In no particular order, here are the best books I read in 2019:
Although I have strong ties to Oklahoma City, you don’t need any to enjoy this book. The Economist, The New York Times, NPR, and many others declared Boom Town one of the best books of 2018. Anderson presents the history of Oklahoma City—including its chaotic founding during the land run of 1889, its legendary tornados and colorful weatherman, and the 1995 bombing—alongside the drama of the Thunder’s 2012-13 NBA season (the team with Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, and James Harden). It’s a wild ride full of ambition and eccentricity. And as you’ll discover, Oklahoma City is anything but a sleepy Midwestern flyover town.
Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon by Robert Kurson
What a ride! Rocket Men is the story of humankind’s first trip to the moon—not the one with the moon landing (that’s Apollo 11), but the first time we reached the moon, orbited it, and returned home. I found it to be just as incredible, inspiring, and attention-grabbing as the Apollo 11 journey, if not more so. Kurson’s account has everything—great characters, great subplots, and great prose.
Nothing but the Blood of Jesus: How the Sacrifice of Jesus Saves the World from Sin by J.D. Myers
In this paradigm shifting book, Myers presents a biblically supported, Christ-centered case for viewing numerous fundamental Christian concepts (sin, law, sacrifice, and atonement) in a fresh, highly intriguing, interconnected way. If you’ve only heard the conservative evangelical take on these topics, you will never look at them the same way again. The book also serves as a fantastic introduction to Rene Girard’s work on mimetic desire and scapegoating. As a bonus, Myers is also a good writer—clear, logical, and readable.
The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life by David Brooks
For a few years now, Brooks has been on my radar as a thoughtful author to check out. I finally pulled the trigger and am glad I did. The book’s underlying message is that true happiness and success don’t come from achieving worldly success (wealth, fame, power, achievement, etc.) but rather from committing yourself to serving a cause greater than oneself. Admittedly, the main point sounds trite, but the way Brooks explores the issue is anything but. Most of us, he explains, spend most of our lives trying to climb the first mountain of personal advancement, which at best produces rather surface-level, fleeting pleasures. At some point along the way, however, the more mature and wise among us transition to climbing the second mountain of service to others, which is where we find more substantive satisfaction and fulfillment. (In this regard, I think the book’s original subtitle is a more accurate description of what it’s about: How People Move from the Prison of Self to the Joy of Commitment.)
This topic resonated with me for two reasons. First, I just turned forty and spent most of my thirties wrestling with this transition (the grappling continues). Second, and at the risk of gross oversimplification, Christianity in America seems divided along these lines, with one group of believers approaching their faith largely—but not entirely—as a means of self-help (i.e., as a means of developing their best selves and living their most “successful” lives) and the other group believing the heart and soul of faith is about service to others. Or as Brooks would describe it, the former group is on the first mountain and is focused on “building up the ego and defining the self,” while the latter group has made its way to the second mountain and is in the process of “shedding the ego and losing the self.” For many of us, I suppose a certain degree of self-improvement is necessary if we will ever be capable of not only taking care of ourselves but also serving our communities. That being said, however, I’m learning there’s a fine line between equipping ourselves to serve and becoming sinfully preoccupied with personal growth and achievement.
War and Peace: From Genesis to Revelation by Vernard Eller
If you are into theology and have never read Eller, check him out. He has a way of contextualizing things from a big picture perspective that makes everything in the Bible just fall into place, including the Old and New Testaments’ seemingly contradictory views on violence. He deserves to be much more well-known and more widely studied.
Honorable Mentions
Warlike Christians in an Age of Violence: The Evangelical Case against War and for Gospel Peace by Nick Megoran
The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus's Crucifixion by N.T. Wright
Christian Anarchism: A Political Commentary on the Gospel by Alexandre Christoyannopoulos
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