Books I’ve read The Bookshelf

Henderson is a retired Iowa history teacher who grew up in and then left Evangelical Christianity. As he acknowledges in the preface, this book is more or less a collection of blog posts on various "why evangelicals are wrong" or "what evangelicals need to learn" topics. It's well-meaning, not particularly deep, and badly in need of an editor and a proof-reader. (Homonyms sneak past spell check every time!)

The Quiet American

by Graham Greene · published 2010 · read 2025-07-03

Beautiful, subtle stuff from Graham Greene. His prose is just lovely.

Meet Me At The Crossroads

by Megan Giddings · published 2025 · read 2025-06-29

Partly soft speculative sci-fi; mostly a meditation on love, and loss, and family. Quite lovely.

A Country of Ghosts

by Margaret Killjoy · published 2021 · read 2025-06-27

Something of a utopian / anarchist manifesto in short book form. A decent little story, though not a lot of plot, and the plot that does exist is flexible to meet the needs of the treatise.

City of Nets

by Otto Friedrich · published 1997 · read 2025-06-25

A well-written, very readable overview of a transitional decade in Hollywood's history. I found the earlier chapters, focused on personalities, more interesting and engaging than the latter ones, focused more on unions and the start of the blacklists. Still, a decent read.

The Transforming Fire of Divine Love

by John H. Armstrong · published 2025 · read 2025-06-23

What a beautiful book. A long-time Calvinist and PSA adherent acknowledging, explaining, and embracing a shift to a love-based view of God and salvation. And leaning heavily on Brad Jersak at the end. Wonderful.

To Be Taught, If Fortunate

by Becky Chambers · published 2019 · read 2025-06-17

Becky Chambers. So good. A beautiful little novella about the wonder of exploration and the longing for home.

The Dispossessed

by Ursula K. Le Guin · published 1974 · read 2025-06-13

Brilliant world building and exploration of political ideologies and ways to live in a civilization. A classic for a reason.

The Not-Yet God

by Ilia Delio · published 2023 · read 2025-06-13

Ilia Delio's most comprehensive statement yet of her synthesis of Teilhard and Jung. We need a framework for thinking about God that embraces what we know today about quantum physics and evolution. I'm not entirely convinced by her enthusiasm for tech-based transhumanism, but the integration of all things seems very right to me.

Murder Under Her Skin

by Stephen Spotswood · published 2022 · read 2025-06-01

Such a fun, lighthearted mystery series.

Lower than the Angels

by Diarmaid MacCulloch · published 2025 · read 2025-05-28

I guess when your previous book was a huge history of Christianity you have a lot of notes left over. Epic in scope, mostly Western-focused, this is an interesting survey of Christian attitudes toward and practices around sex and marriage. MacCulloch still definitely has opinions but doesn't feel like he's putting his thumb on the scale too much.

The Seventh Floor

by David McCloskey · published 2024 · read 2025-05-23

Superb spy novel. Love this series.

Secrets Typed In Blood

by Stephen Spotswood · published 2022 · read 2025-05-14

Think I'm caught up on the series now. Enjoyed it!

The Cosmic Landscape

by Leonard Susskind · published 2006 · read 2025-05-07

String theory, beautifully explained. What's not to love?

The Argonauts

by Maggie Nelson · published 2015 · last read 2025-05-03

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Playworld

by Adam Ross · published 2025 · read 2025-05-03

A coming-of-age story working to be epic in scope and almost achieving it. A really lovely read.

Fortune Favors the Dead

by Stephen Spotswood · published 2020 · read 2025-04-27

OK, that's good fun. A sort of Holmes/Watson lady detective series set in the 1940s. Sign me up.

Say Nothing

by Patrick Radden Keefe · published 2019 · read 2025-04-25

An absolutely harrowing account from The Troubles in Ireland in the 1970s through the 1990s. Keefe doesn't seek to moralize, and somehow by just recounting the facts it's even more disturbing than it otherwise would be. Brilliant book.

Mysticism

by Simon Critchley · published 2024 · read 2025-04-21

An interesting attempt at the subject, but the author is personally intrusive so far into the narrative that it was distracting.

Eurotrash

by Christian Kracht · published 2021 · read 2025-04-21

A brief, poignant novel of family history and the challenge of a mentally ill parent.

Bedeviled

by Jimena Canales · published 2022 · read 2025-04-18

A history of "demons" in science - that is, the unexplainable forces in the universe that get characterized as spooky actions until they can be scientifically explained.

The Framed Women of Ardemore House

by Brandy Schillace · published 2024 · read 2025-04-18

A really well done mystery novel featuring a neurodivergent protagonist. Bravo.

Dead in the Frame

by Stephen Spotswood · published 2025 · read 2025-04-13

A solid little noir mystery, with some modern genderqueer awareness. It's almost like if Becky Chambers was writing Daschiell Hammett stories. I'll probably go backfill the series now.

Where God Happens

by Rowan Williams · published 2007 · read 2025-04-09

A short, lovely collection of insight on Christian community drawing from the Desert Fathers.

Moscow X

by David McCloskey · published 2023 · read 2025-04-04

Not as compelling as the first one, but still head and shoulders above most spy novels being written these days.

The Goldfinch

by Donna Tartt · published 2013 · read 2025-03-22

Big, sprawling, messy, and transcendent.

Polostan

by Neal Stephenson · published 2024 · read 2025-03-20

Glaringly incomplete in some ways, but I can't wait to see where it goes.

What’s Next

by Melissa Fitzgerald · published 2024 · read 2025-03-15

I love The West Wing and wanted to love the book. It's sort of an oral history of the show mashed up with the cast members' stories of civic service. And while that's a noble and commendable cause, the writing is just too informal, and the book goes on way too long.There's no reason this needs to be 640 pages. It feels like a fan magazine that went about 6 issues too long.

Damascus Station: A Novel

by David McCloskey · published 2021 · read 2025-03-14

So many modern espionage novels have gotten cheap and quick and predictable... this one wasn't. Enjoyed it a lot, looking forward to reading the next one.

Exit West

by Mohsin Hamid · published 2017 · read 2025-03-08

A beautiful, lyrical, intimate story of life, love, and displacement.

Moral Man and Immoral Society

by Reinhold Niebuhr · published 2021 · read 2025-03-06

The first half of the book: solid 5-stars. Niebuhr's analysis of cultural and group dynamics is as applicable to 2025 as it was to 1931. The second half of the book: unfulfilling. Two chapters dallying with socialism and Marxism. Final couple chapters with some vague gestures of what approaches might bring hope. Interesting as political philosophy but ultimately didn't really do it for me.

The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary

by Simon Winchester · published 2005 · read 2025-02-22

A fascinating story and easy read.

Incompleteness

by Rebecca Goldstein · published 2006 · read 2025-02-22

A very readable biography of a brilliant and sad character.

How to Make Sense of Any Mess

by Abby Covert · published 2014 · read 2025-02-17

A little more than a pamphlet, a lot less than a book. Good for the basics, not nearly what I was expecting or hoping for.

The World According to Physics

by Jim Al-Khalili · published 2020 · read 2025-02-17

A wonderfully-written and explained overview of the current state of physics. Enough detail to be really engaging, explained well enough to not be too dense. Fantastic.

The MANIAC

by Benjamin Labatut · published 2024 · read 2025-02-16

A stunning, chilling work. The front section about Von Neumann was powerful but the final section on Go put the whole book over the top.

Tech Agnostic

by Greg Epstein · published 2024 · read 2025-02-13

Not sure I fully buy that tech has become a religion, but interesting insights into group dynamics.

Hold Fast Through the Fire

by K. B. Wagers · published 2021 · read 2025-02-08

Good fun. You know the author is bang home some principles but the story is enjoyable and comforting anyway.

Jesus and the Forces of Death

by Matthew Thiessen · published 2020 · read 2025-02-03

A short, concise, very readable argument that Jesus held to the importance of Jewish purity law, but that He introduced to the world a power of purity so strong that it overwhelmed the forces of death and impurity around Him. Really fascinating stuff. (If I never have to read the phrase 'genital discharge' again, though, it'll still be too soon.)

The Ground We Share

by Robert Aitken · published 1996 · read 2025-02-01

Structured as a series of conversations between a Christian monastic and a Zen Buddhist monk. These men provide some practical life insights and remind the reader that Buddhism has never been too distant from a contemplative Christian practice.

Reading While Black

by Esau McCaulley · published 2020 · read 2025-01-28

Short, clear, and to the point. McCaulley, an Anglican priest, explores a Scriptural hermeneutic that addresses issues relevant to the American Black church.

Language for God in Patristic Tradition

by Mark Sheridan · published 2014 · read 2025-01-26

A very readable overview of how early Christian fathers read the OT scriptures, specifically around anthropomorphic descriptions of God, and passages that describe God in troubling ways. Heartening to see that their consensus was that the truest picture we have of God is in the teaching of Jesus, and then that they used all sorts of rationalization and vibes to figure out what to do with the Old Testament.

Into the Unknown

by Kelsey Johnson · published 2024 · read 2025-01-23

A thoughtful, reasonable exploration of some of the challenging scientific questions in the universe. Written maybe just a baby step above the popular level, Dr. Johnson still makes these big questions very understandable and is willing to draw the lines around what we do know, what we can know, and what is impossible to know. A delightful and entertaining read.

The Widening of God’s Mercy

by Christopher B. Hays · published 2024 · read 2025-01-13

I'm conflicted on how to rate this one. Do I like their conclusion? Yes. Is it heartening to see men be willing to change their minds on a difficult topic? Absolutely. But for the life of me I don't understand why this is the approach they take to the question.

The Message

by Ta-Nehisi Coates · published 2024 · read 2025-01-11

Another stunning book from Coates. First, he's just a beautiful writer, crafting prose with carefully chosen words that add layers of color, texture, and meaning. Second, he's written an insightful and challenging book, letting us follow along as he questions his own understanding of the narratives he's been taught (and promulgated). From the streets of Dakar to the hills of Palestine, Coates works to open our eyes as he recognizes his eyes are opening. A superb book.

Blessed One: Protestant Perspectives on Mary

by Cynthia Rigby · published 2002 · read 2025-01-06

11 short essays with Protestant views of Mary. Started slowly, but as it progressed provided some good insights on how Protestant ignorance of Mary has also driven the current patriarchal flavor within the church. The final essay on Mary as a co-creator with God is worth the whole thing.

A Pale Light in the Black

by K. B. Wagers · published 2020 · read 2025-01-04