Publisher Weekly Best Books of the Year 2008: Religion

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“May you live in interesting times” is a quote commonly attributed to Confucius, probably erroneously, but Robert F. Kennedy did use it in a speech in 1966, adding a rueful twist: “Like it or not, we live in interesting times....” Regardless of your thinking on these current times, they are certainly anything but boring, and we feel the same about the books published this year.

Once again, we take the opportunity near year's end to review the year in books, highlighting the very best of what American publishing had to offer in fiction, poetry, nonfiction, comics, religion, lifestyle and children's. There were the authors we expected to deliver, and they did: Louise Erdrich with The Plague of Doves, Richard Price with Lush Life, Jhumpa Lahiri with Unaccustomed Earth, Lydia Millet with How the Dead Dream. A breakthrough surprise about cricket, Netherland by Joseph O'Neill, delighted us, while Tim Winton's Breath took ours away. We listened to our elders in How to Live: A Search for Wisdom from Old People; thought about our planet with The Soul of the Rhino; examined our history in The Hemingses of Monticello and Abraham Lincoln: A Life; and, thanks to Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw, we even considered Jesus for President.

1. Who On Earth Was Jesus? The Modern Quest For The Jesus Of History By David Boulton
   
   
   (religion and spirituality)
   
   "An impressive and evenhanded synthesis of historical Jesus scholarship."
   
   


2. Jesus For President By Shane Claiborne And Chris Haw
   
   
   (nonfiction, religion and spirituality)
   
   "A provocative book good for election year and beyond."
   
   


3. Culture Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling By Andy Crouch
   
   
   (religion and spirituality)
   
   "Research and theology blend in this call to do what's possible to create and preserve the good in all that humans fashion."
   
   


4. My Jesus Year: A Rabbi's Son Wanders The Bible Belt In Search Of His Own Faith By Benyamin Cohen
   
   
   (children books, religion and spirituality)
   
   "You don't need to be Jewish to enjoy this faith trip."
   
   


5. O2: Breathing New Life Into Faith By Richard Dahlstrom
   
   
   (religion and spirituality)
   
   "An original evangelical Christian voice counsels spiritual balance."
   
   


6. Sex And The Soul: Juggling Sexuality, Spirituality, Romance, And Religion On America's College Campuses By Donna Freitas
   
   
   (health, nonfiction, religion and spirituality)
   
   "Freitas, an occasional contributor to PW, plumbs a contemporary phenomenon with sensitivity and insight in a work that is attracting attention."
   
   


7. The Open Road: The Global Journey Of The 14th Dalai Lama By Pico Iyerv
   
   
   (history, religion and spirituality)
   
   "A brilliant pairing of writer and subject in this journalistic analysis of a compelling world religious figure."
   
   


8. The Wise Heart: A Guide To The Universal Teachings Of Buddhist Psychology By Jack Kornfield
   
   
   (health, religion and spirituality)
   
   "The well-respected teacher of insight meditation gets a little more self-disclosing in this comprehensive and friendly guidebook."
   
   


9. Reasons To Believe: One Man's Journey Among The Evangelicals And The Faith He Left Behind By John Marks
   
   
   (religion and spirituality)
   
   "A memoir of longing and doubt that tempers rejection with sympathy."
   
   


10. Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love Of This World For Crucifixion And Empire By Rita Nakashima Brock And Rebecca Ann Parker
    
    
    (religion and spirituality)
    
    "This humane and often beautiful study of faith, loss and hope straddles the boundary between historical discovery and spiritual writing."
    
    


11. Beyond Tolerance: Searching For Interfaith Understanding In America By Gustav Niebuhr
    
    
    (religion and spirituality)
    
    "The former longtime New York Times religion reporter tells remarkable stories of people reaching across religious lines."
    
    


12. Acedia & Me: A Marriage, Monks, And A Writer's Life By Kathleen Norris
    
    
    (health, religion and spirituality)
    
    "A beautiful memoir, and Norris's best book in years."
    
    


13. Liberty Of Conscience: In Defense Of America's Tradition Of Religious Equality By Martha Nussbaum
    
    
    (history, nonfiction, religion and spirituality)
    
    "A generous and engrossing history of the First Amendment's religion clauses as pillars of religious liberty."
    
    


14. The Twenty-piece Shuffle: Why The Poor And Rich Need Each Other By Greg Paul
    
    
    (religion and spirituality)
    
    "A life-changing look at how the poor and disenfranchised have much to offer Christians who think they have it all."
    
    


15. The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing And Why By Phyllis Tickle
    
    
    (religion and spirituality)
    
    "PW's founding religion editor, still on the trail of the topic, looks back in history to discern the future."
    
    


Source:
http://www.publishersweekly.com

Religion Fiction:

1. The Shape Of Mercy By Susan Meissner
   
   
   (literature and fiction, religion and spirituality)
   
   "This stunning and achingly romantic story draws on the Salem witch trials to transform a present-day relationship."
   
   


2. Christ The Lord: The Road To Cana By Anne Rice
   
   
   (literature and fiction, horror, religion and spirituality)
   
   "Rice's persuasive characterization sensitively balances the human and divine natures of the protagonist. "

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