These talks are too good not to share. And by “share” I don’t mean, “Here, give me some money and I’ll give some audio.” I mean, “Here, you need to listen these. Please, I beg you: download.”

Outside of Moscow, people tend to have the wrong idea about Pastor Wilson. They tend to think in equations. Equations like Douglas Wilson = Family or Douglas Wilson = Classical Education or (perhaps most misleadingly of all), Douglas Wilson = Federal Vision.

These things are not completely wrong. After all, Pastor Wilson does speak about each of those things. But the greatest thing about his talks and sermons is that he’s not interested in fostering pet doctrines or pet peeves. Far from it! The truth is, Pastor Wilson is constantly exhorting us to be, well, integrated people: people who seek to apply God’s Word to all of our lives.

This audio series (taken from a conference delivered earlier this year in Mississippi) is a fantastic collection of such exhortations. These are kind of talks that you pass on to your friend who’s discouraged, or to your old high-school buddy who wants to know why you’re “Reformed.” As always, they’re both entertaining and edifying, challenging and inspiring. And best of all, they’re free. Download them, listen, and then pass them on to your friends. They’re just that good.

It’s summertime. For me, that means sunshine and vacations and, if I’m lucky, something resembling a tan.

But more than anything else, it means more reading. School’s out, which means I no longer have to read what other people tell me to read. I get to read whatever I want. And even if “whatever I want” isn’t much different than “what other people tell me,” it’s still fun to have the freedom.

To celebrate the start of summer (and hopefully, summer reading), we’re offering all of our email list subscribers a 25% discount on all Canon products. This coupon is good through the end of June, and if you subscribe before the end of the week, you’ll get this coupon delivered straight to your inbox. So, whether you’re into theological commentary or literature, education or kids’ books, stop by and stock up for summer. And if you’re having trouble deciding what to get, check out these staff favorites.

From Laura Blakey:
The Old Testament has always been difficult reading for me. However, Primeval Saints was a huge eye-opener. Jordan has a powerful gift for pulling together all the details that I’ve read countless times and telling them in such a way that I feel I’ve never truly heard the story before. This is a fantastic (and easy!) read.

From Emily Young:
Don’t be fooled—just because Joy at the End of the Tether has been given away doesn’t mean that it’s any less valuable than our other books. On the contrary, it is one of our best. This book, especially when paired with the audio set (Ecclesiastes: A Profound and Futile Joy), makes for an amazing study of Ecclesiastes. It elevates sovereignty to a level that enters every aspect of our lives, a level that is invaluably practical. Too many Christians are taught to “put on faces” of joy but are left with an inability to deal with the conflicts and discouragements of our lives in a Christian way. “Pretending to be joyful” doesn’t really solve anything when dealing with conflicts at work, in marriages, raising children, dealing with injustices or simply having purpose in our mundane lives. We need truth and the wisdom to use it in order to live with real joy.

From Frank Ewert:
I’ve been reading biographies and memoirs since I was a fifth-grader convinced that history was where it’s at. Since then I’ve grown up a little, but I still love memoirs, and Sons of the River is no exception. Bomer’s writing is both charming and descriptive, gently leading you into the fields that he traipsed through as a boy. At times, his stories are amusing, but this is primarily a tale of growing up—and that includes both heartbreak and mistakes. The result is not a nostalgia for the innocence of youth, but rather gratefulness for God’s amazing grace. Read this, and read it to your kids, and maybe even pass it on to your grandparents. They’ll all love it.

From David Hoos:
Many Christians realize they are in the midst of a culture war. Unfortunately, for many Christians, this war has often been a defensive one. Christians have struggled to really build a culture that is truly “in the world, not of it.” In Plowing in Hope, one of my favorite Canon titles, David Hegeman lays out a thoughtful vision and trajectory for Christians as they seek to interact with culture. Like C.S. Lewis in his “Learning in Wartime” essay, David Hegeman’s book has helped me remember that while we can participate in destructive “wars” in the present, we also have a constructive duty to become keepers and builders of culture for the future. I, of course, wish that everyone would read this book, not only because it helps me figure out how to interact with culture as a Christian, but also because it makes me want to get involved in the arts more and more.

This month, from Doug Wilson:
When it comes to issues of modesty, a false dichotomy appears to have taken hold of most Christians. Either the biblical requirements of modesty are accepted, and nerdiness is layered on top of that, or the nerdiness “requirement” is rejected, and the responsibility for modesty is rejected along with it. In this important book, David and Diane Vaughan avoid both errors, and do a very fine job of showing us the teaching of Scripture on this issue. Their approach is not at all superficial—they are not urging us to depart from one sort of cultural captivity in order to take up residence in another kind of cultural captivity. A crucial part of their argument is to develop a biblical view of the body, and to have how we dress that body take its part in a well-formed biblical world and life view. It only stands to reason. This is a fine book and I recommend it highly.

Click on the book cover for more information or to buy the book!

So, ssh, don’t tell anyone, but I’m still learning about this big ol’ publishing world. Thanks to a subscription to Publisher’s Weekly, I’m learning pretty quickly, but every week I find myself facing some new challenge that reminds me how unpredictable the book business can be.

Book publishing is dependent on the new. As a general rule, New York Times bestselling lists are filled with books that were released within the last year-and-a-half. And what this means is that publishers are always facing the same, never-ending question: what do people want to read today? (more…)