Favorite Reads in 2019

Happy New Year faithful readers of the blog! I am thankful to everyone who reads my content, even as I am not able to post as frequently as I would like to.

I did not read as much as I would have liked in 2019 either. Time constraints and some lack of discipline on my part have definitely contributed to this. Nevertheless, I did read some good books. Here is my annual top ten books I read in 2019.

10. The General vs. The President - H. W. Brands

This year I did some historical reading on the era immediately following WW-II and some key events that occurred in the Truman presidency. This book takes a look at two very different leaders (Truman and MacArthur) with very different styles. A clash ensues with global ramifications. A good study, full of practical leadership tips on dealing with difficult people, taking responsibility for decisions, and the sorts of people to surround yourself in the event you find yourself in power.

9. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens

Enjoyed a renaissance of Charles Dickens in the beginning of the year. I remember really disliking Great Expectations in High School, but rather enjoyed it this time through. What I used to hate about Dickens, his verbosity, his laborious wit, his overboard profundity--are things I am starting to enjoy in my 27th year. The great theme in Great Expectations centers around the negatives of wealth and how our dreams of youth often lose their luster when actualized.

8. The Spy and Traitor - Ben McIntyre

This book reads like a fiction spy novel, only the accounts of the turned KGB agent Oleg Gordievsky are well documented history. Nerve wracking in the extreme, the story climaxes as a team works to extract a blown Gordievsky from the Soviet Union into a Western Sanctuary. Gordievsky was personally thanked by both Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher for the key intelligence he delivered to the West.

7. Churchill Walking with Destiny – Andrew Roberts

A massive book that took me a bit too long to complete. I ran out of steam somewhere near the middle, picked it up again and powered through to the end at last. Winston Churchill is one larger than life figure who dominated the front half of the 20th century. Roberts takes a fair look at the great man, not brushing over his mistakes or character flaws, yet not retroactively "cancelling" him as the Imperial Colonialist he is known as today. Churchill loved the British Empire, He loved the English speaking people. He was arrogant, pugnacious, bubbling with exhausting energy and ambition. Yet his vices were a part of his virtues. The obstinacy that frustrated just about everyone from his friends to political rivals, was the same obstinacy that was required to stand against the Third Reich--saving the West in the process.

6. Finding Truth - Nancy Pearcey

For the all the lofty ideas and deep thinkers analyzed in this book, Finding Truth is a very easy read. Pearcey does an impressive job of condensing worldviews to their bare essence, in a way that most everyone will be able to understand.  She shows the contradictions inherent in idolatrous worldviews, where their proponents are quick to debunk everything else, but their own worldview is unable to pass this same “debunking” test. Pearcey's method works to find these inconsistencies within these false worldviews--as an opening where we can then share the truth of the Christian worldview.

5. John Adams - John Ferling

Picked this book up for free at a yard sale, and I really enjoyed it. Adams is a fascinating study; his political thought perhaps more so than his life. Unlike Jefferson, Adams was wary of a democracy where the mob had full power. Citing the bloody French Revolution, Adams advocated for a strong executive branch to be a check on the fickle appetites of the people, so much so that he was derided as a monarchist by his opponents. Brought up in Puritanism, I was disappointed to learn the Adams strayed from the faith of his fathers later in life--embracing the Unitarianism that was common in that day.

4. Watchfulness - Brian Hedges

Watchfulness is truly a lost discipline. Modern Evangelicalism is bursting with carelessness towards the innumerable snares of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Oblivious to these schemes we wonder why our marriages fail, our leaders fall, and our love grows cold. Perhaps we have been slumbering when we should have been watching? Pulling from giants of the Christian faith like Owen, Bunyan, M’Cheyne (and others)—Brian Hedges writes of how we can recapture Christ’s command to the apostles: “Watch and pray that you do not fall into temptation.”

3. Evangelistic Sermons at Aberavon - Martyn Lloyd-Jones

I have been preaching with increased regularity at the local Mission. This collection of early sermons from Lloyd-Jones were truly a gospel shot in the arm to me. The messages are simple in their construction yet Lloyd-Jones’ passion for the souls of his flock at Aberavon jumps off the page. This commitment to the preaching the gospel message in all its potency to largely churched people is something we need to recapture in our own day.

2. Truman - David McCullough 

Brilliantly written history of a fascinating and unlikely life. Truman's life spans the end of the 19th century and finds its peak in one of the most critical junctures of history--a post WW-II world. Decisions to drop the atomic bomb, form the UN and NATO, face Stalin at Potsdam, intervene in Korea, support the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine--are all decisions Truman bore significant responsibility in. While I learned a lot about the times Truman lived in, I found myself by the end of the book somewhat attached to this noble-hearted protagonist. A great read which elicited further interest in me in the Post WW-II era which has so marked our modern world. 

1. Spiritual Disciplines of the Christian Life - Donald Whitney

Some books are enjoyable to read; others beat you up a bit. Whitney's book on the spiritual disciplines fits into the latter category. God used this book to humble me this year, and to encourage me to take up with greater consistency these "means of grace" which God has given us. Disciplines outlined are: Bible reading, Bible memorization, prayer, fasting, evangelism, solitude--among several others. An excellent book, one I hope to put into greater practice in the new year.