This year's list of top books from my 2018 reading is as eclectic as ever. A number of the books come from my masters studies in teaching English; others come from my reading to my children, and still others are from my reading for enjoyment or learning, which are often the same thing.
Theological
Family of Pi in Matthew & Reliability of Our New Testament by Russell N. Champlin - These two works were written by a distant relative whose other major publications were in Portuguese. He died this year, but I benefited from his firsthand work with the Greek manuscripts which form part of the textual legacy of the New Testament. The first work is his PhD dissertation; the second is a booklet which he wrote to present the evidence for the New Testament's reliability for non-scholars.
Historical
John Adams by David McCullough - This book had been waiting in my reading list for quite a while, and it lived up to its reputation. It gave fascinating insights not only into America's second president, but also into the time period in which he lived. A man of the soil in ways that many of America's (famous) early nation builders were not.
Means of Escape by Philip Caputo - This was a gift to me last Christmas; and as the giver has never given me a book I did not enjoy, I gladly read it though I would not have bought it for myself and had never heard of it. It was worth it! It ranges all over the modern world and era as the author relates episodes from his work as a journalist while also managing to turn his story into a narrative.
Teaching English / Education
The Grammar Book by Diane Larsen-Freeman & Marianne Celce-Murcia - My only regret with this book is that I did not spend the money to get the most recent edition when I purchased this. In another context I commented about the book as follows, "I am beginning to associate Diane Larsen-Freeman’s name with the highest quality of materials. As I have explored chapter 33 on “Reported Speech and Writing,” the breadth and depth and level of detail in the chapter was phenomenal, and very useful. Nearly every page of my book has new markings, many with whole paragraphs of key information." The only other grammar book that I feel about like this is Murphy's English Grammar in Use, which has a completely different, and rather minimalistic, approach.
Other People's Children by Lisa Delpit - I have not yet posted about my takeaways from Delpit's book; this is because there are so many of them, not because they are in any sense lacking - and I haven't even finished it yet. It's worth any teacher's/educator's time.
Türkçe ve İngilizce Açıklamalı English Grammar by Seven and Seven - This fascinating work is written by two Turks as an English grammar with explanation in both English and Turkish. As such, it contains fascinating insights and is useful in some unexpected ways.
Second Language Acquisition by Rod Ellis - This is a solid overview on how additional (aka "second) languages are acquired. (previous post)
Fiction
Barbarossa by Iskender Pala - I have not quite finished it yet, but this book has been a fascinating and surprisingly positive journey across the Mediterranean world of the 1500s. This would be a great read for someone who wanted to venture into another nation's literature and worldview.
River of Death & The Dark Crusader by Alistair MacLean - I enjoyed these two books by MacLean; I thought I had read all his works but was pleasantly surprised to find that I had no memory of these two, though they do not rank with his great classics.
Last Stop on Market Street by Matt De La Pena - This was a book that was quietly beautiful; its message was not flashy. Rather it allowed its message to develop and be powerfully latent within the story and the illustrations without finding it necessary to verbalize it explicitly.
The Quiltmaker's Gift - This book is another example of exquisite illustrations complementing a deeply-told story. The 'moral' in this story is somewhat more explicit, but it is not preachy. While there is no suggestion that it is "Christian" in the book itself, I feel the story harmonizes at a quite deep level with the message of Jesus.
Songs & Artists
Song: "Awesome" (artist: Charles Jenkins)
Group: The Gray Havens (song - "The Train Station")
Recommendations from years past: 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011
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