My resolution for 2017 was to read 17 books in a
year. I cheated a little bit because most of the books I “read” I actually
listened to as audiobooks while I was cooking or doing other household tasks.
Sitting down and reading 17 books was not very probable for me, but I enjoy
listening to music or something while I cook and this way I can kill two birds
with one stone!
Anyway, following is a list of the books that I
read this year. You might notice that I don’t read much fiction. It’s not that
I don’t enjoy fiction, but fiction has to be really good to get me interested
and I wanted to focus on learning more this year rather than entertainment. The
books fall into two broad categories (although a few could just as easily be
both): Christian living and trying to understand life from other people’s
perspectives. Where applicable, I included children’s books that fall into the
same general themes so that you can introduce these topics to your kids, if
you’re interested. All descriptions come from Amazon and my opinion of the book
is my own. The list is sorted by topic and more or less in the order in which
the books were read.
Christian Living
- Invitation to
Solitude and Silence by Ruth Haley Barton
Much of our faith and practice is about
words―preaching, teaching, talking with others. Yet all of these words are not
enough to take us into the real presence of God where we can hear his voice.
This book is an invitation to you to meet God deeply and fully outside the demands
and noise of daily life. It is an invitation to solitude and silence. The
beauty of a true invitation is that we really do have a choice about embarking
on this adventure. God extends the invitation, but he honors our freedom and
will not push himself where he is not wanted. Instead, he waits for us to
respond from the depths of our desire. Will you say yes?
This book challenged me a lot as a person who
likes to always be busy. IJM puts a lot of emphasis on stillness (part of our
daily work routine) and solitude (each employee is given a day of solitude each
year), and this book helped me see the importance of it in my personal life, as
well.
2. Life Together: The Classic
Exploration of Christian in Community by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
In Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, renowned
Christian minister, professor, and author of The Cost of Discipleship recounts
his unique fellowship in an underground seminary during the Nazi years in
Germany. Giving practical advice on how life together in Christ can be sustained
in families and groups, Life Together is bread for all who are hungry for the
real life of Christian fellowship.
We have been trying to add emphasis to living in
community for several years now, but in a lot of ways I felt like we were
flying by the seat of our pants a bit. This particular book challenged and
encouraged me to continue to seek Christian community, and gave important ideas
as to what it should and should not include.
3. Reclaiming Hope: Lessons
Learned in the Obama White House about the Future of Faith in America by
Michael Wear
In this unvarnished account of faith inside the
world's most powerful office, Michael Wear provides unprecedented insight into
the highs and lows of working as a Christian in government. Reclaiming Hope is
an insider's view of the most controversial episodes of the Obama
administration, from the president's change of position on gay marriage and the
transformation of religious freedom into a partisan idea, to the
administration's failure to find common ground on abortion and the bitter
controversy over who would give the benediction at the 2012 inauguration.
The book is also a passionate call for faith in
the public square, particularly for Christians to see politics as a means of
loving one's neighbor and of pursuing justice for all. Engrossing,
illuminating, and at times provocative, Reclaiming Hope changes the way we
think about the relationship of politics and faith.
This book was really eye-opening for me, and
gave insight to some of the questions I had about events in the Obama
administration. Really good read for any political persuasion.
4. The Spirit of the
Disciplines by Dallas Willard
Dallas Willard, one of today's most brilliant
Christian thinkers and author of The Divine Conspiracy (Christianity Today's
1999 Book of the Year), presents a way of living that enables ordinary men and
women to enjoy the fruit of the Christian life. He reveals how the key to
self-transformation resides in the practice of the spiritual disciplines, and
how their practice affirms human life to the fullest. The Spirit of the
Disciplines is for everyone who strives to be a disciple of Jesus in thought
and action as well as intention.
As a person who grew up in the Christian church,
disciplines are a topic with which I am rather familiar. However, Dallas
Willard adds some disciplines to the list that I had never considered before
(celebration and remembrance being ones that stuck out the most to me). He also
emphasizes that disciplines should be seen as training for the “big game”,
instead of drudgeries to check off our to-do list.
5. The Hole in Our Gospel by
Richard Stearns
The Hole in Our Gospel is the compelling true
story of a corporate CEO who set aside worldly success for something far more
significant, and discovered the full power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to
change his own life. He uses his journey to demonstrate how the gospel-the
whole gospel-was always meant to be a world changing social revolution, a
revolution that begins with us.
This one confirmed a lot of ideas and leadings
that we had felt before we decided to do this fellowship with IJM. Our faith
should lead us to change the world!
6. Unashamed by Lecrae
"If you live for people's acceptance, you'll die
from their rejection." Two-time Grammy winning rap artist, Lecrae, learned this
lesson through more than his share of adversity—childhood abuse, drugs and
alcoholism, a stint in rehab, an abortion, and an unsuccessful suicide attempt.
Along the way, Lecrae attained an unwavering faith in Jesus and began looking
to God for affirmation. Now as a chart-topping industry anomaly, he has learned
to ignore the haters and make peace with his craft. The rap artist holds
nothing back as he divulges the most sensitive details of his life, answers his
critics, shares intimate handwritten journal entries, and powerfully models how
to be a Christian in a secular age. This is the story of one man's journey to faith
and freedom.
Love Lecrae’s music, and was moved and inspired
by his story!
7. Love Does by Bob Goff
As a college student he spent 16 days in the
Pacific Ocean with five guys and a crate of canned meat. As a father he took
his kids on a world tour to eat ice cream with heads of state. He made friends
in Uganda, and they liked him so much he became the Ugandan consul. He pursued
his wife for three years before she agreed to date him. His grades weren't good
enough to get into law school, so he sat on a bench outside the Dean’s office
for seven days until they finally let him enroll. Bob Goff has become something
of a legend, and his friends consider him the world's best-kept secret. Those
same friends have long insisted he write a book. What follows are paradigm
shifts, musings, and stories from one of the world’s most delightfully engaging
and winsome people. What fuels his impact? Love. But it's not the kind of love
that stops at thoughts and feelings. Bob's love takes action. Bob believes Love
Does.
Bob Goff is funny, inspiring, and courageous.
One of my favorite reads of the year!
8. The Dangerous Act of Loving
Your Neighbor: Seeing Others through the Eyes of Jesus by Dr. Mark Labberton
Jesus didn't see a sick woman, he saw a daughter
of God. He didn't see an outcast from society, he saw a child of Israel. He
didn't see a sinner, he saw a person in the image of the Creator. Are we able
to see others with the eyes of Jesus? Seeing rightly is the beginning of
renewal, forgiveness, healing and grace. Seeing rightly, says Mark Labberton,
is the beginning of how our hearts are changed. Through careful
self-examination in the Spirit, we begin to bear the fruit of love toward
others that can make a difference. Here is a chance to reflect on why our
ordinary hearts can be complacent about the evils in the world and how we can
begin to see the world like Jesus.
Really, really good book that challenged me to
see others as Jesus sees them, and inspired me to love them as children of God.
9. Toxic Charity: How Churches
and Charities Hurt Those They Help, and How to Reverse It by Robert D. Lupton
Veteran urban activist Robert Lupton reveals the
shockingly toxic effects that modern charity has upon the very people meant to
benefit from it. Toxic Charity provides proven new models for charitable groups
who want to help—not sabotage—those whom they desire to serve. Lupton, the
founder of FCS Urban Ministries (Focused Community Strategies) in Atlanta, the
voice of the Urban Perspectives newsletter, and the author of Compassion,
Justice and the Christian Life, has been at the forefront of urban ministry
activism for forty years. Now, in the vein of Jeffrey Sachs’s The End of
Poverty, Richard Stearns’s The Hole in Our Gospel, and Gregory Boyle’s Tattoos
on the Heart, his groundbreaking Toxic Charity shows us how to start serving
needy and impoverished members of our communities in a way that will lead to
lasting, real-world change.
I had heard some of these points before, but it
was good to hear them from an expert and also hear about what he has learned
from some of his personal failures.
10. Raising an Original:
Parenting Each Child According to their Unique God-Given Temperament by Julie
Lyles Carr
In Raising an Original, Carr helps to redefine
the primary purpose of Christian parenting, this raising of the next
generation. God has given each of our children specific gifts, abilities and
capacities for specific purposes and He can equip parents to discover and
support those powerful personality traits if they know where to look and how to
respond. So many kids raised in Christian homes launch into their adult lives
without any sense of knowing who they are called to be or what their mission on
earth is. What if parents, teachers or mentors could help them discover the
wondrous, unique threads woven within them that will enable them to see their
part in the fabric of God’s universe?
Lots of good parenting insights, especially as
we parent our three VERY different children! This is a book that I will revisit
every few years to help me stay on track as a parent.
Life from Other Perspectives
11. The New Jim Crow: Mass
Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
This book directly challenges the notion that
the election of Barack Obama signals a new era of colorblindness. With dazzling
candor, legal scholar Michelle Alexander argues that "we have not ended
racial caste in America; we have merely redesigned it." By targeting black
men through the War on Drugs and decimating communities of color, the U.S.
criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial
control—relegating millions to a permanent second-class status—even as it
formally adheres to the principle of colorblindness.
I learned a lot from this book, and got many
good suggestions for further reading. It’s a very intense read, and might take
awhile to get through, but if you’ve read the whole thing I would love to
dissect it with you!
12. Seeking Refuge: On the
Shores of the Global Refugee Crisis by Stephan Bauman, Matthew Soerens, and Dr.
Issam Smeir
We can’t ignore the refugee crisis—arguably the
greatest geo-political issue of our time—but how do we even begin to respond to
something so massive and complex? In Seeking Refuge, three experts from World
Relief, a global organization serving refugees, offer a practical,
well-rounded, well-researched guide to the issue. Drawing from history, public
policy, psychology, many personal stories, and their own unique Christian
worldview, the authors offer a nuanced and compelling portrayal of the plight
of refugees and the extraordinary opportunity we have to love our neighbors as
ourselves.
The stories in this book are so compelling. It’s
a great source for more information on the refugee crisis and ways you might
participate in bringing relief to the millions displaced.
13. Between the World and Me by
Ta-Nehisi Coates
In a profound work that pivots from the biggest
questions about American history and ideals to the most intimate concerns of a
father for his son, Ta-Nehisi Coates offers a powerful new framework for
understanding our nation’s history and current crisis. Americans have built an
empire on the idea of “race,” a falsehood that damages us all but falls most
heavily on the bodies of black women and men—bodies exploited through slavery
and segregation, and, today, threatened, locked up, and murdered out of all
proportion. What is it like to inhabit a black body and find a way to live
within it? And how can we all honestly reckon with this fraught history and
free ourselves from its burden?
Profound read that gave me lots of questions to
ponder. For me, a quicker and lighter read than The New Jim Crow, but equally
compelling.
14. The Aquariums of Pyongyang:
Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag by Kang Chol-hwan and Pierre Rigoulot
North Korea's leaders have consistently kept a
tight grasp on their one-party regime, quashing any nascent opposition
movements and sending all suspected dissidents to its brutal concentration
camps for "re-education." Kang Chol-Hwan is the first survivor of one
of these camps to escape and tell his story to the world, documenting the
extreme conditions in these gulags and providing a personal insight into life
in North Korea. Part horror story, part historical document, part memoir, part
political tract, this record of one man's suffering gives eyewitness proof to
an ongoing sorrowful chapter of modern history.
This book was incredibly eye-opening to the horrors
that have been happening in North Korea for decades. A hard, but important,
read.
15. The Zookeeper’s Wife by
Diane Ackerman
After their zoo was bombed, Polish zookeepers
Jan and Antonina Zabinski managed to save over three hundred people from the
Nazis by hiding refugees in the empty animal cages. With animal names for these
"guests," and human names for the animals, it's no wonder that the
zoo's code name became "The House Under a Crazy Star." Best-selling
naturalist and acclaimed storyteller Diane Ackerman combines extensive research
and an exuberant writing style to re-create this fascinating, true-life
story―sharing Antonina's life as "the zookeeper's wife," while
examining the disturbing obsessions at the core of Nazism.
A really interesting read, as the author weaves
true events with speculation as to what thoughts and feelings the Zabinskis
might have had as they secretly resisted Nazism.
Children’s introduction to fighting evil in
World War II: The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom
Corrie ten Boom was a Dutch watchmaker who
became a heroine of the Resistance, a survivor of Hitler's concentration camps,
and one of the most remarkable evangelists of the twentieth century. In World
War II she and her family risked their lives to help Jews and underground
workers escape from the Nazis, and for their work they were tested in the
infamous Nazi death camps. Only Corrie among her family survived to tell the
story of how faith ultimately triumphs over evil.
16. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir
of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance
Hillbilly Elegy is a passionate and personal
analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The
decline of this group, a demographic of our country that has been slowly
disintegrating over forty years, has been reported on with growing frequency
and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the
inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class
decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.
Incredibly interesting read! Insightful look
into a community that doesn’t get much discussion from the larger culture.
17. Let Justice Roll Down by
John M. Perkins
His brother died in his arms, shot by a deputy
marshall. He was beaten and tortured by the sheriff and state police. But
through it all he returned good for evil, love for hate, progress for
prejudice, and brought hope to black and white alike. The story of John Perkins
is no ordinary story. Rather, it is a gripping portrayal of what happens when
faith thrusts a person into the midst of a struggle against racism, oppression,
and injustice. It is about the costs of discipleship--the jailings, the
floggings, the despair, the sacrifice. And it is about the transforming work of
faith that allowed John to respond to such overwhelming indignities with
miraculous compassion, vision, and hope.
This is an intimate telling of Dr. Perkins’
incredible life story, and revealed a lot about what life was like for people
of color in the 1900s. Highly recommend!!
Children’s introduction to life for people of
color in the 1900s: The Watsons Go to Birmingham--1963 by Christopher Paul
Curtis
Enter the hilarious world of ten-year-old Kenny
and his family, the Weird Watsons of Flint, Michigan. There's Momma, Dad,
little sister Joetta, and brother Byron, who's thirteen and an "official
juvenile delinquent." When Byron gets to be too much trouble, they head
South to Birmingham to visit Grandma, the one person who can shape him up. And
they happen to be in Birmingham when Grandma's church is blown up.
And Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli
Jeffrey Lionel "Maniac" Magee might
have lived a normal life if a freak accident hadn't made him an orphan. After
living with his unhappy and uptight aunt and uncle for eight years, he decides
to run--and not just run away, but run. This is where the myth of Maniac Magee
begins, as he changes the lives of a racially divided small town with his
amazing and legendary feats.
Do you have a resolution for 2018? Do you have a
book that I should add to my “To Read” list? Wishing you joy and peace in the
new year!
