Top 5

It seems rather to be jumping the gun to write a top ten with four days left in the year, because who knows what I might yet read in that time? Thanks to Christmas, there is a pretty impressive stack growing on my nightstand... But I suppose this is about what I have read and not what I will be reading.

This was a strange year filled with non-fiction on various topics from Paul Revere to grief, and a lot of G.K. Chesterton. Perhaps strangest was that this year marks the fewest books I have ever read, so I apologize but I shall have to stick with five. I'm used to a larger pool, and it is a rare book that can really make a lasting impression. Or if you prefer to place the blame on the reviewer... I'm picky.

Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton: There might be better ways to start a year than reading Orthodoxy in a hammock in Brazil, but I haven't lived them yet. Essays on every topic under the sun written with a free and generous hand that somehow mixes profundity and hilarity in the perfect cocktail of Chestertonian delight. So good that I bought a lending copy because I never seemed to have mine on hand when I wanted it, which was practically all the time.
Keyword Search: "Nerd-vana"

The Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus: Despite initial images of Capital One commercials, this book was quite inspiring. In the short term, it made me want to buy a broadsword and go fight trees in the nearby woods; but in the long term, it actually provoked me into some pretty crazy and awesome life-changing experiences.
Keyword Search: "Fire"

The Soul of Science by Nancy Pearcey and Charles Thaxton: Context, grounds-conclusions, a whole portrait gallery of historical figures in all their glory, and yes, this was my beach read. But who couldn't use a little more understanding of the origins and historical progression of physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, and all of those wonderful things that fall under natural philosophy?
Keyword Search: "Comedy of Errors"

The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton: "Topsyturvydom" and a streak of flame red hair from start to finish. I always knew we were insane, but as usual, Chesterton makes us sane enough to appreciate the poetry of our own lunacy.
Keyword Search: "..."

A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller: A book about stories. Here's a man after my own heart... Who needs a book when our own lives are perpetually unfolding canvases of greater depth than any several hundred pages could convey? But then, the glory of fiction is that it is a training ground for finding the significance of reality, which is often harder to see.
Keyword Search: "Stranger Than Fiction"

Would've, Could've, Should've...:
The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill

Never Again:
Anything about sex education. I've ceased to care.

This has been "Top 5 with Christy." Tune in next time to hear Christy say... Perspicacious?