It counts as long as I get this post out in January, right?
Books Read 2023
Fiction
The Gilded Age: a Tale of Today by Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner — A lesser known Twain book but good.
Three Men and a Maid by P. G. Wodehouse (audio book) — Wodehouse=humorous
The Loved One by Evelyn Waugh — Also humorous. A short read.
Murder Your Employer by Rupert Holmes — An easy, funny read.
East of Eden, Travels with Charley, The Winter of Our Discontent, The Grapes of Wrath, and Tortilla Flat by John Steinbeck — As I did in 2022, I tried to read a number of books by one author. I like East of Eden (though the bit of biblical interpretation that forms a key concept in the book is just not supported by the Hebrew) but I think The Winter of Our Discontent is the overlooked volume which may be his best.
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf — I know it’s supposed to be a feminist manifesto of sorts. Is it wrong that my main thought was: Of course the woman is the one who got everything done while no one noticed; tell me something I don’t know. I did enjoy the book though.
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath — Another book I had never read that is supposed to be significant. I liked the story but the message seemed to fall flat.
The Reef by Edith Wharton — I like Wharton. This is not her best.
The Claverings by Anthony Trollope — I like Trollope for easy, older books.
If Winter Comes by ASM Hutchinson — A hidden gem of a sweet older book
Theology
Surprised by Hope by N. T. Wright — I don’t recommend Wright’s theology generally but I think he is on target with a lot of what he has to say about the afterlife.
Creation and the Persistence of Evil: The Jewish Drama of Divine Omnipotence by Jon D. Levenson — By an old professor of mine. A lot of what is here is just what I was taught in grad school. It’s hard not to feel sadness at what is being missed in his theology.
General Revelation by G.C. Berkouwer — I reviewed this book here. This one is dense and so probably not to everyone’s taste.
Worship Feasting Rest Mercy by Daniel Howe — By my pastor 😉
The Sabbath, the Covenant and the House of God by Ken Hanko — Another short book on the Sabbath. This one is pretty basic and easy to digest but it did make me think about the Sabbath in new ways. I wish it had had more practical discussion of Sabbath-keeping.
Mountains in the Mist, A Bunch of Everlastings, and Casket of Cameos by F.W. Boreham — Boreham is a favorite of mine. His books are comforting, not deeply theological. Some of these were re-reads.
“The Greatest Thing in the World” by Henry Drummond — I honestly don’t remember a lot about this one. It is short and inspiring.
“Christ’s Mediatorial Kingship: A Developing Doctrine” by The RPCNA Synod’s special committee
on Christ’s Mediatorial Kingship — I found this paper very helpful in understanding a key RP doctrine and how the language around it has developed over time.
The Rise and Fall of Dispensationalism by Daniel Hummel — long and somewhat hard to follow if you don’t already know all the names but an interesting read, especially to see how many of the ideas we take for granted came to be
The Unseen Realm by Michael S. Heifer — reviewed here. Short take: I don’t recommend it.
Reformed Thought: Selected Writings of William Young edited by Joel Beeke and Ray Lanning — I had never heard of Young but stumbled across him. He helped me understand some things about how the Dutch Reformed tradition has evolved (not necessarily for the better). I wish I could find more of his writings, particularly his thoughts on education.
Strange New World by Carl Trueman — This is the shorter version of The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self which I had previously read. We did this as a women’s book study. I do really like it. It’s not an easy read but it very helpful for understanding how our society got to be where it is on gender issues. We found as a group that we had more compassion and understanding for those we would disagree with after reading this volume. I do wish the book had more practical applications.
Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age by Rosaria Butterfield — I read this one pretty quickly hoping it would be a good follow-up book to study after Trueman’s. There is a lot here that is good. Butterfield shines when she gets to the practical ideas on how to deal with a child with gender issues. There are other bits that give me reservations about recommending it or reading it in a group though.
The Other Worldview by Peter Jones — Butterfield’s book led me to this one. At times Jones seems to go too far with his thesis but the basic paradigm of every philosophy being Oneist (all things are connected) or Twoist (creation and Creator are separate) is helpful for understanding a lot of what is going on in one’s social media feed these days.
Tell Her Story by Nijay Gupta — If any book were going to convince me to be egalitarian, this would be it. Gupta does well when he is dealing with historical scholarship but ultimately, as with many modern Christian books, his arguments are based on an ever-growing (yet unstable) pile of “possibly”s and “perhaps”es. Where we start and what verse we take as normative when discussing gender roles in the Bible seems to make so much difference. Gupta like many (most? all?) egalitarians starts with descriptive passages (eg. Was Phoebe a deacon?) and discusses the prescriptive ones (eg. “I do not permit a woman to teach or have authority…”) only at the end as an epilogue. This just seems like a backwards approach to any biblical issue.
What God has to Say About Our Bodies by Sam Allberry — This may be the one we study next. I listened to it as an audiobook (because I could access it for free that way) and really liked it. It touches on issues of transgenderism and all that is trendy but is much more comprehensive on its view our our bodies.
Education
Teaching from Rest by Sarah Mackenzie — I wish I had had this little book when my kids were younger. Well worth the read for anyone homeschooling.
Miscellaneous
From Strength to Strength by Arthur Brooks — On how we think and finding what you should/want to do later in life. (Am I “later in life” already?)
Letters from Nebby 