Maniac Magee. Jerry Spinelli.
My brother Chris is funneling his top picks of Children’s Lit my way. This one, a Newberry Award winner, was fantastic. A story about great feats and black and white coming together. Family. Energetic and free, it is one of the best books I’ve read for people under the age of 18.
The Wilberforce Connection. Clifford Hill.
Through some usual happenstance, this book sort of fell off the shelf while I was looking for another title at the public library. I’m glad it did. A very worthwhile book, needed encouragement for anyone seeking to live a vital faith and to address important social issues in our time. A look at the life, model, and influence of the Clapham saints and what their example means for us today. Read my short review here.
The Divine Conspiracy. Dallas Willard.
Here is part of my response to this book. Extremely important. Highly Earmarked and quotable. I’ve taken many notes, and am moving on to his other writing.
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Annie Dillard.
Yes. I read it again. Nourishment in a time where the spiritual fat had been in low supply.
The Pride of Baghdad. Brian K. Vaughan and illustrated by Niko Henrichon.
I went over to my older brother’s to help tile his floor. As he did a bit of prep work, I read this graphic novel, which is quite stirring. Part of me was sad that the novel, which took a year for Henrichon to illustrate, took me 15 minutes to read. Powerful, subversive with meaning.
Murder at the Cathedral, T.S. Eliot
The Writing Workshop Notebook, Alan Ziegler
A helpful and worthwhile book. Zielgler’s been at it for awhile and his perspective is fresh, directive, and useful. He suggests good workshops for the writer and for anyone responsible to help lead others in the creative writing process. Filled with ample quotes and anecdotes.
The Good News About Injustice, Gary Haugen
A book I’m glad I read. Most helpful at the end with suggestions about how average joe’s and trained professionals can address issues of injustice. Haugen has an impressive biography and an even more impressive heart in bringing justice where many look the other way.
Hearing God, Dallas Willard.
Once again Willard delivers the goods. I think the book is useful for doubters and believers on the subject of hearing God’s voice. I’m furiously writing down ear-marked pages for my ever-growing quote stash. The last two chapters are especially helpful and important.
The Road. Cormac McCarthy.
A surprise of a book to me. Sparse and beautifully descriptive, a book about an earth charred by fire and covered in ash. A boy and father, whose names we never know walk to the coast with a few supplies, waiting the moment of their death, carrying ‘the fire’ within them, trying to avoid flesh-eating bandits at all costs. I’m inspired to grow my vocabulary and touched by the tender account of the relationship between father and son.
Excerpts from the Real World. Robert Kroetsch.
I heard Kroetsch talk writing at the Red Deer College when the belated Birk Sproxton invited him to speak in one of our classes. I asked him, “How do you know when a story is finished?” He noted that it was a desperate question, which it was, then waxed eloquent, as he does in this work, with humor and randomness, and beauty. Makes me want to write good poetry.
Imperial Ambitions. Noam Chomsky
Noam Chomsky is smart. A lot of people know that. Though we differ on a few key worldview perspectives, there’s a lot to learn from him. I’m interested in what he says in Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post 9-11 World. I was particularily intrigued by David Barsamian’s interview style. It’s cool to be a fly on the wall of intelligent and important discussion.
Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession. Anne Rice.
Odd to read about 40 plus years of someone’s life in a single day from start to finish. What a position we are in as readers. I recommend it and was greatly moved in particular by her chapter describing her final return to Christ. The book really sings in this passage as she expresses the point where she was free to abandon all reservations and hesitation and go to Him.
The phrase from the book that haunts me is this:
Beyond the matrix of gilded plaster, stone, and image, there loomed the threat – the ominous and dreadful threat – of the love of Almighty God (157).
Gilead. Marilynne Robinson.
My new favourite work of fiction. I was blown away and often reduced to tears throughout the book, a father and small town minister’s letter to his young son in his dying days. Tender, exquisite, and heart-wrenching, it’s the kind of writing that almost makes me want to give up the craft, once for all, it’s that good. But I won’t. Instead I’ll be inspired by lines like these: Why do I love the thought of you old? The first twinge of arthritis in your knee is a thing I imagine with all the tenderness I felt when you showed me your loose tooth.
Read this book! (Thanks Cara for the recommendation!)
The Spirit of the Disciplines. Dallas Willard.
Another gooder from Willard. A bit dryer than some of his other writing but very important. He saved the best two chapters for last, what I think is must-reading for kids in the Kingdom.
Home. Marilynne Robinson.
Another book of weight and power by Robinson. Fascinating to peel back a few more layers and seeing the same characters in greater depth and in different light. Complete with passage that make the heart wrench and soar.
