August Reading Log

31 days in the dog days of summer means plenty of time to read. Here's a look at what I was reading the past month!

4 Articles I Like This Month

"Drop the Hammer and Pick up a Flashlight" by Peggy Wehmeyer, The Dallas Morning News. 7 minutes.

While the news media's cosmopolitan bias is understandable (since all the national news outlets are located in California or New York), it tends to create a dynamic in which the views of the heartland are treated as almost foreign. On no issue is this more apparent, writes onetime national religion correspondent Peggy Wehmeyer, than abortion, where pro-life views are given lip service but rarely explained or offered much sympathy. A compelling case from a reliable source.

"America Wasn't a Democracy Until Black Americans Made It One" by Nikole Hannah-Jones, The New York Times Magazine. 32 minutes.

In this essay, the centerpiece of the New York Times' "1619 Project" commemorating the 400th anniversary of the first slave ship landing in Jamestown, Nikole Hannah-Jones chronicles the history and impact of slavery in the United States, arguing that black Americans, who were denied freedom for hundreds of years, have nevertheless been its greatest champions. A powerful, compelling, deeply uncomfortable history lesson that I strongly urge you to read.

"My Ride on the Hot Dog Launcher with the Phillie Phanatic" by Jayson Stark, The Athletic. 5 minutes.

Every game at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, the famous Phillie Phanatic rides a truck around the field firing hot dogs into the crowd. Because of course. In this article, award-winning sportswriter Jayson Stark chronicles his experience getting to participate in that most sacred of traditions. Pure, zany fun.

"Michelin Restaurants and Fabulous Wines: Inside the Secret Team Dinners That Have Built the Spurs' Dynasty" by Baxter Holmes, ESPN. 21 minutes.

Casual NBA fans know Gregg Popovich for his accomplishments as coach of the San Antonio Spurs, his reputation as a master tactician and motivator, and his hilariously grumpy sideline interviews. What you may not know is what an intense foodie and wine aficionado he is—and how he has used that love to foster the Spurs' legendary team camaraderie. An escapist, insightful look not only at Pop, but at the power of a good meal.

DESIRING GOD: CONFESSIONS OF A CHRISTIAN HEDONIST by John Piper

This is the book that made me decide once and for all: John Piper is just not a great writer, folks. Look, I respect his ministry, I admire his passion, and I even agree with him about 80% of the time. But this is my fourth Piper book, and probably my last. He's a great preacher, sure. But his writing leaves me cold every time.

Desiring God is his argument for what he calls Christian Hedonism, best summarized by the Westminster Catechism: "The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever." To flesh that out, Piper argues that all humans naturally seek pleasure, and that no greater pleasure can be found than in God, so the only reasonable thing for a person, specifically a Christian, to do is spend every second glorifying God in word and deed.

As a logical proof, it works, and there's no denying Piper's consistency or passion for the subject. But the more you read of the book, the more you start to find him stretching his theological concept into a reframing of the gospel: for Piper, Christian Hedonism isn't a lens through which to see the gospel, it is the gospel. With prooftext after prooftext (my biggest Piper pet peeve; he never found a verse he wasn't willing to pluck out of its context for the sake of making a point), he tries to make the argument that everything everything from creation to salvation to sanctification to resurrection is ultimately just about God's will and our joy. The argument works in spots, but seems out of place in others, and ultimately falls short of being the biblical Rosetta stone Piper says it as.

The result is a book that's about 100 pages too long and that wears its reader out with an argument that somehow becomes less persuasive the longer you read. The more Piper stretches Christian Hedonism beyond its limits, the thinner it gets. The more prooftexts he tosses out, the more you start to question the central premise. Desiring God is clearly meant to be Piper's opus, but it ultimately leaves the reader wanting.

With Don't Waste Your Life, his 2003 bestseller that was published almost 20 years after Desiring God, Piper managed to distill this treatise down a to more sermonic and more effective book. If you want to know what John Piper's all about, look there, not here.

TRAVELING MERCIES: SOME THOUGHTS ON FAITH by Anne Lamott

I'm not really sure what this book was, but I'm pretty sure I loved it.

Traveling Mercies was my first exposure to Anne Lamott, a spiritual writer beloved by a lot of friends of mine. It's sort of a cross between a memoir, a collection of devotionals, and a collection of short stories, all of which point to her understanding of God and faith. It's meandering, unorthodox, funny, and occasionally bewildering.

It's also excellent. Lamott is one of those writers whose prose borders on poetry, who has a way of putting words together that looks easy until you try to do it yourself. She has a talent for dropping some insightful spiritual thought in one paragraph and then a sarcastic joke in the next that's so funny you almost spit your coffee out. And no matter what material she's working with, every time you finish one of her stories, you put the book down and need a moment to think.

That quality more than any other is what appealed to me about Traveling Mercies. While many of the short stories she tells about her life function as devotionals, they're not as pat and tidy as the ones I write every week; there's no formula and no solution. Instead, the stories often end in a way that leaves you with more questions than answers. This may frustrate some readers, but it struck me as both real and brave, a tacit admission that God is beyond our comprehension and sometimes we have to accept that.

I'll be back for more of Lamott's work, I'm sure. It rare to come across a spiritual writer whose writings is this good, thinking is this clear, and faith is this pure. As long as you don't demand your Christian writers fit into a standardized mold, I recommend Traveling Mercies.

LINCOLN IN THE BARDO by George Saunders

In February of 1962, Abraham Lincoln's eleven-year old son Willie became suddenly and seriously ill and died within a matter of days. Following his burial, it was reported that President Lincoln made multiple trips to his son's crypt to hold the body of of his son and grieve. From that historical nugget comes Lincoln in the Bardo, a story that is part ghost story, part historical fiction, and part reflection on what it means to be human.

The conceit which George Saunders, heretofore known as a writer of short stories, play with in this novel is that Willie, far from resting in peace, is one of dozens of spirits residing in something Buddhists call the bardo, a purgatory-like transitional state between death and one's final resting place. The spirits in the bardo, while unseen by the living, dwell in the graveyard where they are buried and are either unaware or at least unwilling to acknowledge that they have died. Only when they come to this realization are they sent to their final resting place.

Willie Lincoln's arrival in the bardo, and his father's subsequent visits, prove to be momentous events for the other spirits there, who largely serve as the story's narrators. Their efforts to get both Willie and President Lincoln to move on end up resulting in discoveries of their own, and ultimately their freedom from guilt and loss.

The novel's layout is unlike anything I've ever read before. The story is narrated primarily by the various spirits, each of whom has a distinct voice, and reads almost like a screenplay. However, other chapters provide historical exposition by directly quoting contemporaneous and modern historical sources and biographies. This format keeps readers on their toes and has a unique way of making President Lincoln himself both a man, with all his fears and doubts, and a monument whom you always still feel slightly removed from.

Ultimately, this is a challenging but incredibly rewarding book that plumbs the depths and rises to the heights of the human experience. During President Lincoln's initial visit to the crypt, when he cradles Willie's body, my eyes welled up with tears at the spirits' description of what they saw. At the book's conclusion, when the spirits break through the impediments that have kept them in the bardo, I felt sincere joy for their experiences. I already knew Saunders was a brilliant writer from his most acclaimed short story collection, Tenth of December, but this novel proves him to be a master of his craft and a genius at understanding and conveying what it means to be human. For those willing to take a more avante garde (but accessible) ride, I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

DRACULA by Bram Stoker

Look, I spent two and a half months reading Dracula comics. If I wasn't going to read this now, it was never going to happen.

Dracula tells the story of, you guessed it, Count Dracula of Transylvania, a centuries-old vampire who can transform into a bat, command wolves, and fade into the mist, but who is repelled by garlic, sunlight, and holy objects like crucifixes. He lives by sucking the blood from innocent victims, usually women, which in turns transforms them into vampires after a period of three days. In the novel, he is pursued by a band of vampire hunters led by Professor Abraham Van Helsing, who seek to put an end to his reign of terror once and for all.

I had no idea what to expect going into this classic horror novel—other than the names of a few of the characters, this was pretty much all unknown territory for me. I was surprised right off the bat by the way the novel is told. Instead of the traditional narrative format, the story is told in epistolary novel, a compilation of diary entries, newspaper articles, and letters. This kept things fresh as the story was told and also helped break up the story, which was helpful given Bram Stoker's wordiness.

I was also surprised by the strong protagonists (a nice departure from the deadly dull heroes of the Tomb of Dracula comics), especially Mina Harker, who is arguably more interesting than the supposed hero of the story, the aforementioned Van Helsing. Serving as narrator for at least half the book, Mina is instrumental in defeating Dracula and is far from the damsel in distress I expected her to be given the time in which the book was written. Other notable heroes include her husband Jonathan, Doctor John Seward, and a Texan cowboys (because why not) named Quincey Morris.

The final surprise was how effectively Stoker creates an atmosphere of dread. I would describe the writing as so-so overall—the dialogue and descriptions both tend toward the tedious—but when it comes to setting a mood, Stoker is an excellent horror author. The novel's first 50 pages, when Jonathan Harker is invited to Dracula's castle and slowly realizes that he has actually been trapped by his host, is particularly excellent.

All in all, this was a relatively easy read and a nice chance to cross another book off the literary canon. If you like horror books, it's hard to say no to one of the originals.

3 NIGHTS IN AUGUST: STRATEGY, HEARTBREAK, AND JOY INSIDE THE MIND OF A MANAGER by Buzz Bissinger

Michael Lewis's 2003 bestseller Moneyball (and its subsequent film adaptation) changed baseball forever, sparking a sea change in the sport that saw general managers becoming the stars of the show, once-revered statistics relegated to afterthoughts, and organizations transformed from A ball up to the major league roster. One unintended consequence was that many managers, once the faces and voices of franchises, were relegated to middlemen between the front office and the players, stripped of much of their authority. 3 Nights in August rebukes this trend by taking a detailed look at the thought process and decision making of one of baseball's most legendary managers, Tony La Russa, through the lens of a 3-game series in 2003. In chronicling La Russa's thinking, priorities, and moves, author Buzz Bissinger (of Friday Night Lights fame) shows how important managers used to be—and makes the less-than-subtle argument that they should be still.

Bouncing between the action of the three games, biographies of the different players, and narrating La Russa's thought processes, Bissinger keeps things moving at a brisk pace with his customary knack for storytelling. Writing in his own voice yet telling things from La Russa's point of view, this is one of the better written baseball books I've ever read. Fans of baseball will appreciate a look at all the strategic elements La Russa had to juggle on an inning by inning basis, to say nothing of keeping his players happy.  

As far as it's opposition to Moneyball, it must be said: Bissinger (and La Russa) lost. The statheads are in charge of every front office now, and the gut decisions that once ruled the game are largely derided now. In some cases, that's probably for the best. But I'll give credit to Bissinger for making me think twice about it as I read 3 Nights in August. Far from a "get off my lawn" rant, this book makes a compelling case for the importance of acknowledging and respecting the human element of baseball. If you think there's more to baseball than what the numbers can tell you, you'll find an ally in 3 Nights in August.

ESSENTIAL TOMB OF DRACULA VOL. 4 by Various

While the mainstream Tomb of Dracula comic was telling serialized stories of Dracula set in the present day, Marvel was also putting out a more mature, oversized magazine chronicling the count's adventures throughout the ages. Essential Tomb of Dracula Vol. 4, the final Essential volume devoted to Dracula, tells these stories, organizing the stories chronologically instead of packaging them as they originally appeared.

Since each story (most clocking in around 12 pages) has a different writer and artist, the volume is understandably hit or miss, but there are a lot more hits than misses. The stories range from the 14th century to the 1970s, from the count's native Transylvania to London to New York City, and they see him encounter vampire hunters and victims of all stripes. 

Where the more traditional Tomb of Dracula series gradually became a action-adventure story, these tales almost exclusively belong to the horror genre, where Dracula is a natural fit. As such, the art tends to have either a painterly quality or sketchier line work rather than the cleaner look of your average Bronze Age comic. This departure from mainstream style fits the stories well regardless of the artist's talents and helps bind these otherwise disparate stories together.

While I'll admit that after 2 and a half months of Dracula comics, I'm read to move on to something else, this volume was a good way to wrap up the series. After hundreds of pages of Dracula comics, I fully endorse these four Essential volumes, and consider them to be the best 1970s Marvel had to offer in the horror genre by a mile.

SUPERMAN FOR ALL SEASONS by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale

If there's one question that writers, artists, and filmmakers never get tired of asking, it's this: who is Superman? Is he an alien in a strange land? Is he an adopted son trying to figure out his identity? Is he a god among mortals? Is he a big blue Boy Scout? The answer to all of these questions is, of course, yes. Superman is all these things and more, which is why we never get tired of his origin story, of what transpired that prompted him to go from Smallville to Metropolis, from farmer's boy to Man of Tomorrow.

Superman for All Seasons is the chance for the dynamic duo of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale to write their own spin on Superman's origin story, one laced with heartland values and shining with bright colors. Their Superman spends his first year in Metropolis (ending with a brief sabbatical back to Smallville) learning what it means to help people. It's a with-great-power-comes-great-responsibility story, one that sees farmboy Clark Kent turn into Superman not because of his powers, but his acceptance of what it means to use them well.

This is my kind of Superman story, one that leans into the character's earnestness and idealism instead of being embarrassed by it. Nevertheless, I was slightly disappointed by it, probably because I hold the Loeb/Sale team in such high regard. While they hit all the right Superman notes, the resulting song is more of bubblegum pop than rich melody. I had a great time reading it to be sure, but I'm not sure I'd put it in my top 10 Superman stories ever told. A great way to spend an hour, but not a must-have for casual comics fans.

SUPERMAN: RED SON by Mark Millar, Dave Johnson, and Kilian Plunkett

Everybody knows that Superman is a champion of truth, justice, and the American way. It's as baked in as the red underwear or the spit curl; it's who he is. But what if, instead of being raised in Kansas, he'd been raised in the Soviet Union?

That's the premise of Superman: Red Son, the 2003 Elseworlds miniseries from the mind of Mark Millar that shows how the slightest deviation in Superman's origin story could have altered everything. Over the course of three issues, the story shows how much some things change—Superman ends up leading the Soviet Union and spreading communism throughout the globe, recruits Brainiac to help with his task, and generally acts as a benevolent dictator—and how other things stay the same, such as his eternal rivalry with Lex Luthor and his innate desire to help the world.

It all ends up coming together to tell a really fun story, one which manages to walk the difficult tightrope of feeling completely foreign while still staying true to the core of the main characters. Often regarded as one of the best Superman stories ever told, I now understand why: Mark Millar manages to change almost everything about the Superman mythos without losing sight of who the Man of Tomorrow ultimately is. Reading Superman: Red Son is a great way to spend a couple hours.