Just started
A Geography of Faith
by Barbara Brown Taylor
I think this is going to be one of those books. Influential and experimental. Taylor is chronicling her own journey of finding God outside the walls of the church. And all the while inviting everyone else to journey along in their own ways, too.
The Power of Boundless Compassion
by Gregory Boyle
True stories by a Jesuit priest about his work in the most highly-concentrated gang neighborhoods in Los Angeles. If these don’t tug on your heart, you don’t have one. Beautiful witnesses of the power of God’s love.
Magicians, Mentalists, Math Geeks, and the Hidden Powers of the Mind
by Alex Stone
I’m not sure why I’m reading this book or why I’m enjoying it, but I am doing both. It’s about Alex Stone’s love of magic and gives you a peek into the culture of magicians and some of the psychology and sociology behind it.
Some Thoughts on Faith
by Anne Lamott
If you’ve ever read Bird by Bird (one of my favorite 8 books I read in 2008), you know Anne Lamott is gifted not only with her words but also with her insights. This book chronicles her troubled past and how she lets God in, story by story. (Now I want to read Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers.
by Mitch Albom
This novel is making me slightly uncomfortable. It’s about a man banished to a cave for his messing with time, with several other stories mingled in.
Still reading
A Theography
by Leonard Sweet, Frank Viola
Loving this so far. It connects many dots about Jesus in the Old Testament stories and New Testament ones (or as the authors put it: First Testament and Second Testament). Some I’ve thought of before; others I haven’t considered but find fascinating to think about. It’s a long book and I’m taking it slow.
How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband Master
by Rachel Held Evans
This is one woman’s journey of attempting to practice “biblical womanhood” through different monthly experiments. Granted, she’s had to do some updating since thousands of years have made some of the practices impossible to follow. But her intent is to discover how to be a woman of God in the here and now.
Finished from November’s nightstand
Falling in Love with the God Jesus Knows
by James Bryan Smith
This is an excellent book about seeing God as Jesus sees him. And then practicing some spiritual disciplines to make this knowledge an integral part of who you are.
Putting on the Character of Christ
by Dallas Willard
Willard writes with such depth and spirituality that you’re forced to re-read paragraphs and go back several pages and sometimes just stop and sit and pray over what he’s stirring in you.
by Jonathan Edwards
If I thought reading Willard was a slow-go, I come practically to a standstill with Edwards. He preached these sermons on 1 Corinthians 13 in 1738. They were later gathered into a book in 1851. So even though the language is different, the biblical truths remain the same and the verbiage is worth plodding through.
Midlife and the Grace of God
by Paul David Tripp
I didn’t find this one consistently on target for me, but when it did hit home, it made me thankful I had found it. Because Tripp lands in many different places, I’m guessing at least parts of the book would be relevant to most anybody transitioning from one season of life to another.
by Paulo Coelho
A popular novel for a reason. It’s a spiritual story told through simple characters and a straight narrative. It’s not Christian per se, but as a Christian reader, you’ll find God and his message in it.
365 Ways to Make Jesus First
by Doug Bender
This is a daily devotional guiding you through scripture and through questions to provoke thought about how you can live with Jesus at the center of your life, not yourself. It also includes links to the I Am Second videos which are wonderful stories of changed lives.
How Stories Make Us Human
by Jonathan Gottschall
Don’t we all love a good story? This book tells us why and how we satisfy that longing, from a variety of perspectives, past, present, and future. It’s fascinating reading and makes me rethink what I think about story.
* * * What good book have you read lately?
