What do you want for your birthday?

This is one of my favorite questions to be asked. Oftentimes, when you ask an adult what they want for their birthday, they give you blank stares. I don't give blank stares. I give my Amazon wish list.

May is my birthday month, which means more books. Each birthday I create an Amazon wish list of about 20 books. Anyone who asks what I want for my birthday receives a link to the list (and the obligatory, "But you don't have to get me anything!"). I have a much longer wish list with several hundred books, but for each birthday and holiday (Father's Day, Christmas, etc.), I curate a more updated and concise version.

There were some excellent reads in May, and I hope you can enjoy one or two of them!

Top Quotes from May 2023:

• "Yet they were compelled onward by that mysterious narcotic: hope." -David Grann
• "There is a time for any fledgling artist where one's taste exceeds one's abilities. The only way to get through this period is to make things anyway.” -Gabrielle Zevin
• "Our love for the OT might increase if we occasionally called it 'Jesus' Bible' instead of the 'Old Testament.' For this book was Jesus' personal library; it was his shelf of books." -Frederick Dale Bruner
• "'I want mercy and not sacrifice' means I want human sympathy, not superhuman disciplines." -Frederick Dale Bruner
• "Getting furious at our cultural moment doesn't convince people of the truth. Our truth will not be heard until our grace is felt, because the greatest apologetic for truth is love." - Preston Sprinkle

Top Books from May 2023:

Frederick Dale Bruner has become one of my favorite Bible scholars. This 600-page commentary on Matthew is only part one of two! I went through it very slowly (about 10 months) during my morning time with Jesus in the gospel of Matthew. Bruner has brilliant insights on nearly every page and continually helped me enjoy Jesus more deeply and understand Matthew more thoroughly. I already started part two (850 pages) and hope to be finished by 2025 :)

If you would have told me two years ago that I would enjoy "Coming-of-age" novels, I would have laughed at you. But over the past year or so, I have grown to love some young adult fiction.

This one is a story that spans a few decades and shares the tale of two friends who go through the highs and lows of life together. After creating a video game and becoming famous (not a spoiler :) they have to navigate the challenges of friendship, romance, disability, and a broken world.

This book was a treat and regularly had me feeling sentimental. It brought me to tears multiple times while reading. Well done, Gabrielle Zevin!

If you can get through the first 50 pages (lots of details and names), you will thank me. I know that isn't a way to sell someone on a book, but I almost quit on page 48 and am very glad I pushed through. The Wager feels like fiction. Actually, it seems wilder than fiction. But it is a true story. The Wager was a British warship that had a secret mission in 1740. But after a shipwreck on a deserted island, you encounter one of the clearest pictures of human nature and the will to survive. There is loyalty and courage balanced by the betrayal and chaos of men hoping to make it another day.

Preston Sprinkle is one of my favorite Bible teachers and thinkers alive today. Our church, Restored LA, just finished our sermon series on Sexuality this month and I chose to end the series addressing transgender identities. (It was also Mother's Day, so that was quite the treat for our new guests). I read several books on this topic in preparation, but this was the best. Sprinkle does an incredible job of addressing the most difficult questions with Scripture, truth, and love.

Two books in one month about ships?! Yeah, that was a first. But once I enjoy a book on a particular topic, I am usually curious to find others with the same theme. Erik Larson is one of my favorite journalists and historical writers. I read The Splendid and the Vile (which is why we named our dog Winston) back in 2021 on a vacation and loved it!

Dead Wake tells the true story of the luxury ocean liner, Lusitania, and its dangerous crossing from New York to Britain in 1915. World War I had begun, but America was still neutral. America assumed that no one would ever try to sink an ocean liner carrying 2,000 civilians. The Germans in submarines thought otherwise.

Other Books Read in May 2023:

• Transgender by Vaughan Roberts - 4 stars
• Transforming by Austen Hartke - 3 stars
• God and the Transgender Debate by Andrew Walker - 4 stars

Enjoyed what you read? Share with a friend here: https://brad-sarian.ck.page/f96740ec88​

*Just because I recommend a book does not mean I endorse everything in it. Like the biblical narrative, there is always brokenness in the midst of beauty.

600 1st Ave, Ste 330 PMB 92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2246
​Unsubscribe · Preferences​