Adam Shields

Witness to Hope: The Biography of Pope John Paul II by George Weigel

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Takeaway: Regardless of whether you are Protestant or Catholic, John Paul II was important.

Last year, I picked up Witness to Hope for Kindle when it was on sale. But the size and time commitment kept me from actually reading it. As much as I would like this blog to not influence my reading, I often don’t pick up long books because of my attempt to keep up, with assistance from several regular contributors, a 5 review a week schedule.

So, I do not often make room for a biography that clocks in at more than 1000 pages. At the same time, I tend to hate abridged audiobooks. If it was important enough to put in the book initially, it was probably important enough to read later.

But when I noticed that the audiobook of Witness to Hope was in the Scribd audiobook library, even though it is abridged, I picked it up.

The actual content is just under half of the original book. And it feels like an abridgment. The biggest problem with the abridgment is that it focuses too much on the political life of John Paul II as Pope and not enough on the spiritual influence. Spiritual is undoubtedly there, but when you compare the time devoted, it seems less important.

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Soul Keeping: Caring For the Most Important Part of You by John Ortberg

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Summary: It is not a violation of faith in Christ’s work, to pay attention to our own soul.

Lately I have been increasingly frustrated with Christian Living books. Particularly their introductions. I think I first noticed this strongly with James Bryan Smith’s The Good and Beautiful Life, but I have noticed the problem with a number of other books as well.

Maybe it is my problem and not one else need pay attention. But if I have to diagnose a more general problem, it is that for some reason Evangelicals seem to need to over compensate in their introductions for the general feedback that they think they are going to hear. And worse that overcompensation seems to be particularly focused on clichés. The books that are am frustrated with often have some really good content, once I get past the general introductions. But several times I have been so frustrated with the cliche-ridden introductions that I have had to force myself past them.

Soul Keeping has this problem. I really love that John Ortberg is writing a book that is as much about a tribute to the work of Dallas Willard in his life as it is about soul keeping as a subject. But honestly, I don’t need to be convinced that it is important to think about and work on my own spiritual health. I have been seeing a spiritual direction for over a year now. I read Christian books incessantly. I go to church regularly and while far from perfect, I really do think I am paying attention to my spiritual life for a lot of good reason. And the primary reason I don’t need to hear about the importance of spiritual care is that I grew up as an Evangelical (as would most of the readers).

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More Best of 2014 Book Lists

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The best of 2014 Books lists are coming out strong now. There are a lot of repeat books (last year there was a summary list that someone put together to compile all the books and how often they were cited, so hopefully someone will do that again.) But I have to wonder how much book lists like these matter to general readers. Here is an earlier post on other Best Books of 2014 lists

I have to give props to Bill Gates for turning himself into a Lego to give his best books he read this year.

  • NPR – 250 titles with filters and categories to give most everyone at least a few books they would like. But 250 seems way too many to be helpful.
  • Amazon has their best selling lists of 2014.  I always am interested that the best selling Kindle books lists and paper books lists are so different.  The lists are both the top 100, but the top 10 only have 2 overlapping books. And the next 10 only have 2 more.
  • Paul Sohn at Salt and Light has the 11 most thought provoking books on leadership. This is a Christian site, but most are general books instead of specifically Christian leadership books.
  • Relevant Magazine has a list of best books to give as gifts. The list was prepared by C Christopher Smith of Englewood Review of Books and has a number of good books for a variety of readers, ages and interests. I have read two of the books on the list and have already bought two more
  • Vulture – a culture review site has their 10 best. I have never heard of the site before, but they have my top book of the year as their top book of the year.
  • Publisher’s Weekly has their top 10 books. Several lists have mentioned Thirteen Days in September about the 1978 Camp David Accords, Deep Down Dark (about the 33 trapped 69 days in the Chilean Mine collapse of 2010), and A Brief History of Seven Killings about 3 decades of Jamaican history centering on an attempted assassination of Bob Marley. I am interested in the Camp David Accords one at least.
  • Washington Post’s list (other than 7 Killings and Being Mortal) has 8 books I have not heard of.
  • Boston Globe has a variety of lists with nothing that explains them (not all that helpful)
  • Slate has staff picks. Which I think I like better than straight best of lists. I would rather get someone tell me their book that might be a bit quirky instead of the “˜best’ lists that often focus on literary merit more than enjoyability.
  • Audible has their Best of 2014 – which also has a short video and includes a number of categories, like best narration, listener favorites, and several book category lists.

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Why I Wrote Another Book About Grace

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Welcome Bob Santos. I asked him to talk about the reason he wrote yet another book about Grace. His new book, The Divine Progression of Grace ““ Blazing a Trail to Fruitful Living will be free on Kindle this weekend, but you can buy it now.

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Try doing a web search for books about grace and you will find dozens of titles””many of them by well-known authors. It makes a person wonder why anyone would consider writing yet another book about grace. Haven’t we already said all that needs to be said? In short, the answer is a definitive no.

I’ve been involved with various facets of Christian ministry for well over twenty years, and I still find a lot of people are confused about grace. Based on some recent trends, the problem is probably as bad now as it’s ever been.

“œBut,” a person might wonder, “œdoes our understanding of grace really matter all that much?” Absolutely!

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Unbroken: A Movie Review

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Once upon a time, I used to work as a denominational staff person (13 years ago) and was ordained. I must still be on some clergy mailing lists because I was invited to a clergy and ministry leaders advance showing of the upcoming movie Unbroken (releases Dec 25).

I really thought that Unbroken was an important book to read, and Bookwi.se has three separate reviews of it because it is one of those books that you just want to tell people about.

However the story is hard. This is a subject matter that you can’t enjoy, although you want to tell everyone about it.

I am not going to worry about spoilers here, this is a movie based on history and a best selling book. (I am using Wikipedia to supplement my memory of the specifics of the history.) I am sure there will be some that walk into the movie with no background, but I doubt that is true of many.

If you do not want to read spoilers, know that the movie is very well done, but I do have a few quibbles. For those that willing, keep reading.

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Scribd: A Review

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Over the past three weeks I have been using Scribd, a subscription ebook service, similar to Kindle Unlimited and Oyster. While not perfect, this is the first of the subscription services that I have seriously considering keeping the subscription after the trial.

All of the subscription ebook services have similar prices $8.99 or $9.99, all have a few hundred thousand books and a good bit of overlapping content. But there are differences.

First, Scribd and Oyster have some major publishers. Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited is primarily self published books and smaller publishers, but both Oyster and Scribd have books from 3 of the 5 major publishing houses. Much of the newest content is not there, but the back list (about a year or so old) is here and has much worth reading.

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A Farewell to Mars: An Evangelical Pastor’s Journey Toward the Biblical Gospel of Peace by Brian Zahnd

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Takeaway: Very few take Jesus seriously when he about having a different type of kingdom.

As American Christians have started looking again at their eschatology (view of the end times) and moving away from dispensationalism, more Christians are starting to see that the implications of their eschatology affect many areas of their Christian life.

For instance, a number of Christians have adopted a more nuanced position on ecological issues after rejecting the traditional Dispensational idea that the physical earth was simply waiting to be destroyed as punishment for the sins of the world.  So if the earth was not condemned, then God’s command to be stewards of the earth in Genesis might still be a present command.

Brian Zahnd began re-evaluating his support of war (after originally supporting the first Gulf war and then the wars after 9/11) in response to a new look at Jesus’ words in the Gospels.  Repeatedly throughout the book, in one way or another, Zahnd asks, “What if Jesus really meant what he said.”

For Christians that really try to take scripture seriously, this is a deeply disturbing question.  It is hard not to think that Zahnd has a real point if you have heard just a few sermons from the Sermon on the Mount.  We tend to spiritualize the Sermon on the Mount, not put it into practice.

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The Butterfly and the Stone by Dan Mayhew

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I am reposting this 2011 review because the Kindle edition is $2.99.
The Butterfly and the StoneSummary: Whether you have a prodigal child, were a prodigal child or know a prodigal child, this books on the heart break of loving a prodigal and what it teaches us about God loving us is a must read.

Right up front I have to disclose that I know Dan Mayhew (the author) and his wife Jody.  I have been aware of the roots of what this book is talking about for the past decade or so since I first met them.  I have not ever met their son, but I have frequently prayed for him and the family.

So maybe I am tainted in my opinion, but the reality of a parent writing about their love of a child, and the corresponding pain of watching a child struggle through bad decisions, addiction, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (after serving in Iraq), homelessness, suicide attempts, etc., is powerful stuff.

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Start of the Best of the Year Lists

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I love reading through best of the year Book lists to see what I missed. I tend to read a lot of books that are a few years old and not that many that are brand new. So rarely have I read more than a handful of any of the best of the year lists. Instead I use them to add to my wish lists and pick them up in the future.

So far I have noticed four “˜Best of 2014′ lists. Let me know in the comments if you have come across others.

  • Goodreads Best Books of 2014 – this is a reader choice award list with over 3 million votes cast. It tends to be a bit of a popularity contest but still interesting. It also has a lot of different categories and includes the nominations not just the top books.
  • Huffington Post Books Best of 2014 – this is from the editors of the Huffington Post Books section. It includes Lila, which is my book of the year
  • Bookriot.com’s Best of 2014 – Bookriot is a very good Book oriented website. The contributors have a best of list and are asking readers to contribute their best books of the year.
  • Amazon’s Editor’s 100 Best of 2014 – Amazon will have a best selling of 2014 later, but this is the editor’s choice list.  The book of the year is Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng. I picked it up and am half way through it.  I understand the choice but I am having a hard time making it through. It is a very sad and tragic book.

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