Roadmap to Reconciliation 2.0: Moving Communities into Unity, Wholeness and Justice by Brenda Salter McNeil. I enjoyed this one; Brenda Salter McNeil lays out a powerful case for the need for reconciliation in churches in America and points the reader in the direction of how that might be achieved. The challenge will be seeing enough Christians understand the need to build “reconciling communities of racial, etheric, class and gender diversity.” Far too many white evangelicals are comfortable with how things are now or refuse to even acknowledge that there is still much work to be done.

Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church by Nijay K. Gupta. This is a great introductory book to women in the Bible. Gupta does a great job of surveying scripture and explaining ancient culture and practices, helping the reader to gain insights. I appreciated his process and approach. As he points out, “there is ample evidence inside and outside the New Testament that women were actively involved in ministry, at the frontier of the gospel mission, as respected leaders in the church, and even as primary leaders of household congregations.” Yet as Beth Allison Barr points out in her foreword, the problem too often has been our ability to notice or see these women.

Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters by Abigail Shrier. Awful book. It’s been a while since I’ve been this frustrated with something I’ve read. I read it because of the volume of reviews it has, but I was incredibly disappointed. Her tone is sarcastic and mocking, her primary source seems to be angry parents who have lost their relationships with their trans kids, and she has no significant background or expertise in the subject yet presents her opinions as fact. Yes, there is a trend of “rapid onset gender dysphoria” happening in adolescents that does warrant discussion and study, but this book is not the answer. Adopting her tone will achieve the same result as so many in her book; lost relationships. A far better alternative? Anything by Mark Yarhouse on the topic.