Part of the series “My Year In…”
Like every year I managed to buy far more books than I could possibly read. Below are some of the highlights from those I did work through, divided into four categories.
General Non-Fiction
1. The Third Reich Trilogy (Richard Evans)
Evans is amongst the top historians of the Nazi era. His first volume, The Coming of the Third Reich, is a disturbing account of the Nazis’ rise to power. The second volume, The Third Reich in Power, is less a story and more a thematic account of the Nazis’ approach to society, culture (including the church), finance, and so on. The third, The Third Reich at War, remains next year’s project for me. I have found it enormously helpful to get a more detailed and accurate picture of the causes of Nazism and also some of the ways it wielded its power. A useful accompaniment is Mark Jones’ 1923: The Forgotten Crisis in the Year of Hitler’s Coup. It highlighted how other nations had significant culpability for the instability and ultimate demise of the Weimar Republic, which opened the way for the Nazis to take power. On a similar theme but more fun is Erik Larson’s The Splendid and the Vile—a narrative account of Churchill during the Blitz. It is a very human account of a deeply troubling time.
2. The Hacker and the State (Ben Buchanan)
The Hacker and the State tells the stories of state-sponsored cyber attacks and their impact on society. Buchanan’s account of the Shadow Brokers, who essentially stole the NSA’s hacking tools and sold them to the highest bidder, is simultaneously fascinating and horrifying.
3. The Kingdom, the Power and the Glory (Tim Alberta)
This was the most disturbing book I read this year. Alberta traces how American evangelical Christianity has been captured by Republican politics. This book reveals just how moribund and anti-Christian some parts of American evangelicalism has become.
Fiction
4. Transcription(Kate Atkinson)
Inspired by The Economist’s recommendations, much of my fiction reading was spent in spy fiction. Transcription is a witty book set in the Second World War. A young lady is recruited to work for MI5, transcribing the bugged conversations of fascist sympathisers in London. From there the plot gets increasingly murky and complicated.
5. Karla’s Choice (Nick Harkaway)
This book features the late John le Carré’s famous Cold War spymaster, George Smiley. Written by one of le Carré’s sons, Karla’s Choice picks up the story after The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. This was classic Smiley:
The spectacles were new, with a fashionable thickness of tortoiseshell; the coat was almost showy. And yet, of course—it was, after all, still George—these very highlights made him somehow more anonymous rather than less. (153)
6. Death and the Penguin (Andrey Kurkov)
This unexpected find was odd but agreeable. Set in Ukraine under Soviet rule, the protagonist adopts a penguin and works pre-writing obituaries for subjects who then end up dead. Very Kafkaesque.
General Christian
7. The Hiding Place (Corrie Ten Boom)
One of my aims has been to make time on Sundays to read a Christian book that will stir my heart. This was the most encouraging of them all. I was amazed by Corrie and her sister’s profound trust in God despite the enormously dangerous and difficult circumstances. My own grandfather lived in wartime Holland and his family hid a Jewish boy, Eric Oppenheimer, in their house for nearly three years. For that reason it was particularly poignant to read an account of Holland during the occupation.
8. Ten Dead Guys You Should Know (Ian Maddock (Ed.))
This book provides short accounts of some key figures in church history, such as Augustine, Martin Luther, John Wesley, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I like a book where I can easily read one chapter at a time. Moreover, these short accounts challenged and encouraged me to serve God wholeheartedly. Next on my pile is the companion volume, Ten Dead Gals You Should Know.
Academic Theology
9. Understanding Dispensationalists (Vern Poythress)
Dispensationalism is an end times view that essentially holds that God has two different plans for ethnic Israel and the church—rather than one plan for a single people of God that involves both Jews and Gentiles. It is particularly common in America, but also Germany where I have some ministry engagement. Poythress succinctly and clearly identifies the main principles of dispensationalism and the issues of biblical interpretation that underly them. This is a very helpful resource if you want to understand Dispensationalism better.
10. Calvin, Classical Trinitarianism, and the Aseity of the Son (Brannon Ellis)
This book deals with a relatively arcane debate in Trinitarian studies on whether the Father communicates the divine essence to the Son in eternal generation or only establishes personal distinction. The pro-Nicene Church Fathers said yes. Those who followed Calvin in the Reformed world largely said yes. But Calvin himself said no. I began the book sceptical of Calvin’s view, but ended suspecting the man could be right, yet again.
