Jeremy Lukens

This is two books in one. It's a book of apologetics where Qureshi lays out the cases for belief in Christianity and Islam, showing why and how he came to change his beliefs. It is also a memoir of Qureshi's life, as a young Pakistani Muslim boy growing up in the West, the culture clashes he faced, and the emotional struggles he underwent as he went through the process of rethinking his faith.

Similar to Josh McDowell and Lee Strobel, Qureshi set out to disprove Christianity. Unlike those two, however, for Qureshi, this was deeply personal. He didn't just want to win an argument. He wanted to show his Christian friends the proper way to worship God, he wanted to honor his family, and most importantly, he wanted to be sure about the state of his own soul.

Because it's too kinds of books in one, it isn't quite as strong in either as it would have been if he had picked one. The apologetics are more thorough and convincing in his later book, “No God But One: Allah or Jesus.” And the memoir about his life and struggles with faith would have been more powerful if not interrupted by long debate scenes.

Even so, this is a powerful book and a must read for anyone interested in the topic. The last few chapters had me repeatedly alternating between tears of joy and tears of sadness, so that's pretty impressive writing.

An expertly crafted novella where James makes you put in a good deal of work to figure out what exactly is going on, but is highly rewarding. It is the story's ambiguity – most the the scenes can be interpreted in more than one way – that makes it so powerful. Read it slowly and take the time to let your imagination run wild.

The day before I started reading this, a video went viral showing a sinkhole open up in a hotel pool in Israel. One person was sucked inside and died while others barely escaped. If you looked at the tweets about the video, most of them celebrated that a Jewish person had been killed or were disappointed that only one person died. It was a good reminder that, though it's not as obvious right now, hating Jewish people and wanting them dead never really went out of style.

And that's why Elie Wiesel's memoir is so important. The book chronicles his experience as a teenager during the Holocaust, where he and all the Jews in Transylvania were sent to ghettos, then shipped in cattle cars to concentration camps. Most of the book details he and his father's attempts to stay alive, trying to avoid “selection” that would send them to the crematorium.

The book details unimaginable horrors, but perhaps the scariest thing of all is that as time goes by, Wiesel gets desensitized to it. After seeing so much horror and misery, he becomes numb, as does the reader of his story.

It's easy to become numb to the brokenness, hatred, and evil in our world. When the concentration camps were liberated, people started using the slogan “never again” as a rallying cry and an admonition to the rest of the world. But such a promise means remembering and recognizing the horrors of the Holocaust. “Night” is one important document to help with that task.

Shirley Jackson's classic novel is one of the best-known haunted house stories, probably second only to THE AMITYVILLE HORROR. But despite that, it's a story much less about ghosts and more about the flawed characters reacting to the stress of staying at a house that may or may not be haunted.

Unlike the Netflix series, there's a lot of ambiguity here. We largely see things through the perspective of Eleanor and as the book goes on, it becomes clear that her perspective can't be trusted.

HILL HOUSE is about loneliness and identity. It's about wanting loved ones and somewhere that feels like home, even if that home might be deadly.

There are some scary moments, but the frights are few and far between. What the book does have is compelling characters, beautiful prose, an air of mystery, and an overwhelming feeling of dread. It's the archetype for countless haunted stories that have come since and it's worth a read for its influence and expert storytelling alone. Just don't expect jump scares from Bent-Neck Lady...