Categories
The End of Many Books

The Last of the Lost Boys

by N. D. Wilson

Finished this with the kids. Inventive time-traveling, though I wasn’t always sure of the “rules,” numerous thick characters, and a satisfying end to the series.

4 of 5 stars

Categories
The End of Many Books

Death by Living

by N. D. Wilson

Provokes your eyes to see. And to cry. My eyes were busy with both blessings. (2013)


Finished again in July 2015. I was not less blessed by the second reading, though more excited for non-dualism and daily deaths.


Finished again in May 2018 with the L2L leaders at our church. Also reread Empire of Bones at the same time. Glorious.

5 of 5 stars

Categories
The End of Many Books

Empire of Bones

by N. D. Wilson

2018: What Lewis’ That Hideous Strength is to The Abolition of Man, so N. D.’s Empire of Bones is to Death by Living. I reread this along with the Capstone class at our school for sake of leadership training. Great truths enfleshed in great characters. Makes you want to sing while they cut your heart out. You have a life. The time to spend it is now.

And I forgot how much I really am interested in the fourth volume hopefully coming soon.

5 of 5 stars


2013: If you’re looking for a stout, fictional story to complement the philosophy and autobiography in Death by Living, then look here. In other words, this book will fire up your laughing and life-spending cylinders.

Categories
The End of Many Books

Leepike Ridge

by N. D. Wilson

Really great, whether or not you’ve read The Odyssey!

I think I’ve read all of N.D.’s other books, and am not sure what took me so long to get to this one, his first novel. I read it for our kids, two of whom had already read it, and even teared up a bit at the end. 

“You should look under the bed.”

5 of 5 stars

Categories
A Shot of Encouragement

Generals and Shepherds

Great distinction between generals and shepherds:

“Rupert Greeves was no general. Generals spend men. Generals expect sacrifice from those who stand with them. Shepherds do not lead their sheep into battle with wolves. They fight alone.”

—N. D. Wilson in Empire of Bones

Categories
A Shot of Encouragement

Spoonfuls of Judgment

Even as a woman who survived exclusively on mail-order cookie dough and who never got dressed before dinner, she still managed to aggressively judge others.

—N.D. Wilson, The Outlaws of Time: The Legend of Sam Miracle, 24-25

Categories
The End of Many Books

Writers to Read

by Douglas Wilson

This book made me want to read more, write more, buy more books, and be more of a man with more of a life. For realz.

Wilson quotes Chesterton as saying, “in anything that does cover the whole of your life—in your philosophy and your religion—you must have mirth. If you do not have mirth you will certainly have madness.”

Read this book and escape the madness.

5 of 5 stars

Categories
A Shot of Encouragement

No Give, No Glory

Glory is sacrifice, glory is exhaustion, glory is having nothing left to give. Almost. It is death by living.

—N.D. Wilson, Death by Living, 180-181
Categories
A Shot of Encouragement

Not What We Once Were

By His grace, we are the water made wine. We are the dust made flesh made dust made flesh again. We are the whores made brides and the thieves made saints and the killers made apostles. We are the dead made living.

—N.D. Wilson, Death by Living, 167

Categories
A Shot of Encouragement

There Are No Rough Drafts

Living means writing your every word and action and thought and drool spot down in forever. It means writing your story within the Story. It means being terrible at it. It means failing and knowing that, somehow, all of our messes will still contribute, that the creative God has merely given Himself a greater challenge–drawing glory from our clumsy botching of the past. We are like factory workers in a slapstick comedy, standing at our positions beside the too-fast conveyor belt that flings the future and all of our possible actions at us. Corn syrup and food coloring everywhere (along with cheese and ceramic figurines).

—N. D. Wilson, Death by Living, 166