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 :)

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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 their friendship, romance, disability, and a broken world.

This book was a treat and had me quite sentimental. I even cried several times while reading. Well done, Gabrielle Zevin!

If you can get through the first 50 pages, 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 discover one of the clearest pictures of human nature trying 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.