Three Books I’m Looking Forward to Reading This Summer
Seven Reasons Life Is Better with God, by Nathan Brown.
The following blurb is from AdventistBookCenter.com:
“We all have disappointments. But when things are going pretty well, why does the God-faith-religion-church thing matter?
Why do we need God when we seem to have all we need? Isn’t religion just what old, poor, and sick people use to feel better about themselves? Isn’t church just a bunch of hypocrites? Or, at best, people like you and me?
Christianity is often styled as an answer to our problems, particularly for those who have no options left. But what about those who seem to have everything going for them? who are well off, well fed, well educated, faced with many different opportunities, and apparently doing OK? The truth is we don’t have to hit rock bottom to need God. No matter how good—or bad—life might seem, God still calls us to follow Him.
This book ponders seven reasons life is better with God—when things are bad, God can make them better; when things are good, God makes them better still. The truth is that God not only matters; He loves and cares for us.”
Grounds for Belief, by Ed Dickerson.
The following is also from AdventistBookCenter.com (Visit also the author’s website: GroundsForBelief.com):
“Change is inevitable—except from vending machines.
Times change. It’s not your daddy’s world anymore.
Today we live in a decentralized, media-dominated, postmodern world. The Internet enables the exchange of ideas and information unimagined by previous generations. Facts and opinions bombard us via e-mail, cell phones, I-pods, and satellite TV. We’re more connected electronically than ever before, but more of us feel isolated and lacking in close friends.
Is there such a thing as truth anymore? Can we tell who is telling the truth?
Ed Dickerson thinks so. He specializes in making Christianity accessible to contemporary audiences. “Like the Apostle Paul,” he says, “I’d rather say five words that everyone can understand and learn from than say ten thousand that sound to others like gibberish” (1 Corinthians 14:19, The Message). Seekers, debaters, the proud, and the humble come to his Grounds for Belief cafe. Some come for the baked goods and others for games. Some to condemn and some to praise, but all, including you, are welcome there.
Don’t be shortchanged! Come along and eavesdrop on the conversations taking place at the cafe. And don’t be surprised if they turn philosophical and then spiritual, or if you find grounds for belief that really make sense to you.”
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, by Elizabeth Gilbert.
Here’s a blurb from Publisher’s Weekly as quoted in Gilbert’s website:
“Gilbert grafts the structure of romantic fiction upon the inquiries of reporting in this sprawling yet methodical travelogue of soul-searching and self-discovery. Plagued with despair after a nasty divorce, the author, in her early 30s, divides a year equally among three dissimilar countries, exploring her competing urges for earthly delights and divine transcendence.
First, pleasure: savoring Italy’s buffet of delight—the world’s best pizza, free-flowing wine and dashing conversation partners. Gilbert consumes la dolce vita as spiritual succor. ‘I came to Italy pinched and thin,’ she writes, but soon fills out in waist and soul.
Then, prayer and ascetic rigor: seeking communion with the divine at a sacred ashram in India, Gilbert emulates the ways of yogis in grueling hours of meditation, struggling to still her churning mind.
Finally, a balancing act in Bali, where Gilbert tries for equipoise ‘betwixt and between’ realms, studies with a merry medicine man and plunges into a charged love affair.
Sustaining a chatty, conspiratorial tone, Gilbert fully engages readers in the year’s cultural and emotional tapestry—conveying rapture with infectious brio, recalling anguish with touching candor—as she details her exotic tableau with history, anecdote and impression.”
June 10th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
Good choices. I haven’t heard much about the Dickerson book, but I definitely want to read Nathan’s book and you already know from my website that I loooovved “Eat, Pray, Love” … happy reading!
June 14th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
I just want to heartily endorse Eat, Pray, Love. Our book club read it and all loved it. In fact, out of three four years of books, it ranked at the top or right near it for all of us. Not only are her insights beautiful and often profound, she is a delightful writer.