'Rona Reading
I love to read. Non-fiction, fiction, history, biography - you name it, and chances are I’ll read it. Maybe not everything, but I read a lot of different genres.
Since the pandemic began, I’ve upped my reading game without even realizing it. I discovered that I’ve read a whopping 27 books since March!
Now, a few of them were super-short, and others were audiobooks. But I’m astonished at my reading pace this year, especially considering how much my workload and family life changed at the start of quarantine.
I’m not going to bore you with all of my reading, but here are some of the highlights. I would have called it a top ten, but I picked 11 books to share.
(It just occurred to me that everything I chose was non-fiction. That’s probably because the novels I’ve read this year were books I’d read before.)
Travels With Walt Disney: A Photographic Voyage Around the World by Jeff Kurtti
I had started this book the weekend quarantine started. It was one of the first warm weekends and a perfect opportunity to sit in the yard and read something light.
I’ve read several biographies of Walt Disney, but this one has two things that set it apart: it looks at Walt’s life from the perspective of the photos from his travels, and Jeff Kurtti, one of the best writers about the Disney Parks, authored it.
It’s a nice, quick read for any Disney fan.
Coronavirus and Christ by John Piper
I subscribe to John Piper’s “Ask Pastor John” podcast, and he released it to listeners. It was the first of his books that he read as an audiobook, and it was a terrific and timely reminder that God is in control no matter what.
Oneness Embraced: Reconciliation, the Kingdom, and How We Are Stronger Together by Tony Evans
The Growth Group I’m in decided to go through this book as a study before COVID-19 and before racial tensions bubbled up. I’m glad we did.
Dr. Tony Evans talks about how racism has no place among Christians, and how we should pursue oneness because we are one in Christ. My biggest takeaway from the book, the RightNow Media videos, and our difficult discussions was that, as believers in Jesus, we serve as little embassies for His Kingdom. Everyone - especially believers - should feel safe when they’re with me. I have vowed as a result of this study to never let someone I love feel like they’re alone in this world.
The Great Courses: The American Revolution by Allen C. Guelzo
I have to admit that I didn’t know as much about the American Revolution as I probably should, so when Audible offered a deal on some of The Great Courses material, I jumped at the chance.
This audiobook - or series of lectures - is entertaining and engrossing. I learned so much about the war from the perspectives of both sides, and it was thoroughly enjoyable.
My Lost Family by Danny Ben-Moshe
When Danny Ben-Moshe learned that he had two half-siblings he had never met, he set out on a journey to find them. Ben-Moshe, a documentary filmmaker, turned his search into a fascinating audio documentary that shares a story that’s too astonishing to be anything but true.
Along the way, we meet Ben-Moshe’s mother, learn about Jewish life in London in the 50s and 60s, and discover that her first husband repeated patterns of prevarication and abandonment over and over. In just over two hours, I experienced stunning twists and turns, heartbreak, and resolution.
The Great Tours: England, Scotland, and Wales by Patrick Allitt
Another really cool feature of The Great Courses is their Great Tours series. Naturally, I gravitated to the tour of England, Scotland, and Wales, where the vast majority of my ancestry came from.
Patrick Allitt, a professor at Emory University, guides listeners through his native island, sharing notable sites for tourists of all stripes. I’m going to go through it again soon with Google Earth pulled up on my computer so I can look up the sites he describes.
Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life by Barbara Fields & Karen Fields
After the killings of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd, our nation searched for opportunities to heal. The Spectator, my favorite magazine, offered a list of alternatives to the typical lists of reading material on race relations, and at the top of that list was Racecraft, by sisters and notable academics Barbara Fields and Karen Fields.
Barbara Fields is a historian (you may remember her from Ken Burns’ Civil War docuseries), and her sister Karen is a sociologist. They examine the nature of racism and how racism itself creates the concept of race. I even gained some fascinating nuggets of knowledge about storytelling.
Racecraft is one of the most eye-opening books I’ve read in a long time.
The Four Loves by C. S. Lewis
I listened to this short audiobook in one sitting (while working from home). I’ve known about the four Greek words for love and the differences between them for a long time, but what made this audiobook special is that it’s the only extant recording of C. S. Lewis that we know of.
The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution by Bernard Bailyn
My friend Erick Erickson has recommended this book for years, so I decided to go ahead and take him up on it. I couldn’t find the copy I ordered a while back, so I decided to listen to the audiobook.
Bailyn’s prize-winning work is basically a textbook - it’s not the lightest of reading or listening, but he explains how the founders of this country were motivated by ideological and philosophical concerns above everything else. It was enlightening history that taught me more than I bargained for.
The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking the Way You Read the Bible by Scot McKnight
The recommendation for this book came to me by way of the Bible Project podcast, and McKnight didn’t disappoint, validating my view that we should read the Bible in view of its whole story from original creation to new creation.
My one quibble with the book (in its 2nd edition) is that McKnight devoted close to a third of the book to the issue of women in ministry. Regardless of your feelings on the topic, I think you’d find that it’s a significant amount of space to devote to a single issue.
I Dare You Not to Bore Me with the Bible by Michael Heiser
I’ve become a fan of Dr. Michael Heiser and the way he illuminates scripture. He’s written several books, and this one is my favorite so far. This book is a collection of his columns where he digs into some the Bible’s more mysterious or confusing passages. A fun, enlightening read.
Apollo 13 by Jim Lovell & Jeffrey Kluger
Anybody who knows me knows that I’m a fan of the American space program, especially the Apollo years. Apollo 13 is my all-time favorite movie, and I’ve watched it countless times. I’ve wanted to read the book for a while, so I finally took the plunge and listened to the audiobook.
As much as I’ve known about that mission for years, I learned so much. Lovell sheds light on what he and his crew went through in the spacecraft, how Mission Control solved problems from the ground, and what his family dealt with at home.
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Those are some of the best books I’ve read or listened to in the time of COVID-19. Maybe I’ve inspired you to check a few of them out.
Photo by Tom Hermans on Unsplash