Bob on Books Readers Choice Books of 2023

December 21, 2023December 20, 2023 / rtrube54 / 1 Comment

Goodreads has its massive Readers Choice Awards every year. Here were the winners for 2023. I keep things simpler at Bob on Books. “Readers’ Choice” is determined by the numbers of views books reviewed in 2023 received. Here are the most viewed reviews of books in 2023. The link in the title takes you to the publisher’s page for the book. “Review” hyperlinked takes you to my full review.

10. 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

9. A Christian Theology of Science, Paul Tyson. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2022. Rather than simply another treatment of the way science and religion ought relate, begins with creedal Christianity, develops a theology of science, and argues that Christians treat theology as their “first truth discourse.” Review

8. 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

7. The Deluge, Stephen Markley. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2023. A novel imagining the interaction of accelerating impacts of climate change and the unraveling of societies. Review

6. 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

5. 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 Copperfield, 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

4. Garden City: Work, Rest, and the Art of Being Human, John Mark Comer. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2015. An argument that our work is an important aspect of what it means for us to be human, setting our work in the context of the arc of God’s work taking humanity from the garden to the new garden city in the new creation. Review

3. 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

2. 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

1. 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

A few concluding observations. Demon Copperhead and The Wager were also on my “Best of 2023” list. Ordinary Grace represents my “author find” of the year, William Kent Krueger. I really like his works. I can see why he was your favorite. I was delighted to see that my classmate Alice Crosetto’s book on The Cookie Table came in third. Youngstowners love their cookie tables! Garden City was kind of a sleeper, garnering views throughout the year. I was pleased that Sandra Glahn’s Nobody’s Mother, a fine piece of biblical scholarship, caught the interest of so many. And as someone partial to Ohio authors, I was pleased that two Ohioans (Alice Crosetto and Stephen Markley) made the top ten.

As I conclude, I’m reminded that you are the reason for these books being listed here. It’s nice to not just be writing for oneself! Thank you for following and engaging this blog–many of you for more than ten years!

Most Viewed Reviews of 2016

December 28, 2016December 28, 2016 / rtrube54 / 1 Comment

The book you were most interested in in 2016.

Earlier this month, I posted my list of Best Books of 2016. It is a list that includes fiction, history, biography, as well as books on theological subjects. Not so this list. When I compiled the list of “most viewed” reviews, all of those had some connection to theological subjects, ranging from Thomas Oden’s memoir to books concerning beginnings, end times, and everything in between! I think that tells me something about at least one of this constituencies of this blog.

The list below goes from the most viewed in descending order rather than a countdown. By no means is the number of views a judgment on the quality of the work–rather it simply reflects your interest–or how well I enticed you to look at the review. There is a link at the end of the brief write up about each book to the full review.

1. Paul’s New Perspective, Garwood P. Anderson. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2016. This was also my “book of the year” but even before that, it far outstripped any other review this year (or ever!). I think the interest in the “New Perspective” debate, and the proposal of this book for a different way that helps reconcile the two may have contributed to the interest. So glad to see this, because the author is a former colleague and good friend. (Review)

2. Neither Complementarian nor Egalitarian, Michelle Lee-Barnewall. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2016. Again, a book that purports to reconcile conflicting perspectives. This received an Award of Merit in the Christianity Today 2017 Book Awards. (Review)

3. Gods That Fail: Modern Idolatry and Christian Mission (revised edition), Vinoth Ramachandra. Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2016. This book explores the false gods of late modernity and how they present both external challenges to Christian witness, and vitiate from within the mission of the church. (Review)

4. The Lost World of Adam and Eve, John H. Walton. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2015. This builds on Walton’s earlier work (and the next book on this list!) bringing Ancient Near East texts and contexts to bear on our understanding of Genesis 2 and 3. (Review). This was an Award of Merit book in Christianity Today’s 2016 Book Awards. (Review)

5. The Lost World of Genesis One, John H. Walton. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2009. Walton argues from our knowledge of the ancient cultures in Israel’s context that Genesis 1 is a functional account of how the cosmos is being set up as God’s temple rather than an account of material origins. (Review)

6. Silence and Beauty, Makoto Fujimura (foreward by Philip Yancey). Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2016. This was also one of my Best Art and Faith books. A wonderful reflection on Shusaku Endo’s Silence (recently released as a Martin Scorsese film). (Review)

7. A Change of Heart, Thomas C. Oden. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2014. A wonderful memoir by recently deceased theologian and patristics scholar Tom Oden (Review)

8. The Last Days According to Jesus, R. C. Sproul. Grand Rapids, Baker Books, 2015 (originally published in 1998). This caught me by surprise at the interest in a reissued book defending a “moderate preterist” reading of Matthew 24 and parallel passages. (Review)

9. The Future of Biblical Interpretation, Stanley E. Porter and Matthew R. Malcolm, eds. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2013. A festschrift for Anthony Thiselton. I was surprised at the interest in this work given my assessment that “I’m not sure this is a future of biblical interpretation I can commend.” (Review)

10. Strong and Weak, Andy Crouch. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2016. Crouch’s most recent work contends for the paradoxical relatedness of strength and weakness, and how they must be held together for human flourishing. (Review)

Some year, I hope one of the sports books I review makes this list, or perhaps a presidential biography or contemporary work of fiction. (My review of Dorothy Sayers The Nine Tailors just missed making the list and for some reason a review from a previous year of Walter Wangerin’s The Book of the Dun Cow would have made the list if written in 2016.) I do hope readers of the blog will explore some of my reviews on other subjects–I find it utterly crucial to read widely to remember the world context for which we do theological work–and I think I might go crazy if I read only theological texts! But I am glad that (at least most) of these did make the list.

Stay tuned on Friday for my Most Viewed Posts That Weren’t Reviews!