Stopping to Think

  Christian Ethics: Contemporary Issues and Options by Norman L. Geisler My rating: 3 of 5 stars The first section, laying out various ethical systems, is helpful and clear. The second section, less so. The appendices on drugs and birth control were virtually worthless in terms of argumentation and intellectual rigor. But I'll probably keep the book as a reference for that first section. The prose is accessible and clear. View all my reviews

  Ernest Hemingway on Writing by Larry W. Phillips My rating: 4 of 5 stars Lucid, clear, if somewhat idiosyncratic, advice. As it is drawn from his work and letters across his career, it's interesting to see how his opinions develop or stiffen in certain areas. It was fun and easy to read. I also have a feeling that Hemingway would have hated it. View all my reviews

  Anxious People by Fredrik Backman My rating: 4 of 5 stars 4.5ish. Backman's writing is worth five stars, his ability to take you inside the skin of each of the characters and laugh and cry and feel queasy under the skin right with each of them is simply brilliant. This story wasn't as strong as the others I've read from him, which is why I bring it back down to a four. That said, I couldn't put it down (almost literally) for the final 120 pages. "It just hurts so much at times, being human." (98) "Limes seemed to be such a popular adornment at apartment viewings that it's tempting to think that if real estate agents were banned, the surface of the earth would become covered with such a thick layer of limes that only young people with very small knives and an inexplicable fondness for Mexican beer would survive." (129) "When snow arrives autumn has already done all the work, taking care of all the leaves and carefully sweeping summer awa

Ploductivity: A Practical Theology of Tools & Wealth by Douglas Wilson My rating: 5 of 5 stars “My optimism about tools and technology is, at bottom, an optimism about the future history of the world. And that, in its turn, is an optimism that is grounded on the fact that at the darkest point of human history, God in the flesh was crucified by arrogant sinners, by all the important people. Three days after that, the Lord came back from the dead. That means the old world has been overthrown. How could that world not be overthrown? That world is dead because its only power was death, and we serve a Lord who went into death’s maw, and then came out again. That is the ultimate plot turn. That is the central fact of all human history.” (Pg 103) I’m exceedingly inclined toward the technophobia that Wilson rails against in this book. This was a helpful counterweight to my inclinations, and I’m thankful for it. It’s Wilson, so the style is breezy and a blast to read. It was written in a

The Drop Box: How 500 Abandoned Babies, an Act of Compassion, and a Movie Changed My Life Forever by Brian Ivie My rating: 3 of 5 stars The first half is the sort of navel gazing self-importance dressed up in Christian language that you'd kind of expect from a 20 something writing a memoir. The back end, especially the reflections on the ministry in South Korea and the pastor there who spearheaded it, his relationship with the gospel, and the need for grace was all quite good. View all my reviews

  Liberating Ministry from the Success Syndrome by R. Kent Hughes My rating: 5 of 5 stars Good, wise, helpful, sane. The biblical measures of success point us back to faithfulness, rather than looking at business metrics (budgets, butts, buildings, etc.). View all my reviews