2008: The Year in (Book) Review
By Trevin Wax on Jan 1, 2009 in Book Reviews | 
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Frequent readers of Kingdom People know that I read and review a lot of books (I average 2 a week). In 2008, I reached my goal of reading 100 books, 74 of which I also reviewed on this blog. Here is an alphabetical list that links to all the books reviewed at Kingdom People in 2008. (Click here to see the books reviewed in 2007.)
After the Baby Boomers - Robert Wuthnow
Beyond Smells and Bells: The Wonder and Power of Christian Liturgy – Mark Galli
Biblical Christian Ethics – David Clyde Jones (Part 1, Part 2)
The Big Picture Story Bible – David Helm, Gail Schoonmaker
The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible - Scot McKnight
Christ and Culture Revisited – D.A. Carson
Christianity and Liberalism – J. Gresham Machen
Christians at the Cross: Finding Hope in the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus - N.T. Wright
A City Upon a Hill: How Sermons Changed the Course of American History – Larry Witham
Consuming Jesus: Beyond Race and Class Divisions in a Consumer Church – Paul Metzger
The Courage to Be Protestant: Truth-Lovers, Marketers and Emergents in the Postmodern World – David Wells
Culture Making: Recovering our Creative Calling – Andy Crouch
Culture Shift: Engaging Current Issues with Timeless Truth – Albert Mohler
Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels – McKnight, Marshall, etc.
The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment - Tim Challies
Do I Know God? - Tullian Tchividjian
Duke McCall: An Oral History – Duke McCall
Echoes from the Holocaust: A Memoir - Mira Ryczke Kimmelman
Edgar Young Mullins: An Intimate Biography – Isla May Mullins
The Faith – Chuck Colson & Harold Fickett
Foreign to Familiar: A Guide to Understanding Hot- and Cold-Culture Climates – Sarah Lanier
Four Views on Salvation in a Pluralistic World - Hick, Pinnock, McGrath, etc.
The God Who Smokes: Scandalous Meditations on Faith – Timothy Stoner
The Gospel and Personal Evangelism – Mark Dever
Healing for a Broken World: Christian Perspectives on Public Policy – Steve Monsma
A History of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary - William Mueller
How People Change – Paul David Tripp & Timothy Lane
I Once Was Lost: What Postmodern Skeptics Taughts us about their Path to Jesus – Everts & Schaupp
In Pursuit of His Glory – R.T. Kendall
Inside Prince Caspian – Devin Brown
Jesus and the Gospels – Craig Blomberg
Jesus the Messiah: A Survey of the Life of Christ – Robert Stein
The Jesus Gospel - Liam Goligher
Jesus Made in America: A Cultural History from the Puritans to the Passion of the Christ – Stephen Nichols
John A. Broadus: A Living Legacy – Dockery, Duke, etc.
John Newton: From Disgrace to Amazing Grace - Jonathan Aitken
The Kingdom of Christ: The New Evangelical Perspective - Russell Moore
Living Gently in a Violent World: The Prophetic Witness of Weakness - Stanley Hauerwas, Jean Vanier
The Lord’s Supper: Five Views – edited by Gordon Smith
The Nature of the Atonement: Four Views – Boyd, Green, etc.
The New Media Frontier: Blogging, Vlogging and Podcasting for Christ – Reynolds, Overton, etc.
Pagan Christianity – Barna, Viola
The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
A Place at the Table: George Eldon Ladd and the Rehabilitation of Evangelical Scholarship in America – John D’Elia
Pocket Guide to the Apocalypse – Jason Boyett
Prayin’ to Be Set Free - edited by Andrew Waters
The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith – Tim Keller
The Pursuit of Holiness – Jerry Bridges
The Reason for God: Faith in an Age of Skepticism – Tim Keller
Relativism: Feet Planted Firmly in Mid-Air – Francis Beckwith & Gregory Koukl
Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know – and Doesn’t – Stephen Prothero
Resident Aliens: Life in the Christian Colony - Stanley Hauerwas & William Willimon
Sacramental Life: Spiritual Formation through the Book of Common Prayer - Daniel deSilva
The Sermon on the Mount: Inspiring the Moral Imagination – Dale Allison
The Sermon on the Mount: The Character of a Disciple – Daniel Doriani
The Sermon on the Mount Through the Centuries – Greenman, Larsen, Spencer, etc.
Sex, Sushi and Salvation – Christian George
Simple Spirituality: Learning to See God in a Broken World - Chris Heuertz
Southern Baptist Consensus and Renewal – David Dockery
The Story of Christianity – Justo Gonzales
Studies in Matthew – Dale Allison
Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church - N.T. Wright
Synopsis of the Four Gospels – Kurt Aland
Total Church: A Radical Reshaping around Gospel and Community – Tim Chester & Steve Timmis
True Story: A Christianity Worth Believing In – James Choung (Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)
Vintage Jesus – Mark Driscoll & Gerry Breshears
We Become What We Worship – G.K. Beale
Who Gets to Narrate the World? Contending for the Christian Story in an Age of Rivals - Robert Webber
Why I Am a Baptist – Moore, Nettles, etc.
Why We’re Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be – Kevin DeYoung & Ted Kluck
Wide Awake: The Future is Waiting Within You – Erwin McManus
Worship Matters: Leading Others to Encounter the Greatness of God – Bob Kauflin
Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist’s Journey with the New Calvinists - Collin Hansen
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Impressive!
Happy New Year
Steve Weaver | Jan 1, 2009 | Reply
Congratulations! I shared your goal, but didn’t match your success. See the details here–http://brushforkbanner.blogspot.com/2008/12/how-i-fell-short.html.
Here’s to 2009–and 100 more books!
Pastor Jim | Jan 1, 2009 | Reply
Trevin, congratulations on accomplishing your goal. But I have a question. How did you pay for all those books? I would like to attempt a feat like this also but the price would be too much. If each book averages $10 (a conservative amount) that becomes $1000 if every title was bought new. Any suggestions for a guy like me with a tight budget?
Luke | Jan 1, 2009 | Reply
Yes, cost can be prohibitive. Publishers send me new books, hoping I’ll review them on the blog – so that helps me out a great deal. My church gives me a certain amount of money every year for books and resources. And then I buy a good deal of them too.
Here is my suggestion for you. Start with the best books you already have. Read your favorites again. Borrow some books from your parents, family, and friends. Check out interesting titles at the library.
If you find some books you’d like to buy, try to find them on ebay or Amazon Marketplace. Used books are just as good as new books (for me anyway). Used bestsellers from two or three years ago are often sold at ridiculously low prices online.
You might borrow some good books from your pastor too.
Hope that helps!
Trevin Wax | Jan 1, 2009 | Reply
Trevin,
Your last comment sounds like another good post.
Steve Weaver | Jan 1, 2009 | Reply
Thanks, Steve. I’m going to file that away for a rainy day!
Trevin Wax | Jan 1, 2009 | Reply
I am so impressed! I purchase hundreds of books each year for our church media center and it’s so hard to catalog them and put them on the shelf for someone ELSE to read first! Every once in a while I take first dibs.
I also would like to add that for finding books, many times we are given used book donations in the church media center that I have already purchased. I just don’t have room for another copy on the shelf, so I sell those donations for very little. So don’t forget your church library for both checking out and maybe purchases too!
Bitsy Griffin | Jan 1, 2009 | Reply
Trevin,
My question is, “How in the world do you read an average two books a week?”
I would love to increase my reading capacity to be able to do that.
Mark
johnMark | Jan 2, 2009 | Reply
Mark,
Check out my blog post on tips for faster reading. That’s one way to speed things up.
But “averaging” 2 books a week may not mean you actually get through 2 every week. NT Wright’s big book on the resurrection took me 3 months back in ‘04. Other books are short and accessible enough for me to read in a day or two. Some books I could read in a few days, but I would rather take it slow and chew on the truths (like classic Spurgeon, for example).
The more you read, the easier it comes. It’s really not that hard. The less TV you watch the more time you have to read.
Trevin Wax | Jan 2, 2009 | Reply