| Body Piercing Saved My Life: Inside the Phenomenon of Christian Rock by Andrew Beaujon, 276 pages Brad Snyder 31 July 2006 A very concise, well-researched, accurate, and fair critique and explanation of Christian music and the evangelical subculture, written from the perspective of a non-Christian. You've gotta love any book that opens with quotes from Martin Luther and Hank Hill on the same page. Excellent. | How Good is Good Enough? (2003) by Andy Stanley, 94 pages Brad Snyder 10 June 2007 A concise little work that challenges the commonly held notion that "good people go to heaven". |
Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott, 275 pages Brad Snyder 25 April 2006 An honest, albeit earthy, look at faith. |
A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering America on the Appalachian Trail (1998) by Bill Bryson, 274 pages Brad Snyder 20 September 2007 A fun book made all the more enjoyable by the fact that I have been in many of the same places Bryson visited in this book (most recently, the dreadful towns of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, TN). I too hiked small portions of the Appalachian Trail in my youth and now foster a strange desire to visit again sometime soon. Steve, thanks for the recommendation. |
The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir (2006) by Bill Bryson, 288 pages Brad Snyder 21 May 2008 This collection of memories describing growing up in Des Moines in the fifties is the funniest thing I have read in a long time. Excellent. |
Roaring Lambs: A Gentle Plan to Radically Change Your World by Bob Briner, 179 pages Brad Snyder 04 March 2008 Briner could have summed up his entire book with one paragraph. Nothing really earth shattering but not a bad read. |
The Beatles : The Biography by Bob Spitz, 992 pages Brad Snyder 26 March 2006 Any true fan of rock 'n' roll must acknowledge the influence and legend of the Beatles--the band that was turned down by every record label at the time, and then recorded at first only as an audition. Sometimes, though, it's best to leave legends alone. This book, while mostly interesting, is very depressing. It's all here, from the mundane Lennon family history, through the ultimate drug-, financial-, and ego-induced decline. Unfortunately, there is no redemption in this story. The individual members were never able tap into the greatness they enjoyed as a group, leaving us with Paul's Wings, John's forays into the avante-garde, George's collaborations as a back-up artist, and Ringo playing the role of "Mr. Conductor" on Thomas the Tank Engine. |
On the Move (2006) by Bono, 64 pages Brad Snyder 04 April 2007 This little book contains the full text of the sermon/speech/homily Bono gave at the 2006 National Prayer Breakfast accompanied by pictures he took while visiting a refugee camp in Ethiopia in 1986. |
The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning, 240 pages Brad Snyder 31 December 2005 Manning challenges us to truly come to Jesus just as we are: without pretensions, moral rectitude, or religious language that always manage to trip us up on our journey to Him. |
A Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLaren, 304 pages Brad Snyder 25 August 2005 The subtitle of this book is, "Why I Am a Missional, Evangelical, Post/Protestant, Liberal/Conservative, Mystical/Poetic, Biblical, Charismatic/Contemplative, Fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Green, Incarnational, Depressed-yet-Hopeful, Emergent, Unfinished Christian". As you can probably surmise from the extremely long subtitle, McLaren has written a book where he draws some of the good from about every single Christian, political, and social philosophy. In so doing, however, he comes off sounding as if he believes, well...nothing. Great if you're a nihilist; bad if you're the pastor of a church...like McLaren. I give this book one whole thumb down, instead of the usual two I would give a book I hate, first because there were at least three paragraphs that I liked, and second because I'm being "generous". |
Fields of the Fatherless by C. Thomas Davis, 146 pages Brad Snyder 20 September 2005 This little book is a conversational sermon about the need to reach out to the widows, orphans, naked, and hungry all around us. More than just a man preaching a sermon, Davis is living it, having adopted children into his own family. Not very deep, but an important, although sometimes forgotten, message. |
Sick Puppy by Carl Hiaasen, 513 pages Brad Snyder 30 December 2006 Bizarre |
The Shadow of the Wind (2005) by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, 487 pages Brad Snyder 09 February 2009 This outstanding book grabbed me in the first few pages and didn't let me go. It's about a boy that finds and reads a book written by an author whose works are being destroyed by a mysterious phantom-like figure. His quest to find out why leads us on a story of lost love and betrayal. |
Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford, 44 pages Brad Snyder 12 November 2006 My wife is currently teaching African-American history at a local high school, and purchased this book from the book fair at my childrens' school for that purpose. It offers a quasi-fictional rendering of Harriet Tubman's life from the perspective of her conversations with God. It is beautifully illustrated by Kadir Nelson. I recommend it to anyone with children. |
Loving Homosexuals As Jesus Would: A Fresh Christian Approach by Chad W. Thompson, 183 pages Brad Snyder 19 January 2006 Thompson was a guest of a radio show in Charlotte shortly after this book was first published. I found him intriguing, but he faced criticisms from many callers: most of them from Christians who called in to criticize his message (and who never read his book). He points out in the book that Christians are good at "hating the sin", but fall short when it comes to "loving the sinner." Having homosexual friends, neighbors, and coworkers, I thought I had a good understanding of the mindset of homosexuals, but this book opened my eyes to many things I couldn't have understood outside of someone telling me. This book is immensely practical, and, as an ex-gay (his term), he faces criticisms from both Christians (as I heard on the radio) and homosexual activists. The book is part testimonial, part psychology, and part guidebook, and calls Christians to account for their failures to properly understand and love homosexuals the way we should. |
Faith on the Line: Dare to Make a Kingdom Difference by Charles Colson, 129 pages Brad Snyder 01 January 2007 This is the first book by Colson I have ever read, since I long ago cast him into the heap of voices that I had deemed irrelevant to modern conversations of faith. I was wrong. Colson's call to action is relevant to the evangelical church now, and will be for many years. |
In His Steps by Charles M. Sheldon, 251 pages Brad Snyder 22 August 2005 The book that started the bracelets! This fictional work was originally prepared as a series of sermons. By the end of the story, Sheldon was preaching to extremely large crowds. The story follows the lives of several people that decide to make every single decision based on what they think Jesus would do. Some find happiness in obedience, some lose everything. It would be interesting to see the faithful try it out. What a different world it would be... |
My Fundamentalist Education: A Memoir of a Divine Girlhood by Christine Rosen, 231 pages Brad Snyder 16 December 2006 "This was a world far removed from the mild Methodist devotion of my infant baptism, but I conformed to it quickly." This quote couldn't be more true for me. The difference between the author and myself is that I embraced fundamentalism at age 18 when I went away to college rather than when I was in Kindergarten like the author. I wanted to know God and to escape the demons that I knew from life to that point. Perhaps being an adult when I embraced fundamentalism made it easier to turn away from it while still in college (philosophically anyway). In any case, I learned that fundamentalism isn't God, and I never left my newfound faith in Christ. Rosen's portrait is free from animosity and often humorous. She supplies a "where are they now" chapter at the end where she offers fond updates on her friends and teachers that are featured in the book, and tells a little of her now fully secular life. Still, she makes it clear that she respects and even appreciates the education she received as a child and credits fundamentalism with her forays into intellectual pursuits later in life. Recommended for anyone who wallowed in the fundy culture for any period of time. |
Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas (2006) by Chuck Klosterman, 374 pages Brad Snyder 20 May 2007 If you told me a few years ago that there was a book that begins with Britney Spears and includes thoughts about stealing Hitler's wallet before closing with a story of a woman falling from the sky, I would have said that it must be good. This book proves the fact. |
Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story (2005) by Chuck Klosterman, 245 pages Brad Snyder 08 July 2007 Klosterman set out on a road trip across the USA to visit all the spots where rock stars have died: the New York hotel where Sid Vicious allegedly killed his girlfriend Nancy to the greenhouse in Seattle where Kurt Cobain shot himself. What he ended up writing about instead was all the girls he's loved before. |
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto (2004) by Chuck Klosterman, 253 pages Brad Snyder 23 July 2007 I enjoyed "Klosterman IV" and "Killing Yourself to Live" more, but this still has its high points, mostly in the first few chapters of the book. Interesting observations about the Sims and "Left Behind" series. |
Downtown Owl: A Novel (2008) by Chuck Klosterman, 288 pages Brad Snyder 24 December 2008 If this had been written by Jerry Seinfeld, it would have been funnier, but it's definitely the novel about nothin'. |
The Road (2006) by Cormac McCarthy, 241 pages Brad Snyder 28 July 2007 When the world ends because of a nuclear war (?), all will be barren. Humanity will remain as scavengers of a barren, lifeless world. And apostrophes and quotation marks will cease to exist. |
Engaging God's World: A Christian Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living by Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., 169 pages Brad Snyder 03 April 2005 Plantinga has deepened my understanding of world view with this wonderfully written and mentally challenging book. The theme is that as Christians, we should be longing for "shalom", and he articulates the need to see the world through the theological understanding of the Creation, Fall, and Redemption. While it's written for a college-aged audience, it is relevant for all. |
The Gutter: Where Life is Meant to be Lived by Craig Gross, 156 pages Brad Snyder 11 December 2005 Written by the co-founder of XXXChurch.com, a fantastic ministry to those enslaved by pornography, Gross challenges Christians to find the gutter in which they should minister and then go and do it. Be it porn stars (as he does), transvestite prostitutes in San Francisco, starting a Hooters Outreach (I hear the wings are delicious), or weekly visits to a lonely little old lady in a nursing home, our comfort zones should be no obstacle to loving others for Jesus. |
Blankets by Craig Thompson, 582 pages Brad Snyder 24 March 2006 I'm new to this particular art form. The drawings added a depth missing from most standard books, but the two-dimensional nature made them subtle enough to allow my imagination some room to operate and that film tends to retard. The story is that of Thompson's search for meaning, drawn from his parallel experiences with Christianity and teenage love. A thought-provoking and engaging story. Thanks to Jonathan for the recommendation. |
What Is the What (2006) by Dave Eggers, 475 pages Brad Snyder 04 July 2007 Fictionalized story of one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, based on the accounts of one of those boys. |
You Shall Know Our Velocity (2002) by Dave Eggers, 352 pages Brad Snyder 07 August 2007 Two friends on a trip to Senegal, Morocco, Estonia, and Latvia, grieving another friend and giving away money. |
How We Are Hungry: Stories (2004) by Dave Eggers, 224 pages Brad Snyder 23 September 2007 A collection of short stories mostly speaking to the selfish nature and shortsightedness of mankind. |
The Man Comes Around: The Spiritual Journey of Johnny Cash by Dave Urbanski, 240 pages Brad Snyder 03 February 2006 Not as good as Turner's biography of Cash, but it offers stories not covered there or in Cash's autobiography. His writing style is a bit clunky and he relies more on other people's observations rather than adding his own critical eye to the subject matter, but it's not a bad read overall. |
Everyday Apocalypse: The Sacred Revealed in Radiohead, the Simpsons, and Other Pop Culture Icons by David Dark, 160 pages Brad Snyder 20 June 2006 Dark's writing is dense, but the thoughts are inspiring. The first and last chapters, along with the chapter on Flannery O'Connor made this book worthwhile. |
Holidays on Ice (1997) by David Sedaris, 134 pages Brad Snyder 01 February 2007 Christmas tales, all intended to be funny. One hits the mark. One gets close. One utilizes the ironic to demonstrate human greed. The others could be burned. |
Me Talk Pretty One Day (2000) by David Sedaris, 272 pages Brad Snyder 01 April 2009 I saw that Steve read this and I remembered that it was on my mental reading list. Hilarious. |
Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality by Donald Miller, 256 pages Brad Snyder 20 August 2005 The "Mere Christianity" for this generation. Miller's writing style is conversational, humorous, and approachable. A must read. |
Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller, 256 pages Brad Snyder 17 January 2007 While different than his magnum opus "Blue Like Jazz", Miller is no less insightful in this theological statement. |
Through Painted Deserts: Light, God, and Beauty on the Open Road by Donald Miller, 256 pages Brad Snyder 15 March 2007 Miller tells the story of the road trip from Houston, TX to Portland, OR he took in a rickety '71 Volkswagon Van with a buddy and not much money. It is not his normal socio-theological fare, but is still classic Miller: witty and entertaining. |
Passport Israel by Donna Rosenthal, 96 pages Brad Snyder 14 December 2005 Working for an Israeli-owned company, I thought it would be prudent to brush up on Israeli culture, business, customs, and etiquette. I hope it works... |
Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture by Douglas Coupland, 183 pages Brad Snyder 02 July 2006 This book coined the term "Generation X". It's Friends meets the Canterbury Tales: Friends in that the characters are three twenty-something friends that are struggling to understand the meaning of life and live in some bungalows on the cheap side of Palm Springs, having thrown off the trappings of their once aspiring middle-class, corporate slave lives. It reminds me of Canterbury Tales in that you learn more about the characters through the stories they tell throughout. An interesting and entertaining read. |
JPod (2006) by Douglas Coupland, 448 pages Brad Snyder 31 January 2007 Amoral 20-something video game programmers and the lives they lead. I can't figure out whether Coupland writing himself into the book as a character is a brilliant act of self-effacing humor, or a stupid stunt that irritates the snot out of me. Oh, I think I finally got the memo...this entry marks my first with the publication year after the title. Bonus. |
Take These Letters: Follow the Mail Deliverer to the Seven Churches by E. Alan Roberts, 160 pages Brad Snyder 31 March 2006 This is the strangest commentary I've ever read. It was written in the first person from the perspective of the servant delivering the letters of Revelation 2 and 3 to the appropriate churches. I didn't find it incredibly helpful in my study, but it is an interesting approach. |
Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical's Inside View of White Christianity (2006) by Edward Gilbreath, 207 pages Brad Snyder 21 May 2007 Serving as an intern at a multi-racial church has allowed me to work alongside people of different races and denominational backgrounds. With the blessings, though, comes the need for understanding. Gilbreath attempts to help this by outlining an historic and socially-conscious view of the American evangelical church--one whose culture is more lily white and xenophobic than us crackers tend to understand because this same culture also nurtures our ignorance of these facts. |
The Barbarian Way: Unleash the Untamed Faith Within by Erwin Raphael McManus, 160 pages Brad Snyder 11 December 2006 A 160 page stream of conscious-type sermon about painting outside the lines in the faith. It ranks one great big yawn. |
The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor, 572 pages Brad Snyder 14 June 2006 O'Connor's stories are captivating snapshots of real people, with all their haughtiness and conceit on full display. The endings are often sudden and violent, and yet there are also glimpses of redemption. Hauntingly beautiful. |
Baptism by Francis A. Schaeffer, 25 pages Brad Snyder 11 March 2006 I had a friend that once confessed to me that he did not want to be baptized in his Baptist church because he thought it was little more than a hazing ceremony. The Reformed denominations don't treat it as the center of theology like Baptists do, and this little booklet is an excellent and concise explanation of that understanding from both a logical and theological perspective. |
Honeymoon with My Brother: A Memoir (2005) by Franz Wisner, 274 pages Brad Snyder 29 September 2007 A guy gets jilted after a ten year relationship only five days before his wedding. What to do? Since everything is paid for, why not still have the party with all of your friends? But what of the honeymoon? Not wanting to waste all that money he spent to go to Costa Rica. Wisner invited his brother. They enjoyed the adventure so much that they sold their belongings and made a two year journey around the world out of it. Good story, witty and observant, even if it drags in places. |
Saint Francis of Assisi by G.K. Chesterton, 160 pages Brad Snyder 09 January 2006 I originally started reading this book in a Borders here in Charlotte. Being a fan of Francis, and longing to read something from Chesterton, I was immediately absorbed by the first chapter. What followed, however, was different than I expected. This isn't so much a biography, as it is an explanation of Francis' philosophy and ideology, mixed with an apologetic written to the doubters about his life and works. Not a bad book overall, but I would have preferred to read more of his exploits. |
The Meaning of the Millennium: Four Views (1977) by George Eldon Ladd (Ed.), 223 pages Brad Snyder 10 June 2007 Four contributors, each representing one of the four eschatological views, present the case for the view they hold. Each view is then followed by a critique by the other three. Jolly good fun. My favorite quote, by editor George Eldon Ladd, in reference to the dominant (in the US) Premillenial view: "...the tendency to identify God's cause with Zionism and the nation of Israel can lend support to policies which do not make for peace on earth. The United States could well be drawn into war in the Middle East and many evangelicals might be responsible for the attitudes that can lead to that conflict." |
In the Name of Jesus: Reflections on Christian Leadership by Henri J.M. Nouwen, 82 pages Brad Snyder 24 May 2006 Nouwen was a Roman Catholic priest who ministered to the mentally disabled after years of teaching seminary at Harvard. This small but deep book is a sermon he delivered in Washington, DC (actually, Arlington, VA) about the role of ministry in the coming (now present) century. With his gentle tone and deft understanding of Scripture and human nature, he identifies the need for Christian leaders to stop pursuing relevance, popularity, and power, and instead embrace lives of prayer, confession, and downward mobility. I have tried to read this book every year since it appeared in the mail three years ago. Thank you for the gift, Jonathan. |
The Lord of the Rings, Part 1: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien, 458 pages Brad Snyder 15 July 2006 I read this out loud to my son, using voices for all the characters, an activity I greatly enjoyed. I'm looking forward to watching the movie again, now that I understand the story more. |
The Lord of the Rings, Part 2: The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien, 398 pages Brad Snyder 27 May 2007 I'm still doing the voices and still enjoying the time with my son. However, at the risk of causing a whole lot of people to question my sanity and taste, I really don't understand why everyone thinks this book is so great. It contains at least 100 pages of the most boring prose written since "The Scarlet Letter" as he describes the (lame) journey of Frodo and Sam. The movie is better. |
Whose Bible Is It? A History of the Scriptures Through the Ages by Jaroslav Pelikan, 288 pages Brad Snyder 28 August 2006 Before his death in May, Pelikan served as a history professor at Yale. This book is an excellent and thorough history of the Bible and Tanakh as well as the relation between the two traditions that are defined by each. |
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules (2008) by Jeff Kinney, 216 pages Brad Snyder 25 December 2008 Same premise as before, only the kid's in seventh grade, and his older brother, Rodrick, has a secret he holds over his younger brother's head. Not as funny as the first, but still amusing. |
Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2007) by Jeff Kinney, 226 pages Brad Snyder 25 December 2008 Fun book written from the perspective of a sixth grader and the social pressures he faces. I laughed a lot. |
Season of Life: A Football Star, a Boy, a Journey to Manhood by Jeffrey Marx, 177 pages Brad Snyder 08 May 2006 A true story of a man who starts out writing a story about one of his football heroes, and how he learns to think differently as a man for the interaction. Kind of touchy feely, but certainly worthwhile. |
SeinLanguage by Jerry Seinfeld, 180 pages Brad Snyder 17 May 2006 I'm on this weird comedy kick, please bear with me... Seinfeld's stand-up routine is a lot like those Jack Handy skits featured on Saturday Night Live in the late 80s. If you've seen his show, you've seen some of the same routines there that are in this book. |
Jim and Casper Go to Church: Frank Conversation about Faith, Churches, and Well-Meaning Christians (2007) by Jim Henderson and Matt Casper, 208 pages Brad Snyder 26 January 2009 Jim (Henderson), a Christian, and (Matt) Casper, an atheist, go on a road trip to see several major evangelical churches and record Casper's impressions. The list of churches is a veritable Who's Who of evangelicalism: Saddleback, Willow Creek, Mars Hill, and even that Osteen church. Casper shares his likes and dislikes with Jim, who urges the Christians reading the book to take heed and make changes so that atheists will want to come to church. It sounded intriguing at first, but it wore on me. I found the whole premise that atheists have an interest in going to church absurd. |
From Bondage To Liberty: Dance, Children, Dance by Jim Rayburn III, 226 pages Brad Snyder 15 January 2006 A biography of Jim Rayburn, the founder of YoungLife, written by his son. |
Crossbearer: A Memoir of Faith (2008) by Joe Eszterhas, 256 pages Brad Snyder 26 May 2009 Eszterhas brought us such movies as "Basic Instinct" and "Showgirls." Then, after smoking every day for 45 years, he came down with throat cancer. Then, the man who spent his life mocking God turned to him. Now a faithful follower of Christ, he talks about how his life has changed. This is the best such testimony I have ever read. His faith is infectious, his presentation is raw, and his story is encouraging. |
The Areas of My Expertise (2005) by John Hodgman, 240 pages Brad Snyder 17 January 2009 Hodgman is best known as PC from the Mac commercials. This is a book of facts. Facts completely made up by Hodgman. He has a curious wit, one that grows on you as you read. Knowing what his voice sounds like added to the experience, making some passages much more funny. |
Cash: The Autobiography by Johnny Cash, 320 pages Brad Snyder 07 November 2005 Cash is one of the most fascinating figures in modern music. He's a man that fought many demons, winning some battles and confessing his inability to win others. He battled drugs several times, only to face them again. His memories of his home life growing up, anecdotes about fellow musicians and movie stars, politicians, and Billy Graham are lucid and reveal much about Cash and those featured in the stories. Truly a complex man, and a great read. |
Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick, 273 pages Brad Snyder 23 February 2008 A book my daughter loved and recommended. An eighth-grade boy comes of age through his brother's battle with leukemia. |
Here Comes the Sun: The Spiritual and Musical Journey of George Harrison by Joshua M. Greene, 320 pages Brad Snyder 17 July 2006 I saw this and checked it out of the library because the author of the Beatles book I read earlier this year said that George had embraced more traditional Christianity in his later years. I had never heard that, and quickly learned that I apparently knew more than that particuluar biographer about the subject. This book had more gurus and long Indian names than you can shake a stick at. Interesting in that this book illumined so much of what made this Beatle tick, and some of the stories about the music and musicians he ran with were fun to read, but over all, kind of "eh". |
Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume, 120 pages Brad Snyder 12 June 2006 You know you're getting old when you go to the library with your kids and check out a book that you just "know they'll love" because you loved it when you were their age. I presented it to them in the same way my fourth-grade teacher at Gaithersburg Elementary did to me, by reading it out loud. They loved it. |
Superfudge by Judy Blume, 178 pages Brad Snyder 19 June 2006 Another book from my childhood that I read to my kids. The sequel to "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing". Being a dad is the coolest... |
Fudge-A-Mania by Judy Blume, 147 pages Brad Snyder 02 July 2006 Fudge rides again in part three of the "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" series. Not nearly as funny as the first two, but the kids liked it. |
Double Fudge by Judy Blume, 213 pages Brad Snyder 30 July 2006 More out-loud reading to my kids. This is the final book in the "Tales Fourth Grade Nothing" series. Better than the last one. |
Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great by Judy Blume, 138 pages Brad Snyder 20 November 2006 The one book of the "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing" series that deals with the precocious, know-it-all Sheila Tubman. Actually rather boring, but my youngest daughter appreciated it. |
Night Over Water (1991) by Ken Follett, 400 pages Brad Snyder 15 September 2007 Disappointing |
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, 371 pages Brad Snyder 31 August 2006 Every Afghan I have ever known is incredibly charming, funny, and hospitable, not at all like the pictures of the country of their origin we are so accustomed to seeing on the nightly news. I think of Dorr, proprietor of the Bamyan Restaurant in Herndon, VA. What great food and what a wonderful human being. It's hard to believe his home country was once so lovely, as it is in this story: for a while anyway. But even as the author paints a picture of beauty and plenty, he crafts characters that remind us all that even in a lush and beautiful place, the reality of the Fall effects us all. Once I started reading, I couldn't stop. This is a story of friendship, betrayal, and redemption, with a new twist of sadness in every chapter. |
The Enemy Within: Straight Talk About the Power and Defeat of Sin by Kris Lundgaard, 157 pages Brad Snyder 10 March 2006 Puritan John Owen wrote extensively on sin and sanctification over three hundred years ago. Lundgaard has written a brief synopsis of Owen's work in which he challenges us to recognize sin as the destructive force in our lives that it really is. |
Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) by Kurt Vonnegut, 215 pages Brad Snyder 02 February 2009 Vonnegut's anti-war/science fiction/account of the firebombing of Dresden. |
I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle, 272 pages Brad Snyder 26 June 2009 Read like a movie script for one of those teen coming of age movies. Halfway through, I did a search. Due in theaters July 10, 2009. Don't waste your time. |
The Bad Beginning (A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book 1) (1999) by Lemony Snicket, 162 pages Brad Snyder 30 August 2009 Reading this out loud to my youngest daughter. I'm enjoyed the book, but loved the time with her. |
Special Topics in Calamity Physics (2006) by Marisha Pessl, 514 pages Brad Snyder 07 March 2007 Story of a girl named Blue and her itinerant professor father. After moving three times a year every year since Kindergarten, after the death of her mother, they settle down in a North Carolina town for her senior year. There, she falls in with a group of students called bluebloods who hang out with the mysterious Hannah Schneider, a teacher who is found hanging from a tree in the woods, prompting Blue to search out the identity of the killer. The resulting discoveries lead her to more questions and a surprising ending. |
Confessions of a Reformission Rev.: Hard Lessons from an Emerging Missional Church (2006) by Mark Driscoll, 208 pages Brad Snyder 23 August 2007 Driscoll is the pastor of Mars Hill Church in Seattle and the man featured in Donald Miller's "Blue Like Jazz" as "Mark the cussing pastor". This book chronicles the joys and struggles that faced Driscoll and his church as they grew from a church of three families to over 4000. Mixing humor, frankness, and downright earthiness, Driscoll displays an earnestness for Scripture and theology and beats the drum for the purity of the Church and its mission to reach the world with the Gospel of Christ. |
The Radical Reformission: Reaching Out Without Selling Out (2004) by Mark Driscoll, 204 pages Brad Snyder 24 October 2007 Driscoll lays out his philosophy of ministry, which he calls "reformission". |
The Silver Linings Playbook: A Novel (2008) by Matthew Quick, 304 pages Brad Snyder 28 February 2009 A man begins to recover from his mental illness with the help of friends, family, and the Philadelphia Eagles. |
Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas by Michka Assayas, 323 pages Brad Snyder 11 November 2005 This is the group of interviews that Bono had with Michka Assayas from 2002 to 2004. Assayas, as an interviewer, is excellent: he pulls things out of Bono that Bono admits he would never write himself in a memoir. Bono is a lot deeper and decent than his public persona as a rock star and activist. This book offers glimpses of his home life: his tender affection for his children, his admiration of his wife, his complicated relationship with his late father, and his deep faith in his Heavenly Father. |
SOA Adoption for Dummies (2009) by Miko Matsumura, Bjoern Brauel, Jignesh Shah, 86 pages Brad Snyder 06 May 2009 After sitting in meeting after meeting, reading white papers, technical specs, test plans, and previously produced user documentation, this little book was a welcome reprieve. |
Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense by N.T. Wright, 256 pages Brad Snyder 11 December 2006 This is the best book I have read all year. Regardless of what your spiritual background, Bishop Wright has offered a common sense approach to Christianity that will surely eclipse other similar works. |
American Gods (2001) by Neil Gaiman, 602 pages Brad Snyder 05 December 2007 An ex-con named Shadow is enlisted to work for a man named Wednesday who turns out to be the manifestation of a pagan Norse god. Wednesday is trying to enlist the help of other pagan deities that were brought to America in the minds of millions of immigrants over thousands of years to fight the new American deities such as technology and media. Quite possibly the strangest thing I have ever read. |
Couplehood by Paul Reiser, 203 pages Brad Snyder 10 January 2006 I read "Babyhood" several years ago and laughed so hard that my wife gave me "that" look. I laughed harder with this one. It's hard to believe that this is the guy that portrayed the antagonist in "Aliens". Now I just wish that I could forget "My Two Dads"... |
Conversations with Tom Petty (2006) by Paul Zollo, 330 pages Brad Snyder 09 September 2007 The first part of this interview-styled biography is great, reading Petty's stories of starting out in rock 'n' roll, recording, touring, and goofing off with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, and others. As a casual listener of Tom Petty's music, I found this to be interesting and fun. But the second part of this book, consisting of a way too technical album by album, song by song analysis, is for Tom Petty aficionados only (obviously Zollo is). Consider some actual questions and answers, and you pretty much get the gist: Zollo: “That’s in E major—do you think that’s the best guitar key?” Petty: “Oh, there are many of them.” or Zollo: “’Waiting for Tonight’ is in F# minor, and has such a good feel.” Petty: “Yeah. I learned that from listening to Buddy Holly.” |
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories from Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch, 356 pages Brad Snyder 08 November 2005 Gourevitch has presented a study of the genocide in Rwanda from a historical, political, and cultural point of view. This book is not gratuitous, although, considering the subject matter, it well could have been. Long story short, the US government refused to use the the word "genocide" because it would obligate them (by law) to get involved, the French supplied weapons to the Hutus, and the UN treated the perpetrators as the victims. 800,000 dead in three months while the world sat on its hands. And why? I'll let the book speak for itself... "(A Rwandan Minister of Commerce) explained the lack of foreign help as a consequence of Rwanda's lack of investment opportunities. 'You cannot count on the international community unless you're rich, and we are not,' he said. 'We don't have oil, so it doesn't matter that we have blood, or that we are human beings.'" |
Indignation (2008) by Philip Roth, 233 pages Brad Snyder 21 May 2009 Inane and stupid. |
Rumors of Another World : What on Earth Are We Missing? by Philip Yancey, 272 pages Brad Snyder 07 May 2006 Yancey explores the world we can see in contrast to that world we can't, or rather, don't see regardless of the clues, or "rumors" of its existence all around us. |
What's So Amazing About Grace? (1997) by Philip Yancey, 304 pages Brad Snyder 24 December 2007 Yancey has the ability to take a topic and look at it from every conceivable angle. In this book, he uses his vast experiences and wealth of knowledge to explore the concept of grace. Wow. |
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee: A Novel (2008) by Rebecca Miller, 239 pages Brad Snyder 23 February 2009 I read about a movie based on this book. I wish I had never read it. I will definitely not watch the movie. |
Calvinism in the Las Vegas Airport : Making Connections in Today's World by Richard J. Mouw, 144 pages Brad Snyder 06 January 2006 When I first fully embraced my latent Presbyterianism in its fullness about three years ago, I was immediately confronted with questions from friends and family about the particulars of my Calvinist-tinted faith. In researching for more eloquent answers, I found most Calvinists to be a bit on the gruff side. In contrast, this book is refreshing. It was written to offer a softer explanation of Calvinism for both the uninitiated and fully convinced. Mouw is conversational, generous, compassionate, and even funny. There were a few weak moments, but the wheat definitely outweighs the chaff. |
The Teacher's Funeral : A Comedy in Three Parts (2004) by Richard Peck, 190 pages Brad Snyder 30 September 2007 My son read this book based on his teacher's recommendation and devoured it in three days--not bad for a fifth grader. I found it to be charming, too. Told from the perspective of a 15 year-old in 1904 in rural Indiana, it's the story of what happens when the teacher of the one-room school dies and is replaced by his older sister and how that changes his life. |
Jesus in the Margins: Finding God in the Places We Ignore by Rick McKinley, 191 pages Brad Snyder 22 August 2006 This is a primer on Christianity written to people that feel marginalized in life--which covers basically all of humanity since we all have issues with which we struggle and that separate us from fellowship with God. Each chapter is an invitation into a loving relationship with God through Christ, written towards a different angle in the journey--from why we are here, to a description of what sin is and how it affects us. Not what I thought, but I'm glad I read it. |
The Purpose-Driven Church by Rick Warren, 400 pages Brad Snyder 27 February 2006 This is a classic example of my judging a book by its cover... I was encouraged to read this book several years ago, but was recently forced to do so for a course I'm taking. I must admit that my protests before reading it were based solely on caricature rather than substance, and I was totally wrong in my assumptions. This is a thought-provoking book, even if I think Warren goes a little overboard in some places. There are many things in it that I would be excited to see implemented at my own quiet, traditional, Presbyterian church that would probably open the doors to more encounters with the changing demographics of our neighborhood. |
Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith by Rob Bell, 208 pages Brad Snyder 08 September 2006 Another post-modern take on Christianity written in that hipster style I'm becoming so accustomed to. I'm starting to wonder what this movement is going to look like in ten or twenty years when the children of the po-mos grow up to reject the churches their parents took them to, calling them unhip and monolithic just as the current po-mos have done with the corporately-modeled churches they attended as children. Bell makes some nice observations (I especially like the attention he pays to the Jewishness of Christianity), but overall I found his theological musings too vague for a book format: they would be better discussed over a beer. |
Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time (2007) by Rob Sheffield, 240 pages Brad Snyder 19 July 2008 Sheffield uses the medium of mix tapes to chronicle his marriage that was cut short by his wife's sudden death. Sweet story, but disjointed at times. |
Ancient-Future Evangelism: Making Your Church a Faith-Forming Community by Robert E. Webber, 224 pages Brad Snyder 07 December 2005 Webber draws a connection between the pluralism in which we currently find ourselves culturally, and that of the first century church. He proposes adopting into our own worship and Christian lives some of the language, styles, and liturgy employed by the early church. |
The Hipster Handbook (2002) by Robert Lanham, 176 pages Brad Snyder 25 June 2007 It's deck to be fin. |
The Outlaw Years: The History of the Land Pirates of the Natchez Trace by Robert M. Coates, 308 pages Brad Snyder 24 January 2006 My father gave me this book a few years ago. I'm not sure where he got it, but this copy was published in 1930, which added to the charm. The book has that flair of language and tone common to most good stories of the West from that bygone era. The book centers on the Natchez Trace wilderness trail that started in what is now Natchez, Mississippi and wrapped on through to Nashville, Tennessee. It even mentions points north--even Yellow Springs, Ohio gets a paragraph's-worth of mention! But, the real strength of the book is the story. It isn't written like most books of history, and the author spared no detail, which kept me thoroughly intrigued. And, it's about pirates to boot! Well, they're technically highwaymen, but who's gonna quibble with that? |
Scandal Of The Evangelical Conscience: Why Are Christians Living Just Like The Rest Of The World? by Ronald J. Sider, 144 pages Brad Snyder 16 February 2005 This is very different than Sider's better known "Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger", but no less provocative. The book is based on statistics gathered by George Barna that show that evangelicals act just like non-Christians in every category surveyed except for one: it seems that the divorce rate among evangelicals is worse! Recommended for those praying for renewal of hearts and minds in the American church. |
The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999) by Stephen Chbosky, 224 pages Brad Snyder 06 August 2008 An awkward but incredibly intelligent kid learns social graces from the colorful characters with whom he surrounds himself. Apparently written for a younger audience, I still enjoyed the story, written in the form of several letters written over the course of a year to an anonymous person. |
I Am America (And So Can You!) (2007) by Stephen Colbert, 240 pages Brad Snyder 30 August 2009 So funny. |
The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower, Book 1) (1982) by Stephen King, 213 pages Brad Snyder 06 July 2009 I had only read about three chapters of any of King's works prior to this. But a cryptic post on Facebook suddenly gained clarity two days later as the cover of this book stared at me from its shelf at the public library. It's a strange tale, one that mixes settings, times, and folklore, but one that is strangely interesting. The gunslinger, a knight from some futuristic kingdom, in his quest for the man in black. But for what? It looks like I must read the next book to find out. |
Twilight (The Twilight Saga, Book 1) (2006) by Stephenie Meyer, 544 pages Brad Snyder 26 July 2008 Another recommendation from my daughter. While it is obviously intended for an adolescent and female audience, I found the story entertaining. Basic premise: Girl meets boy. Boy is a vampire. While obviously making dating complicated, since the boy wants to suck the girl’s blood, girl and vampire fall in love anyway, cool with their differences. Vampire and girl meet another coven of vampires who really want to suck the girl's blood. Adventure follows. |
New Moon (The Twilight Saga, Book 2) (2006) by Stephenie Meyer, 608 pages Brad Snyder 07 August 2008 Bella's dreamy vampire leaves, although madly in love with her, in order to protect her from bad vampires that want to kill her. So, she falls for a werewolf, the sworn enemy of vampires. Relationships are so complicated, why can't we all just be friends? |
Eclipse (The Twilight Saga, Book 3) (2007) by Stephenie Meyer, 640 pages Brad Snyder 12 August 2008 Bella, wracked with a decision between vampire-boy and a life of being his vampire queen or brushing the matted fur of her werewolf must suddenly be protected by werewolves and vampires cooperating to save her whiny, self-centered self. |
Breaking Dawn (The Twilight Saga, Book 4) (2008) by Stephenie Meyer, 768 pages Brad Snyder 18 August 2008 I was prepared to slam this book. I expected to hate it based on the previous two. I must now admit that it wasn't all that bad. It takes Meyer a long time to set up her story and to get to the action, and then the action is finished pretty quickly. This book followed that pattern, but surprised me a bit at the end with how much I enjoyed it. If you are going to read this, read the whole series. Also keep in mind that my thirteen year-old daughter and her friends LOVE it, so it might not be for many of the manly men on this forum. I have been pleased to share it with my daughter...to share in her world in this way, an opportunity we will share again when the movie is released in December. |
Walk On: The Spiritual Journey Of U2 by Steve Stockman, 250 pages Brad Snyder 02 January 2006 Something Jonathan said to me years ago resonates with me: the music of U2 is a spiritual thing. Stockman has made an honest effort at bringing the spirituality of the group to light, but I wonder if this is a necessary undertaking for those of us that have already bought into this aspect of the band. While I enjoyed a good part of the book, at times Stockman comes across as little more than an apologist with a desire for everyone to recognize this side of the band and this tainted the book a bit for me. |
The Man Called Cash : The Life, Love, and Faith of an American Legend by Steve Turner, 320 pages Brad Snyder 10 December 2005 Turner was supposed to have written this with Cash himself. This is a nice companion to Cash's own autobiography, based largely on interviews with people that knew the man throughout his life: childhood friends, Air Force buddies, fellow musicians, producers, and family members. His faith is a consistent theme, but not the entire focus of the book. Recommended for any music fan. |
Hungry for Heaven: Rock 'n' Roll & the Search for Redemption by Steve Turner, 240 pages Brad Snyder 27 December 2005 Turner wrote the biography of Johnny Cash that I reviewed a few weeks ago. In that book, he related the fact that Cash had read and commented favorably on this book, so I wanted to read it myself. It is a very good analysis of the role that spirituality plays in rock 'n' roll. Not just Christianity, but Islam, New Age, Rastfarianism, Eastern Mysticism, etc. Much like the book on Cash, Turner interviewed several of the people he talks about in the book: Jerry Lee Lewis, Ray Charles, Sting, Al Green, Ozzy Osbourne, etc. Besides these sources, he cites several magazine articles, books, and album jackets, all of which are listed in the fine bibliography. The problem is that he doesn't give proper citations in the text, so it's difficult to match which conversation matches to what source. And while he weaves an interesting thread through the history of popular music, he doesn't have any kind of concluding chapter to tie it all together. This would have made the book much more compelling. |
The Afghan Campaign: A Novel (2006) by Steven Pressfield, 368 pages Brad Snyder 15 March 2009 Matthias is a soldier of Alexander's army. He and his brothers in arms are stationed in Afghanistan, facing a resourceful and brutal enemy. Clunky storytelling and weak plot lines. |
Pop Goes Religion: Faith in Popular Culture by Terry Mattingly, 211 pages Brad Snyder 31 October 2006 The Catholic Archbishop of Denver, a journalist, and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top are standing in the elevator lobby of a Denver hotel...sound like the beginning of a joke? No, it's the amusing true tale that Mattingly uses to illustrate the theme of his book. Mattingly writes the syndicated "On Religion" column for the Scripps Howard News Service. This book is an accumulation of those articles, divided into chapters by topic. His articles don't tell you what to think, but leave you thinking. The chapter about movies was nauseatingly Lord of the Rings-, Star Wars-, and Matrix-centric, but the rest of the book is a gem. |
Saints Behaving Badly: The Cutthroats, Crooks, Trollops, Con Men, and Devil Worshippers Who Became Saints (2006) by Thomas J. Craughwell, 191 pages Brad Snyder 17 November 2007 A collection of short biographies of a handful of Catholic patron saints. Kudos to Craughwell for offering historical context and explaining when the stories are more legend than fact. |
Don't Stand Too Close to a Naked Man by Tim Allen, 210 pages Brad Snyder 16 May 2006 This is basically an extension of the TV show "Home Improvement", only with his real-life circumstances thrown in. It's my love for the TV show that made me interested in reading the book, and while it was funny at points, I found it needlessly crass at others. |
Blood Done Sign My Name : A True Story by Timothy B. Tyson, 368 pages Brad Snyder 12 April 2006 This story recounts the civil rights movement as it unfolded in and around Oxford, NC after the sickening murder of a black man at the hands of three whites--a murder for which no one was punished and ultimately led to a small revolution. Tyson is more than a passive historian viewing past events from a safe distance in the present, but was actually a resident of Oxford at the time. His father was the pastor of the United Methodist church and was known and hated by some for being sympathetic toward the plight of African-Americans. This murder is the pivot on which Tyson has related his journey through life, forced him to explore his world view, his own attitudes, and the history of his beloved North Carolina. If you are at all interested in race relations, read this book. |
I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to be Destroyed by Me: Emblems from the Pentagon's Black World (2007) by Trevor Paglen, 136 pages Brad Snyder 15 February 2009 This book was sitting on the library's display of new titles. It looks somewhat unassuming with a patch pasted on the cover of the black book. I opened it and new I had to read it. It contains pictures of patches and emblems used by several of the Pentagon's black ops units with an explanation or suggestion of what the imagery contained on each is. It also explains a little about some of the missions undertaken by each (when known). Hardly heavy reading, and lots of colorful pictures. |
The Hour I First Believed: A Novel (2008) by Wally Lamb, 752 pages Brad Snyder 30 April 2009 Messed up guy and his messed up wife get caught up in the Columbine shootings. This causes a search for sanity and meaning as he learns about his family history and finds, like so many of us, that they come from a long line of messed up people. |
Today's Gospel: Authentic or Synthetic? by Walter J. Chantry, 92 pages Brad Snyder 14 November 2005 This book uses the story of the rich young ruler in Mark 10 to examine the message of salvation as preached by Christ. More than that, though, it is a critique of the message as it's preached in modern times. Unfortunately, his observations are based largely upon caricature. He doesn't cite more than a few references to support the straw man he creates, so he comes off a bit like a cantankerous old man yelling about "the kids' loud music" (or "folk rock" as he calls it in the book). Still, if you can weed through his somewhat exaggerated statements, many of his observations of Mark 10 are valuable. |
The Darwin Awards 4: Intelligent Design (2006) by Wendy Northcutt, 336 pages Brad Snyder 16 May 2009 After years of getting "Darwin Awards" spam in my inbox, this book didn't make me so much as giggle. |
Corporal Si Klegg and His Pard by Wilbur F. Hinman, 740 pages Brad Snyder 22 December 2005 This story, the beginning of which was originally published as part of a Union veterans' periodical in 1885, is thought to have inspired Stephan Crane to write "The Red Badge of Courage". Hinman created fictional characters to recount his own experiences during the Civil War. Mixed in with the story are several asides where he explains every aspect of military life. Many of his observations still resonate today, even as this nation finds itself embroiled in yet another "just" war. |
Why I Left Scofieldism (1975) by William E. Cox, 20 pages Brad Snyder 23 July 2007 Cox left Scofieldism (now referred to as Dispensationalism) after finding that he couldn't prove it using Scripture alone. Although I don't disagree with his overall assertions that Dispensationalism has some theological hurdles to overcome, I think that declaring it heresy goes a bit far. |
25 Surprising Marriages: Faith-Building Stories from the Lives of Famous Christians (1997) by William J. Petersen, 504 pages Brad Snyder 22 February 2009 Mini-biographies of Christian couples throughout history: Billy and Ruth Graham, Martin and Katie Luther, etc. |