2014 – Justin Daniel

This is a list of the books I read in 2014. All the reviews were written in 2014 and are archived on this site in (roughly) the order I read them in.

Book Reviews 2014

- American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History, Chris Kyle with Scott McEwen and Jim Felice
  September 25, 20192014 / Book ReviewsIn October, I went through a phase of reading the stories of former service members and their time in combat. Clint Eastwood is producing a movie called “American Sniper” that is based off of the events in this book, as it follows the career and life (as the subtitle says) of the most “lethal sniper in U.S. Military history.” This book will appeal to the military history buff and the layman who wants to read about the brave conditions these heroes had to endure. In the beginning of the book, Kyle tells a story about his time in Iraq, where he saw a small child received a bomb and began walking towards the Marines he was protecting (you can see the reenactment of this in the “American Sniper” trailer). He speaks of this kind of ethical/moral debate throughout the book and seems to have a clean conscious in regards to the people he has killed (in one interview he calls them “savages“). In all, Chris Kyle lived a very interesting life. From becoming a Navy Seal to all the many deployments to Iraq, he narrates the story of his life and dictates how he became one of the most deadly snipers in the history of our nation. He attributes a lot of his success to luck and being in the right place at the right time. One such story is the longest confirmed kill of his career, which came at an incredible distance of 2100 yards (21 football fields). Other stories he tells include his partner waiting in the nest for hours without a kill; he took over in relief and put rounds down range that illustrates how “lucky” he was. Kyle had established for himself a reputation among the arabs in Ramadi that coined the nickname, “the Devil of Ramadi,” and at one time had an $80,000 bounty on his head. But his career really took off before that in Fallujah, where he participated in both being an excellent sniper, and took turns clearing houses with the Marines. The long narratives of the situation are broken up by anecdotes of particular situations he was in that are of importance or are more rememberable. This helps the flow of the book read like an exciting fiction novel instead of a dry biography. Kyle’s story is filled with twists and turns as he documents trouble at the home front with his wife and children. The phrase “service member” designates that a man or woman is a part of the United States Military and that he or she is involved with “serving” their country. Part of this “service” (as I, a fellow “service member” have come to realize) is the sacrifice one makes for his country that impacts the family sphere. Kyle, with help of vignettes from his wife, show how much Kyle sacrificed for his country by placing his family as number two to his country. He struggles throughout his time as a Seal trying to be a family man but fulfill the obligations to his country. This is a struggle many service members wrestle with: even more so as a Seal where deployments are the golden standard. While this is a very entertaining book (I read it in just a couple of days), this whole genre of American heros telling war stories in book form really bothers me. What is most annoying is how poorly it is written. As you can see from the title, two other writers helped Kyle pen his thoughts. This is significant of the whole genre: it seems like any time a service member wants to document their experience in combat, they need a team of editors and writers to help them out. And even then, why is the writing so awful? While the stories Kyle tells are interesting, it is overshadowed by the thought, “did he really write this?” But if that doesn’t bother you like it does me, pick up a copy of “American Sniper” before you see the movie!...
- When We Were on Fire: A Memoir of Consuming Faith, Tangled Love, and Starting Over, Addie Zierman
  September 24, 20192014 / Book ReviewsI think we’ve all been there: you spent too much time reading a book that you had so much hope for but didn’t really care for in the end. Well, while I was browsing Facebook one afternoon, I stumbled upon a blog written by Mrs. Zierman called, “How to Talk to an Evangelical” (http://addiezierman.com). This led me to her book, “When We Were on Fire” with that crazy long subtitle. It was only 7 dollars on Amazon, so I thought why not? The book is just as it says: a memoir of this lady’s life. It starts out as a person reminiscing about a typical 1990’s evangelical childhood, one that I can fully sympathize with: See You at the Pole Rally, Awana, Psalty that big blue Bible that sang songs, etc. She makes a few good points early on: how commercial Evangelicalism has become (or was), how you could order everything out of a Bible book store catalog among other things. But there was always a sense of cynicism towards Christianity in her thoughts: for example, at the beginning of each chapter there is a definition of an Evangelical term that is brutally misrepresented, like “born again” which traces itself back to John 3, and is not typically Evangelical but Biblical. As her life moves on, she talks about a love affair with a “missionary” boy, a boy (notice: not man) who wants her to be spiritual as “spiritual” as he is. She deals with again, some good points: the fact that sometimes people want to be seen as hyper-spiritual, even legalistic, when they are not authentic. After getting married to a man in college, she begins a downward slide into alcoholism and depression but returns to a “normal” life after months of therapy and begins to attend Church again after a long departure. Somethings I disagree with: 1) The consistent erroneous ecclesiology. Throughout the book, the Church is displayed in a negative light, most often from the hypocritical people inside the Church. She displays modern Evangelicals as consuming, hyper-spiritual, cliche Bible-thumpers who don’t care about people (in certain circles at least). Her view of the Church seems to have an emphasis on receiving. In one section, she says, “When the pastor begins his sermon, I page through the church bulletin, trying to get a sense of the church’s ministries. The flow of its resources and attention. I am looking, specifically, for what they have to offer us: Married, in our early twenties, without kids. I am looking for a kind of instant community. A kind of magic. I am looking for Our People- the ones who will become our dearest friends. The ones who will get us immediately the second we meet.” Obviously, this is the wrong motive of pursuing Church. Yes, community is essential to the Christian life. Yes, the Church does offer people all those things and more. But don’t for a second think that the primary purpose of the Church is to serve you. Equally as important is that you serve the Church. Notice there was no emphasis on the teaching, just what programs and ministries can serve you. Does that seem inconsistent? 2) The Church is two-fold. Firstly, it is the universal body of believers, those who are in Christ, who are brought into the kingdom of God and who live like brothers and sisters in that body. Secondly, the Church is the local body of believers that engage in community and fellowship. True, the Church doesn’t always have to be in a “building” per say, but the idea that the body of Christ is more important than the Church is not accurate: they are both important. The idea one gets when reading through some of the things Mr. Zierman thinks about the Church displays, again, a false eccelisiology: “‘But we are the Church,’ Andrew said. This is one of his favorite biblical truths, this idea of church as a moveable feast, an ever-present community-church not as a place you go to, with walls and crosses and long rows of pews, but as something that happens spontaneously when two or three Christians are gathered together in one location.” If that was true, then why go to Church at all when you can just meet with believers outside of the institution? Jesus said “Love your wife as I have loved the Church,” therefore it is important and we should note the distinction of the two. 3) At the end, she finds a Church to her liking. She describes it: “At Grace Community Church, they are raising money to start a counseling center, so they can help those who cannot afford therapy get to the bottom of their bottomless darkness… They are building wells so that clean water flows from the dry, cracked earth. They are providing oil changes to single mothers, free of charge. They are looking at the world that is shifting, these people in this church. They are clunking along the best they can, trying their damnedest to shift alongside it.” This description is void of things that should be more primary: how is the teaching? What small groups are available? What doctrinal positions do they hold to? This brings me to my next point: While I think books like Amos detail the horrors of when Israel failed to be socially minded, on the flip-side, when the Church is only socially minded, it will never represent the true Gospel. The social Gospel is noble: feeding the homeless, being active in the community, all things that I am 100% for. But when we bypass doctrine and theology for love, we miss an essential part of the Gospel. Dr. John MacArthur said, “We all know how young people are interested in social justice, and how Christianity…even evangelical Christianity non-Charismatic has turned away from the gospel. Why has it turned away from the gospel? If you go to a place that’s been through a difficult time, you go to New Orleans after a hurricane, or whatever, and you start reaching out to people, if you go and sit them down and say, “Let me tell you why you need to come to Jesus Christ because you’re a sinner,” and you go through the gospel. What kind of reception are you going to get? You’ll probably going to run out of the house, it’s going to be very difficult, people aren’t going to buy in. But show up with food, show up with clothes, they will love you. They will embrace you and say you’re doing this in the name of Jesus. That kind of stuff is easy.” I could say more but I think that is enough. Most disappointing for me, was the book went through this long process to describe how heartbreaking the Church was for this woman and in the end, it didn’t seem like anything was better. It seemed like there was still bitterness for past hurts and not enough emphasis on what is truly important in the Church....

The Cross of Christ

Washington: A Life

Strange Fire: The Danger of Offending the Holy Spirit with Counterfeit Worship

When We Were on Fire: A Memoir of Consuming Faith, Tangled Love, and Starting Over

Starship Troopers

Mao: The Unknown Story

Refugee (Star Wars: Force Heretic, #2)

The Story of Christianity, Vol II: The Reformation to the Present

The Lord of The Rings: Fellowship of the Ring

The Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers

The Courage to Be Protestant: Truth-Lovers, Marketers, and Emergents in the Postmodern World

The Lord of the Rings, Return of the King

Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from its Cultural Captivity

The Japanese and Christianity: Why is Christianity not widely believed in Japan?

First to Fight: An Inside View of the U.S. Marine Corps

Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Black Hawk Down

Rainbow 6

Why We’re Not Emergent (By Two Guys Who Should Be)

The Last Stand Of Fox Company: A True Story Of U.S. Marines In Combat

Without Remorse

John Macarthur: Minister of the Flock

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

I Heard My Country Calling: a Memoir

Animal Farm

1984

Fight Club

Mission at Nuremberg: An American Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis

The Lion’s Gate: On the Front Lines of the Six Days War

The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames

The Dead and Those About to Die: D-Day: The Big Red One at Omaha Beach

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Daniel Commentary

Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller

The Life of the Automobile: The Complete History of the Motor Car

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

American Sniper: The Autobiography of the Most Lethal Sniper in U.S. Military History

No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission that Killed Osama Bin Laden

Level Zero Heroes: The Story of U.S. Marine Special Operations in Bala Murghab, Afghanistan

A Christmas Carol

The Giver

The Aviators: Eddie Rickenbacker, Jimmy Doolittle, Charles Lindbergh, and the Epic Age of Flight

Visions Of America: A History Of The United States

Debt of Honor

The Hobbit

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

My Men Are My Heroes: The Brad Kasal Story

The Last Battle: When U.S. and German Soldiers Joined Forces in the Waning Hours of World War II in Europe

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning

Justin

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