Been on vacation and traveling the last couple of weeks and was able to get a little reading done (and I know *everybody* has read these already . . . probably years ago, but, as usual, I’m trying to catch up). It’s been interesting and fun. Here are some of the titles:
Blink and Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
and on pop culture icons and what we can learn from them, Everyday Apocalypse by David Dark.
Also finished James Blaylock’s All the Bells on Earth.
And speaking of novels, I finally got around to reading Susan Howatch’s amazing Starbridge trilogy (Glittering Images, Glamorous Powers, and Ultimate Prizes) and I’m ready to start on the last three in the series.
so, whachoo bin readin?
what did you think about Predictably Irrational?
Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry, The Revolution by Ron Paul, and Don Quixote
I thought Predictably Irrational was fascinating. I minored in marketing in school and have always been interested in how people make decisions — so this was right up my alley. Made me want to get into the whole field of “choice theory.”
I am reading “Destruction and Reconstruction: Personal Experiences of the Late War” by Gen. Richard Taylor
I finished a couple of biographies–Jackson and Lee. The author was pretty good. Some guy, supposedly heterodox.
On a related note (?), I also enjoyed Wright’s What St. Paul Really Said.
Currently reading The Eschatological Economy by Douglas Knight, Blacklisted by History by M. Stanton Evans, and I’m knee-deep in The Children of Hurin.
I am trying to read through some of the books my boys will be reading in the upcoming school year. So I just finished Rolf and the Viking Bow and really enjoyed it. I am also reading The Kingdom and the Power by Leithart and the Great Divorce by Lewis.
I enjoy Taylor’s practical down to earth view of people and life. It is interesting to read his thoughts on Stonewall Jackson.
I just finished Duth: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan, appropriate, I think, in this election year.
I’ve been wanting to read that David Dark book for years (see, you’re not the last one!) and wondered what you thought about it? Is it worth buying or should I just check it out of the library/paperbackswap it?
Hi Steve,
I picked up Howatch’s COE series (on the recommendation of John Barach) and they were some of the best books on pastoral care I ever read…and they’re just novels! I especially liked the first one. Its funny how all the reviewers focus on Ashworth and Jardine but I know pastors focus on the steely Jon Darrow. A little oddness and overuse of psychotherapy but great character studies.
re #5 Johnny, I’m not responsible for what happens to you from here on . . . you did it to yourself! ; )
#6 Peter, The Kingdom and Power is great, I need to re-read it. (Great Divorce ain’t bad either!)
#8 Allison, I don’t think it’s one to buy. I liked it and there were some real gems (I especially enjoyed the chapter on Flannery O’Connor, . . . but I don’t guess I needed to say that). The chapters on Radiohead and Beck went pass me since I’m completely ignorant of them — Dark does have some nice observations, but I think I’d check it out or borrow it if I were you.
Garrett: right on the mark re Howatch. I was (and continue to be) amazed over her insight in these books. Darrow astonished me and made me feel like an igmo when it comes to counseling and getting to the real issues. I liked Glittering Images best but enjoyed Glamorous Powers because it focused upon Darrow . . . and revealed his own weaknesses. The books are an intriguing study of the mystery of iniquity.
I’ve been rereading Glamorous Powers. Speaking of Darrow, he’s back as an old man in the fifth book, Mystical Paths, with his son, Nick, who returns as one of the main characters in the St Benet’s trilogy, the must-read follow-up to the Starbridge series: The Wonder Worker (UK title: A Question of Integrity, 1997), The High Flyer (2000), and The Heartbreaker (2004).
so Jon, the St. Benet’s trilogy continues to follow the lives of the characters (or their children) of the Starbridge novels?
Yes, at least Nicholas Darrow (of the fifth Starbridge novel, Mystical Paths) and Venetia Flaxton (of the fourth Starbridge book, Scandalous Risks). I don’t remember off-hand if any of the other characters or their children are back, but there are new characters that are just as rich, especially Nick’s counterpart, the sensible, well-bred but gruff, died-in-the-wool old Anglo-Catholic bachelor, Fr Lewis Hall, and Ms Carter Graham, the London lawyer and all-around successful (“high-flying”) woman.
I think I like the St Benet’s trilogy so much, despite its cheesier as well as its seedier moments, because working in a parish healing center like St Benet’s would be my personal dream job, nightmarish as it could be at times.