I usually save up my book recommendations for the end of the year so I can point to my favorites all in one place, but there’s something to be said for sharing a few recommendations from my “recently read” pile. So here’s a selection with a few different kinds of books, in case you’re interested in one of these genres.
1. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT
by Fyodor Dostoevsky, translation by Michael Katz
I’m confident this translation of Dostoevsky’s classic will make my top 10 list this year. It’s superb. It’s been at least 15 years since I last read Crime and Punishment, and it was the older Constance Garnett translation. Even then, despite the older, more stilted prose, I was left breathless several times. Katz takes the experience to another level. This is certainly one of the most disturbing books in Dostoevsky’s corpus (and, I warn you, it’s not for the faint of heart) because the reader is simultaneously drawn to Raskolnikov and horrified by his philosophy and actions.
2. THE WAGER: A TALE OF SHIPWRECK, MUTINY AND MURDER
by David Grann
With Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann burst onto the scene, joining people like Erik Larson, Hampton Sides, and Candice Millard known for their masterful abilities in recounting history as an unfolding adventure. This newer book about a shipwreck in the 1700s started a little slow but got better as the narrative progressed, to the point where I wondered if parts of the tale could be true. There are so many angles in approaching the story—from the leadership lessons and societal implications of a community stranded on an island with dwindling food supplies to the naval code of conduct and what constitutes “mutiny” or “abandonment.” There’s the added wrinkle of competing narratives that take shape back home as each survivor tells their side of the story.
3. THE UNCONTROLLABILITY OF THE WORLD
by Harmut Rosa
I mentioned this book in a recent column on how we can’t engineer an experience with God (and why that’s a good thing), but I want to recommend it again. Rosa is a German philosopher, and this work, though brief, is one of those books that helps you notice things in society you otherwise might miss. Rosa believes “the driving cultural force of that form of life we call ‘modern’ is the idea, the hope and desire, that we can make the world controllable. Yet it’s only in encountering the uncontrollable that we really experience the world. Only then do we feel touched, moved, alive.”
He continues, “A world that’s fully known, in which everything has been planned and mastered, would be a dead world.” But “because we, as late modern human beings, aim to make the world controllable at every level—individual, cultural, institutional, and structural—we invariably encounter the world as . . . a series of objects that we have to know, attain, conquer, master, or exploit. And precisely because of this, ‘life,’ the experience of feeling alive and of truly encountering the world—that which makes resonance possible—always seems to elude us. This in turn leads to anxiety, frustration, anger, and even despair.”
4. A DOUBTER’S GUIDE TO WORLD RELIGIONS
by John Dickson
I’ve been reading through John Dickson’s Doubter’s Guide series over the past couple months. This was my first foray, and I appreciate his approach here as almost something of a “pre-apologist” for Christianity. He does something similar with his Doubter’s Guide to the Ten Commandments. Eminently fair, curious, scholarly but easy to understand—this is Dickson at his best. Church leaders who dip into these books will find “hooks” on which to hang some of their teaching or, at least, a model of how to engage others in a conversation that prepares the way for sharing the gospel.
5. THE ARTS OF LIVING IN SEASON: A YEAR OF REFLECTIONS FOR EVERYDAY SAINTS
by Sylvie Vanhoozer
This forthcoming book from Sylvie Vanhoozer draws on lessons and experiences from her childhood in her native Provence, in southern France, and weaves together traditions and insights from her world travels. It’s an invitation to consider, with greater attentiveness, the world around us and what it means to follow Jesus. Alongside the devotional reflections are ideas and applications for how believers can lean into the rhythms of nature and the church calendar.
6. THE LORD OF PSALM 23: JESUS OUR SHEPHERD, COMPANION, AND HOST
by David Gibson
Overfamiliarity with Psalm 23 can keep us from being wowed by all the truth and beauty packed into this ancient song. David Gibson does what he does best, drawing out the implications of the Scriptures and refreshing the reader with glorious truth expressed in powerfully affecting ways. I loved this book. I lingered in the pages, sitting still before the Lord as Gibson pressed the truths of this psalm more deeply into my heart.
7. CULTURE BUILT MY BRAND: THE SECRET TO WINNING MORE CUSTOMERS THROUGH COMPANY CULTURE
by Mark Miller and Ted Vaughn
I’ve always got one or two leadership and business books in the mix when I’m reading, and this one had some good insight into what makes an organization special, with the often overlooked role of culture in determining the brand. The culture component can help break through the inertia of organizational life and deliver better results and a more loyal base of people to serve.
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