Here is my complete list of books read this year, with commentary.

Aaron’s Reading List, 2015

Novels (23)

·         The General in His Labyrinth, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. I am a huge fan of Garcia Marquez, and fantastical history writing in general. This novel is an engrossing (and mostly fictional) tale about the last days of Simon Bolivar, the military general who liberated and united a huge portion of South America, before seeing it all fall apart again by the end of his life. It is a story of hubris, romanticism, superstition, and the beauty of huge dreams, even when they fail.

·        Chronicle of a Death Foretold, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Another masterpiece by Garcia Marquez, this story as small and local as the previous story was large and trans-national. A man is killed, and everyone knows it is going to happen, though no one quite believes that it will. Whether or not the man earned his murder is never entirely resolved. This novel gives some beautiful detailed insight into the workings of small, provincial South American villages, and is rife with characters and moments that seem lifted directly from real life memories.

·         The Snows of Kilimanjaro and Other Stories, by Ernest Hemingway. I read everything I can get my hands on by Ernest Hemingway. The writer of the 20^th century, Hemingway brought immediacy, sadness, and hopefulness to all of his characters and stories. Most of his stories end up as tragedies, but at least you can say his protagonists tried.

·         The Two Towers and The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien. I read these alongside Noah (he read Fellowship last year) and then watched the movie marathon with him. Noah would read a portion, then I would read a portion (with the voices). It was wonderful reading these books, which I have read dozens of times on my own, with my 11 year old son. Getting to experience them with him for the first time makes me remember what it was like for me when I first discovered this treasure. Now I am reading them again with Ciara.

·         The Cellist of Sarajevo, by Steven Galloway. A powerful novel about hope and defiance in the midst of death and destruction. Set during the siege of Sarajevo, most notable for the snipers in the surrounding mountains picking off civilians who had no choice but to remain in the city. Galloway does an excellent job portraying the mindset of people who become accustomed to this life of random violence and murder, as they try to go about their daily routine and provide for their families.

·         Patterns of Recognition, by William Gibson. Gibson is best known for “Neuromancer”, but this book likewise breaks new ground in science fiction writing. It is focused on the present day or near future, and spins a tale around the ability to discern and follow patterns established through various forms of media and marketing. A thoroughly enjoyable book.

·         The Skystone, by Jack Whyte. More fantastical history writing, this one matching real events at the end of the Roman Empire with mythologised aspects of the Arthurian legend. Great writing, exceptional characterisation, and some quite disturbing/inspired ideas about what the end of an empire looks like, and what it might take to carry on afterwards.

·         The Last Light of the Sun, by Guy Gavriel Kay. More fantastical history. Huh, didn’t realise I read so much of this genre. This is Kay’s bread and butter, stemming from his great original work, “The Fionavar Tapestry”. This novel looks at the historical invasions of the Norsemen into England, and the English push back under the leadership of King Alfred. Except this history is not happening within our reality, but another reality that has more obvious, though waning, supernatural elements at play. As with all of Kay’s work, it’s actually a really fun way to learn about history, and Kay is great at creating characters, as well as writing truly scary or horror-filled scenes.

·         The Serpent of Venice, by Christopher Moore. I guess this book could also be characterised as fantastical history as well! It is a re-telling of the Merchant of Venice, but in Moore’s characteristic chaotic and absurdist style. It is very funny, though not as good as some of Moore’s other novels, (such as “Lamb”), and readers should be warned that the story gets far bawdier than even Shakespeare dared. (This novel is a sort of sequel to “Fool”.)

·         The Ball and the Cross, by G.K. Chesterton. This is a really fun book, though likely not everyone would agree. It tells the story of two men – one a materialistic atheist, the other an ultra-traditional Catholic – who attempt to engage in a duel to the death with one another in late-Victorian England. They are unable to do so, because society conspires against their passions. It is Chesterton’s critique of a world that sees nothing worth fighting or dying for, because truth doesn’t really matter. This, he believes, is Satan’s strategy in the world.

·         Zombies: More Recent Dead, by Paula Guran. A series of zombie-related short-stories by some excellent authors. It’s a little hit and miss, as you’d expect, but some of the stories are really thought-provoking. One of my favourite stories imagines a bunch of children, born zombies but protected under pro-life legislation, who are carefully restrained but still educated and cared for by the State. Another story examines our collective blood-lust for killing things that are human-shaped, one of the long-standing tropes of zombie stories.

·         Nathan Coulter, by Wendell Berry. If you haven’t read any of Wendell Berry’s novels, you really, really should. They are all set in a fictional Kentucky farming community, and tell stories of farms, farmers and farming. I know, that doesn’t sound terribly interesting to anyone who grew up in the city, but believe me, Berry makes you care deeply about the people inhabiting his stories. Part of his genius is presenting this world as real, important, and fading away. “Nathan Coulter” is actually the first of these novels, and tells the story of Nathan Coulter as a child living an innocent and enviable life, until his grandfather dies. This signals not just the end of Nathan’s childhood, but also the end of an era.

·         A World Lost, by Wendell Berry. More stories from Port William, this one focusing on the murder of Uncle Andrew, and again the way the children in the community had to come to terms with this and grow up in the midst of it. Berry creates such real and dignified characters.

·         Watch With Me, by Wendell Berry. A series of shorter stories from Port William, spanning many generations. The best of them centre around the giant Tol Proudfoot and his diminuitive wife, Miss Winnie. I know all this agrarian stuff sounds boring to many, but it is truly fascinating and beautiful.

·         The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams. I read this to the boys over a few weeks at bed time, and they loved it. “My name…is Slartibartfast” elicited the same belly laughter that it did for me when I first read this story as a child. Wonderful, absurd stuff.

·         The Beasts of New York, by Jonathan Evans (no relation). This book is a thrilling squirrel-eye view of New York, particularly Central Park. There are various kingdoms, terrible dangers, a heroic quest, a supernatural danger – but all of it written with deadly seriousness and dignity. It is a really, really fun book, a fairy tale for adults.

·         Pyramids, by Terry Pratchett. One I read to the boys at night, this story parodies the ancient culture of Egypt, as Pteppic the god-king tries to escape his destiny, and bring his country kicking and screaming into the Century of the Fruitbat.

·         Blink of the Screen, by Terry Pratchett. Some of Pratchett’s earlier and unpublished short stories. Very good, but read more for the sake of completion than anything else. It was very sad to learn of his death this year.

·         The Unadulterated Cat, by Terry Pratchett. My friends Pete and Andrea Ward brought me this book when they came to stay with us, because I had mentioned it is one of the only Pratchett books I had not yet read. It is a tribute to the wonders and frustrations of “real cats”, so defined because they bring home the severed heads of their prey and refuse to be domesticated. We think Darth Meow may be a “real cat.”

·         Small Gods, by Terry Pratchett. One of Pratchett’s best, again read to the kids. On the dangers of fundamentalism, the power of faith, and what it might actually be like if God spoke to you.

·         Raising Steam, by Terry Pratchett. The last few Pratchett books have been a little uneven and scattered, which makes sense given his debilitating disease. This book has moments of pure Pratchett, but takes an awfully long time getting to where it wants to go. It also seems like Pratchett is began creating less difficulties and perils for his favourite characters, to ensure that they accomplished certain things before he, the author, passed away. That is conjecture, of course, but it’s how I read it. Still a thoroughly enjoyable tale about what a steam train system on the Discworld would be like.

·         Mrs. Bradshaw’s Handbook, by Terry Pratchett. An accompanying book to “Raising Steam”, this book is the fictional creation of Mrs. Bradshaw, an educated and enthusiastic woman of a certain age who enjoys riding the rails and writing about what she finds in each destination.

Theology (43):

·         Letters to a Priest, by Simone Weil. A very direct and difficult series of questions addressed by Simone Weil – a brilliant French-Jewish philosopher and follower of Jesus – to a priest. The questions focused on aspects of the Bible and the Catholic faith in particular that Weil could not find herself in agreement with, or at least that troubled her mightily. One presumes she never received satisfactory answers to all of these questions (she did die quite young) as she never formally entered the Church. A great book to read if you want to have your assumptions challenged, and at least are comfortable seeing why some people hesitate to accept every Christian doctrine if they were not immersed in the faith growing up.

·         The Rivers North of the Future, by Ivan Illich. This is one of the best books I read this year, or maybe any year. It is an interview of Illich near the end of his life, and he covers most of the topics that he lived out and wrote about over his remarkable career as a priest, a cross-cultural educator, an author, and a radical. His basic premise is that the corruption of the best thing actually has the tendency to become the worst thing. Thus, the corruption of Christian love becomes terribly evil, and he demonstrates a number of areas in which this is evidenced.

·         The Ragman and Other Stories of Faith, by Walter Wangerin Jr. Wangerin Jr. is a master wordsmith, incredibly gifted at making the mundane poetic. His stories and illustrations are drawn from his own life or the life of his neighbourhood and congregation, or else from the depths of his very vivid imagination. If you have not read anything by him, I highly suggest that you do.

·         Mark, by Larry Hurtado. A very good, and relatively straightforward, commentary on the Gospel of Mark.

·         The Gospel of Mark, by Ben Witherington III. A more complex and involved commentary on Mark, with an attempt to provide bridges for modern application.

·         The Subversion of Christianity, by Jacques Ellul. I don’t have enough space to adequately talk about this book. Ellul looks at the grand story of Christianity, and asks how it has become so far removed from the life and teachings of Jesus. He then proceeds to show, historically, how and why it did so. And he is very convincing. And he ends with hope. This is an essential book to read.

·         From Jesus to the Gospels, by Jeff Reed.

·         First Century Church, by Jeff Reed.

·         Church-Based Theological Education, by Jeff Reed. These three encyclicals from Jeff Reed look at the need for Jesus-centered, Church-based theological and practical education. It’s what we’ve been doing at The War College for 12 years or so.

·         Basics of Biblical Greek, by William D. Mounce.

·         What’s in a Name? by Michael Chung. Chung argues that the term “spiritual formation” is inadequate, because biblical formation must include body, soul and spirit. A better term, he suggests, would be “holistic formation.”

·         Christian Formation in an Age of Whatever, by Susanne Johnson. This is about how to balance orthopraxy, orthodoxy, and orthokardia in an age when hardly anyone seems to care. I do like how she notes that spirituality and justice must be utterly intertwined, and how she asserts that “the primary means for spiritual formation is living closely and intimately in a community of believers who themselves know well the Christian Story and who are deeply and actively engaged in its practices.”

·         Spiritual Formation as a Natural Part of Salvation, by Dallas Willard. Willard here asks why spiritual formation is not understood today as a natural consequence of salvation. It seems, he says, that we have emphasised the moment of conversion to the exclusion of the process of discipleship into Christ-likeness. We should not be looking for numbers in Church membership terms, but for actual disciples who experience regeneration by the empowering presence of the Spirit of God.

·         Spiritual Formation in Christ, by Dallas Willard. Willard asks the question: “Why are we not busy teaching people to obey everything that Jesus said?” This was the command Jesus left to his disciples, and yet we hardly ever seem to do it. As a response, here at 614 we are spending the next two years going through every word and action of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark, to make sure we hear everything that Jesus commanded in that book at least.

·         On Getting the Spirit Back into Spiritual Formation, by Gordon Fee. Fee looks at the word “spirituality” as a corruption of actual Pauline thought on the Spirit. There is no spirituality, no Christian life, without the new life of the Spirit empowering. That IS salvation, having the Spirit.

·         Paul and Spiritual Formation, by James Thompson. Thompson explores Paul’s vision of spiritual formation, seeing it as a corporate journey whose end is placing oneself, and one’s entire community, entirely at the disposal of God. Success in this endeavour can only be determined “at the end”, with the Christ-likeness of Churches. These communities of faith are meant to be cohesive moral community that shine "like lights in the world" (Phil 2:15) because of their distinct practices.

·         Spirit, Community and Mission, by Richard Averbeck. Averbeck argues that three things are necessary for a biblical view of spiritual formation:  Holy Spirit works in the lives of those who know Christ to conform them into the image of Christ, which is the will of the Father; the Holy Spirit inhabits individuals and communities in order to manifest his presence amongst us – we are his temple; Holy Spirit works through those who are saved to prophetically reach into a dying and lost world.

·         The Fruits of the Spirit, by Robert C. Roberts. Roberts identifies the Fruit of the Spirit as the product of sustained interaction with God. Fruits are virtues, things developed by action and intention combined with interaction with God. So we do work, believe and worship, but this comes out of the relationship we have with God, rather than the other way around.

·         Spiritual Formation and the Gospel according to Mark, by Loren Stuckenbruck. Just knowing that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God is not in and of itself transformative. The gospel of Mark was meant to change the people who encountered it into Christ-likeness. In particular, the image of the mighty Jesus, the miracle-worker Jesus, is contrasted with the vulnerable Jesus, the crucified Jesus. This contrast is meant to show later disciples what it looks like to live cruciform lives. We participate imaginatively in the suffering and death of Jesus, and can also see how the twelve disciples failed so magnificently, giving us hope that we – though failures – might also learn to follow Jesus.

·         Six Themes to Guide Spiritual Formation According to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, by Klaus Issler. The six themes he identifies for Christian transformation are: Inner heart Formation; Missional Participation; Scriptural Saturation; Seeking/Loving/Depending on God above all else; Relational Attachment as Jesus’ Church; and Two Kingdom’s Discernment.

·         Scala Claustralium by Guigo II. A twelfth century monastic book about a ladder to heaven. Th four rungs of reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation will lead us to the place of being able to give God the whole of our love.

·         Living with God: A Trinitarian Understanding of Spiritual Formation, by Helen Cepero. Cepero outlines how a Trinitarian understanding is necessary to transformation. Knowing our Creator and Father, and how we are made in His image, comes first. Knowing God as Saviour, and following Jesus’ pattern of death, burial and resurrection comes next. And finally, knowing God as present for our empowerment and discernment by the Holy Spirit completes the picture.

·         Maturing in Christ, by Tom Schwanda. Schwanda asks how we can measure our progress in spiritual maturity. Even the question  seems impertinent, but Schwanda maintains that this is not only something we can do, but must do. Otherwise, how will we know that we are growing in Christ-likeness? This process is fraught with peril, of course, but to the degree that we are advancing in our ability to oppose the “bad thoughts” that lead to sin, such as those enumerated by Evagrius, we know that we are becoming more and more mature.

·         Reading Living Water, by David Keller. Keller argues in this persuasive work that the world is a problem we cannot fix because it is a world we created. We need community and a renewed identity, a renewed consciousness. But how can we get there using the tools that got us to this place? We need authentic human life, but our surroundings are the very thing preventing this. Bonhoeffer said that the vocation of every human being to discover how they already are. Therefore our calling is to manifest the image of God in the way that we live, which can only come about through discovering the manifest presence of God through contemplation.

·         Re:Connect, by Duncan Sherbino. This is a very basic workbook on spiritual formation, and honestly it is not very good. There are numerous typos and mistakes, the points made seem entirely obvious, and I don’t think it takes the human condition anywhere near seriously enough.

·         Pornography and Acedia, by Reinhard Hutter. Hutter’s excellent (and brief) work illustrates how acedia, the temptation which causes us to despair of God’s goodness, eventually may lead us to despising God’s creation, in particular other humans. This contempt for humans, Hutter argues, can well be seen in the proliferation of pornography, which substitutes the good (loving sexual interaction – a gift from God) with compulsive pornographic voyeurism. We have come, as a culture, to even treat this as normal. Really important reading.

·         Do This: The Eucharist and Ecclesial Selfhood, by Mark Medley. This essay argues that sacramental and liturgical practices are the central means by which the ecclesial self is shaped. In worship, Christians "practice who they are becoming." This essay engages and extends David Ford's thesis that salvation comes by participating in worship and living worshipfully before God with others. Ford argues that Christians are called to live eucharistically: remembering, hoping, and loving in Jesus Christ. Through worship, habits and character, the whole of life is formed.

·         Practicing Theology on a Sunday Morning: Corporate Worship as Spiritual Formation, by H. Wayne Johnson. The basic premise of this work is that as the Church prays, worships, and publically reads Scripture, so it believes. If we wish to develop an alternate Christian polis in the world, and a virtuous social ethic which witnesses to the world, then we have to understand that our “corporate worship is a social practice which embodies and shapes theology.” “Worship is ritualized theology; theology is reflective worship.”

·         Signature Sins, by Michael Mangis. This is a fantastic book that helps guide readers to explore and combat their deeply-rooted “signature sins”. Combining spirituality, psychology, monastic wisdom, and biblical exegesis, this book is one of the most helpful descriptions of sin, its consequences, and its treatment that I have read. Highly recommended.

·         Rereading the Body Politic: Women and Violence in Judges 21, by Alice Bach. Judges 19-21 is one of the most horrific passages of gendered violence in the Hebrew Bible, and we often skip by it, or spiritualise it. What the male characters decide to do in this passage shows clear evidence that they had lost or forsaken their capacity to discern good from evil. And women, as per the norm in history, paid the penalty for this evil in their own bodies. The sins of Israel lead to the death and dismemberment of one woman, the slaughter of other women, and the agreed-upon kidnap and rape/forced marriage of a whole host of other women. Let us remember that the Lord himself identifies with the poor, the forsaken, the abused.

·         Death and Dissymmetry: The Politics of Coherence in the Book of Judges, by Mieke Bal. Bal’s goal in this book is to bring women’s stories and voices out of the margins and the places of oppression in the narrative of Judges, and she does this brilliantly. She argues that patriarchy, far from being an eternal reality, is a cultural construct, one that is present in Judges but which is also in tension in the book, as there are other voices to be heard.

·         On Gendering Texts: Female & Male Voices in the Hebrew Bible, by A. Brenner and F. van Dijk-Hemmes. Are we generally aware when we are hearing female voices in the Hebrew Bible? Not just a character speaking, but maybe a whole passage that is coming from a female perspective? Brenner and Dijk-Hemmes help us to navigate that discussion, and open up new venues of interpretation by doing so.

·         The Role of Women in the Book of Judges, by Robert Chisholm. Women are absolutely central to the story of Judges. They are some of the only faithful characters in Israel, and how they are treated, honoured or dishonoured is a mirror to the nation’s moral standing.

·         Rape as a Weapon of War, by the Global Justice Centre: Human Rights Through the Rule of Law.             

·         Achsah: What Price this Prize? by Lillian Klein. Examines the story of Achash, daughter of Caleb, being given as a prize of war at the beginning of Judges. Paints her as not simply a prize, but an active agent in her own well-being.

·         From Deborah to Esther: Sexual Politics in the Hebrew Bible, by Lillian Klein. An extremely helpful look at the gendered role of sexual politics in the Hebrew Bible.

·         Whispering the Word: Hearing Women’s Stories in the Old Testament, by Jacqueline E Lapsley. The story of women in the Bible is sometimes overt, but more often you have to read between lines, to hear and understand what is not being said. This book does a good job of highlighting the story of women in the Bible that we might not be so attuned to hear.

·         Reading Women’s Stories: Female Characters in the Hebrew Bible, by John Petersen. Another look at the presence – almost the shocking presence at times – of women as vital characters in the Hebrew narratives.

·         Feminist Interpretation: The Bible in Women’s Perspective, by Luise Schottroff, Sylvia Schroer, Marie-Theres Wacker. Most of the theology we read comes through the lens of male interpreters. This book attempts to help redress the balance, and offers a different perspective on the Hebrew Bible in particular. It is not an easy read, and it does challenge some assumptions that we make about the way Scripture is to be read, but it is certainly worth the effort.

·         Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives, by Phylis Trible. Essential reading. This book takes on some passages of Scripture that we tend to gloss over, or spiritualise, without realising how horrific the events portrayed actually are. And in some of our explanations of these passages we do even more damage. Trible deconstructs some of these examples of exegesis, and suggests alternative readings that help square the stories with a God who isn’t a monster.

·         Global Report on Trafficking in Persons: Executive Summary, by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

·         The Book of Judges, by Barry Webb. A very detailed, chapter by chapter, and theme by theme commentary and exegesis on the book of Judges, with special emphasis on the Jephthah narrative.

·         The Book of Judges, by Keith Bodner. Another Judges commentary by my professor, Keith Bodner, which as far as I am aware is not yet in print. Again going chapter by chapter, this commentary really helps to draw the lines and connect the dots throughout the whole book, displaying the book as a narrative whole that tells the entire story of Israel.

Graphic Novels (42)

·         Sledgehammer 44, by Mike Mignola. In the Hellboy universe, an armoured super-hero drops into a World War 2 battlefield to fight the Nazis’ super-human villain, the Black Flame. Sounds ridiculous, and of course it kind of is, but it’s still facsinating to imagine this little side war going on alongside the other struggles in the Second World War. Mignola always does a good job of ingratiating his characters into actual world events, and then subtly changing the history of the Universe.

·         The Book of Revelation, by Dorff and Koelle. The perfect source material for a graphic novel! This is really well done, captures the majesty, the perseverance, the terror, and the joy of the book. And there are no helicopters, so that’s a plus.

·         Powers: Who Killed Retro Girl? By Bendis and Oeming. The first issue of this very graphic Graphic Novel series. It imagines a police force dedicated to solving crimes related to individuals with Powers. These crimes are either perpetrated by the Powers, or against the Powers. An interesting look at a world dominated by superhumans, often from the perspective of those who do not possess such abilities.

·         Powers: Sellouts, by Bendis and Oeming.

·         Powers: Exposed, by Bendis and Oeming.

·         Black Orchid, by Gaiman and McKean. An example of Gaiman taking an already existing character and breathing new life into the series.

·         Neverwhere, by Gaiman and Carey. A graphic re-telling of the “Neverwhere” novel. Everything Gaiman writes is superb, but this might be one of my favourites. It is a story born out of the names of the Underground stations, and it imagines a world just beneath London that runs by an entirely different set of rules. Creepy, touching, and incredibly fun.

·         The Graveyard Book, Gaiman. I absolutely love this story about a boy – Bod – whose parents are murdered for reasons unknown, and through an unlikely set of circumstances ends up being adopted and raised in a graveyard, by ghosts and ghouls and other creatures. Filled with short adventures set against the larger narrative, this story allows Gaiman to really stretch his imaginative and macabre wings. The Graphic version, which I read this year, does great justice to the book.

·         Death: The Time of Your Life, by Neil Gaiman. An addition to the Sandman world, this story focuses on the character of Death, one of the more intriguing of Gaiman’s creations. Death is the only one of the “Endless” who seems to understand and care for humanity. She does her job with efficiency, but she also displays compassion. It is an interesting take on what I would describe as death transformed by love, though not quite as fully as has happened in the Christian world-view.

·         Sandman: World’s End, by Gaiman.

·         Sandman: The Kindly Ones, by Gaiman.

·         Sandman: The Wake, by Gaiman.

·         Sandman: The Dream Hunters, by Gaiman.

·         Sandman: Prelude and Nocturne, by Gaiman

·         Sandman: Dream Country, by Gaiman. The Sandman series is, I believe, the greatest Graphic Novel series ever. As one of the forewords says, if this is not art, then I don’t know what art is. The story is powerfully moving, frightening, funny, and sad. The depth of insight into humanity and how we deal with change, with love, with fear, with desire, and with death is profound. These books should all be read, in order if possible.

·         The Last Temptation, by Gaiman. Really bizarre tale of a macabre circus that shows up in a town every few years to lure children away, starring a fictionalised version of Alice Cooper (who wrote an album to accompany the story.)

·         The Sleeper and the Spindle, by Gaiman. A re-imagining of the Sleeping Beauty fairytale, with the Queen of a neighbouring nation as the heroine. Beautifully told and illustrated.

·         1602, by Gaiman. Someone thought: What if all the Marvel heroes and villains first came on the scene at the start of the 17^th century, in Europe? And what if Neil Gaiman wrote that story? The result is very, very good.

·         The Light Fantastic and the Colour of Magic, by Pratchett. A Graphic Novel re-telling of Pratchett’s first two books in the Discworld series. Very well done.

·         Shazam: Origins – a re-boot of the classic Shazam comic book character from DC. Shazam has generally been a pretty good foil for looking at the use and abuse of power, and this version picks up the same issues.

·         X-Men: Tomorrow Never Learns. After the death of Professor X, Wolverine sets up the Jean Grey School of Higher Learning, in order to carry on his work. Many of the old X-Men are recruited as teachers, and Wolverine is the headmaster. Of course the school isn’t left alone by all of their enemies, and the faculty have to figure out how to educate the students while also keeping them alive.

·         Jerusalem: A Family Portrait, by Yakin and Bertozzi. A Graphic telling of one family’s involvement in the decades-long fighting over Jerusalem. Gritty, realistic, and terribly depressing, but beautifully wrought.

·         The Authority: Human on the Inside. This Graphic series acknowledges that if there were a group of super-powered meta-humans who could basically do whatever they wanted, it is likely that they would, in fact, do whatever they wanted. At various times in this series the UN or other world groups denounce the actions of The Authority, but they really don’t care. They are above worldly authorities, and act as they see fit. All for the greater good, right?

·         The Authority: Relentless

·         Before Watchmen: Ozymandias and The Crimson Corsair. I understand that a new tv series is being made out of these “Before Watchmen” titles. It could be good, but the source material is nowhere near to being as good as “Watchmen”. Still, it is always fun to dig into the back stories of these characters.

·         Echo, by Terry Moore. Really well done, which is no surprise as Moore is a first-rate story teller. This Graphic novel is about a young woman who witnesses a military test of another woman flying in a battlesuit. The test pilot is destroyed, but the suit, made of a liquid metal, rains down in pellets on her and attaches to her body, only covering it partially. The suit begins to change the woman and give her extraordinary powers, which seem linked to her emotional state and to those for whom she has empathy. The military, obviously, want the suit back. A good read.

·         30 Days of Night, by Niks and Templesmith. A new take on the old vampire genre. Why haven’t vampires thought of this before? There are places in the world that don’t see the sun for up to 30 days in the winter. So a whole troupe of vampires head up to Alaska to wreak havoc. This leads to the uncovering of the existence of vampires in the world, which of course leads to all sorts of other problems.

·         500 Years of Resistance, by Gord Hill. A Graphic novel detailing 500 years of Aboriginal resistance to Colonial Imperialism. A very helpful re-framing of history.

·         The Anti-Capitalist Resistance Book, by Gord Hill. A similar work, looking at the anti-capitalistic resistance movements all around the world, and what they are up against.

·         Army of God: Joseph Kony’s War in Central Africa, by David Axe and Tim Hamilton. I know everyone got all Kony’d out a few years back, but this is a well-researched and carefully illustrated look into the atrocities he committed. Hard to read, for sure.

·         A Chinese Life, by Li Kunwu. The story of Li Kunwu as he lived it in China before, during, and after the Revolution. A fascinating glimpse into a life lived under conditions and within culture that we find difficult to imagine in the West, but really need to come to understand. It is essential that we grasp how this culture has been formed not with the same assumptions as we generally have in the West. Li does not claim to speak on behalf of China, just on behalf of himself, but he does open a door for understanding. His story is brave, heart-breaking, confusing, adventurous, and hopeful.

·         Danger Club, by Image. A whole bunch of great superheroes face off against what they believe to be an alien attack. They never come back, and presumably all die. Now only their teenaged sidekicks are left to fight for the world. What is a teenager to do? Save the world? Fight his/her parents? Sulk and listen to bad music?

·         Ash and the Army of Darkness, by Steve Niles. I have loved The Evil Dead and Army of Darkness movies, musicals, books, and whatever else they come out with since high school. This Graphic novel throws Ash back into the world of the Army of Darkness, where once again his inability to properly remember words dooms the world to enslavement. Unless he can somehow, someway, use the chainsaw attached to his arm to defeat the forces of evil.

·         Saga 1-4, by Brian Vaughn and Fiona Staples. A new Graphic novel series which, again, is quite graphic – not for kids in other words – but excellently told and illustrated. It is the epic story of two people from warring races who find one another, have a child, and are on the run from the rest of the galaxy. Very interested to see where this story goes in the future.

·         Prophet 1-3, by Brandon Graham. A very bizarre series, one that drops you right into the middle of a story that you don’t know any of the background for. It demands a lot of you, and often you really don’t know what’s going on. But if you persist, you start to grasp the main story, and see that it is about empire, genocide, and survival.

·         Mother Teresa, by Lewis Helfland. A Graphic novel about Mother Teresa’s life. This medium is capable of telling beautiful stories that do not rely on chase scenes, superpowers, and stuff blowing up. Sadly, this particular Graphic novel is a very poor example of this. It seems like this is an attempt to help with Mother Teresa’s sainthood (something that Pope Francis has just greenlit), but it results in a very poor telling of her story.

·         La Lucha, by Jon Sack. The true story of Lucha Castro, “a front-line human rights defender fighting murderous impunity in the Mexican borderlands.”  Set in the Mexican border state of Chihuahua, a place of drug cartels, horrific violence, disappearances, and government corruption. La Lucha, her family, and others fight a desperate war to shed light on this evil, and secure justice for those who have bene brutalised. This is a story of impossibly brave resistance in the face of the most egregious injustices.

Poetry (2)

·         Tears of Silence, by Jean Vanier. A beautiful, long poem about pain and hope, accompanied by photographs of people. It is from early on in Vanier’s life and work. Here is a sample: “In each of us there is a need to live / but also / there are those seeds of death / no will to live / no desire to get up in the morning / never able to sleep…always wanting to sleep…. / but never sleeping / always down / and criticizing / no zest or energy / just-every-day-doing-what-i-must / with no zing / or laughter.” It isn’t all depressing, of course, but it does capture the silent pain of modern life with deft accuracy.

·         Time Without Number, by Daniel Berrigan. Daniel Berrigan, along with his brother Philip, is a Jesuit priest, a war resister, and a poet. “Time Without Number” was Berrigan’s first collection of poetry. There is a great deal of nature imagery, along with liturgical and paschal imagery, in the poems. It is more reflective, more philosophical and perhaps mystical than his later writings and actions. These poems almost feel like the calm before the storm in Berrigan’s life.

Non-Fiction (10)

·         Bringing it to the Table, by Wendell Berry. This is a remarkable and yet simple book about mindful eating. Where does our food come from? What does it take to get it to our table? Why is that important to know? Are there good ways and bad ways for this to happen? Berry addresses all of this with his inimitable style, and tells wonderful stories about fascinating people we otherwise would never hear about.

·         Mohawk Saint, by Allan Greer. A helpful biography of the life of Kateri Takakwitha, a young 17th century Mohawk woman who was the first First Nations person proposed for sainthood in the Catholic Church. The book tells her story, but from the perspective of the two Jesuit missionaries who most actively campaigned for her sainthood. Greer is very aware that this is not a full representation of Takakwitha, as her voice is never truly heard. Thus, it is in some senses more a story about the interaction between the Mohawk people and the Jesuit newcomers.

·         Vancouver is Ashes, by Lisa Anne Smith. A recounting of the people and areas affected by the Great Fire of 1886 in Vancouver which essentially destroyed the fledgling town. I love Vancouver history, and this was very well done.

·         Photographs, by Fred Herzog. Old photographs of Vancouver are some of my favourite things in the world. Herzog’s books are not exclusively set in Vancouver, but many of them are, and they hail from the 1960’s and 70’s, mostly. Beautiful capturing of the city.

·         Vancouver: Stories of a City, by Lisa Smedman. This book is essentially the stories of how Vancouver streets and neighbourhoods were developed and got their current names. Vancouver has a pretty sad history, particularly when it comes to land-grabbing and speculating. Most of the street names in the downtown come from individuals who cared almost nothing for the place, except for how much they could earn by owning and flipping lots. Not much has changed.

·         Would You Baptize an Extraterrestrial? by Guy Consalmagno and Paul Mueller. This is a great book, written as a dialogue between two Vatican Astronomers, who take on questions of faith and science such as: what really happened with Galileo; why Pluto is no longer a planet; what was the star of Bethlehem; can the Creation account square with the Big Bang; and how the universe will end. They approach both faith and science with deep honesty, wit, and intelligence.

·         Lament for a Nation, by George Grant. Grant is my favourite philosopher, and this is his best known work. In this lament, Grant argues that Canada is – or was – something different than both the UK and the USA, and was worth preserving. Sadly, Canadian politics and culture became entirely co-opted by the America Empire in the 1960’s (most notably when Canada agreed to have American nuclear weapons on Canadian soil). The slow descent into Americanism has been inevitable ever since, as perhaps it always was. Grant says this is something that we should lament.

·         Rumours of Glory, by Bruce Cockburn. A long auto-biography of Cockburn’s unique life and music. This is in part the story of Canada since the 1960’s, at least the leftist scene in Canada. Cockburn wrestles throughout his life and throughout this book with relationships, faith, political, military and economic oppression, environmental degradation, and an inability to know or express his own emotions and needs. Interestingly, I personally know two of the people he talks about in his auto-biography, and have met and spoken with a third. I think the book is pretty flaky in parts, and I don’t agree with everything Cockburn writes, especially about faith, but I believe he is being very honest and vulnerable, and his music is an important part of Canadian culture.

·         Acedia and Me, by Kathleen Norris. An excellent book by author and poet Kathleen Norris, about a tragically misunderstood or completely ignored issue: acedia. Acedia was at one time considered a particular temptation or “bad thought” for monks. It was a combination of melancholy, boredom, sloth and the need to find diversion instead of pursuing the spiritual work that would bring true satisfaction. Later theologians came to see that acedia affected more than just monks, but it did not make the “Seven deadly sins” cut, being whittled down to simply sloth. Norris displays great research in tracing the thinking on acedia through the ages, and also shows how acedia has affected her own life and marriage. Acedia is related to depression, but is not the same thing, and likely will not be opposed only with prescribed medication. Norris talks about the importance of the Psalms in her journey, and gives other very helpful suggestions.

·         Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader. Something to read in the bathroom. Random facts and interesting stories.

Scripture (11) (books studied and/or read repetitively this year)

·         Judges

·         Psalms

·         Matthew

·         Mark

·         Acts

·         Colossians

·         1, 2, 3 John

·         Jude

·         Revelation