March 2026

concluded my jesus novels project—The Five Books of Jesus and Dayspring reign supreme—and cece and i wrapped up our movies linked by an actor journey from Miracle to The Farewell. it was fun to plot out possibilities, but ultimately i discovered that the serendipity of doing it by accident is much more pleasurable than intentionally plotting out the journey.

10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Tech World: How Parents Can Stop Smartphones, Social Media, and Gaming from Taking Over Their Children’s Lives (2025), Jean M. Twenge

skimmed through this real quick on a sunday morning, since i am largely already sympathetic to twenge’s rules. no idea how persuasive this would be for someone on the fence, but it did identify some helpful things to be aware of and intentional about moving forward (particularly in the real world independence and parental controls sections)

Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt (2005), Anne Rice

honestly, this works shockingly well for 1) being a first-person POV novel in Jesus’s perspective, and 2) focusing on Jesus’ life as 7-year-old boy. there are some interesting things happening with the narrative of jesus and how rice conceptualizes him, but ultimately, this is not an all-timer for me. and probably not worth your while unless you are very curious about what a novelization of a year or so in jesus’ childhood told from his perspective would be like. i think it’s just immensely difficult to tell the story of jesus where he is centered without some of the stakes feeling off or overwrought or boring. also difficult to write a novel for an adult-ish audience in the perspective of a child.

perhaps the more interesting work here happens around the edges with how joseph and mary and jesus’ family is characterized. anyway. a good enough start to my jesus-novel reading month

The Last Temptation of Christ (1955), Nikos Kazantzakis

I’ve never been fully enamored with the Scorsese adaptation of this, though I find it quite interesting in some of its imaginings and implications, so was curious how the book would fare, and perhaps not surprisingly, much the same. i think scorsese really captures the emotional tenor of the book and it feels akin to some of his other work in a way that makes his attraction to it understandable.

the book is engaging and really presents a jesus that struggles, that seems to inhabit a spiritual world defined by a mighty, masculine, old-school struggle, where everything is difficult and warfare and you have to fight for anything good to come of life. this is the world of those muscled biblical heroes in classical art.

and incidentally is a world almost entirely foreign to my personal spiritual experience. which is not to say that my own spirituality is without tension or paradox or complication—just that the nature of those tensions is not of the same character as that experienced by jesus throughout the novel or seemingly by kazantzakis in his own spiritual life.

likely would have had a good time discussing this in a grad seminar-style book club as there’s no doubt lots of interesting stuff going on and i’d love to try and dig in a bit more to the prose and everything to sharpen my intuition about the struggle piece and how exactly it functions. but alas. i read it alone—so if you have also read it and want to help me (virtually) create a grad-seminar-style conversation about it, please do!

i think ultimately i want jesus stories (films and books) to help me understand why people followed him and this book is not really interested in that question (or if it is, it’s in a way that remains obscured and utterly baffling to me)

A Life of Jesus (1973), Shusaku Endo

Despite some unclear descriptions I have come across of this book, it is not a novelization of Jesus’ life! And therefore not really belonging in this project.

However, since it was short and I had borrowed it from the university library, I gave it a quick read anyway.

The book is generically a bit odd—primarily a summary of the most significant events in Jesus’ life, mixed with a recap of relevant scholarship complete with Endo’s commentary on all of it. It is fairly devotional in tone and approach, while academically informed. Endo’s novelist’s eye on the narrative(s) and scholarship and ideas of truth are interesting and sometimes provide new ways of understanding things.

Likely because of my mini-project, I wanted Endo to lean into his novelist side and just tell the story! But, alas, that was not to be. Though it was interesting to read this immediately after finishing The Last Temptation of Christ given the very different vibes surrounding their shared commitment to a Christ with a message of “love”.

Becoming the Writer You Already Are (2023), Michelle R. Boyd

A good, helpful book! Gave me some tools for thinking about my own writing process and figuring out how to better lean into the natural rhythms and strengths of that process and shore up against its weaknesses. Also offered some language and ideas for working with writers in an academic context that will be quite helpful professionally, I think.

The Five Books of Jesus (2012), James Goldberg

I have read this once before and really enjoyed it, but had forgotten so much of it! I love the way the book presents Jesus as a storyteller and weaves that thread of stories throughout the narrative and then explicitly in the final moments reflecting on the multiple canonical gospels of Jesus alongside all the countless stories that have been told about him since. I particularly like the way that James dramatizes and depicts Jesus’ storytelling as key to why people followed him (and the complex, varied, diverging responses to Jesus).

But the thing that I perhaps loved the most, and found the most moving, on this read is the way James handles Judas, and especially the relationship between Judas and Andrew. Judas, in James’ telling, is haunted by the violence of Rome as visited upon his sister, and his own inability to avenge it. Judas is a believer, certain of Jesus’ calling as the Messiah, and ultimately inpatient for the evil and injustice of Rome to be made right, unable to wait any longer to be freed of the weight of his perceived failure to protect or avenge his sister. And so, Judas betrays Jesus, believing that this will force God’s hand, that he can checkmate God into letting justice run down as waters and righteousness as a mighty stream, NOW.

As we all know, God does not let that happen. At least, not in the way Judas imagined and hoped for. And instead, Judas is left wracked with guilt once again, only this time it was not his inaction to be mourned, but his intentional actions. James imagines Andrew seeing Judas mourning, grieving at the cross and running, then learning from Peter that Judas betrayed their master and friend, Jesus. Peter is angry ready to right Judas off forever, but Andrew still feels kinship with Judas, knows that Judas must be hurting, insisting that Judas is his “friend”. As Peter and John and others race to the tomb, Andrew searches for Judas, desperately. But, as we can anticipate knowing the ending of the story, he is too late. He finds Judas’ body and holds him weeping before praying over him and burying him.

I wept reading James’ telling here. And I wept again writing a little email to James about it. And then I wept one more time as I talked about reading this and bore testimony in front of my congregation the next day of the power and beauty of imagination for our souls and charity for one another.

incredible book. and lucky for you, you can read it serialized online! and then you can buy a copy because you want to hold it in your hands and read it again.

Living Oracles: Law and the Latter-day Saint Tradition (2026), Nathan B. Oman

Nate Oman continues to demonstrate that he’s one of Mormonism’s best thinkers, taking seriously elements of Mormon history, teaching, and practice that no one else is engaging with and offering sensitive, careful close readings of those elements. this book is in many ways related to Nate’s two volumes with Greg Kofford books released in 2025 about Law and Latter-day Saint History and Theology. yet here, the focus is slightly different thinking about what Mormonism might have to say in light of some of the major areas of interest for the Law as a discipline (natural law, contracts, property, etc.) and then what legal approaches have actually been pursued by the Church as an institution looking at marriage, including same-sex marriage, religious liberty, and other areas.

the book, like all of nate’s work, is packed full of all sorts of fascinating tidbits and asides that could serve as fruitful jumping off points for further thinking and research. perhaps the most interesting and well-developed vein of these throughout the book is nate’s research and commentary about the church court system, which is illuminating for current discussions about church discipline and relationships between the church and outside legal authorities, as well as intra-community pressures and relationships.

reviewed for AML

The Liars’ Gospel (2012), Naomi Alderman

Torn on this one—but it’s definitely interesting, which is more than a lot of Jesus novels can say! The structure and shifting point of view allows it to do quite a bit thematically and to demonstrate its interest in the period as a time of revolution and empire and all the messiness that comes with that. It feels like its flavored a bit by the sorta grim-dark-era take on adapting stories for adults in a way that I ultimately find not that compelling—it’s not overwhelmingly that by any means, just seasoned a bit too heavily with it for my tastes.

Will definitely be mulling over some of the choices and ideas here though—and perhaps upon reflection it’ll climb the ranks of my heart! only time will tell.

Dayspring (2024), Anthony Oliveira

still incredible. all about devotion and love and the cost/experience of that, but specifically for jesus in a very queer way. tailor written for me, specifically haha

perhaps the best representation of why someone would love and devote themselves to jesus—like you just buy the bond between john the beloved (our narrator) and jesus.

this is also the funniest, most surprising jesus in any of the novelizations i’ve read, which, unsurprisingly, makes him my personal favorite

Fair Game (2010)

apparently i had watched this before, which i did not remember when i suggested it as the next link in cece and i’s movie chain. it’s pretty good! not as thriller-y as i’d like and a bit torn between genres and focuses in a way that ultimately hampers it, but not a bad time overall

link: noah emmerich

The Lion King (1994)

still so good

movie night with the fam

The Bride! (2026)

aw yeah! a bonkers, gonzo, wild ride of a movie. a bit unnerving and unsettling in its violence and its wild genre and tonal gyrations, but overall, love to see something so committed to what it is and uncompromising in that existence! just something you watch and know that it required these particular people to bring it into being.

bale and buckley are outstanding as the two leads and their chemistry and bond really serves to anchor the audience as you go on the roller-coaster the movie has to offer.

OH, also love love love that “bartelby, the scrivener” is such a big deal here. one of my favorite weirdo short stories. lots of interesting thematic potential to mine with that particular allusion, and the story’s ideas about agency and choice and resistance and how that can be layered onto the work of the film and its thinking about those same ideas, but in a gendered way that differs from the main manifestation in “bartleby”

may maggie gyllenhaal bless us with bonkers, gonzo, wild movies for a good long while

at the local non-profit indie cinema

The Count of Monte Cristo (2025)

there is something particularly satisfying about seeing the count’s revenge play out so slowly and methodically across the eight episodes that none of the film versions has really captured

and yet. there’s a bit of a emotional flatness to claflin’s dantes, which works against some of that satisfaction.

a solid, very book-ish feeling take that lacks the swashbuckling energy of the 2002 and 2024 films, but has its own delights in the score and scope of the threads pulled by the count and the sheer number of accents at work

was hoping this would be my new favorite definitive take on the story and it’s not that, but it’s certainly worth watching if you’re a fan of the story and its possibilities

A Bug’s Life (1998)

something particularly moving here in the way that the ants are only motivated to see and overthrow the oppressive grasshopper regime when things are dire and almost beyond hope

may our imagination and hope and will arrive before such dire straits are visited upon us if they aren’t already

movie night with the fam

The Pelican Brief (1993)

sleepily watched the second half and got interrupted by a feverish child about 20-30min from the end who sadly couldn’t settle down so didn’t finish

but was digging it up until then

oddly comforting to watch something where all the politicians are corrupt but need to go to great lengths to hide their corruption rather than openly flaunting it

link: sam shepherd

The Devil Wears Prada (2006)

finally watched this. absolutely convinced me i have made the right career choices lol

link: stanley tucci

Call The Midwife, Season Seven (2018)

Ends with a bit of a downer (though it results in one of the few characters I don’t really find interesting at all finally leaving the show…), but there’s a lot of interesting, good, compelling stuff here and even mixed in with the heartbreak there’s one of the most beautiful, compelling scenes of the show’s fantastic modeling of a pluralistic religious community supporting each other (even across lines of belief and non-belief in God).

Gentlemen Broncos (2009)

the Hesses at their weirdest [complimentary]

Robin Hood (1973)

the sheriff is an embodiment of the ways that the institution of the police rots individual’s moral and artistic impulses, evidenced by the way he theatrically bursts in on the Rabbits’ birthday song and sings “phony king of england” to hiss. in this essay i will…

movie night with the fam

Ocean’s Eight (2018)

still aspiring to cate blanchett as lou’s aesthetic

link: anne hathaway

Project Hail Mary (2026)

THEMATIC/VAGUE SPOILERS BELOW

*********************************************************************************

had a blast. love ryan gosling. love sandra huller. love all the practical FX (rocky! puppets! sets!)

an especially great theater movie

it’s probably too long and the structure is kinda wonky (the emotional high point is like 2/3 through with an hour left and it kinda coasts after that? idk—basically too many endings!), and i’m torn on the timeline stuff (though leaning towards it being quite effective but maybe needing a bit more grappling with the final “past” reveal/twist?)

but even with all that, still got me moved to tears at the hail mary/sacrifice/love/friendship/hope of it all

AND gotta shoutout the sandra huller karaoke scene which is just absolutely incredible

so a great time at the movies

at the local non-profit cinema

The Farewell (2019)

very sleepily watched the second half, but that final scene and cut is just SO GOOD

link: awkwafina