Boy, it’s hard to believe 2021 is already over. At least there was some good reading to be had.

2021 Books

• Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, Kenneth Bailey

  I borrowed this one, but bought a copy after finishing it. Bailey investigates many of aspects of the narratives of Jesus’s life, shedding new light based on traditional Middle Eastern context. Often, these illuminated the story in a totally new way. As a short teaser, consider what Luke had to say about the shepherds who visited newly-born Jesus and his family: “They left, glorifying and praising God for everything they had seen.” How can that be reconciled with our depiction of Jesus’s birth scene as pitiful and lamentable? (Spoiler alert: it can’t be, and Bailey addresses it right at the beginning of the book.)

• Small Farmer’s Journal, Volume 44, Number 1
• Small Farmer’s Journal, Volume 44, Number 2

• Small Farmer’s Journal, Volume 41, Number 3

  I got these on loan from a friend. They strike me as the paper version of sitting on the front porch with an old-timer, asking how the summer has been. A lovely, slow stroll through farm life, new and old.

• Farm Mechanics: Farm Machinery and Its Use, Herbert Shearer

  After reading this, I became the proud owner of several force-multiplying hand tools: a power pull, a farm jack, and a post puller, all of which have paid for themselves because of what I didn’t have to hire someone to do with heavy machinery!

• Lilith, George MacDonald

  Trippy, excellent.

• The Art of Natural Cheesemaking, David Asher

  An interesting take, but in the end, I don’t plan to adopt it. I failed at kefir mozzarella too many times :’(.

• Power Failure: Christianity in the Culture of Technology, Albert Borgmann

  More classic Borgmann: heady, but compelling.

• Radical Brewing, Randy Mosher

  A good introduction to brewing, really set the stage for Historical Brewing Techniques.

• The Patient Ferment of the Early Church, Alan Kreider

  Eye-opening: how were Christian communities and institutions different in the 300 years before Constantine merged it with the Roman empire? Very different, turns out.

• The Violence of Love, Plough Quarterly #27 Spring 2021
• Shadow of the Torturer, Gene Wolfe

• Claw of the Conciliator, Gene Wolfe

  The first two books in the Book of the New Sun series. Recommended by a friend – really a mind-bender! Anyhow, after finishing the series below, I plan to read the coda, “Urth of the New Sun”, too.

• Creatures, Plough Quarterly #28 Summer 2021
• A Timber Framer’s Workshop, Steve Chappell
• Moving Heavy Things, Jan Adkins
• Home Economics, Wendell Berry

• Historical Brewing Techniques: The Lost Art of Farmhouse Brewing, Lars Marius Garshol

  Maybe the best read of the year. A brewing book that made me laugh, do mental math, and cry, all in the same chapter.

• Sword of the Lictor, Gene Wolfe
• Water at the Roots, Philip Britts, ed Jennifer Harries
• Beyond Borders, Plough Quarterly #29 Fall 2021
• Citadel of the Autarch, Gene Wolfe

• Peace Like a River, Leif Enger

  Too good! So much to enjoy and take home from the compelling characters in this book.

• Keeping a Family Cow, Joann S. Grohmann
• The Farmstead Culture Guide To Fermenting, Kathryn Lukas and Shane Peterson