Book Review

Book Review – Sir Ernest Shackleton’s South
[caption id="attachment_45864" align="aligncenter" width="610"] Photo Credit: Library of Congress[/caption] Before the space age dawned, the great frontiers for adventure and exploration were the polar regions. Sir Ernest Shackleton was part of two expeditions which set "Furthest South" records in 1902 and 1909, striving for the South Pole. After Captain Robert Scott's death on the way back…
Interesting Books 2019
This post may contain affiliate links. When you use them to purchase, we receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. I’m a pretty avid reader. It’s part of my daily routine, and longer periods on vacation. Several years ago I started keeping a list of books I’d finished during the year; to…
Can We Get Your Vote for Love, Honor, and Virtue?
  This is the book we wrote by request - so many of our friends and readers asked for a resource they could trust to help their sons understand sexuality and purity in a Christian worldview. And now, it's up for a book award! Love, Honor, and Virtue has been nominated for the Christian Indie Book…
Review: The Vanishing American Adult
The Vanishing American Adult by Ben Sasse (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2017) - 306 pp I rarely read a book that leaves me thinking, “I agreed with every single point he raised.” This one comes awfully close. Before he was elected to the U.S. Senate, Ben Sasse was president of Midland University, a small…
The Preacher and the Presidents
Billy Graham Mingled but Didn't Mix Politics and Religion Book Review: Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy: The Preacher and the Presidents: Billy Graham in the White House (New York: Center Street, 2007). 413 pp.   For half a century, the evangelist from Charlotte was the defining figure in American evangelicalism. He was also the de facto…
Book Review – SAMUEL ADAMS: A LIFE by Ira Stoll
In a dinner party discussion of David McCullough’s recently released biography of John Adams, Ira Stoll volunteered that his favorite Adams was Sam. Everyone thought he meant the beer. Actually, Stoll admires the uncompromising and incorruptible Samuel Adams, who was an indifferent brewer but a zealous patriot. This volume is Stoll’s attempt to clear away…
When You Find That on Your Husband’s Phone
It's the conference season, so we're all over the place speaking and talking to people. It's an honor to hear their stories and to be invited into their lives. It's also heartbreaking, sometimes. We think the hardest part is talking to those whose marriages are in trouble. The grief is palpable. They look broken, injured,…
Miley Cyrus, MTV, and Why It Matters (A Lot) to Christian Families
For a couple of days, our personal Facebook feeds have been full of outraged posts and links about Miley Cyrus's reportedly (we didn't watch it) disgusting performance on MTV's VMA Awards. It was curious that the almost universal response among our friends was either shock (What in the world has happened to our world?) or…
Teaching Languages
This weekend we were at the HINTS Conference in Charlotte and I happened to have the most interesting conversation with Caryn Hommel of Excelerate Language. I thought I'd come back over and interview her so you guys could hear from her, too. Hi Caryn, tell me again why you believe the way most language programs work…
Character-Building Books for Boys
Someone just recently asked on our Facebook page: Do you have a list of book recommendations for building character and vocabulary? My son reads about 200 to 300 pages a day and I cannot keep up with the previewing. We had the same question when our oldest boys were younger. They could race through books…