderick Alleyn,” Margery Allingham’s “Albert Campion,” and Ellis Peter’s “Brother Cadfael” are all represented here. I read several books on evangelicalism including Edith Blumhofer’s history of the music of the Billy Graham Crusades and its impact on evangelical worship, a forthcoming work on the movement of deconstructing faith, resulting in many departures from evangelical churches, and finally, Karen Swallow Prior’s fine study of the evangelical imagination. There are two complementary devotionals here–a verse by verse set of reflective prayers from the book of Hebrews, six days a week for the year, and a wonderful little 90 second devotional based on the lectionary for Year B.

In the history department there is a study of the life of Ramesses II, perhaps Egypt’s greatest Pharoah, and a new biography of David Tod, perhaps the most illustrious citizen to hail from my hometown of Youngstown, serving a pivotal role as state governor of Ohio for two key years during the Civil War. I read a thoughtful proposal for police reform from a former police officer and a book on discipleship through the lens of justice. Rounding out the list is a Ronald Rohlheiser classic on spirituality, one of the best I’ve read in this genre, a thoughtful book on lament, a very helpful book on reading the Psalms, and a novel set in Paris that was a delightful surprise. As always, the link under the title will take you to the publisher’s page and the link saying “Review” will take you to the full review.

The Holy Longing (Fifteenth Anniversary Edition), Ronald Rolheiser. New York: Image, 2014. A discussion of Christian spirituality rooted in an understanding of desire and the incarnation. Review

Just Discipleship, Michael J. Rhodes (foreword by Brent A. Strawn). Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023. A study both of what the Bible means by justice and how we become people who practice justice. Review

Ramesses II, Egypt’s Ultimate Pharoah, Peter J. Brand. Columbus, GA: Lockwood Press, 2023. Drawing heavily on archaeology, this lavishly illustrated work describes the life, historical and cultural context, and physical record of this arguably greatest of Egypt’s Pharaohs. Review

Mystery Mile, (Albert Campion #2), Margery Allingham. New York: Bloomsbury Reader, 2018 (originally published in 1930). Campion is hired to protect a retired American judge investigating the Simister crime syndicate, yet even a remote coastal community is not safe from their sinister efforts. Review

Salamandastron (Redwall #5), Brian Jacques. New York: Ace Books, 1994. The Badger Lord of the mountain fortress Salamandastron faces the overwheming forces of the Corpsemakers led by Ferahgo the Assassin and his son Klitch while Redwall Abbey is laid low by a deadly fever. Review

Sundays on the Go Year B, Albert Haase, OFM. Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2023. Taking the lectionary readings for each Sunday in liturgical year B, offers a brief reflection, prayer, and question to ponder, also including readings for solemnities and special feasts. Review

Rethinking the Police, Daniel Reinhardt. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2023. A study of the history of policing in the United States and how a culture of dehumanization has developed, offering recommendations for reform rooted in servant leadership, community-based policing, and procedural justice. Review

The Leper of Saint Giles (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael #5), Ellis Peters. New York: Mysterious Press/Open Road Media, 2014 (Originally published in 1981). A wedding arranged between two landed families between a powerful old baron and an orphaned girl in charge of her avaricious uncle and aunt fails to happen when the groom doesn’t show because he lies murdered along a trail. Review

The Deconstruction of Christianity, Alisa Childers and Tim Barnett. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale Elevate, (Forthcoming, January 30,) 2024. A study of what the authors term the “deconstruction movement.” why this needs to be taken seriously, and how to respond to loved ones who are “deconstructing.” Review

The Political Transformation of David Tod, Joseph Lambert, Jr. Kent, OH: The Kent State University Press, 2023. A biography of Governor David Tod from Youngstown, focusing on his political career and his transformation as a “War Democrat” from support of popular sovereignty to supporting the Union war effort and ultimately Emancipation. Review

Hopeful Lament, Terra McDaniel. Downers Grove: IVP/Formatio, 2023. Out of a string of experiences of loss, the writer, a spiritual director writes about grief, lament, and the hope inherent in biblical lament. Review

The Evangelical Imagination. Karen Swallow Prior. Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2023. A consideration of the images, stories, metaphors that constitute the “social imaginary” of what it has meant to be an evangelical. Review

Overture to Murder (Roderick Alleyn #8), Ngaio Marsh. New York: Felony & Mayhem, 2012, (Originally published in 1939). A comedic play in a small village to raise funds for the church to buy a new piano turns into a murder mystery when the pianist is shot when playing the opening notes of the prelude by a gun concealed within. Review

Songs I Love to Sing, Edith L. Blumhofer (foreword by Fernando Ortega). Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.: 2023. A history of the ministry of Billy Graham, focused on the music, the key roles of Cliff Barrows and George Beverly Shea, and the wider influence of the musical practices of the Crusades. Review

Bastille Day, Greg Garrett. Brewster, MA: Raven/Paraclete Press, 2023. A brief love affair with a beautiful Muslim woman who he rescues from a suicide leads Cal Jones to come to terms with losses and traumatic memories and to discover that he is not alone. Review

Treasuring the Psalms, Ian J. Vaillancourt. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023. An orientation to both lay readers and churches to how to read and appropriate the Psalms, approaching them canonically, Christologically, and personally. Review

The Most Holy Place, Jeremy D. Vogan. Staunton, VA: LightPath Publishing, 2023. Day-by-day prayers based on a verse by verse reflection on the Book of Hebrews. Review

Book of the Month. I was so impressed with Ian Villaincourt’s Treasuring the Psalms, one of the most helpful books I’ve come across for making sense of the Psalms as a whole and how we read and apply individual Psalms in our lives and as worshipping congregations.

Quote of the Month. I found Ronald Rohlheiser’s The Holy Longing to be one of the most profound books on Christian spirituality I’ve read. This quote explains what he means by “holy longing” and reflects profound insight into our nature as human beings:

“Spirituality is about what we do with the fire inside us, about how we channel our eros. And how we do channel it, the disciplines and habits we choose to live by, will either lead to a greater integration or disintegration within our bodies, minds, and souls, and to a greater integration or disintegration in the way we are related to God, others, and the cosmic world.”

What I’m Reading. I’ve just added to my reading stack Reading Karl Barth by Chris Boesal. I’m ashamed to say how little of this formidable theologian I’ve read! Maybe this will inspire me. Jared Patrick Boyd has an interesting book title Finding Freedom in Constraint which addresses how spiritual practices function as constraints revealing our inner desires. Sounds like shades of Rohlheiser! I’ve had Thomas F. Madden’s Istanbul on my “to read” pile for several years. Digging into it, I’m realizing what a pivotal role the city has played through history. On a lighter note, I’m midway through Margery Allingham’s Look to the Lady, the third in her Albert Campion series and am fascinated in the brilliant, eccentric character she has created in Campion. Finally, I’m reading Emily Hunter McGowin’s Christmas: The Swason of Life and Light, which looks to be a refreshing theological reflection on this day on which we celebrate the incarnate son, Jesus amid all the commercialization and hustle and bustle of the season.

An Extra:

For those of you who are intrigued to know more about Daniel Reinhardt’s ideas in Rethinking the Police, I interviewed him for our Emerging Scholars Network Conversations series. Watch the interview on YouTube!

Happy reading, friends! Hope this list offers reading ideas for you as well as those on your shopping list.

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: 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.