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My Current Favorites
Five books, movies, or songs influencing me now
NRSV Go-Anywhere Compact Thinline Bible (Bonded Leather, Black)
WHY I LIKE IT
I received this Bible at my ordination service, and it’s a current favorite. No notes or commentary—just the scripture itself.
An Approach to Extended Memorization of Scripture
WHY I LIKE IT
I’m trying out the techniques Davis recommends. Ask me in 6 months how it’s going….
A Tale of three Kings: A Study in Brokenness
WHY I LIKE IT
A creative fictional account of David, Absalom, and Saul.
The Principle of the Path: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be
WHY I LIKE IT
Very simple and profound book by Andy Stanley. Seems to particularly resonate with men. Are you heading in the direction that will get you where you want to go?
Living Beyond Yourself: Exploring the Fruit of the Spirit
WHY I LIKE IT
This book is currently being used as part of a Women's Study on Tuesday nights.
My Essentials
My all-time favorite books, movies and music
NIV Study Bible, Personal Size, Paperback, Red Letter Edition
WHY I LIKE IT
This study Bible is great because it is accessible and has good notes.
The Lord of the Rings: 50th Anniversary, One Vol. Edition
WHY I LIKE IT
Vast, beautiful, funny, moving, earthy, and deeply, deeply wise: there is nothing else quite like it. (I don’t like the Peter Jackson movies at all, by the way….)
The Silmarillion
WHY I LIKE IT
According to Tolkien’s vivid imagination, the creation was sung into being. I think that gets it just about right.
War and Peace (Vintage Classics)
WHY I LIKE IT
“War and Peace is the most famous and at the same time the most daunting of Russian novels, as vast as Russia itself and as long to cross from one end to the other. Yet if one makes the journey, the sights seen and the people met on the way mark one’s life forever.”—from Richard Pevear’s introduction. What else needs to be said? (I’ve read both Constance Garnett’s and Pevear and Volokhonsky’s translation; I recommend the P&V translation.)
Perelandra (Space Trilogy, Book 2)
WHY I LIKE IT
Lewis’s portrayal of bureaucratic, faceless, passionless evil in That Hideous Strength is unlike anything else I’ve read, both terrifying and familiar. And that scene in Perelandra where Ransom knows he is in a fight to the death…. I think about these books often.
That Hideous Strength (Space Trilogy, Book 3)
WHY I LIKE IT
Lewis’s portrayal of bureaucratic, faceless, passionless evil in That Hideous Strength is unlike anything else I’ve read, both terrifying and familiar. And that scene in Perelandra where Ransom knows he is in a fight to the death…. I think about these books often.
Leadership Axioms: Powerful Leadership Proverbs
WHY I LIKE IT
I read it years ago, and still find myself using Hybels’s phrases. Recommended for all leaders.
The Island of the World
WHY I LIKE IT
Brutal, beautiful, heart-breaking, and unforgettable. And in the description of the little Croatian mountain village of Rajska Polja, the best depiction I’ve ever read of what communal holiness might look like.
Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
WHY I LIKE IT
“Get it out of your head.” I practice everyday what David Allen preaches. Recommended for anyone drowning in a sea of inputs and information.
What It Takes: The Way to the White House
WHY I LIKE IT
A look inside the 1988 American presidential campaign, unique both in the access given to the author, and his insights. A good primer on power and leadership. And if you love politics, essential reading.
Catch-22: 50th Anniversary Edition
WHY I LIKE IT
The novel itself is like a circling bombing run over occupied Europe: Heller takes you round and round again until the moment of truth. One of the funniest books I’ve ever read, it's profane for sure, but ultimately profound. Be sure not to quit reading before the end: I remember getting to the bleak "Eternal City" chapter and being affected by its hopelessness. But keep going to the end—it's worth it.
The Mission (Two-Disc Special Edition)
WHY I LIKE IT
What do I love about this movie? Gabriel’s oboe, the great climb up the falls, and the last line of the film: “Thus have I made it.”
Casablanca
WHY I LIKE IT
My favorite character in Casablanca is Victor Laszlo. The filmmakers could have made him uptight, pharisaical, priggish—this is how Hollywood would have portrayed him if the movie were being made today. Instead, in 1942 he is heroic, pure—he wears only white white suits—noble and very, very brave. All of which makes Elsa’s choice the more difficult.
Of Gods and Men (Two-Disc Blu-ray/DVD Combo)
WHY I LIKE IT
I saw this movie by myself in the theater. The solitude was appropriate. A luminous, holy film. The most accurate depiction of the joy and difficulty of discipleship I’ve ever seen.
The Great Divorce
WHY I LIKE IT
Aside from the parables of Jesus and the poetry of Dante, the most insightful and vivid thoughts on hell and heaven in literature? Maybe an overstatement, but this slim little novel is profound in inverse proportion to its length.
Master and Commander
WHY I LIKE IT
I stumbled across the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian without knowing anything about it. I’m not sure this is the best of the novels, but it’s the first, so it gets its place here. I love O’Brian’s portrayal of the loneliness of leadership, the unlikely friendship between Jack and Stephen, and the terror and beauty that comes with being a blue water sailor in His Majesty’s Navy.
A Time of Gifts: On Foot to Constantinople: From the Hook of Holland to the Middle Danube (New York Review Books Classics)
WHY I LIKE IT
A Time of Gifts & Between the Woods and Water - These books are unlike anything else I’ve ever read, and I don’t know of anyone who writes better than Patrick Leigh Fermor. To paraphrase one of his lines: “once read, never forgotten.”
Between the Woods and the Water: On Foot to Constantinople: From The Middle Danube to the Iron Gates (New York Review Books Classics)
WHY I LIKE IT
A Time of Gifts & Between the Woods and Water - These books are unlike anything else I’ve ever read, and I don’t know of anyone who writes better than Patrick Leigh Fermor. To paraphrase one of his lines: “once read, never forgotten.”
My Early Life: A Roving Commission
WHY I LIKE IT
Churchill wrote this account of his early life during his years in the wilderness. To think that all of what he writes about happened decades before World War II…. One of the most fascinating lives of the last several hundred years.
The Power of One
WHY I LIKE IT
I didn’t technically read this, but rather listened to the audio version read by Humprey Bower—having listened to it, I can’t imagine reading it any other way. No American reader could possibly understand the nuances of accent and dialect the way Bower does. If you’ve never tried audiobooks, begin here.
Shadowlands
WHY I LIKE IT
What I like about this movie is the way it shows what faith looks like in the everyday life of a great but ordinary saint of the church.
Hoosiers
WHY I LIKE IT
Best sports movie ever. I could watch the scene where Shooter jumps up and down on his cot in the hospital ward a hundred times and laugh and cry every time.
The Pickwick Papers (Penguin Classics)
WHY I LIKE IT
My favorite Dickens novel. When I finished it, I felt real grief at saying goodbye to Mr. Pickwick—as decent and likeable a character in English fiction. And Sam Weller (and his dad) are just about the funniest characters in all of Dickens. I love this novel.
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't
WHY I LIKE IT
Collins has a gift for the simple image or phrase, and many of the phrases and images in this book have stuck in my mind years after reading them. I find the “flywheel concept,” for example, particularly insightful for my own leadership journey.
My Bookshelf Archive
my archived books, movies, music, and more
The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business
WHY I LIKE IT
The idea that organizational cultural health is just as important as organizational talent is an idea that I think about often.
The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears
WHY I LIKE IT
It reinforces the idea that some ideas are worth passionately praying for.
Death by Meeting: A Leadership Fable...About Solving the Most Painful Problem in Business
WHY I LIKE IT
The book is about how to structure organizational meetings.
Ulysses S. Grant: Memoirs & Selected Letters: Library of America #50 (The Library of America)
WHY I LIKE IT
The first Ebook I ever read. It is a fascinating look at the interior life of an actual American leader.
