Oct 3rd, 2025 - Quiet Contemplation and Study (and September Stats!)
Happy October! We made it!
Something that I didn't expect when I started this blog three whole weeks ago (Can you believe it? I can't) was that my posts were going to theme themselves so neatly. I normally have anywhere from two to ten books going at any point in time, so what I finish and when has never seemed particularly organized. Sure, I'll get into moods where all I want to read are retellings of a specific fairy tale or hard science fiction, but those moods normally last months and don't lend themselves to three weeks of three very different kinds of book reviews.
This week appears to have been an exclusively nonfiction week. Who knew?
Author: John Eldredge
Genres: Nonfiction, Christianity, Self-Help
Star Rating: 4.75 stars
Review Type: Recommended to me
My Tags: nonfiction, favorites
Synopsis*
We live in soul-scorching times. The 24-7 onslaught of contemporary life--with its never-ending feed of global tragedies and shrieking demands for our attention, to say nothing of the ordinary pressures of work, family, friends, and community--has left us ragged, wrung-out, and emptied. But if we already have no margin in our lives, how do we find room to change things?
In his life-changing new book, John Eldredge distills a lifetime's wisdom about healing into a series of practical, ready-to-implement practices for putting yourself back together. These simple steps will enable you to begin recovery, help you focus on what matters most, disengage from the tragedies of this broken world, and discover the restorative power of beauty.
In his life-changing new book, John Eldredge distills a lifetime's wisdom about healing into a series of practical, ready-to-implement practices for putting yourself back together. These simple steps will enable you to begin recovery, help you focus on what matters most, disengage from the tragedies of this broken world, and discover the restorative power of beauty.
My Review
This was exactly what I needed right now.
This book was recommended to me by a counselor about two years ago, and I dutifully put it on my To Be Read list (TBR) and promptly forgot about it. Then I was scrolling through my nonfiction TBR trying to find a book to read that also had an audiobook copy available on Libby (a strangely challenging quest), and this book popped back up down at the bottom of my nonfiction TBR. It seemed like it'd be helpful, so I gave it a try.It ended up being just what I needed.
I have OCD, and that means that self-help is a hard genre for me. Most of the time, authors try so hard to convince you that you need to make the changes they suggest that the argumentation goes along the lines of, "if you're not doing it exactly like this, you're failing! Make drastic changes now!" and that's just not helpful if your brain likes to turn everything around you into life-or-death dichotomies where not being perfect feels like it'll actually kill you. To my delight, this book didn't do that. John acknowledges that people's lives go at different paces and that change starts small. He encourages his readers to try his practices without shaming them for not dropping everything and doing what he says, and he gives permission to go slow as you figure out what you're doing. It helps that his techniques are so simple and easy to start with that it doesn't feel daunting to give his advice a try. Also, his advice just seems to be genuinely good advice, and I've already seen the positive practical benefits in my relationship with God from trying the things he recommends. I didn't necessarily agree with some of his premises when he argued for the different practices, but I've found all of the practices so far to be good, beneficial things to incorporate into your life as you seek to have closer relationships with God.
If you learn well through audio, then I do recommend listening to the audiobook if you can get your hands on it. It's read by the author, and he adds extra bonus content podcast-style that I found beneficial and interesting.
I'd recommend this book for: People who are looking to pause, slow down, and reconnect with God in practical, simple ways.
Find this book on GoodReads and StoryGraph
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Author: Craig L. Bloomberg
Genres: Nonfiction, Christian, Theology
My Star Rating: 4 Stars
Review Type: Recommended to me
My Tags: nonfiction
Synopsis*
Challenges to the reliability of Scripture are perennial and have frequently been addressed. However, some of these challenges are noticeably more common today, and the topic is currently of particular interest among evangelicals.
In this volume, highly regarded biblical scholar Craig Blomberg offers an accessible and nuanced argument for the Bible's reliability in response to the extreme views about Scripture and its authority articulated by both sides of the debate. He believes that a careful analysis of the relevant evidence shows we have reason to be more confident in the Bible than ever before. As he traces his own academic and spiritual journey, Blomberg sketches out the case for confidence in the Bible in spite of various challenges to the trustworthiness of Scripture, offering a positive, informed, and defensible approach.
In this volume, highly regarded biblical scholar Craig Blomberg offers an accessible and nuanced argument for the Bible's reliability in response to the extreme views about Scripture and its authority articulated by both sides of the debate. He believes that a careful analysis of the relevant evidence shows we have reason to be more confident in the Bible than ever before. As he traces his own academic and spiritual journey, Blomberg sketches out the case for confidence in the Bible in spite of various challenges to the trustworthiness of Scripture, offering a positive, informed, and defensible approach.
My Review
...Ok, I'll be honest. I did not have high expectations for this book. Some books you read because you want to read them, and other books you read because someone with the power of professorship hands them to you and says, "read this for a grade" and you do it.
I'll let you guess which category this book fell into.
Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised. While I learned very little new information, I appreciated the depths of study put into each chapter, and the chapters that touched on subjects I was more intimately familiar with (like the translation chapter) were so accurate that my trust grew for Bloomberg's overall arguments. I also appreciated the way he structured his information so that each topic flowed together into a coherent narrative about why the Bible is still trustworthy in the modern era. This is a solid read if you want something academic but approachable on the Bible's reliability as a source of ultimate truth.
That being said, in many ways this is a book written to Christians and so may not be quite as accessible to someone who isn't already part of the faith. Bloomberg regularly addresses not just the people who question or discredit the Bible's reliability but also other Christians who have tried to counter those skeptical or hostile arguments by taking the pendulum swinging all the way the other direction. I found his arguments interesting and helpful, but I'm also aware of the issues and have already spent time thinking through various positions to find out where I stand. If you're just starting out for the first time, those critiques may not be helpful and may be actively confusing. There were also a few times where Bloomberg seemed to be addressing people who had personally attacked him in the past, and sometimes he was better about being charitable than others.
I'll let you guess which category this book fell into.
Honestly, I was pleasantly surprised. While I learned very little new information, I appreciated the depths of study put into each chapter, and the chapters that touched on subjects I was more intimately familiar with (like the translation chapter) were so accurate that my trust grew for Bloomberg's overall arguments. I also appreciated the way he structured his information so that each topic flowed together into a coherent narrative about why the Bible is still trustworthy in the modern era. This is a solid read if you want something academic but approachable on the Bible's reliability as a source of ultimate truth.
That being said, in many ways this is a book written to Christians and so may not be quite as accessible to someone who isn't already part of the faith. Bloomberg regularly addresses not just the people who question or discredit the Bible's reliability but also other Christians who have tried to counter those skeptical or hostile arguments by taking the pendulum swinging all the way the other direction. I found his arguments interesting and helpful, but I'm also aware of the issues and have already spent time thinking through various positions to find out where I stand. If you're just starting out for the first time, those critiques may not be helpful and may be actively confusing. There were also a few times where Bloomberg seemed to be addressing people who had personally attacked him in the past, and sometimes he was better about being charitable than others.
Honestly, I've been thinking about this a lot. In order to have good productive conversations, we need to be able to talk to each other and disagree and call each other out. The question that I keep coming back to is just precisely where do we have those debates? Where do we wrestle with hard ideas and point out each other's weaknesses? Do we do it in a book, a debate hall, on social media? How do we call each other out without resorting to canceling each other and creating a space where the only people allowed to speak are the ones we agree with? I'm not sure I've got answers. Maybe Bloomberg is right and book publications are a good place to start. Maybe there's something even better we could be doing to foster productive conversations so that we can hold each other accountable without cutting out people just because they disagree with us.
All that to say, Bloomberg's book is well-researched and presents the arguments clearly and helpfully, but it might not be quite the best place to start learning about the Bible if you're just looking into it for the first time and aren't aware of some of the philosophical and theological subdivisions within Christianity.
All that to say, Bloomberg's book is well-researched and presents the arguments clearly and helpfully, but it might not be quite the best place to start learning about the Bible if you're just looking into it for the first time and aren't aware of some of the philosophical and theological subdivisions within Christianity.
I'd recommend this for: Christians who want to learn more about the Bible's reliability.
Find this book on GoodReads and StoryGraph
*Synopses for both books taken from their respective StoryGraph profiles, and pictures for both books taken from their GoodReads pages.
Ok, this might be only interesting for me, which is why I'm putting at the end of the post. One of StoryGraph's features is that it generates end-of-month reading wrap-ups. I love it. It's one of my favorite things in the world, and I get so excited to see the graphs and charts at the end of each month. I'm honestly not sure how much fun it is to see someone else gush about their charts, but I'm assuming it's less fun? Maybe?
I don't know. If you like this, let me know and I'll make it into its own post or something for October's wrap-up. Otherwise, it'll stay at the end like this.
Anyway, behold September's stats!
September seems to have been my slowest reading month this year (I've somehow been averaging close to 10-13 books a month for reasons that continue to evade me but may have something to do with discovering manga this year), but it was a good month with a surprising number of highly rated reads.
For full reviews of any of the books I read this month, check September's blog posts or my GoodReads or StoryGraph accounts!
Last thing. I believe I figured out the settings so that you can officially follow the blog and get notifications when I post things. If that's something that interests you, then click on the hamburger in the upper left corner of your screen and click the blue "follow" button.
Until next week!
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