What Did You Read in June 2024?

I hope everyone had a good month of reading! I further hope that (1) you will find something of interest in my reading list and (2) you’ll share what you read.

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Sideswipe (Hoke Moseley #3, 1987) Charles Willeford

The penultimate book in the Hoke Moseley series finds the Miami homicide detective experiencing a midlife crisis. Hoke’s in a rut at work, his partner is out on maternity leave, he’s caring for his two teenage daughters, and he feels pressure from his ex-wife for alimony payments even though she’s married to a pro baseball player making six figures. Desperate for change, Hoke moves 80 miles north to Singer Island but finds he can’t escape being a cop. In the meantime, career criminal Troy Louden meets up with a clueless retiree who’s ready to help Troy in his next illegal venture. Willeford’s crime novels may not contain the same hardboiled elements of other writers, but the realism of life makes the books believable and lived-in. Plus they’re often bitingly funny.

From the photo:

The Artistic Sphere: The Arts in Neo-Calvinist Perspective (2024) Roger D. Henderson and Marleen Hengelaar-Rookmaaker, editors

Even from the church’s early days, Christians have often had troubled relationships with the arts, particularly the visual arts. Protestants have frequently refrained from images (particularly in worship), seeking to obey the second commandment. Calvinists in particular are cited as leading the charge to have little or no visual arts in worship, but is this view historically accurate? How should Christians approach the arts? Most anthologies are usually a mixed bag, and The Artistic Sphere is no exception, not so much in quality, but in audience. Many of the book’s chapters are intended for the layman with little background in art. Others seem to require a degree not so much in theology or philosophy, but rather the dreaded language of academia. The most helpful entries for me are those by Roger D. Henderson, Hans Rookmaaker, and Victoria Emily Jones. For anyone (Christian or otherwise) interested in the arts, The Artistic Sphere is worth a look.

Nicholas Nickleby (1839) Charles Dickens

Sure, Nicholas Nickleby is overblown and melodramatic, but man, does Dickens keep the pages turning! You can find the plot description elsewhere, but in my journey to read all of Dickens’s fiction, this third novel has been the most enjoyable.

The Complete Dick Tracy Volume 3: 1935-1936 (2007) Chester Gould

Gould slowly refines both his storytelling and his drawing style in this volume. Tracy appears less awkward yet unflinching in his war on crime, except for one storyline (the most unbelievable part of the book) in which he seems to soften in dealing with criminals. Yet the villains grow in nastiness, and Gould’s ability to juggle plot threads and develop cliffhangers is growing.

Shooting Midnight Cowboy: Art, Sex, Loneliness, Liberation, and the Making of a Dark Classic (2021) Glenn Frankel

Midnight Cowboy is not one of my favorite films, but I recognize how groundbreaking it was in 1969 and how it continues to influence films today. I read the book primarily because Glenn Frankel’s writing is so good. I am in awe.

Forty Lashes Less One (1972) Elmore Leonard

Speaking of good writing, here’s another Western by Elmore Leonard from the Library of America collection of Leonard’s Westerns. Forty Lashes Less One is less of a traditional Western and more of a prison story in the West. As Yuma Prison is about to be closed with its inmates transferred to a new prison, Mr. Manley, a former preacher, is named the interim administrator. Believing that even the worst criminals can be reformed, Manley sets his sights on rescuing two murderers: Harold Jackson, a black former Marine, and Raymond San Carlos, an Indian-Mexican whose father fought with Geronimo. But before he can reform them, Manley has to try to keep these men from killing each other. Meanwhile, a group of inmates plans a prison break involving two female prisoners. This one has a little of everything, and Leonard shows why he was a master storyteller.

Things Unseen: A Systematic Introduction to the Christian Faith and Reformed Theology (1935-36/2020) J. Gresham Machen

Six years before C.S. Lewis began a series of radio broadcasts that became the basis for the apologetical book Mere Christianity, theologian and Princeton Seminary professor J. Gresham Machen delivered several radio addresses introducing audiences to systematic theology. If the term “systematic theology” scares you off, don’t worry. These talks are very approachable and may be even more relevant now than they were nearly 90 years ago.

Not Even the Dead (2020) Juan Gómez Bárcena (Katie Whittemore, translator)

This novel begins in 16th-century colonial Mexico and ends much later chronicling the quest of a former soldier named Juan de Toñanes. Juan is hired to hunt down a renegade Indian accused of spreading dangerous philosophical and possibly theological beliefs. Juan’s journey is filled with devastation, nightmares, humor, and many stream-of-consciousness digressions. Calling the book a fever-dream cross between Don Quixote and James Joyce probably isn’t too far off the mark. Often confusing, sometimes brilliant, Not Even the Dead is a relatively short book (300 pages) that required a lot from me, but it was ultimately worth it.

Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley (1999) Peter Guralnick

One of the saddest books I’ve ever read. Peter Guralnick’s second volume in his massive biography of Elvis (which began with Last Train to Memphis) is both tremendous and tragic.

Okay, the comments are open, so let me know what you read in June 2024. Happy reading in July!