So Christmas has come and gone and the new year is just around the corner. Sounds like a good time to read a good book or watch a good movie!
Books
- The Philosopher and the Druids: A Journey Among the Ancient Celts by Philip Freeman — So I’d never heard of the Greek philosopher Posidonius until I came across this book. Apparently, he accurately calculated the earth’s circumference by reference to the star Canopus. In the first century B.C.E. He also made an epic, Lewis-and-Clark-like journey to distant and unknown Gaul in the west of Europe.
- A Misplaced Massacre: Struggling Over the Memory of Sand Creek by Ari Kelman — Last month I visited the Sand Creek Massacre National Historical Site near Eads, Colo. Kelman not only reviews the incident itself, he also chronicles the long story of the belated federal recognition of the site as a massacre.
- Documents Re: the Sand Creek Massacre — Continuing the Sand Creek theme, here’s a link to some historical documents related to Sand Creek. Sobering reading.
Here’s a list of titles I’m looking into in preparation for some church and non-profit consulting work this spring. They include titles by Tim Keller, Frank Viola, Ed Stetzer, Reggie McNeal and others: Slow Church, Center Church, The New Parish, The Missional Church, Reimagining Church, Church Unique, The Forgotten Ways, Comeback Church, The Great Giveaway, Missional Renaissance, Deep Church, Breaking the Missional Code. Hmm, it appears there is a theme here.
Movies
I’d like to recommend the movie Chef, with one qualification — there is a lot of “adult” language in it. Maybe it’s because my youngest has taken such an interest in cooking and in perhaps someday becoming a chef himself, but this dramedy about the cooking life was believable, at times excruciating, and at times winsome. I think it’s still available via Redbox.
Then, of course, there’s The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies, which we went to as a family. Entertaining, for sure, but it made me a little sad. Maybe because of the stuff that got left out or changed or rearranged. Or maybe because some of the animation looked weird (perhaps because it was made for 3D?). Mostly I was sad because it’s the end of the one-book-made-into-a-movie-trilogy.
