2022 Book Review: Book Club Style!

Instead of the traditional book stack you typically see, I’m livening things up a bit with some commentary on the books I read (mostly) in 2022. Some of the reviews are book club style, so they’ll have some personal revelation in addition to what I thought about the book itself. Happy reading!

Emotionally Healthy Discipleship by Peter Scazzero

-If you feel like your “ministry work” has gotten a little scattered, the message of this book will help bring into focus what really matters.

-I reassessed what practices I could afford to scale up on because of how truly impactful they are, and what practices I can give myself grace to scale back on because it may be more detrimental to the growth of anyone involved.

-not all knives cut the same. I use a butter knife to spread butter on bread. Its shape allows it to do that, to spread widely. But if I’m trying to debone a redfish, I’m not going to use a butter knife. I’m going to use a boning knife. It’s focused, sharp, and thin, so that it can cut deeply into the bone.

-Oftentimes, in leadership equipping, we’re given resources and expectations that spread us widely but don’t help those relationships mature deeply

-so if discipleship is a blade, this book helps sharpen the blade

In the Name of Jesus by Henri Nouwen

This is a yearly read now

-Centering

-Foundational

-Humbling

-Encouraging 

-Reality checking 

-Heart breaking but in a “break my heart for what breaks yours”

-It likens the testing of Jesus by the devil (following Jesus’ 40-day fast the wilderness) to three temptations of leaders: the temptation to be relevant, the temptation to be spectacular, and the temptation to be powerful. These all seem like characteristics of good leaders, but you’ll read why they are considered temptations and not virtues.

-It speaks to the answers to those temptations and the spiritual disciplines that speak to them

Reading While Black by Esau McCaulley

-The questions this book answers biblically and thoroughly are:

-What does the Bible say about oppression

-What does the Bible say about policing?

-Does the Bible allow us to protest injustice when we encounter it?

-Does the Bible value ethnic identity 

-What do we do about the pain and anger that comes from being Black in this country 

-Did the Bible sanction slavery?

-This book is so good about breaking things down into their atomic context, which is very necessary when you read scripture and attempt to apply it to present-day circumstances.

Live no Lies by John Mark Comer

-This is a book for every season

-In 2022 it was my second time reading it. But this time I hosted a book club, which was my favorite part about reading it

-JMC has a very casual prose but still manages to give in-depth explanations to concepts that feel like common Christian “cliches” (the world, the flesh, and the Devil). But they are far more than cliches, and understanding them is key to having peace in your life.

-Personal rev: This book will increase the dimensions by which you view and live out your faith. If faith is just a belief to you, that’s one dimension. How it makes you think is another dimension. How you live is another dimension. And God wants to pervade every dimension of your life. If God wants to be in every dimension, then best believe there are forces that will attempt to minimize the significance of God in every dimension of your life. Those attempts, assaults, are lies. And this book will help you see the truth. It’s a book for every season.

Christian Cosmo by Phylicia Masonheimer

-I’ve had this book in my library for a minute but felt more motivated to read it after I’d heard one too many sermons from male pastors who have overlooked the experience of women in their congregations  fighting temptation, or may glaze over what this looks like for single adults 

-The content is fundamental and encouraging if anything. It reviews what we believe and why. Sex topics from a Christian perspective. 

-I didn’t learn anything new or revolutionary FROM THIS but one personal revelation I did have was that at a certain point, I kept telling myself “I already know all of this.” It was a lot of Bible verses and biblical truth. But for some reason I was looking for more. Some novel idea that would make what I was reading… activate. And I had to ask, if these are all biblical truths, what is telling me that I need more than this? Why am I feeling like these biblical truths aren’t enough. So I paused and prayed, “God if this your heart and your design for this area of my life, reconcile the parts of my heart and mind that are not aligned to these truths or reconcile the parts of my heart and mind where these truths have become stale.”

-While reading this, I was able to craft a prayer that spoke to any frustrations in this area I may have and it’s worked quite well for me, that is, helping me stay encouraged and centered: “God I believe that you will fulfill this desire that’s within me at the perfectly-appointed time.”

-I will say that there were just a few things, small things not major things, that just… I didn’t agree with in terms of personal boundaries but also as a clinical pharmacist.. There’s just that slight discomfort you get when reading medical opinions from lay people, so I took the small part that was in there as a grain of salt. It didn’t taint the experience of the book, I’m glad she covered it, actually so that was kind of refreshing all things considered. That topic: birth control!

Bamboozled by Jesus by Yvonne Orji 

-this was an audio book. 100% listened and it’s because I like animated Yvonne. I only bought the physical book to have it on my shelf as a trophy.

-This is a testimony book, not a tell-all book, and I can understand why: Yvonne is likely just at the advent of her career and it doesn’t bode well to lay every dirty detail bare for what could be millions of readers’ entertainment. And that is wisdom.

-It’s also a reminder of how many times God really be having us at the end of our ropes so we can trust him more deeply! LOL like can we unpack this? Is the end of the rope the only time I ever let God in? Because that always seems to be where he shows up, but I promise I prayed about this before it got this bad… but idk maybe I didn’t haha!

Becoming by Michelle Obama (Audible, read by Michelle Obama)

-First word: relatable 

-Before she was FLOTUS she was a black professional, a working mom.

-If you identify with any of those labels, this books will be refreshingly cathartic and relatable for you.

-It also gives context to major events in their journey to the white house, truly pulling back the curtain and viewing everything from a black female professional’s experience.

-I’m going to be real with my non-black colleagues. People I’ve worked with. We don’t tell you everything that goes through our mind in a workplace. For many reasons. I think an empathetic thing to do if you work with a black woman is to read this book to gain some perspective and see the world through our eyes and our minds. 

-Michelle Obama doesn’t speak for all of us but I see so much of my mind in these pages (not politically, just as it relates to the human experience).

Yinka, where is your Huzband? by Lizzie Damilola Blackburn

-Breaking! I read fiction!

-This book is so cute. A very relatable romance and I am praying it becomes a movie. I’d watch it over and over and over again.

-This was another audiobook read, and that’s the version I highly recommend for the accents (African, British). The story has so much life already but you’ll really enjoy the audio