Ned Erickson: Roadside Santa

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Roadside Santa

Anna Rose and I were driving down Jonestown Road after doing some Christmas shopping. Santa and some elves were waving from the roadside.

"Hey, what's Santa doing here?" asked A-Ro.

"Where's he supposed to be?" I asked.

"At the mall," she said.

No comments:

Book List 2021 (* means recommended)

* Prayers from the Heart - Richard Foster
* Garden City - John Mark Comer
* The First 90 Days - Michael D. Watkins
* Beyond Loneliness - Trevor Hudson
* How To Be An Anti-Racist - Ibram X. Kendi
* The Deeply Formed Life - Rich Villados
** The Divine Conspiracy - Dallas Willard
* With All Your Heart - Craig Troxel
** Talking To Strangers - Malcolm Gladwell
* Whiteout - Ken Follett
* The Evening and the Morning - Ken Follett
* Journey with Jesus - Larry Walker
* The Power to Bless - Alan Wright
** A Failure of Nerve - Edward H. Friedman
The Throne of Fire - Rick Riordan
* The Beautiful Community - Irwyn Ince
* The red Pyramid - Rick Riordan
* Beauty of the Cross - Tim Chester
** The Murmur of Bees - Sofia Segovia
* Adulting 101 - Josh Burnette and Pete Hardesty and
* Rooted - Raymond Cannata and Joshua Teitano
* Children of Blood and Bone - Toni Adeyemi
* Storypole Legends - Emerson Matson
** My Utmost for His Highest - Oswald Chambers

Books of 2020 (* means recommended)

* Transcendent Kingdom - Yaa Gyasi
* the Black Pearl - Scott O'Dell
* Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates
* Catalyst for Change - John Bost
* The Leopard - Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
* The Inward Jounrey - Howard Thurman
* The Jungle Book - Rudyard Kipling
* The Negotiators Toolbox - Heribert von Feilitzsch
* The Speed of Trust - Stephen M.R. Covey
* the Gift of Being Yourself - David Benner
Wizard's First Rule - Terry Goodkind
* Oh Fix Me - Dr. Anthony Jones Jr.
** Jesus and the Disinherited - Howard Thurman
* Mindset - Dr. Carol Dweck
* Dream Big - Bob Goff
** Together - Dr. Vivek Murthy
* Overstory - Richard Powers
* The Mystery of Marriage - Mike Mason
* The Why Cafe - John Strelecky
* Life Together - Dietrich Bonhoeffer
* The Very Good Gospel - Lisa Sharon Harper
* All Blood Runs Red - The Legendary Life of Eugene Bullard - Phil Keith and Tom Clavin
* Jesus, My Father, the CIA and Me - Ian Cron
* The Future is Faster than you Think - Peter Diamandis and Steve Kotler
* The Power of a Humble Life - Richard Simmons
* The Yadkin Melting Pot - Larry Tise
* The Purpose Linked Organization - Alaina Love
*Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead
Lord Jim - Joseph Conrad

Books of 2019 (* means recommended)

** Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Stone Cold - David Baldacci
* I Claudius - Robert Graves
* Shakespeare - The World as Stage - Bill Bryson
* Benjamin Ashwood - AC Coble
* Leadership in Turbulent Times - Doris Kearns Goodwin
** Born to Run - Bruce Springsteen
In Shock - Dr. Rana Awdish
** On the Brink of Everything - Parker Palmer
The Book of Fate - Brad Meltzer
* Bread and Wine - Shauna Niequist
* Ready Player One - Earnest Cline
* 7 Lessons from Heaven - Dr. Mary Neal
* Simply Jesus - N.T. Wright
* Hope for the Flowers - Trina Paulus
** The Autobiography of Dr. Martin Luther King
* Simply Christianity - N.T. Wright
* Redwall - Brian Jacques
* Pirate Latitudes - Michael Crichton
* The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas
** When the Heart Waits - Sue Monk Kidd
* Hatchet - Gary Paulsen

Books of 2018 (* means recommended)

** Trust in the Age of Arrogance - FitzSimons Allison
Dare to Lead - Brene Brown
Labyrinth - Kate Mosse
* Truly, Madly, Guilty - Liane Moriarty
* Fear, Love and Worship - Fitzsimmons Allison
The Mysterious Affiar at Styles - Agatha Christie
* Botany of Desire - Michael Pollan
* John Adams - David McCullough
* Crazy Rich Asians- Kevin Kwan
* Purpose Driven Life - Rick Warren
* Grace (Eventually) - Anne Lamotte
* The EQ Edge - Steven Stein, Howard Book
* Ben Franklin - Walter Isaacson
Twilight - Stephanie Myers
* Everybody, Always - Bob Goff
* The Afghan - Frederick Forsyth
* Words of Radiance - Brandon Sanderson
* Change We Can Believe In - Barack Obaama
* The World is Flat - Thomas Friedman
* Defining Decade - Meg Jay
* Steve Jobs - Walter Isaacson
* Barking at the Choir - Gregory Boyle
* The Way of Kings - Brian Sanderson
* True Self False Self - Basil Pennington
* The Golden Ocean - Patrick O'brian
* The Gospel-Centered Life at Work - Rob Alexander
* It Worked for Me - Colin Powell
Practices of Love - David Kyle Bennett
* Self to Lose. Self to Find - Marilyn Vancil
* Zorro - Isabel Allende
** The Gift of Being Yourself - David Benner
* Wonder - R.J. Palacio

Books of 2017 (*means recommended)

* The Road to Character - David Brooks
* The Incredible Journey - Sheila Burnford
Iron House - John Hart
* When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi
Inferno - Dan Brown
* Five for the First Five - Allison McWilliams
* Tattoos on the Heart - Greg Boyle
Valley of Horses - Jean Auel
* Clan of the Cave Bear - Jean Auel
* The Road Back to You - Ian Morgan Cron & Suzanne Stabile
Emotional Intelligence 2.0 - Travis Bradberry & Jean Greaves
* The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah
* South of Broad - Pat Conroy
** A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towels
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - John Tiffany and Jack Thorne
* The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
* A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engel
* The Worst Class Trip Ever - Dave Barry
* The Maytrees - Annie Dillard
* Creativity, Inc. - Ed Catmull
* Insane City - Dave Barry
* Moby Dick - Herman Melville
** The Right Stuff - Tom Wolfe
* Hondo - Louis L'Amour
* The Universe in a Nutshell - Stephen Hawking
* The Life and Adventures of Jack Engle - Walt Whitman
* A Man Called Ove - Fredrick Backman
* 1776 - David McCullough
** Just Mercy - Bryan Stevenson
* Moneyball - Michael Lewis
* SALT: A World History - Mark Kurlansky
* Chop Wood, Carry Water - Joshua Medcalf
* Stepping Up - David Rainey
Serafina and the Black Cloak - Robert Beatty
** Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston
The Last Olympian - Rick Riordan
* Present over Perfect - Shauna Niequist
* Some Do Care - Anne Colby and William Damon
* Our Kids - Richard Putnam
* You are What You Love - James K.A, Smith
The Battle of the Labyrinth - Richard Riordan
* Perfect - John Wagner

Book List 2016 *means recommended

* Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
* Cure for the Common Life - Max Lucado
* How Will You Measure Your Life? - Clay Christensen
* Life's Golden Ticket - Brendon Burchard
Strong and Weak - Andy Crouch
* The Happiness Advantage - Shawn Achor
Doing Good is Simple - Chris Marlow
* Boys in the Boat - Daniel James Brown
* Travels with Charlie - John Steinbeck
The Red Pony - John Steinbeck
* Deliverance - James Dickey
Me Before You - JoJo Moyes
The Lightning Thief - Richard Riordan
The One Thing - Gary Keller
* The Complete Lord Peter Wimsey Stories - Dorothy Sayers
Epic - John Eldridge
* Visions of Vocation - Steve Garber
* Telling the Truth - Frederick Buechner
** The Hiding Place - Corrie Ten Boom
* Desiring the Kingdom - James K. A. Smith
* The Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling
* Praus - Hunter Lambeth
* Quiet - Susan Cain
* Every Good Endeavor - Tim Keller
* Within the Walled City - Ginny Evans
* The Half-Blood Prince - JK Rowling

Book List 2015 (* means recommended)

Rising Strong - Brene Brown
Order of the Phoenix - J.K.Rowling
* The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
* The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje
* The Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling
* King's Cross - Tim Keller
* Being Mortal - Arul Gawande
* Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
* The Prisoner of Azkhaban - J.K.Rowling
* The Chamber of secrets - J.K. Rowling
* All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
The Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins
* The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
* Learning to Walk in the Dark - Barbara Brown Taylor
** Let Your Life Speak - Parker Palmer
* The Practice of the Presence of God - Brother Lawrence
* The Sorcerer's Stone - J.K. Rowling
* Life of the Beloved - Henri Nouwen
* Devil in the White City - Erik Larson
Chasing Francis - Ian Morgan Cron
* Better - Atul Gawande
* The Fault in Our Stars - John Green
Seven Longings of the Human Heart - Mike Bickle and Deborah Hiebert
** Barchester Towers - Anthony Trollope

Book List 2014 (*means recommended)

Invited - Roger Wernette
* The Gilded Leaf - Patrick Reynolds and Tom Shachtman
The Genealogy of Morals - Friedrich Nietzsche
* Life on the Mississippi - Mark Twain
** Daring Greatly - Brene Brown
Spiritual Rhythms in Community - Keith Meyer
Letters to a Young Life Leader - Bob Mitchell
** David v. Goliath - Macolm Gladwell
* Searching for God Knows What - Donald Miller
* Outliers - Malcolm Gladwell
Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
* Ruthless Trust - Brennan Manning
*I am Malala - Malala Yousafzai
The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner
* It's Always Something - Gilda Radner
** Silas Marner - George Eliot
A Loving Life - Paul E. Miller
* Susan Butcher and the Iditarod Trail - Ellen M. Dolan
* Walking with Arthur - Jim O'Donnell
*Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austin
*Younger Next Year - Chris Crowley and Henry Lodge
When Your Neighbor is the Savior - Botrus Mansour
*Speaking of Jesus - Carl Madearis
7 - Jen Hatmaker

Book List 2013 * means recommended

The Mystic Arts of the Ninja - Stephen K. Hayes
* In the Name of Jesus - Henri J.M. Nouwen
The Wayward Bus - John Steinbeck
* The Road - Cormac McCarthy
Parenting with Love and Logic - Foster Cline and Jim Fay
Wisdom Chaser - Nathan Foster
The Wapshot Chronicle - John Cheever
Sensing Jesus - Zack Eswine
* Unbroken - Lauren Hillenbrand
Paper Towns - John Green
Surfing for God - Michael John Cusick
* The Autobiography of Sir Edmund Hillary
* Palestinian Memories - Alex Awad
* Winnie The Pooh - A.A. Milne
* Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
* Jeruslam - Simon Montefiore
Luck of the Draw - Jack Tupper Daniels
* The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
Diaries of Jim Rayburn - edited by Kit Sublett
** Don Quixote - Cervantes
* Love Does - Bob Goff

Book List 2012 * means recommended

Messy Spirituality - Michael Yaconelli
** Jayber Crow - Wendell Berry
* Memory of Old Jack - Wendell Berry
* The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
* Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin
* What the Dog Saw - Malcolm Gladwell
* Scarlet Pimpernel - Baroness Emmuska Orczy
Shift - Brian Haynes
* Shrewd - Rick Lawrence
The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss
** Lonesome Dove - Larry McMurtry
Mary Pipher - Writing to Change the World
** The Day of the Jackal - Frederick Forsyth
Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins
** Shane - Jack Schaefer
Humilitas - John Dickson
Chasing Fire - Suzanne Collins
* Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
* One Thousand Gifts - Ann Voskamp
The Afghan - Frederick Forsyth
* Story - Robert McKee
* Sifted - Rick Lawrence
The Lone Star Ranger - Zane Grey

Book List 2011 (In upside-down reading order) * highly recommended (I recommend them all!)

* Riders of the Purple Sage - Zane Grey
* Little Bee - Chris Cleave
What is the Mission of the Church? - Kevin DeYoung and Gary Gilbert
* The Destiny of the Republic - Candice Millard
Angels and Demons - Dan Brown
The Testament - John Grisham
* Born to Run - Christopher McDougall
A Slight Trick of the Mind - Mitch Cullin
* The View from Saturday - E.L. Konigsburg
* Dangerous Wonder - Michael Yaconelli
Miracles on Maple Hill - Virginia Sorensen
* A Year Down Yonder - Richard Peck
* The Higher Power of Lucky - Susan Patron
Criss Cross - Lynn Rae Perkins
* River of Doubt - Candice Millard
* The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman
Rabbit Hill - Robert Lawson
* The Man Who Was Thursday - GK Chesterton
* Holes - Louis Sachar
Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon - Dhan Gopal Mukerji
* The Giver - Lois Lowry
* The Twenty-One Balloons - William Pene du Bois

Book List 2010 (In upside-down reading order) * means recommended

* Freedom - Jonathan Franzen
Many Waters - Madeleine L'Engle
The Girl Who Played With Fire - Stieg Larsson
* Radical - David Platt
Tea with Hezbollah - Ted Dekker and Carl Medearis
The Poor Will Be Glad - Paul Greer & Phil Smith
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson
Pillars of the Earth - Ken Follett
* Let the Great World Spin - Colum McCann
* The Book Thief - Marcus Zusak
* Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell
Gentlemen of the Road - Michael Chabon
* Sinbad and other stories from the Arabian Nights - Husain Haddawy
**The Power and the Glory - Graham Greene
* A Praying Life - Paul E. Miller
Orient Express - Graham Greene
A Long Obedience in the Same Direction - Eugene Peterson
* Breaking the Rules - Fil Anderson
**All the King's Men - Robert Penn Warren
Berenice - Ruth Jordan
Culture Clash - Dr. Mark A. Gabriel
* Open - Andre Agassi
* The King Will Make a Way - Lee Giles (My Sister)
* Home - Marilynne Robinson
* China Road - Rob Gifford

Book List 2009 (In upside-down reading order) *means recommended

*Baudolino - Umberto Eco
*The Lost Symbol - Dan Brown
*A Single Shard - Linda Sue Park
*Illuminated - Matt Bronleewe
*The Furious Longing of God - Brennan Manning
*Walden - Henry David Thoreau
Two for the Dough - Janet Evanovich
*A Long and Happy Life - Reynolds Price
*Cup of Gold - John Steinbeck
One for the Money - Janet Evanovich
8 Modern Essayists - compiled by William Smart
Wicked - Gregory Maguire
The Copper Scroll - Joel Rosenberg
The Trumpet of the Swan - E.B. White
*Prodigal God - Tim Keller
*Charlotte's Web - E.B. White
Westminster Confession of Faith
*A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
American Lion - John Meacham
*Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Michael Chabon
Operating Instructions - Ann Lamott

Book List 2008 (In upside-down reading order) *recommended

*A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
*King of Lies - John Hart
Trevayne - Robert Ludlum
God's Gold - Sean Kingsley
The Walking Drum - Louis L'amour
Wild at Heart - John Eldridge
The Sign and the Seal - Graham Hancock
*The Shack - William P. Young
*Three Cups of Tea - Greg Mortnenson and David Oliver Relin
Playing for Pizza - John Grisham
Maybe a Miracle - Brian Strauss
*Prydain Chronicles - Lloyd Alexander
Samson and the Pirate Monks - Nate Larkin
*Mountains Beyond Mountains - Tracy Kidder
Teeth of the Tiger - Tom Clancy
*Second Coming - Walker Percy
*Into the Wild - Jon Krakauer
**Gilead - Marilynne Robinson
Come to Grief - Dick Francis
*On Writing - Steven King

Ned Erickson