Adam Shields

Short review: I have no idea what this book is about. It is short. It has almost poetic language. It is trying to talk about ontology. I didn't get it.

Short review: Henderson interviews a number of women across the spectrum of theological understanding of the role of women and asking them their thoughts, and some difficult questions about their understanding of the role of women in the church, what they think would happen if women would stop participating in the church and why they have chosen to participate in the way they have. His three categories are Resigned (to their place in the church), Resigned (from the church) or Re-signed (up to get back into the church). This is unlikely to change many minds, but I think it will comfort women that feel abandoned and spark some men to step up and advocate for women. One of the interesting thoughts is that in the secular world men are the majority of mentors of women in business. This is the case because there are not that many women in upper levels. But what is almost universally true about male mentors is that they have daughters. This is not a theological book. There are not discussions long discussions of scripture (there are lots of other books that do that), this is about hear stories.

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

Short review: Good introduction to why we need to pursue Unity within the church, or organizational, but relational. This is too short, but useful as a long article, but not all that helpful in practical matters. If you are interested in looking at the purpose of unity, then read John Armstrong's Your Church is Too Small. If you want more practical advice on how to balance the needs for truth and love and how to better relate to those that you might disagree (both inside and outside the church) then read Uncommon Decency by Richard Mouw.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/mark-of-a-christian/

Short review: I grew up on westerns. I have read scores of them, scores of them just by L'Amour. It has been a long time since I read a western so this is a nostalgia book. It is fine, the hero wins, the guy gets the girl, the bad guys are either dead or in jail. All is right with the world again. I won't be returning to this genre soon. But it fed the desire for wholeness and for hero stories that I had as a teen.

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

Short review: I have thought about reading this for a while. But the reputation of the book's sex and violence put me off. I finally had enough people tell me I should go ahead and read it. It has all of the sex and violence that I was concerned about. But on the whole was still a good book. I am ok with reading things that make me uncomfortable and expanding my world a bit. But the content warning is real.

I have an almost 1000 word review on my blog at http://bookwi.se/kushiels-dart/

Short Review: This is a prior and shorter version of Peterson's Practice Resurrection. The content isn't bad, but Practice Resurrection is a much better book. I would recommend you read that instead and if you have already read Practice Resurrection, there is not really anything new or different here. Only reason to read this is if you have not read other Peterson books and you have Amazon prime and a kindle because it is one of the prime books you can borrow from Amazon.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/living-peterson/

Short review: This is an interesting concept. Take the parallels of Luke and Acts and discern the work of the Holy Spirit through the apostles and the relationship of Jesus Christ's work. This is popularly written and has 39 short chapters. The biggest negative is that it is probably too wide ranging and could do with a bit more focus. But as a study of the Book of Acts and the early church, especially with its excellent work on economics, culture and religious change it is well worth reading.

My longer review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/holy-spirit-yong/

Short review: Very good commentary.

My longer reviews on my blog. http://bookwi.se/luke-green/

Short review: good tight thriller with an underlying theme of whether people can change. Glad to see a book by a Christian author that is able to mention ideas of redemption and the struggle of change without preaching to the reader. Of course it isn't published by a Christian publishing house and the author doesn't write Christian fiction.


my full book review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/identity-man/

Short Review: This is my new favorite book on marriage. Highly recommended.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/marriage-keller/

Short review: I remember this book from a series of podcasts about 6 or 7 years ago. It never finished so I picked up the book to see what happened. Unfortunately, this feels like a series of podcasts or short stories that are strung together into a novel without being fully integrated. The story concept is great. The result is mediocre.

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

My wife and I read this over a year. And while there were many good devotionals about half of them had very little to do with the scripture that they were attached to. Several of the devotionals were actually saying the opposite of the scripture passage that they were attached to.

The was clearly a devotional that was pulled together primarily from previously written material and not written expressly for this bible. I wish it was better. This could have been a good devotional.

Short review: This is a time travel book. What better way to stump Artemis than make him fight against himself. Good twist in the book. Also the time travel creates a good paradox that is really about leading the reader to see why Artemis found the fairies in the first place.

My longer review is at my blog http://bookwi.se/time-paradox/

Short review: I really like spy novels. This is the best series of any modern spy novels that I have read. The characters are much more nuanced and believable than the older cold war spy novels, but that also means that the good guys are not as good and the bad guys are not as evil. What many people will not like about this book is the way it deals with time lines. It tells about 1/3 of the story from a single character (not Milo Weaver) then from there flips around to a bunch of different characters. There is an ending, but then what is essentially an epilogue that catches the reader up with the other characters and tells you why things happened the way that they did.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/american-spy/

Short Review: This seems to be a series of sermons (or articles) that have been put together into book form. Brother Yun (an exiled Chinese underground church leader) is particularly speaking to the western church. It is good for us to hear what Christians outside the west have to say to us. This is not light teaching. I spend about three weeks on it. But it is very readable and convicting.

My only negative is that there are some repeated stories and illustrations in the different chapters (which is what makes me think this is a series of sermons or articles, not a straightforward book.)

I would read the biography Heavenly Man first, to give you a context of who Brother Yun is and why you should listen to what he has to say.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/living-water/

Short review: This time the big problem is that Artemis is going mad, seems to be partially fairy magic induced and partially guilt for previous crimes. Good book though. I can see some of the threads of the series moving toward completion.

My slightly longer review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/atlantis-complex/

Short Review: I wish this were a cheaper book, because I would buy several copies and give them away. My main takeaway is that Doctrine is the attempt to speak of God faithfully to our culture, but it is limited to the tools that are available to our language, philosophy and culture. The Trinity was an attempt to communicate something that the early church knew was real, but even now we do not fully have the language and philosophical system to really communicate the reality of God. This gives a good background on both the philosophical issues, the cultural struggle, the political reality and the theological issues of the early church. I highly recommend picking up a copy if you can find a cheap copy somewhere.

It is a translated book (originally written in German) and even though it is written to be accessible, the issues still will require some struggle to understand and read.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/the-doctrine-of-the-trinity/

Short Review: Giving is not often thought of as one of the spiritual disciplines but in Fields of Gold it is primarily thought of as a spiritual act of obedience and not as a financial matter. This is a quick book, but worth the time.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/fields-of-gold/

Short review: This is short, but very good. Practical advice for how to deal with conflict. Seeped in bible, but very focused on how to actually work through conflict. Would make a very good small group study. Free on christianaudio.com during the month of May 2012.

My review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/resolving-everyday-conflict/

Short review: The most surprising thing about this book is that on the whole it takes a very positive view of anxiety. It understands that anxiety can become controlling and eventually lead to sin, but in general it believes that God uses anxiety to move us in directions that we do not always want to go. I realized through this book that I need to re-evaluate my understanding of anxiety and be more open to being moved by anxiety, instead of running away from it.

A longer review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/anxious-christian/

Book Review: They Eat Puppies, Don't They?: A Novel by Christopher Buckley.

I like Christopher Buckley. He is one of my favorite satirists. His books are usually funny, sharp and likable. But this just feels like an off novel. I didn't really like the characters, it wasn't nearly as funny and would not be one I recommend.

If you like satire, I would encourage you to read Buckley's Supreme Courtship or Boomsday

My full review is at http://bookwi.se/puppies/#

Short review: This is my favorite memoir so far this year. It is not new, but I have not read it previously because of some preconcieved notion that it was a screed against his parents. It is not. It is an honest look at growing up in the Evangelical spotlight. With imperfect people as parents (as we all did.) If Frank did not place the focus of the book on his own problems and shortcomings it might feel like a screed. But Frank is sure that for every real and honest complaint about his parents or something or someone else, there are several more about himself.

Again, I was reminded today reading an article about Thomas Kincaid that it is important that especially as Christians we need to allow people to be fallen. No Christian hero is perfect. This book will join a list of others that I recommend to people that want to honestly look at Christian spiritual development.

Short Review: I like Paul Miller's writing. It is simple, filled with family stories, uses lots of extended bible quotes to give full context and is focused on spiritual development. This book is about studying Jesus to learn how to live others in our lives better. This would make a good small group discussion book, especially a married small group because so many of the personal examples are based in his marriage.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/love-walked/

Short Review: How conquest affected the cultures of the British Isles, Africa, Slavs & Native Americans. This is a statistics and macro level focused book on the historical development of cultures after conquest. There are lots of good historical details but very few stories. If you like your history as story, then skip this. If you like your history with lots of stats then this is pretty interesting.

For a longer (about 1000 word) review go to my blog at http://bookwi.se/conquest/

Short Review: This short book on the importance of the pursuit of unity within the Christian church is a great introduction to the topic. John Armstrong has written and thought deeply about this and lives the life that supports his words. It is only 63 pages and can easily be read in a sitting. I would encourage you to pick it up.

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/unity-factor/