Books I’ve read The Bookshelf

The 15 books I’ve read so far in 2024 year in books

Cover of Sun Wolf.

Sun Wolf

by David Jeffrey · published 2020 · read 2024-04-25

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Again, a book full of fun ideas that needs a better writer to make it amazing.

Cover of Through a Forest of Stars.

Through a Forest of Stars

by David Jeffrey · published 2020 · read 2024-04-15

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

I wanted to love this book. Jeffrey's ideas and balance of science and tech with a good story is right in my wheelhouse. He's just not a strong enough writer to take it from being good to being amazing. To much telling, not enough showing. Too much omniscient narrator waxing eloquent. Still a good book, and I immediately took up the sequel.

Cover of The Exvangelicals.

The Exvangelicals

by Sarah McCammon · published 2024 · read 2024-03-24

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

McCammon has written the book that tells the Exvangelical story as clearly and simply as anyone will. Her story is largely my own story; the differences are incidental, the similarities huge. If there's anyone looking for an understanding of why the exvangelical movement has been a thing over the past decade. this is the book to put in their hands. I appreciate both McCammon's directness and her gentle humility. Good stuff.

Cover of This American Ex-Wife.

This American Ex-Wife

by Lyz Lenz · published 2024 · read 2024-03-21

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Lyz writes beautifully. I am happy that she gets this chance to tell her story, and happy that she is finding happiness.

Cover of The Grand Contraption.

The Grand Contraption

by David Park · published 2005 · read 2024-03-16

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

An engaging history of science from our earliest history to the present. Not too stuffy or too detailed; manages to hit the high points and explain them well without bogging down.

Cover of Exordia.

Exordia

by Seth Dickinson · published 2024 · read 2024-03-15

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

A bonkers book that can't quite decide if it wants to be Michael Crichton or H.P. Lovecraft. 100 pages too long, and an odd combination of physics, philosophy, and horror that kept me reading but never really engaged me the way I had hoped it might.

Cover of Ringmaster.

Ringmaster

by Abraham Riesman · published 2023 · read 2024-02-23

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Painstakingly researched and grippingly told, this story of Vince McMahon's life running the WWF kept me reading, and I care nothing for professional wrestling.

Cover of In Universes.

In Universes

by Emet North · published 2024 · read 2024-02-16

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

Not fully sold on this one. I think I see what the author is trying to do, but there is too much disconnect in the middle chapters for it to hold together and make sense to me.

Cover of The Murder of Professor Schlick.

The Murder of Professor Schlick

by David Edmonds · published 2020 · read 2024-02-10

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

A remarkably engaging and readable introduction to the Vienna Circle and the dynamics in Vienna leading up to the Second World War.

Cover of Finding Zero.

Finding Zero

by Amir D. Aczel · published 2016 · read 2024-02-02

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Less a treatise on ancient mathematics, more an adventure story of the author's quest to find an ancient Cambodian stele with the oldest known inscription of the digit zero on it. Still, the guy knows how to tell a story.

Cover of The Lost World of the Prophets.

The Lost World of the Prophets

by John H. Walton · published 2024 · read 2024-01-27

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Dr. Walton continues his "Lost World" series with a focus on the Old Testament Prophets. The book is structured as a series of propositions, in each of which Walton advocates for a way we should think about Biblical prophecy. Readable even for laypeople, Walton is clearly trying to steer his audience away from a fundamentalist literalist reading, from a reading that directly ties all OT prophecies to much later fulfillments, and instead to understand prophecy as bringing a message from God that may have various interpretations and applications over time. Well worth a read.

Cover of Hell Is a World Without You.

Hell Is a World Without You

by Jason Kirk · published 2023 · read 2024-01-20

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Oh man. A coming of age story full of spiritual awakening, but an awakening that is more like deconstruction. Kirk captures the authentic inner and outer voices of youth growing up in conservative Evangelical circles, grappling with love, loss, and church teachings that just don't make sense.

Cover of Varieties of Christian Universalism.

Varieties of Christian Universalism

by David W. Congdon · published 2023 · read 2024-01-16

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Four chapters, containing four distinct perspectives on Christian Universalism. Some more familiar than others, all helpful as an exploration of various angles Christian theologians have taken in support of that view. Aimed probably a little bit above my head, but still manageable and accessible. The fourth option, Existential Universalism, was new to me and will have me thinking for a while.

Cover of The Downloaded.

The Downloaded

by Robert J. Sawyer · published 2024 · read 2024-01-10

★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆

I've enjoyed a lot of Sawyer's stuff, but this one left me cold. More a novella than a full-length novel, The Downloaded is entirely narrated in first-person interviews. There are a couple interesting technical ideas but they aren't explored in enough detail to really be compelling. All in all, a disappointing book.

Cover of The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory.

The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory

by Tim Alberta · published 2023 · read 2024-01-07

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Journalist Alberta brilliantly evaluates and dismantles the corruption of American Evangelicalism. Having lived through it myself, I think he gets it right. May his tribe increase.