The House of Hades by Rick Riordan (Heroes of Olympus #4)

The House of Hades by Rick Riordan (Heroes of Olympus #4)

Summary: The character continue to get deeper into the mythology and danger.

This is essentially the 9th fully book (with a couple more short story collections) of the Percy Jackson series.  This second series Rick Riordan has expanded his available mythology so that both Greek and Roman mythologies are available.  I am far outside my own depth and knowledge at this point.  That is not a problem because Riordan does not expect the reader to know everything.  But there are more and more minor figures involved in every book.

At the end of the last book, Percy and Annabeth were sucked into Tartarus (the deepest place of the underworld where the Titans and other monsters get banished).  The rest of the crew has to try to get to the door to the House of Hades to both let Percy and Annabeth out and to seal the door to keep the monsters from over running the world and to stop Gaia from waking up.

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More Best of 2013 Lists

I am all about the best of 2013 lists.  Earlier I posted Christianity Today, Goodreads and Amazon. But you may also be interested in The Gospel Coalition’s Staff’s list The New York Times 10 Best Bookriot.com Best of 2013  And also from Bookriot, 4 books that should have been read more in 2013 Huffington Post … Read more

The Case for the Psalms: Why They Are Essential by NT Wright

The Case for the Psalms by NT Wright

Takeaway: The Psalms are an important part of historic worship and the modern church needs to work to keep them apart of our current worship.

Five years ago, if you had asked me what my least favorite part of the bible is, I would have probably said the Psalms.  I might have said the lists genealogies or Numbers, but most likely I would have said Psalms.

However, The Case for the Psalms is the third book on the Psalms I have read this year and I am moving toward a greater appreciation of the role of the Psalms, not only as illustrations of the range of biblical expression but as important centers for Christian worship and theology.

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In Search of Deep Faith: A Pilgrimage by Jim Belcher

In Search of Deep Faith: A Pilgrimage into the Beauty, Goodness and Heart of ChristianitySummary: Faith is about deep understanding and devotion, not right behavior and moral understanding.

I am not sure what I was expecting when I picked up In Search of Deep Faith.  I read Deep Church about three years ago and very much enjoyed thinking through Belcher’s third way of doing church.

So I was expecting more of a church focused book when I picked this up. (Honestly when a previous book is as good as Deep Church was, I tend to pick up books and intentionally not read much about them before I start them.)

In Search of Deep Faith was a great book to read as a new father.  Belcher and his family resigned his church and moved to Oxford.  Not because he was burned out, but because he was seeking after something deeper.  And so he took a year off to seek after that deeper faith.

In context of searching for a deeper faith of his own, he and his wife were also seeking after a deeper faith for their children.  So much of the book bounces off of the idea of modern Christianity’s tendency to be more about Moral Therapeutic Deism (and Christian Smith’s study on young adults and faith is discussed several times) and not the true Christian faith.

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Amazon’s Best Books of the Year Lists

Amazon has released their Best Books of the Year Lists. Editor’s Best 100 Books (Also best selling in Literature and Fiction, Mystery, Thriller and Suspense, Romance, Cookbooks, Print Books and Kindle Books) 100 Best Kids and Teen Books (20 each in 5 different age categories) Celebrity Choices 2013 Gift Picks

The Giver by Lois Lowry

Summary: The children’s dystopian book that everyone but me has read. The Giver always makes me think of the Giving Tree.  That association has kept me from reading it all these years.  And I am too old to have read it in school myself.  But these days it is on lots of “best books for … Read more