At the beginning of 2016, I set a goal of reading 104 books– roughly two a week. I am using a plan developed by blogger Tim Challies, which requires you to read across genres. To find out more about the plan, go to http://www.challies.com/resources/the-2016-reading-challenge
25. Song of Redemption by Lynn Austin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Started: March 23
Finished: April 4
Challies Challenge Category: Novel by a Christian Author
This is the second book I’ve read (well-listened–they are available in audiobook form)in Lynn Austin’s Chronicles of the Kings series. She is very skilled at taking the details we know from Scripture (which usually aren’t many) and creating a compelling story from them that still rings true to the context of the Bible. I’ve enjoyed her work, and look forward to listening to the other books in the series. For Challies challenge, this was my entry for “novel by a Christian author.”
26. An Approach to Extended Memorization of Scripture by Andrew M. Davis
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Practical, concrete, helpful
Started/Finished: April 2
Challies Challenge Category: Book less than 100 pages
This book was recommended by both Tim Challies and John Piper. I’m in a group right now that’s trying to memorize Romans, so it was well worth the 99 cents to download this one. The title is well-said: this is “an” approach. Not “the” approach. And as such, it’s pretty good.
27. Taking God at His Word: Why the Bible Is Knowable, Necessary, and Enough, and What That Means for You and Me by Kevin DeYoung
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Challies Challenge Category: Book about theology
Started: April 4
Finished: April 8
Fantastic! The audiobook of this is the free book this month in christianaudio.com, (April, 2016) but after listening to about half of it I ordered a hard copy from Amazon. There really needs to be a small group study on this. The SCAN acronym– the Bible is sufficient, clear, authoritative, and necessary– is worth the price of the whole book. In addition, there is an an annotated bibliography of books at the end– grouped by category and graded on degree of difficulty, that makes me glad I don’t just have it on audio.
28. Expository Apologetics: Answering Objections with the Power of the Word by Voddie T. Baucham Jr.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Started: March 31, Finished April 9
Challies Challenge Category: Book about Worldview
I appreciated Voddie’s commitment to keep the ultimate goal of an apologetic conversation in mind–to share the gospel. He reminds the reader that according to Romans 1:18-20, people don’t have a knowledge problem. They have a righteousness problem.
I’m also challenged to spend more time learning the creeds, confessions, and catechisms that have been used to teach the faith for hundreds of years. As a Baptist I’ve never studied them much, apart from memorizing the Apostles Creed. But now, and especially as a Christian educator, I appreciate their value for helping us teach and learn how to “give an answer for the hope that is within us”
(1 Pet. 3:15)
My only complaint with the book is that I wished he had used a different example of an apologetic sermon in the appendix. He had already summarized the sermon in same sex marriage and the divisions of the levitical law earlier in the book; so the appendix felt redundant.
29. Martin Luther: In His Own Words by Martin Luther
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Started: April 4
Finished: April 9
Challies Challenge: Book by or about Martin Luther
The main part of this book is the 95 Theses, followed by various letters Luther wrote to defend the theses. Also included is his Shorter Catechism, and a handful of his sermons. It was very enlightening to me, primarily to realize that the Theses weren’t initially intended to start the Reformation, but to reform a specific practice in the Catholic Church. As with a lot of books that start off for me with the audio version, I found it very helpful to download a Kindle version as well.
30. Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Started: April 10; Finished: April 20
Challies Challenge Category: Book more than a hundred years old
So, Chesterton himself called this a “chaotic volume,” and I don’t disagree. For the first three-quarters of the book, I couldn’t figure out why it was called “Orthodoxy.” It was hard to follow any organizing principle, and if he was arguing to make a point, he argued more like a poet than a lawyer.
It didn’t help that I was listening to the audiobook. Even though it was narrated by the amazing Simon Vance (whose narrations of Ken Follett’s The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End are some of the best audiobooks I’ve ever heard) I don’t recommend the format for Chesterton. This book is meant to be chewed slowly, like a really good steak. You need to be able to roll the words around in your mind, and unless you’ve got your finger constantly on the pause and rewind buttons (not recommended while you are driving), you can’t do that.
So, I bought a hard copy, and now I feel like I have to read it again.
31. Handel’s Messiah: Comfort for God’s People by Calvin R. Stapert
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Started: April 14; Finished: April 16
I’d had this in my Christian Audio library for awhile, and when I saw that yesterday was the anniversary of the premiere of Messiah, I started listening. Great read. The two best takeaways are George Bernard Shaw’s criticism of mass choirs performing Messiah, and the theological question of “why doesn’t ‘Messiah’ end with the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’?”
Challies Challenge category: Book about music.
32. 
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Started: April 11; Finished: April 16
Challies Challenge: Book written in the 20th century
This was the second time I’ve read this. I picked it up again after watching the “Everest” movie. I don’t think the previous edition I read had the postscript about the ongoing fight between Krakauer and the author of another book about the same events, which is critical of Krakauer’s criticisms of one of the guides. It is an interesting read on its own, dealt with issues of journalistic integrity and fact checking.
33.
Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s by John Elder Robison
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Date Started: April 16
Date Finished: April 21
I really enjoyed this book. Robison writes with clarity and humor (whether or not it is intentional humor is hard to say, given that he is writing as an Aspergian). There are times when he comes across like a real life Forrest Gump–a social misfit who winds up in the right place at the right time to make an impact on the world that a so-called “normal” person could never make. The main difference is that instead of meeting Presidents like Forrest Gump, Robison met rock stars.
The book is also genuinely moving as it gets into the time Robison spends with his own son.
I would recommend this book to anyone that has someone on the autistic spectrum in their life, as well as anyone that just enjoys a well-written, if quirky and oddball–memoir.
Challies Challenge: Memoir
34. Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Date Started: April 20
Date Finished: April 28
Challies Challenge Category: Novel set in a country other than your own
This book was a feast. Moving, deeply Christian, informative, poetic, redemptive, beautiful. The characters are richly drawn, multidimensional, and fully realized. The prose is gorgeous. The message and the issues are timeless, as relevant to Ferguson, Missouri as they were to Soweto, Johannesburg. I will go back to this one again. And for what its worth, the 1995 film version starring James Earl Jones and Richard Harris, is on Netflix. While it isn’t a perfect movie, it is perfectly cast.
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