Books

Books Uncommon and Offbeat

Short Reviews of Jesus, The Middle Eastern Storyteller, Miss Betsey, and The Sleepy Little Alphabet.

Jesus, The Middle Eastern Storyteller Gary Burge

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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Miss Betsey: A Memoir of Marriage Eugene D. Genovese

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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The Sleepy Little Alphabet: A Bedtime Story from Alphabet Town Judy Sierra and Melissa Sweet

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.

Also in this issue

The CT archives are a rich treasure of biblical wisdom and insight from our past. Some things we would say differently today, and some stances we've changed. But overall, we're amazed at how relevant so much of this content is. We trust that you'll find it a helpful resource.

Cover Story

The Case for Early Marriage

Mark Regnerus

Cover Story

With Parents' Help

David Gushee

Cover Story

The Waiting Game

Christine A. Colón

Cover Story

An Ocean of Sorrow

Read Mercer Schuchardt

The Purpose-Driven Job Hunter

Interview by John R. Throop

News

Career Counseling in Church

Michael W. Michelsen Jr.

Review

CDs on The List

Why Churchless Christianity Doesn't Work

Interview by Katie Galli

Three Gifts for Hard Times

William J. Stuntz

Readers Write

Here We Are to Worship

Brad Harper and Paul Louis Metzger

Review

New Music: Two for the Soul

Mark Moring

Review

Putting Worldview in Its Place

Eric Miller

Feeding Hope Under a Rogue Regime

Tim Stafford in Pyongyang

The Only 'Christian Nation'

John Calvin with Knox Bucer-Beza

Our Life with God

Compiled by Richard A. Kauffman

Editorial

Mega-mirror

A Christianity Today Editorial

My Top 5 Books on Loss

Nancy Guthrie

Review

Is Self-Deception Always Bad?

Michael McGowan

Reasoning Together

Restless, Reformed, and Single

Sarah Pulliam

News

Q & A: Robert Duncan

George Conger

Power Pentecostalisms

Milton Acosta

News

What's in a Name?

Susan Wunderink

Matter Matters

News

Friend or Foe?

Sarah Pulliam

News

Go Figure

We Need Health-Care Reform

News

School's Out Forever

C. L. Lopez

News

Quotation Marks

News

One in the Spirit

Alicia Cohn

News

News Briefs: August 01, 2009

News

Let It Snow

Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra

News

Passages

News

The Workers Are Few

Bobby Ross Jr.

News

Desert Deaths

View issue

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Excerpt

Sorting out Truth and Lies After Divorce

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An excerpt from This Was Never the Plan: Walking With God Through the Heartache of Divorce.

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