Second Quarter Books

Here are the books I read during the last three months. It may seem like a lot (5), but some of them were short and/or really quick-reads.

Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, by Eric Metaxas

Although this book took some work to get through, it was really good. It told the story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's life, and how he held fast to the truth, even when he knew it would lead to persecution, and, ultimately, his death. His obedience, faith, and conviction were (are) inspiring. I especially appreicated this quote:

"If you board the wrong train it is no use running along the corridor in the opposite direction” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Putting Amazing Back Into Grace: Embracing the Hearth of the Gospel, by Michael Horton

The sub-title to this book really says it all. This book clearly laid out solid, biblical truths that, while maybe not being brand-new to me, helped me to look at them in a new, and refreshed way. It really brought home truths that I needed to hear again, at just the right time. Because I liked it so much, I'm doing two quotes: 

…we are spiritually bankrupt, broke. Not only don’t we have a single penny in our accounts; we are deep in debt…It would be similar to an average daily laborer thinking he can pay off the national debt of the United States. We not only have a lack of funds; we have an abundance of debts. So we need two things in order to settle the account with God. We need a payment of all the debts. And then we need a full line of credit. God requires both: Negatively, we must be guilty of no sins, but, positively, we must also be just as morally perfect, righteous, and holy as God himself. The glass must not only be empty of unrighteousness; it must be full of righteousness. This is where the popular definition of justification – ‘just as if I’d never sinned’ – falls short. Rather, it is just as if I’d never sinned and had instead, loved God and my neighbor perfectly all my life....

But even in a world of overwhelming complexities and insecurities, we can know at the very core of our being that God has fixed his eternal gaze on us, controls our destiny, and will not let anything get in the way.

Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury

After reading the Bonhoeffer tome, I needed a short book, and I happened to have this one on my shelf. Considering that this is a classic that many people seem to have read, I thought I should join that club and give it a try. The book is all about the dangers of censorship, and how people can be easily influenced to stop thinking for themselves and instead just follow blindly the rules of others. I can't say I really enjoyed it all that much. It was okay. I did like this quote, though:

If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war. If the government is inefficient, top-heavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than that people worry over it. Peace, Montag. Give the people contests they win by remembering the words to more popular songs or the names of state capitals or how much corn Iowa grew last year. Cram them full of noncombustible data, chock them so damned full of 'facts' they fell stuffed, but absolutely 'brilliant' with information. Then they'll feel they're thinking, they'll get a sense of motion without moving. And they'll be happy, because facts of that sort don't change.

In the Garden of Beasts, by Erik Larson

Apparently I had a strange interested in Nazi Germany these past few months. After reading Bonhoeffer, I picked up this book, which is the story of the American Ambassador to Berlin, just during the time that Hitler came to power. I'd read another of Larson's books, and enjoyed it, and so was somewhat disappointed by this one. The story kind of dragged, and it wasn't as interesting as I thought it would be. I did like this quote that described the paranoid atmosphere in Germany at the time:

Germans grew reluctant to stay in communal ski lodges, fearing they might talk in their sleep. They postponed surgeries because of the lip-loosening effects of anesthetic. Dreams reflected the ambient anxiety. One German dreamed that an SA man came to his home and opened the door to his oven, which then repeated every negative remark the household had made against the government.

The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins

My summer-time reading: The Hunger Games Trilogy. Always satisfying. Especially when you have Peeta saying things like this: 

Only I keep wishing I could think of a way...to show the Capitol they don't own me. That I'm more than just a piece in their Games.