Thanks to my friends, talk show hosts John & Kathy out in Pittsburgh, PA, who call from time

to time asking me for an on-air book reviews. They sometimes interview me and, as you may guess, they have a huge listening audience.  I feel a bit intimidated, although they couldn’t be sweeter.

Or, sharper.  Half the authors I recommend, they’ve had on the air, it seems–it is Christian talk radio done right!  You may even be able to hear it on line at the WORD FM facebook page here.  

I was on this afternoon, even fielding some calls from listeners.  After talking about Coop: A Year in Pigs, Poultry & Parenting (Michael Perry), The Unlikely Disciple (Kevin Roose) and Holy Roller (Julie Lyons) and some of the others on our blogged list of most fun books of the summer, we got into it. Calls ranged from the need for books about financial planning to the consequences of the Protestant reformation, from a question about Little House on the Prairie to books for one going through a dark night of the soul.  This was a bookselling buzz and the time went too fast. Thanks to those who called in. 

I had a stack of books sitting by my phone, new stuff that I would have loved to have given a shout out about, but time didn’t permit.  It is rare I get to celebrate and recommend books to such a vast audience, and I wish I coulda squeezed ’em in somehow.  So, here, now, for anybody who was listening, the titles I intended to promote.  Thanks again to J&K for their generosity and support. 

In no particular order, then, here are some new, important books that we are excited about:

Bearing the Mystery: Twenty Years of Image  edited by Greg Wolfe (Eerdmans) $30.00  Maybe it is best I didn’t bring this up live on air as I could have talked about it for the full hour: it is a large collection of essays, short stories,  creative fiction, insightful non-fiction, paintings and a goodly number of poems from the flagship journal for those involved in the movement of those doing faith-based literary art.  Image has been around for 20 years and stands doubtlessly as the most classy and significant faith-based literary magazine in publication.  This wonderfully bound, handsome and thick hardback is testimonial that through much blood sweat and tears, joy, goodness and grace, a small band of serious Christian writers (and subscribers and donors) have kept this journal alive.  Contributors to this “Images’ greatest hits” text include Scott Cairns, Annie Dillard, Clyde Edgerton, Mako Fujimura, Pat Hampl, Ron Hansen, Denise Levertov, Kathleen Norris, Ann Patchett, Richard Rogriguez and many, many more.  Film-maker Wim Wenders has a piece; there is something by the late, great musician Mark Heard; there is poetry by Luci Shaw; there are stunning full color plates by the likes of Bruce Herman, Catherine Prescott, Tim Lowley, Ed Knippers.  There is a great woodcut by Barry Moser, a moving charcoal scene of Christ’s passion by Wayne Forte, a haunting b/w piece (graphite, gesso, steel, and pastel on birch) by Erica Grimm-Vance.  This book is a stunning bit of serious literature and art and criticism, artfully made, as a labor of love and celebration.   With rave endorsements on the back dustjacket by Dana Gioia and Kenneth Woodward and Jeremy Begbie and Lauren Winner, you can see this is the highest quality stuff.  It perhaps one of the best examples of the ways in which deeply religious artists have made a contribution to the culture.  See their wonderful Image website here. Glory be.

Woman Overboard: How Passion Saved My Life  Jo Kadlecek (Fresh Air) $17.95  This is the second book I’ve enjoyed from this new imprint of the legendary Upper Room press, and it is spectacular.  Fireworks were going off in my brain with certain pages, and I kept running inside from my backyard perch to read a section to anybody that would listen.  Kadlecek has written a number of books and she is good; very good.  These autobiographical pieces hold together as nearly an extended memoir, offering insights about work, calling, passion, relationships, suffering, always finding a way to do more than just go through the motions of life.   Robert Benson, whose tender book on vocation,
 The Echo Within was one of my favorite books of the summer, says that she is a rare writer that has the courage to examine her life closely and gifted “to write so that others can more clearly see the truth in their own lives.”   Learn more about her, her novels and other writing, and her husbands documentary film work at Lamppost Media, here. 

Follow Me to Freedom: Leading and Following as an Ordinary Radical  Shane Claiborne & John M. Perkins (Regal) $14.99  Since my Pittsburgh days with the CCO days in the 70s and our time spent hanging around a few urban churches then, we came to admire and respect John Perkins, an elder African American statesmen of evangelical faith whose books on racial reconciliation and economic development has made him one of the most significant writers of our lifetime. (Read his first autobiographical testimonial, Let Justice Roll Down if you don’t believe me.)  That he founded the wholistic outreach and leadership school in Mendanhall MS, Voice of Calvary, and the important, national CCDA and authored books inviting conservative evangelicals into the civil rights struggle is not his only legacy;  he has mentored dozens of others, leaders in urban ministry, mostly, and is now, in his 80s, wanting to know how to pass the baton on to create a new generation of leaders and followers. These are transcripts of live conversations, with John offering no-nonsense wisdom, and young Shane offering humor, passion and whimsical revolutionary spirit that was seen in his zany and profound Irresistible Revolution.  His own experiences from his work in The Simple Way are amazing, and he adds very relevant insights.  A book by either is worth reading, but this dialogue format makes for a really unique project.

            
              These two men–and older black gentleman and a hipster young white guy— are a perfect duo, and this may be the most interesting book of the fall.  Highly recommended, just for the privilege of listening in on two very, very important and feisty and experienced leaders.

Jesus Loves You This I Know  Craig Cross & Jason Harper (Baker) $17.99  Many admire Craig Cross for his triple x church, the edgy outreach to porn stars and those in the thick of the adult entertainment industry.  They’ve concluded that, in many ways, these are among the most despised folk of our day, and they’ve earned the right to be heard as they show up, buying booths, at this detestable venues (trade shows of porn dealers, etc.)  Believe it or not, they are taken seriously (not so much by the church community, but by the porn dealers and filmakers.)  So, now, after their stint in that, they’ve created this collection of stories that shows that God loves everybody, that the chance to repent is offered to all, and that it is the job of Christ-followers to met people “where they are at” and offer grace and mercy.   These stories are basic, tender, tough, and strangely moving: God really is love, and as we share that good news, people come to understand religion–and a relationship with Christ–in a whole new way.  There is a DVD that goes with it, too ($12.00.)  This DVD has face-to-face conversations with the people described in the book, showing that Jesus does love the porn star, the outcast, the broken, the skeptic, the crook… Pretty touching stuff.  Check it out at www.jesuslovesyou.net and then come back and place an order.  Thanks.

The Gospel Driven Life: Being Good News People in a Bad News World  Michael Horton (Baker) $19.99  Okay, wondrous literary work, passion for life, radical discipleship for justice, and tender tales of care and outreach make for wonderful, inspiring and helpful reading.  I really meant everything I wrote above about how we commend these titles.  I wish I could have explained about them on the air in the radio talk.  Yet, it is our strong conviction (and has been for as long as we’ve been recommending books) that we also need solid, mature, and serious, orthodox theology to under-gird and guide our culturally savvy and edgy, relevant outreach.  A year ago, Reformed theologian Horton gave a devastating critique to both mainline traditions and especially to shallow and trendy evangelicalism in Christ-less Christianity;  he not only exposed the vapidness of liberal Christian doctrine, but lamented the lack of teeth in most evangelical theology.  In both cases, both “sides” of the Protestant church are basically self-help: we can get by without a radical conversion to Christ exalting faith. We don’t really believe in the doctrine of grace.  Here, Horton revisits this dilemma and offers lasting hope: the good news is a narrative of God’s saving work in the world, and the redemptive work of His cross can be applied not only to those outside the church (who need to “hear the gospel”) but to those inside the church who long for Christian growth and maturity.  We must (as Luther said) preach the gospel to ourselves.  This book shows you how.  Right on.

Those who follow Hearts & Minds know that we sometimes get to go out to speak at conferences and retreats, doing presentations on vocation, worldview, cultural engagement, social justice and, of course, talks on reading and other book-related themes.  We were thrilled this past weekend to be a part of the student leadership retreat for those involved in the Gordon College chapel ministry.  Held at a lovely, classic, lakefront camp in New Hampshire, I spoke to vibrant students who do various sorts of ministries and mission projects through the chapel.  Dr. Greg Carmer and his extraordinary staff do great work offering programs, discipleship, worship and mentoring and it was a delight to seem them in action with their student leaders—and to hang out with very impressive college students.  (Plus, I will never hear Tom Petty’s Free Fallin’ again, without thinking of the epic Verizon spoof, Free Callin’.  I love college kids!)

The theme of our time was captured by the wonderfully titled book by our friend, ethicist and now President of Gordon-Conwell Seminary, Dennis Hollinger, called  Head, Heart & Hands: Bringing Together Christian Thought, Passion, and Action (IVP; $15.00.)  What an important concept and challenge, to bring together these facets of Christian growth in a balanced and wholistic way.  It is a theme Dennis has written about, preached on and listened to folks discuss for years, and this book is a culmination of his good insights.  I think it is very important and helpful.

I think we know the sort of reader who attends to our reviews, here, and I think you’d find this to be a great resource, just as the students did at the retreat.  Hollinger tells good stories, sharing about people he has met who have lived in only one facet of their faith, overstating the role of thinking, or feeling, or doing.  That is, many people (and many churches or faith traditions) tend to miss the depths and riches of a truly balanced and multi-faceted faith journey and live with distortions and subsequent problems.  To put it bluntly, they are lopsided. Yes, yes, we must think, and think deeply; we must feel God’s Spirit and be open to heart-felt faith; of course we must live in obedience, doing concrete acts of daily service, deeds, and mission.  But to see faith as only or mostly a matter of the head or heart or hands is to live a fragmented and reduced form of faith that is not adequate, sustainable, or Biblical.  The distortions are real, and dangerous.  Head, Heart & Hands shows us why, and what do to about it.  Perhaps you might refresh your faith this season by considering your own imbalances or peculiar tendencies.  Or you might know somebody whose faith is less than robust, perhaps a bit odd, maybe toxic.  Maybe your own congregational leadership is a one-note song.  Sadly, many churches are not good places for helpful growth, but feed the very distortions described in the book.  This book could help.

Interestingly, this call to nurture all three aspects of faith reminded me of why we chose “hearts & minds” as a phrase to capture what our store is about.  This stuff is important to us, and important to our calling, here.  Do you, too, have a passion to help others grow in balanced and wise faithfulness?  You should know this book.  It is a book that I truly love, and that speaks well to what we hope will be the fruit of selling the books that we do.  We do indeed need to reject shallow faith, anti-intellectualism, or a religion that fails to grapple with life’s deepest questions, and the culture’s toughest critics.  We need to “think Christianly” and read widely. However, we don’t want just arid dogma or a brainy faith, but an experiential encounter with the Spirit (which leads to a wholesome and authentic sense of self, emotional health and a well-centered personality. It was John Calvin, by the way, who insisted that knowledge of God and knowledge of self are intimately related.) And, of course, it is our calling to live out daily discipleship in real practices, coram deo, especially in our particular careers and vocations, seeing all of life as service to God and neighbor.  Besides daily acts of kindness and obedience, we need to be advocates for public justice and peace and creation-care, working hard in the culture for the common good, as neighbors, citizens, and as people of faith communities. 

One of the great strengths of Head, Hearts & Hands is the way Hollinger shows that we don’t just need more of all three aspects of faith.  Actually, all three are deeply intertwined, and our thinking/feeling/doing can be mutually related.  To think more faithfully will truly allow us to love differently–that is, to care–which, if authentic, will cause us to live differently, as we embody the passions of are heart.  And these experiences of passionate feeling and living will naturally allow us to hold new insights, even as we ask deeper questions about the very things we feel and do.  This leads to what he calls “mutual reinforcement” as we seek a whole faith for whole people.  Dennis is very clear about this, concise and helpful, and we really recommend his work.  I only wish I could have cited him more to the students, as re-reading the book helped me prepare for my passionate messages to these young leaders.  So, I commend it to you, here. 

A beautiful, rich book that deserves it’s own review on similar themes, by the way, is the profound Reordered Loves, Reordered Lives: Learning the Deep Meaning of Happiness by David Naugle (Eerdmans; $18.00.)  I have referred to it here before, and told the Gordon students about it.  What we most love, what we care most about in life, will indeed shape what we think and do. Naugle reminds us that worldview formation and spirituality and distinctive Christian lifestyles are, finally, less a matter of our rational views or creedal affirmations, but a matter of the heart and imagination.  You can learn more about it here. 

We hope our book reviews and book-selling facilitates among God’s people more thoughtful
faith, mature spiritual formation, and relevant, faithful social action.  It is our hope that Hollinger’s ruminations on this in Head, Heart & Hands are read and discussed, helping us all with a faithful, balanced, healthy disposition to the things of God’s Kingdom.  And here is a picture of me in lovely Deer Run lodge.  You can’t see it, but the orange chair to my right has a book on it.  Guess what?
 

Dr. Hollinger, by the way, has a recently released book, (which I actually mentioned earlier this summer, I believe.)  It is called The Meaning of Sex: Christian Ethics and the Moral Life (Baker; $19.99.)  As a wise and thoughtful ethicist, I think Hollinger gives us, as Richard Mouw writes, “a rare combination of theological-philosophical expertise, cultural savvy, and pastoral sensitivity.”  Walt Mueller (of the Center for Parent/Youth Understanding) says “it is the best contemporary treatment…I’ll be recommending it as a must read for all pastors, parents, youth workers and young adults.”  We stock that too, of course.  It is a real case study of the need for a unity of tender thinking, passionate feeling and embodied deeds, eh?  Hollinger is really on to something.

Okay, I sort of told a white lie.  Yesterday I waxed on about my favorite books of the summer, hoping folks would shell out for Michael Perry or Richard Doster.  I explained about Holy Roller and The Unlikely Disciple.  Oh yeah, we listed the books we most loved, enjoyed, learned from, and appreciated over these last few months.

But I did not tell you about one of my absolutely finest reading experiences of the season, the time I spent with my advanced promo copy of the forthcoming Donald Miller, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life (Nelson) $19.99.  I didn’t feel right mentioning it since it isn’t out yet, and it is a real privilege that I got an early review copy.

So I didn’t mention it.  But when I look at that list from yesterday–and a fine one it is, if I do say so myself–and I think about sitting out back at our picnic table, I have to mention the forthcoming Miller.  I was a highlight of my summer reading.  Heck, it was a highlight of my summer!

I really did like his million-selling Blue Like Jazz: Non-Religious Thoughts on Christian  Spirituality, and thought his Searching for God Knows What was even stronger—clearer about theological concepts, and an important, helpful look at true faith. (For some reason, some are fretful of his doctrine, and I suggest they actually read this one, at least.)  I got teary at his book on fathering (To Own a Dragon), and am happy to be one of the few bookstores that really got behind his very first book, later re-issued as Through Painted Deserts which tells of a post-college road trip in a van, thinking about God, girls, beauty and such. Well worth reading!  I am not sure exactly why I like his books so much, besides the zany characters he seems to meet and the sly stylings, but if you haven’t read him, you simply must.  He is a good, clever, interesting writer that speaks in a voice that really works.  And he’s got fans.

Miller is a somewhat edgy, s they say, a youngish, hipster-slash-bohemian writer whose evangelical faith is challenged by its cheesy and shallow oddities; he’s smart enough to see through that, and so wants to tell about a more authentic, Christ-like, real kind of faith experience.  So he’s been on a journey, trying to be authentic and hip and real and honest about Jesus and life and times.  It has helped some of our customers when I say that he is moving out of evangelical faith’s cultural in-house ways and sort of meets Anne Lamott on her way into faith, out of her sex and booze addled bohemian past.  They are coming from different places, to be sure, but have a bit in common, it seems.  She is truly one of the better essayists of our time (and a fine novelist) and it is nice that, now, on the very front of Miller’s Million Miles in a Thousand Years hardback, there is this solid Anne Lamott blurb: “I love Donald Miller. He is a man after my own heart.”  Well, there ya go.

Miller is rooted in and seems to remain in the evangelical church, though (in a way Lamott does not, exactly.) He is a writer that reminds me for some reason of Holden Caulfield, with these simple repetitive sentences and odd places for periods.  He tells stories, and he tells them very well, in an understated kind of way.  He’s funny and also insightful, and this may be his most important book. It is certainly less overtly religious than his others, making it ideal for seekers, or for those wanting to figure out their lives.  I suppose that many Christians will want to give it to people, especially angst-ridden 20-somethings or, those like Miller, angst-ridden 30-somethings who may not read a more obvious theological book.  I know it sure won’t turn anybody off, and it will draw people in.  It is a fabulous memoir.

The book will be out in a few weeks, and I must say that I cannot wait to sell it.  I so enjoyed it earlier this summer, truly wanting to see what happens to him as he re-evaluates his life Big Time.  Why does he do this, you ask?  Well, you’ve got to read the book, but basically it is this: some guys are making a movie of his life, based on the popularity and appeal of Blue Like Jazz.  They ask him—white board now moved into his living room at the condominium, starting to map out the screenplay—what he does.   What does he do?  He thinks about God a bit, imagines himself a writer of deep thoughts. He ponders his last and next book,  goes to the coffee shop, complaining about the Christian right, maybe, with some righteous indignation.   He cares about stuff.  Yeah, yeah, they tell him.  Nobody cares about that.  It becomes evident, in chapters that are hilarious, and yet somehow very convicting (to this reader, at least), that for a movie about one’s life to be compelling, it has to have some narrative arc (as they say in the story-biz) and without some admirable action, some struggle, some movement, well, there isn’t much of a movie or story.

 So–get this– the real Don decides that the movie Don is much more interesting and noble and important that he, the real Don, actually is, and decides to do something about it.  If the real Don wouldn’t be all that interesting in the movie, well, perhaps the theories of movie-making—that is, what makes a good story, what makes a good life—might help him reconfigure his own life.

 The subtitle, “what I learned while editing my life” really is exactly what happened.  And, man, does he fly.  A listless, writerly, ironic, Portland-based,  post-evangelical thinker, becomes more intentional, more earnest, more active, more radical, more really real.  It is an amazing transformation, actually.  Graceful?  Well, it isn’t without stumbles and set-backs, but I think it is graceful.  Yes, this is a graceful book.  It is about making a movie about your life, and what that might make you think and do.  That is, he wants his real life to be as interesting and noble as the one in the movie they are making.  Is that a crazy-good idea for a book, or what?  Sederis or Palahniuk didn’t think of that, did they? 

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life by Donald Miller is a can’t-put-down saga, a dramatic bit of storytelling about, well, about storytelling.  It is about the making of a movie, and the need to have the life the movie is about be worthy of making a movie about.  How about you?  Would a movie of your life be interesting?  Good?  If you studied film a bit, read some novels, learned some stuff about narrative arc and virtue and story, might it effect your own sense of the story you are a part of?  Do you think God is a part of that?

We say, these days, that our lives should be part of God’s story.  That our worldview is really best described as the narrative that shapes us, the story we are a part o
f.  That is exactly what Miller discovers, in his lackluster, oddball way.  He is honest and funny and a bit goofy and ends up in Africa and riding his bike across country and paddling in a kayak or something up to Alaska or somewhere.  He meets some rich people, and some not so rich people.  He tells of a very, very moving funeral, where the person’s life obviously was worth mourning and celebrating.  He wonders about his.  And he invites you to wonder about yours.  This is one of the books of the year, hip, funny, interesting, contemporary, and deeply right.  Our lives need to make sense, and they do that when we live for something other than our own sorry selves.

As is often the case, I’m not quite ready for the Fall to begin.  For one thing, there are too many books still on my “want to read soon” stack, and a few lovely titles that just seem right for summer.  Oh well.  This really has been a rich reading season for Beth and I—that isn’t always the case as sometimes we are just too busy handling the books to actually read much.  So, we’re happy about the lists we’ve made, and the titles we’ve loved.   Here are

Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs and Parenting Michael Perry (Harper) $25.99  I’ve noted this before and both Beth and I name this as our number one book of the summer.  Perry is a decent, decent chap, a funny and thoughtful guy, and a heckuva good writer. We love his work.  Some of his sentences just made me smile, others had an impact that I can hardly explain.  Here he is, again, in the middle of rural Wisconsin, recalling his religious upbringing, his farming family, and he narrates a season where he and his new wife do a home birth, raise some pigs, build a chicken coop, mourn the death of relatives child, struggle with the balance of his writing life and their rural life, trying to be good neighbors, good to each other, and actually get some stuff done.  This is one of my all time favorite books, and it is intelligent, wise, very well crafted, and deeply caring.  Highly recommended.  Then get his others, Population 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time,  Off Main Street, and Truck: A Love Story.
 

Holy Roller: Finding Redemption and the Holy Ghost in a Forgotten Texas Church Julie Lyons (Waterbrook) $18.99  This is the story of a white reporter who enters the world of inner city, Black Pentecostalism, where she is mentored by a self-taught holiness pastor and his wife, even as she reports on their healing ministry among crack addicts.  From learning about deliverance from demons, to learning about racism and urban struggles, Lyons and her husband and young child take to the church, and, twenty-plus years later, are still members, the only whites in the African American storefront congregation.  Ms Lyons—a fairly conservative evangelical, now Holiness Pentecostal, who herself has a bit of a backstory of her own sadnesses—writes a blog for her newspaper, the Dallas Observer, that is owned by The Village Voice;  her pro-life stance and calls for traditional sexual ethics are not popular amongst the liberal gay-friendly readership, but the Voice, to their credit, keeps her on. (Talk about diversity!)  So, this woman from a pretty strict, all-white, up-tight, up-bringing, now is getting death threats from her newspaper readership, working the crime beat in what in the 90s was one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in America, and learning to be a spirit-led Christian among these elder brothers and sisters in a run-down Dallas church where poor blacks come, expecting miracles amidst drugs, sexual violence, gangs and all the rest.

It is hard to tell you how thrilling this book was, and how it oddly kept both Beth and I up nights, reading to see what crazy episode would crack open next.  For those who have any interest in charismatic renewal, urban problems, the historic black church, racial reconciliation, or a just rip-roaring spiritual memoir, this is a fine read.  As Rod Dreher, of the Dallas Morning News says, “Extraordinary…Few mainstream journalists would have the guts to write with such naked honesty.”  For a fabulous interview with the author, go here.

The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University  Kevin Roose (Grand Central) $24.99  I think it was my friend Derek Melleby who convinced me that this was really very important, a fabulous inside look at evangelical students, at college life, and at how American fundamentalism is seen by an outsider.  A very talented young journalist from Brown University takes on, as it says on the back, a “cross-cultural journey of Biblical proportions.”  Roose is a fun,  writer—he was an intern with the talented and hilarious A. J. Jacobs, who helped him cook up this crazy idea of going undercover to pretend he was a fundy student at Falwell’s Liberty U. Of course, Roose doesn’t quite know enough to know how to do that, (like, for instance, that he wasn’t supposed to cuss, and he ought to know how to locate and pronounce the books of the Bible–duh.) Those of us who have spent time in the evangelical sub-culture will cringe and laugh and cry at his awkward situations. (And those who wonder what a men’s dorm is like, well, you get that, too, vividly.) Yet, Mr. Roose is open-minded, and like any good undercover anthropologist, learns to love his subjects.  And what subjects they are!  Rob Bell says of it, “This is a brilliant book. Absolutely brilliant. Roose’s wisdom, humanity, and love kept me going.  And I laughed.  A lot.”  Yep.  I don’t care if you like Falwell or don’t like Falwell, if you are interested in American colleges or care about the evangelical sub-culture, this is a great story, well written, interesting and humane.  Enjoy.

Plenty: One Man, One Woman, and a Raucous Year of Eating Locally  Alisa Smith & J.B. Mackinnon  (Harmony) $13.95  All right, I’ll say it right out: I liked this better than another book I said I liked last summer, Animals, Vegetables, Miracles by the esteemed and vital Barbara Kingsolver.  Yes, Kingsolver is a master of luscious sentences, and her story of their year of farming was very nicely done.  But this!  This was fun, really interesting, and significantly engaged me as this young couple promise to live on what they’ve dubbed “the 100 mile diet.”  That is, to keep from wasting energy and fuel by shipping food all over the planet–a wasteful and unsustainable habit that they don’t spend too much time describing—they intend to eat only stuff grown within 100 miles of their Vancouver home.  They are both journalists, so they’ve got the reporting thing down, and as young writers, they’ve got a spunky style that is appealing and clever. Some of their pages are truly beautiful, some nearly anguishing.  As Deborah Madison, author of Local Flavors, writes, “I assure you that your farmer’s market will never again look the same.  Nothing you eat will look the same!  This inspiring and enlightening book will give you plenty to chew on.”  Yes, it is noble, and give us much to think about as we try to live better lives; Bill McKibben is right in his blurb that says that their account shows us how we might
live in a way that is “better for this earth, better for the community and better for our bellies.”  But  here is why I list it now: it was just a hoot to read and I really grew to care about them. They can really write.  It was a great saga. I couldn’t put it down. Yay.  By the way, I showed the cover art of the wonderful hardcover ($24.95) above,  although the paperback has a new design.  And a new subtitle, the more prosaic Eating Locally on the 100 Mile Diet. 

Causing a Scene: Extraordinary Pranks in Ordinary Places With Improv Everywhere
Charlie Todd & Alex Scordelis  (William Morrow) $19.99  I know I often list heavy books about theology and social criticism and social injustice and deep stuff about our inner lives.  It’s what we do, mostly, and we think our readers appreciate knowing books about the intersection of faith and culture, worship and work, prayer and politics.  I love regular non-fiction. But sometimes, I just am taken with a book, or even a part of a book that doesn’t have too much point.  I had know idea about “Improve Everywhere” (but my kids knew, and you probably do to.)  They just pull off these large-scale outdoor stunts, pranks that they truly insist should not harm anyone, with a network of folks that show up that they call “agents.” (I’m not making this up!)   They invade a Best Buy store with hundreds of people dressed in blue and kakhi, and watch the mayhem for a bit.  They recruit people to “freeze” in Grand Central Station, freaking people out. They host an autograph signing in a real bookstore with an author that has been dead for a century, until the store makes ’em leave.  They are unpredictable, off the grid, loony, brave, and I think on to something.  I’m just not sure what.  This book explains some of their best pranks, how they came up with the ideas, and I think explained the details of what actually went down during the actions.  I can’t actually say, because I was laughing too hard to actually read it all, and went on line right away to see this stuff.  The Youtube videos are  entertaining, but–and I’m not just saying this–the book really is better. In the acknowledgments, the authors admit that they’ve learned about the “Situationists” art movement, but they mostly thank Andy Kauffman and the Flaming Lips in the acknowledgments.  Of course they do.  Check out .www.improveverywhere.com. 

I have not read nearly any novels this summer, although (as you can see) my love for memoirs leads me to books that nearly seem like fiction—who could make up this kind of stuff?  Beth has covered a lot of fictional ground, though, and wanted to give a shout out to a writer we respect, a smart guy who edits a very thoughtful magazine called byFaith, Richard Doster.  Doster’s novel of last year, Safe at Home (Cook; $6.99) was a 2009 Christy Award Nominee and is now available in an inexpensive, handsome mass market sized paperback.  It is about a sports writer, covering baseball in the south about the time of the civil rights movement. It covers sports, yes, and has a classic Southern feel, taking us into the spring of 1953, in a small town called Whitney. (Doster himself lives in Atlanta, and is a Mississippi native.)  As the town comes to grips with racial integration, some very moving stuff unfolds.  Beth loved it, actually, and insists that one doesn’t have to be a baseball fan to appreciate the well-told story.  One doesn’t have to like bee keeping, necessarily, to enjoy The Secret Life of Bees, of course, and Moby Dick isn’t really just for fisherman.  Get it.
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Crossing the Lines is Richard Doster’s new one (Cook; $14.99) and it picks up where Safe At Home ended.  The reporter Jack Hall has moved and yet finds himself on the fault lines of race and class as he is sent to cover the Montgomery bus boycott for his new paper.  Beth may not be a scholar or historian of this, but she knows a bit about the civil rights movement, and was impressed at the historical accuracy that Doster carries.  Some rare names are mentioned, showing us he’s done his homework on the details.  More importantly, though, for a novel, the story rings true. The characters are interesting.  The plot unfolds well, the writing is much better than average.  Thank goodness for this kind of fiction, rooted in a Christian worldview, but not didactic or preachy. It is full of drama, though…  Highly recommended.

Some years near Labor Day we note recent books that help people of faith relate their spirituality to the workplace, develop a Christian perspective in their career fields, or learn to be a faithful agent of God’s Kingdom “in, but not of” the culture of the work-world. 

As you may know, we have an annotated bibliography––just click on “vocations“ at the
website—that lists and describes a handful of books for various career areas.  Originally designed for college students wanting to supplement their studies by reading  authors who related Biblical thinking to their academic discipline, we’ve heard of professionals and career oriented folk in the world-world who say they’ve never been invited to read a book about their job, and were astonished to see our vast listings there.  So, we encourage Hearts & Minds friends to check out that set of bibliographies, seeing how I describe books for businesspeople, media professionals, artists, farmers, counselors, teachers, or engineers.  From special education to environmental studies, from law to literature, from health care to home-making, we have descriptions of titles that would allow you to see your job in light of God’s light.  Pastors or campus ministers or youth workers who are reading this— I hope you keep this bibliography bookmarked on your favorites list, so you can refer to it often as you equip your saints for daily discipleship, serving God in their particular field of endeavor.  What does it say about our pastoral leadership when folks are interviewed about their call to serve God in their career areas and they report that they never heard of such a thing, rarely heard a sermon about work, never knew there were books offering a spirituality of labor? 

In fact, I will list two books about these themes that are exactly for pastors. I hate to say it, but our experience is that most pastors don’t read this kind of stuff, so if you are passionate about the role of what they call “the laity” and would like to see your church leadership more overtly involved in raising up work-world concerns within your congregation, you may have to buy this for him or her.  I’m sure they wouldn’t mind the encouragement, and may be eager to know you want more nurture in a theology of labor, how to live faithfully at the job site, and how to find greater meaning in the 9-to-5.

Lasting Investments: A Pastor’s Guide for Equipping Workplace Leaders  Kent Humphreys (NavPress) $14.99  This is an excellent guide for how pastors can influence key folks, helping them in their own marketplace ministries.  Highly recommended, clear and precise, and a good reminder of what it means to mentor folks so that they themselves can then make a difference.

Faith as a Way of Life: A Vision for Pastoral Leadership Christian Scharen (Eerdmans)
$15.00  Scharen is a sharp writer and good thinker working as the director of the Faith as a Way of Life Program at the Yale Center for Faith & Culture (at Yale Divinity School.)  Drawing on foundational work about practices developed by the likes of Dorothy Bass, this book tells of the research this author has done among mainline pastors, asking them how they equip their congregants to live out faith in the ordinary.  He not only reports on the ways in which folks can think faithfully about life, but offers pastoral guidance about helping the faithful “connect the dots” between Sunday and Monday.  He drew on workers, artists, politicians, family leaders and others to help hear how best to construe the primary spheres of contemporary life as a place of God’s presence, and how to caste a vision of whole life discipleship across the whole of culture.  Very nicely done.

Playing Heaven: Rediscovering Our Purpose as Participants in the Mission of God  R. Paul Stevens (Regent) $21.95  A hard to find treasure, this author has been at the forefront of thoughtful evangelical advocacy for everyday theology, marketplace ministry, and helping pastors support ordinary folks in their vocations and callings.  Missional living?  Relating faith and work?  Equipping the whole people of God to to live out their faith in the real world?  This is a collection of articles, studies, book reviews, interviews, nearly an omnibus book of Steven’s shorter pieces published on this vital topic.  Should be in every church library and every pastor’s bookshelf, for quick reference and loaning out.

Christianity Today Study Series Faith & Work  Current Issues Bible Studies (Nelson) $9.99 This includes a few brief articles that have appeared in the award winning journal, with discussion questions, reflection pieces and Bible study material.  8 weeks.  Really the best small group resource on this topic.  (They have others in this series, by the way, on pop culture, on creation care, on the role of the Bible, on politics, and one we love called Engaging the Culture.  All are highly recommended, as they bring together brief articles and Bible texts.)

There are classic works on a Christian view of the dignity of work, and we have recommended many before: Loving Monday, Monday Matters, Your Work Matters to God, The 9-to-5 Window, The Other Six Days, The Gift of Work, Joy at Work.  There are books on vocation and calling.  There are devotionals for workers, books to give business people, etcetera, etcetera etcetera. Please call for more info!

Here, though, are some others that have captured my attention just recently.  Enjoy!

The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work  Alain De Botton (Pantheon) $26.00  I reviewed this briefly earlier this summer in a Comment magazine article, and I remain convinced it is beautifully done, thoughtful, and important guide to various jobs and how people manage in their work.  De Botton, you may know, has written a wonderful book called The Architecture of Happiness and some on how philosophy matters for ordinary life.  At the end of the first chapter, on dock workers, he notes that they inspired the book, and that he hopes it might function like those eighteenth-centur
y paintings of cityscapes that show so many different folks in their various stations and jobs and places.  These inclusive scenes, he writes, and his book, he hopes, “serve to remind us of the place which work accords each of us within the human hive.”  De Botton continues, ” I was inspired by the men at the pier to attempt a hymn to the intelligence, peculiarity, beauty and horror of the modern work-place, and, not least, its extraordinary claim to be able to provide us, alongside love, with the principal source of life’s meaning.”   Lovely, smart, inspiring, insightful.    Read my fuller review here.

Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work  Matthew B. Crawford (The Penguin Press) $25.95  We’ve been touting this book before it even came out and believe it to be one of the great books of the year.  A brainy PhD working in the world of think tanks and the academy ends up starting a motorcycle repair shop and discovering not only his own passion and calling, but discerns much about the nature of schooling and work.  He’s been on The Colbert Report, excerpted in the New York Times magazine, and is getting buzz among sharp folks that are interested in the nature of what it means to know stuff in our world of information, data, bytes and bites.  He is interested about the relationship between working with one’s hands and what it means to find meaning in daily work, hard work, work that takes craftsmanship and quality, insight and care.  As philosopher Albert Borgman notes, our cultural renewal “will have more depth and grace if we read Crawford’s book and take it to heart.”  One reviewer, Rod Dreher, says it is “brilliant and true and perfect for its time.”

The Echo Within: Finding Your True Calling  Robert Benson (Waterbrook) $14.99  I’ve read his book on baseball, on tourism, on gardening, on fixed hour prayer, on the Rule of Benedict, and, just recently, his new one on community. (Which was brief and utterly lovely.)  He is an economical writer, not splashy or verbose, but tells wonderful stories, explains his insights in clear, wonderfully crafted prose laced with just a bit of understated humor.  I cannot exactly say why I am so appreciative of his dignified writing style;  others agree, though, that it is honest and clear and enjoyable and tender, making him a fine and important author.  He is often self-depreciating, humble, candid.  He writes as a friend, and that is a great grace to get right.  Anyway, this book may be one of his most personal, telling of his love for the book biz–he went to his father’s publishing plant even as a boy–and how that eventually, through ups and downs, false starts and hairy turns, led him to become a writer.  This is a wondrous book, full of insight into finding one’s calling, learning to be attentive to our most authentic selves, and find joy by listening to God’s voice as it is heard, deep within.  Truly lovely.

The One-Life Solution: Reclaim Your Personal Life While Achieving Greater Professional Success Dr. Henry Cloud (Collins) $24.95  I tend to avoid recommending typical self-help books, supposing that BookNotes readers are looking for stuff they may not find other places, and these kinds of personal guides to improved living– well, they are ubiquitous.  I greatly appreciated Cloud’s several book on boundaries, and his Integrity:The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality (Collins; $16.99) is very good.  So I finally gave this a fair glance, and found myself being described on waaaaay too many pages.  Frustrated, nearing depression, energy zapped, fearful of challenges at work, and sadly, aware that my personal mess has hurt or discouraged others.  I love the language that Cloud uses, inviting not balance or managing tensions between work and home, relationships and self, professional success and inner happiness, but, rather, the language of integration.  We have just one life, after all, and being the same person, in each zone or side of life–and fully present relationally, emotionally, professionally, being competent and kind along the way—is the key.  The “one-life” solution.  Are you aware how in the last decade many job stresses have increased as we pile on more and more, mostly via the web and email and cell phones?  Do you fret about the erosion of sane boundaries between work and home?  Perhaps those who have been helped by Boundaries or other Cloud titles would see this as Boundaries at Work, and it is at least that.  And more.  Highly recommended for, well, if the statistics are true, nearly everybody out there.

The Truth About You: Your Secret To Success  Marcus Buckingham (Nelson) $29.99  This author is one of these top-tier consultants that has worked with Fortune 500 companies, and has done a huge amount of work in the corporate world.  He has done more than 150,000 interviews over the last two decades and has developed a thesis for how to determine one’s personal strengths, and how to develop them in the workplace.  This is an interactive book, which comes with an enhanced DVD and a memo pad.  This uses some of the Stengthfinders stuff, applying it in a very hip package, colorful, usable, interesting.  We have a few extras of these nifty little volumes, so can sell them at half price, while supplies last.  That’s $15 even.

Working: Its Meaning and Its Limits  edited by Gilbert Meilaender (University of Notre Dame) $19.95  Want to read excerpts about work, gleaned from sources as diverse as Aristotle to Marx, Longfellow to Sayers?  With an anthology of 75 selections, this is a fascinating, wise, and profound resource. Want to dip into the heavy theorist Charles Taylor?  Enjoy the charm of Witold Rybczynski?  Be challenged and inspired by Tolstoy or Oliver Wendell Holmes?  Here is Abraham Joshua Heschel and Karl Barth and John Calvin.  And  poetry and Bible, and George Will’s piece called Men at Work on baseball.

Forgetting Ourselves on Purpose: Vocation and the Ethics of Ambition  Brian J. Mahan (Jossey Bass) $21.95  This author teaches a college course on vocation and ambition, drawing on deeply thoughtful sources such as Gerald May and Robert Coles and James Fowler and Parker Palmer…he tells stories, offers mature insight, and writes wonderfully.  If you’ve followed our fascination with books like the classic Os Guinness title, The Call, or other studies of vocation, this is a fabulous study, deeper in and farther along.  Sweet.