Did you ever watch the children's TV show Wishbone that was popular several years ago? (Hey, the kids were already watching it, and I was just passing through the room, OK?) Seriously, I've gone back and re-read some of those old classics after seeing the Wishbone versions. My bible reading is usually from the New Revised Standard Version or the New International Version. I've also enjoyed The Message by Eugene Peterson.
When I was in school, most of my recreational reading was devotional. Several years ago, I rediscovered the joy of fiction. I usually start a novel early in the summer or over Christmas vacation, and I enjoy it so much that I read a few more. Most summers, I read a book or two to my kids. (I’m hoping they never outgrow this.)
Hocus Pocus
The Vonnegut that I've read (this book and Slaughterhouse-Five) say more about war and its effects on the people who fight in them than anything else I've read.
A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam
This was a challenging book. Ms. Armstrong has condensed the work of hundreds of seekers and scholars into just under 400 pages. Her own personal biases are evident, but she gives fair treatment to the views of many others. This was my first exposure to much of the content, particularly her insights into the development of Muslim belief.
The Way of the Wolf
Return of the Wolf
Stories, essays, and songs about the Christian life. Many of them are good; a few are exceptional, and some are just corny. But they do have great emotional depth.
The Alphabet of Grace
Now and Then
Peculiar Treasures
A Room Called Remember
Whistling in the Dark
Wishful Thinking
The Wizard’s Tide
Buechner speaks as a skeptic among believers and as a believer among skeptics. He is a truly gifted story-teller and essayist.
Orthodoxy
Phillip Yancey recommended this in his book, Soul Survivor. So I took a break from Soul Survivor to read Orthodoxy. Chesterton is sometimes hard to follow, but there is a payoff if you stick with him - he will get you there eventually.
Turning
A heartfelt memoir of one woman’s conversion to Christianity through the Episcopal church, and then to Roman Catholicism.
The Screwtape Letters
Lewis’s imaginary letters from a demon to his nephew are classic. They illuminate Christian beliefs by looking at them from an enemy’s perspective.
Mere Christianity
There are really three books contained in this one: The Case for Christianity is an apologetic for the existence of God and the primacy of the Christian faith from a moral argument. Christian Behaviour expounds on the basis for several ethical and behavioral issues from a Christian perspective. Beyond Personality is perhaps the most fascinating: it is Lewis's exposition of the doctrine of the Trinity, something that has been all but abandoned by much of today's church. Lewis treats the subjects thoroughly, and he sheds considerable light in obscure corners.
God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics
The Problem of Pain
The Great Divorce
This tale of a “field trip” to heaven portrays Lewis’s intriguing view of the afterlife. The encounter of humans with the stuff of heaven turns the typical portrayal on its head. The popular encounter with a world beyond depicts a ghostly, barely real figure which seems to struggle with material objects. In Lewis's view, we are the wisps, the spirits, when we come into contact with heavenly reality, which is much more substantial than our world.
The Seven Storey Mountain
Merton pulls no punches in this autobiography. He is merciless when describing his excesses, but there is no voyeurism here. He battles with pride throughout, and we are grateful that his superiors encouraged his gifts.
Adam: God’s Beloved
Adam is a barely sentient man living in a group home in Toronto. Nouwen spent a year working at L’Arche Daybreak, ministering to and getting to know Adam. An emotionally draining book to read. Nouwen's humility as expressed in his ability to learn from "the least of these" is inspiring.
A Quaker Book of Wisdom: Life Lessons in Simplicity, Service, and Common Sense
A short but dense book by a contemporary Quaker educator. Good summary of Quaker beliefs.
Soul Survivor
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Life, the Universe, and Everything
So Long and Thanks for All the Fish
Mostly Harmless
This five-part "trilogy" is fun for science fiction fans. If you’ve only seen the movie, you hardly know anything about these stories. Adams sends up a host of science fiction writers and books.
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
The Girl of the Sea of Cortez
An enjoyable coming-of-age story from the author of Jaws. Classic themes are explored: family struggles between father and daughter, brother and sister; and the endless struggle of humanity against nature.
The DaVinci Code
Although Mr. Brown does provide disclaimers at the beginning of this controversial book, after finishing it, one has to wonder where his sympathies lie. It is a well-told and provocative story, and if it were left at that, it would be benign. But in matters of religion, emotions play a huge part, and most Christians feel threatened or at least disturbed by the premise of this book.
Angels and Demons
This novel, starring Robert Langdon of The DaVinci Code, was written before DaVinci. Like his later book, it has a mixture of detailed fact and elaborate fantasy and a huge dose of intrigue and action. I found the story to move along quickly throughout, whereas DaVinci seemed to drag in places.
Digital Fortress
Another pre-DaVinci Code book. Mr. Brown writes a good thriller, but there was a solution to the climactic "crisis" that was all too obvious and made the drama just seem silly.
Deception Point
Brown constructs an interesting scenario that is more realistic and believable than any of the rest of his novels. A story of intrigue, betrayal and, of course, deception.
The Book of Bebb
Lion Country
Open Heart
Love Feast
Treasure Hunt
This group of novels tell the story of Leo Bebb, his daughter, and the reporter whose life becomes hopelessly entangled in theirs. Leo Bebb is a thoroughly despicable character, but you can't help loving him. It's ultimately a story of grace.
The Wizard’s Tide
On the Road with the Archangel
Jurassic Park
Disclosure
Sphere
The Lost World
Airframe
Rising Sun
A Case of Need
The Count of Monte Cristo
A Season in Purgatory
Baudolino
The Name of the Rose
Walking Across Egypt
Raney
Killer Diller
The Floatplane Logbook
In Memory of Junior
Redeye
Where Trouble Sleeps
Lunch at the Piccadilly
Edgerton’s best stories are about ordinary people who are doing their best to live good and upright lives, but who often get it wrong - like most of us. Raney, Walking Across Egypt, Where Trouble Sleeps, and Lunch at the Piccadilly are my favorites.
Joshua
Joshua and the Children
The Shepherd
Fr. Girzone has written some good stories, but they are flawed at the point where it becomes apparent that he has an agenda. They often have a preachy tone that is obvious and unattractive.
Angel Fire
Angel Light
Lord of the Dance
Summer at the Lake
Thy Brother’s Wife
Wages of Sin
Greeley’s novels of Chicago politics - both civic and ecclesiatic - are his best. Lord of the Dance is especially good.
The Firm
The Client
The Pelican Brief
The Rainmaker
The Runaway Jury
The Testament
A Time to Kill
The Brethren
The Summons
Playing for Pizza
This was an okay story, but it's not among Grisham's best. The story paints a vivid picture of life in an Italian city and there are some interesting characters, but it doesn't really go anywhere.
The Odyssey
The classic tale of loyalty and betrayal. I finally read the whole thing. Like most people, I have heard parts of this story all my life: the encounter with the Cyclops, the struggle against the Sirens.
A Prayer for Owen Meany
This was my first John Irving novel. I did see and enjoy the movie adaptations of The World According to Garp and The Cider House Rules. I enjoyed this book more than any I've read in some time. Irving's quirky outlook and characters are often laugh-out-loud funny, and just as often poignant. It's apparent what the outcome will be very early in the story, but figuring out how it will all take place was a lot of the fun of reading this book.
Peer Gynt
At Home in Mitford
A Light in the Window
These High, Green Hills
Out to Canaan
A New Song
Happy to Be Here
Lake Wobegon Days
We Are Still Married
Leaving Home
WLT: A Radio Romance
The Book of Guys
Wobegon Boy
Keillor’s storytelling just keeps getting better. I started believing that Lake Wobegon was a real place about a quarter of the way through this book - his best novel yet.
Love Me
I've been a big Garrison Keillor since I first heard A Prairie Home Companion over 25 years ago. He's almost as funny in print as he is on the radio. This was a good book, but I kept wondering how much of it was autobiographical. I guess I was troubled that Mr. Keillor might be the lout who is the protagonist in this story. I'd still be a fan if I knew he was, but it would certainly put a different color on his work.
Cujo
Dreamcatcher
It
Misery
To Kill a Mockingbird
I saw and loved the movie several years ago, but had never read the book. It is a very fine Southern period novel. The characterizations are genuine, and like its patriarch, it has a social conscience without being preachy.
A Wrinkle in Time
A Swiftly Tilting Planet
A Wind in the Door
Many Waters
I read A Wrinkle in Time when I was in the eighth grade, and I enjoyed it very much. I later tried to find it, but couldn’t remember the title or author. I happened across it when I was out of college and discovered it was one of three. Since I re-discovered them, a fourth book, Many Waters, has been added. Ms. L’Engle has the voice of a poet.
Meet the Austins
Till We Have Faces
The Giver
The Road
This is the story of a nameless man and his son on a journey across a scorched earth. They are surrounded by death and destruction, and they only have each other. Some might consider this story depressing and nihilistic, but at its core the book is really about hope and love.
A Case of Need
Critical Judgment
Natural Causes
Side Effects
Silent Treatment
Subterranean
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Ms. Rowling gives us a satisfying story that whizzes by. I’m reading the series to my kids - good stories by a good writer. We’re anxious to see how she wraps it all up in book seven.
The Wheatheart Chronicles
Rivals of Spring
Summer Winds
Rites of Autumn
Winter Hunger
The Hobbit
The Lord of the Rings
The Fellowship of the Ring
The Two Towers
The Return of the King
I received the boxed set, including The Hobbit, for Christmas. I had already read The Hobbit, but I thought I’d scan back through it before I started the longer story. I ended up reading it all the way through again. It was even better the second time. Tolkien’s imaginary world has so much detail that you can’t help being caught up in it. He was both scholar and storyteller.
Slaughterhouse-Five
Hocus Pocus
Both of these books, filled with dark humor, say more about war and its effects on the people who fight in them than anything else I've read.
Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions
A son recounts his father’s fantastic tales as he struggles with the father’s impending death and to finally understand his father.
A Summer Place
Winters’ Tales
The Book Thief
A story of a girl growing up in Nazi Germany. A captivating look at the sacrifices and compromises that ordinary people made to survive.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
Life, the Universe, and Everything
So Long and Thanks for All the Fish
Mostly Harmless
This five-part "trilogy" is fun for science fiction fans. If you’ve only seen the movie, you hardly know anything about these stories.
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul
Bred any good rooks lately?
The subtitle gives you a clue: Original puns, shaggy dogs, spoonerisms, feghoots & malappropriate stories by Stephen King, Annie Dillard, Roy Blount Jr., Isaac Asimov, John D. MacDonald, Mark Harris, Willard Espy...
Kick Me
Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations
This book is unmercifully funny. Franken pokes fun at the armchair patriots whose rants fill the airwaves.
Oh, the Things I Know
Not nearly as funny as Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot. It's hard to tell when he’s poking fun at himself (or at someone else) and when he’s being serious.
Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right
Al Franken can be very funny; parts of this book are funny. But there’s a fine line between satire and bitterness, and he follows it like someone who’s had too many margaritas at happy hour. Franken is very passionate about his political beliefs, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But his basic premise seems to be: the Right plays fast and loose with the facts, and they’re mean; the Left needs to adopt the same strategy. He is becoming what he hates. The more strident he gets, the less funny he becomes.
Happy to Be Here
Lake Wobegon Days
We Are Still Married
Leaving Home
WLT: A Radio Romance
The Book of Guys
Wobegon Boy
Homegrown Democrat: A Few Thoughts from the Heart of America
Mr. Keillor is the best American humorist since Mark Twain. Unlike Twain, his political work tends to become shrill and ugly.
Growing Up Born Again
The Lazlo Letters
Don Novello is better known as Father Guido Sarducci from Saturday Night Live. He took on the persona of Laslo Toth, citizen and patriot, and wrote letters - lots of them. It’s hilarious and often surprising to read his letters and the responses.
Daddy Cool
Sein Language
A Walk Across America
The Walk West
Peter Jenkins set out as a recent college graduate to walk all the way across the United States. He was disillusioned and wanted to find the "real America." Along his walk, he stopped and worked and got to know people. He married and finished the walk with his wife, Barbara, no longer disillusioned, but in love with his country. I read the first volume in one sitting.
Mr. Kidder’s works are part novel, part documentary in print.
Among Schoolchildren
Kidder spent a school year in an inner-city classroom. Any teacher will feel at home here - an eye-opener for those not familiar with the education profession.
Home Town
If you’ve ever lived in a small town, you’ll recognize the benefits and detriments. The story focuses on a policeman and his family.
House
This story of the pain and pleasure encountered by buyer, builder, and architect is as masterfully wrought as its subject.
The Soul of a New Machine
A great introduction to the world of computers, even after all these years. Kidder follows a group of workers at the now-defunct Data General Corporation as they develop a new minicomputer.
A Girl Named Zippy
She Got Up Off the Couch
Two installments of a heartfelt memoir of growing up in a tiny Midwest town. Poignant, quirky, and laugh-out-loud funny.
Angela’s Ashes
A heart-wrenching, plain-spoken tale of a childhood lived in squalor in New York City and Limerick, Ireland. A story of hope.
‘Tis
The continuation of Frank’s tale - his return to America and his struggle to rise out of poverty.
Teacher Man
The third installment of his memoirs, which tells the story of his teaching career, mostly in New York City high schools. He escapes poverty, but continues to struggle to make his own way.
Cry of the Kalahari
This couple spent seven years in an African desert studying animal life there - an amazing adventure. The dedication this couple has to their science is astounding.
Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas
The Connected Family
Van Cliburn
An enjoyable and respectful look at the life of an American icon (and Fort Worth resident).
Musical Stages: An Autobiography
An inside look at an amazing talent who was one of the primary shapers of American 20th century pop culture.
The Cube and the Cathedral: Europe, America, and Politics Without God
Mr. Weigel has written a very readable treatise regarding the contribution of the Church to the development of democracy in Europe, and by extension, in the United States. His concern is that as Western countries abandon and deny their Christian foundations, their democracies will crumble. He makes some good points; if there is no longer a moral basis, another religion or value system will fill the gap. He believes that unless something changes in Europe, radical Islam will become the prevailing ideology.
03 Aug 2008