Too Little Too Fast: Books I Read in 2025, Vol. V

 

NUMBER ONE IS WALKING: My Life in the Movies and Other Diversions
Steve Martin with drawings by Harry Bliss

[This book] is Steve Martin’s cinematic legacy  —  an illustrated memoir of his legendary acting career, with stories from his most popular films and artwork by New Yorker cartoonist Harry Bliss. Martin shares anecdotes from the sets of his beloved films  —  Father of the Bride, Roxanne, The Jerk, Three Amigos, and many more  —  bringing readers directly into his world. He shares charming tales of antics, moments of inspiration, and exploits with the likes of Paul McCartney, Diane Keaton, Robin Williams, and Chevy Chase. Martin details his forty years in the movie biz, as well as his stand-up comedy, banjo playing, writing, and cartooning, all with his unparalleled wit. With gorgeously illustrated cartoons and single-panel “diversions” in Steve and Harry’s signature style, Number One Is Walking is full of the everyday moments that make up a movie star’s life, capturing Steve Martin’s singular humor and acclaimed career in film.

This has been on my to-be-read list at the library for a year or two. When I was close to being done with Gay Girl, Good God, I had the library put Number One... on hold for me so I could pick it up when I returned the other. I took it off the reservation shelf, started leafing through it, and saw that there were plenty of drawings and not so much writing, so I immediately went to the biography section of the library and found what will be my next read (stay tuned). Good thing, too, because I finished THIS book in a little more than an hour. I certainly enjoyed it, but Martin needs to write a whole lot more about a whole lot more memories of his movie career.

First Line: By 1980, I viewed my stand-up comedy act  -  which I had been doing for about seventeen years  -  as a ballerina might view her evening's performance: "I know the steps; they're the same every night."

Page 56 / Line 5: Wow!

A Good Line from Somewhere in the Middle: 

Last Line: Me three!

An Amazing Change Amazingly Described: Books I Read in 2025, Vol. IV

 

GAY GIRL, GOOD GOD: The Story of Who I Was and Who God Has Always Been
Jackie Hill Perry

Jackie grew up fatherless and experienced gender confusion. She embraced masculinity and homosexuality with every fiber of her being. She knew that Christians had a lot to say about all of the above. But was she supposed to change herself? How was she supposed to stop loving women, when homosexuality felt more natural to her than heterosexuality ever could? At age nineteen, Jackie came face-to-face with what it meant to be made new. And not in a church, or through contact with Christians. God broke in and turned her heart toward Him right in her own bedroom in light of His gospel. In this book, Jackie Hill Perry shares her own story, offering practical tools that helped her in the process of finding wholeness. 

First off, let's get one thing clear: I LOVE the way this girl writes! Even though it's a work of prose, it feels poetic. Her descriptions of Bible stories and personal events are both rich with imagery and metaphor. Most of the book is biographical: the story of Jackie's upbringing and eventual transformation. But then she includes three chapters at the end as a kind of appendix: a resource to help us all frame our thoughts about sexuality, identity, and the gospel. Two Thumbs Up! 4 Stars!

First Line: I wrote this book out of love  -  a common word used so out of context on most days.

Page 56 / Line 5: She'd been speaking for what might've been a minute, about what?

A Good Line from Somewhere in the Middle: Quieted and listening, my mind held in it this sentence: "Jackie, you have to believe My Word is true, even if it contradicts how you feel."

Last Line: So because He is the same God that did something wonderful to the soul of the psalmist, and the same God that did an equally beautiful thing to my own, He is, even now, more than able to do the same for every soul alive.

Things Are Heating Up Between Our Heroes: Books I Read in 2025, Vol. III

 

THE END GAME: A Brit in the FBI Novel
Catherine Coulter and J. T. Ellison

FBI agent Nicholas Drummond and his partner, Mike Caine, are deep into an investigation of COE  -  Celebrants of the Earth  -  a violent group known for widespread bombings of power grids and oil refineries across the country. While the agents investigate a tip about a possible bombing plot, the Bayway Refinery in New Jersey explodes. Nicholas and Mike race to the scene and barely escape being killed by a secondary device. CIA agent Vanessa Grace is undercover in COE; her assignment is to steal the tiny undetectable bombs invented by COE's leader. Someone else has infiltrated COE: the infamous assassin Zahir Damari, whose mission is not only to steal the bombs but also to assassinate the president and vice president.

When I start to read a novel, it's always a challenge to learn the names and relationships of all the characters. And at the beginning of a book like this, you never know how many pages it will be before the person you just created a mental image for is going to get killed...or you find out that they're not that important. Maybe that's why I like reading series of books like this and Longmire and Alex Cross. At least I know who the important good guys are. As for the comment about "things are heating up" in my title, Drummond and Caine go past mutual respect and start experimenting with mutual intimacy this time around. ("Mike" is the nickname of the very-much-female Michaela Caine.) Fun Fact: Each of this book's 82 chapters is titled with one of the 82 moves in "The Game of the Century" between Bobby Fischer and Donald Byrne, played in 1956.

First Line: Zahir Damari watched the coyote turn to face the ragged band of Hondurans on the sloping Texas side of the Rio Grande.

Page 56 / Line 5: He shook his head.

A Good Line from Somewhere in the Middle: So many people in this world filled with hate, so many people who see violence as the only solution, who see murdering other people with dissimilar views as the right thing to do, as the only thing to do.

Last Line: I need your help.

The Unbreakable Boy: You'll Laugh. You'll Cry. You'll Want to Be Like Him

 

THE UNBREAKABLE BOY
A Film by Jon Gunn

"A young boy is born with both a rare brittle-bone disease and autism. But what makes him truly unique is his joyous, funny, life-affirming worldview that transforms and unites everyone around him."

Beloved and I saw the trailer for this when we saw The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever and immediately said to each other, "Yep!"

And we are both very glad we did.

It begins with some voiceover narration by the autistic son, Austin, so you aren't wrong in thinking this is a story about a kid who was born behind the eight ball and how he becomes a great person. And it IS that. But it's also the story of a broken mom and an alcoholic dad and a younger brother who is amazingly well-adjusted. It's about optimism and empathy. It's about...well...it's about the best film I've seen in a while.

And oh yeah...it's a true story.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *

I know I said "You'll Cry" in this post's title, but don't get me wrong. This is no sappy "tear-jerker" of a movie. The dampness of my eyes was more a result of joy than anything else.

When we left the theater, I turned my phone back on and immediately started researching Jacob Laval, the actor who portrayed Austin. No exaggeration, he was jaw-droppingly amazing. I seriously think a Best Actor Oscar nomination is in order.

So yes. Yes you should go see this as soon as possible.

Rethinking God: Books I Read in 2025, Vol. II

 

CURVEBALL: When Your Faith Takes Turns You Never Saw Coming, or, How I Stumbled and Tripped My Way to Finding a Bigger God
Peter Enns

World tragedies, devastating personal losses, the incomprehensible vastness of the universe next to the fragility of our planet  -  there's no preparing for the inevitable curveballs blowing past us from all angles. We're often left doubting God, the Bible, our faith, and even ourselves. Many Christian traditions see these crises as problems that need to be overcome, something Peter Enns tried and failed at. But he found help from an unexpected source  -  the Bible itself. Rather than denounce our reservations, the Bible models how we need to face them and wrestle with them. Rethinking faith according to life's evidence is part of God's plan. God wants us to question, because doing so actually leads us to building a stronger, more resilient faith.

I read this alongside a friend who was going through our church's elder apprenticeship. I was told the author was well-known for having "deconstructed" his faith, so I was kind of On Guard as I read this. It was interesting to slowly realize that he NEEDED to deconstruct his faith; it was originally a faith in a small, comprehensible diety that didn't match the Bible's picture of a glorious, infinite, too-wonderful-for-words being of perfect love and justice. The author seems to have had trouble accepting a God who is beyond comprehension, but dabbling in quantum physics seems to have cured him of the worship of his own intellect...and that's a good thing. So...though I started reading this with a readiness to rip it apart, I end it saying to Mr. Enns, "It's about TIME you figured it out that you can't figure it out!"

First Line: I spent much of my life unknowingly abdicating the task of taking full responsibility for my faith.

Page 56 / Line 5: John's Gospel (probably written in the 90s CE) comes somewhat close to this way of speaking, but we generally don't find this language in the New Testament.

A Good Line from Somewhere in the Middle: That is the God I want  -  not the God of my logical deductions, not the God who behaves according to Newton-like, predictable, deterministic, cause-and-effect, theological laws, but the God I cannot control.

Last Line: And what we decide will make all the difference.

Move Over, Anne Frank: Books I Read in 2025, Vol. I

 

THE BOOK THIEF
Markus Zusak

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still. By her brother's graveside, Liesel Meminger's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Grave Digger's Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordian-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found. But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up and closed down.

I borrowed this from a Little Free Library and sat it on my To Be Read shelf for quite some time. I picked it up and started reading about two-thirds of the way into December 2024. The next day, I had picked up SweetCheeks from school and was driving her to our house for a sleepover when she began talking about the book she had just started reading and that its narrator was Death. I gasped and said, "The Book Thief?" We had both started reading this book on the same day! And it really is an engrossing work. After getting through the first chapter with Death's weird depiction of emotions and people as different colors, the story itself is rich and richly told. It spent some time on the New York Times bestseller list, and I'm not surprised. A very satisfying read.

First Line: First the colors.

Page 56 / Line 5: It was 1936.

A Good Line from Somewhere in the Middle: The words landed on the table and positioned themselves in the middle.

Last Line: I am haunted by humans.

Calling Jesus Names: Books I Read in 2024, Vol. XXVII

THE NAME ABOVE EVERY NAME
Herbert C. Gabhart

Names are interesting, beautiful, significant, descriptive, and hereditary. ... The multiple names of Jesus and the many descriptive titles given Him run the gamut of everything from the One at whose name "every knee shall bow...and every tongue confess" to the One despised and rejected, and from the world's greatest revolutionary to the Prince of peace. ... This [book] touches base with each day of the year. I feel confident that my enthusiasm at the beginning of the odyssey will not have lessened when I come to the final page. On the contrary, I feel that it will have become even more alive and vibrant because I will have described Him in so many verbal frames, cameos, and contexts that I can say with Thomas, "My Lord and my God" (John 20:28).

This year-long devotional book was one of several volumes from Southwestern Publishing that we were gifted after having allowed a small group of college-aged boys sleep in our basement for the summer. The young men were traveling through Southern Indiana selling the books (encyclopedias, a Bible dictionary, books on study techniques and I can't remember WHAT all else) as their summer job. This particular book was first published in 1986, but it FEELS like it was written in the 1950s. Some of the "names" of Jesus are a reeeeeal stretch in terms of being a Biblical designation for Christ, and Mr. Gabhart quotes a lot of hymns and cheesy poems. But all in all, most of the readings gave me something worthy to reflect on for the day and I don't love Jesus any less for having gone through them.

First Line: Some things in life cling to us with unbreakable tenacity.

Page 56 / Line 5: A carpenter in those days was a maker of tools, household utensils, and generally considered a worker in wood.

A Good Line from Somewhere in the Middle: Spiritually, the yoke ... calls us to be submissive, responsive, and cooperative to the instructions and leadership of Christ.

Last Line: The end is not even in view.