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Book Reviews

Book Reviews,

Culture Making, by Andy Crouch

My friend Brenda Salter-McNeil recommended that I read Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling.  She added, “I can’t wait to hear what you think about it.” Well Brenda, here you go.

This is a fabulous book. Regular readers of this blog know that I only post book reviews on this “main” page if I feel strongly about the book. And Culture Making certainly qualifies.

Crouch calls Christians to be culture makers. The complexities of culture are explored with broad but sensible descriptions, and then the recent  impact the Church has had on our culture is unpacked. The result is …

Book Reviews,

Twenty Five Books That Influenced My Life – #18

Perhaps you read my post about Interruptions and wondered where those ideas came from.  Glad you asked, because that brings me to The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. This little book has meant a lot to me over the years. The gist of the book is straightforward: you can find God’s presence in every moment of your life no matter what you might be doing. Big project or little project, daydreaming or praying, work or rest, church or hard labor, God’s presence can be found if you just continually keep your focus on Him.

Now, …

Book Reviews,

Twenty Five Books That Influenced My Life – #19

Catch 22. It’s all you have to say to explain a ridiculous situation that is created by contradictory rules.

The phrase comes from the classic book Catch 22 by Joseph Heller. The book is set in Italy during World War II where the main character, Yossarian, is a bombardier who must fly dangerous missions. The military keeps raising the number of missions he must fly to complete his service, which frustrates him. The problem is that a man is considered insane if he willingly continues to fly missions. He’s considered sane if he requests not to fly those missions, …

Book Reviews, Junkyard Management,

Twenty Five Books That Influenced My Life – #20

If you read this blog you know that I grew up working in my father’s junkyard. Many of the people who worked for my Dad were Mexican-American. Spanish was spoken as often — perhaps more often — than English.

My point is that I spent a lot of time around people of Mexican heritage when I was growing up.

Several years ago I picked up a copy of The Tortilla Curtain by T.C. Boyle. It sat on my end table for a long time before I finally got around to reading it. I probably kept putting it off because …

Book Reviews,

Reading List

The first quarter of the year is about to close so it’s time to share my updated reading list. There are 31 books on the list, which stuns me because it’s even faster than the 2011 pace. Honestly, I would have said I was reading less this year! Maybe the books are shorter.

Well, whatever the explanation, here are the books with a very short comment about each one.

Good Strategy Bad Strategy, by Richard Rumelt.  One of the better strategy books I’ve read in a long time.

The Barbarian Conversion, by Richard Fletcher.  Thick and …

Book Reviews, Family,

The Genealogy of my Barbarian Conversion

A few years ago I was reading a book about the spread of Christianity across Europe, and a reference was made to the book The Barbarian Conversion: From Paganism to Christianity by Richard Fletcher. I ordered it and was stunned by the magnitude of the book: over 500 pages of detailed history about how Christianity took hold in Europe. The book has sat on my nightstand a long time because it was so intimidating and I didn’t know if I wanted to plunge into it!

Then I had a thought: maybe this book could shed light on when my own …

Book Reviews,

Twenty Five Books That Influenced My Life – #21

The first time I heard Tony Campolo preach was in chapel at Westmont College.  I fell out of my chair laughing at his irreverence, passion, and incredible sense of humor. That he was preaching a message of justice, love for others, and concern for the poor resonated even more deeply for me.

About a decade later I picked up a copy of The Kingdom of God is a Party and found myself laughing once again. Tony is an incredible storyteller and has a knack for weaving humor into spiritual insights. Like most of Tony’s books, Kingdom is a collection of …

Book Reviews,

Don’t Get Me Wrong!

If you travel internationally you might consider picking up a copy of the bookDon’t Get Me Wrong!: The Global Gestures Guide by Julia Grosse and Judith Reker. It’s a book of photographs showing various hand gestures from around the world and it is ideal for the global jet setter. Or just somebody going on vacation to a new country. Who knows, maybe it will save you from an embarrassing cross-cultural communication mistake!

Each page shows a photograph of a models hand in a different gesture. The opposite page explains what it means, followed by the countries where it has …