A review of *On the Spectrum: Autism, Faith, & the Gifts of Neurodiversity* by Daniel Bowman, Jr. — I was thrilled, as a Christian and a student of psychology, to read Daniel Bowman, Jr.’s new book On the Spectrum: Autism, Faith, & the Gifts of Neurodiversity. Bowman is an English professor at Taylor University, and he has written this book to educate us about the beauty that autistic…

A review of *The Orphans of Davenport: Eugenics, the Great Depression, and the War over Children’s Intelligence* by Marilyn Brookwood — How much of a person’s intelligence do you think is genetic, and how much do you think is a product of his or her environment (how he/she was raised, education, etc.)? If your answer was not “100% genetic”, it might be difficult to imagine a time when almost all professionals…

A review of J.P. Daughton’s new release, *In the Forest of No Joy: The Congo-Océan Railroad and the Tragedy of French Colonialism* — When thinking about historical oppression, how does one weigh deaths in the tens of thousands? How do you compare that to hundreds of thousands or millions? This question is important when considering all sorts of tragedies. There is a quote attributed to Joseph Stalin (one never knows the veracity of…

A review of Adam Stern’s brand new med-school memoir *Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training* — Think about what you do. Do you often feel like you’re hanging by a thread, just waiting for someone to find out that you have no clue what you’re doing? This feeling, often called impostor syndrome, is extremely common among parents, teachers, writers, bakers, lawyers, and even doctors. It’s common…

A review of Kate Moore’s brand new *The Woman They Could Not Silence* — “Devalue the words of women and half the battle is won.” Kate Moore (author of the 2017 bestseller The Radium Girls) writes these words in the final pages of her new book The Woman They Could Not Silence, but the principle is conveyed throughout the entire work. …

A review of Annette Gordon-Reed’s refreshing new book *On Juneteenth* — What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? The words of Frederick Douglass are words I could not get out of my mind while reading Annette Gordon-Reed’s new book, On Juneteenth. I can imagine those words, or the sentiment behind that Douglass speech, may have been on the…

A review of Rebecca McLaughlin’s instant-classic *Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard Questions for the World’s Largest Religion* — Aren’t we better off without religion? Does Christianity crush diversity? How can you say there’s only one true faith? How can you take the Bible literally? Hasn’t science disproved Christianity? Doesn’t Christianity denigrate women? Isn’t Christianity homophobic? If you’re not a Christian, have you found yourself asking these questions before?

A review of Mark Hearn’s new book, *Hearing in Technicolor: Mindset Shifts Within a Multicultural Congregation* — If, as Martin Luther King, Jr. said, 11 o’clock on a Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week… how do we fix it? That was over 50 years ago, and it still rings true. Most churches in America have one dominant culture group. Multicultural congregations are increasing…

A review of the promising but ultimately disappointing *From the River to the Sea: The Untold Story of the Railroad War That Made the West* — Have you ever had a book that you were excited about, but failed to capture your interest? This is my experience with John Sedgwick’s newly released From the River to the Sea: The Untold Story of the Railroad War That Made the West. I love American history, and the premise…