Bob on Books

Thoughts on Books, Reading, and Life

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Review: Hard Feelings We are inclined to suppress negative emotions but if we listen to what they are saying about ourselves, we gain wisdom....

Review: Hard Feelings

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Review: Love in a Time of Climate Change Uses the Wesleyan Quadrilateral to discern a faithful Christian response to the realities of climate change....

Review: Love in a Time of Climate Change

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Review: What Grows in Weary Lands Lessons for the weary from the desert fathers and mothers on practices that cultivate resilience and renewal....

Review: What Grows in Weary Lands

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The Weekly Wrap: May 31-June 6 Why I Still Read, Marjane Satrapi, wither marriage, Harold Bloom, Ann Patchett's latest....

The Weekly Wrap: May 31-June 6

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Review: Mrs. McGinty’s Dead Superintendent Spence doesn't think the man he helped convict in Mrs. McGinty's murder is guilty and asks Poirot's help.... https://bobonbooks.com/2026/06/05/review-mrs-mcgintys-dead/

Review: Mrs. McGinty's Dead

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Review: Nicaea for Today The history, meaning, and contemporary significance of the Nicene Creed and how it may be used in churches today....

Review: Nicaea for Today

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Review: The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. An accountant creates a fantasy baseball league that takes over his life....

Review: The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop.

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Review: From the Outrageous to the Scandalous A collection of essays reflecting on Christian scholarship 30 years after Marsden and Noll's books.... https://bobonbooks.com/2026/06/02/review-from-the-outrageous-to-the-scandalous/

Review: From the Outrageous to the Scandalous

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The Month in Reviews: May 2026 Summaries of twenty reviews of books at Bob on Books in May 2026 and my best book of the month....

The Month in Reviews: May 2026

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The Weekly Wrap: May 24-30

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com The Weekly Wrap: May 24-30 Logging Off As a reader, I am at war with a not-so-silent intruder. My phone. Spam calls. Texts trying to sell me or scam me. Social media feeds that either fascinate or anger me. And it often takes me away from reading. I am not one who necessarily pines to read more. Rather, I wouldn’t mind reading what I try to read each…

The Weekly Wrap: May 24-30

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Review: Serving God Under Siege

Serving God Under Siege Serving God Under Siege, Valentyn Syniy. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing (ISBN: 9780802885692) 2025. Summary: A memoir of fleeing Kherson when Russia invaded, the challenges and lessons of displacement, and returning home. Valentyn Syniy’s world turned upside down on February 24, 2022, as it did for many Ukrainians. He is the president of the Tavriski Christian Institute…

Review: Serving God Under Siege

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Review: Questioning Technology with Jacques Ellul

Questioning Technology with Jacques Ellul Questioning Technology with Jacques Ellul, David W. Gill and Lisa Richmond, eds. Pickwick Publications (ISBN: 9798385244430) 2025 Summary: Essays on the technological thought of Ellul, both foundational principles and applications. In 1954, French sociologist-philosopher-theologian, Jacques Ellul published La Technique: L’enjeu du siècle. It didn’t get…

Review: Questioning Technology with Jacques Ellul

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Review: Man Up

Man Up Man Up, Cynthia Miller-Idriss. Princeton University Press (ISBN: 9780691257549) 2025. Summary: The relationship of misogyny to various forms of violent extremism, the strategies men use to control women, and what can be done. What are two factors associated with most incidents of violent extremism? The first is that men perpetrate most incidents. The second, and even less discussed, is…

Review: Man Up

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Review: It's A Battlefield

It’s A Battlefield It’s A Battlefield, Graham Greene. Open Road Integrated Media (ISBN: 9781504053976) 2018, first published 1934. Summary: The private “battles” of those connected with Jim Drover, a bus driver convicted of murder for killing a policeman. Jim Drover was convicted of the knife murder of a policeman about to bludgeon his wife, Milly, during a demonstration. He was sentenced to…

Review: It's A Battlefield

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Review: The Mother's Smile

The Mother’s Smile The Mother’s Smile, Esther Lightcap Meek, foreword by D.C. Schindler. Cascade Books (ISBN: 9798385236473) 2025. Summary A philosophical discussion of how philosophically formative is a mother’s smile and the delighted regard of others. None of us remembers the first moments of our lives. But Esther Lightcap Meek proposes that they are the foundationally formative events of…

Review: The Mother's Smile

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The Weekly Wrap: May 17-23

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com The Weekly Wrap: May 17-23 James Daunt’s Bad Week James Daunt, the CEO of Barnes & Noble sat down with Jenna Bush recently to discuss the turnaround of Barnes & Noble and recent book trends, including AI-generated books. And here’s the statement that got him into trouble: “Yes, I have actually no problem selling any book, as long as it doesn’t…

The Weekly Wrap: May 17-23

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Review: In Guns We Trust

In Guns We Trust In Guns We Trust. William J. Kole. Broadleaf Books (ISBN: 9798889835639) 2025. Summary: Why white evangelicals are among the most resistant to even reasonable restrictions on firearms and its impact. William J, Kole was an unabashed evangelical, even a member of his New England church’s worship team. It was during a practice that the bass player showed him his gun. His world…

Review: In Guns We Trust