Book Review | Aaron Buer

You might say I’m a bit of a reader. I always keep a list of the books I read over the course of a year. It’s a way of motivating myself and keeping track of what genres of books I’ve been reading.

I believe deeply in the power of reading. It’s how I stay fresh, informed, inspired, and young. Here’s the 44 books I read this year and a extremely short review for each. My hope is that something will catch your eye and you’ll be inspired to read a little more in 2014.

Simply the best book I’ve ever read on church culture and leadership. It’s a must for church workers.

I read this when I learned I’d be taking over our high school ministry last summer. Very helpful.

Had to read it again before watching the movie!

Great research and perspective for high school to college transition ministry.

Read this to my kids. They liked it but much preferred the first in the series.

One of the best books I read this year. I laughed, cried and walked away inspired to love people. If you haven’t read it you MUST!

This is great history of the Cold War arms race…utterly terrifying.

Confession: I love reading about military Spec Ops. This is one of the best I’ve ever read.

Funny, so very funny.

I love reading WWII history. However, this is the dark aftermath of the conflict. Very disturbing and yet important history.

This is such a great read. We use it as part of our high school to college transition curriculum.

Uh…yeah, I love Han Solo.

Maybe I was a little obsessed with Duck Dynasty last year.

This book is incredible. A powerful, beautiful and heartbreaking story of life in the slums of Mumbai.

I always enjoy Acuff’s humor and style.

More WWII…this was a great story and a great reminder that most average German citizens were not evil.

Powerfully challenging and unsettling.

My church has supported and partnered with this man for years. What an incredible story.

This is Acuff at his best. A great read. This was very influential in me starting my blog.

I loved this. I wish our national character still reflected the values of the WWII/Depression generation.

If you’re blogging this is a must. Very well written and informative.

This book is great for marketing and ideas.

I read this book as I considered how I wanted to lead meeting with my team. It’s very helpful and a short read which is always nice.

I love Francis Chan. This was a great reminder that student ministry must be about mentoring.

I appreciated the perspective provided in this book: Student ministry from the eyes of a lifetime volunteer.

Again, I was slightly terrified to take the reigns of our high school department so I read a ton on leadership and management.

A novel about sex trafficking in Ukraine and Russia. It wasn’t a great idea for me to read this after our failed adoption.

Somehow I never read this as a kid. Loved it and enjoyed the movie.

I’m a huge Bill Bryson fan. This was a fascinating read about the things we find in our homes.

I was such a huge fan of Ender’s Game and then things got weird.

Like I said, I enjoy reading about special operators. They are a unique class of men.

Yup, reading more about leadership and management. Lencioni is a genius.

This book blew my mind. This guy survived so much of WWII. Amazing.

This was my first foray into the world of N.T. Wright. He’s as smart as they say.

Say what you will about Rob Bell but he is arguably the best communicator of our generation and worth reading.

My friend’s ongoing struggles with father abandonment inspired me to reread this. Don Miller is my absolute favorite author.

I loved Ender’s Game and then things got really, really weird.

So far, this is Miller’s best work. This was my 2nd read. This book inspires me to live a life worth living.

This is Bryson’s latest. I loved it and so will you if you are at all interested in American history or baseball.

I read everything by Gladwell. He has such a unique approach. I didn’t love the way he handled the Bible in this book but overall it was fantastic!

Such a simple but powerful approach to business or church leadership.

I was looking for a fun series to read to my kids. I really enjoyed it! So far the 2nd book is even better.

After reading Peterson’s book I had to go back to my favorite fantasy series ever. Brilliant.

Well, that’s it. I read 44 books in 2013 most of them were great. I hope you found something to add to your reading this for this year. Please send me your recommendations. I’m looking for great books to add to my list form 2014.

I just polished this book off last week. Of all the books I’ve read this year, this one might be the best.

As it turns out, not everyone agrees. There is a rather ugly debate raging on some of the specifics of Gladwell’s arguments and also the genre of his writing style itself.

this guy thinks Malcolm Gladwell is an idiot

Malcolm Gladwell defends himself.

Wherever you land on the debate, Malcolm Gladwell’s hair clearly wins..

I will admit that I don’t like Gladwell’s telling of the David and Goliath story itself. I think he misses the point of the biblical story and uses some questionable interpretative techniques to arrive at his conclusions. However, the rest of the book is fantastic. Why? Because it is utterly compelling and moving. All I can say is that I listened to it while mowing my lawn and I was not crying. It was the dust. It’s terribly dusty this time of year.

The truth is that Gladwell is a marvelous storyteller. At several points I found myself mowing halfway into my neighbor’s yard because I was so captivated by Gladwell’s stories. In the audio book, Gladwell reads the story himself which magnifies the experience. Had the book not finished, I may have mowed every yard on my street just to keep listening.

The thing I love about this book is it’s central message. Gladwell doesn’t use this language but it’s essentially about redemption. Any bad experience or handicap can be redeemed. Gladwell writes about parental loss, dyslexia, persecution, and systemic racism. In each of these situations, through adaptation, perseverance and forgiveness, people or cultures become stronger, not in spite of their pain and struggle but because of them. The cure for lukemia, the will to oppose the Nazi’s, the fortitude to battle for civil rights and the strength to forgive were all birthed out of tremendous pain and loss.

This is a story that we need. Life is relentlessly painful, full of loss and disappointment. We either rebuild out of the ashes as stronger and better people or we fold.

Redemption is also the central message of the Gospel, which is perhaps why I loved David and Goliath so much. Jesus can redeem and restore any life no matter how dysfunctional and broken.

It seems that the process of writing about persecuted faith communities, forgiveness and redemption deeply affected Gladwell and his own faith journey. According to him, the journey brought about a return to faith in his own life.

Gladwell rediscovers faith

My recommendation would be to go out and by this book. If you are a church person, like myself, you will likely get annoyed in the early pages because of Gladwell’s spin on the David and Goliath story. Keep reading. I think you will love it and at the very least you will be inspired.

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