Skin Tight by Carl Hiaasen

Takeaway: A summer beach read that treats Florida like a character. Purchase Links: Paperback, Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook Skin Tight is the second book by Carl Hiaasen that I have read.  The first book I read, Tourist Season, had one overlapping character, if you do not include the Miami area, which Hiaasen seems to treat like … Read more

One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic: A history of the church in the Middle Ages by Thomas Madden

Church history is complicated.  The problem with accepting complication is that some, maybe most, just ignore it.  Many others want to suggest that the complication can be easily simplified and really if you ignore the uncomfortable or difficult sections then it is easily understood.  It is only the few that want to wade through and … Read more

Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely

Takeaway: People make bad decisions, Ariely shows us why. Predictably Irrational is all about behavioral economics.  Dan Ariely, unlike most economists does not believe that people are essentially rational and able to weigh the pros and cons of decisions and make perfectly rational market-based decisions.  Instead the basic thesis of this book is that people are … Read more

Streams of Living Water: Celebrating the Great Traditions of the Faith by Richard Foster

Foster is known for a several classic Christian books, Celebration of Discipline and Prayer. These are both classics for a reason. I have also previously read his Freedom of Simplicity. This is not the classic that the first two are, but it is a good and useful in Foster’s attempt at drawing the church together. The … Read more

Boomsday by Christopher Buckley

I am a big fan of Christopher Buckley’s fiction (I have not read any of his non-fiction yet.)  No one writes better political satire than Buckley.  So far I have read Supreme Courtship (about the nomination of a TV judge to the Supreme Court) and No Way To Treat a First Lady (about a former … Read more

Different Eyes: the art of living beautifully by Steve Chalke

There are several books on virtue/character/ethics that have come out in the last couple months. I am currently reading NT Wright’s After You Believe and Tim Keller’s Prodigal God and a new biography on Bonhoeffer but Steve Chalke and Alan Mann’s book Different Eyes: The Art of Living Beautifully may be the best of the … Read more