2008 book list

So I decided to steal from my friend Marco, and begin writing the books I read over the past year at the beginning of each year. Unfortunately, I am lazy and am just now getting around to it.
Note: These are the books that I finished in 2008, not the ones I started. That would be a different and longer list. I have a bad habit of starting books and not finishing them.

Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck-- I had never read this before. Recently, I've really gotten into John Steinbeck and my family is all from Oklahoma with many having done the disappointing pilgrimage to California and back again during the Great Depression, so I thought it was time to read it. Wow. This is one of the best works of fiction I have ever read. And it was really interesting to read what my grandparents and great-grandparents had to go through. Especially since many in my area now treat illegal immigrants from our southern border much the same horrible way we were treated in California. How quick we forget our past...

Companion to the Poor by Viv Grigg-- I have only read a handful of books that have rocked my world. This was one of them. Grigg, a missionary in the Philippines, decided that the way he and others were doing missions to the poor was not working, nor was it very biblical. He decided to follow the incarnational model of Jesus Christ and move into the slums of Manila to reach those that live there, not just swoop down in his SUV and give away rice, beans, eternal salvation, and toilet paper like everyone else. This book mostly chronicles that time and explains the theology behind it. Grigg helped start multiple incarnational missions organizations, one of the main ones being Servants to Asia's Urban Poor. Because of this book, I checked it their North American branch in Vancouver, Canada this past November. I am still very interested in them and other similar ministries.

Cry of the Urban Poor by Viv Grigg-- This is another book by Grigg that goes into a little more of the practicality of this type of ministry as well as some further Biblical study. He uses many more examples of other inner city ministries in this book.

Pollution and the Death of Man by Francis Schaefer. Excellent book! If you are frustrated by the shortage of Christian books that talk about the importance of taking care of God's world, this is a great one to read! Plus, it's nice to read a book written about the topic before it was faddy to do so.

The Ethics of Smuggling by Brother Andrew-- I don't suggest you do as I did and take this book as your in-flight reading... It might raise some eyebrows. Brother Andrew was a Bible smuggler behind the Iron curtain during the cold war and is still in the biz in closed countries. Unless of course he recently died. Then he's not. He's getting up there in years so I'm not real sure... It's a nice short read and straight to the point.

The Life You Always Wanted by John Ortberg-- I read this book in college, but like most of the many books I had to read in that period and pulled all-nighters to do so, it was a bit of a blur. Good book on spiritual disciplines.

Celebration of Dscipline by Richard Foster-- Another book on spiritual disciplines. I like this one better. It's a bit deeper and more along the lines of the reflective traditions than the Christian bookstore in your local megachurch bestseller. I liked it.

Leading with a Limp by Dr. Dan Alexander-- I ran accross this book in an airport, believe it or not. God had been teaching me a lot how he always uses the weak so that He might be glorified in them. He can use your strengths but he wants you because of your weaknesses. I had actually been thinking that it would be a good idea for a book some day because I had never really read anything on that idea. Then I found this book. It was exactly what God had been teaching me (and much much better written than if I had someday tried my hand at it). I really didn't know what I was getting when I got it, but I am so glad I did. One of the few impulse buys I have made that I felt good about later and didn't even have a sugar rush of any sort.

Love Poems from God translated and edited by Daniel Ladinsky-- A collection of spiritual poems by 12 poets (I believe 6 Christians, 3 Muslims, and 3 Hindus). This was interesting, though a little over the top for my taste. I read in one day at a spiritual retreat center in Canada. I really enjoyed the poems by St. Francis, St. John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, and a few others. However I don't trust the translator's translation at all. There were a lot of anacronisms and it really felt like he kept inserting his own theology.