Stopping to Think

  Time for the Talk: Leading Your Son Into True Manhood by Steve Zollos My rating: 3 of 5 stars Best book I've ever read? No. Useful information? Yes. If approaching this subject with your sons is intimidating to you as a father, then you will find practical help in these pages. View all my reviews

  Finding God in the Dark: Faith, Disappointment, and the Struggle to Believe by Ted Kluck My rating: 3 of 5 stars As a listener to The Happy Rant for however long it was dropping into podcast feeds, I am somewhat pre-primed to appreciate a book from Kluck and Martin. Some of Kluck's other writing also pre-disposes me to engage with anything I see from him - he's a really good writer. The title/subtitle of the book are also instant hooks for me, as someone who has often felt what Philip Yancey once described as Disappointment with God. Having said that, this book didn't quite hit where I'd hoped it would. Martin's sections are good, especially when he is diagnosing himself and his own sin. Some of his summaries of Scripture are less appealing, at times distracting. I thought chapter 6 (Blue Mondays) was his best work here. Kluck's portions were mixed. I don't agree with some of the other reviewers here who think he's trying to show off "how good...

  The Shepherd Leader by James Van Yperen My rating: 2 of 5 stars Some good quotes and helpful ideas. Poorly written, organized, and edited. Might have been good as a 5,000 word article. View all my reviews

Useful introduction to the Greek Philosophers, meatier than Sproul's Consequences of Ideas , though obviously limited to a narrower timeframe.  Not always clearly organized, which made moving quickly to grab the big ideas difficult. I will probably come back through at a slower pace at a later date, but my precis paper was due. Such is life. But this a valuable introductory work, and removed some of my hesitation toward jumping into Plato and Aristotle directly.  Read my Good reads reviews here

How to Be Free from Bitterness: And Other Essays on Christian Relationships by Jim Wilson My rating: 5 of 5 stars This may be the most spiritually beneficial book I read in 2022. Clear and direct teaching. The essays on relationships with parents and saturation love are worth the price of the book. The Q & A on becoming a Christian is beautiful in its wisdom. I’m going to buy a case of these. View all my reviews

  Eggs are Expensive, Sperm is Cheap: 50 Politically Incorrect Thoughts for Men by Greg Krehbiel My rating: 5 of 5 stars This book is going to be given frequently as a gift. To borrow from Doug Wilson's introduction, this book is filled with good horse sense. The first half was good, saying lots of obvious hit not so p/c things; sometimes relying on an evolutionary mindset that is unstable, but doing so in a way which illustrates the rampant instability of our modern insanity on sex and the relationship between the sexes. The second part, giving men advice, was also fantastic. Again: good horse sense. Not p/c, by largely a/c (that is, actually correct). Highly recommended. View all my reviews

Reforming Joy: A Conversation Between Paul, the Reformers, and the Church Today by Tim Chester My rating: 5 of 5 stars This really is a marvelous little book. Chester manages in 100 pages to give a clear taste of Pauline theology, some core tenants of the reformation, and practical application for your 21st century life. Though I’m not sure this was Chester’s goal, he’s really written a first-rate introduction to Christianity. I plan to buy more copies to give away to believers whose faith could use strengthening, unbelievers to introduce them to the heart of Christianity, and anyone who needs more joy in their life. This book is that good. View all my reviews

  Christian Ethics: Contemporary Issues and Options by Norman L. Geisler My rating: 3 of 5 stars The first section, laying out various ethical systems, is helpful and clear. The second section, less so. The appendices on drugs and birth control were virtually worthless in terms of argumentation and intellectual rigor. But I'll probably keep the book as a reference for that first section. The prose is accessible and clear. View all my reviews

  Ernest Hemingway on Writing by Larry W. Phillips My rating: 4 of 5 stars Lucid, clear, if somewhat idiosyncratic, advice. As it is drawn from his work and letters across his career, it's interesting to see how his opinions develop or stiffen in certain areas. It was fun and easy to read. I also have a feeling that Hemingway would have hated it. View all my reviews

  Anxious People by Fredrik Backman My rating: 4 of 5 stars 4.5ish. Backman's writing is worth five stars, his ability to take you inside the skin of each of the characters and laugh and cry and feel queasy under the skin right with each of them is simply brilliant. This story wasn't as strong as the others I've read from him, which is why I bring it back down to a four. That said, I couldn't put it down (almost literally) for the final 120 pages. "It just hurts so much at times, being human." (98) "Limes seemed to be such a popular adornment at apartment viewings that it's tempting to think that if real estate agents were banned, the surface of the earth would become covered with such a thick layer of limes that only young people with very small knives and an inexplicable fondness for Mexican beer would survive." (129) "When snow arrives autumn has already done all the work, taking care of all the leaves and carefully sweeping summer awa...

The Drop Box: How 500 Abandoned Babies, an Act of Compassion, and a Movie Changed My Life Forever by Brian Ivie My rating: 3 of 5 stars The first half is the sort of navel gazing self-importance dressed up in Christian language that you'd kind of expect from a 20 something writing a memoir. The back end, especially the reflections on the ministry in South Korea and the pastor there who spearheaded it, his relationship with the gospel, and the need for grace was all quite good. View all my reviews

  Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome by R. Kent Hughes My rating: 5 of 5 stars Good, wise, helpful, sane. The biblical measures of success point us back to faithfulness, rather than looking at business metrics (budgets, butts, buildings, etc.). View all my reviews

  A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman My rating: 5 of 5 stars Simply stunning. The character development, use of language, and the plot all left me wanting the book to keep going. There were a few details that annoyed me as a reader, some relational dynamics toward the end that felt out of place and forced, but ultimately they're not enough to detract from what a master class in fiction Backman puts on in A Man Called Ove. View all my reviews

  The 5 Masculine Instincts: A Guide to Becoming a Better Man by Chase Replogle My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is a really good book. Chapter four alone is worth the price of the book. I appreciated Replogle's discussion of manhood through the lens of these 5 instincts, with the understanding that the instincts simply are . The question is not whether these instincts exist in our lives, the question is: will we master them, or be mastered by them? Replogle points us - through a skillful mix of question asking, and drawing from narratives both inside and outside of Scripture - to the source of true character and manhood: Jesus, the man who died for us. As I said, the chapter on Adventure, focusing on Samson, was particularly good. The only chapter I struggled with was the Ambition chapter, as I'm not sure that shoe quite fits on Moses' foot. Lots of what Replogle says in that chapter about ambition is really helpful, I just kept getting hung up on the use of Moses which doe...

  Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World by Cal Newport My rating: 5 of 5 stars Did you enjoy Deep Work , but weren't sure how to implement the ideas, because the pull of distraction still seemed constant and hard to silence? Looking for more practical advice on how to break up with your constant need for distraction? Digital Minimalism is probably for you. That's not to say you need to have read any of Newport's work before to benefit from this book. He spends the first section of the book, 80 pages or so, laying the groundwork for what he's arguing. The attention-based economy has the best minds and attention science on their side, and by unthinkingly using every new tool, toy, and app that comes along we are volunteering to give them our most precious resource - time - in exchange for what they're mainly after - money. This is not only a bad trade-off, it's also bad for our mental health and quality of life. The remainder of the book...

  R. C. Sproul: A Life by Stephen J. Nichols My rating: 4 of 5 stars Sproul is a five-star subject, and this is a very thorough biography. Nichols' prose style doesn't live up to the subject of his writing, which was a little disappointing - but may also be an unfair standard. I listened to an audio version, which in a few places subbed out the narrator for original R.C. audio (most wonderfully, his final two sermons in the Appendix). View all my reviews

  Dark Sky by C.J. Box My rating: 5 of 5 stars It wasn't The Great American Novel, but it was fun, thrilling, and even thoughtful at a few points. I enjoy the Joe Pickett character immensely. View all my reviews

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz My rating: 3 of 5 stars 3.25-3.5 This was not an enjoyable book-not due to the writing, Dunbar-Ortiz is perfectly capable in that department. But this history she records is unbelievably depressing. Some of her analytical tools fail her (critical theory, Marxist theory) and cause her to at times over-state the case or impute ill (Colonialist and Racist) motives to those who were undoubtedly concerned more with self-preservation and opportunity than with the destruction of the Native Peoples of the United States. One needn't say all white settlers and government officials had ill motives in order to make clear the horrific impacts such motives had in influencing the culture. But whether or not one agrees with all of her analysis, the plain facts recorded of the immense number of Indigenous people killed, displaced, and otherwise harmed, treaties re-written, broken, and ignored, and the many attempts b...

  Hearers and Doers: A Pastor's Guide to Growing Disciples Through Scripture and Doctrine by Kevin J. Vanhoozer My rating: 5 of 5 stars Kevin J. Vanhoozer has written perhaps the most helpful book for pastors that I've ever read. His claim that "reading Scripture theologically is the royal road to discipleship" (pg xi) is both, in my estimation, exactly right and and woefully under embraced. I'm not sure a lot of Christians would even know what to do with a phrase such as, "reading Scripture theologically." This is not a how-to book in the sense of "start this program and run it for 75 days, followed by a 43 day fast, and 12 consecutive 24 minute prayer meetings, and viola! disciples." But neither is it a book that flies around in the stratosphere of theory. Vanhoozer puts forward a compelling biblical vision for what a disciple is, and then argues -perhaps argue isn't even the right word here- that God really did give us the right equip...

  The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara My rating: 5 of 5 stars I was amazed by how much I liked this book. I enjoy history, though I don't read a ton of it anymore. Having listened to U.S. Grant's memoir earlier in the year, I decided to try a different part of the war, and a different style of book. The writing is very good, and I felt like I was in the mind of each of the individual characters. The ability to essentially shift writing styles for chapters at a time and to somehow still feel like the book was cohesive is something I have seen poorly imitated, and so I was pretty skeptical. But Shaara nailed it. My heart broke with Longstreet, it thrilled with Chamberlain, and all in all I was left with that feeling I get anytime I read any good writing on war: what a hellish mess. There are beauties and glories, as with any part of human existence. But the sum total is not beauty. Men fighting for a million different personal or cultural reasons, many of which weren't the...