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What I read in November

Shelves of books

I am always consuming books, whether they’re physical, digital or audio. Every month, I like to share a breakdown of everything I read, including the books I abandoned. I do this because it gives me an opportunity to introduce you to books you might not have had an opportunity to read while practicing the art of writing concise book reviews.

In November, I read 11 books to completion and started a couple of others that have yet to complete. Here’s what I read:

  1. The Littlest Watchman: Watching and Waiting for the Very First Christmas by Scott James
  2. God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World–and Why Their Differences Matter by Stephen R. Prothero
  3. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t by James C. Collins
  4. How to Think: A Survival Guide for a World at Odds by Alan Jacobs
  5. Justice League, Volume 1: The Extinction Machines by Bryan Hitch and Tony Daniel
  6. Star Wars: The Screaming Citadel by Kieron Gillen
  7. Batman, Volume 2: I Am Suicide by Tom King
  8. Batman, Volume 3: I Am Bane by Tom King
  9. Batman/The Flash: The Button by Joshua Williamson, Tom King, Jason Fabok and Howard Porter
  10. ESV Reader’s Bible vol 3: Poetry
  11. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

I reviewed The Littlest Watchman a few weeks back (not something I normally do with kids books), and beyond saying that the books of poetry alone make the ESV Readers Set something worth having, there’s not much more to say about the Bible (beyond it being the Bible). That said, there’s still a lot to talk about, so let’s dig in.

Justice League-ing, Batman, a Screaming Citadel, and a trip to the beginning of superhero stories

November was a bit of a binge on graphic novels. Of them, the Batman ones were fantastic. I’m really digging the story that Tom King has been telling through the series so far. This is Batman wrestling with feeling feelings, y’all, and it’s good. The Button was very well told and fed into the larger story that King is telling, but as far as revealing the origins of the Comedian’s button (from Watchmen), it didn’t do much. Still, it was nice to see the set-up for Doomsday Clock. Screaming Citadel was okay, but I think the Marvel Star Wars series has lost a lot of its charm. My daughter liked it, but I’ve not seen her re-reading it the way she’s been doing with Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps. Justice League is a big dumb action movie on paper. If you go in expecting lots of punching through a fairly basic plot, you’ll be a happy camper. The art (both by Tony Daniel and Brian Hitch himself) is gorgeous though.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay may seem like a strange one to talk about immediately after writing about the comic books I read, until you know that it’s a book about two cousins who created a superhero in the 1930s. This is, without question, my favorite of Michael Chabon’s books (though I’m partial to Wonder Boys as well). His writing is beautiful. Frankly, I almost don’t care about what he’s writing sometimes because I enjoy the way he writes so much. Nevertheless, the story of two Jewish cousins, the rise and fall of the Escapist, and the drama set against the backdrop of World War II and, later, the congressional inquiries into the comic book industry during the mid-1950s is filled with equal parts heartbreak and hope.

The Secret of great companies, learning to think, and a non-Christian apologetic for the distinctiveness of religions

November’s business book was Good to Great, a modern classic in the space. What’s helpful about Collins’ book is that he and his research team actually found demonstrable evidence of something Scripture says over and over again: character matters. People matter. Culture matters. Great organizations have humble leaders who are focused more on having the right people in the right seats before they worry about their strategy because, as has been said by many, culture eats strategy for breakfast every time.

How to Think is a much-needed challenge to our reactionary era. Where so much of what we read online is outrage and hot takes, this is an encouragement toward restraint. To not immediately jump to the conclusion that those who disagree with your chosen “tribe” aren’t evil—they just don’t agree with you. This is a book I want to go back to again and give a second careful read in the new year.

Finally, God is Not One is one of the most surprising books I’ve read in years (and a recommendation from my coworkers, Trevin Wax and Andrew Hudson). What’s surprising in this book isn’t that Prothero attempts to synthesize the world’s major religions into one great giant gob of spirituality—it’s that he actually delivers a fairly compelling apologetic for why they cannot be the same. And he’s writing as a non-Christian to boot! If you’re at all concerned about missions and apologetics, you’re going to want to read this book. You won’t agree with its picture of Christianity (no surprise), but there’s a lot that’s helpful in it to at least engage in some real dialogue with our “spiritual but not religious” neighbors.

That’s it for this month’s round-up. Do you find these posts helpful? Do you have a suggestion for a book for me or someone else to read or want to share what you’ve read? Connect with me on Twitter or Facebook and let me know!

Here’s a look at what I read in:

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What I read in August

what I read in August 2017

I am always consuming books, whether they’re physical, digital or audio. Every month, I like to share a breakdown of everything I read, including the books I abandoned. I do this because it gives me an opportunity to introduce you to books you might not have had an opportunity to read while practicing the art of writing concise book reviews.

In August, I read 11 books to completion and started a couple of others that have yet to complete. Here’s what I read:

  1. Non-Obvious: How to Think Different, Curate Ideas & Predict The Future by Rohit Bhargava
  2. Cave Carson Has a Cybernetic Eye, Vol. 1: Going Underground by Gerard Way
  3. Ego Is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday
  4. The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Achieving More with Less by Richard Koch
  5. Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work by Chip and Dan Heath
  6. Teen Titans by Geoff Johns Book One by Geoff Johns
  7. If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B-Movie Actor by Bruce Campbell
  8. Strong and Weak: Embracing a Life of Love, Risk and True Flourishing by Andy Crouch
  9. God’s Very Good Idea: A True Story of God’s Delightfully Different Family by Trillia J. Newbell
  10. Superman, Volume 3: Multiplicity by Peter J. Tomasi
  11. The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals by Sean Covey, Chris McChesney, and Jim Huling

Business, Business, and a B-Movie Actor, too

This was an extremely business-heavy reading month, and the next few months look to be more of the same. This month’s included:

  • One re-read (4 Disciplines, which was more helpful the second time around);
  • One that I needed to use the principle described to get through (The 80/20 Principle):
  • One describing the techniques of trend curators (Non-Obvious, the techniques being to be observant, fickle, elegant, thoughtful, and curious, which therefore saves you from needing to read it, unless you’re curious to see how Bhargava puts them into practice);
  • One on effective decision making that offers a really helpful framework (Decisive‘s WRAP Framework);
  • One advocating humility as a way of life for hotshot business guys who think they’re a big deal, by the former king of dark arts marketing (Ego is the Enemy, which is actually really, really helpful); and
  • Quite possibly the best leadership book I’ve ever read, Strong and Weak, which uses a 2×2 chart to explore the relationship between vulnerability, authority, and human flourishing. That sounds less great than it is, but trust me, it’s fantastic.

But one of my favorites of the month was Bruce Campbell’s early 2000s memoir, If Chins Could Kill. Back when I worked in a bookstore in college, I bought our store’s only copy and devoured it. It’s a terrific book to show how unglamorous Hollywood can be, in addition to just being kind of silly. Eventually I’ll get around to the sequel.

Books with pictures for all ages

August also saw three graphic novels on the list. First, a throwback to the early 2000s with Geoff Johns’ Teen Titans. This was the first really strong run on the series since the 1980s and one of the books that made people notice Johns as a writer. Cave Carson is another series in Gerard Way’s Young Animal line, and it’s as cooky and intriguing as Doom Patrol. Superman Vol. 3: Multiplicity was a rare misstep in the current Superman series by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason, in that it was okay, but just okay if that makes sense? The story was told well enough, but it didn’t seem to really move the plot forward all that much. Ah well…

Finally, there’s a new children’s book y’all may have heard of, God’s Very Good Idea by Trillia Newbell. I can’t say enough good things about this book—it’s well written (which is extremely hard to do), and meaningfully explores the topic of race with children. My son has read this almost every day since we purchased it (and more than once on several days), and he doesn’t seem to be interested in setting it aside anytime soon. Go get a copy as soon as you can, friends.

That’s it for this month’s round-up. Do you find these posts helpful? Do you have a suggestion for a book for me or someone else to read or want to share what you’ve read? Connect with me on Twitter or Facebook and let me know!

Here’s a look at what I read in:

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Why I rarely review bad books anymore

The shocking review (box boy reads a book)

For as long as I’ve been blogging, I’ve been reviewing books. There was a season where I consistently reviewed at least one book every single week. And I’m not talking a few sentences, either. I’m talking a substantive review, digging into the arguments and its effect on me.

But in 2015, my reviewing pace slowed down significantly. (I wrote about this here.)  Since then, I’ve started to get back into reviewing a little more frequently. Right now, I’m averaging two a month, which isn’t too bad. But there’s been one book that has been sitting in my pile for ages, one I’ve been putting off reviewing for at least a year now, because the only thing I could get on paper was, “I don’t even know where to start.”

It was the book that made me want to stop reviewing bad books.

Now, it might not seem like a big deal to most people. In fact, most days it’s not even a thing for me. But whenever I pick up a book that I’m planning to review—especially if it’s a bad one—I have to pause. And I think that’s a good thing. Here’s why:

I know the work that goes into a book.

I’m an author, so I know how difficult it can be to write a book. I also know how to handle a critique of my writing (eat ice cream until I can’t feel my feelings, right?). So whether a book is by someone I respect or someone I find kind of silly, I frequently find myself pausing and remembering that a person is connected to these words I’m reading. Though they are not their books, their books are a part of them, and so I want to be sensitive to that.

I’m tempted to spend a bit too much time being clever and cutting.

At the same time, I can get pretty clever with my mockery because I can be kind of mean that way. And reading bad books does not help me with that even a little bit. I had one book that I was considering reviewing and had to choose not to simply because I found myself spending more time thinking of ways to make fun than to find something worth calling attention to that might be helpful or useful (and yes, it is the same book I referred to at the beginning of this post). And that’s not even remotely close to being okay. I’m not against being clever and witty (or at least what I think is clever and witty), but where I see a big red light flashing about my own attitudes, I need to pay attention.

I want to review what is praiseworthy, not call attention to rubbish.

Frankly, the only thing reviewing bad books does is give them press. At best, it gives you some entertainment. At worst, it makes you want to read the thing for yourself (even if it’s just to mock). And that’s not good, because as both run contrary to what I’m trying to accomplish. When I read and when I review a book, I want to give attention to something I think you’d actually want to read. These don’t have to be books I entirely agree with, of course. They just have to be books that have value.

Of course, none of this means I will never review a bad book ever again. If there were a legitimate need to do so, I would probably do it. But those are few and far between. Instead, I would prefer to focus on books that are good and God-glorifying. And thankfully, there are more than enough of those to go around.

Photo credit: Daniel Glo via Flickr (Creative Commons)