100 Books - 75-71

Well, it's been a few weeks since a book post. I'm running out of books that I can remember without checking our bookshelves, so soon it'll be old Amazon.com reviews and other stuff to jog my memory. But this has been fun!

BTW, I'm not going to post my sermon from yesterday. It wasn't particularly good, it was far too personal for my taste, and frankly, I didn't put the time into preparation that it deserved. Best to chalk it up as a bad job and leave it at that.

75: Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian I loved the movie starring Russell Crowe, and figured I'd enjoy the books about Lucky Jack Aubrey. I'm not sure what to think. On the one hand, I really enjoyed the story these books tell. On the other hand, it's so hard parsing the navalspeak and historical dialect that I'm not sure I got everything I was supposed to get. On the whole, I'm not sure if I'm too stupid to understand the story or if the author hit the historical fiction so well that all readers need to be familiar with Lord Nelson's Britain to read and understand. At any rate, Lucky Jack Aubrey meets a physician/scholar/spy named Stephen Maturin at a chamber recital, where Maturin elbows Jack for nearly dancing in time to the music. Thus begins their long friendship. But Jack is also desperate for a command and a promotion, but finds himself at odds with his superior officers and in debt, a bad combination for a naval officer in 1800s Britain.

74: Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian See above for commentary. Lucky Jack escapes prison in France and is given a promotion and a new command: a former secret weapon/experimental ship that no one else will commandeer. Jack's relationship with Maturin is tested and strengthened, though romance threatens to ruin all.

73: New Spring by Robert Jordan I'm currently reading through the entire Wheel of Time series, but New Spring was a prequel I'd never enjoyed until a few weeks ago. Whereas the Wheel of Time begins with the Aes Sedai Moiraine Damodred finding Rand al'Thor, the Dragon Reborn, New Spring tells the story of how Moiraine and Siuan Sanche, inseparable even during Aes Sedai training, are raised from Accepted to Aes Sedai. Moiraine meets and bonds her Warder, al'Lan Mandragoran, uncrowned King of Malkier, and they are set, unknowingly, on the path to find the Dragon Reborn.

72: The Unnecessary Pastor by Marva Dawn and Eugene Peterson Our conference read this book together last year, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Dawn reflects on the different calls in the pastoral vocation. Peterson uses the Pastoral Epistles to reflect on what it truly means to be a pastor of people. And they both come to some extraordinary conclusions, thoughtful and challenging to us and to our congregations.

71: Saint Julian by Walter Wangerin, Jr. A friend gave me this book as an ordination gift - he's Wangerin's nephew. I really appreciated the gift, but I'll be honest - I didn't care for this novel. Normally I've enjoyed Walt Wangerin's work. For certain his writing is better than much of what passes for literature in the Christian publishing game. (the problem isn't the Christianity - it's the literature, or lack thereof. See LaHaye, Tim and Peretti, Frank) But Saint Julian was SO prosaic that it became far too artistic - the literary equivalent of deeply rococo architecture, so decorative you couldn't tell what you were supposed to be seeing. I'd recommend just about anything Walt has written, but not this one. I'm hoping that I'll like his new book on Jesus much better.