Review: "Tell Me a Story" by Scott McClellan

In Tell Me a Story, Scott McClellan's aim is that you "identify yourself as a storyteller, an artist committed to narrative, and that in so doing you'll experience God and your life more deeply than you did before" (21). He works towards that goal by telling the reader to think of life as a story and that each and every person has a story worth telling. 

McClellan talks about God as the narrator of our story, and "In God's story we find that the lost need not stay lost, the sick need not stay sick, and the runaways need not stay away" (58). God's loving redemption is a part of our stories as much as it is a part of the stories from the Bible that McClellan uses to support it.

My favorite chapter is the one that focuses on sharing your story: the relationship between the storyteller, the church and the community. The most powerful moments of the book are when McClellan shares his story about the difficult adoption process. He talks about how having community to share his story with was vital to getting him through all of the mishaps he and his wife experienced.

However, these moments were not frequent enough in the book. Perhaps that in itself is proof that McClellan is on to something with his storytelling theory - it is important because it is what connects people. 

Little connectivity and lots of repetition made this book feel like a blog post that's been stretched to the breaking point. Even with the chapters of this book coming in at a grand total of 109 pages, the idea felt tired and forced almost immediately.

There were definitely some gems throughout, but overall it was very difficult to get through.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Moody Publishers for this review.  The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

To Review: "Tell Me a Story" by Scott McClellan

It's been a while since my last book review, so here's the next one that'll be on the blog soon. It's Tell Me a Story by Scott McClellan, and it just arrived in my mailbox this week from Moody Publishers!

To give you a taste, here's a line from the back of the book:

All the best stories have a few things in common; sometimes we just have to step back from our daily routine to see them....When we recognize the elements of a great story, we begin to see our lives as a part of God's story. ...We are right in the middle of a page-turner - and God is in it with us.

Look for my review coming soon!

Interview: Kyle Tennant of "Unfriend Yourself"

A while back I posted my review of Unfriend Yourself, a book about the implications of social media use and how it has changed us and our communication.  It was a book that challenged readers to go three days without social media to reflect on how it affects our lives, especially through our relationships with others.

I've just come across this interview with the author, so it might be worth a read if you're interested in it at all.  He reiterates some of the important messages of his book, namely how some people use social media to replace face-to-face conversation.

The Blessings and Curses of Social Media: An Interview with Unfriend Yourself Author Kyle Tennant

Review: "101 Secrets for Your Twenties" by Paul Angone

101 Secrets for your Twenties by Paul Angone was expanded from a an article, "21 Secrets for your 20s" and maintains many of the same characteristics.  Sometimes the "secret" is just a one line statement and sometimes it leads to a larger section of multi-page explanation.

There are many great points made in the book, teaching young adults that they're not alone in their struggles with jobs, friends, love, faith, and family. Some of my favorites were "Rocking adulthood is sometimes nothing more glamorous than Patient Ever-Day-Ness" (162), "If you don't define success, success will gladly define you" (168), and "A college diploma is NOT our golden ticket into DreamJobLand" (42). The secrets are presented in a light, humorous way, but are still impactful in their message.


In many ways though, this information was better presented as an article than as a book.  101 is a lot of secrets, and as far as I could tell, there was no organizational structure for what was discussed where.  For example, Angone presents #49, a secret about breakups, followed by #50, a secret about not knowing the plan for our lives, and then #51 is another secret about breakups. I would have appreciated if the secrets were organized by category so that if you needed inspiration or comfort, you'd know where to look for it.

The light-hearted fun feel of the book also goes a bit far with too many made up words, making the book seem childish - not something someone in their 20s would appreciate.  As a 23 year old reader, I was not amused by things like "Round-Mound o' Goodness" as a description of chocolate (37) or "LivinginYourParentsHouseAgainVille" (42). That kind of informality is fine for a 21 point internet article, but it didn't really work for a full book.

My advice to my peers would be to read the article, but skip the book.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Moody Publishers for this review.  The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

To Review: "101 Secrets for Your Twenties" by Paul Angone

101 Secrets for Your Twenties by Paul Angone arrived in the mail last week from Moody Publishers!

As a sneak peek, I'll let you in on a few of the secrets:

#11: Lousy Jobs are The Twentysomething Rite of Passage.

#48: The biggest surprise about becoming an adult that no one ever talks about...Adulthood. Never. Stops. 

#70: Making and keeping friends in your 20s take intentionality.

#72: The most dangerous phrase you can say in your 20s is "if only..." 

Look for my review of this book coming soon!

Review: "On the Shoulders of Hobbits" by Louis Markos

Walk the Road to Virtue with Tolkien and Lewis in On the Shoulders of Hobbits by Louis Markos. In this concise, but powerful book English professor Markos makes a passionate argument about the value of a story and how it has the ability to transform and inspire.


On the Shoulders of Hobbits is broken into four parts: The Road, The Classical Virtues, The Theological Virtues, and Evil. Each part has four chapters and each chapter has a section that introduces the topic, usually with a Biblical reference, a section of Tolkien, and a smaller section of Lewis.

Focusing mainly on J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, the book walks through the authors' work thematically, paralleling them with the Bible, with each other, and with other famous literature like Dante's Inferno and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. The connections don't stop there though either; Markos also connects the stories to history and philosophy as well.

The book reminded me of the Hero's Journey, or monomyth, as it lined up common elements between different literary works.

In the chapter "Responding to the Call", both the Hero's Journey connection and the Biblical implications are quite clear. In the Hero's Journey, the protagonist displays some hesitancy, but ultimately responds to the call by crossing the threshold and taking to the Road in the "extraordianry world." Markos begins the chapter by explaining that God calls ordinary people to do extraordinary things by fulfilling with faith that which they have been called to do.

The next section is the Tolkien connection where "Sam sees that his individual call (and that of Frodo) is part of a larger tapestry in which each individual call works together to bring about the destiny and hoped for end, what Tolkien liked to call the eucatastrophe: the good end that rises up, miraculously, our of what seemed, at first, to be defeat and death" (36). It's later explained that Tolkien said the greatest example of the eucatastrophe is the resurrection of Jesus.  The final section explains how Lewis's mouse Reepicheep may be small, but he has a great destiny to fulfill and he is dedicated to his high calling.

This is a phenomenal book for people who have read Tolkein and Lewis and want to learn more about the messages of their writing.  It was easy to read and interesting, though it does jump around with all of its references to different books.  I actually enjoyed the semi-chaos of having multiple allusions in the same paragraph and was thankful for all of the reading I had in my English classes that allowed me to keep up with Markos's explanations.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Moody Publishers for this review.  The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

To Review: "On the Shoulders of Hobbits" by Louis Markos and "Memorial: The Mystery of Mary of Bethany" by Dolores Kimball

Two new books have been added to my "to review" stack this week! In the foreward to On the Shoulders of Hobbits the Road to Virtue with Tolkien and Lewis, Peter Kreeft explains why you should read:

reading great literature, next to meeting people, is the single most effective way to learn not to flunk life.  Life is a story, and therefore moral education happens first and most powerfully through stories, e.g., through books. (8)

In Memorial: The Mystery of Mary of Bethany, "we will look closely at the mysterious Mary of Bethany, a most unique and remarkable woman whose incredible faith, quiet spirit, and uncanny understanding of spiritual matters are a testimony to the power of God in the life of a woman totally committed to her Lord" (back of the book).

Look for reviews of both of these books coming soon to In Media Res!

Review: "Unfriend Yourself" by Kyle Tennant

As a full-time Social Media Analyst, all of the concerns raised by Kyle Tennant in Unfriend Yourself resonated with me and fit into my experience with social media.  This is a book with an agenda, but it's a good one.  Whether quoting the Bible, other authors, or even from his own experience, Tennant presented logical and thought provoking examples about the use and misuse of social media.  Tennant writes, "My hope is that people would say farewell to what we've allowed Facebook to create - a new kind of social and intellectual environment that encourages false intimacy and feigned friendship" (78).

The book is broken into three sections: detox, discern, decide.  It is written term-paper style, which I thought really leant itself well to the content as well as the audience.  Tennant recommends reading it over a weekend where you take a step back from social media to look at how it affects your life.  At the end of each section, there are questions and activities that allow you to apply what you've been reading to your life.  

All day at work, I see people sharing their menial details or exaggerated stories of their lives and I can not even begin to fathom why they would even bother. Tennant talks about how these type of posts lead to an "endless cycle of self-promotion and self-rejection" as users post skewed views of their lives and then end up comparing themselves to other unrealistic life situations (29).  

Though Unfriend Yourself is a Christian book and definitely took some time talking about how social media do and do not glorify God, the main focus was on relationships. This chart helped me to think about the value of relationships and how worthwhile it is to put in the extra effort to what really matters.  I know there have been situations where I have wanted to "just text" instead of calling someone for their birthday, or "just post on their Facebook wall."

This would be a great book for high school or college students and especially adults working with those age groups.  Though I don't think I have a problem with how I use social media, a takeaway lesson for me was that any time you're spending time online on social media is time that you're spending not having face-to-face interactions with other people.

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Moody Publishers for this review.  The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

Review: "How to Ruin Your Life by 30" by Steve Farrar

How to Ruin Your Life by 30 by Steve Farrar contains nine steps; however, only two really stood out to me - one in a positive way, the other in a negative way. For me, all of the other steps seemed obvious and trite, such as if you stop learning or isolate yourself, you will ruin your life by 30.


The section that spoke to me was "Neglect your gifts and strengths when choosing a vocation."  My favoritism could be spawning from the fact that my career is my highest stressor at the moment, but regardless, I found this chapter the most useful.


It began by talking about how J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis met in a pub to work on their writing, which was relevant to both my ideal career path (publishing/editing) and my interest in both authors.  I found it encouraging when Farrar wrote about how we each have God-given unique talents and skills and we can find a way to apply them to a job that honors Him.  You don't have to be a missionary to serve God - you can serve Him through applying the skills He gave you to your career.  After hearing family and friends often complaining about their jobs, I found an answer in Farrar's words: "If you dread going to work every day, you are probably not using your strengths and gifts that God has given you" (72).  I plan to use this chapter for comfort and guidance when reflecting on my career path and talking with my peers.

The very next chapter, though, was "Disregard what the Bible says about sex and marriage" and I was  disappointed by it.  The manner in which it was written came across as sexist by saying that "hands to yourself" was a ground rule specifically for men whereas "don't act cheap" was only a rule for women (82-86).  Women are just as capable of being tempted by sexual desires and men can dress inappropriately, too.  I found it unnecessary that the book called each one out to a specific gender.  It also says that men have to make the first step towards a relationship: "Don't be passive. Make the call. Take the first step. nothing's going to happen until you do" (98).  Again, it seems that Farrar isolates half his audience when the advice could easily apply to anyone picking up his book.

Another issue I had with the same chapter was the ruling that a Christian should not even consider dating a non-Christian: "Don't give any consideration to the possibility that you might lead them to the Lord.  God doesn't need you to do His work in their life" (87).  God never said to spread His word to everyone, except someone you might want to date.  While I agree that marrying a non-Christian would be challenging, I don't think you can go as far as to say that they can't have the chance to get to know the Lord through you. Obviously it's important that they're not pretending or choosing God just to get a date, but I think that's a call we are able to make.

Farrar first presented this information in a commencement address and, unfortunately, some of the elements of spoken language remained that wouldn't normally end up in a book.  The sentences were repetitive, simplified, and overly informal: "Causes have effects. Actions have reactions. Choices have consequences" (19).  While that string of statements might have been effective in a speech, it was annoying to read.  There were also many paragraphs that were a simple one sentence line that was too conversational.  For example, on page 89 we have a paragraph that is just "Does that not make sense?" and then a later paragraph is simply, "And one more thing."

Perhaps it would have been better formatted as a short work published with other essays about Christian living, practical life, or personal growth.  Though this book seemed sexist at times, was judgmental, and was written informally, I really did enjoy certain parts of it.  I would definitely recommend the vocational chapter to all of my peers.  As for the rest of it, I think it was too hit or miss, with the good stuff sandwiched in a lot of mediocre sections.

The best piece of advice to take away from this book is simply: Is the life you imagine for yourself the natural outcome of the way you are living your life? (18).

FTC Disclosure: I received this book for free from Moody Publishers for this review.  The opinion in this review is unbiased and reflects my honest judgment of the product.

To Review: "Unfriend Yourself" by Kyle Tennant and "How to Ruin Your Life by 30" by Steve Farrar

First two books in from Moody Publishers: Unfriend Yourself by Kyle Tennant and How to Ruin Your Life by 30 by Steve Farrar. Review to follow...