At the start of the year I create two distinct goals for my reading list, one is a number of books to read and the second a group of books I will prioritize reading. I set a goal that is attainable but not easily, and since I am a competitive person it pushes me to continue to read throughout the year. I also select books I am very excited to read, I intentionally space these out so that through the year I have at least one book I want to read which can be motivating when I am halfway through a book I am not enjoying but should finish. While I try to read a variety of books each year, there are four categories from which I read at least one book in the year.
A History of Religious ideas: volume 1 by Mircea Eliade
My rating: 4 stars
Despite its age this is a helpful introduction to the history of religion. There are some places that I disagreed with the author’s approach but generally this is well done. There are also places where the book feels dated, particularly in some of the early chapters that deal with religion in pre-historic cultures. Overall, this struck me as a solid introduction and worth the time for those who want to have a broader understanding of humanity’s variety in religius expression.
The First Thousand Years: a Global History of Christianity by Robert Louis Wilken
My Rating: 5 stars
This is a solid history of Christianity and might be one of my favorite general overviews. I say this because the book does a decent job at covering a wider geography than most overviews (which are usually heavily focused on the Western Church). I also thought that this book did a good job in articulating the early councils and heresies. Wilken shows where and how politics and theology were entangled and presents a picture that helps create clarify how muddled these early controversies were. Having read more about the history of women in Christianity this year, I do wish this book would have said more about that topic, but I do understand the need to be selective in writing such a generalized book. Overall,I thought it was well done and certainly a good overview of Christian history.
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
My rating: 4.5 stars
This book is high energy and almost manic at points. But the description of the characters feels as home today as it does in the 1940’s. The characters are always on the move, always searching and never finding. The characters are blissfully unaware of the loss in their lives as they continuously search for the next high One of the things I appreciated was that the characters always think they are experiencing life while they are never truly experiencing people and always believing they are running toward something when they are always running away.
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
My rating: 4 stars
The story was very well written and even if the subject is not one I would normally not read, it was interesting. I found Ishiguro”s writing style to be captivating and truly helped me picture the characters and their interactions. If you like historical fiction this is certainly a book to pick up.
Science: The Sacred Chain by Jim Stump
My Rating:4
I do not think there is anything very original in this book ( especially if you listen to his Language of God podcast) but I also do not think Dr. Stump was trying to be too original. Rather, where this book shines is in how he tells his story. Stump’s main concern is that Christians at least understand there is no inherent conflict between their faith and science. He uses his own story as the backdrop for this, demonstrating the harm that comes when Christians create a conflict instead of having the ability to listen and dialogue. I think the difficulty with this book is that few will read it with the kind of lens Stump intends. I think many will see the topics he engages and judge the worth of the book based on their preconceived ideas about those topics. This is sad because I do think Stump’s story is interesting and he certainly brings in good information, making this book enjoyable and worth the read.
The Invisible Universe by Matthew Bothwell
My rating: 5
I really liked this discussion of inferred light. Granted this book is definitely not for everyone and at times the discussion is somewhat dense, but I still found it very well presented. I did not think the book was too technical though it did go into detail about the nature of inferred light and how it is used to give us a greater understanding of the universe. I am really glad I finally got around to this one.
Bible: Women and the Gender Gender of God by Amy Peeler
My rating: 4 star
Coming from a Protestant theology, I do not often read theologies that center on Mary Jesus’ mother. But I found this theology very helpful, both in presenting a historical viewpoint of Mary and for considering how I think about God in terms of gender. There were certainly parts of this book I found very challenging but overall I found it very helpful. Peeler’s argument is that we can learn much about God by how God interacted with Mary and how the Church has historically viewed her. Overall, I this is a book that people who are serious about theology should pick up as well as the average person who wants to be more theologically literate in how they speak about God.
Flood and Fury by Matthew Lynch
My rating: 4 star
Lynch does a good job presenting the difficulties of dealing with the violent passages in the Bible. I also appreciate and resonate with his desire to read the Bible (particularly the Old Testament) through the lens of the lens of God’s divine character as revealed in Exodus 34. I also like that he is very explicit about saying that there are no easy answers to the difficulties presented by the violent texts of the Old Testament (even if we read them at a very straightforward level). Instead Lynch offers the idea that we need to approach the text from multiple angles looking for how God is present. Overall, this is a very good book on the the problem of violence in the Bible and along with Daniel Hawk’s The Violence of the Biblical God is my go to recommendation on the topic.
Why is There Suffering by Bethany N. Sollereder
My rating: 4 star
Not everyone will enjoy the “choose your own adventure” nature of this book, but I did enjoy how the implications of your thoughts impacted how you encountered the book. I first went through the book following the path that best conformed to my own ideas and then went down the other paths in order from how likely I am to agree with the premise. Overall, I thought Sollereder did a great job succinctly describing the different ideas on human suffering and how they fit together. I will probably end up recommending this to others who are starting down the path of understanding suffering.
Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self by Manoush Zomorodi
My rating: 3 stars
Overall, the book is well written and the subject matter is important. The idea is that we are too dependent on distraction– and thus electronic devices– and so missing out on the real world, including the creativity that comes from being bored. I do think there is a real problem, and I fall into it, of people looking for distraction and turning to devices to their own detriment. But I think the problem goes beyond the limited scope of the book, The more I think about this book the more I think this study addresses the symptoms more than the root problems. Admittedly I do not have a great grasp on the entire problem nor the solutions. However, while I think that there are useful ideas in this book and even used some of them to try to curb my social media use, I think there are still elements that are lacking. Overall, this is a good book but not a must read.
Squinting in the Light 
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