Comments on: Top Recommended Books

By: Ronnica

Ronnica — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:33:25 +0000

@Dan: Yes, yes, it is.

@K-Lai: Longer books have never intimidated me…in fact, I seem to find that they’re some of the best!

By: K-Lai

K-Lai — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 01:20:22 +0000

The Visitation: The flashbacks were my favorite part too.
Sense and Sensibility: My thoughts exactly, except for the whole mother/daughter thing.
The Circle Trilogy: This was what got me hooked on Ted Dekker. It’s a fantastic tale!
The Space Trilogy: AWESOME. Way deeper than Narnia. Perelandra has so many great nuggets…I’d say even more than The Great Divorce or The Screwtape Letters.

I’d probably throw in The Count Of Monte Cristo (if people are willing to read through the 1100+ pages in the unabridged version).

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 22:52:07 +0000

Life of Pi is fantastic.

By: Ronnica

Ronnica — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:28:57 +0000

@Barry: The Man Who Was Thursday is definitely worth the read. I think you’ll still be able to hear Chesterton’s voice and ideas, but I greatly appreciate an author is able to teach their philosophy through fiction, and he does this very well.

@Britni: I hope you do…and I hope you like it!

By: Playful Professional

Playful Professional — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 02:24:56 +0000

I loved Sense and Sensbility and Ender’s Game and am really wanting to pick up the Circle triology one of these days. Thanks!

By: Barry Wallace

Barry Wallace — Sat, 30 May 2009 15:22:12 +0000

Thanks for the recommendations. I love Chesterton’s prose, but haven’t read “The Man Who Was Thursday.”

I’d recommend some books that I like, but most of them would be considered stuffy old theological books by most, so I’ll pass on that (for now).

By: OneMom

OneMom — Sat, 30 May 2009 04:31:28 +0000

Even farther in the shadows is a wonderful trilogy by Calvin Miller: The Singreale Triology. I first read these probably 15 years ago. I walked into a Christian bookstore in Grand Rapids and asked the store manager (a friend of mine) for something fun to read … something that didn’t require my taking notes or a need for any accompanying commentary. He sent me home with The Singreale Trilogy. That was a Friday evening. By Saturday afternoon I finished the third book and felt so sad the story was over. My husband likes me to read to him, and these are his favorites for me to read aloud.

By: Ronnica

Ronnica — Sat, 30 May 2009 02:51:44 +0000

@Kristina: I stopped in college, too, for the most part, but I really picked back up these last couple of years. Even when I was in school I couldn’t get enough learnin’ in.

@Liz: Oh, it’s good stuff. I hate to hype it though, because that always seems to make it disappointing. Though, I DO think you’d like Sense and Sensibility. As far as the Christian fiction goes, I’ll just say here that I think the title “Christian” is often used as an excuse to publish lower quality books that often have a trite, cursory view of the Christian faith. I’m well aware that not all Christian fiction is like this, but in my opinion, it’s to our shame as Christians that we do this. I hope to write soon about what I dislike about the use of the word “Christian”… Remind me if I don’t, will ya?

@Lady Fi: You mention some potentially interesting reads, and then you had to mention The Road, one of my least favorite reads of the past year. I don’t have much patience for an author who bucks grammatical conventions (if you can’t say what you want to say using words, then maybe you’re not doing it very well), nor do I like the hopeless view of the world he paints. Sorry, a bit of a soapbox of mine. Just don’t ask me about The Notebook…(the movie)

@Rebecca: Great! I’m glad this list is of some use!

@Jenny: Many of my favorites have been favorites for a while. I think that your first taste of a great author, for example, is something you can’t forget.

By: Jenny

Jenny — Sat, 30 May 2009 01:49:34 +0000

I’m not a big fiction reader- but I have a few titles that have stayed as favorites since I was a teen. Hinds Feet on High Places is one. It’s a must read if you have not read it yet! (And yes, it sort of falls into the Christian fiction genre that can mostly be avoided due to lack of actual content, but it really ministered to me during the time when I read it.)

By: debbie

debbie — Fri, 29 May 2009 22:54:55 +0000

I so loved Life of Pi and Thousand Splendid Suns. I just love books. I did a post on this not too long ago myself.