Here we are in the home stretch of iMonk’s Black Friday specials, hoping to keep you home from the madness that begins in just a few hours. (By the way, yes, I will be a part of the madness starting at midnight at my Target. If you come to see me, stay in line. Don’t make my use my cattle prod … )

I thought we would conclude with some items you really ought to give strong consideration to buying for you or someone you want to give a nice, well-thought-out, meaningful gift to. (And if you need my address, just let me know! By the way, when shopping for clothes for me, I wear size mammoth-petite.)

Let’s start with …

The Kindle Fire. If you don’t already have a Kindle and you want to primarily read books, get the new $79 Kindle. It’s all you need in the most ergonomic package yet for an e-reader. But if you want to also use your device to watch movies and TV shows, read magazines (in full color), play games and surf the web, then you want the Fire. I’ve been playing with one at work for two weeks now and it is all it promises to be. Smaller, lighter and much less expensive than the iPad. Hours of fun for the whole family! Watch stains fade before your eyes! (Sorry. Got carried away again …)

Victorinox Swiss Army SwissChamp XAVT. I guess those who serve in the Swiss Army have much bigger pockets than other armies. This bad boy has 80 tools available for those strong enough to carry it. Hopefully one is needle and thread to resew your pocket seams. Oh, but I would love one of these. Why? Why not?

Hawaii Five-O – The Complete First Season. Does it get any better than this? Hawaiian setting. Bad guys always losing. Trying to not stereotype native Hawaiians but not quite doing so. Jack Lord’s hair never moving no matter how many bullets fly or how strong the wind blows. Gotta love this. Book ‘em, Danno …

MLB Cincinnati Reds Heritage Banner.  What better way to show off your devotion to the official baseball team of the InternetMonk than this banner to hang in your entryway? Unless it is with the MLB Cincinnati Reds Protoast. Seriously, I cannot make this stuff up. (And yes, I would use this every single day of my life if I had one.)

Ok. I hope our tips have been helpful for you. Let the massive buying begin. Be careful if you venture out at midnight (especially in my store!). Don’t break anything, iMonks.

We’ll start with an honorable mention. O Holy Night by Sara Groves is a sparse, simple presentation of songs you already know. What you don’t know is how refreshing they sound as sung by one of my favorite artists. Sara Groves sings as if she is sitting in your living room having a pleasant conversation with you, her friend. Get this and listen with a cup of hot chocolate (with marshmallows, of course).

Now to the three you must must must have.

A Charlie Brown Christmas by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. Delightful is not quite the right word to describe this, but it will have to do. A delightful trip back in time to when you were a child and looked forward to watching Charlie Brown pick out a skimpy tree, Snoopy decorating his doghouse (and winning a blue ribbon), and Linus’ clear presentation of the Gospel. They just don’t make them like this anymore.

Christmas Portrait by the Carpenters. Every song on this album is perfect. If this doesn’t put you in the Christmas spirit, you need to see your doctor. Or undertaker. If the only song you listen to is Ava Maria, it would be worth the cost.

The Bells of Dublin by the Chieftains. This is an album I listen to year-round. I don’t restrict it to just Christmas. The Chieftains are a traditional Irish band that takes any song and makes it unique. Sometime listen to Roger Daltrey sing Behind Blue Eyes with the Chieftains. Or Be Thou My Vision with Van Morrison and the Chieftains. But right now, get Bells of Dublin. Listen to Jackson Browne sing The Rebel Jesus. Ricki Lee Jones croon O Holy Night. And the Chieftains perform some traditional Irish Christmas tunes. I’ll go out on a limb and say you will find yourself listening to Bells of Dublin in April and August as well as December.

More specials to come. Check back often! And give me another helping of that sweet potato casserole, will you?

Today is Thanksgiving, which means tomorrow is the greatest of all consumeristic holidays, Black Friday. It’s such a great day to some that they can’t wait to celebrate. Your neighbors and friends will be out in force starting at midnight to get great deals on stuff they really don’t need, like toaster ovens, foot massagers and Hot Wheels sets. Well, ok, maybe they really do need the Hot Wheels. But most of the stuff they will shove and cuss and fight over to save a few bucks are things they wouldn’t give a second glance to in, say, April. We here at the iMonastery want to help save you time, frustration and just possibly a black eye or two with some gift suggestions you can buy from the comfort of your own Barcalounger. We’ll be sharing ideas throughout the day as you fade in and out of your tryptophan coma, so check back often. As always, if you click on the links provided, iMonk will receive a percentage of what you purchase.  Now, as the doors open, file in quietly and in order like good iMonks.

The Gospel Singer You Would Never Let Into Your Church

This is the first year in a long time I won’t be making my traditional Thanksgiving dish—cranberry and orange relish. It really is very good, but very few people like it. And that’s fine with me, because there is more left for me. Most would rather go for that gloppy stuff that comes out of a can (and still resembles the can) than a relish of fresh cranberries, naval oranges and a bit of sugar. The real stuff is too much for them.

Tom Waits is the real thing. And he is definitely not for everyone. Most prefer their music out of a can, gloppy and sugary. This goes for pop, country, “smooth” jazz or, yes, even Christian music. So when they encounter someone like Tom Waits, the reality is so jarring it makes most run back to, I don’t know, Rascal Flatts or Fleetwood Mac or Mercy Me. Something that really doesn’t make the listener face real life. Something that tastes almost, but not quite, totally unlike real cranberries.

Waits’ voice was described by music critic Daniel Durchholz as “sounding like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car.” I’ve described him as sounding like he swallowed an angry cat that is now clawing its way out of Waits’ throat. Tony Bennent he ain’t. But that’s what makes him so real. He records songs exactly the way he wants to. He makes instruments from things he finds in junkyards and records on old tape recorders that really should be in junkyards. On his latest album he sings a duet with Keith Richards. Waits’ voice is so raw he actually makes Keef sound good.

Oh, but he is real.

Waits sings about life as he sees it. His world is not pretty or safe. He doesn’t pull punches. Why use a nice word when three profanities will do the job so much better? But he is not just whining for whining’s sake. Right when you think things can’t any worse, God comes breaking through in his lyrics. Ben Myers explains it like this on his blog “Faith and Theology.”

In such songs, God bursts onto the stage not as a benevolent projection of our own wishes and desires, but as the one who overturns our expectations and shatters our projections of deity. God appears not as a supreme being who calmly “completes” and “perfects” nature, but as the one who interrupts nature in the apocalyptic newness of grace. Divine grace, for Waits, is thus a kind of unnatural incursion, a perversity, a disruption of the way things are. Grace interrupts, it shatters and strips things bare to the bone. And so Waits portrays grace in a way that is uncompromisingly – often shockingly – menacing and grotesque.

Tom Waits to me is the musical version of Flannery O’Connor. O’Connor’s novels and short stories were filled with weird, over-the-top, grotesque characters with whom God interacted in ways that make the reader grimace and say, “Oh, God could never be like that.” When asked why she made her characters into larger-than-life monsters, O’Connor said, “When the world is deaf, you have to shout to get its attention.” Waits has been shouting since the 1970s. Has he gotten your attention?

If you want a sampling of Tom Waits, I recommend three albums: Rain Dogs, Mule Variations, and his latest, Bad As Me.

Here is one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite groups, Over the Rhine. It will mean a lot more to you after listening to Tom Waits for a while. Enjoy.

By Chaplain Mike

“…his reply has been, “My grace is enough for you: for where there is weakness, my power is shown the more completely.” Therefore, I have cheerfully made up my mind to be proud of my weaknesses, because they mean a deeper experience of the power of Christ. I can even enjoy weaknesses, suffering, privations, persecutions and difficulties for Christ’s sake. For my very weakness makes me strong in him.

• 2Corinthians 12:9-10

For years, when I was a pastor, I avoided conferences. To me, they were the equivalent of motivational pep rallies combined with business seminars touting “cutting edge” success models. Plus, places to drop a lot of bucks on books. I told friends and leaders in my churches that I would be much more open to going to a conference of “regular pastors” — folks involved at street level in small to mid-size churches who weren’t there because they had the answers and solutions to all ministry questions and problems, but simply to share stories and ideas, to enjoy fellowship and pray for each other, to admit our weaknesses and to find hope in the God whose grace is sufficient.

That conference has been planned. It will be held April 14-16 in Lansdale, PA. I recommend it to you today. Here is a brief video about the “Epic Fail Pastors Conference,” with full information below.

Epic Fail Pastors Conference from Epic Fail Pastors Conference on Vimeo.

When: April 14th – 16th. Registration will start at 6 p.m. on Thursday, we will start at 7 p.m. We will be done at noon on the 16th.

Where: 3rd and Walnut Bar & Grill in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. Why? This site wasn’t originally a bar. It was a church. In fact, it was the first church established in the borough of Lansdale over 100 years ago. It failed. They shut its doors thirty years ago, it was then sold to the Elks Club and ten years ago, it was sold once again to a bar owner.

Cost: $79. This covers the cost of the conference. You are on your own for food and lodging.

ISN’T THIS A GREAT IDEA?

By Chaplain Mike

Just a note to encourage those of you in the New York City area, or who may want to travel to NYC for a good conference. The 2011 Mockingbird Conference, sponsored by our good friends over at the Mockingbird blog, will be held March 31-April 2 at St. George’s Church.

The theme of the conference is: “Grace for Today: Freedom in a Culture of Control.” One reason I’m keen to mention this is that Mark Galli will be the keynote speaker. We have featured discussions this week mentioning a few of Galli’s articles on the subject of Christians and “transformation.”

Click on the image to the right or here for full information and a registration form.

Allow me to relate two recent incidents as a way of introduction to this book review. The first was on a recent Sunday morning in a church associated with a popular Christian movement (they do not want to be called a “denomination”) located in the midwest. The man who preached is a well-known missionary, a man who has been on the side of Christ for more than 40 years. His message that morning was taken from Luke 15, the story we know as the Prodigal Son. The missionary made it through his sermon without once mentioning the name of Jesus. Not one time. Oh, and the message he shared from this parable was that there are three levels of maturity we all must pass through in order to be of useful service to God.

The second incident was also recent, also in the midwest as I was visiting family. A woman asked me if I knew of any DVD series that used New Testament characters to teach positive character traits. Another woman, a teacher in a Christian school, needed it for her middle school classes. I said, “No, I don’t know of any.” Then I continued, “And that would be the wrong use of Scripture.”

“What do you mean?”

“Scripture is given to us for one reason only,” I said. “And that is to reveal Jesus to us. If you want to teach positive character traits, try a book like Mickey Mantle’s The Quality Of Courage. That’s much better to use to teach that kind of thing.”

As you can tell, I am not always a hit at family gatherings.

Both of these situations, along with many others I could relate but won’t, tell me that Jesus may need to mount a PR campaign just to be remembered by his own followers. How is it that we who call our selves “little Christs” can so quickly forget Jesus? Why is it that we talk about everything else but Jesus when we are together?

Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola have teamed up to write Jesus Manifesto: Restoring the Supremacy and Sovereignty of Jesus Christ. It is meant to draw the reader’s focus back to the center, back to Jesus himself.

“Who do you say that I am?” is the question required of every generation, and every generation must answer it for itself…Unfortunately, “Who do you say that I am?” is no longer the only question. “What are you doing to bring in the kingdom of God?” is now an equally asked question, as is “What are you doing for justice?” and “In what causes are you engaged?” Or “What are you doing to evangelize the world?” and “To whom are you accountable?” and “What’s your gift?” And especially, “What kind of leader are you?”

Yet Jesus quizzed Peter with one ultimate question, and only one. And that one decisive question is the same one He asks us today.

If you have trouble answering the question, “Who do you say that I am?” then this book is a great primer for you. And if you think you have a good handle on the answer, this book will show you insights into Jesus that just may cause you to rethink your answer.

The authors spend time showing how that Jesus is the central figure in all of Scripture, both Old and New Testaments. “Jesus Christ makes Scripture intelligible,” they write. “He is the key that unlocks the entire biblical canon.” When they speak of Jesus revealed in Genesis, it seems that read Chaplain Mike’s series on creation.

The book of Genesis further demonstrates the Scriptures’ preoccupation with Christ. Genesis 1 and 2 were never intended to be the battleground for the Creation-versus-evolution debate. They are rather an unveiling of Christ and His church. Jesus is the new Adam. The church is the new Eve. And the gospel of John is the new Genesis.

Sweet and Viola hold that the New Testament writers were “completely consumed with Christ.” They ask us to picture the three thousand new converts we read of in Acts 2. What would the apostles teach them? First, Sweet and Viola list some things that today’s churches would teach new converts, including:

• how to live a good, clean life
• the mark of the beast and end-times prophecy
• signs, wonders, and miracles
• divine healing
• how to live by faith
• how to save the lost
• Creation versus evolution
• leadership principles
• social justice
• prosperity
• spiritual warfare

They compare that with what John tells us was taught in the early church:

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life—the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us—that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ (1 John 1:1-3, NKJV).

Sweet and Viola spend a lot of time discussing the use of the Bible by those not focused on Jesus, by those whose eyes are on how they can live better lives.

[M]any Christians have turned the Bible into a form of the knowledge of good and evil. They approach the Bible as raw material by which they can gain control over their lives, so life can be more understandable and under control, less unnerving and unpredictable. This is a profoundly grievous misuse of the Bible. Jesus didn’t misuse the Scriptures to gain control and predictability in His own life. To Him, the Scriptures were simple the joystick on the Father’s controller. They were the instrument through which He got to know His Father better and to discover how to live out His mission.

This book will make a great companion to Michael Spencer’s Mere Churchianity. Both point to Jesus as the author and finisher of our faith, both point out the weaknesses of today’s Western church. For instance, Sweet and Viola say,

In times of crisis, the church doesn’t need rules established, laws passed, or wolves shot. She needs a seismic revelation of her Lord—the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form. Sadly, many of us today combat problems and erroneous teachings with laws, rules, religious duty–and the mother of all religious tools: guilt.

The authors do not fall into the trap so many preachers today succumb to, that is to try to exhort each of us to “try to be like Jesus.” Sweet and Viola say this is an impossible task, and only leads to frustration. The answer, they say, is to do as Jesus did. Jesus only did what he saw his Father do, only spoke what the Father gave him to say. We need to be filled with the presence of God, say the authors, and live out of that rather than trying our best to be someone we can never be: Jesus. This seems to allow the reader to breathe a sigh of relief.

Be aware that this book is written in “popular style,” by which I mean it is not a scholarly work, nor is intended to be. This is for the common man and woman, not the theologian looking for additional resource material for his doctorate. This is for the one who has gone to church most all of her life, has heard sermon after sermon telling her she needs to work harder to be like Jesus, has done the fill-in-the-blanks Bible studies about Jesus, but doesn’t really know Jesus at all. This is meant to whet her appetite for Jesus so that she will bypass all of the fast food and go for the real meal. Don’t get this book expecting to come away smarter. But if you read Jesus Manifesto, you may just come away changed.

Update: Frank Viola, a friend of the iMonk community, has a blog where you can discuss this book with him, as well as read interviews with him and Leonard Sweet. Check it out at here.

And as you did with the list of novels, please add to my list as you see fit. I am not saying these are the only non-fiction titles worth reading, or the only ones you should have in your library. These are my five favorites, and they are my favorites for various reasons. Your reasons will, of course, be different, so read accordingly.

So many books to read, so little time to read them.

Honorable Mention:

Education of a Wandering Man, Louis L’Amour.  Yes, you have read his westerns. Yes, you know that he can describe scenery as well or better than most anyone, but you also know that he gets really sloppy with his characters. (There is one book where he changes a person’s name in the middle of a paragraph.) Read this book and you will see just what a brilliant man L’Amour was. He had an innate curiosity about life, and set out to satisfy that curiosity through exploration and reading. Check out the lists of books he read each year in the back of this book. Pretty impressive.

Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage, Alfred Lansing.  You will read this and swear it is fiction, but it isn’t. Simply the greatest adventure story ever. Everyone I have given this to has had the same reaction: Is this really a true story? Short answer: Yes. Longer answer: You’ll have to read it for yourself. Cool fact: The three men who went over the glacier on South Georgia island (it had never been done before, simply because it was impossible) swore to the end of their days that there was a fourth man who was with them. Who was that fourth man?

The Quality of Courage: Heroes in and out of Baseball, Mickey Mantle and Robert Creamer.  Creamer was one of the best sportswriters in the 60s, and a marvelous ghostwriter. He helped Mickey Mantle, the Hall of Fame Yankee, craft a book that shines a light on those who display courage in various ways. This could have been a vanity book, quickly pulled together to take advantage of the Mick’s star quality. But this book really stands out in that it profiles people displaying courage in ways that you and I can relate to. And it starts off with a quote from Shakespeare: “Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never taste of death but once.”

A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts, Andrew Chaikin.  Simply the best book about man’s greatest achievement.

Ok, now let the arguing commence. Starting with the least and moving up to the greatest.

5.  Desert Solitaire, Edward Abbey.  ”I’d rather kill a man than a snake.” That pretty well sums up Abbey’s contempt toward modern man and what he has done to the desert. Abbey spent several summers working as a ranger at Arches National Park near Moab, Utah. This is his remembrance of those days, as well as his adventures in trying to find and rope a wild horse who does not want to be found or roped; his adventures on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon; and the horrifying story of a con man in the earlier part of the 20th century. Abbey is not a believer, but he will make you thank the Lord for the beautiful deserts he has made.

4.  Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Grace, Gordon Mackenzie.  Mackenzie was in the creative department for Hallmark Cards for thirty years to the day. In that time he came to realize that 1) corporations are like hairballs, and they will suck the life out of artists, and 2) artists cannot just drift along in space–they need to learn to orbit the hairball. This is a book that should be read often by artists who want to remain free of the hairball, and leaders who will want to keep their organization (or church) from becoming a hairball. Just look at the pages printed on yellow legal paper in the middle of the book. That is how a corporation (or church) should look and operate. Of course most don’t because it just makes too much sense. The final story in the book is worth the price of admission alone. This book could easily be my number three, or even number two, title on this list.

3.  The Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis. Yes, I know. Fiction, right? But it has such great teaching on every page, I read this as non-fiction. Don’t like this? Make up your own list. But just read this book, ok? It gives such great reasons for why we reject Christ and hold on to self-righteousness. The problem is, I see bits of myself in just about every ghost character. If you read this as fiction and try to find the plot and deal with character development, you will be greatly disappointed. If you will read this as some of the greatest teaching of apologetics ever written, you will come away amazed—and convicted.

2.  Between Noon and Three: Romance, Law, and the Outrage of Grace, Robert Capon.  No book save the Bible has changed my life more than this one. Having said that, heed this warning: Don’t read this book. Please, do not read it. You will just then spend your time writing about how evil I am to recommend a book that portrays an affair between a college professor and one of his adults students as a way to show God’s scandalous grace. It is scandalous—both this book and God’s grace. And this book, if you do ignore my warning and read it, will strip every vestige of religion from you. (If it doesn’t, you either didn’t read it well, or you need some serious help.) It is a book of grace that will not allow you to think that your goodness means anything to God. This is not an easy read—you will find you need to stop, pray, argue with the author, curse me out for recommending it in the  first place. (Yes, we are still planning a writers’ roundtable discussion of this book, but unless some writers get on the ball, we won’t need a roundtable—just a couple of TV trays…)

1.  Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis. Capon’s book changed my life, but Lewis laid the foundation for my life. Other than Scripture, Mere Christianity has shaped the way I believe more than anything I have ever read. Still , it amazes me how many people will say, “I started to read it, but I just didn’t understand it.” Really? Did you get a version written in English? You did? Then what is the problem? These were originally written as radio speeches Lewis delivered in England—to the common man, not intellectuals. Have we really gotten so stupid we can’t understand philosophy presented in a straightforward manner? This book is a great way to be sure you are building your spirituality on a sure foundation. Read it often—you will never plumb the depths of Lewis’s teaching.

Well, I look forward to your thoughts, and to hearing what books you would include on your list. As before, if you are interested in buying any of these books, please click on their links above and buy them from Amazon. It will help to support the iMonk community.

Whatever you like to read, just read.

“There never yet have been, nor are there now, too many good books.”
— Martin Luther

(By the way, each of these books are available by clicking on the links below and ordering through Amazon. When you do, you help support InternetMonk.com. Or you can also visit our resource center, iMonkPublishing. Thanks for your help!)

A couple of honorary mentions before we get to my top five. And, yes, I am going to cheat by lumping some books together as a series and calling them one book. Why? Well, why would you read only one book in a series? Besides, this is my list.

The entire Harry Potter series is fantastic. Yes, you can see the Gospel clearly if you are looking for it. Or you can settle for simply the issue of good vs. evil. The virtue of loyalty is on display in every book. Or you can simply read them to see how simple prose can be made to sing and soar. Jo Rowling does not waste a single word, at least not until she gets to books six and seven. And even those, while somewhat uneven compared to the rest of the series, are better than 99% of everything else you will find on store shelves these days.

Please put down your Twilight series books. If you want to read vampire lore and have already read Dracula five times, move on to The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. It is the search for Dracula who happens to be very much alive. The first time I read it I slept with the lights on for a night.

The other honorable mention is Edward Abbey’s Brave Cowboy. This was made into the movie Lonely are the Brave staring Kirk Douglas, who said it was his favorite role of all time. The hero is a cowboy who refuses to enter into the modern era. Set in the 1960s, Jack Burns refuses to accept modernity, instead holding onto the life of a roaming cowboy. I can’t tell you some deep lesson I learned from this (message books are, for the most part, poor reads. If you want to send a message, call Western Union. Great fiction relies on a great story, not trying to preach a message.), but the characters will stay with you for a long time.

Ok, now to the top five in reverse order:

5. Death Comes for the Archbishop (Virago Modern Classics)by Willa Cather. This is not what won her the Pulitizer (that was One Of Ours) or her most famous work (My Antonia). But I would say it is her best by far. The simple tale of the very real first bishop of the New Mexico territory, this is as relaxing and enjoyable a read as you will find. Definitely hammock material. Don’t go looking for some involved plot. It is more a series of vignettes strung together. If you want to read the real story of this bishop, you can check out Lamy of Santa Fe by Paul Horgan.

4. C.S. Lewis’s space trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength). Again, you cannot read just one of these books. And yes, you need to read them in order. Otherwise the character growth you see in Elwin Ransom doesn’t make sense. At first, Ransom was patterned after J.R.R. Tolkien. But by the end of the series, Lewis has in mind Charles Williams as his model for Ransom. Lewis was a huge fan of both space and time travel literature. He was not pleased with the first and third books in this trilogy, but he considered Perelandra one of his best efforts. Warning: I love the final book in the series above all, but I have never recommended it without that person coming back and saying “I don’t get it.” Just so you know.

3. Ok, I am going to break my little rule on a series of books. Karla’s Trilogy (John LeCarre’) is made up of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honourable Schoolboy; and Smiley’s People. Skip book two. It is long and pondering and laborious. The ending is not worth the work it will take to get you there. And it is not needed in the least for the other two books to take hold. That said, TTSS and Smiley’s People are the best spy novels ever written. Don’t bother debating that–just take my word for it. LeCarre’ spent time in the British Secret Service in the late 50s/early 60s. When he first read Ian Flemming’s James Bond books, he thought, “What a crock! This is nothing like real spy work.” So he set out to create the anti-Bond. George Smiley is one of my favorite literary characters. There are no fancy gadgets, no car chases, no beautiful babes. There is a lot of thinking, of reading of files, of putting two and two together to come up with “purple.” If you think it sounds boring, then go back to your Bond books. Or more likely, your Bond movies. If you want to enjoy a journey you will want to take again and again, get TTSS and Smiley’s People. I read each of these books once a year just because.

2. Back to Lewis. Chronicles of Narnia (Books 1 to 7), This is not children’s literature. Don’t let anyone fool you. It is some of the deepest theology you will ever tackle. You could read each of these books 20 times or more (as I have) and not get close to plumbing the depths. If you think, “I saw the movies. I don’t need to read the books,” then turn in your iMonk decoder ring as you leave. Get this series. Read them. Read them to your children. Read them to your grandchildren. There is not a bad book in the bunch, not even a good book. There are only levels of greatness. I personally think The Last Battle is 1) the best view of Heaven we will have on this side of life, and 2) perhaps Lewis’s greatest literary effort.

1. Susanna Clarke is a cookbook editor living in England. Her first–and to date, only–full-length novel was released in 2004, making it the newest book on this list. (The first Harry Potter book was released in 1999.) Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell is the history of English magic and the two men who restore it to England. Set in the early 1800s, it helps to know a bit about the Napoleonic wars going on in Europe at the time, but that is not a requirement. I don’t know much about Clarke other than her father was a Methodist pastor in England, but after reading this book at least four times, and listening to it on audio at least that many times, I am fully convinced she must be a believer. This is the most “Christian” novel I have ever read. (You will not find it in the Christian section of your local store. It is filed under science fiction/fantasy.) By the fourth paragraph I knew just what she was writing about. (“In short, he wondered why there was no more magic done in England.” Read that and tell me what she means.) Read this book, then let’s discuss just who Gilbert Norrell and Jonathan Strange each represent. And for bonus points, who is the Raven King?

Ok. There’s your list. Hit the library, or order online to have them delivered to your door. Yes, I know I left off this list your absolute favorite. But that’s what the comment section is for below.

Happy reading!

There. Nice, isn’t it?

We are happy to announce the opening of iMonkPublishing, a new part of the Internet Monk community. This is a place where you can buy books that we recommend or refer to in our essays. Or that commenters refer to. Or that we think you might like. Or books we think you should like if you really knew what was good for you.

We also are listing the books published by Electric Moon Publishing, the outfit that runs Internet Monk now. Most of these are fiction titles, and most are available only as eBooks, readable on the Amazon Kindle, iPod, iPad, iPhone, and other electronic devices that start with a lower case “i” and capital “P.” (For instance, check out Marshal Myers. Marshal is a 20 year old with cerebral palsy who speaks his books into existence with the assistance of a special software program. They are challenging fantasy books that take you into lands found only in Marshal’s fertile imagination. Great fun reading!)

And not just books. We will be reviewing and listing music and movies recommended by the iMonks. This is a great way for you to learn about some new tunes and new movies that are fun, encouraging and–dare I say it?–uplifting.

When you buy these and other books through iMonkPublishing, you are helping to fund the Internet Monk community. And, no, you do not pay more going through us than you would going directly to Amazon. It is always the same price.

What are you waiting for? There are books to be purchased and read. So many books, so little time. We have brought the bookstore to your laptop. The rest is up to you…

Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. (Ephesians 2: 7-9, The Message)

With August fast approaching, it’s time to get out those summer reading lists. I know you had your heart set on finishing Calvin’s Institutes and Adam Clarke’s entire commentary series, but might I recommend something a bit more attainable?

We have asked the Writers’ Roundtable to be prepared to discuss Robert Capon’s Between Noon and Three: Romance, Law, and the Outrage of Grace toward the end of August. This book was first recommended to me by Michael Spencer following one of our many discussions of grace. “You need to read this book,” said Michael. “But be very careful who sees you reading it. You could be branded a heretic.” Ok. He had my attention. Capon’s book went from “someday” to “right now.” And Michael was right—this is a very dangerous book.

So before I recommend that you buy and read Between Noon And Three, let me tell you why you might not want to do so.

The first part of this book is a parable written by Capon—a retired Episcopal priest, author, and chef—that describes a love affair between a college professor and one of his adult students. Capon tells you right up front that nothing bad will happen to them, that they don’t get caught, and they have a great time. One chapter in this parable goes into rather steamy detail about their great time. Later in the book, Capon tells another parable about one Mafia hit man being “offed” by other Mafia assassins. This, too, is described in detail, and is not easy or fun reading. Both of these parables are used to illustrate the book’s subject: grace. And, contrary to what you might think, Capon makes a good case for both parables.

If either or both of these illustrations strike you as the wrong sort of thing to use to show God’s great gift of grace, you are right. And that is exactly the reason Capon uses them. You are shocked into looking at grace in a whole new way. This book will shake you to the core of your beliefs. For me, it helped strip away the religion that had been lining the walls of my heart for so many years.

Take all of this into account before you commit to reading Between Noon And Three. Remember, this is not holy scripture. If you don’t want to read it, don’t. And if you start reading it and don’t like it, put it away. Give it away. Sell it used on Amazon. Just don’t yell at me if you are offended. You will be offended. If you aren’t, you really aren’t reading the book.

You have been warned.

But…if you will read this book with a heart open to hearing from God about his great gift, you may find as I did that your life is turned upside-down. Or, rather, turned right-side up. There is no book save Scripture itself and several books by Lewis that have changed my life more than Between Noon And Three.

I am taking time to suggest you read it now as I think you will get much more out of the Writers’ Roundtable August discussion of this title if you have read it. Our discussion is going to be just that—a discussion, not a review. We want you to be a part of it, not just a spectator.

Grace is a very dangerous thing. It means your total freedom, and that, too, is dangerous. Don’t approach this lightly. You may find yourself suddenly free to live in a way you have previously thought off-limits. Living in complete forgiveness can give you a lightheaded feeling that could result in spontaneous joy. You could begin to see the silliness of trying to be shaped by churchianity, just as Michael Spencer did. You could embrace Jesus-shaped spirituality. And if enough of us did that, imagine the damage that would done in this world.

Yes, reading and being changed by this book is a very dangerous thing indeed.

What are you waiting for?