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Birmingham Revolution: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Epic Challenge to the Church by Edward Gilbreath

January 15, 2018 by Adam Shields

Reposting this 2015 review because the Kindle Edition is currently on sale for $3.99. Also on sale is Gilbreath’s earlier book, Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical’s Inside View of White Christianity . Also a number of other IVP books on race are also on sale for $3.99: Race and Place: How Urban Geography Shapes the Journey to Reconciliation by David P. Leong, Beyond Colorblind: Redeeming Our Ethnic Journey, Roadmap to Reconciliation: Moving Communities into Unity, Wholeness and Justice, The Heart of Racial Justice: How Soul Change Leads to Social Change,

Summary: King’s Letters from a Birmingham Jail as well as the whole Birmingham campaign still have something to say to the modern church.

I have known about this book since it came out. The author is the brother in law of a friend of mine and we have several other mutual friends, although I have never met him. But like many books on difficult subjects, I found one reason or another to not pick it up.

But after re-reading King’s Letter From a Birmingham Jail this past MLK day, I decided it was time to stop delaying. And I am glad that I did.

Edward Gilbreath is a journalist, editor at Christianity Today, founding editor of Urban Faith magazine and has worked with Promise Keepers and other Evangelical organizations or magazines. So it is helpful that this is not an abstract history of the Birmingham campaign and exploration of the content of the Letter from Birmingham Jail, but also a personal reflection both as an African American and an Evangelical.

I have found that reading the history of Civil Rights in the US is more effective when told in the first person. Carolyn Maull McKinstry’s memoir of her life during and after the Birmingham campaign would not have had nearly the power if it was just talking about the 16th Street church bombing. It had power because it talked about the bombing of a church and the death of her four friends in a bathroom that she had just walked out of right before the bomb went off and her life as a survivor after that point.

Gilbreath does not insert himself into the narrative, like me he was too young to have lived through it. But he does interview a number of people that did live through it and he reflects not only on how he is inspired or how things have changed (or not changed) since then, but also how he is challenged.

Birmingham Revolution revolves around the Letter From a Birmingham Jail, but it is also a larger history to give context to the letter. King was the author and face of the Birmingham campaign, but he was not the leader. King was reluctant and against the children’s marches. But those children’s marches, along with the publicity that came from news coverage and King’s own national appeal to the church in the Letter From a Birmingham Jail were a real turning point in Civil Rights.

All The Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy

July 13, 2017 by Adam Shields

Summary: Beautifully written tragic story of desire for what cannot be.

Cormac McCarthy is a spare writer. Lots of detail and almost poetic language. But this is an introvert’s book. The characters talk, but there is no extra meandering dialogue. Dialogue has purpose.

McCarthy seems ideally suited to write about the idealized lone western male. His characters are self-sufficient, hard, tragic, honest to a fault, do not expect anyone to help them, but want to help others if they can.

In All the Pretty Horses (I have not seen the movie, so I do not know how it compares), John Grady Cole leaves home at 16 with his best friend. After his parent’s divorce, his mother wants nothing to do with ranch life and his father is left without a ranch (or anything else). He can give John nothing that he wants or needs. John and Rawlins (17) head to Mexico to see if they can find the rancher’s life that they seek.

Along the way, Jimmy Blevins, a 13 or 14 year old run away and troublemaker, joins up with them. Cole as the leader of the group allows Blevins to join them because it is clear that Blevins can not care for himself. Cole knows he will regret the decision and the theme is set with the Cole’s wise word:

“Every dumb thing I ever done in my life there was a decision I made before that got me into it. It was never the dumb thing. It was always the choice I made before it.”

Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace

December 1, 2023June 6, 2017 by Adam Shields

Summary: We should give not out of obligation but out of appreciation for what God has given to us. Forgiveness is a particular type of giving, but it is even more important that we offer forgiveness to one another because we need forgiveness and because God has forgiven us. This is a hard book to … Read more

Beautiful Ruins: A Novel by Jess Walter

April 20, 2017 by Adam Shields

I am reposting this 2014 review because the kindle version is on sale for $1.99 today only as one of the kindle deals of the day. There are a number of books on sale today that are worth looking at.
Summary: A beautifully written love story(ies) that spans 50 years. Refreshingly, it is more focused on adult commitment than personal fulfillment.

Beautiful Ruins has had a lot of hype. It was nominated for two Audie Awards in 2013, it was NPR’s Fresh Air’s books of the Year, and Esquire Book of the Year, and a New York Times #1 Best Seller.

I alternated between Kindle and Audiobook (with more time in the audiobook.) Edoardo Ballerini was a perfect narrator. His Italian sounded perfect (although I have zero ability to really evaluate it.)

Beautiful Ruins weaves together a number of stories. It starts with a young Italian inn owner in 1962 and a mysterious American actress that comes to his out of the way inn as a guest. It moves to a modern story of a movie producer and his assistant. It mixes in a number of storylines from 1962, current time and in between.

Lost History of Christianity by Philip Jenkins

February 22, 2017 by Adam Shields

The Lost History of Christianity by Philip Jenkins Book Review

Summary: At one point the church of the East was as strong, or stronger than the Church of the West, but then it started a slow decline under persecution.

Once again, with the recent comments by President Obama and the violence of ISIS, the crusades are back in the news. And it is again popular for the average person to pontificate about the history of something that they have not actually spent any time studying. Philip Jenkins is trying to solve that, or at least the problem of a lack of information.

The main focus of the The Lost History of Christianity is of the 1000 year history of the church of Asia and Africa from approximately the 4th to the 14th century.

The image on the cover is a stylized map of Jerusalem in the middle with the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa proceeding from it. At one point, there was far more balance in Christianity between the three continents than what is commonly understood today.

In the 4th century the great councils ruled on how to understand the divinity of Christ. The ‘winners’ of that fight we now call orthodox and the losers we call ‘heretics’. But everyone did not simply adopt the creed. Much (but not all) of the Eastern church continued to identify with what we now call the Monophysite heresy. These Christians are now called Oriental Orthodox (as opposed to Eastern Orthodox who did accept Nicaea) or Nestorians. They believe that Jesus Christ has one nature, not two, and was wholly divine. Modern scholars do not find as much difference between the two camps as might be assumed and so Jenkins wants to keep the understanding of them as Christian on the table.

Till We Have Faces by CS Lewis

February 12, 2017 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: A story of regret and complaint, joy and pain. Much like the story of many of us.

As regular readers of this blog well know, I have been intentionally reading a lot of CS Lewis for about 18 months. Lewis is an icon of Christian literature. And there are few that can compete with the breadth of his work, from apologetics, to memoir, to children’s literature, to serious adult fiction, to serious academic work, to contemporary essays.

I first read Till We Have Faces nearly three years ago before this most recent reading. I liked it much more this time. I think I both understand Lewis and have more context than the previous reading and I think I probably read the book better.

Till We Have Faces is a retelling of the story of Cupid and Psyche from the perspective of one of Psyche’s sisters. I didn’t really know the story of Cupid and Psyche before, and so I intentionally read several things about it before I re-read this to make sure I have the basics of the story in my head.

Books and Cuture had a good review by John McWhorter of a book on the history of jazz. The thing that has really stuck with me is McWhorter’s comments about a 1957 Looney Tune cartoon that riffed off of the three little pigs story with jazz musicians.

What McWhorter notes is that in order to understand the “˜Three Little Bops’ cartoon, the audience had to understand the original story of the three little pigs. And similarly, when jazz was popular music, the jazz solo was riffing off of a known melody and song. But as jazz has become a more “˜classical form’ it has taken more work to understand the original musical stories that are currently being riffed off of.

Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker Palmer

January 9, 2017 by Adam Shields

Over the past several months I have started meeting with a spiritual director. This is a result of reading the Church of England series and several books on spiritual direction. Since I clearly process through reading and writing about what I read, my spiritual director suggested I read something by Parker Palmer in part because I have such problem integrating the formalized Benedictine spirituality that I keep trying to move toward. (If you can’t do it, try the opposite Quaker spiritual thought.)

So I started by listening to the audiobook of Palmer’s classic Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation.

Palmer’s idea that we do not always consciously know what we unconsciously speak of or our body unconsciously does follows the findings of behavior economics quite well.

Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

December 23, 2016 by Adam Shields

Summary: Beautiful, tragic story of a temporary utopia that can never last.

Just over a year ago I listened to a short audiobook by Ann Patchett about marriage. Since then I have wanted to read one of her longer fiction books.

But the descriptions of the books kept putting me off. Her first book, the Patron Saint of Liars is about a home for unwed mothers. Run is about a father trying to keep his children safe, The Magician’s Assistant is about widow who finds her former husband had a secret life. All of her books seem to be about tragic subjects.

This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett

November 21, 2016 by Adam Shields

Summary: A series of essays that shows why short form writing is still worth reading.

I am a sucker for a free book. A couple years ago, Audible gave away a the title essay of this book as a Christmas present to its members. That was the first time I had read anything by Ann Patchett. You can read that original review on Bookwi.se. Since then I have been interested in Patchett’s writing. I loved Bel Canto and I have been wanting to pick this complete volume up for a while.

Like most of my recent reading, I listened to the audiobook, with Patchett narrating.

Patchett starts the book with an introduction about how as a young novelist, she had to make a living. She tried a variety of jobs, which left her too tired to write, and a then teaching, which left her creatively drained. So she became a freelance essayist for a variety of magazines, starting with 17 and working her way up to the New York Times.

The introduction and several very good essays about advice for writers or her writing life, or the state of books that lead to her becoming co-owner of an independent bookstore were probably my favorite, in spite of the fact that I have never considered myself a writer nor do I aspire to become one in the future. But I am interested in the creative process and Patchett is unabashed in her advice and not afraid to talk about the areas that she thinks she has done well or done poorly.

The Second Coming: A Novel by Walker Percy

November 18, 2016 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: Evidently I am old enough to understand and appreciate mid-life crisis books.

Recently I have decided that I need to read more 20th-century literary fiction. My education missed out on that entire century. And I also have been interested in the Catholic writers that were so popular in the mid to late 20th century.

Walker Percy has been republished by Open Road and has books easily available on Kindle (and from Lendle.me).

I didn’t realize when I started (and I don’t think it makes much of a difference) but The Second Coming is follow-up to The Last Gentleman. (I will get back and read that at some point.)

Will Barrett is middle aged, retired early, wealthy, and recently, a widower. This is a classic mid-life crisis book, one that I don’t think I would have appreciated as much as I do now even five years ago.

Allison is a young woman that has recently escaped from a mental hospital. She is schizophrenic, daughter of an old flame of Will’s, fabulously talented, but unable to cope with much of normal life.

Most of the book centers around Will Barrett’s internal drama. He is focused on the meaning of life, whether there is a God (and how God can be proved) and Barrett’s own history. Barrett’s (like Percy) father committed suicide when Will was a teen. Coupled with Barrett’s health problems, which are slowly revealed throughout the book, his thoughts take over his life.