Book Reviews

1. Reposting this 2013 review because the Kindle Edition is on sale for $1.99. (Wonder was one of my favorite books of 2013)

Summary: Middle grade fiction about a boy with significant facial deformity learning to live in the world and the world learning to live with him.

Wonder is a book I would not have picked up on my own.  In general I like young adult (teen), but do not read a lot of middle grade fiction.

But more importantly, the description discouraged me  from wanting to get started.  Another book about a sick kid that changes the way people think about the world.

Yes, this was a book about a kid that changes the way people think about the world, but it was a very good one.

Ten-year-old August (Auggie) is going to school for the first time.  It is 5th grade and a new middle school.  August has been homeschool prior to this because of the many surgeries to try and repair his body.

The first section of the book is all narrated by August. And had it stopped there, this would have been a good book about how people can feel bad when they are mistreated.  Or maybe even a good book about how a kid can overcome adversity.

What makes Wonder a great book, is the book changes narration throughout the school year.  His best friend at school, the girl that first reached out to him at school, his sister, his sister’s boyfriend, his sister’s best friend, and then August again.  The change in voice allows us to see that while August has facial deformities that make his life difficult, the love of his parents, his friends and other things make his life good.

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Summary: An astronaut believed to be dead, gets left on Mars.

My reading this past week has shaken up my best of 2014 book lists. The Martian and Unappologetic have both earned places on the list. It was a good reading week.

The Martian is another example of why we need to encourage independent authors. Andy Weir wrote and released this himself, eventually releasing it on kindle and then having it picked up by a mainstream publisher and re-releasing it and eventually earning himself a place on the New York Times best seller list.

The story is straight forward. During a dust storm on Mars, Mark Watney and the rest of the crew attempted to evacuate Mars before their ship is tipped over in the storm. Watney gets lost in the storm, and because his suit readings show that he is dead, the rest of the crew takes off without him.

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Summary: How should pastors spend their time and focus.

After re-reading Eugene Peterson’s memoir The Pastor, I looked around for something else of Peterson’s to read. I picked this up primarily because of the subtitle. I am interested in spiritual direction and wanted to get Peterson’s take on it.

There is wisdom here. Primarily, this is a book that is calling on pastors to take charge of the definition of their calling. The role of the pastor is to call people to Christ, not to primarily manage an organization.

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Summary: Georgiana and her mother travel to the US and encounter theft and murder.

Queen of Hearts came out just over a years ago. Many of the initial reviews were negative (although the average has come up since it first came out.) I went ahead and picked it up since the next book in the series has also come out.

This cozy mystery series has stalled a bit and this book while not horrible, did not move the broader story along at all.

Georgiana’s mother decided to try to go to the US to get a quickie divorce so that she can marry her current man. Georgiana tags along. On the ocean liner there is a theft and maybe a murder. But a Hollywood director asks Georgiana’s mother to be in a movie (she is a well known stage actress) and so they head off to Hollywood.

As is normal, Georgiana’s secret fiancée Darcy happens to show up on the trip in pursuit of a jewel thief. Georgiana takes primary lead in solving the eventual murder (Darcy is not around for most of the main action). In several earlier books I was really irritated by Georgiana’s reticence. But she was much more forceful and present in this book.  So that is a move in the right direction.

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Summary: A look at how Mr Rogers communicated his countercultural Christianity through his life and tv show.

I am a big fan of Mr Rogers. Part of what made me pick up this book was a desire to re-connect with the peacefulness of Mr Rogers for my children. My daughter is just old enough that she is starting to pay attention to TV and enjoys the cartoon adaptation of Daniel Tiger. It didn’t hurt that I picked up the book while it was on sale.

Peaceful Neighbor explores Mr Rogers pacifism in two parts. The first is the direct understand of pacifism as being against war and violence. This is explored through looking at Mr Roger’s personal history as well as how he dealt with war and violence on the TV show and how in later years of the Gulf War and post 9/11 he was politically active in small ways.

The second section is a look at peace in other ways, including Mr Rogers understanding of racism, hunger, gay rights, environmentalism and his personal vegetarianism.

I found much of the book interesting as an abstract understanding of Mr Rogers as a liberal mainline Christian. That may seem dismissive, but it is not intended to be. Many liberal mainline Christians do not spend their whole lives living out their ideals. In many ways Mr Rogers is one of the best spokespersons for Christianity of the late 20th century. Many, many people know he was an ordained minister. Many people have commented about he real love of the other and how he cared for those around him.

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Summary: An conversion story that stumbles with long digressions into particular styles of worship and other minor issues of Christian life.

I first heard of the Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert when Seth Simmons (a Bookwi.se contributor) reviewed it here. But it wasn’t long after that that there was a minor controversy at my college alma mater (Wheaton) when she was invited to speak.

Students protested her chapel because they understood her conversion story (as told in this book) as prescriptive of how all gay Christians should respond. And I have to say, after reading the book, I agree, it sounds proscriptive at many points

Reading generously, Butterfield, in a response to the students at the Gospel Coalition blog pointed  out what she believes are three unbiblical (but widely held positions) on homosexuality. The first is the Freudian position (morally neutral but a fixed part of personal make up and identity.) The second is the revisionist heresy (asserting that previous understanding of Christianity against homosexuality is wrong and that the bible does not prohibit monogamous homosexual relationships, i.e. Gay marriage). The third is the reparative therapy heresy (asserting that the primary method of resolving homosexuality is to assert heterosexuality, i.e. pray the Gay away.)

But it did not really define what her understanding of the right understanding was, because essentially this story is the story of how this third option worked for her. In the comments of the TGC article, several suggested that the students were not advocating these three positions either, but ‘clarifying that not all Christians with same-sex attraction expunge them. It was about demonstrating that there are students on campus who will come alongside fellow students struggling to reconcile their attractions with their faith.’

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