Favourite coffee shop to read at.....Pane E Formage
I've always been a bit of an aficionado of the year end "best of lists". Through them I've found some great movies, books, music, art, etc that I never would have otherwise. Also there's the pleasure of shared agreement with the choices or the pleasure of knowing how much better you could do at this list thing, the superior feeling of knowing that you would never put Mortal Kombat II on your list....so it's time to put my money where my mouth is and present my humble list of the years' best finds. In keeping with my love of randomness my lists won't presented in a neatly binary or metric based "10 of" format.
The number of items on each list is completely arbitrary as is the order in which they are presented....it's enough to make the list - I don't think I could fairly categorize the items on in it in a sequential manner.
So today's' list is
Great Books I Read This Year:
Blue Like Jazz: Donald Miller: This is a beautifully written book that shows you can be passionate about your Christian faith without being a cookie-cutter/pew-warmer/ignore the rest of the world/churchy person. Miller has a knack for being irreverently reverent. One of my favourite scenes in the book is where Miller and friends set up a Confession Booth on an university campus. A Confession Booth with a difference; rather than take confession from visitors to the booth, it is the Christian (pseudo-priest) inside the booth who confesses their own ineptness in following Jesus in such a way as to make His love clear.
The Swallows of Kabul (Novel): Yasmina Khadra: A haunting fable like tale that exposes the horrors of the fascist theocracy of the Taliban. Through the tale of Moshen, his former-lawyer wife Zunaira, the jailer Atiq and his wife Musserrat the author shows the difference between the strength of faith and the danger of religious extremism. Sparse prose that is all the more impactful for its' minimalist style.
Christ and the Media: Malcolm Muggeridge: I cannot believe that I've never come across this book before. The interaction of cultural forces and spirituality has long been a fascination of mine and the presentation of this subject here is top notch. This little book is amazingly witty while still remaining a trenchant critique of media culture and its' power over culture at large. It reminds the reader of the constant need to be aware of the influences we subject ourselves to. Very powerful, very well written, very needed.
The Dogs of Babel: (Novel) Carolyn Parkhurst: Another fable like novel, this one exploring the realms of grief and loss. Paul Iverson becomes convinced that as a linguist he can teach his dog, the only witness to his wife's death, how to talk. His hope is to find answers to unanswerable questions. A meditation on life, love, coming together and falling apart. Bittersweet and strange and all the more beautiful for it.
Selected Readings from Soren Kierkegaard: What more to say? Challenging, thought provoking, stimulating. The basis for many a great conversation can be started with a Kierkegaardian quote.
More great books to come tomorrow.....
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