Book Reviews Summaries by Rev. Kenton J. Kutney - Introduction

An Introduction:

Look, I know you're busy and reading takes up that precious time after which many other things are clamoring.  Even as you read this you may feel too rushed to continue. Please do.   

I can hardly even get a reply from some leaders about books they'd recommend without hounding them repeatedly - let alone getting them to share insights they have gleaned. That troubles me. It makes me wonder just how much we're really reading and how widely. 

How do you explore the interior world of your life,  peer into the mist of who we really are?  Can you Google that? (Actually, I did Google how to grow inwardly and came up with a site on ingrown toenails.) 

One of the best ways to grow is through studies of other lives - the flow of time over an emerging life and the wisdom that it draws out. 

We can learn a great deal from the lives of other leaders, through their study and through their stories. 

The way to become a better  writer, and speaker, is to read and write as much as you can. 

C.S. Lewis observed that, "In reading great literature I become a thousand men and yet remain myself...I see with a myriad of eyes, but it is still I who see ("An Experiment in Criticism"). 

This is not just a service to intellectual types. Stories shape us too.   I want to put that in the mix.  Reading widely is the key to enriching your life.  Put down that remote and try out a book.  Audiobooks might work well for you.  Audible.com, part of Amazon's network, has a vast selection from which to choose - especially if you are commuting or are exercising, for example.  Many of the great books were designed to be experienced out loud.  

"Read  everything  you  can— editorials,  short  stories,  histories, biographies, novels, poems, plays. The world around us is filled with words; take in as many as you can, and then give us some back."  (Prof.  Dorsey Armstrong, 

Purdue University: 

"Analysis and Critique:  

How to Engage and Write about Anything")

We welcome suggestions from your own favorite reading list.  Hopefully you are part of a reading group. This quest into good reads may give you some fresh books to pick from. Perhaps you could even start a reading group. Being a part of one has provided some of my best small group experiences. This will help you persevere in your reading as well as gain insights from one another.  

Our goal is to give you motivation and support in your reading.   We'll grow together because,  "We're better together,"  as someone once wisely said.