Have you read any good books this year? I’ve read a number of excellent books so far this year: from novels to books on Christian living.

With the hustle and bustle of Easter behind us, perhaps you might be looking to pick up a good book.

Here are a few of my recommendations that I’ve recently read:

The Wisdom Pyramid by Brett McCracken

Brett McCracken's The Wisdom Pyramid is a book with a simple premise with significant implications. McCracken asserts that ours is an unwise age, an age of "information gluttony" that has led to foolishness. His solution is a play on the food pyramid. McCracken suggests that if we evaluate our information diet with proper prioritization, we will grow into wiser people. 

The base of McCracken's pyramid is the Bible, followed by the Church, then nature, books, beauty, followed by the internet and social media, with each level taking up proportionally less space than the last. For many of us, our pyramid is flipped upside-down, with the internet and social media swallowing up much of our time. What has this led to? "Everyone has a megaphone, but no one has a filter." The result? Loneliness, addiction, and anxiety. It is an "era of epistemological sickness." "We are so overwhelmed with possible paths, possible sources of truth and theories of the good life, that we don't pick any path." 

McCracken explains how each of the layers challenges us to swim against the current of our expedient and me-centered age. The Bible confronts the authority of "me," the church calls us "Upward, not inward. Redemption, not expression." Nature calls us to experience our finitude and creatureliness. 

McCracken's book is clear and straightforward. He diagnoses our malady with precision and nuance and offers just the right prescription. I appreciated every section of the book and found it thoughtful, balanced, and practical. I felt convicted at the many ways I've allowed the cultural stream to pull me down its current and was offered practical advice for how to swim upstream. 

Running Scared by Ed Welch

“I have a new philosophy. I only dread one day at a time," Charles Schulz put on Charlie Brown's lips words that many of us resonate with. We all fear. Many of us are paralyzed with debilitating fears, others with low-grade anxiety that we never seem to be able to shake. 

Ed Welch’s Running Scared examines the multifaceted challenge of fear. “The odd thing is that fear and anxiety are running away from something, but they don’t know what to run to. They know danger, but they don’t know where to find peace and rest.” Welch offers many tools and biblical perspectives to help us negotiate the rough terrain of fear. 

The strength of Welch’s book is that he isn’t reductionistic about fear. I appreciated the many different biblical narratives Welch unpacked. The book reads almost like a devotional, and I would encourage readers not to plow through it, but to slowly take it in. 

I would have liked a little more structure and a road map along the way. But Welch is a wise and biblically faithful guide for anyone who struggles with fear. If you struggle with anxiety, I don’t know of a better book than Running Scared. Take it in a chapter at a time and let the fears that grip you be met by your Savior who loves you and is with you.

Pastor, Jesus is Enough by Jeremy Writebol

Barna recently released a disturbing study on the state of pastoral health. Pastors are not doing well. Writebol's Pastor, Jesus is Enough, is written out of the pastoral furnace of Covid-19 as a word of encouragement and exhortation to weary, burned out, and broken pastors. In other words, all of us. My reading of Writebol's book was timely for my own heart. In the middle of a challenging season, I found myself weary and self-focused, and at times allowing the deadly companion self-pity to take up residence in my heart. 

Writebol's book is taken from John's letters to the seven churches in Revelation. His words continually press us to the Lamb of God, the Good Shepherd, and the one who has given himself for us. 

Here is a taste of his encouragement, "Pastor, labor where you are planted. The door of opportunity that only Christ can give is open before you. He has ordained before the foundation of the earth good works for you to do in the church you are in right now. Rest in the love of Jesus, and labor to feed his little flock that he died to purchase for himself."

God used Writebol’s kind pastoral hand through the power of his words to shepherd my heart. I expect it will shepherd many other souls as well.

Missoula by Jon Krakauer

I've been on a Krakauer kick this past year or so. Missoula isn't one of his better-known books, but I believe it is Krakauer at his best. 

Missoula is Krakauer’s deep-dive into a spate of sexual violence against women in the college town of Missoula, Montana. Krakauer gets into the nitty gritty of several cases that demonstrate a failure of both campus and city police agencies as well as the justice system in general. The cases are heartbreaking and the trauma the victims endure not just by the violent sexual acts done against them, but at the hands of police and the legal system is hard to stomach. 

Worst of all, as Krakauer demonstrates, Missoula is not an outlier, but a case study of what was typical at the time of these cases (between 2008 and 2012). 

Krakauer is a top-notch writer and he doesn't cut corners in his investigative work. I can't imagine how much legwork he must have put into a book like this. My beef with most of Krakauer’s writing is that he lets his ego shade his writing too much. That is certainly not the case in Missoula. Krakauer takes a back seat to the victims and their stories. The only critique I might have is that the book could probably have been 25% shorter as Krakauer includes a lot of details straight from the investigations and trial documents. But, the book is also stronger with the inclusion of those documents. It's impossible to deny the mistakes and miscarriage of justice when you wade through the first-hand documents. 

Missoula is a difficult book to read, but it is important. I hope Missoula will be read widely by law enforcement, lawyers, judges, and school administrators. And, as a father of a female college student, many college students and parents would also benefit from reading it.

Willpower by Baumeister and Tierney

Baumeister and Tierney's Willpower is exactly the kind of psychology-for-the-layperson book I love. Much like the work of Duckworth or Gladwell, Willpower consolidates a fair bit of research on the topic of willpower into clear and applicable nuggets for the ordinary Joe.

Baumeister and Tierney make studies on the science behind willpower, the impact of willpower, and how willpower can be improved with clear writing and fun storytelling. Along the way, They tell stories about musician Amanda Palmer, comedian Drew Carey, and illusionist David Blaine. 

I had a lot of fun with this read and appreciated what I learned.

Jubilee by Margaret Walker

Margaret Walker's 1966 novel Jubilee  is one of the best novels I've read in several years. Walker's novel is semi-biographical, following the story of her great-grandmother, Vyry. Set in Georgia and Alabama, Jubilee follows Vyry's story. The child of a white plantation owner and an enslaved woman, Vyry lives through the Civil War and Reconstruction. 

Vyry is unforgettable. Intelligent, courageous, and human. Most moving to me was Walker's depiction of faith in "Jubilee." Vyry's earnest and real struggle with God is profound. 

I can't recommend Jubilee enough. It is poignant and profound, immediately vaulting itself into the category of one of my favorite American novels. Please pick it up.

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