2020 Book Log

Whoo boy.  Almost exactly halfway through 2021 before I post the 2020 log.  We had a baby girl on January 29 this year.  Between the final few weeks of pregnancy and the first few months of adjusting to 2-child life, this was not top of mind.  But here we go.  As usual, I expect nobody to find and read this.  If you do, however, thanks for the time...and how on earth did you find this???

Reminder note: these are books that I finished in 2020 (i.e., they may have been started in 2019; by the same token, there are books that were in-flight at the end of '20 that will appear on the 2021 list).  They are presented in the order I finished them.

The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
I set some specific reading goals for 2020, one of which was to read the entire Lord of the Rings series, including The Hobbit.  I assigned myself one book per quarter.  I'd actually read The Hobbit many years ago, but reread it this time to get some runway on the LOTR trilogy.  Honestly, Tolkien isn't really my thing.  His fantasy world doesn't really grab me, and I'll thus not have a ton to say other than that while I get why other people are into it, I'm not.  I found most of this series to be a chore to get through.  I'm not anti-fantasy.  I dig Harry Potter.  And as a Christ-follower, I appreciate the fact Tolkien's faith informed his fiction.  The stories just don't speak to me especially deeply.  

Tales From Q School - John Feinstein

Feinstein golf books, in my experience, are generally all the same.  That is not a bad thing, though.  He takes a certain significant golf event/season and goes deep behind the scenes to contextualize all of it.  This one is a bit dated in that Q school is now not a thing.  However, it was a major rite of passage - if you could actually pass, which was far from guaranteed - for PGA touring pros for many years.  Interesting read.  "Fun" is probably not the right word, but interesting definitely works.

A Course Called Ireland - Tom Coyne

Starting in maybe 2019, I rapidly became a fanboy of the golf fanalysts at No Laying Up.  They are roughly peers of mine age-wise and are living their best golf life and getting paid (apparently handsomely) to do so.  Their occasional YouTube series called Tourist Sauce (a multi-week; multi-episode romp through a particular region seeing/experiencing what golf life is like there both on and off the course) hit up Ireland.  Scotland and Ireland are 1a and 1b on my "must do at some point in my life" golf trips.  I devoured this series, and have actually now watched all episodes at least twice.  Maybe thrice.  Enter Tom Coyne.  He's fairly well-known for having literally walked on foot around the perimeter of Ireland playing every links golf hole he could find.  This book was the end result.  I'd actually read it once before and adored it.  The NLU boys invited Coyne along for their trip, and he obliged for a time.  I was therefore reminded of his book, and gleefully read it again.  Hilarious and engaging and somewhat inspiring in a I-wish-I-had-the-stones-to-do-something-like-that kind of way.  Unreserved recommendation for any golf fan.

Mere Christianity - CS Lewis

We read this as a church small group.  I'd read it I believe twice before, and have every expectation that over the years I'll probably read it at least twice more.  Each chapter is thought-provoking, and it always gratifies me to see/know that there are genuine intellectual giants out there among believers, given that the general conceit amongst atheists/agnostics (that I know, anyway) is that faith/belief is beneath them and that only the intellectual incurious at best and weak at worst would stoop to faith.

The Gray Man - Mark Greaney

So the Gray Man series...like Daniel Silva's Gabriel Allon and Robert B. Parker's Spenser, I was introduced to Greaney's Gray Man by my mother and (actually moreso) stepfather.  This series is cut from the same cloth: ambiguously "good" guy who colors outside the lines to defeat the unambiguously bad guys, performing superhuman feats of daring and machismo along the way.  They're fun.  Probably not especially edifying, but fun.  The Gray Man is a former assassin whose handlers have generally turned on him, putting him on his own (Bourne, anyone?).  So that's that.

The Fellowship of the Ring - Tolkien

Part I of the LOTR trilogy down.

A Course Called Scotland - Coyne

Following the same general blueprint as A Course Called Ireland though without the thoroughly impractical commitment to being on-foot, Coyne seeks to tackle the links of Scotland.  I found this one to be a tick less enjoyable than the Ireland iteration, if for no other reason than that Coyne is a bit more self-reflective and at times even borderline melancholy in this one whereas in Ireland it's almost exclusively fun/hijinks.  Scotland probably therefore a bit more genuine, but less of an unvarnished romp.  That said, still full recommend, as with anything Coyne writes.

The Twin Towers - Tolkien

Part II of the LOTR trilogy down.

The 5 Temptations of a CEO - Patrick Lencioni

I believe this was my 3rd pass through the 5 Temptations.  It's a quick, fun, but insightful read into what good business management looks like; or, perhaps more pointedly, what bad management looks like.  It's a good reminder every few years to ensure I'm not falling into any of the 5 temptations within my miniature sphere of influence.

The Point of It All - Charles Krauthammer

Published posthumously by Krauthammer's son, this is a collection of the elder Krauthammer's published works over the years organized by some general themes to which he regularly returned.  It's a thought-provoking survey of a public conservative thinker's arguments, although I'll confess I found the read a bit burdened knowing that Krauthammer had passed and there being no indication he'd come to know Christ before doing so.  Nonetheless, I genuine admired his mind.

On Target - Greaney

The second of the Gray Man books (I was gifted the first three of Christmas 2019, I believe).  As I suspect will be the case as long as the series lives (as with Silva's Gabriel Allon) it is a bit formualic but an enjoyable and quick escapist-type read.  There will always be a time/place for that.

The Moscow Rules - Daniel Silva

My Gabriel Allon book for the year.  I've introduced Allon in previous posts, and will simply say I continue to expect to tick these books off until I've read them all.  They're a treat, so long as you look at them as entertainment and not exactly a blueprint for your life.

Ballistic - Greaney

The third in the Gray Man series, with which I obviously spent a fair amount of time in 2020.

That's it.  You may note the absence of the third LOTR book.  I failed in my mission to finish them all in 2020, though I did finish it in very early 2021.  It will kick off next year's post.  Halfway through 2021, my overall volume is down considerably, so next year's post will be quite a bit shorter.  Newborn life will do that.

Best and God Bless, 

JSR  

2019 Book Log

Well.  I'm every bit of two months later than I thought I'd be in authoring this one, but here goes.  My memory may be shaky on a couple of these.

As with last year, these are books that I finished in 2019 (i.e., they may have been started in 2018; by the same token, there are books that were in-flight at the end of '19 that will appear on the 2020 list).  They are presented in the order I finished them.

The Secret Servant - Daniel Silva
This is a series my mom and stepfather turned me on to a few years ago.  As stated in last year's blog, picture an Israeli Jason Bourne without the identity confusion.  If you like Bourne, I bet you'd like these.  Each book chronicles a new one of Gabriel Allon's challenges/adventures.  They're a bit formulaic, but it is a formula I enjoy.  I am not totally caught up on the series, but until I am I plan to continue to break off one or two a year.  They are quick and fun.

Astroball - Ben Reiter
Oh boy.  I feel considerably different about this one now than I did when I read it.  At the time, it was a real treat to feel like I was peering into the inner sanctum of what made my team great and finally put it over the top.  The 2017 Astros were my favorite local team of all time, ahead of the 1994 and 1995 Rockets due to the facts that A) as an adult, I have a better appreciation for the scarcity of a championship and, B) I'm just more of a baseball guy than a basketball guy.  Of course, we all now know there was a MAJOR thing going on in 2017 that may have actually been what put that team over the top, and as I sit here in early 2020 my read of the public discourse is that the 2017 title is irreparably sullied whether or not it is formally stripped.  I therefore do not think this book will age well.  Maybe not Reiter's fault, but history will not look kindly upon this book that makes no mention whatsoever of the Astros' sheisty sign stealing practices.  What I felt in November 2017 when Corey Seager grounded out to second was pure, and those memories/emotions live.  But support of the Astros feels quite a bit different today.

Origin, Rise, and Progress of Mormonism: Biography of Its Founders and History of Its Church - Pomeroy Tucker
In late 2018/early 2019 at some point - I forget when, exactly - we were visited twice at our home by some Mormon missionaries.  It was my first semi-extensive exposure to them and made me feel like I was not terribly well-equipped to minister to them well; namely, I wasn't informed enough to be able to challenge them in a kind and winsome way.  Pushing them on the Bible was a bit tough because they agreed with everything I had to say about my Bible; they just had a whole lot to say about their own scriptures, about which I was wholly unfamiliar except by name (Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, etc.).  I read this book - which is pretty scathing - in order to attempt to educate myself on where Mormonism came from.  Suffice to say, Tucker has little regard for Mormonism's founders and pioneers.  In the interest of equal time, I probably ought to read something a bit more sympathetic.  However, I cannot envision a scenario whereby I am convinced that Joseph Smith was anything other than a charlatan.

Numbers - Warren Wiersbe
Our community group read this commentary on the book of Numbers.  Our study of the book was a bit disjointed, so I'd probably be well-served to re-read it on my own time and absorb the material at a better pace.  There's really nothing about the experience of reading this that sticks with me.

Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
As mentioned under the Great Expectations heading last year, I've launched a nebulous initiative to read classic literature as an adult that I either never read during my formal education, or read ("read") against my will.  Treasure Island is a classic I just never was assigned.  I really enjoyed it.  I have not delved any further into the pirate genre - Robinson Crusoe, for example, but I thought TI was a fun read that helped me to place the culturally ubiquitous Long John Silver into better context.

The Classic Palmer - John Feinstein
This is a really quick read and is a picture book as much as anything, but it is a quick encapsulation of Arnold Palmer's career, largely in pictures.  Arnie's prime was well before my golf consciousness, but his place in the game is securely in the top handful of most impactful ever.  I think you'd be hard-pressed to find any true student of the game who doesn't have Arnie in the Top 3 with Jack and Tiger, and some really smart folks would put him at #1.  Not best, but most impactful.  This book is just a surface scratcher.

Taming a Sea Horse - Robert B. Parker
Both my mother-in-law and my stepfather have directly or indirectly encouraged me to dig into the Parker books, be it Jesse Stone or Spenser.  This was my first Spenser book, though it comes somewhere very much in the middle in the series' chronology.  The Spenser books are much different subject matter than Silva's Gabriel Allon series, but compete with it for my attention in the genre of  "fun, fast, escapist, suspenseful read about the ambiguously good guy who colors outside the lines to take out the demonstrably bad guys and has to navigate some crazy tight spots along the way."

Volume 1: Fort Sumter to Perryville - Shelby Foote
This is book one of Foote's exhaustive 3 volume anthology on the history of the Civil War, which is something I've had the ambition to tackle ever since my Uncle Ron - a real student of Civil War history - commended it to me over a decade ago.  Admittedly, this book is so far in the weeds that I routinely lose track of where I am and where I'm going.  There are so many names and theaters and battles that it is head-spinning.  It is enjoyable, but you've got to gird up your loins and push through it.  Not for the faint of heart.

The Godwulf Manuscript - Robert B. Parker
Another Spenser book, and actually the first in the series.  I figure from now on if I'm going to read the Spenser series, I'm going to do it in order.  It will bother me to do otherwise.  No further commentary on the content of this one.  Thus far, they're all the same, but there's a place for that when I'm in the mood.  Sometimes you just feel like pizza and beer.

The First Major - The 2016 Ryder Cup - John Feinstein
Much of Feinstein's golf book corpus - maybe all of it, for all I know - is thorough behind-the-scenes looks at the inner workings of big golf events and/or moments.  My first introduction to Feinstein was his walk through the 1998 major championships.  This, like all Feinstein books I've read, is an enjoyable look at the backstory a broadcast can never get you.  It places the 2016 Ryder Cup in a much broader context that I ate up as a golf fan.  If you're into golf, and particularly into the RC, I commend it unreservedly.

That's it for the 2019 reading year.  My volume was definitely down from 2018.  A baby born in late 2018 will do that.  On to 2020!

As always, comments welcome if anybody happens to stumble across this.  

2018 Book Log

I resurrect this long-dormant blog - upon which I have never actually published a post - to establish a theme and purpose for its existence: to memorialize the books I read this year, why, and what I thought. 

A brief note on the content: My cutoff criterion will be whether I finished the last page of the book within a given calendar year.  I've got a couple of books in-flight currently that will appear on the 2019 edition.  These are presented in the order in which I finished them.

Texas - James A. Michener

This sat on my Dad's bookshelf for years. I was always mildly intrigued by the simple but mysterious title, though I'd been intimidated by its length.  Knowing virtually nothing about it, I was hesitant to make the substantial investment it would require.  Alas, this book is a delight.  While the historical unity of the character's family story arcs strains credulity, it was a fascinating and engaging look at my home state's history, and left me with a renewed genuine pride in being a native Texan.  

Prince of Fire - Daniel Silva

Seeking lighter fare after Texas, I ticked off another in the Gabriel Allon series.  To the uninitiated, envision an Israeli Jason Bourne, just without the identity confusion.  These books - which often blend in real-life events and public figures into its otherwise clearly fictional universe - are always lighting-quick reads and a real treat.  

Dream Golf - Stephen Goodwin

This book is about the making of Bandon Dunes, my and my golfing buddies' favorite golf locale on the planet as of this writing.  I read it in anticipation of our second trip there, which took place in the latter part of February this year.  I definitely enjoyed this one - which I read as an e-book (not my normal preference) - and it certainly helped place the Bandon complex into a fuller context, but I don't know that this one would merit a re-read.

50 Places to Play Golf Before You Die - Chris Santella

I got this from my mom for Christmas 2017.  It was interesting to see the reviews of the small handful of places on the list that I had been to, but as Santella goes out of his way to select a number of courses from all over the world that are off the beaten path, my main takeaway was that there is cool golf all over the planet.  If one is so inclined, taking your clubs anywhere can be made to be worthwhile.

The Messenger - Daniel Silva

The second and last of the Gabriel Allon books I read this year, although I fully expect to engage this enjoyable series until I've read them all. 

Tactics - Greg Koukl

This was assigned reading for an online Equipping ministry Core Class I took this year pursuant to my stated desire on my 2018 4B (my home church's annual personal spiritual assessment) to avail myself this year of some of Watermark's many apologetics resources.  I found Koukl's book to have a wealth of practical tips on how to steer conversations toward spiritual matters and to do so in a winsome manner that is likely to achieve the modest goal of "putting a stone in the shoe" of the listener rather than outright converting them then and there (a goal exceedingly unlikely to be reached in any given instance).  I will re-read this periodically and bought a few copies to bless other believing friends with as well.

Fool's Talk - Os Guinness

Another book on the topic of Christian persuasion that I'd actually started around the time of my and Connie's wedding in September of 2016, I had high hopes for this book due to the pertinence of the subject matter.  I found it to be disappointingly inaccessible.  I can't really put my finger on why, but I just never connected with this one.  I would like to re-read it again one of these days because the topic is timeless and I'm completely prepared to believe that the issue was mine and not Guinness'.

Raising a Modern Day Knight - Robert Lewis

Once I learned I was having a son - precious Aiden joined us on November 29, 2018 and immediately stole his parents' hearts - this book that I'd seen sitting on the literature table for the Crossroads45 ministry (4th and 5th graders) I serve in at Watermark immediately caught my eye.  The premise is that in medieval times, growing up into Knighthood was a goal of all young men, but the adults in his life helped him along the way by establishing age-appropriate but still strenuous milestones for him to strive for at increments along the way.  Lewis analogizes medieval Knighthood to the launching of young men into independent adulthood today and offers guidance as to how best to set our sons up for doing so confidently and with a firm spiritual foundation.  I will re-read this on down the road when Aiden is closer to ready to begin to appreciate and step into some of these milestones, which will be sooner rather than later.

Bonhoeffer - Eric Metaxas

A book that started slowly enough that I had to fight the urge to set it aside, this ultimately became a page-turner.  Metaxas' thorough biography helped me develop a deep appreciation for Bonhoeffer's righteous courage in standing up to the Nazi regime in the WWII era.  Admittedly, particularly early in the book, Metaxas' clear admiration for Bonhoeffer begins to come across as almost grating fan-boyishness, but either this wears off or I got used to it.  Metaxas is inarguably an authority on Bonhoeffer, so anybody interested in learning more about him would be well-served by reading this book, though I would caution the reader to steel yourself for the first 1/3 or so in order to reap the benefit of the last 2/3.  

The Vaccine Book - Dr. Robert Sears

As Aiden's birth got closer, Connie and I dove into the now fraught issue of vaccinations.  Ardent pro-vax folks have no use for Dr. Sears.  By and large, they believe he trades in anti-vax dog whistles while offering - to their ears - feeble support for the practice.  I did not see it that way.  I found this book to be an accessible, thorough compendium on each vaccine, why it is administered, and the pros or cons of each.  Some folks seem to be mortified and outright offended by the idea there might be a "con" hidden somewhere in the practice of stabbing your infant to inject him/her with a disease (this is just how inoculation works).  Sears acknowledges this reality and it seems to have gotten him labeled a heretic by the medical establishment.  Connie and I landed on planning to walk Aiden through the regular CDC-suggested vax schedule and are convinced this is the right answer for him and "the herd." That said, I do know conscientious, thoughtful, Christ-following, people-loving folks who have landed in a different place.  I find it to be a symptom of our broader adversarial public discourse that folks think the "to vax or not" question is a referendum on someone's moral grounding.  I disagree, and actually find it profoundly unfortunate.

The Birth Book - Dr. William and Martha Sears

We actually started this book prior to the Vaccine book (Robert is William and Martha's son).  It was recommended to Connie by a friend of hers who is a former L&D nurse.  Like the Vaccine book (or, more appropriately, vice versa) this is a thorough look at the various elements of pregnancy and delivery and the pros and cons of all manner of care plans, care settings, and interventions.  This book helped us - and Connie, specifically - feel comfortably informed about what we lay before us.  Of course, no book can substitute for real experience.  Now on the backside of birth and pregnancy, there are things we'd probably do differently that we could not have known until we saw real life play out, but I'd advise any newly pregnant parents-to-be to read this book to help ground them in what their next few months might look like.  

The Vanishing American Adult - Ben Sasse

I was introduced to this book by Dr. Albert Mohler's "Thinking in Public" podcast.  After hearing Senator Sasse and Dr. Mohler discuss the book's origin and contents I was itching to read it.  It does not disappoint.  Senator Sasse offers a number of thoughtful ideas - some driven by anecdote, others by historical wisdom, still more by Scriptural mandate - about how to raise well-rounded, confident, capable children who are prepared for adulthood.  Unfortunately, as Sasse points out with regret, parenting in such a fashion today proves to be swimming against the tide.  I will re-read this and was so enthused by it that I provided copies to some of my friends who are the heads of young families.

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

A long-term commitment of mine is to close the gaps I perceive in my engagement with the literary canon.  To that end, I chose to read my first Dickens novel late last year.  It took me awhile to get through this one as I kept setting it aside for weeks at a time.  Originally downloaded as a Kindle book - and, admittedly, selected among other authors and titles because this one was free - I lucked into a 5-work anthology of Dickens novels for Christmas 2017.  I therefore started this one electronically but finished it in hardback.  I don't know that the story itself was life-changing by any stretch, but I found Dickens' prose to be a joy to read.  There was a steady stream of clever turns of phrase that made me an immediate Dickens fan.  I will read more, though I am fairly unlikely to return to Great Expectations.  

The Conscience of a Conservative - Barry Goldwater

I've known this book was out there for years and have always had a latent interest in it.  I finally read it this year after stumbling across it super-cheap on Amazon.  I did find a number of the arguments compelling, but I will confess my lasting memory of this one will be that I was disappointed - after having finished it - to read that it was primarily ghost-written.  I shouldn't be surprised, I suppose, and Goldwater was a champion of conservatism in his day, but the fact that his name was attached to someone else's words left a bad taste in my mouth.  I know that betrays naivete or idealism or some such silliness on my part, but nonetheless.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team - Patrick Lencioni

This was assigned reading for a 3-day HCHB executive team offsite in December of this year.  I'd previously read and enjoyed Lencioni's The Five Tempations of a CEO.  Lencioni is a keen observer of what makes executive teams tick.  Further, he is a Christ-follower and does not advocate by any means for Machiavellianism or any other such practice that would be difficult to reconcile with the Christian walk.  I enjoyed this one and will likely re-read for my own edification and of my own volition.  

Hidden Christmas - Timothy Keller

Just finished today as I really wanted to get it in under the 2018 deadline, this one was a Christmas gift that I could envision being an annual December read hereafter.  The great Tim Keller insightfully and accessibly explicates how the Christian view of Christmas really is good news that brings great joy (Luke 2:10).

That's it for this year.  On to the 2019 reading year!

Comments welcome if anybody happens to stumble across this.