Christmas Recommendations 2006

Book Reviews

The Christmas Season is soon upon us.  As you might have guessed, one of my favorite Christmas gifts is either a good book or a gift card to one of the major bookstores in the Twin Cities where I might select that special book.  From time to time I am asked by students what I might recommend as a special book for either a Christmas gift or someone’s birthday.  I am always pleased to do so.

Let me begin with recommending a Christian classic that is returning to popularity.  Written in 1675 - while its author John Bunyan was imprisoned in Bedford, England, for preaching without a license - Pilgrim’s Progress became an instant success.  It went through numerous editions even before Bunyan’s death in 1688.  Bunyan wrote a second part – Christiana’s Story – in 1684.  This work is considered one of the greatest pieces of literature in the English language and has been translated into more than 100 languages.  I have been encouraged in my own heart as I have read and re-read this book.  It is available in many different editions.  Cheryl Ford is perhaps one of the best Bunyan scholars of our day.  Her edition of Pilgrim’s Progress is an excellent one.  Friends, sometime in your Christian experience, you owe yourself the privilege of reading this phenomenal book.

For those of you who have a strong interest in American history and of the workings of God in those formidable days of our nation’s birth, the newest work from the pen of David McCullough is recommended.  The book is titled, 1776.  I was almost transfixed as I read this book over the summer.  I was gripped with the stories that flowed during that important year.  McCullough spends very little time wrestling with the issues that were waged in the Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia in 1776 resulting in the writing of the Declaration of Independence.  Instead his focus is upon the tribulations of the Continental Army, under the command of General George Washington, and their positions around the cities of Boston and then New York that year.  Friends, after reading this book, one can only conclude that the hand of God was upon this rag-tag army fighting for independence.  A fog, suddenly enveloping a besieged and soon to be defeated army providing an escape across the Hudson; the complacency of a group of Hessians (mercenaries hired by the British) in Trenton that Christmas Eve of 1776; and a myriad of other stories all indicate that Someone was watching over Washington and his army.  After reading this book, my heart was saddened because I realized that the children in our schools today no longer hear these stories that remind us that we truly are a nation blessed by God.

I know that many of you enjoy good fiction.  In previous “Off the Shelf” articles, I have introduced you to two excellent writers of historical fiction.  Bode Thoene and her husband have written several powerful series focusing upon the plight of the Jews during World War II (The Zion Covenant - 9 books in this series) and during the time of the War of Independence in Israel in 1948 (The Zion Chronicles – 5 books in this series).  The characters, the story line, and the celebration of God will grip your heart and hold your attention.  The other writer is Francine Rivers.  She has written a series of five novellas (short novels) about each of the five women mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1.  These would make good reading for the Christmas Season.  And she has completed four books in the series on outstanding men in the Old Testament – they include: Aaron, the priest; Caleb, the warrior; Jonathan, the prince; and Amos, the prophet.  I also recommend her books Redeeming Love and A Shofar Blew.

I don’t know about you, friends, but the winter months can get very long here in Minnesota.  But I find great blessing in putting a fire in the fireplace, sipping a cup of hot chocolate – complete with marshmallows – and reading a book that either takes me into a very different world or that challenges me with the present world in which I live.  So, here’s wishing you a very Blessed Christmas and good book or two.

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