Casual Book Reviews

from the fake librarian

You might have guessed this, but I read a lot of books. Like a lot. I am not ashamed to say that most are fiction, and most of the fiction I read is science fiction or fantasy, but about a third tend to be non-fiction. Of those, most are books on the Christian faith, theology, and adjacent topics. (I reserve the right—nay, I assert the inevitability that I will change these proportions. Frequently.)

I enjoy talking and reading about books almost as much as I enjoy reading the books themselves. So, as you might imagine, if you’re a book person, I have Book Friends. Before BookTok and Goodreads there were Book Friends.

I have one Book Friend in particular who has a near-perfect record of recommending books I’ll love. I can think of one book in over a decade of Book Friendship that he recommended that I only sort of liked. In addition to flawless taste in fiction, he’s a great writer, so whenever he recs a book, I say “Blurb it for me!” (I don’t have to ask, but it’s a ritual now.) And blurb he does. He does a great job of telling me enough about a book that I can decide if it’s what I want to read right now.

I don’t have quite the skill he does—I tend to use 20 words where 5 will do (but I’m working on it)—but since I recommend books all the time, and I value a rec from a friend over any official reviews, I’m going to give it a shot. My intent here is to talk about books on faith, primarily, but who knows. When it comes to books, I am a creature of chaos.

A few caveats

• I am not a real librarian. It’s right there in the name.

• I am not trying to write formal book reviews—this is intended to be me recommending (or not recommending) a book like I would to a friend, if I gave my friends book recs in the format of a book report.

Well, dear reader, I do. 

• Though you may or may not have found me this way, I’m writing with a particular group of people in mind as we do our weird little Bible study over at Caroline Dooner’s “Problematic” Substack. That said, I hope that this will be of use to folks that find me organically too. Surprisingly, it seems like there are some! 

• If I feel like a book has already been discussed to death, or if somebody already had a similar take (and I’ve seen it), I’m much more likely to recommend a couple articles about it than give my own review. If I have something to say that I haven’t seen someone else saying and I think it might be of use to folks, I might write about it.

• I choose what to read based on the rabbit trails I’m following at the time, what sounds interesting to me, if it was recommended by someone who has given me trusted recs before or whose writing I also admire, and whose opinions I respect. Sometimes a book just catches my attention and I don’t know why. I DNF (“do/did not finish” in Book Speak) lots of duds, and plenty that are certainly not. I also frequently return to a book I thought was a dud, but which I was just reading at the wrong time for me. 

• I’m not an expert, I just read a lot. Though I think my discernment is pretty developed, my opinions should be taken with a grain of salt. My opinions don’t represent my church, or my employer, my Book Friends (or my Book Mom, my very first Book Friend), or anything like that. I’ll be wrong sometimes. If I realize I’m wrong, I’ll try to make it right.

Carrying on

The primary purpose of this little announcement purpose is to link for context whenever I do these friendly recommendations or reviews, but if you’re reading this first, keep your eyes on your inbox for my take on Death to Deconstruction by Josh S. Porter in the next few days. I have a lot of feelings about it and I think that’s worth a write up. 

Feel free to comment with relevant book recommendations, either here or on the reviews themselves. I’m always excited to find a new Book Friend!

A Closing Prayer

Dear God,

Thank you for books. Thank you for making people who write books about you (and also about space, and dragons, and regency era ladies, and quitting dieting) and also Jane Austen in particular. I love you more than books. And that’s a LOT.

In Jesus name,

Amen