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My Top Ten Books of 2014

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 12 Jan 2015 20:08:13 +0000

My Top Ten Books of 2014

Promoting an amazing novel written 120 years ago is one of Alec Hill's goals for 2015.

	1. Quo Vadis Henryk Sienkiewicz (Create Space, 2013) Promoting this amazing novel is one of my goals for the new year. Written by a Polish author in 1895—and the basis for his receiving the Nobel Prize for fiction a decade later—the plot is set in Nero’s Rome. Sienkiewicz tells the story of a Roman aristocrat who falls in love with a Germanic Christian princess. Historically accurate, beautifully written and brutal in its recall of Roman persecution of early Christians, Quo Vadis is deeply inspiring.
	2. The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo Tim Reiss (Broadway Books, 2013) As a long-time fan of French novelist Alexandre Dumas, I was surprised to discover that his namesake, Dumas père, was equally famous in his generation. Born in (modern day) Haiti to a white French father and a black African mother, he arrived in Paris just in time for the French Revolution. Rising through the ranks, he became the equivalent of a four star general under Napoleon. Alas, revolutionary égalité was short-lived; racism abruptly returned to silence his brilliance.
	3. Reformation Commentary on Scripture Series Acts Esther Chung-Kim and Todd R. Hains (editors) (��ñ�� Press, 2014) Genesis John Thompson (editor) (��ñ�� Press, 2012) I simply love this new series. Who knew that the writings of John Calvin, Martin Luther, John Donne and Menno Simons could still be so relevant today? Their reflections on many issues – ranging from the intersection of faith and culture to spiritual formation – are instructive for believers today. A great daily devotional read.
	4. The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 Lawrence Wright (Vintage, 2007) Anyone who loves international students will be both troubled and motivated by this book. An early chapter describes the life of an Egyptian graduate student named Sayyid Qutb at (what is now) Northern Colorado University. Rejecting the soft Christianity he observes, he returns to Egypt to become the ideological godfather of Al-Queda. And, as we know all too well, his progeny continue to spread his message of hate.
	5. Fathers and Sons Ivan Turgenev (Oxford University Press, 2008) Written in 1862, this great Russian novel tells the story of two sons and their fathers. By far, the most interesting character is Bazarov, a self-proclaimed nihilist who contends that he believes in nothing. Having absorbed the latest philosophy at the university in St. Petersburg, he discovers—tragically too late—why cynicism towards beauty, love and faith is a destructive illusion.
	6.Colossians and Philemon: Tyndale Commentaries N.T. Wright (��ñ�� Press, 2008) For clarity, insight and pastoral care, Tom Wright simply can’t be beat. This short commentary on two of the Apostle Paul’s letters is written with the lay person in mind, but is also meaty enough to stimulate the scholar.
	7. Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery Eric Metaxas (Harper, 2007) Having thoroughly enjoyed Metaxas’ recent biography on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I decided to ferret out one of his earlier works. And his account of Wilberforce—a Christian giant in human history—does not disappoint. Against powerful parliamentary foes, Wilberforce fights a multi-decade battle to end the British slave trade. Dramatically, shortly before his death, he succeeds.
	8. The House of Mirth Edith Wharton (Dover, 2002) Lily Bart, the heroine of this 1905 novel is an intelligent and beautiful 29 year old. Tragically, her life is limited by the sexism and classism of the Gilded Age. Watching Lily tumble down the social later – through no fault of her own – is quite painful. The book’s title comes from Ecclesiastes 7:4: "The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.” As always, Edith Wharton’s prose is remarkable.
	9. Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality Wesley Hill (Zondervan, 2010) Wesley Hill, now a professor of Biblical Studies at Trinity School for Ministry (Anglican), has become perhaps the leading spokesperson for same sex attracted believers who are committed to biblical fidelity, transparency and meaningful community. In this short book, he poignantly describes his own journey of struggle and faith.
	10. Tombstone: The Great Chinese Famine, 1958-1962 Yang Yishang (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013) Did you know that an estimated 36 million Chinese died of starvation half a century ago? There was no drought, no flooding, no plague. Just rigid Marxist agricultural collectivization, a political system that lacked checks and a tightly controlled media. Not for the faint of heart, this highly documented book – written by a Communist party member - provides ample evidence that Mao knew of the unfolding tragedy but did nothing to alleviate the suffering.

Honorable Mention

Managing Corporate Lifecycles: How Organizations Grow, Age and Die by Ichak Adizes

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer by Siddhartha Mukherjee

The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War by David Halberstam

Isaiah (��ñ�� Press Tyndale Series) by Alec Motyer

Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy

Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good by Steve Garber

Lost in Shangri-La: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue Mission of World by Mitchell Zuckoff

1 Peter (��ñ�� Press New Testament Commentary Series) by Howard Marshall

Calvin Coolidge by Amity Shlaes

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester

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My Top Ten Books of the Year

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 14:04:39 +0000

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Alec Hill, President of ��ñ��

My Top Ten Books of the Year

One of ��ñ��'s core values is "discipleship of the mind." As a community, we believe that our loving God involves reason and that reading is a spiritual discipline.

Every year, I have made it a practice to post the books that have most influenced my thinking over the past twelve months. Here is my list for 2012:

	1. Counterfeit Gods by Tim Keller (Riverhead Books, 2009) I wish this book had been written when I was younger. It is simple, yet chillingly profound. An "idol" is defined as anything that has undue influence upon us — be it success, affluence, romantic love, security, nationalism, children, intellectual pride, physical fitness, or dozens of other possibilities. Keller wisely advises: "Idols cannot simply be removed. They must be replaced … by God himself."
	2. Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes: Cultural Studies in 1 Corinthians by Kenneth Bailey (��ñ�� Press, 2011) Bailey has done it again. As a sequel to Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, he digs deeply into Coptic, Syriac, and Arabic sources for a more robust understanding of 1 Corinthians. After teaching New Testament Studies for four decades in Egypt, Lebanon, and Jerusalem, Bailey brings extraordinary insight to the apostle Paul's original intent and the understanding of Paul's original audience.
	3. The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration by Isabel Wilkerson (Random House, 2010) Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, I simply could not put this book down. Wilkerson tells the gripping story of six million southern Blacks migrating north and west between 1915 and 1970. The author focuses on three families who move to Chicago, Harlem, and Los Angeles, in their hopes to leave racism and poverty behind. Suffice it to say, their challenges do not end at the Mason-Dixon line.
	4. Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne (Scribner, 2010) A heart-breaking account of the last truly free Native American tribe, the Comanches. The twist of this story is that Quanah Parker, the final Comanche chief, was biracial. His Caucasian mother had been kidnapped as a child and later married into the tribe. The demise of the tribe is told with epic and tragic detail.
	5. Luke: The Gospel of Amazement by Michael Card (��ñ�� Press, 2011) Everything that Michael Card touches seems to turn to gold. Not only is he an amazing songwriter and musician, but he is also a deft writer. This concise reflection on the third gospel follows an earlier — and equally compelling — book on Mark. Works on Matthew and John are soon to follow.
	6. The Worst Hard Time Ever by Timothy Egan (Mariner Books, 2006) A few months ago, PBS hosted a Ken Burns film series about the 1930s Dust Bowl. Hardly able to believe what I was seeing – the ecological and human disaster was beyond description – I keyed into the fact that the series was based on Tim Egan’s book. Egan is a master storyteller who brilliantly brings to life a time and place that our nation would prefer to forget.
	7. Wide As the Waters: The Story of the English Bible and the Revolution it Inspired by Benson Bobrick (Penguin Books, 2001) Who knew that the crafting of the King James Bible in 1607 was surrounded by so much intrigue? Schismatic churches, divided kingdoms, lost lives, Bobrick's account reads more like a novel than history. And who could have predicted the immense impact that this translation would have not only on the church but on the English language and global history?
	8. American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin Sherwin (Knopf, 2005) Robert Oppenheimer, father of the atomic bomb, was a complicated and tortured man. His passion for theoretical physics took a decidedly practical bent when fear of Nazi military science motivated him to create the a-bomb. However, after observing its impact upon Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he deeply regretted his role and advocated sharing the technology with the USSR. The result? Political and social blacklisting.
	9. Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics by Ross Douthat (Free Press, 2012) I enjoy Ross Douthat’s regular columns in the New York Times. He is young, bright, and serious about his faith. The premise of his book is that American Christianity has been rotting at its core over the past half century. Cultural accommodation, syncretism, and the erosion of Scriptural authority have combined to make the church's public voice much less influential. Provocative and compelling.
	10. Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention by Manning Marable (Penguin, 2011) Malcolm X has always been a complex, profound, and spiritually disturbing figure to me. How should I, as a follower of Jesus, understand this man? For those of us who grew up reading Alex Haley’s The Autobiography of Malcolm X, professor Marable’s new Pulitzer winning biography is a bit of an epiphany. His subtitle — A Life of Reinvention — points to the book's main theme — and Malcolm's self-telling omits key points and embellishes others.
	Honorable Mention: Handbook for Battered Leaders by Janis and Wesley Balda (��ñ�� Press, 2013) Any book that commences with the line — "If you haven't bled, then you haven't led" — is worth pursuing. I recommend the Baldas' book for all staff, particularly Area Directors and above. It is so well written that I devoured it in a single evening (last night, actually).

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