Matt Boelkins
Books Read
In fall 2000, our family got rid of our television. At that time in my life, I had basically given up reading books for pleasure. Since then, however, I have re-discovered how much more enjoyable reading is than watching. In the last 7 years, I've read dozens of books, many of which I'd heartily recommend. Below is a fairly complete list, along with some comments; all of these books are highly recommended. This is more for me than anyone else, but if it encourages you to read a good book, all the better. Though we now do own a TV again, I rarely watch it having rediscovered the joy of novels.
|
Author |
Title |
Comments |
| Ivan Doig | Bucking the Sun | All Doig's books are rich and fun. My favorite author. |
| Dancing at the Rascal Fair | In the words of Wallace Stegner (which apply to any Doig book) "Here is the real west, in the hands of a real writer." | |
| English Creek | ||
| Ride with Me, Mariah Montana | ||
| Mountain Time | ||
| Prairie Nocturne | ||
| This House of Sky | ||
| The Sea Runners | ||
| Heart Earth | ||
| The Whistling Season | ||
| Elizabeth Simpson | Earthlight, Wordfire: The Work of Ivan Doig | An insightful look at Doig's life and work |
| Jon Hassler | Rookery Blues | Hilarious |
| The Dean's List | A step down from Rookery Blues | |
| Grand Opening | Rich characters and story | |
| Richard Russo | Straight Man | Maybe even better than Rookery Blues; both nail academia |
| Empire Falls | A wonderful collection of characters | |
| Nobody's Fool | ||
| The Risk Pool | ||
| Wallace Stegner | Crossing to Safety | Always a favorite -- probably my favorite book. |
| All the Little Live Things | Don't let chapter 1 slow you down; a great book | |
| The Spectator Bird | ||
| Wendell Berry | A World Lost | |
| Norman MacLean | A River Runs Through It | |
| Leif Enger | Peace Like a River | A great book; reminiscent of Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany |
| Ian Fraser | Great Plains | |
| Tom Friedman | The World is Flat: a Brief History of the 21st Century | Must-reading for every American university student and faculty member. |
| Stefan Fatsis | Word Freak | 'A hugely entertaining tale of the world of competitive Scrabble' |
| Ann Lamott | Traveling Mercies | "Reverent and irreverent in the same sentence" |
| Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith | ||
| Peter Brimelow | The Worm in the Apple: How the Teacher Unions are Destroying American Education | Worthy reading for anyone with a stake in public education |
| Martha Beck | Expecting Adam | Superb true story; a must read. |
| Stephen Ambrose | D-Day | Tremendous story of the men of WWII |
| Band of Brothers | More on D-Day and WWII | |
| James Bradley | Flags of Our Fathers | Good book that is difficult reading about World War II and the battle for Iwo Jima |
| Tom Brokaw | The Greatest Generation | |
| Kathleen Norris | Dakota: A Spiritual Geography | Honest, insightful, out-of-the-box |
| Jane Smiley | Moo | Another stab at the eggheads in academia |
| Dan Brown | The DaVinci Code | |
| Deception Point | page turners all | |
| Angels and Demons | ||
| Tim O'Brien | The Things They Carried | Hard reading about Vietnam |
| Into the Lake of the Woods | ||
| Shusako Endo | Silence | "And God stood with folded arms, silent." |
| Lewis Smedes | My God and I: a memoir | |
| A Pretty Good Person | ||
| Richard Swenson | Margin | |
| Harold Kushner | How good do we have to be? | A brilliant and thoughtful book |
| Brian McLaren | A New Kind of Christian | Very outside the box. Makes you think a lot about what you really believe. |
| A Generous Orthodoxy | ||
| Diet Eman | Things We Couldn't Say | More hard reading -- about the Dutch resistance to the Nazis in WWII |
| Philip E. Johnson | Darwin on Trial | |
| Howard Dayton | Your Money Counts | |
| Larry Burkett | Your Finances in Changing Times | |
| Dave Ramsey | Financial Peace | A life-changing book |
| Created and maintained by Matt Boelkins |
|
MATT BOELKINS |