Adam Shields

Short Review: This is much more inside baseball than what I expected. And while I enjoyed some of it, other parts were too obscure (or detailed) for a non-catholic like myself. I also think that Weigel occasionally confuses his conservative beliefs with Catholic theology. But even though it took me forever to get through the book I am encouraged by the recounting of a real movement of orthodox reform within the church.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/evangelical-catholicism-deep-reform-21st-century-church-george-weigel/

Short Review: The Niebuhr Brothers for Armchair Theologians by Scott Paeth - This wasn't a horrible book. There was very good sections of biography, but the discussions of their books felt like short book reports instead part of narrative book. I do feel for the authors of these short introduction books, it is hard to write a short book on significant theologians. But it is also true that about half of the intro books I read seem to be fairly weak writing.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/niebuhr-brothers/

Short Review: The Grace Outpouring: Blessing Others Through Prayer by Roy Godwin with Dave Roberts - very helpful and encouraging (although a bit rambling) book on how Roy Godwin and those around him have been used by God in evangelism, prayer and healing. Not a prescriptive book on prayer, but a descriptive book about obedience.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/grace-outpouring/

Short Review: This is a memoir of Nathan Foster discovering a relationship with his father Richard (the well known author). I enjoyed this in part because I have hiked some of what is described here. I also have read most of what Richard Foster has written, most of it multiple times. Nathan had a difficult time growing up. And he resists either blaming his Dad for his problems or ignoring the fact that his Dad was gone much of the time. It is not really about the bad, it is about the reconciliation. It is a fairly short read and on sale on kindle when I picked it up, so I read it in a day and enjoyed it. Not an earth shattering book, but a good one to remind us that parents are real people and relationships require work.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/wisdom-chaser/

Short Review: good idea with bad execution.

My full review is at http://bookwi.se/philolzophy/

Short Review: A biography of Jesus that tries to ‘re-mythologize' Jesus. But mostly just repeats traditional liberal theology. I am not opposed to reading liberal theology because I intentionally try to read outside my tradition regularly. But there was just nothing here that was engaging or new or helpful. I read about 70% of the book and then my Kindle Unlimited subscription ended and I had no desire to buy the book and finish it.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/human-face-god/

Short Review: - a cynical mystery that attempts to be funny but ends up just being sad. The problem is that Hiaasen is a good writer and engaging. But his characters are unlikeable. The world he creates makes sure that no good dead actually is good, but everything will work to empower the lowly.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/strip-tease-carl-hiaasen/

Short Review: I picked this up free a long time ago and finally decided to read it when I saw the audiobook was discounted and I had some free credit from Audible. It is a Christian young adult time travel romance book. Honestly, I tend to like young adult books and my wife teases me about being a 16 year old girl in some of my book preferences. But while I did finish and overall thought it was ok, it was too cheesy, it used too much ‘teen slang' (presumably to gain authenticity), the main character was too perfect for the time travel (she happened to speak Italian, read latin, be familiar enough with Dante that she could speak in the 14th century dialect without problem, could sword fight, had a basic understanding of medical uses of herbs, etc.)

I don't want to be too hard on it, this is a young adult romance novel. But there was way too much ‘look at all the Italian hotties' and not nearly enough, ‘oh crap, I am in the 14th century and life here can be really hard.'

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/waterfall/

Short review: I think the main content of Soul keeping is good, but I was a bit disappointed in the writing. The introduction especially seemed filled with cliches and bent over backward apologizing for why we need to pay attention to the soul. I guess that is needed in some circles but I thought it really distracted from the book. I like the idea of splitting the book between a tribute to Dallas Willard (who Ortberg looked on as a mentor and the inspiration for his own soul keeping) and the main focus on caring for our soul. But I think in reality, the split focus didn't do justice to either one.

Again, I think the main content was good and worth reading (especially if you pick it up on sale like I did, currently $2.99 on kindle). But it wasn't as good as I thought it should have been.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/soul-keeping/

Book Review: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg - a children's classic about running away and finding meaning in life has held up well since it was first published in 1967.

Click through for the full review on my blog at http://bookwi.se/mixed-files-mrs-basil-e-frankweiler-e-l-konigsburg/

My full first reading review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/letters-to-malcolm-chiefly-on-prayer-by-cs-lewis/

A second reading and review of Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer by CS Lewis – I think this is my favorite of Lewis' books. This is both a review and a discussion of the obsession over a narrow orthodoxy that seems to allow older authors like Lewis some lenience, but keeps ‘farewelling' modern authors, artists and musicians. - http://bookwi.se/letters-malcolm-chiefly-prayer-cs-lewis/

Short Review: This is a 14 chapter book on Christian belief and practice for those that are either new to Christianity or have been repelled by conservative evangelicalism. There are several things I liked about the book. First, in allowing for doubt he encourages the reader to not allow yourself to get stuck in doubt. Doubt is instead to be expected, but not permanent. I also like the focus on practice in a way that does not either minimize belief or make faith an act of works. But I totally agree that practice has to be a part if we are going to move beyond the most elementary types of Christianity.

On the negative side, I got a little board with it. The writing is good, there is a good level of humor to keep things moving. The background knowledge is important for new Christians. But as a pretty well read, theologically trained person, this was not targeted to me. Primarily I was reading to see if it would make a good small group study. And I think it would for some groups. But the small groups I am involved in would probably view this as too long.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/christian-survival-guide-ed-cyzewski/

Short review: I have been wanting to read something by Michael Lewis so I picked this up when I saw it on the Kindle Unlimited list. I mostly enjoyed it. I think we need more men to talk about their experiences with the changing role of fathers. And we need honesty about how that works. At times I still felt Lewis used the idiot Dad voice. Some of that was probably real ignorance and attempts to be honest about that. But others times it felt like he was just falling into the stereotype that was easy to fall into. The last chapter especially, about getting a vasectomy was a clear, ‘Men are idiots' chapter. Yes some of that is funny, but still as a stay at home Dad, I am looking for more than Dads are idiots. I do not want to go back to ‘Father Knows Best' or Superdads. But there has to be some middle ground where men can be less than perfect and less than an idiot.

There was a lot good here as well. So I don't want to give the impression it is worthless.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/home-game/

Short Review — Prototype: What Happens When You Discover You're More Like Jesus Than You Think? by Jonathan Martin - Excellent book on living the life of a Christian. The best thing about the book is Martin's personal writing style that is completely devoid of theological language, while maintaining a pretty high level of theological content. This is probably the best general Christian living book I have read this year. If you read a lot of Christian living and/or theology books the general themes are probably not new, I can see hints of NT Wright, Richard Beck, and Hauerwas as well as others. I think at root this is a book that is trying to illustrate the Cristus Victor and Moral Influence models of the atonement without ever mentioning either them or the word atonement.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/prototype/

Full review at http://bookwi.se/red-church/

Short review: I enjoyed this book. It is a cult based horror book. Not my traditional style. But the author sent me a copy and I have read one other book by the same author. If you like horror and don't mind a little Christian heresy as the root of the bad guy, pick this up. Good writing.

Short Review: As with the other 47North (Amazon Imprint) books I have read, this is a solid, but unremarkable book. As a conclusion to a trilogy, I think it is ok, but I am not sure I would suggest the trilogy. Again, nothing wrong with it, but it is fairly unoriginal.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/among-the-unseen/

Short Review: This is the third book in the Peter Wimsey series (but the fifth I have read since I have been reading them out of order.) Wimsey overhears a doctor talking about the death of a patient and decides that the patient was killed, and might have been a perfect crime. So most of the book is trying to figure out who would have killed an elderly woman that was already just a couple months from dying. Once the likely suspect was identified the rest of the book tries to figure out how.

This is a good book, but not as good as the first and sixth books of the series. But better than the fourth book (a short story collection.)

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/unnatural-death/

Short Review: I try to read at least one book a month that is outside of my historical Christian tradition (low church baptist). Mostly I have been reading Catholic theology and practice books, but also some from Anglican or Orthodox traditions. This book was recommended to me by my spiritual director for us to talk about.

Theologically it has some great discussion about why we pray and how the role of the social relationship of the trinity can impact our prayer. There was also some good discussion about the psychology of prayer. But the point of the book, learning about Centering Prayer, was almost nonexistent. Finishing the book, I am not sure I understand anything about Centering Prayer that I didn't know going into the book.

Also I find the ‘deeper levels of spirituality' language less than helpful and this book spent some time on it.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/intimacy-god/

Book Review: Citizen Insane by Karen Cantwell - A suburban housewife gets entangled in a cozy mystery. A good light (occasionally funny) mystery.

Click through for the full review http://bookwi.se/citizen-insane-karen-cantwell/

Short Review: You Don't Understand the Bible Because You Are Christian by Richard Gist – Summary: We as modern Christians miss a number of nuances of scripture because we do not understand ancient Hebrew culture. The title of this book is intriguing. But some of the suggestions move outside of Christian orthodoxy, especially when he talks about the New Testament.

Click through for the full review http://bookwi.se/you-dont-understand/

Short Review: This (and the series) is about the history and influence of great religious books. A helpful look at what happened after Bonhoeffer's death to spread his influence and raise interest in his books. This is overwhelmingly about the spread and history of the book, and only occasionally about Bonhoeffer outside of the book. I thought it was not as good as Alan Jacob's biography of the Book of Common Prayer from the same series. But this is still worth reading. This is also a good example of why I like scribd as an ebook subscription program. This is over $14 on kindle, but I can subscribe to Scribd for $8.99 a month and get access to this. Over the last month I have read this book and listened to 11 audiobooks through scribd.

My full review of the book is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/dietrich-bonhoeffers-letters-papers-prison-biography-martin-marty/

My review of scribd http://bookwi.se/scribd-a-review/

Short Read: Good comic farce. I feel like I have watched some version of the story before, but I didn't know the final twist. I enjoyed Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray, but didn't think it was all that special. But enjoyed this much more. I will have to find more of Wilde's comedy.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/importance-earnest-oscar-wilde/

Short Review: The Gettysburg Address: A Graphic Adaptation - great art, sophisticated history and political science, clear direction. A great example of non-fiction graphic novel that is appropriate both for high school students and adults.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/the-gettysburg-address/

Short review: an attempt at satire that I think missed the mark. Wilson can write, but this book was too cardboard, the targets too conventional the cynicism, too strong.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/evangellyfish-douglas-wilson/

Short Review: I knew that John Michael Talbot was an old school CCM artist that was known for writing theologically sophisticated music, but I had mostly categorized him as another Michael Card and left it at that. I was offered this book to review and picked it up because I wanted to learn more about the early Church Fathers not because of my interest in John Michael Talbot. But this turned out to be more of a memoir-ish look at the early Church fathers than a direct exploration. Talbot tells us about his conversion to Christianity through the Jesus People movement. Then in the mid 70s he start meeting with a spiritual director and exploring the church fathers, which led him to convert to Catholicism and eventually start a lay monastic community that invited single, married and celibate Christians (both Catholic and not) to live and serve together. More recently Talbot has started touring and teaching again because there was a fire at the monastic community and he needed to make some money to help rebuild. That lead to him teaching about the early church fathers and worship and his faith which is where this book comes in.

This is a helpful book for a couple reasons. 1) Talbot's story gives a good context for how to think about the usefulness of church fathers in a modern world. 2) It is a good introduction to actual teaching of the church fathers and how some of our assumptions about the early church are either confirmed or shown to be wrong. 3) this is good for evangelicals that are unfamiliar with Catholic writers. Talbot has always been accepted by Evagnelicals because of his music and he knows and understands how to talk about his faith (as a Catholic) in a way that is very inclusive but not hiding his Catholicism. I am looking forward to reading some of Talbot's other books.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/ancient-path-old-lessons-church-fathers-new-life-today-john-michael-talbot-mike-aquilina/