Enheduana, Sophus Helle
Finished January 26, 2026. Rating 5/7
The world's first named author was a woman—a Mesopotamian high priestess whose poems were studied in scribal schools for centuries before being forgotten when her culture shifted toward male-dominated religion. Helle's translation and essays illuminate not just her poetry but also ancient ideas about images, existence, and personhood that reshape how we might read Genesis 1.
Slow Productivity, Cal Newport
Finished January 24, 2026. Rating 6/7
Newport offers an antidote to pseudoproductivity through three principles—do fewer things, work at a natural pace, obsess over quality—arguing that sustainable, meaningful work requires rejecting constant busyness. The advice is genuinely helpful even if it underestimates survivorship bias and overestimates how much agency most workers actually have.
Paul: A Biography, N. T. Wright
Finished January 12, 2026. Rating 6/7
Wright's biography rescues Paul from caricature and presents him as a relentless, brash church-planter who created radically egalitarian communities—and reading it made me feel less alone in wondering whether all my work is worth it.
Renewing the Christian Mind, Dallas Willard
Finished January 9, 2026. Rating 6/7
Willard's emphasis on transformation over transaction remains valuable, but his individualistic framework doesn't adequately address systemic evil or the political implications of the kingdom.
Among Others, Jo Walton
Finished December 28, 2025. Rating 5/7
A slow, journal-style coming-of-age story about a disabled Welsh teenager processing grief through science fiction and magic that resonated with my own experience of having a mentally ill mother and believing in magic as escape before learning to accept life and grow up.