Gosh, I love books... I read constantly. I'm currently in the middle of several.
What were the best books you read in 2009? What are the books you're looking forward to in 2010?
For some reason, this was the year of the memoir for me. I love reading first-person accounts of life, especially ones in which people change and grow… in one direction or another. It’s the process that fascinates me.
- CRAZY FOR GOD – Frank Schaeffer (Francis’s son’s journey away from Evangelicalism.)
- A MILLION MILES IN A THOUSAND YEARS - Donald Miller (A great memoir about "editing" his life - turning his book "Blue Like Jazz" into a screenplay - and what it taught him about living the best story.)
- SAME KIND OF DIFFERENT AS ME – Ron Hall (Homeless man and art dealer become friends, lives changed.)
- SON OF A PREACHER MAN – Jay Bakker (Jim & Tammy’s boy tells all.)
- THE UNLIKELY DISCIPLE – Kevin Roose (Agnostic undercover at Liberty U.)
- BEAUTIFUL BOY – David Scheff (Meth addiction from a dad’s perspective.)
- TWEAK – Nic Scheff (David’s son’s perspective. Read this one second.)
- THE YEAR OF LIVING BIBLICALLY – A.J. Jacobs (Esquire writer attempts to live by every command in the Bible for a year.)
I really appreciated these books as well:
- LOVE IS AN ORIENTATION – Andrew Marin (Elevating the Conversation between the Church and the LGBT community. I wrote about it here.)
- DEEP CHURCH – Jim Belcher (Finding a “Third Way” between Evangelicals and Emergent.)
- THE BLUE PARAKEET – Scot McKnight (How do we read the Bible. And how does that apply to women in ministry?)
- THE NEW CHRISTIANS – Tony Jones (Kind of a memoir. This is Tony’s history of Emergent.)
- THE NEXT EVANGELICALISM - Soong-Chan Rah. (Really helpful and eye-opening book on how the Church in America is enslaved by white, Western culture. I wrote about it here.)
In fiction, I really loved
Tell me about the books YOU loved... What should I read next?
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7 comments:
I always LOVE to hear what people enjoy reading, and I love to "steal" their book list!
I'd have to agree with you on Love is an Orientation, Deep Church, and Same Kind of Different as Me. I own McKnight's Blue Parakeet but haven't read it yet.
Same Kind of Different As Me was loaned to me by mp pastor, without realizing that it would impact me so much. Looking back I don't know why it impacted me so much, except that the way he described his wife dying of cancer was just a bit too familiar and brought back too many memories of watching my brother die of cancer in my home. It was painful. I so disliked that book and yet at the same time, loved it and recommend it now to everyone, (but I've yet to own it or re-read it) It was GOOD.
My favorites? That's so tough!
I enjoyed Crazy Love by Francis Chan, Counterfeit Gods by Timothy Keller, The Prodigal God also by Keller, Trust Agents by Chris Brogan, Chasing Francis by Ian Cron, The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns, The Gravedigger files by Os Guinness and right now I'm finishing up Malcom Gladwell's What the Dog Saw and Superfreakonomics by Levitt and Dubner.
It's really hard to pinpoint favorites; I love all my books!
Thanks for your list!
Hi Victoria... Oh, I liked Crazy Love as well...
Yeah, SKODAM... It's about homelessness and awareness and then it has this huge thing about dying... two threads...Tough to read. I'm sorry to hear about your brother.
I've been wanting to read the Keller books. I enjoyed The Reason for God.
I really liked Same Kind of Different As Me. Also The Hole in Our Gospel. Usually I just read fiction but Gretchen G gave me these two to read.
Haven't read The Hole in Our Gospel. I'll have to put it on the list for 2010.
Matt,
It is by Richard Stearns, the President of World Vision. It really is eye opening as to the need and the obligation to help others. It made me a fan and a contributor to World Vision.
Chris
I just finished The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (fiction) and LOVED it...such a unique writing style and persepective on Nazi Germany.
Haven't heard of that one, Wendy... I'll have to check it out.
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