Your favorite books of 2013

[evangelist6589]

What were yours and why? What do you plan to read in 2014?

Mine

Crazy Love- It was easy to read, emphasized the Lordship of Christ and true discipleship and Chan did not separate justification, regeneration, and sanctification as modern evangelism emphasis making a decision for Christ, but does not emphasize his Lordship. Submitting to Christ, following him as Lord, and being a disciple are not human works, but HS works. Truly a award wining book!

The Way of the Master Minute- A great evangelism devotional. Easy to read, small, affordable, and quick tips for evangelists.

In 2014 I plan to finish The Gospel According to Jesus, The Gospel Call and True Conversion, and Follow Me by Platt. I also plan to read the Bible or at least most of it. Finished the NT this year but not quite the OT. Maybe a good audio Bible will help me, but then again they are expensive...

 

[Crabtownboy]

Ester and Ruzya: How My Grandmothers Survived Hitler's War and Stalin's Peace by Masha Gessen

An amazing story of how Masha's grandmothers, one Polish Jewish and the other a Russian Jew survived World War II and then Stalin's Russia after the war. These were tough women.

 

[evangelist6589]

Ester and Ruzya: How My Grandmothers Survived Hitler's War and Stalin's Peace by Masha Gessen

An amazing story of how Masha's grandmothers, one Polish Jewish and the other a Russian Jew survived World War II and then Stalin's Russia after the war. These were tough women.

Maybe I should try reading fictional type books sometimes instead of just information books.

 

[Crabtownboy]

Maybe I should try reading fictional type books sometimes instead of just information books.

The book I cited is not fiction. I am not sure a author of fiction could have thought of what these women went through.

Photo of the grandmothers

Reviewers sometimes call a work of nonfiction ''as exciting as a novel,'' but that would be an understatement applied to this extraordinary family memoir. Masha Gessen, a gifted Russian-American journalist, narrates the intertwined lives of her two Soviet Jewish grandmothers, best friends for over 50 years, as they confront some of the 20th century's worst ordeals: Stalin's terror, Hitler's mass murder of the Jews, World War II, the bewildering twists and turns of the post-Stalin era. If your idea of a memoir runs to family dysfunction and authorial disgruntlement, or to people going on about their houses and travels, ''Ester and Ruzya'' will remind you how much life, history and emotional and moral complexity the genre can convey in the hands of a wonderful writer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/06/books/review/006POLLIT.html?_r=0

 

[kyredneck]

Probably my favorite was a birthday gift from middle daughter and SIL:

'The Art of Fermentation'- An In-Depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes from around the World by Sandor Ellix Katz

Sally Fallon's 'Nourishing Traditions' got me hooked on lacto fermentation about four years ago and Katz's book is a wonderful compliment to it.

Another I purchased myself:

'Preserving Food without Freezing or Canning'- Traditional Techniques Using Salt, Oil, Sugar, Alcohol, Vinegar, Drying, Cold Storage, and Lactic Fermentation Paperback by The Gardeners and Farmers of Centre Terre Vivante

Excellent source on old world techniques to keep foods fresh/alive for extended periods. I used a couple of the methods with my garden produce this summer and was very pleased.

[add]

Oh yeah, I also got this one but have hardly cracked it; plan on doing some jamming and jelling and conserving next year so this will be one of my reads for 2014:

'Preserving with Pomona's Pectin'- The Revolutionary Low-Sugar, High-Flavor Method for Crafting and Canning Jams, Jellies, Conserves, and More by Allison Carroll Duffy

Got some Pomona's Pectin too, which is supposed to keep for eons, so no hurries.

 

[Scarlett O.]

Maybe I should try reading fictional type books sometimes instead of just information books.

Let me re-emphasize what CTB is saying. The book he is recommending is not fictional. And neither is mine: "Goodbye is Not Forever" by Amy George.

Little Amy never knew her father. One dark night, when she was only a baby, the Soviet secret police forcefully arrested Amy's father...and condemned him to the frigid wastelands of Siberia.


Then as World War II began, the armies of the Third Reich invaded her small Russian village. Amy, a tender seven-year-old child, was taken by cattle car to a slave labor camp and witnessed firsthand the horrors of Hitler's Germany.


As the war ends, Amy and her mother make a daring escape, with execution the likely verdict if they are captured. Over the years Amy wondered about her father. Was he still alive? Would she ever see him again?


A true story, Goodbye Is Not Forever serves as a vivid confirmation of God's never-ending grace in the lives of his children.

Mrs. George spoke at my church several years ago. She had the whole morning service. We were amazed, cried, rejoiced, and were mesmerized.

What this woman's family endured as "Displaced Persons" in Europe before and during WW2 was horrific, yet gives glory to God in a way you won't believe. I know you are man, but have your Kleenex handy when you read it.

The whole book is how God had his hand on this poverty-stricken unGodly little family as they endured the indescribable. God had plans to save them - physically, emotionally, but best of all spiritually.

This book is the definitive book to read to comprehend the sovereignty of God as happens in our daily and ordinary lives.

As for me, I found my old copy of Chuck Colson's "Loving God". I think I'll read it again while I am off for Christmas.

As far as fiction is concerned - I reread the original and unabridged "Tarzan" this year and "The Call of the Wild" for the umpteenth time.

 

[Deacon]

My outstanding book of 2013 surprisingly was a research book,
The Literary Structure of the Old Testament, A Commentary on Genesis – Malachi,
by David Dorsey (1999).

My 2014 book list includes:

• Free Grace Soteriology by David R. Anderson

I picked up the Hudson Taylor Collection from Logos Bible Software and want to re-read these two:

• Hudson Taylor in Early Years: The Growth of a Soul
• Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission: The Growth of a Work of God
  both by Howard and Geraldine Taylor

Others include:

• Atlas Shrugged, by Ann Rand (Novel)

and these two my wife has wrapped for Christmas:

• Tom Clancy's Command Authority (Novel)
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Pirig (Novel)

Rob

 

[Deacon]

As far as fiction is concerned - I reread the original and unabridged "Tarzan" this year and "The Call of the Wild" for the umpteenth time.

The Classics!
I can't wait for my grandson to grow up a bit so I can introduce him to these favorites.

I tried reading him some Jack London a year or so ago and he was just too young.
I ended up reading him some James Herriot books.

Rob

 

[Scarlett O.]

The Classics!
I can't wait for my grandson to grow up a bit so I can introduce him to these favorites.

I tried reading him some Jack London a year or so ago and he was just too young.
I ended up reading him some James Herriot books.

Rob

Back when I taught literature, I used those two as "gateway" books for 4th-8th graders to introduce them to the wonderful world of older material. They LOVED it. I never had a class that didn't.

I still read them aloud to classes even though I don't teach literature anymore.

Just as a side note, not many people over 25 realize that amidst the fluff of some of the modern juvenile literature is a treasure trove of great reading.

I'm sure that even in the days of what we call classics they had their "fluff", too.

 

[Crabtownboy]

Another good book I read in 2013 was:

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy by Eric Metaxas

 

[convicted1]

I have been reading:


"Rivers of Living Waters" by Theodore Austin Sparks

&

"Types in Genesis" by Andrew Jukes

Both very good reads.......

 

[kyredneck]

I have been reading:


"Rivers of Living Waters" by Theodore Austin Sparks

&

"Types in Genesis" by Andrew Jukes

Both very good reads.......

Willis, you ever read Pink's 'Gleanings In Genesis'? He is awesome with the types. I'll have to check out this Jukes fellow.

(incidentally, I've got that article on back burner, haven't forgotten it, have browsed it, I want to read more thoroughly)

 

[convicted1]

No on Pink. I have some of his books downloaded to my Nook to read, though......Jukes presents things that makes one really ponder, he seems pretty deep in his thinking......

 

[evangelist6589]

The book I cited is not fiction. I am not sure a author of fiction could have thought of what these women went through.

Photo of the grandmothers

Oops.. My mistake.

 

[evangelist6589]

My outstanding book of 2013 surprisingly was a research book,
The Literary Structure of the Old Testament, A Commentary on Genesis – Malachi,
by David Dorsey (1999).

My 2014 book list includes:

• Free Grace Soteriology by David R. Anderson

I picked up the Hudson Taylor Collection from Logos Bible Software and want to re-read these two:

• Hudson Taylor in Early Years: The Growth of a Soul
• Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission: The Growth of a Work of God
  both by Howard and Geraldine Taylor

Others include:

• Atlas Shrugged, by Ann Rand (Novel)

and these two my wife has wrapped for Christmas:

• Tom Clancy's Command Authority (Novel)
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, by Robert Pirig (Novel)

Rob

Atlas Shrugged? Thats a philosophy book. I remember covering it many years ago. I can't recall what it was about. Can you tell me?

 

[JonC]

I guess I'd list The Culture of Narcissism. This year has been busy and I have not read as much as I would have liked, but I did revisit this book and it stands out for me (that and a Joe DiMaggio biography) .

2014 will hopefully be a better read :smilewinkgrin:

 

[Deacon]

Atlas Shrugged? Thats a philosophy book. I remember covering it many years ago. I can't recall what it was about. Can you tell me?

Atlas Shrugged is a fictional novel carrying a philosophical message promoting Objectivism

(I'm no philosopher but so far I'd define it as a pursuit of individual success or happiness through unrestricted capitalism).

Rob

 

[Crabtownboy]

Atlas Shrugged is by Ayn Rand. Ayn Rand is no friend of Christianity or of Christ.

The good, say the mystics of spirit, is God, a being whose only definition is that he is beyond man's power to conceive- a definition that invalidates man's consciousness and nullifies his concepts of existence...Man's mind, say the mystics of spirit, must be subordinated to the will of God... Man's standard of value, say the mystics of spirit, is the pleasure of God, whose standards are beyond man's power of comprehension and must be accepted on faith....The purpose of man's life...is to become an abject zombie who serves a purpose he does not know, for reasons he is not to question. [Ayn Rand, For the New Intellectual]

Faith is the worst curse of mankind, as the exact antithesis and enemy of thought.

Ayn Rand

 

[Jordan Kurecki]

By my Spirit by Jonathan Goforth.

Probably the most challenging book, it's a biography of great revivals in China.
The things in it are so challenging to our modern lukewarm churches.

For those who are looking to be more motivated for Christ get this book!

It had me weeping and caused me to fall on my knees and ask God for revival many times throughout reading it.

 

[preachinjesus]

A wonderful idea for a post:

In 2013 I found several texts as extremely good. The first is a classic which never disappoints:

The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas, just superb...especially in the original French.

A theological book that really stood out to me is The Early Preaching of Karl Barth by William Willimon that presented 14 sermons from the good Prof Barth in his formative years of parish ministry.

Another theological/philosophical book that I uncovered is Alvin Plantinga's Where the Conflict Really Lies which develops his philosophy of science and how a Christian understands the work of God in the world in light of scientific discovery.

That'll probably do for me for now. I attempt to maintain a rigorous reading schedule and these represent a slice of my engagement this year.