The Enemy Within by Kris Lundgaard - Powerfull re-working of Owen's classic "Mortification of Sin in the Beliver." Blogged about the book
here.
Wendell Berry: I went on a WB reading kick this year and consumed a bunch of his works. Introduced to him by a friend who said "If you replace every use of the word 'community' in Berry's books with the word 'church,' it would revolutionize the way we do church." For an introduction to his fiction, try
Fidelity (a collection of short stories). For non-fiction, try
What are People For? Other favorites were
Hannah Coulter,
Jayber Crow, and
Citizenship Papers.
Colonel Roosevelt - Third book in a trilogy of an amazing story about an amazing man. If you want to be inspired to live life at its fullest in 2012, read all three volumes in this series. Previously blogged about the first in the series
here.
Unbroken - Many have raved about this story of an Olympic runner turned Japanese POW in WWII. His perseverance, resilience, and ultimately his ability to forgive is super human. The author's story ads an interesting layer, as she struggles with debilitating Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Vertigo,
hardly unable to even leave her bedroom at times.
How Should We Then Live? - by Francis Schaeffer. I've been a big fan of Schaeffer since being introduced to him in College. One of my seminary professors said, "Sell whatever you have, and go out today and buy his
complete works." Couldn't agree more! I try to read a little of him every year. This version includes pictures of much of the art Schaeffer analyzes in the book.
A Million Ways to Die by Rick James - Crusade staff member writes about the core of living as a Christian: dying. Simple concept, yet frustratingly difficult to live out. James is witty and quick to highlight his own failures, yet inspires with some successes as well.
The Big Rock Candy Mountain by Wallace Stegner - Introduced to Stegner through Berry's works (Berry was a "Stegner Fellow" at Stanford). Some of the finest modern literature I've read. Similar to Steinbeck in style and regional themes. Stegner's
Angle of Repose was a worthy read as well.
FamilyLife recently interviewed Marty Machowski about his book of 10 minute family devotions called The Long Story Short. Marty's goal was to make it easy for a father to lead family devotions 5 days a week. This book covers the Old Testament in 78 chapters (that's right - 78 weeks of five devotions). It's an incredibly valuable resource, as any man knows who has tried to be consistent with biblical instruction at home. Marty really does make it easy. I have a couple of friends who are using the book and it has revolutionized their approach to this time with their family. I've begun to mix in some of the readings with our family devotions and have been very pleased. You can see by the online sample that they are creative, imaginative, and biblical, and of course, most importantly, they are SHORT!
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