"When It comes to their kids, Parents are all just instinct and hope" -The Light Between Oceans

Operating a lighthouse on Janus Island ensures a life of solitude. Your only contact with civilization is a supply boat that arrives every 6 months. For the remainder of the time it's you, the ocean, and the burning light atop the lighthouse. For Tom, this was exactly what he was looking for. Returning from a war that did not make sense left him in a state somewhere between the past and the present. Tom welcomed the solitude of Janus Island. It seemed a better proposition then reestablishing into society.

Isabel, a young women, felt constricted by her small town. She wanted adventure, she wanted love, she wanted something besides… This. Falling in love with Tom and moving to an island to work the lighthouse seem like the perfect remedy for her uneasiness. A blissful time between the two of them where they could explore their life together untethered from society. Still somehow the long arm of grief would find this small island.

Sarah was a mother who had tragically lost her husband and baby daughter sea. How could she go on after losing the two closest people to her? She did not care about what others thought or said of her. She knew they thought she had lost her mind and was a rambling mad woman. No matter what others said she would always keep the hope of her family returning. She promised her self she would never stop fighting and looking for her baby. She would never lose hope.

A boat washes up on the shore of Janus Island. A new born baby is inside, cold and wet, but alive. This was the concurrent fulfillment of hopes and dreams. Four lives now intertwined like a Greek tragedy. And the classic question is posed: is it better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all?

The Light Between Oceans is a entertaining, and well written story. It's a classically written love story that captures the incredibly joy and deep pain of human love. This novel took me a little longer than usual to get into and is definitely outside my normal read, but once the plot starts developing I was easily carried along by the current of the story. As a father of 3 I kept being torn with empathy for both Isabelle and Sarah. Ms. Stedman did a fantastic job of bringing out real believable emotion from the characters. The ending was not what I was expecting or hoping for, but it at least brought closure to the story. Carve out a nice bit of time to enjoy this novel and be on the lookout for those lighthouses. They help us avoid danger.

"While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. Matthew 4:18-22 ESV


I have read this story many times but never put much thought as to why Jesus choose fishermen for his closest disciples. Besides being able to make the catchy analogy of making them "fishers of men" the fishermen aspect of this story did not hold much significance to me. But Crossing The Waters by Leslie Leyland Fields, makes it clear that to real life actually fisherman, there is significant meaning behind Jesus call to these men.


When Jesus called Peter and Andrew to leave their nets and follow him, that means something to fisherman. It means dropping their tools, their training, their future. It means dropping their hopes, dreams, and the chance of a successful family business. It means dropping their responsibilities, family expectations, their occupation. It's much more than dropping an object, they are dropping all that they know, their family lineage. When Jesus called to James and John to leave their mending to follow him, that means something to a fisherman. It means they are leaving their tools non-functioning. It means they are leaving the work for their father to do. It means all the work and effort put into setting the nets maybe useless if the fish can just pass through. It means a successful catch could be lost if the nets rip and fail. It's much more than walking away from mending, it means leaving holes in more places than one.


Leslie Leyland Fields is a fishermen. A real fishermen catching real fish in the real waters of Alaska. In her book Crossing The Waters she gracefully leads us through an entire fishing season with her husband and children on the vast Alaskan waters. Leslie captures all the nuances of fishing life, but more importantly exposes us to a fishermen's perspective on what it means to be connected to the water and the lure of of the catch. She sheds light onto what it means to cast your nets everyday and what it would mean to leave the water and those nets behind. As fascinating as it is to be invited into this fishing world, the real catch in this books is how she continues to bring us back to Jesus' call to these first century fishermen. Each time we return to these men, we gain a deeper understanding of what it means for fishermen to encounter Jesus. What it means for a fishermen to feed fish to thousands of hungry people. What it means for a fishermen to be on a raging sea, in a sinking boat, and fearing for your life. What it means for a fishermen to witness the wind and the water they are so use to obey a mans mere words. We learn what it means for fishermen to have empty nets suddenly filled with abundance. In Crossing The Waters we gain a deeper understanding of what it means for a fishermen to drop their nets and leave their mending to follow him.


Leslie has a way of writing that takes us from spectators on the shoreline, to standing in the skiff with the wet spray of the ocean in our face and the smell of fish in the air. Crossing The Water does an excellent job of teaching and enlightening, while still telling a story and providing an enjoyable read. I enjoyed the deeper understandings of the call to "follow me" to these men, these fishermen, while also having the enjoyment of just learning about various aspects of the fishing profession and life as a fishing family. Crossing The Water is a book that you will find yourself recommending to others with an assurance of a positive experience.


Now when I hear Jesus call to these fisherman "follow me", I will no longer hear these words with passing indifference. I will remember that to a fishermen, that means something.

I received Crossing The Waters as a compliment of Tyndale House Publishers for my honest review. I did not receive any monetary compensation aside from a free copy of this book for my review in the opinions are strictly my own.

Vianne Mauric does not want to let go. She had everything she could ever want. A quaint little house in a quite French town. Her days consist of tending to her chores and spending the evenings with her husband and young daughter. It's not much, nothing lavish, but it does not need to be after the childhood she has tried to forget. After her mother who died when she was young and father who returns home from the Great War more interested in the bottle than Vianne and her sister Isaablle, this life she has created is pretty good. That's why she is so fearful of letting go. Letting her husband Antone go to the font lines of a war that no one could believe was occurring again.

Isaablle wants desperately to hold onto something. Unlike her sister Vianne, she has never had anything or anyone to care for her. After her mothers death, her fathers disinterest in her, and her sister leaving to create her own life, she has been passed from boarding school to boarding school. But now the war is forcing her to reconnect with her family. Since her father will not have anything to do with her, she has to move in with her sister. Now these two sisters, so completely different, have to navigate the war together as the Germans have occupied France and their quite little house. Both sisters doing what they need to do to survive not only the Germans but each other. Both sisters finding courage in their own forms.

There seems to be a resurgence in novels set in World War II France and this might be tha best of the ones that I read. The Nightingale has received a lot of acclaim and occasionally that can be a bad thing. Bad in the sense that everyone is hoping for that amazing book that will be one of their lifelong favorite's. But sometimes a novel has wide aclaim because it appeals to a wide audience. That's what I think this novel does. Most people that will pick this book up will think it is a "good read". It is an easy novel to quickly loose yourself in. Nothing extraordinarily well written in the book, but neither does the storyline hit any particular lows. A few predictable moments, but also a few twists that catch you offguard. As we head deeper into the summer and your vacation maybe fast approaching The Nightingale is an easy, enjoyable, and attention keeping novel.

"The lights are going out all over Europe; We shall not see them lit again in our lifetime"- Sir Edward Grey, on World War I

Here in America, we call the men and women of World War II the Greatest Generation.  We call them that in part due to their willingness to stand up to atrocities. They were not only willing to call out evil for what it was, but also willing to put their words into action and stop the evil from continuing. Unbelievably we have the same situation occurring today, but no one is willing to stand up.  In fact, no one is even really willing to SAY anything.  Since 2003 over 1 million Christians have been killed or forced to leave Iraq based solely on their beliefs.  But its more than just Christians.  Muslims (who don't ascribe to ISIS interpretation of the Quran), Kurds (an ethnic group in the middle east. 4-6.5 million people in Iraq), and Yazidis (ethnically Kurdish religious group. 650,000-1 million in Iraq) are being slaughtered, forced to watch the execution of their families,  rapped, sold into human trafficking, forced to leave their homes, forced to watch century old towns (that trace back to the Ottoman Empire) be completely leveled and no one is doing anything.  ISIS is literally wiping out centuries old towns and slaughtering thousands of men, women, and children while no one is doing or saying anything about it. We are literally turning a blind eye.  Except Mindy Belz

They Say We Are Infidels is Mindy Belz fascinating and courageous attempt to ring the alarm bell.  They Say We Are Infidels chronicles Mindy's several trips to Iraq as she talks, lives, and cares for those on the ground in the post Saddam regime and present ISIS takeover.  They Say We Are Infidels presents to us the Iraqi Christian PEOPLE. Not just the story, not just the history, but the people.  We often forget that each of these news stories (count yourself lucky if you have even seen a news story about this) involves actual people,  and if you are a Christian they are about brothers and sisters, they are about those apart of the body. Even if you are not Christian, or even self identify with any faith, this is still about people. Most of us would still agree on some basic beliefs and sacredness of human life.  This is why I would recommend this book for everyone. 

Mindy writes with a gentleness, gritty ground level view, and presents a real time account of this ongoing tragedy in the Middle East.  With her twenty years of journalistic experience, this book is crafted with a professionalism that you would come to expect.  The right amount of historical background, objective facts, clear details, and historical timelines are presented while allowing the humanism of the story to saturate each chapter. You will be presented with the graphic but really account of what is happening to these people groups. You will be angry that people can treat each other with such horrific indifference, and you will be angry that these stories have been "minor" stories reported by our mainstream media.  This book will cause you to remember similar atrocities of the past, but there is one significant difference.  These atrocities are currently on going.  Like the Sir Edwards Grey quote above these lights and lives are still being put out.  So what will we do? What will our generation be remember as?  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (A German pastor who was killed for standing up to the Nazi's) said it best "Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless.  Not to speak is to speak.  Not to act is to act". In my opinion, your first action should be to get this book.  Then here are a few resources to get you started:

Voice of the Martyrs: http://www.persecution.com
Samaritans's Purse: http://www.samaritanspurse.org
Open Doors: https://www.opendoorsusa.org
Mindy Belz: http://theysayweareinfidels.com 

I received They Say We Are Infidels by Mindy Belz compliments of Tyndale House Publishers for my honest review. I did not receive any monetary compensation aside from a free copy of this book for my review and the opinions are strictly my own.

There probably is not a single person reading this who has not benefited in some way from Henrietta Lacks. Yet there is a good chance you have never heard the name Henrietta Lacks before. What if I told you that Henrietta Lacks had a part in some of the biggest medical and scientific breakthroughs since the 1950's? Discoveries and advances such as the polio vaccine, cancer research, AIDS research, the effects of radiation, gene mapping, and countless others. What if I told you she has been to outer space, blown up by an atom bomb, and has been to almost every country in the world? Would you believe it? Well it's true. So how do we not know the name Henrietta Lacks?

Henrietta Lacks was an African American women in her early thirties who died of cervical cancer in 1951. In the 1950's scientists had been interested in studying cells, cell development, and in particular cancer. Scientist would grow human cells in labs and study the cells in dishes. The problem during this time was that the cell cultures would inevitably die. Usually in a relatively short period of time. This did not allow scientist enough time to study how a cell might develop into cancer, or what happens if your introduce a medication to a cell culture. On top of not being able to do that research it was a very time consuming process to continually grow new cell cultures. Enter Henrietta Lacks into the equation. Henrietta went to Johns Hopkins Hospital for a lump she felt in her cervix. She was diagnosed with cervical cancer and a biopsy was taken. Unfortunately she quickly passed away from her cervical cancer. A scientist at Johns Hopkins had been taking patients cancer cells and trying to growth them in culture. When they took Henrietta's cells something amazing happened. They never stopped growing. In fact they are still growing today. Since Henrietta's cells (the famous HeLa cells) kept continually growing, scientist were now able to study cells like never before and a scientific and medical boom occurred. Great! what a lovely story out of a tragedy. Except that part were no one ever asked Henrietta if they could take her cells and use them. No one every informed the family that their mothers cells might have been the biggest scientific advancement in the last century and certainly no one told the family that the selling of their others cells is a multi-million dollar business for bio-medical companies.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is one of those extremely interesting, medical, ethical, historical books. I loved the first 2/3 of the book. The last 1/3 of the book was too much about the authors story and struggles to write the book for my tastes, but I enjoyed the book none the less. Great read for anyone in the medical or science field, history lovers, or frankly anyone who likes a good story that tried to navigate the grey areas of life.

In the Heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick tells the incredible story of the whaleship Essex. In 1820 the 240 ton Essex set out of Nantucket on a 2-3 year voyage to fill her hull with sperm whale oil. In the 18th and 19th century, sperm whale oil was coveted for its use in oil lamps as it burned bright and odorless. No one in the world was better at hunting and gathering this precious oil than the citizens of the small island of Nantucket 30 miles off the coastline of Massachusetts. 15 months into the Essex voyage, in some of the most uncharted waters of the Pacific Ocean, the hunter became the hunted. A male sperm whale of mystic proportions turned its aggression toward the ship and its crew. In mere moments the ship was lost and the crew of 20 men were left clinging to each other in 3 small boats bobbing in the endless sea. Fearing unknown near by islands possibly inhabited by "savages", the crew sets out for the South American coast line 3,000 miles away. With an extremely small ration of food and fresh water, the men of the essex spend the next 90 days at sea battling some of the most brutal physical, mental, and environmental conditions one could experience. This extraordinary story of seamanship and the will to live would be the real life basis for Herman Melville's ​Moby Dick.

This is the type of story that I absolutely love. It's a non-fiction book that reads like fiction. A non-fictional page turner. It reminded me of another favorite of mine The Great Bridge by David McCullough. Philbrick gives us just the right amount of history on Nantucket, the whale industry, and seamen ship without loosing your interest. On top of that, the central story is fascinating and thrilling. Written in a manner that educates you while maintaining your interest, Philbrick guides us perfectly on the leeward side of this adventure.

Usually when I read a book or watch a movie that depicts a survival senerio I can't help but wonder how I would fair in such a situation. Would I be the first to crack? Could I hold it together? Curious on how I would do, I took a survival at sea test on http://www.pressanykey.com/Survival.php. I am happy to report that due to my survival skills I was rescued on day 4! Luckily I did not have to resort to eating my ship mates. My overall assessment was 60%, not bad, but not great. I think that means I maybe one of the first people to wear my pants on my head, or see hallucinations of Fight Club scenes, but I would probably survive so I am happy with that.

inescapably, reading a book about whales inevitably brought my mind to Seinfeld. One of the shows greatest scenes has George Costanza describing how he saves a whale that is beached as he pretends to be a marine biologist for his girlfriend. As I was writing this review I had to stop and watch the marine biologist clip. 30 min later I am searching for all my favorite clips that have to do with boats, whales, or the sea. I compiled them below for your convenience. Enjoy!

"The sea was angry that day my friends!"

"You have to respect the sea!"

"Need a little wind here!"

One of the biggest problems of our current culture is our complete inability to look outside ourselves. The old adage of putting yourself in some else's shoes has no applicable meaning to us. Instead we take the path of least resistance. Stubbornly, we charge down this path until it dead ends into the wall of dismissal. It's easy for us to dismiss each other. We hear and do it all the time: "that politician is and idiot, he does not know what he is doing". "Stop following the masses sheep!". "You only believe that because you watch (enter whatever new station you want)! Can you believe so-in-so said that"? "They are all the same". Frankly it's ease. It's ease to affirm our own assumption and flipitantly dismiss another point of vIew. The hard path, the road less traveled, is to listen and try to understand where a person is coming from. Now, I not about to sing the praises of post modernism and tell you truth is relative and listening allows you to find one of the many possible paths that lead you to relative truth. But I do think we have mistakenly linked listening with agreeing or condoning an entire philosophy. So we are left to our flawed reasoning. We can not view outside our assumptions, which leads to poor listening/understanding, and consequently dismissal. This is tragic considering we miss the "process". This process is the simple act of trying to understand what and why people think, view, and respond the way they do to a situation or idea. More often than not this process creates empathy. Notice it creates empathy not necessarily agreement. One of our current cultural topics that has suffered the most from this lack of the "process" is race divide. Recently there has been no shortage of incidences to highlight this. Just look at the comments section on any racial topic on social media. We are all only concerned with winning the argument and consequently we have all lost the goal. The goal of peace and harmony.

I have not read, in recent memory, a better book on the race divide than Benjamin Watsons Under Our Skin. Mr. Watson's gracious, passionate, articulate, honest, and humbly written book tries to take us through the "process". Simply, and yet not simple at all, Mr. Watson tries to bridge the race gap by helping the reader understand another perspective and look outside our assumptions. Under Our Skin is not written to win you over to his side of the argument, but to merely shed some light onto another point of view.

What I loved so much about the book was Mr. Watson's correct diagnoses of the race problem. Yes, there are facts and statistics that support both sides of the race divide, but ultimately the solution is not found in the external. Watson says "The real problem with rasiscm is not in "that guy over there". It's right here. I confess to you that the problem of racism is inside me." Mr. Watson discribs how the root problem of the race divide is the heart inside us, or in other words SIN. And while Watson frequently draws inspiration from his faith he hold back no punches "The church can be one of the most segregate places in America".

After reading Under Our Skin I felt challenged, disappointed, reflective, convicted, excited, encouraged and ultimately hopeful. Hopeful because I believe the Gospel can help us not only understand each other but bridge the things that divides us. That's what the Gospel has set out to do from the start. In Pauls letter to the Ephesians he says "For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace" Ephesians 2:14-15. Now more than ever we could use something set up to break down the dividing wall of hostility creating peace!

The other night I sat down (bing!) to start a new book (buzz!). It was a book that a good friend (Beep!) had recently recommended and I was saving it for (ring!) the right time. A cold winter (ding!) night in January seemed like the perfect night. As I started to read (tweet!) I found that I could not quite get into it (buzz!). My friend who recommended it (ding!) knows what I usually like to read, so the fact that this book was not catching my attention (ring!) was kind of odd. Then it struck me....literally. My phone that is, buzzing on the couch next to me. What I realized was the constant buzzing, ringing, dinging, and the myriad of other noises emanating from my phone was completely sabotaging my ability to get into and enjoy this book. And this is the culture that we all live in. A culture that is progressively more intertwined with the digital world. Intuitively we all this know can be distracting and at times destructive. Yet acting as if the digital word does not exist and is not becoming a bigger part of every aspect of our lives amounts to sticking our head in the sand. Each of us has more than likely experienced the double edged sword of the digital world. We have all had the positive experiences of sharing life events with friends and family scattered around the country or world with only the click of a button. We have been able to keep in touch with those people who a few decades before, it might have been significantly more difficult. We have also experienced the the loss of the present moment, the loss of the here-and-now as our attention is locked onto our screen. Or the person who is sitting across the table from you, but they might as well be a thousand miles away as their attention is constantly being pulled towards the digital community. But we can't just throw the baby out with the bathwater right? There has got to be a middle ground? So what do we do?

That is roughly the question that William Powers sets out to answer in his book ​Hamlet's BlackBerry: Building a Good Life in the Digital Age. The problem with the digital world is pretty apparent. There seems to be an inverse relationship to connectivity and depth. The more connected we become, the less depth of experience we encounter. To analyze this phenomena Powers looks to the past to help us cope with the future. How have others throughout history dealt with technological advances? Powers examines how Plato, Guttenberg, and Shakespeare incorporated the new technology of writing of words onto scrolls, the printing press, and tablets (note books). He examines how they used these technologies to benefit themselves and not allow them to become a detriment. Powers also looks at how Ben Franklin used positive rituals to disconnect himself from new advances and how Henry David Thoreau used a physical disconnection from society in order to not be over stimulated. By looking into the past, we can gain insight on how to cope with our current situation.

So whats the solution? Powers suggests that increasing the gap's between digital experiences is the key to creating depth into your digital life. These gaps (actual time away from a digital interaction) helps you process, consider, and ultimately enjoy that digital experience to its fullest. The lack of gaps between our digital interactions is what creates a lack of depth and does not allow a humanistic connection. Our continual jumping from one digital experience to another is becoming an epidemic. Powers also provides several practical applications that we can implement into our daily lives to help create more of these gaps. A few that I found compelling where: Switching from your E-reader to a paperback book. Give your eyes a break from a screen and allow your real fingers to touch real paper. Dusting off your old CD's or records instead of using your digital device when listen to music. Don't skip from song to song, but let an entire album play from beginning to end. Provide physical distance between you and the digital world. Maybe that looks like camping for the weekend, or going for a long walk with the phone left at home. A very practical habit to begin would be to put your phone in the glove box when you are driving. Let your mind processes, wander, and daydream while you drive. Intentionally interact with the physical world. Maybe thats yard work, building something, or playing a sport. Set a digital curfew when all digital devices are turned off. Disconnect your homes WIFI for a day (or even a weekend! Oh the humanity!). Create a digital free room in your home. And one Idea I have recently adopted is to return your calendar back to paper format (Moleskin users unite!).

When I first heard William Powers do an interview on ​Hamlet's BlackBerry. I was really excited to read it. In that interview Mr. Powers mentioned how he first was writing about this topic it was in ashorter article. Eventually he got around to fleshing this idea out more and publishing this book. At times, this book did feel like it was an article that was being stretched into a book. By the turn of the last page thought, I had enjoy it. If you are interested in monitoring your digital intake and gathering a few digital diet tips, give ​Hamlet's BlackBerry a go...... in paperback of course.

One of my favorite things about the end of a year is the "years best" lists that come out. I like to see what was voted the best songs, movies, and moments. My absolute favorite is the best books of the year that are put out by the New York Times, GoodReads, or even just the average reader. Usually these list help solidify my reading list for the first 2-3 months of the coming year. I try and look at as many list as I can as they introduce me to books that I probably would not have come across otherwise. So I have decided to add my 2 cents into the crowded best of lists that are already out there. I compiled my Top 6 Books of 2015. Why Top 6? Because I could not choose between the last two books to make it a Top 5 list. I also realized this is my list and I can do whatever I want! So without further ado here is my Top 6 Books of 2016

6. Devil at My Heels: A Heroic Olympian's Astonishing Story of Survival as a Japanese PWO in World War II by Louis Zamperini: Most everyone has either read Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand or seen the movie Unbroken that came out about this time last year. I actually voted Unbroken my "Best Book" 2011. Devil at my Heels is written by Louis Zamperini before Hillenbrand sought his permission to write Unbroken. Devil at My Heels tells Louis heroing story like Unbroken but is more gritty and graphic at times. It's like the directors cut version of a book instead of a DVD. It fills in some gaps that Unbroken left open and provides a broader view at this man's amazing life. If you enjoyed Unbroken, this is an excellent way to re-read the story again from a slightly different perspective.

5. A Small Cup of Light: A Drink In The Desert by Ben Palpant: Imagine laying down one afternoon to take a nap and when you wake up your life is forever changed. One moment you are a health man, husband, father and over the net few weeks you slowly loose almost all control of your physical body and mental abilities. This is exactly what happened to Ben Palpant. A Small Cup of Light takes us through this man's life experience while wrestling with the reconciliation between suffering and goodness. If you have ever wondered "why me" (so that pretty much includes everyone) this maybe a small cup of light for you in a dark time.

4. The Water is Wide a Memoir by Pat Conroy: Having lived in the low country of South Carolina for a few years, I have an affinity for Pat Conroy books. Pat Conroy's writing embodies everything southern to me. It's slow, full of flavor, warm, and hospitable. The Water is Wide exudes all the best characteristics of Southern and in particular Conroy's writing. While most of us know Mr. Conroy as an author, after college he was a school teacher on a small, poor, and mostly minority populated island off of Beaufort, SC. The Water is Wide recounts that year as he lived, taught, and came to love the kids on that island.This novel is one of those that you won't want to end and will be thinking about long after you finish.

3. Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger: "That was it, That was all of it. A grace so ordinary there was no reason at all to remember it. Yet I have never across the forty years since it was spoken forgotten a single word". This is one of the more memorable quotes from anything I have ready this past year. Ordinary Grace chronicles the Drum Family in New Bremen Minnesota in 1961. That year the Drum family is shaken in ways they could not imagine. They are in desperate need of something. They are not sure what it is they even need, but when they get it, its more than they asked for. Simple, unassuming, ordinary.

2. A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash: This novel had all the ingredients of a classic. Cash weaves together themes of faith, love, power, redemption, regret, forgiveness, expectation, loneliness, brotherhood, and selfishness into a beautiful story told through the eyes of a young boy. A Land more Kind Than Home will absolutely be made into a movie sometime down the line (you heard it here first!). Make sure you have some dedicated time to read when you start this one as you will not be able to put it down once you start.

1.​ Tables in the Wilderness: A Memoir of God Found, lost, and Found Again. By Preston Yancey: "The only word I can form that somehow capture's the presence without presence is silence.... While I intellectually know God is still present, while I intellectually know God will never leave me, while I intellectually know God desires the best for me- my heat and my soul they don't seem very sure anymore". Sometimes a book is just read at the right time. A perfect trifecta of writing, timing, and topic come together. In essence after I read Tables in the Wilderness, the other books did not have a chance. Beautifully written, honest, and emotional this was one that I could not put down. Once I was finished with it I found myself flipping back through large sections of the books again and again. I don't know if it will connect with everyone the same, but Mr. Yancey's unique writing style is worth the read alone.

Bonus: Worst book of the year. Unapologetic: Why Despite Everything Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Sense by Francis Spufford. I don't even know where to begin on this one. I have disliked books before, but I don't know if I have every been as annoyed with a book. Not only with content, but also with writing style. This whole books was one long run on sentence. His thoughts seems to develop slower than an old man easing into a warm bath (obligatory Seinfeld reference). I have an unhealthy habit of having to finish all books, but I wanted to save a few poor souls from even starting this one!.

So, what are some of your Top Books of 2015? I would love to hear what you have read this past year and what you would recommend.