2012 Book Report

Time for my annual reader’s roundup! Sparse again this year – fewer than fifty volumes in all, and the list is a bit eccentric. My life is good, but comes with less access to books and less discretionary time to read than I had in days of yore. The saving grace: I get to read for grad school, and it remains part of my day job too.

BOOKS I READ “FOR FUN”

Nonfiction

Creating an Intimate Marriage, by Jim Burns

Some Assembly Required, by Anne Lamott

The Mormon Faith of Mitt Romney, by Andrew Jackson

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen, by Christopher McDougall

At Home: A Short History of Private Life, by Bill Bryson

Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters, by Annie Dillard

Forty Odd, by Mary Bard

Fiction

Right Ho, Jeeves, by P. G. Wodehouse

The Lost Gate, by Orson Scott Card

The Forgotten Affairs of Youth, by Alexander McCall Smith

Henrietta Who? by Catherine Aird

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford

Moloka'i, by Alan Brennert

A Most Contagious Game, by Catherine Aird

Passing Strange, by Catherine Aird

The Limpopo Academy of Private Detection, by Alexander McCall Smith

Back Home Again: Tales from Grace Chapel Inn, by Melody Carlson

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Bridge to Terebithia, by Katherine Paterson

Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, by Anne Tyler

Cat among the Pigeons, by Agatha Christie

Providence: Once Upon a Second Chance, by Chris Coppernoll

BOOKS I READ FOR SCHOOL

For New Testament survey class:

Acts, Epistles, and Revelation (the Bible)

An Introduction to the New Testament, by D. A. Carson and D. J. Moo

For a class on the mission of God:

Discovering the Mission of God, ed. by Mike Barnett and Robin Martin

Called to Reach: Equipping Cross-Cultural Disciplers, by William Yount and Mike Barnett

An Army of Ordinary People, by Felicity Dale

Who Is My Neighbor? By Phillip and Kandace Connor

And the Word Came with Power, by Joanne Shetler

Servant on the Edge of History, by Sam James

For a class on urban church planting:

Planting and Growing Urban Churches, ed. Harvie Conn

Planting Growing Churches for the 21st Century, by Aubrey Malphurs

Church Planter: The Man, the Message, the Mission, by Darrin Patrick

Church Planting Movements: How God Is Redeeming a Lost World, by David Garrison

For a class on contemporary issues in the Muslim world:

Whose Promised Land? by Colin Chapman

The Rumbling Volcano: Islamic Fundamentalism in Egypt, by Nabeel Jabbour (read in 2011)

Jesus and the Land: The New Testament Challenge to "Holy Land" Theology, by Gary Burge (read in 2011)

Palestine Peace not Apartheid, by Jimmy Carter (read in 2011)

BOOKS I READ FOR WORK   
(Most in hopes of reviewing them for our online missions magazine)

Women of Faith and Courage, by Vance Christie

Serving As Senders Today, by Neal Pirolo

Miraculous Movements: How Hundreds of Thousands of Muslims Are Falling in Love with Jesus, by Jerry Trousdale

Unashamed to Bear His Name: Embracing the Stigma of Being a Christian, by R.T. Kendall

In The Land of Blue Burqas, by Kate McCord

Ambassadors to Muslims, by Fouad Masri

People Raising: A Practical Guide to Raising Funds, by William Dillon

Don't Forget to Pack the Kids, by Jill Richardson

The Final Assault: A Novel about Finishing the Task, by Steve Smith

Threads: One Family's Unlikely Adventure in Business, Mission, and Church Planting, by Arlene Richardson

The Multilingual God: Stories of Translation, by Steve Fortosis

Translating Christ: The Memoirs of Herman Peter Aschmann, Wycliffe Bible Translator, by Hugh Steven

How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels, by N.T. Wright

Kingdom Journeys: Rediscovering the Lost Spiritual Discipline, by Seth Barnes

Yielded Captive, by Dalaina May

The Yankee Officer and the Southern Belle, by Nell Chinchen