DEATH BY LIVING
Life is Meant to Be Spent
N. D. Wilson
Nate Wilson is well established as a children’s fiction writer. But Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl and now Death by Living should solidify his reputation as a respected non-fiction author.
Like Chesterton and Lewis and others before them, Wilson is taken with the thrill of existence. He sees life as a story in which we are characters:
“Why do we die? Because we live. Why do we live? Because our Maker opened His mouth and began to tell a story.”
Our individual stories matter because we “are here, existing, choosing, living, shaping the future and carving the past.” We also contribute to the grand and wonderful story our Creator is writing. What will our contribution be? How will we handle adversity?
“A life well lived is always lived on a rising scale of difficulty,” Wilson writes.
“Man is born to trouble. Man is born for trouble. Man is born to battle trouble. Man is born for the fight, to be forged and molded – under torch and hammer and chisel – into a sharper, finer, stronger image of God.”
This book will help you marvel at your own existence and then seek ways to make sure that when you die, it will be after you have really lived.
FATE OF THE STATES
The New Geography of American Prosperity
Meredith Whitney
You’ve heard about the Great Recession, and you’ve heard about the recovery, right?
Well, the story of that recovery has a layer to it, something that Meredith Whitney explains in Fate of the States. Not all of America is bounding back. Some states are weighed down by debt; others are “brimming with opportunity and nimble to invest in the future.”
Analyzing the data, Whitney predicts that in the next three decades, businesses and population will move away from the coasts to America’s central corridor. The states that were not targeted by banks before the Recession (“flyover” states) were not as affected by the downturn. By offering tax incentives to relocating companies, these states are wielding more and more economic power.
Whitney writes:
“Growth in America is going to come from making… important stuff like fuel and chemicals and cars.”
And the states in the central corridor have the best chance of leading the way.
HOLY IS THE DAY
Living in the Gift of the Present
Carolyn Weber
Carolyn Weber’s Surprised by Oxford was a beautifully written memoir of an unlikely convert to Christianity. Her story continues with Holy is the Day – a book that begins with a jarring scene in a maternity ward and ends with a reflective walk through a forest.
What does it mean to “seize the day” and sense the holiness of our everyday routines, the trials and struggles and sweat and tears that make up our existence? Carolyn is a gifted writer who ably mixes narrative and reflection, story and insight.
