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A Week's Worth of Books
- 05/29/10
- 5
As a book reviewer I am constantly receiving new books in the mail, the majority of which are unsolicited (which is to say that they just show up). Sometimes publishers send them, sometimes authors or publicists, sometimes just people who really want to see a review of a book they’ve enjoyed.
For sake of interest (and maybe in the hopes that you’ll be able to sympathize with my plight in choosing which to review) I thought I’d let you see the list of books that showed up this week and then do a little poll, letting you have your say. As you can well imagine, choosing which to review is quite difficult. Most of them look good, but I’ll only have time to read and review a couple before the next batch shows up. Over the past few weeks I’ve done two of these polls and have been glad to be able to start reading the books you want to see reviewed. Rather than make this post really long with descriptions of the books, I’ve just added links to Amazon if you want to read more about any of them.
Do note that Doctrine by Driscoll and Breshears and Humanitarian Jesus by Buckley and Dobson are already on my reading list based on previous polls. Both should get a review in the next couple of weeks. For that reason I’ve left them off of the poll.
So here are the books that showed up this week:
- Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears
- Burning Down the Shack: How the “Christian” Bestseller Is Deceiving Millions by James DeYoung
- The Prism and the Rainbow: A Christian Explains Why Evolution Is Not a Threat by Joel Martin
- What Did You Expect?: Redeeming the Realities of Marriage by Paul Tripp
- Before God: The Biblical Doctrine of Prayer by Mike Sarkissian
- It Is Well: Expositions on Substitutionary Atonement by Mark Dever and Michael Lawrence
- Spiritual Parenting: An Awakening for Today’s Families by Michelle Anthony
- Mere Churchianity: Finding Your Way Back to Jesus-Shaped Spirituality by Michael Spencer
- Church Planting Is For Wimps by Mike McKinely
- What Is the Gospel? by Greg Gilbert
- Humanitarian Jesus: Social Justice and the Cross by Christian Buckley and Ryan Dobson
- Biblical Theology in the Church: A Guide for Ministry by Michael Lawrence
- Let the Nations Be Glad: The Supremacy of God in Missions (3rd Edition) by John Piper
- The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr
- The Sword: A Novel by Bryan Litfin
- God’s Lyrics: Rediscovering Worship Through Old Testament Songs by Douglas O’Donnell
- What Is Vocation? by Stephen J. Nichols
- Tributes to John Calvin by David Hall, Editor
Beyond all the books, I also received a CD, My Cry Ascends: New Parish Psalms by Gregory Wilbur (produced by Ligonier Ministries) and two DVDs, Speaking the Truth in Love to Muslims from Vision Video and then the DVD version of Piper’s Let the Nations Be Glad. And finally, I received Soul, which I understand to be a young adult adaptation of Christianity Explored. It is a DVD and comes with a leader’s guide and a study guide.
I am a follower of Jesus Christ, a husband to Aileen and a father to three young children. I worship and serve as a pastor at 
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Comments (5)
Tim, are you already planning to review “Church Planting is for Wimps”? It isn’t in the poll, but it wasn’t mentioned in the ones you’re already reviewing.
I second the vote on “Church Planting is for Wimps”—I’d like that one to at least show up on the poll, and I’d love to see you review it.
FYI, don’t know if it was intentional, but Driscoll’s book isn’t one of your poll options.
I’m no fan of The Shack, and I recognize the serious, problematic implications of its presentation of the Godhead (among other things). These things should, must, and *have* been addressed very well by thoughtful, orthodox believers (including Tim Challies). But, I groaned when I read that there was *another* critique of it now available; therefore, my vote is really for a review of “anything but the book about The Shack.”
Is there a *reason* we need a full book of critique? Is there more to the book than the information (including Challies’ great critique) that’s already plentifully available, at no cost, on the Web?
It seems the more we talk about it, the more we keep the book itself alive. (And to tell the truth, I heard about the critiques before I heard about the book itself, and publishing and books are, seriously, my vocation.)
I would truthfully rather hear about something else. The Sarkissian book sounds very, very interesting.
As he mentioned in the post, he is already reviewing them. The final paragraph, “Do note that Doctrine by Driscoll and Breshears and Humanitarian Jesus by Buckley and Dobson are already on my reading list based on previous polls. Both should get a review in the next couple of weeks. For that reason I’ve left them off of the poll”