Born Of The North Wind

Pastor’s Bookshelf - Welcome to my bookshelf! Each month I will discuss a recent book that I’ve finished. *disclaimer; I don’t always have time to sit and read physical books, but I do quite a bit of my reading through audiobooks these days.*

This month I’d like to talk about Born Of The North Wind by Barry Pratt

Someone handed me a copy of Barry Pratt’s book around Christmas time last year. When I went on vacation I gave myself a goal to take a break from non-fiction, and just read some good stories. I set myself up to read a couple of fun fiction works on my days off over the holiday season. However, with Barry’s book I got to read some good stories AND some non-fiction at the same time!

Truly the reason I’m reviewing this book is NOT because I think it will help your spiritual life grow, or help you engage with a hot button religious topic or anything like that. I recommend it to you today because when I read it, it helped me know my friend Barry a bit better. And knowing one another better, in the church, is an admirable pursuit. The better we know one another, the better we can love one another. I saw his passion for the hunt, his joy in success, his sadness in loss. Sometimes those feelings were even woven together as I read the life of Barry hidden behind the stories.

The book is split into two parts – stories and recipes. After reading all those stories, the recipes sure got my mouth watering. I grew up as your basic city boy living in the suburbs. I never built anything with my hands or went hunting or fishing ever. I think I shot a BB gun in Boy Scouts once, and my wife taught me how to shoot a shotgun. So when I picked up this collection of stories, I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

And it was so much fun! I learned a lot about how hunting trips should go, (or shouldn’t go, depending on the story). I learned a lot about different types of ducks and the rules and regulations. I even learned about many of the different cultures of those who do the hunting – from Canada to Mississippi and everywhere in between. As I said – it’s not my normal recommendation and the book probably won’t help me grapple with tricky biblical texts or hot button topics. But it helped me know and love my friend Barry – because he wears his heart on his sleeve in this and if you read it – you’ll know him better too. And that is something I highly recommend.