A very Sola Panel survey (Paul Grimmond)

One of the things we’re doing as we wrap up the year here at Sola Panel is to ask our contributors to share some of their highlights for the year from the world of reading and the web. Over the next couple of weeks leading up to Christmas, each of the Sola Panelists will share some of their reading, listening and viewing from the last 12 months. Here’s Paul Grimmond’s contribution:

1. Three best Christian books of 2009:

   • Tim Chester, You can change
   • Andreas Köstenberger and Tom Schreiner, Women in the Church
   • Tedd Tripp, Shepherding a Child’s Heart

2. Top stretching theological read of the year:

   • Doug Wilson, Reformed is not enough

3. Best fiction of 2009:

   I have hardly read any fiction this year (and what I have read has been rubbish). But I will mention some kids’ books:

   • I have thoroughly enjoyed reading Emily Rodda’s Deltora Quest series with my eight-year-old son
   • My five-year-old and I have read and re-read Bob Graham’s Greetings from Sandy Beach. (We laugh about the Disciples of Death every time. If you haven’t me them before, I would encourage you to do so, posthaste).

4. Best non-theological non-fiction of 2009:

   • Maggie Hamilton, What’s happening to our girls? (sobering and important).

5. Favourite Matthias Media release of the year:

   • Modesty prevents me from answering this question. (I mention this because no-one else will, but I have to get a plug in somehow. Sorry if you clicked on all the links!) (Here’s the US store link!)

6. Best website(s) discovered this past year:

   • Definitely How to write badly well (this never fails to make me laugh out loud).

7. Three best sermons or other audio downloads heard this year (individual talks or series; could be from preachers you hear locally, and not just the overseas heroes):

   This is tricky for me as I don’t listen to many sermons online. But here are a couple of things I found interesting or helpful:

   • The two talks from Don Carson at the Different by Design Conference in 2009 were excellent.
   • I also found Doug Wilson’s reflections on Calvinism from the Desiring God Conference stimulating.

8. Most memorable article(s) you’ve read this year:

   • David Foster Wallace, ‘Tense Present: Democracy, English and the Wars over Usage’. (This is the kind of geeky, writer stuff that I read now that I’m at Matthias Media. It’s nothing Christian, but if you want an example of a brilliantly written, engaging piece of argument, it’s hard to go past this).

9. Book of the year and why:

   • If you’re talking the book that had the biggest impact on the way that I live my life, it was probably Tripp’s, Shepherding a Child’s Heart. The principles in this book helped me to reshape the way I discipline my children, and has led to many fruitful conversations with my kids about how much I love them, and how much God loves them.