Here is a book that I have never read.
It has been recommended by my good friend Josh Young from California.
The life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Eric Mataxas.
I have read about this remarkable figure, a pastor and teacher who lived through the Nazi regime of the thirties .
This suggested title is a moving tribute to a man, rock solid in his Christian convictions, who sealed his testimony in blood a few weeks before the collapse of Nazi rule.
As the dog days of summer 2011 come to an end, this book might just be enough to wake us up to the task that lies ahead as we gear up for the challenge of the new church year.
Let me know what you think.
Ian
Here is a title of a short biography that will surely bless all our ladies. It is "By Searching: a journey from doubt to faith"
The Author is Isobel Kuhn.
Packed into a little over a hundred pages is the story of a party-princess whose path in life was diverted and whose heart was wooed and eventually won by the love of God.
She begins her journey in Vancouver Canada in the swinging-twenties and concludes her mission among the Lisu tribes- people where she and her husband served God for forty years.
A faith epic, written in a wonderfully, readable style.
As fresh and applicable today as it was when first published in 1960.
Ian
There is no way to adequately describe the third world to someone who has never been there. Nor is there any way to fully understand life in Stalinist Russia to those who never lived through the period.
"The court of the Red Tsar" by Simon Sebag Montefiore, will take you back in time to a place and cause you to experience a life as acutely as pen, corroborated facts and superb writing can do.
If you are like me, spell bound to the last page, you will be profoundly thankful that you were ever born in a land and to a way of life that has been influenced by the gospel.
You may also thank God that you are able to sip your Espresso instead of spooning gruel in a Siberian Salt mine.
Ian
My friend who does the technical side of my web came up with a catchy logo for BWI: Espresso and Biscotti.
I thought that this week I should recommend a daily title that you could read as you sip your coffee.
Today is "The Dream and the Tomb" by Robert Payne.
This book is a dramatic, colourful and totally gripping saga of the Crusades, a little known period in the history of the church.
I picked this book up when on my travels in the States and read it in two sittings.
Payne is a master of his subject and a brilliant story teller.
Make this volume a must in your christian library.
Ian
