I received a CD a while back as part of the stream of books I get from time to time for review. I confess to not being the best music reviewer, though for some reason I happen to know a lot of musicians — and musicians with genuine talent. I listened to the CD a couple of times through and then foisted it upon a couple of musician-friends (let’s call them Mike and Karla), both of whom have reviewed books here before. My take on it was that some of the songs had some good lyrics, though not all of them really “grabbed” me. It reminded me a little of some of the Worship Circle stuff. Anyway, another review follows… with a video of Brian McLaren discussing the project tossed in for good measure.

Let me first say that I did hint at an opportunity to un-request a review of this material, but since the request stands, here goes. I won’t be offering a product link lest anyone purchase it by accident — but I’m showing the CD cover art so you’ll know what to avoid if you should happen to see it somewhere. Yes, that’s a not-so-subtle foreshadowing of what I thought of the disc… I said on Twitter that this CD had no redeeming qualities whatsoever, but I have managed to stretch and find a couple.

I sort of missed out on the blog tour for Ed Cyzewski’s Coffeehouse Theology: Reflecting on God in Everyday Life due to a shipping delay that saw the book land in my lap a little late and at a busy time. I considered doing an interview with Ed instead, but that’s harder when you haven’t read the book. Both are too bad, because the book is quite good, and I want to ask him how to pronounce his name. Nevertheless, it’s still appropriate for a mention or two to appear here on my interwebs haunt. In that vein, I thought I’d offer an excerpt that helps give a sense of the book’s direction. This occurs early on, pages 19-20:

One of the books that’s been in my to-review pile for a while has been Frank Viola’s Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity. Following my review of Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices and interview with Frank, this book apparently fills in some of th missing pieces of the discussion. In fact, Frank tells me it’s the more important of the two. I haven’t had the time to get through the book yet, so I thought I’d re-publish Leonard Sweet’s review in the meantime.

A little while back I decided that I would like to feature a few guest-bloggers from time to time, and that I should share some of the books in my review pile around so that a few others might be able to produce some short reviews and reactions, lightening my book review load in the process. Like the other day, today’s post is a book review guest post, combining both ideas. This one is by Dianna, a friend and journeymate. We’ve known her and her husband for more than 20 years now, and we not only share a CLB, but also our current journey in a home-based small group church.

Our friend Karla is a part of our small band of ragtag missional outcasts, having come out of the same CLB as we did. We met them there when they hosted a small group that we led some 10 or so years back. A little while ago, I loaned her a book from my review pile, telling her that since I hadn’t read it yet, if she was going to read it before me, she’d have to give me a quick review. In fact, I had a strong suspicion she’d enjoy it, being the Ann Lamott fan that she is. A few days later, she informed me that she didn’t want to ever return the book and was going to start writing notes in it. It’s a “thing”… you see, I’m fairly particular about my books. You know, not bending the covers or dog-earring the pages, marking them up, or using them as drink coasters — normal book-care stuff — so she was taking a shot at me since she evidently has some inexplicably different views on the use and treatment of books. Ownership of the book may remain in dispute, but I’m hoping that possession isn’t necessarily “9/10 of the law.” Either way, fortunately, her review of Sara Miles’ Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion follows.

Scot McKnight’s wife Kris refers to his latest book, The Blue Parakeet, as “one of his readable ones.” The book is, in fact, one of his most readable, which is most fortunate given the importance of the subject matter. Although Scot McKnight is something of an avid birder, the book’s title is really only a metaphor, not a literal description of the subject at hand. For that, the books subtitle, “Rethinking How You Read the Bible” sums it up. And if you notice that the image of the book cover glows just a little, it’s no accident — the book deserves a glowing review.