The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman

This was nearly unreadable. I'm surprised I finished it. Not recommended.

Review copy provided by publisher.

Days of Awe by Lauren Fox

Started out super-strong and then just sort of ended.

Review copy provided by publisher.

We Believe the Children by Richard Beck

This was fascinating. I'm old enough to remember hearing all of this on TV. What a disaster.

Review copy provided by publisher.

Wandering Realities by Steven Peck

This was phenomenal. You should read it. I was absolutely delighted.

Far From the Tree by Andrew Solomon

Extremely well-written, fascinating, sometimes hard to read.

Paper Towns by John Green

At first I was totally loving this, but then it got maudlin and too vulgar.

How God Became Jesus ed. by Michael Bird

So this is a response to the Ehrman book. On the one hand, I very much like the idea of a specific engagement--too often in biblical scholarship, ideas are just ignored instead of refuted. On the other hand, with the exception of Evans' piece, the tone and quality of this book were seriously lacking.

The Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney

Decent.

How Jesus Became God by Bart Ehrman

I enjoyed listening to this on our trip, even though I disagreed with some parts.

A Long Way from Tipperary by John Dominic Crossan

I really enjoyed this autobiography.

Our Kids by Robert Putnam

I enjoyed listening to this on our trip. Depressing, but fascinating.

The Last Campaign by Thurston Clarke

I enjoyed listening to this on our trip. It's amazing how much the political culture has changed in 40 years.

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.