Book Reviews

July 31st means that August is right around the corner. With August comes the re-start of the school year, so I'm cramming in all the reading that I possibly can before students come back and I run out of margin for reading. I've covered some good ground these last few weeks at the beach as well as before and after, so I thought I'd pass along some reviews.

I don't post these reviews to show off how much I've read (or at least that's not the main reason!). Rather my hope is to help folks reading this to sort through the millions of books that could be read in order find what is good and/or appropriate for what you're wanting and needing to read. Reading time is precious for most of us--too precious to waste on a bad book. I get most of my reading materials from recommendations, hopefully this will help you as well.

If I were a good blogger, I'd have links for each of these books, but I'm a little crunched for time today, so I'll just trust you to find your way to Half.com to find them yourselves.

Simply Christian by N.T. Wright. N.T. Wright is British and this book picks up on C.S. Lewis' tradition in Mere Christianity of writing a thoughtful book for folks who are spiritually interested, seeking, or coming back to faith. It's interesting that a guy writing in a country where something like only ten percent of the population goes to church would write a book for seekers that absolutely requires familiarity with Old Testament stories, but that's the book he's written. Which means, of course, that it's perfect for folks in the U.S, particularly the South, who have church background but haven't really figured out what this whole Christianity thing is really all about. At points it's a little unnecessarily academic, but play through and there's lots of good stuff to be gleaned. A great book to read alongside someone else and discuss.

Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. A book from the New York Times Top 10 list, what Levitt does in this book is take on social phenomena and look at it through an economists lense. Why did the nation experience a startling halt in the crime rate in the 1990's? Levitt answers: the legalization of abortion in the 1970's meant that there were fewer children born into households and socio-economic demographics where most teen and adult offenders come from. Clearly, this is a bit startling and many have protested both from the right and the left. But Levitt is an economist and is simply looking for cause and effect. He looks at sumo wrestlers, school teachers, real estate agents and so on, looking at "the hidden side of everything." It's an interesting read for folks intersted in social phenomena who aren't satisfied with the typical answers.

Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell is a similar book (although I'm listening to it on cd in my car and I have to admit I'm only half way through). Gladwell looks at social phenomena like the rise of Hushpuppy shoes in the mid-1990's and studies it as one would any other epidemic. These two are great reads (or listens) together.

To Hate Like This is to be Happy Forever by Will Blythe. Blythe is an obsessed UNC fan who spends a year following the Tar Heels and dissecting the UNC-Dook rivalry. Fortunately for him, he followed them the year that they won the national championship. Fortunately for us, this book is chock-full of thoughtful interviews with all kinds of people around the programs (Coach K, JJ Reddick, Dean Smith, Roy Williams, Melvin Scott) and he's able to mock himself plenty in the process. In dissecting the student demographics, he can't help but deal with the Southern Christianity he's surrounded by--just about every three pages there's some sort of rant or soap-box about Christians or the church. It can get to be a little bit much, but it's great insight to what your Southern non-church-going co-workers probably think about Christians.

The Challenge of Jesus and The Last Word both by N.T. Wright (I'm on a bit of a Wright kick). N.T. Wright has everyone hating him. Fundamentalists don't trust that he's a bit of an academic, Reformed folks don't like that he loudly questions whether or not justification by faith is the point of every single passage of Scripture, evangelicals in the U.S. in general don't like him because he can be liberal on some issues like women in the church and some political issues, and theologically liberal folks really don't like him because he exposes their poor theology to be poor thinking. In my view, if you're making that many people upset, you're either very right or very wrong. I happen to think he's really, really right. These two books are a little more academic in their leaning, but are still accessible for those of us who are normal people. These are both especially good reads for folks who took some Religious Studies class in college that jarred your faith a little bit or planted seeds of doubt as to who Jesus was or whether or not you can trust the Bible. There's lots of his materials on-line for free at the N.T. Wright Page

Unspoken Sermons Vol. 1, 2, & 3 by George MacDonald. I started reading these last summer and finished them up just a few weeks ago. I know that reading a bunch of sermons doesn't sound all that fun and recreational, but if you're a Christian looking for someone's thought to really sort of immerse yourself in for a couple months, this series by George MacDonald would be my top pick. He's just brilliant.

I'm fasting from blogging tomorrow to take a day to hang out in the woods and pray for the upcoming fall. Nothing like a nice 96-degree day to be outside sweatin' for the cause...