Books Uncommon and Offbeat
Short Reviews of Jesus, The Middle Eastern Storyteller, Miss Betsey, and The Sleepy Little Alphabet.
John Wilson, editor of Books & Culture | posted 8/24/2009 09:38AM
Wheaton College's Gary Burge is a master teacher. I know because he taught a series at our church, one of the best I've experienced in a lifetime of Sunday school lessons. The same qualities he displayed then—deep scholarly knowledge, humility, passion, wit, and clarity—are apparent in this book and its companion volume, The Bible and the Land. Superbly designed and illustrated as well as expertly written, they are accessible to new believers and to those curious about the roots of Christianity, but they also offer fresh insights to readers who have covered this ground many times before.
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This is the story of how a twice-divorced Marxist professor with working-class roots, one of the leading American historians of his generation, found happiness with a patrician young woman who became a superb scholar in her own right—and how the Hound of Heaven pursued them both and brought them into his family. We hear a lot of grim reports about marriage these days, and a lot of vapid cheerleading. This memoir is neither, and it brings good news. It would make a fine gift for a bookish young couple just starting a lifetime together, or an old pair looking back with gratitude.
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Our Lord is Alpha and Omega, and alongside apologetics texts and biographies and commentaries we need alphabet books. This is the best one my wife and I have encountered in a long while. Judy Sierra's rhyming text and Melissa Sweet's delightfully zany letters (in colors so rich I can almost taste them) will quickly win a place of honor on your shelf of kids' books. Warning: Be prepared to read it more than once every time you sit down with a child. (You'll soon know the words by heart.) And then a sweet little voice will ask, "Again?"
Copyright © 2009 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
Related Elsewhere:Jesus, The Middle Eastern Storyteller, Miss Betsey, and The Sleepy Little Alphabet are available at ChristianBook.com, Amazon.com, and other book retailers.
Other Bookmarks and reviews are in our books section.
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August 2009, Vol. 53, No. 8
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