Sparrow Migrations by Cari Noga

This is one of the best books I have read in a long time. I loved it. Highly recommended.

Review copy provided by publisher.

China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan

So Crazy Rich Asians was a really fun book and I was quite looking forward to the follow-up. But Kwan didn't deliver. The plot seemed haphazard and the magic was gone. 

Review copy provided by publisher.

Linguistic Analysis of the Greek New Testament by Stanley Porter

This is a wide-ranging collection of essays: from the legal issues related to copyrighting critical texts to very technical linguistic discussions. As with most collections, it is somewhat uneven. I mostly picked it up for his treatment of Mark 13 but then ended up not being wowed by that chapter. I was perhaps most interested in his suggestion regarding hyponymy and the trinity--which is kind of funny since I'm not trinitarian.

Review copy provided by publisher.

Reagan: The Life by H. W. Brands

I loved this book. Great story, well told, sympathetic but not sycophantic.

Review copy provided by publisher.

The Truth According to Us by Annie Barrows

I was expecting to adore this because I really liked The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, but it was lame.

Review copy provided by publisher.

The Third Wife by Lisa Jewell

I really liked this. Quite good. And a great cover.

Review copy provided by publisher.

Searching for Sunday by Rachel Held Evans

Some parts of this really resonated with me but other parts were totally cloying.

Review copy provided by publisher.

We Were Liars by E. Lockhart

I thought this was kind of lame.

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

Interesting. Well worth reading.

Proclaiming the Gospel by Whitney Shiner

Fascinating, unique, and important.

Simply Jesus by N. T. Wright

I liked this. I haven't read much Wright before; I was under the impression that he was more conservative and I suppose he is compared to, say, John Dominic Crossan, but he's not that conservative.

Between Author and Audience in Mark ed. by Elizabeth Struthers Malbon

As is usually the case with essay collections, this one was uneven. But Ruge-Jones on the narrator as omnipresent instead of omniscient was particularly interesting.

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

I listened to this with the boys. I thought it was excellent.

The New Way Things Work by David Macaulay

I read this to the boys. This is a really fun book (especially the mammoths!), but a little dated.

Mark's Jesus: Characterization as Narrative Christology by Elizabeth Struthers Malbon

I'm a big fan of narrative approaches to Mark, so of course I liked this.

You Can Date Boys When You Are Forty by Dave Barry

Stupid funny.

Bomb by Steve Sheinkin

This may be my favorite of all of the books I've read to my kids.

The Bible Tells Me So by Peter Enns

This is another good introduction to how to think about the Bible. I found many of his attempts at humor a little annoying, but the content is solid.

Beyond Fear and Silence: A Feminist Literary Reading of Mark by Joan L. Mitchell

I didn't find her overarching thesis compelling, but there are some interesting observations here.

Mark's Story of Jesus by Werner Kelber

Some interesting observations here, but I disagree with his take on the disciples.

Jack of Spades by Joyce Carol Oates

This was very creepy.

Review copy provided by publisher.

On Immunity by Eula Biss

Listened to this on our roadtrip. It was well-written and interesting.

Inside the O'Brians by Lisa Genova

Not perfect, but very, very compelling. Recommended.

Review copy provided by publisher.

The Oral Ethos of the Early Church by Joanna Dewey

This was interesting. I suspect in ten years, it will seem like an "early effort," but performance criticism is nonetheless provocative. And her attention to female disciples was very well done.

Left Neglected by Lisa Genova

 

Decent, but heavy-handed.

The Genesis of Secrecy by Frank Kermode

This is a classic in Markan studies, but I was a little underwhelmed by it.