League of Inveterate Poets

Posted By Foolish Sage on December 7, 2009

In no particular order, here is my list of the best books I read during this past year

The Sacredness of Questioning Everything – David Dark
Definitely the one book with the most profound effect on me this year. Dark says not only is it not damaging to a life of faith to question everything, it is necessary to do so if that faith is to have any reality. Also an entertaining read, with references to art, literature, music, and pop culture on nearly every page.

The Unlikely Disciple – Kevin Roose
A non-Christian Brown University student takes a year to go “undercover” as a student at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University. As a Liberty alum who has very much left behind the “Liberty Way,” I found the outsider-as-insider insights fascinating. Roose even experiences a bit of Stockholm Syndrome, ending up more sympathetic to his LU classmates than he expected to be. Highlight: Roose ends up conducting what turned out to be the last interview of Falwell’s life.

The Poisonwood Bible – Barbara Kingsolver… See More
Haunting, disturbing, convicting, beautiful. Kingsolver juggles five distinct narrative voices in this three-decade family saga. A naive but zealous southern fundamentalist family goes as missionaries to a late 1950s Congo on the verge of revolution. The family serves as a metaphor for the tragedy and destructiveness of the western colonialist impulse. Read my extended review.

Manifold Witness: The Plurality of Truth – Theologian John Franke
Franke argues that an understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity allows for a diversity of belief within the unity of the creedal core of orthodoxy.

The Jesus Way – Eugene Peterson
Petereson reminds us that following Jesus is a “way” more than a belief system; a walk of suffering, humility and service. Especially interesting is that this book about Jesus spends most of its time in the Old Testament.

Traveling Mercies – Anne Lamott
Lamott has a way of finding reverence in irreverence. A collection of autobiographical essays attempting to explain how a confirmed reprobate finds herself inexplicably in love with this Jesus guy. Humorous and candid.

Snow Falling on Cedars – David Guterson
Courtroom drama/murder mystery revolving around the clash of Japanese and anglo-American cultures in an island community just after World War II. Throw in an inter-racial Romeo & Juliet and lovingly rendered descriptions of life in a small, closed community, and you have a first novel that is both a joy to read and educational as well.

The Hungry Ocean – Linda Greenlaw
Linda Greenlaw became known to the world through Sebastian Junger’s The Perfect Storm, as the fishing boat captain colleague of the ill-fated captain of the Andrea Gail. Hungry Ocean is her own telling of a less-dramatic but nonetheless intriguing typical voyage of a North Atlantic sword fishing boat. Best surprise is that Greenlaw turns out to be a pretty good writer.

Surprised by Hope – N. T. Wright
Wright is that rare intellectual who can write with equal adeptness for both scholarly and lay audiences. This book is for the latter. Wright explodes the mythology that has grown like barnacles on Christian conceptions of the afterlife. Newsflash: the destiny of Christians is not “heaven,” and it never was. Wright draws out the here-and-now implications of a full-orbed conception of Christian resurrection.

Siddhartha – Herman Hesse
A highly poetic saga of an Indian man’s quest for spiritual integrity. Points at common elements of spiritual journeying that transcend particular religions and practices.

The Damnation of Theron Ware – Harold Frederick
Cautionary tale about the dangers of pride and hubris, as well as the sorrow that results from rejecting one’s community for what we would today call “self-actualization.” Theron Ware is a young, charismatic, promising Methodist minister at the close of the 19th century. Burned by being passed over for a more prominent church assignment, he latches on to a secret intellectual society comprised of a Catholic priest, an amateur scientist, and a wealthy but bored heiress, and seems willing to sell his soul to gain their admiration and acceptance.

Category: It`s All About Me
Tags: books, Literature, reviews