Top 5's of 2007

In case anyone is interested, I thought I would give my personal top 5's from 2007. I'm gonna do it in four different categories:
Movies seen in the theater
Fiction books read for the first time
Nonfiction books read for the first time
Songs listened to for the first time

Movies Seen in the Theater
Now I am only including movies that came out during this year. In 2007 I saw Stranger than Fiction, The Departed, and Pan's Labyrinth. Those would probably be my top 3, but they all came out last year. By my count I have only seen 7 movies in the theater that came out this year. Here are the top 5:
5. Amazing Grace: This was the movie about William Wilberforce, and his campaign to end the slave trade in England. I thought it was done decently, but the story was so good that it made it all really worthwhile. It is inspiring. What a hero.
4. The Bourne Ultimatum: Who doesn't love a good Bourne movie? I thought this one was just as great as the first two. The scene where he was chasing the guy on top of the buildings was amazing. I don't get the title, though. I don't remember any real ultimatum in the movie. Come to think of it, I don't remember Jason Bourne being especially supreme in the Bourne Supremacy. Really, only the first movie's title makes sense (The Bourne Identity).
3. Ocean's 13: It was just a blast to watch, especially the Mexico strand. Senor Zapata. Awesome!
2. Live Free or Die Hard: And this ends our sequel category. What can I say? I'm a sucker for Die Hard movies. This one was just as great as the others, although the bad guy was nothing compared to Jeremy Irons in the third installment. What was with all the sequels this summer. I didn't even mention Shrek 3 or Pirates 3 (probably because I haven't seen either).
1. Gone Baby Gone: I just saw this movie last month with Dave Mc. It was intensely powerful. It is not for the faint of heart. It is very heavy. It is written by the author of Mystic River, so if you saw that, this has a similar mood. Ben Afflect directed this one, and I think he has found his true calling. I am underimpressed with him as an actor, but he did a great job directing this movie. His brother Casey held his own in the lead. Morgan Freeman and Michelle Monaghan was good too. But Ed Harris really lit up the screen. He never disappoints.
Honorable Mention for Spiderman 3. Dishonorable Mention for Transformers. Sorry, I know everyone else loved it. I'm the weird one.
Fiction Books Read for the First Time
5. The Road by Cormac McCarthy. This is a post-apocolyptic novel about a father and a son trying to survive. I thought it was good at points, but at other points I felt like I wasn't really getting it. It certainly was not a pleasant read. It was dark, but really powerful. I felt like I was detached and then the ending was deeply emotional to me (and the ending was not a surprise or anything like that).
4. The English Assassin by Daniel Silva. I read several of his books, and they all have to do with espionage and Israel. This one, along with The Confessor and A Death in Vienna all had to do with implications of the Holocaust. This one was the most engrossing and interesting to me.
3. The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason. Loved this book. It was like The Da Vinci Code, but without all the heresy. It also had reflective elements that reminded me of The Great Gatsby, another all-time favorite.
2. Gone Baby Gone by Dennis Lehane. Yeah, here it is again. The movie was about as good as the book. Actually, there was one major twist in the book that I saw coming a mile away. It ended up being one of those I-know-what-happened-but-I-don't-know-why things. The climax was good enough, though, that it didn't ruin it for me. Really, really powerful and thought-provoking.
1. The Shack by William P. Young. This book has stirred some controversy. I understand why. Still, it was the best fiction book I read all year. It really challenged my thinking and my feeling. I, along with many others, am still processing through some of the things in it, and I am not sure where I will come out. Bottom line, though, it was a very powerful book on pain, and on the truth that God's ways are not our ways. Also, I thought it brought up good points about what it might look like to truly live in mutual deference to those around me. It paints quite a picture.







Had to include this picture from Matt Grubbs. He made this after I blogged about my summer readings. Pretty funny stuff.



Nonfiction Books Read for the First Time
5. Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell. The book brings up some good points about separating our experience in Christianity from the truths of Christianity. I don't mean that he is against experience. It is just that he wants us to get outside of our personal experience and realize that the gospel is bigger than just our experience. I have to admit, though, that sometimes I questions his historical references. They seem a bit shady sometimes.
4. The Pleasures of God by John Piper. This was a good and challenging book about the things in which God takes pleasure. I thought the chapters about God's pleasure in his creation were especially good.
3. Consuming Jesus by Paul Louis Metzger. I just blogged about this one. It is about race and class divisions in the church. Very eye-opening and challenging.
2. Telling the Truth by Frederick Bueckner. This book is about communicating the gospel, and deals with the beauty of the literary nature of the gospel. Bueckner's chapter on the gospel as comedy is one of the top 10 chapters I have ever read in any book. It is just amazing.
1. The Cost of Discipleship by Dieterich Bonhoffer. I had started this a couple times in the last few years, but this Summer I finally read it. It is a truly amazing book from a man who is a true hero in the faith. He deals with, of course, the call of Christ, as well as the church, and the presence of Christ continuing to work in the world today. He made a point about how the writers of the epistles don't refer a lot of Christ's earthly ministry. Instead they talk about his ongoing ministry through the Spirit and the church. This was a pretty paradigm-shifting point to me.
Songs Listened to for the First Time
This will seem very uncreative, but all five of these songs are from the Scrubs soundtrack. They use great music on that show. That said, it is possible that no one will have heard of any of these. But trust me that they are great songs.
5. Blue Eyes by the Cary Brothers. Fun and melodic. Karina frequently sings it to Jack (he has blue eyes.
4. Hold on Hope by Guided by Voices. Great song about, what else, hope.
3. Good Life by Francis Dunnery. Really powerful song. It pulls at my heart strings because it is, admittedly, a song about trying to find happiness without any real belief in design or purpose.
2. Living Life by the Eels. Great song about longing. That is a theme in the Scrubs soundtrack.
1. Closer by Joshua Radin. He also has an amazing song called Winter on the soundtrack. He has an understated style, and I have come to absolutely love him. This song is great. In fact, you can watch the video for the song (it's only 4 minutes long), but clicking on the link below. It will be worth it. Great song.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=06D_EFNGmOQ

Well, I can only hope that this most might help someone, just one person, to find a great movie, book, or song.