What I've Been Reading (Jan 2011)

Some ever so brief reviews of the books I read in January.

Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings (London: Penguin, 2003; orig 1843), 288 pages.

I love A Christmas Carol and plan to read it every year during Advent. Some of the other stories in this collection I had never read before. I especially liked “The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton.” This edition is great – attractive hardcover, perfect size for reading, built in ribbon bookmark. It’s this kind of book experience that keeps me resistant to ebooks. *****



Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert, When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor… and Yourself (Chicago: Moody, 2009), 230 pages.

Very helpful book on mercy ministry. I recommend it to any church or ministry working with the poor in their community (or any who want to start working with the poor). The authors do a great job making the Biblical case for ministries of mercy and compassion. They also show the pitfalls that many of us fall into – creating ministries that make us feel good, but have little lasting change. My only wish is that they would have spent less time identifying problems in typical mercy ministries, and more time advocating for better approaches. Still, very helpful. All diaconal ministries should read this book. ****



A.S. Peterson, The Fiddler’s Gun (Nashville: Rabbit Room, 2009), 293 pages.

Pete Peterson (A.S.) is the brother of singer/songwriter Andrew Peterson, whose work I greatly admire. That’s why I picked up the novel. I was hoping for more. The story is of a girl growing up in an orphanage during the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Through a series of events, she kills some British soldiers, has to flee for her life, and winds up aboard a pirate ship. It’s a story designed for young adults (age 10-16 probably), and has some adult themes. The setup up for the story was interesting, and Peterson can write, but I just didn’t believe the main character. I hate be so negative, because there were some good spiritual and redemptive themes, but I wasn’t crazy about the book. **



Tim Chester, From Creation to New Creation: Making Sense of the Whole Bible Story (The Good Book Company, 2010; orig 2003), 170 pages.

Tim Chester is a gifted teacher. Much like Tim Keller, he’s fantastic at taking massive topics and boiling them down to essentials that can be digested by just about anyone. This is Chester’s attempt to tell the story of the Bible. He takes 4 major themes and traces them throughout the whole Biblical story. This is a very helpful book, and a good companion to the more theological Christ of the Covenants by O. Palmer Robertson, and the more thorough Far as the Curse is Found by Michael Williams. ****


If you just had to read one: A Christmas Carol, of course.