Aaron Armstrong's Blog, page 23

The 2020 (mal)Contents Book Awards!

It’s that time of year where every website, podcast, and Twitter-er is spreading holiday cheer with annual favorite book lists. And, as good friends to our listeners and lovers of books, how could we leave you all hanging without sharing our favorites of the year? And so, we present you the inaugural (mal)Contents Book Awards, with categories carefully selected to suit our… unique sensibilities. Be sure to spread the good news and congratulate all the winners by getting copies of their books usi...

School Libraries and Mermaids in the Time of COVID-19

By popular demand, weve got a brand new bonus episode for you all this week as Abigail Armstrong returns to the show for a quick dad to big kid chat about bad parenting advice, public school, how to get books out of libraries under the COVID-19 protocols, and whether or not cursing in our writing is a good idea.

Sharing and supporting the show Leave a five-star rating and review of the show on Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to the show.Give us a follow on Twitter and Instagram at...

The Art of Audiobook Narration

What makes or breaks an audiobook? Almost as important as the content itself is the narrator. These often unsung heroes of the medium are the people who keep you coming back time and again, carrying the ideas of this or that author into your ears.

One of those narrators is Henry O. Arnold (or as his family calls him, Chip). Henry is a stage actor, writer, and narrator of over 40 audiobooks, including all of John Maxwells books, Yawning at Tigers by Drew Dyck, and Boundaries by Henry Cloud. He...

We’ll See What December Brings

December is always a strange month for us in the Armstrong family, but moreso since we moved to Tennessee. It’s one of the seasons where we most acutely feel the distance between us and the rest of our family. But this December brings additional strangeness:

Lord willing, we will be taking ownership of our new home in four weeksWe will be moving into the house shortly thereafter and out of our apartment

That’s on top of the usual stress with Christmas. But this year brings a new challenge...

Prog Rock, Christmas Persecution, & Christmas Seminary

We’re about to enter into that special time of year that is full of holiday cheer, and so we are going to try to celebrate it well here on the podcast. But in order to really kick it off well, we felt the best way to do it was to ask the man who loves Christmas more than anyone else to join us for the conversation. This week, Ronnie Martin, pastor at Substance Church, author and co-author of several books, and the co-host of The Happy Rant Podcast and The Art of Pastoring, joins us to talk...

Yes, Christians Can Write Good Fiction Too

Okay, I’ll admit: when I see the words “Christian” and “fiction” together, I generally assume the book with that label will be terrible. But that is also totally unfair of me, because while there is a lot of bad fiction written by and for Christian audiences, there are are also really good books that can fall under this label. And our friend Jared Wilson, author of many, many books, has written one of them that’s out now called Echo Island. Jared joined Dave and me (while Scarlet was reading ...

Yes, Christians Can Right Good Fiction Too

Okay, I’ll admit: when I see the words “Christian” and “fiction” together, I generally assume the book with that label will be terrible. But that is also totally unfair of me, because while there is a lot of bad fiction written by and for Christian audiences, there are are also really good books that can fall under this label. And our friend Jared Wilson, author of many, many books, has written one of them that’s out now called Echo Island. Jared joined Dave and me (while Scarlet was reading th...

All the Tenuous Connections

Sometimes a conversation is full of… how can I say this? Tenuous connections. Abrupt changes of topic, subject matter, and tone is often the way a real-life conversation goes. And this week, Dave and I are joined by our friends Nick Rynerson and Richard Clark to talk about, well, pretty much everything—including their new podcast network, Area Code. Listen in as we discuss:

Conspiracy theories and the power of the word “Consider” to make anything sound sinisterFinding the Dark WebWhat is the...

A (Thankfully) Short Talk About Being Thankful

We’re two days past Halloween, which means two things: higher blood sugar for all, and stores have become winter wonderlands overnight. But we don’t want to be grumpy about it—instead, we’re reclaiming the season, standing in the gap as it were, and choosing to be thankful. About what? Well, a few things as you’ll hear in this episode. Listen in as we discuss:

Who we’re thankful for that helped us to develop a love of readingAerosmith and the possibility of an asteroid hitting Earth on Wedne...

What’s to Like About Logos 9? A Lot.

For the better part of the last 10 years, Logos Bible Software has been an indispensable tool in my ministry toolkit. Whether I’m writing or editing blog posts, Bible studies, books, videos, or preparing a sermon, my Logos library makes it easy to, among other things:

Read passages in multiple translationsCompare insights from across theological traditions thanks to a pretty rockin’ libraryExplore the meaning of key words and phrases in-depth

That’s on top of being able to create reading p...