Reading and Listening

Reading...

The Abstinence Teacher by Tom Perrotta. The author of Election and Little Children returns with a book just as rich, funny, and poignant as those two. The story of a sex ed teacher forced to teach an abstinence only curriculum and the Christian soccer coach whom she forms an initially wary friendship with. Excellent stuff. None of these characters are caricatures, even those that lend themselves to it.

Evangelism Without Additives by Jim Henderson. The co-author of last week's Jim & Casper Go To Church writes a book about how sharing the gospel is about sharing the good news of Jesus within your own story and less about a sales pitch you force down someone's throat. It's about friendship without agenda, except that of mutual respect and caring. Good stuff.

The Year of Living Biblically by AJ Jacobs. His last book, The Know-It-All, tracked his trek through the encyclopedia, and served up stories both humorous and heartfelt. He counts Jon Stewart among his fans and is an editor for Esquire. In this most recent book Jacobs, never having associated with a specific faith or belief system, attempts (with the guidance of a few theologians) to follow the Bible as literally as possible for a year. Excellent stuff.


Listening to...

I'm mostly allowing stuff from previous weeks to sink in a bit deeper. Wilco, Danielson, Half-Handed Cloud, Rock Plaza Central, The Singing Mechanic, Andrew Bird, Ola Pordida, and so on.

Also rediscovered an amazing 60's psychedelic pop/rock band from Denton, TX called Green. If you're a fan of late Beatles or, even more so, The Zombies, be sure to pick this up...if you can find it.