Booknote: My Year in Books (2024)
When I finish reading or listening to a book, I add it to my annual “books read” list. My 2024 list is at the end of this post.
READING HIGHLIGHTS
One of the first books I purchased after becoming a teaching elder in 1985 was John Stott’s exceptional book on preaching, Between Two Worlds. Several times he referenced Anglican minister Charles Simeon, who served Holy Trinity Church in Cambridge, England from 1782-1836. Hundreds of future ministers, missionaries, and chaplains sat under his ministry and his influence was felt throughout the world. To learn more about him, I purchased Hugh Evan Hopkin’s Charles Simeon of Cambridge and began what has become a forty-year interest in his life, ministry, and sermons. Late this year I reread Hopkins’ account of this inspirational life and heartily recommend it to any who cherish an evangelical ministry.
I wish all parents, church leaders, and educators would take the time to read Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness. With analysis grounded in the careful study of sociological and mental health data, he demonstrates the adverse consequences on children of the decline of play-based childhood and the emergence of smart phones and social media. His action steps merit our consideration.
As a pastor, I have come alongside both 20-somethings and older congregants who struggle for vocational clarity. Could one of the reasons be that pastors, churches, and parents have failed to speak sufficiently to our youth about this vital topic? William Boekestein offers valuable counsel to young Christians, parents, pastors, youth leaders, and educators who want to think biblically about their vocations in Finding My Vocation: A Guide for Young People Seeking a Calling.
Recognizing that many young men don’t have the benefit of counsel from older men, Ron Klein provides sage advice in Grandson Conversations. Fifty brief chapters, each two pages, provide practical wisdom on a wide range of issues, including personal character, educational and vocational choices, personal finances, decision-making, time management, and relationships. Although the target audience is young men, both young men and women will be helped by this book, as will parents looking for practical advice on how to speak with their children on matters critical to their maturity.
In our devotions, Lynne and I completed Jewels from John Newton: Daily Readings from the Works of John Newton, published by Banner of Truth. As a minister engaged in the care of souls, I found much practical wisdom for life and ministry – just what one expects from John Newton.
In Empowered Witness: Politics, Culture, and The Spiritual Mission of the Church, Alan Strange explores Princeton theologian Charles Hodge’s articulation of the doctrine of the spirituality of the church within the context of the greatest political and moral question of the 19th century, namely, race-based chattel slavery. Today our nation and its churches are subject to deep political divisions. For some Christian leaders, the path forward is for the institutional church to be politically active on a wide range of issues, so much so that one is left to wonder if everything is political. Other leaders advocate a hands-off approach to anything that touches upon politics. Empowered Witness maps out for the church a better way – one that is faithful to the church’s spiritual mission and its prophetic witness.
I remember in May of 1980 (the month I graduated from college), British special forces launched a lightning-fast operation to rescue hostages held in the Iranian embassy in London. No one who watched the news coverage will forget the SAS team abseiling down the embassy wall. Ben Macintyre tells this story vividly in The Siege: A Six-Day Hostage Crisis and the Daring Special-Forces Operation That Shocked the World. The book describes the turmoil in the Middle East, the Thatcher government’s handling of crisis, the relationship that developed between the hostages and hostage takers, and the role of television in a national emergency. All of this took place while Americans were held hostage in the American embassy in Tehran and soon after the failed special forces’ attempt to rescue them.
Glen Scrivener’s The Air We Breathe: How We Came to Believe in Freedom, Kindness, Progress, and Equality contends that many of the values we Westerners take for granted as universal “have been deeply and distinctively shaped by the Jesus-revolution (otherwise known as ‘Christianity’).” Indeed, he claims, “Christianity is the air we breathe.” One of my favorite podcasters, Tom Holland of “The Rest Is History,” writes that, “it is not necessary to be a Christian to appreciate the force of Scrivener’s argument in this punchy, engaging and entertaining book.”
As the last Christian public intellectual to earn widespread admiration in the United States, the writings of C. S. Lewis are worthy of study. So, also is the culture that eagerly purchased and read his works. In C.S. Lewis in America: Readings and Reception, 1935-1947, Mark Knoll gives us insight into the relationship between Lewis and his American readers. I also appreciate the extended treatment Noll gives to the reactions of confessional Presbyterians to Lewis’s work.
MY 2024 READING LIST
- Carl R. Trueman, Strange New World: How Thinkers and Activists Redefined Identity and Sparked the Sexual Revolution
- Jim Davis and Michael Graham, The Great Dechurching: Who’s Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back?
- David Grann, The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder
- David B. Calhoun, Swift and Beautiful: The Amazing Stories of Faithful Missionaries
- Gail Honeyman, Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
- Joseph Epstein, The Novel: Who Needs It?
- Douglas Brunt, The Mysterious Case of Rudolph Diesel: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I.
- Tara Isabella Burton, Self-Made: Creating Our Identities from Da Vinci to the Kardashians
- J.V. Fesko, Where Wisdom is Found: Christ in Ecclesiastes
- Colin Hansen, Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation
- Mark A. Knoll, C.S. Lewis in America: Readings and Reception, 1935-1947
- Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
- James M. Garretson, Princeton and Preaching: Archibald Alexander and the Christian Ministry
- Daniel Baker, A Plain and Scriptural View of Baptism
- Abigail Shrier, Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren’t Growing Up
- Glen Scrivener, The Air We Breathe: How We Came to Believe in Freedom, Kindness, Progress, and Equality
- Charles Portis, True Grit
- Jonathan Freedland, The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World
- Jonathan Haidt, The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness
- Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave
- Kevin DeYoung, Impossible Christianity: Why Following Jesus Does Not Mean You Have to Change the World, Be an Expert in Everything, Accept Spiritual Failure, and Feel Miserable Pretty Much All the Time
- John Newton, Jewels from John Newton: Daily Readings from the Works of John Newton (selected by Miller Ferrie)
- John Currie, The Pastor as Leader: Principles and Practices for Connecting Preaching and Leadership
- Alan D. Strange, Empowered Witness: Politics, Culture, and The Spiritual Mission of the Church
- Joseph Epstein, Never Say You Have Had a Lucky Life: Especially If You’ve Had a Lucky Life
- Mike Stanton, Unbeaten: Rocky Marciano’s Fight for Perfection in a Crooked World
- Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
- R.A. Finlayson, The Cross in the Experience of Our Lord
- Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor, updated and abridged by Tim Cooper
- The Bible
- David McCullough, 1776
- Erik Larson, The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War
- David McCullough, John Adams
- Amor Towles, The Lincoln Highway
- Frederick Forsyth, The Day of the Jackal
- Chad & Emily Van Dixhoorn, Gospel Shaped Marriage: Grace for Sinners to Love Like Saints
- Alan Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country
- Jeremy Linneman, Why Do We Feel Lonely at Church?
- R.A. Finlayson, The Story of Theology
- Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Whole Christ: Legalism, Antinomianism, and Gospel Assurance — Why the Marrow Controversy Still Matters
- Allen Levi, Theo of Golden
- Megan Basham, Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda
- Tim Cooper, When Christians Disagree: Lessons from the Fractured Relationship of John Owen and Richard Baxter
- Nancy French, Ghosted: An American Story
- Clare Carlisle, George Eliot’s Double Life
- William Boekestein, Finding My Vocation: A Guide for Young People Seeking a Calling
- Chris Moles, The Heart of Domestic Abuse: Gospel Solutions for Men Who Use Control and Violence in the Home
- Jonathan Eig, Ali: A Life
- Richard John Neuhaus, Dispensations: The Future of South Africa as South Africans See It
- Charles Portis, The Dog of the South
- Ben Macintyre, The Siege: A Six-Day Hostage Crisis and the Daring Special-Forces Operation That Shocked the World
- Sinclair B. Ferguson, Devoted to God: Blueprints for Sanctification
- David Brooks, How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen
- Ben Macintyre, A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal
- Paul Bloom, Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion
- Marjory Bonar (ed.), The Diary and Life of Andrew A. Bonar
- John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress (part 1)
- Rebecca Skloot, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
- Jordan Stone, A Communion of Love: The Christ-centered Spirituality of Robert Murray M’Cheyne
- Thomas Davis, God is God and You are You: Finding Confidence for Sharing Our Faith
- Ron Klein, Grandson Conversations
- Damien Bador, Coralie Potot, Vivien Stocker, and Dominique Vigot, The Hobbit Encyclopedia
- Claire Keegan, Small Things Like These
- James Sievewright, Alexander Stewart: A Transformed Life and Ministry
- Rico Tice, Honest Evangelism: How to talk about Jesus even when it’s tough
- Julia Yost, Jane Austen’s Darkness
- Bob Burns, Tasha D. Chapman, and Donald C. Guthrie, Resilient Ministry: What Pastors Told Us about Surviving and Thriving
- J. Mack Stiles, Evangelism: How the Whole Church Speaks of Jesus
- Hugh Evan Hopkins, Charles Simeon of Cambridge
- Susannah Clarke, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
- Cal Newport, Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment without Burnout
- Gertrude Himmelfarb, The Jewish Odyssey of George Eliot
