MY SERIOUS READING IN 2020

by | Dec 12, 2020 | Politics, Prayer, Reading, Suffering, The World

  1. Destined For Glory: The Meaning of Suffering, Margaret Clarkson, 1983
  2. Evangelical Preaching: An Anthology of Sermons by Charles Simeon, edited by James Houston, 1986
  3. Napoleon: A Biography, Andrew Roberts
  4. Eerdman’s Book of Famous Prayers Through the Centuries, 1983
  5. Savage Messiah, How Dr. Jordan Peterson Is Saving Western Civilization, Jim Proser, 2019
  6. The World that We Knew, Alice Hoffman. A novel of Jewish children in France in World War II
  7. The Year of Decision 1846, Bernard De Voto, 1942. An enthralling history of the Mexican War, the Mormon emigration and the acquisition of the Western states by President Polk.
  8. C.S. Lewis: A Life. Eccentric Genius, Reluctant Prophet, Alister McGrath, 2013
  9. Gentle Regrets: Thoughts from a Life, Roger Scruton, 2005
  10. The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradisio, Dante, Translated by Dorothy Sayers
  11. The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson 2019. The Churchill family and the London Blitz.
  12. No Surrender: A Father, A Son and an Extraordinary Act of Heroism in World War II, Chris Edmonds, 2019
  13. Christ the Cornerstone: Collected Essays of John Stott, Christianity Today, 2019
  14. Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washington, Ted Widmer, 2020. Lincoln and the division and acrimony prior to the Civil War.
  15. When Time Stopped: A Memoir of my Father’s War & What Remains, Arianna Neumann. A Jewish survival story uncovered.
  16. Every Drop of Blood: The Momentous Second Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, Edward Achorn, 2020
  17. Pages from a Preacher’s Notebook: Wisdom and Prayers from the pen of John Stott, edited Mark Meynell, 2020
  18. Tocqueville’s Discovery of America, Leo Damrosch, 2010. A remarkable account of the journey in 1831-32 and a reminder of the enduring social and political problems we continue to face.
  19. The French Revolution, Thomas Carlyle, 1837, abridged and edited by A.H.R. Ball, 1930, 2005. A reminder of what can happen when good leadership is absent in times of corruption and selfishness. The cruelty of anarchy in the name of justice. A warning in times of conflict. History can repeat itself.
  20. Healthy Faith and the Coronavirus Crisis: Thriving in the Covid-19 Pandemic, edited by Kristi Mair and Luke Cawley, 2020
  21. James Madison: A Biography by Richard Brookhiser, 2011
  22. Balkan Ghosts and Eastward to Tartary: Travels in the Balkans, the Middle East and the Caucasus, Robert Kaplan, 1993, 2000. The politics and history of the region with all its ethnic and religious rivalries.
  23. Born Blind, Jackson Riddle, 2020. A novel of the pre-civil war.
  24. Freedom: A novel of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, William Safire, 1987.
  25. The Chain, Paul Wellman, 1949. A novel about pride and hypocrisy in an Episcopal church and the ministry of a priest trying to atone for his youthful sins. A wonderful portrayal of moral dilemmas and the redeeming power of the Gospel.
  26. Attack Upon Christendom, Soren Kierkegaard, 1855. His satirical exposé of nominal, institutional Christianity that seeks success and is not willing to suffer for Christ, that waters down the teaching of the New Testament to make it acceptable and respectable. To claim to be a Christian is to be a hypocrite, to celebrate the saints without emulating their witness.