Marvin Olasky Book Recommendations & Book Mentions

Marvin Olasky

Don Winslow's City on Fire (Morrow, 2022) is well-reviewed and action-packed. The crime novel's realistic detail gave me a different understanding of Providence (Rhode Island's, not God's), but it's not for everyone: Barrels of gritty violence and language. #Olaskybooks

Marvin Olasky

The best presidential biography I’ve recently read is Troy Senik’s A Man of Iron (Simon and Schuster, 2022). His subject: Grover Cleveland, the only president to lose a reelection bid but win the next time. Voters appreciated Cleveland's character and honesty. #OlaskyBooks

Marvin Olasky

Jerry Muller's Professor of Apocalypse (Princeton, 2022) is a bio of Jacob Taubes, a Jewish academic fan of Paul's epistles because he saw them affirming our helplessness re. sin (for Taubes, multiple adulteries). Taubes missed Paul's point: Only God saves sinners. #Olaskybooks

Marvin Olasky

Ilana Horwitz’s God, Grades and Graduation (Oxford, 2022) contains good news for church/synagogue/mosque members and home schoolers: The subtitle trumpets Religion’s Surprising Impact on Academic Success. #olaskybooks @HorwitzIlana

Marvin Olasky

The Library of America brought out last year The Ray Bradbury Collection, a terrific 2-volume assortment of stories & novellas by the God-haunted science fiction writer. A priest in one story speaks of leaving old sins on earth— "and on to Mars to find new sins." #Olaskybooks

Marvin Olasky

Alan Furst's historical spy novels are terrific bedtime reading for adults. I've enjoyed the first 5 in the series, all set in 1930s-early 1940s Europe: Night Soldiers (1988), Dark Star (1991), The Polish Officer (1995), The World at Night (1996), Red Gold (1999). #Olaskybooks

Marvin Olasky

Comedian Henny Youngman would have fit perfectly into the Twitter age. Known as the “king of one-liners,” he died 25 Februarys ago at age 91. His happy marriage to Sadie lasted 59 years, which is why his most famous line—“take my wife, please”—was not cruel. (More to come.)

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Marvin Olasky

The New Science of the Enchanted Universe: An Anthropology of Most of Humanity by Marshall Sahliins (Princeton, 2022) isn't great writing, but the overall point is important—people throughout human history have not accepted a disenchanted existence. #Olaskybooks

Marvin Olasky

Bob Dylan’s The Philosophy of Modern Song (Simon & Schuster, 2022) has amusing musings on 66 songs ranging from “Pancho and Lefty” to “Mack the Knife,” “Blue Bayou” to “Strangers in the Night”-- and don't forget “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy. #Olaskybooks

Marvin Olasky

Michael Brenner’s In Hitler’s Munich: Jews, the Revolution, and the Rise of Nazism (Princeton, 2022) reports how Jews and many others briefly created a socialist government, and Jews got the blame. (Most were not on the far left, but visible leaders became targets.) #Olaskybooks