My Top 10 Books of 2008

I read lots of books this year - lots. I'm guessing somewhere in the neighborhood of 150. Don't worry, I don't want to talk about all of them, or even most of them. If I only talk about a few, maybe everyone will be interested enough to read my post!

I would LOVE to hear some of your favorite books from this year too. It doesn't have to be 10. In fact, if you would just leave one - maybe your favorite - in the comments, that would be great!

Here are my Top 10 Books of 2008, in no particular order:

So Brave, Young and Handsome - Leif Enger
This guy is EASILY in my top five favorite authors of all time. This book is set in the early 20th century and is a story about a man, an outlaw, lost love, boyhood, and a chase from Minnesota, to Oklahoma, and to California. Some of the most enjoyable reading I have ever done. I can't possibly recommend this author higher (including his first book, Peace Like a River)

The Marketplace of Revolution - T.H. Breen
My favorite explanation for what made the unity of the American Revolution possible. His answer (simply): all classes and races shopped in the same markets, and bought the same tea. Therefore, when British policies started hitting America, they hit everyone. And when it did, everyone rose up in defense of their right to purchase what they wanted, when they wanted. Not your "rise up in defense of freedom" story you heard in high school, right?

East of Eden - John Steinbeck
Steinbeck remains one of my favorite authors, and this book was easily one of his best. With lots of overtones of Adam and Eve, and Cain and Abel, the story is all about family, and how it determines much of who we will be for generations to come.


The Damnation of Theron Ware - Harold Frederic
One of the most underrated novels and novelists in all of American literature. The story of a prideful, ambitious Methodist minister and his experiences in a small New York town with other ethnic groups, science, biblical criticism, Catholicism, a temptress, and the symbol of all things sexually deviant, Frederic Chopin.

Heaven - Randy Alcorn
The most comprehensive stuff I've ever read on the subject. Turns out we won't be disembodied spirits, but instead, we may eat lots of food, practice our jobs and crafts to our utmost potential, and see our old pets. After all, we'll be living not in a disembodied, spiritual heaven, but on a very real, touchable, experiential new earth.

My Antonia - Willa Cather
Ever thought Nebraska was boring? Well, if you read Cather, you shouldn't ever again. Winters, sunsets, grasslands, and old stories about the Russian and Scandinavian homelands. Feels like home.


Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling - Richard Bushman
Newest and best biography of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism. This author is a practicing Mormon and a top-notch historian, which allows him to write in a way that both takes religion seriously, and keeps a critical eye out. It's hard to find that sort of thing these days.

Old Times on the Mississippi - Mark Twain
My favorite Twain writing. Before Twain was an author, he was a riverboat captain. This is the story of those days. Moving rivers and sleepwalking boat pilots. (By the way, this is where Samuel Clemens got his pen name. He called out from the pilot position "Mark the twain," to make sure that the waters were deep enough to continue through.)

Evangelizing the South - Monica Najar
A story about how the Baptists grew to become one of the most influential groups in the U.S. in the late-18th and early-19th centuries. And, it's a story about how Christians began letting the culture define their position on racial slavery, rather than defining it for themselves.

Shepherding a Child's Heart - Tedd Tripp
Couldn't have had a better introduction to parenting. Explaining the title alone was worth the price of the book - shepherding our children toward righteousness,
not merely punishing them for wrongdoing. I need to read this again...