Category Archives: reviews

The Faith of Barack Obama by Stephen Mansfield is one of a host of books that hit the market in this election season, capitalizing on this year’s fascinating candidates. Mansfield has been a prolific writer in the last decade, writing about history, politics and faith, and particularly their overlap. Having written The Faith of George W. Bush Mansfield has direct experience with this type of writing and analysis, and that is well demonstrated. The Faith of Barack Obama is well-written and provides a solid overview of Obama’s life and faith. Continue reading →

We moved, so the reading was light.

Looking for Alaska by John Green
I liked this book, I really liked this book, even. Part of its allure for me was its semi-autobigraphical nature, and the fact that as a local, the transparency of its setting was amusing. I really enjoyed the narrator, a great deal. But am not sure that I love this book. I found Alaska obnoxious. I know that she wasn’t perfect, but I didn’t like her as much as the other characters. And I felt like I ought to have. Also, it’s been a while since I’ve been up on the YA scene, I admit. Howe…more I liked this book, I really liked this book, even. Part of its allure for me was its semi-autobigraphical nature, and the fact that as a local, the transparency of its setting was amusing. I really enjoyed the narrator, a great deal. But am not sure that I love this book. I found Alaska obnoxious. I know that she wasn’t perfect, but I didn’t like her as much as the other characters. And I felt like I ought to have. Also, it’s been a while since I’ve been up on the YA scene, I admit. However, the content of this book is probably for high school and above, when one could be reading novels from the broader collection of all of literature, and not just YA. But maybe I am just missing the boat on that one. 7.5/10

The Second Coming by Walker Percy
I loved this novel and couldn’t put it down. The quirky, and yet oddly believable characters, and their fascinating takes on both the extraordinary and mundane happenings of their own lives. It didn’t hurt that the settings were Southern ones, of great familiarity in their own ways. Entertaining and yet deep and thought provoking, I know that more than the Moviegoer, The Second Coming will propel me towards reading the rest of the Percy canon. 9/10

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis
Re-reading these this year… DT has always been one of my favorites in the series. I read the entire thing in the car while my children napped (two or three different sittings.) Somehow, the setting worked. 9/10

American Pastoral by Philip Roth
This is one of the best modern novels I’ve read, hands down. It captures the human experience breathlessly with a great story written exceptionally well. Heartbreaking, yet enjoyable, beautiful, yet full of despair. It does contain quite a bit of obscene language, if that is something that turns you off, please be aware. 10/10.

Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis
I am re-reading the Chronicles this year, and this is my second book in. I’ve always liked Caspian because it captures a lot of the magic of Narnia well, but it is fairly slow, and certainly not my favorite of the lot. But a very solid offering in the series nonetheless. 8/10.

The Second Wives Club by Jane Moore
For a light beachy read of little consequence I won’t think of much again – I liked it just fine. It’s not profound, but it does explore with some depth the trials and tribulations of being a second wife. 6/10.

Compassion, Justice and the Christian Life by Robert Lupton
This book has a great deal of wisdom about charity and community development in the life of a Christian. Much of it is composed of things I already knew from much more tedious reading or life experience but these insights are packaged winsomely and easily understood and digested by a broad audience. The chapters are short, the book is thin, and you will not come across many things so profitable that are its equal in ease. 10/10.

Intuition by Allegra Goodman
A book about an astonishing discovery in a lab, and the way that it affected a workplace and relationships. Perhaps my problem was that I heard a few too many positive reviews, but I just didn’t find this to be that amazing, it was predictable and a little boring, and the writing was not exceptional. 5/10

Persuasion by Jane Austen
Persuasion is a gem, but the sort that takes preparation. It’s immensely enjoyable after you’ve read other Austen, and you can see the development in her writing, the differences and similarities. Anne Elliot is a good heroine, but a different one, one very little like me, but with admirable qualities I can respect and some that I pity. The plot and characters are very Austen, but with some subtle growth. I am really looking forward to discussing this with my book club! 10/10.

Silence is a novel set in 17th century Japan.  The feudal system in Japan had welcomed missionaries for a few decades but had turned against the Christians, both foreign and Japanese, at that time.  The narrator is a missionary priest who sneaks into Japan during this time of persecution in search of a former teacher who was rumored to have apostacized.

For a translation, the prose is good.  It wasn’t difficult to read and captured my attention, two problems I’ve encountered with some modern translations.  The writing passes muster, but I wouldn’t read the book for it alone.  It’s worth reading because it deals in such a gripping and insightful way with the questions, “What is apostacy?” and “What does it mean to be a pastor?”  Every Christian ought to read it at some point in their lives.  It does contain accounts of violence, but they are not gratuitous, and it doesn’t dissuade me from recommending it, even for the faint at heart.  (10/10, borrowed from the library.)

I’ve never been all that interested in macroeconomics, but intrigued by the title, I gave Small is Beautiful by E.F. Schumacher a try. It was a long read, but a good one, and I culled interesting insights from every chapter. Schumacher’s visionary simplicity with the largest elements of society were radical 30 years ago, but incredibly relevant, then and today.

A fair portion of the book is spent emphasizing the way our economy is unsustainable and how quickly we use up our natural resources. Schumacher also explains how little consideration was put towards pollution until it was too late. In the folksy way of a 60s radical, he speaks about the importance of the land in a way that is neither hollow nor flippant, but full of wisdom and grace.

“The whole point is to determine what constitutes progress.” What is progress? What should aid to the third world look like? These questions are where Schumacher particularly shines, explaining a need for intermediate technologies to improve the quality of life for everyone and not just investments which only improve the quality of life for the highest classes and leave the lower ones even more destitute.

No system or machinery or economic doctrine or theory stands on its own feet: it is invariably built on a metaphysical foundation, that is to say, upon man’s basic outlook on life, its meaning and its purpose. I have talked about the religion of economics, the idol worship of material possessions, of consumption and the so-called standard of living, and the fateful propensity that rejoices in the fact that ‘what were luxuries to our fathers have become necessities for us.’

When I read quotes like that one, I couldn’t help but think about what the economic implications of Christian thought are, and how few Americans I know, least of all me, embody them. (10/10, from the library.)

A Severe Mercy by Sheldon Vanauken is one of those books I’ve always heard great things about and never read. It’s of particular importance to a couple I know, which only served to deepen its mystique. I finally read it last week and it certainly met my expectations. I appreciated the integration of both the romantic and spiritual elements of the story, and enjoyed it far more than most autobiographies because the prose was better than most in that classification.

The beauty of the relationship remembered is breathtaking. Sometimes I wondered if everything really happened just that way, but we all reconstruct memories from time to time and even if it is partly fiction and partly fact, it’s nothing but the truth, as Pierce Pettis so aptly sang. The conversion story is also interesting as it captures the classic pattern of the modern coming-to-faith. I think it will help people in the future to understand the classic evangelism of the past.

A quick but thoughtful read. (8.5/10, from the bookshelf, acquired on paperbackswap)

I expected great things from Housekeeping and Marilynne Robinson did not disappoint. I read her second novel, Gilead, last year and thoroughly enjoyed it but Housekeeping surpassed it by its gratifying use of language and description. Robinson has an breathtaking ability to write in a way that is plain but wonderful, in the true sense of the word.

If you prefer novels with gripping plots, you might find Housekeeping plodding. It’s a coming of age story about two sisters, narrated by the older of the two, that centers on loneliness and loss, two centerpieces of the human condition. Despite its themes and dreary setting, I didn’t find it to be a depressing book, likely because of the thoughtful, interesting prose and the way the story drew me into Ruthie’s world and made me see things from her perspective as the very best novels do.

The exceptional beauty of this book restored my faith in contemporary literature and gave me hope that great fiction is still being written, but it wasn’t lofty or condescending. The sparse simplicity made me want to write, to use the English language, to edit and edit again until I could find a small bit of beauty in my labor and Marilynne Robinson has created on every page. (10/10, from the library.)

Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith is the first book by Rob Bell, pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids and featured speaker in the NOOMA videos.  I read straight through it today and was genuinely surprised at how much I liked the book.  It is an excellent call for Christians to think outside the box of cafeteria evangelicalism and to live a life that fully embraces God in all its aspects.

My prejudice against the book was based on my limited exposure to Bell.  I saw one NOOMA and I wasn’t that impressed and I recall hearing faint rumors about his “bad theology.”  Honestly, I didn’t find his theology to be bad upon reading.  Arminian at points, but certainly within the bounds of orthodoxy and also more precise than most emerging writers.  (The statement of faith of his church can be found here.)

Velvet Elvis is not a memoir.  It does include a lot of personal stories and has a personal tone, but it has a flow and purpose.  It’s a book that wonders about the vastness of God, how little we can understand.  It’s a book that encourages readers to reflect about their own faith.  It discusses the main points of the Christian faith in a way engaging to a postmodern generation, particularly those who grew up in the church, both the accepting and the cynical. 

Rob Bell is not a messianic Jew, but he has a healthy obsession with setting the Bible in its original context.  I think many readers will glean interesting insights from what he writes about Jesus’ world.  Bell certainly wants to be relevant, but he also demonstrates a commitment to the truth.  Personally, I enjoyed his endnotes because I love seeing what books authors like enough to cite, Bell certainly passed my test in that department.

I wouldn’t say Velvet Elvis was life-changing for me, I’ve read enough from the emerging church that I am over that bubble in some respects, but I certainly think it is helpful and would recommend it to people who are curious about the emergent church, suddenly aware of their obsession with systematics and apologetics and also young people who are wondering about the faith they grew up with and the culture they are discovering in the rest of the world.  (8/10, borrowed from my sister Janelle.) 

Andi Ashworth’s Real Love for Real Life is an excellent treatment of the Christian call to hospitality. Subtitled “the Art and Work of Caring,” the book is of particular encouragement to those who are serving as caregivers on a full-time basis. In a world that pushes efficiency, speed and uniformity, Ashworth fights for the personal touch, for giving others our time and energy. Through her wonderful anecdotes, she helps readers to understand the importance giving of ourselves to create beauty and to make others welcome.

Ashworth helps readers to navigate the path of hospitality not entertainment and of true caring and not martyrdom. She doesn’t sugar coat caring or pretend that each day will be wonderful and feel fulfilling. She is also careful not to overwhelm readers and spends time explaining that giving care does not mean always saying yes or seeing yourself as the only one capable of caring. She emphasizes the importance of making room in our busy lives to care for others well.

Real Love for Real Life was a call for me to glorify God in the details, not to impress people but to show them that I love them. It was a reminder that even if I don’t always feel validated or encouraged for what I do as a full-time caregiver, I’m valuable and my work is of tremendous importance. I’d recommend this to any Christian woman, single or married, stay at home or working. It will be a tremendous encouragement to you. (10/10, from the bookshelf thanks to PaperBackSwap.)

Parenting in the Pew is part memoir and part practical theology as a pastor’s wife grapples with issues regarding children and the public worship service. For individuals and churches who are questioning participating in children’s ministry programs through elementary school, Parenting in the Pew will provide food for thought and conviction that it is good, right and worthwhile for children to worship with their parents.

For those who already worship as a family or have minimal children’s programming, Parenting in the Pew provides encouragement and helpful reminders that the point of having children in worship is to worship, and not to have them sit perfectly still so everyone knows you are the best parent in the room. That can be very important to hear.

Castleman believes that children can be expected to sit through the whole worship service at about age four and everything but the sermon by about two and a half. She does not advocate having children color or look at other books during the worship service. So, if you are looking for practical advice on how to keep your toddler quiet and busy, this book will not meet that need!

I’m glad this book was written and I think it’s helpful for the church as a whole. It may or may not be a must-read for your family. I enjoyed her personal style, but she delved into personal beliefs I don’t share at a few points, so I would not commend all of her theology. I don’t think it was a waste of my time, but I admit, I was looking for toddler tips! (7, acquired from paperbackswap and already passed on)