Sunday, December 31, 2006

A List For The New Year

The New Year will be upon us soon!

While people are preparing themselves for the party of the year (I’m not so much for New Year’s partying… never was), I’ve been thinking about the past year and what lies ahead of me for the year to come.

At this point, I suppose I am supposed to launch in to some sentimental theme about the blessings that have come my way, and maybe talk about my (blessedly few) disappointments, as well.

Guess what, sports fans? Not doin’ it.

2006 was a great year for me and my family. 2007 looks even better. I hope all of you that read this feel the same. For those of you that cannot, I hope that the coming year will be better than the last.

Instead of tugging at your heart strings in these final few hours of the year, I will talk about books.

Listed below are some of the books I read this year. If you have any questions, or would like any commentary about any of them, let me know and I will be pleased to bore you to no end about them.

Novels:

1824: he Arkansas War: An alternate history of an America that wasn’t.

Coyote Rising: A science fiction novel of planetary colonization and imperialist oppression, by an author (Allen Steele) whose work I really enjoy (if you ant to look this guy up, start with a novel called Chronospace. It’s a good ‘un!)

The Protector’s War: S.M. Stirling is not only a gifted storyteller, but an amateur historian that never fails to use good, solid historical research in all of his novels.

At All Costs: The 14th (I think) novel in the Honor Harrington series of space operas. David Weber really delivers in this retelling of Napoleon’s “One Hundred Days” campaign. If you have ever read Forrester’s Horatio Hornblower novels… this series runs, more or less, parallel to them… except they are set in the far future, using interstellar, faster-than-light warships, instead of wooden ships powered by sails and the wind.

Act of Treason

Settling Accounts: The Grapple!



Non-Fiction:

Why Men Hate Going To Church: A discussion of why fewer and fewer men are active in their churches.

Violence, Society, and the Church


101 Reasons To Be Episcopalian: A little book of humor that speaks for itself. Lots of laughs… and I’m not even an Episcopalian.

Nelson’s Trafalgar:

Faith and Politics

God’s Politics

The Wounded Warrior

The Tender Warrior

Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America

Washington: The Indispensable Man

Theology for Liberal Presbyterians


No More Christian Nice Guy

Enough!

A Sailor of King George

A Voice from the Main Deck

Letters from the Battle of Waterloo
(Thank you, Janet, for this & the two, listed above)

On Being Lutheran

Left Behind in a Megachurch World: How God Works Through Ordinary Churches

The History of Christian Thought


Death by Suburb


The Gospel According To The World’s Greatest Superhero: A discussion of the messianic story of Jesus Christ, as told in the origin mythology of Superman.

Eastern Orthodox Christianity, A Western Perspective: I think that the title speaks for itself… an enjoyable read if you have any interest at all in the history of organized Christendom.

Are you still awake?

Good… hopefully, I haven’t bored you to the point of not being able to see Dick Clark wheeled out, like Brezhnev, to do 10 minutes of on-camera work for “New Years Rockin’ Eve!”
I have enjoyed my time spent blogging with all of you for the past eight months.

Thanks for taking the time.

God be with you.

Gunfighter

4 comments:

Tickledpink said...

Where did you get Losing the Race: Self-Sabotage in Black America from. Ive got a few books recently along the same lines but there usually not availible in United Kingdom.

I read a really good one called Hair Story which is amazing I dont know if youve heard of it.
Sam x

Gunfighter said...

Hiya Tickled! Happy New Year, mate.

You could probably find it via Amazon UK. The authors name is John McWhorter.

GF

Grimm said...

As a history buff, I would be interested in the 1824: The Arkansas War book.

May have to look that one up.

Hey, I was at work at midnight. No fun for me :(

Anonymous said...

Well, I have read exactly one of those "History of Christian Thought" for a college course of the same name. I never thought to keep track of everything I have read this year and I don't know if I could reconstruct it. That gives me an idea for a resolution. I will try to keep a reading journal this year and see how it goes.