Best Book This Year

I saw the ads for Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller when it first came out about 5 years ago but I had a lot of other books on my reading list back then so I never really tracked it down. This year I finally got around to reading it when I borrowed it from my friend, Melia. She's been the source of a lot of my good reading material this year, including her blog.

To be honest, Miller's writing style is not my favorite, but the value is in the way he presents his beliefs as something that makes sense even in the western postmodern world. In fact, I thought it was kind of like a combination of C. S. Lewis's little apologetic book that came out of his radio broadcasts and Rick Warren's how-to book, all translated into postmodern language.

Miller does seem to have the "love everybody and it'll all turn out OK" mentality that many writers and speakers subscribe to these days. I can't imagine how they can reconcile that with the bulk of ancient writings (old or new parts) that include discipline and expectations as well as love. It's a good push of the pendulum, but it's unbalanced and unworkable by itself.

Still, it's the best book I've read so far this year and it's a good bridge for us old "moderns" into the postmodern scene (or I guess you could say, "pms."). I've not had time to list it on my favorites on this page -- we're in the middle of giving and grading finals -- but you can search Amazon below and find it.