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I just finished Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller.

It is an excellent book.

People told me fore the last several years that I “had” to read it, because they know that I “like to read, and they don’t so if they read it, it must be good, and it totally changed their life”. That is precisely why I did not read it. When there is a ton of hype of about something, I tend to not be very interested in it, because if it’s attracting the masses who don’t normally like that kind of thing…that could mean it’s not that good. I’ve done the same thing with The Shack (which I plan to read this year), and The Twilight Saga (which I plan to read if there is a gun to my head). Anyway.

Blue Like Jazz wasn’t my first Miller book. “A Million Miles In A Thousand Years” was. Also a good book. I read that because he was coming to our church on his book tour for it, and I decided I wanted to hear him speak and if I was going to hear him speak, I should know a little bit about what he was going to speak about. I loved the book and was sold on the guy.

Blue Like Jazz was Miller’s breakout book. It is, as he himself says, about Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality. And most of the thoughts he shares are fairly nonreligious (Good job Don…(I call him Don because we have a picture together)).

What I loved most about it is that it is honest. There is not a whole lot of that in christian writing. There is a lot of “How you can be a better Christian”, “Use this formula to be joyful in Christ”, and things like that. But Miller makes it a point to show how he came about doing those things. And that he still struggles with it constantly. That is my kind of guy.

I am also a big fan of the way he writes. It’s very “train of thought” like. I actually know a few people who don’t like his writing because of that. But when I am thinking…I’m thinking in my train of thought. I like to read that way (I also like to write that way, in case you didn’t notice).

Here are some of the topics he covers:

Magic

Faith

gods

Church

Romance

Community

He uses a lot of stories from his sometimes cooky past to illustrate what God taught him about those, and other things, and where that has put him today, and how God is still changing how he feels about some of those things.

Those are just a few. Head over to your favorite bookstore or your local library and pick this book up, it is well worth the read.

The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose

I got this book on Saturday, and finished it earlier today. I could not put this thing down. I decided that since I like to read a lot, I may as well start to review the books I read here for any curious book seekers.

I think what I liked best about this book is how Roose does an incredible job of being open minded in his unfamiliar setting. As a Sophomore at Brown University, Kevin Roose takes off  to study abroad at the famous (or infamous, depending on who you are) Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia for a semester, so that he can gain an understanding of a culture he knows very little about, young evangelical Christians.

Although Roose was ‘raised as a Quaker, he has never identified himself as a Christian, and saw them a ultra-conservative, homophobic, closed minded, and prudish. During his time at Liberty University, he does encounter some of these things, but for the most part, his stereotypes are challenged if not shattered.

From an almost relationship with a Liberty girl, to some personal time spent with Dr. Jerry Falwell (that results in very mixed feelings about the man he is publicly vs. the man he is privately) just before his 2007 death, he will help you understand the God Gap that this generation is experiencing from the very inside of the ‘Ultra-Conservative Right Wing Evangelical’ training ground.

Though the book is 315 pages, it is a pretty easy read, and I would give it a strong recommendation to anyone from the right wing conservatives he set out to understand to those athiests who hope Jerry Falwell is in a hell they refuse to admit exists.

5 out of 5 stars.