Round the Sphere Again: Summer Reading

With the Whippersnappers
From Juan Sanchez, a list of books to use with your children, books that  do not “merely promotes moralism,” but “explain the storyline of Scripture (biblical theology) and present a BIG God!” (The Gospel Coalition Blog)

And John Starke recommends The Church History ABCs by Stephen Nichols and Ned Bustard, a book that “runs through each letter of the alphabet, and couples [it] with a figure from church history.” (TGC Reviews) [Update, July 2: View pages from this book.}

For the Grown-Ups
What better way to spend the summer than reading Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables? And now there’s a new translation by Julie Rose that is, we’re told, “lively, dramatic, and wonderfully readable.” (Justin Taylor)

Much shorter than Les Misérables (a whole summer project, I’d say) is Mark Dever’s What Does God Want of Us Anyway? A Quick Overview of the Whole Bible. This one is only 122 small pages long (just a weekend read) but, says John Beeson, “teaches the reader basic biblical redemptive categories all the while whetting his appetite for the Word itself.” He concludes his review like this:

Read this book. If you’ve been a Christian for years and the Bible is like an old gym shirt—worn in and comfortable—you need this book to reinvigorate you and bring you back to the core themes of Scripture.  If you’re a brand new Christian use this book as a very simple guide to help provide you a roadmap of the most important book you’ll never grow too old or too mature for.  If you have friends who are interested in Christianity, read this book with them. It will pique their interest and hopefully cause them to assume less and be challenged to pick up for themselves Book that God has given to his people.

Read the whole review at TGC Reviews.

Update, July 1: (So it’s not exactly reading, but it does have to do with books.) I like to listen to audiobooks while tackling boring summer projects like weeding and painting. This months free audiobook at Christian Audio is Tozer’s The Pursuit of God. Here are the details.