Favorite Books of the Year

I Am Legend (Richard Matheson)
I'll admit I had never given this book much thought until I saw the trailer for the movie. It's a great quick read. I love how it begins in medias res, and then slowly, very slowly, tells the reader how the world came to be this way. I kept reading because I wanted to see what happened next, but also to see what happened fist.

Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections Between Sexuality and Spirituality (Rob Bell)
It wasn't as good as Bell's first effort Velvit Elvis, but it is still a great read. I love Bell because he has a way of bringing me closer to God spiritually. Too often Christian books spend too much time talking about Jesus and the cross. Great things that I'm thankful for, but that doesn't really make me feel close to God (just loved by God). Bell is the Billy Graham of my generation, and I hope he can keep it up.

Restless Pilgrim: The Spiritual Jorney of Bob Dylan (Scott Marshall and Marcia Ford)
This book had one of the worse binding jobs I've ever seen (it literally was falling apart not even 100 pages into it, and I had a new copy). Binding aside, it was a fascinating read. The author presents the facts, and lets the reader believe what they want about that whole "Christian" thing.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (J.K. Rowling)
Rowlings has always hinted at the fact that Harry could very well die; when he lived I was sort of disapointed. Killing off someone like that takes guts. I think one reason I enjoyed the book so much was because someone put a bootleg copy of it on the Internet the week before (which I downloaded and partially read). How many other books are bootlegged on the Internet (hint: none).

Dwelling Places (Vinita Hampton Wright)
I've been reading Wright sense her first book, Grace at Bender Springs. She was good then, but she's great now. Her novels are great because the find such whose themes in such little things. It is rich in characters, lush in storytelling, and filled with words that sway poetically at times on the page.