Warren Smith’s Quarterly List of Books Worth Noting
A roundup of biographies and memoirs on faith, fatherhood, friendship, and finding purpose.
Editor’s Note: Most weekends we feature this “Editor’s Notebook” column. MinistryWatch President Warren Smith will offer his opinion on stories in the week’s news or, sometimes, offer a behind-the-scenes look at how and why we do what we do. However, once a quarter (or so), we use the ‘Notebook” for Warren Smith’s list of books either released in the past quarter, or those he just got around to reading this quarter. To read last quarter’s list, click here.
The Change Agent: Pat McCrory’s Rise, Reckoning, and Legacy by Andrew Dunn.
North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory may have been on his way to becoming president of the United States. He was right of center, but not a hardcore conservative. A successful mayor of Charlotte, and a successful governor — until he took a stand against transgender bathrooms. It cost him reelection in a tight race and left him a man without a party. This highly readable biography by longtime political reporter Andrew Dunn should be required reading for anyone interested in politics at any level — local, state, or national.
This book is also a reminder to me — and I hope to you — that if you are going to comment about politics, you should get involved. Less than half of Americans know the names of their own mayors, and a far fewer percentage know the names of their city or town council members — although at the state and local level is where a whole lot of governing gets done.
Gentleman in a Dustcoat: A Biography of John Crowe Ransom by Thomas Daniel Young.
John Crowe Ransom was one of the great English language poets of the 20th century as well as one of its most insightful literary critics. He was also the leader of the “12 Southerners” who wrote the Agrarian manifesto “I’ll Take My Stand,” which will celebrate its 100th anniversary in a few years. Because I did my master’s thesis on Andrew Lytle, one of Ransom’s closest friends and collaborators, this book was particularly interesting to me. I have met and/or read extensively many of the people mentioned in this definitive biography. But even if you haven’t, this book offers a helpful reflection on the nature of art and its relationship to reality, and why — in the end and in the words of Annie Dillard — “art is all there is.”
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The Wisdom of Sleep: How Rest Reveals God’s Truth and Revives Weary Souls by Brett McCracken
Brett McCracken has written a book I didn’t want to read but I’m glad I did. As someone who sleeps seven hours a night (or less — sometimes much less), I need regular reminders of the key message of this book: sleep is not merely a biological necessity but a spiritual discipline that teaches Christians humility, dependence, limits, and trust in God. By embracing sleep rather than treating constant productivity as a virtue, we acknowledge that God is God and we are not.
The Father You Get – and the Ones You Make, Believe in, and Become by Patton Dodd
Patton Dodd’s “The Father You Get” is a memoir about “father hunger” — the gap between the father Dodd longed for and the unreliable, alcoholic father he actually had. He traces how he tried to fill that gap through imagined fathers, mentors, and ultimately his Christian understanding of God as Father, before confronting the issue again when he became a father himself. The book’s central question is whether we can accept the father we were given, reckon honestly with his failures, and break the cycle by becoming the kind of father we wish we had.
Who Needs Friends: An Unscientific Examination of Male Friendship Across America by Andrew McCarthy
Most people who know Andrew McCarthy at all know him as an actor in the so-called “Brat Pack” that starred in such movies as St. Elmo’s Fire and Weekend at Bernie’s. But in the 1990s, he reinvented himself as a best-selling author. His newest book, “Who Needs Friends,” begins with his son asking, “You don’t really have any friends, do you, Dad?”
That question forces McCarthy to confront how adulthood, isolation, geography, and his own reluctance to be vulnerable had eroded his friendships. He then drives nearly 10,000 miles across America, reconnecting with old friends and talking with dozens of men about friendship. His central discovery is that men need friendship more than they often admit, but male culture tends to make vulnerability, emotional disclosure, and simply reaching out difficult. Friendship requires intentionality — showing up, doing things together, and being willing to acknowledge that we need one another.
The Good Hand: A Memoir of Work, Brotherhood, and Transformation in an American Boomtown by Michael Patrick F. Smith.
Another book about friendship, but much grittier. Michael Patrick F. Smith’s “The Good Hand” is a memoir of his year working in the oil fields of Williston, North Dakota, during the Bakken fracking boom, where he arrives broke, directionless, and carrying the scars of a violent, dysfunctional childhood. Through 14-hour shifts, dangerous work, drinking, fights, and friendships with a rough-edged community of oil-field workers, Smith discovers a form of brotherhood and dignity through demanding physical labor. The book is ultimately less about fracking than about masculinity, work, and the possibility of remaking oneself. Smith hopes hard work will “burn him clean,” and comes to understand a “good hand” as someone who shows up, carries his share of the burden, does honest work well, and makes the people around him better.
EDITOR’S NOTE: I should warn you that these last two books are R-rated for language. But if you are not offended by a bit of steely Anglo-Saxon, of the kind spoken by Americans everywhere, McCarthy’s and Smith’s books have much to offer. I should also note, in a spirit of full disclosure, that both Patton Dodd and Brett McCracken are friends — and I recommend their books anyway.
