Wes Young (Author of Reaching Sol)

Wes Young rated a book it was amazing AMERICAN BAPTIST QUARTERLY - Volume XII (12) 1993; No. 4 by William R. Editor Miller	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Actually, I read one from 1998, but it's the same periodical/series, just a different issue (I'm clicking the one listed on Goodreads). It was a good read, and (in the '98 copy), there was a great essay at the end on the history of colonialism in Ind ...more
Oct 21, 2026 06:54AM · like · see review
Wes Young is currently reading The Robe: The New York Times Bestseller―A Roman Soldier's Quest for Faith After the Crucifixion by Lloyd C. Douglas	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Oct 21, 2026 06:52AM · like
Wes Young rated a book it was amazing Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Charlotte: "That doesn't make a particle of difference...People believe almost anything they see in print." Love that. More seriously, this was a touching book, to me. Several times I really felt it, feel it even now. "I don't want to die." ...more
Oct 01, 2026 04:37AM · like · see review
Wes Young and 2 other people liked Janisse Ray's blog post: No Monument Would Be Tall Enough "WENDELL BERRY, I was broken-hearted to learn, passed away on Monday, Aug. 31, at his home in Port Royal, Kentucky. No person has influenced my life more than Wendell Berry. His writing and his thinking about conservation, place, and agriculture ar..." Read more of this blog post »
Sep 18, 2026 05:31PM
Wes Young is currently reading Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Sep 16, 2026 02:22PM · like
Wes Young rated a book really liked it Living the Liturgy: Enlarging the Baptist Vision by Elizabeth A Newman	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
An interesting book on an important topic to me, and I'm happy to find that I'm not alone in this line of thought. My conundrum/conviction goes something like this: The Baptist tendency to strip everything down to the basics (just a building, just the ...more
Sep 16, 2026 01:30PM · 1 like · like · see review
Wes Young rated a book it was amazing Memories of Ben Hill Drive: A Southern Story by Hubert Addleton	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Memories from an interesting and faithful man. Learned to waterski in his 70s (I think), and skydived in his 90s. Not to mention, preached the Gospel for decades in a region rather hostile to it.
Aug 13, 2026 08:19PM · like · see review
Wes Young rated a book it was amazing Peace Breaks Out by John Knowles	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
A book you'll read in a day and remember for a lifetime. It's really good! Both the story and the style. "...boys passing through this little village, growing up at this school, making here the perilous, unshielded crossing from boyhood to young manho ...more
Jul 23, 2026 03:12PM · like · see review
Wes Young is currently reading Memories of Ben Hill Drive: A Southern Story by Hubert Addleton	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jul 18, 2026 01:11PM · like
Wes Young rated a book it was amazing Caribbean by James A. Michener	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This book is a masterpiece, an absolute masterpiece. I was mesmerized by every page, all 800+ of them. Each chapter is its own all-inclusive story, and they span several centuries of Caribbean history. Their plots/characters connect only loosely, but ...more
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Wes Young rated a book it was amazing

AMERICAN BAPTIST QUARTERLY - Volume XII (12) 1993; No. 4
by William R. Editor Miller

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Actually, I read one from 1998, but it's the same periodical/series, just a different issue (I'm clicking the one listed on Goodreads). It was a good read, and (in the '98 copy), there was a great essay at the end on the history of colonialism in Ind ...more

Wes Young is currently reading

The Robe: The New York Times Bestseller―A Roman Soldier's Quest for Faith After the Crucifixion
by Lloyd C. Douglas

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Wes Young rated a book it was amazing

Charlotte’s Web
by E.B. White

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Charlotte: "That doesn't make a particle of difference...People believe almost anything they see in print."

Love that.

More seriously, this was a touching book, to me. Several times I really felt it, feel it even now. "I don't want to die." ...more

Wes Young and 2 other people liked Janisse Ray's blog post: No Monument Would Be Tall Enough

"WENDELL BERRY, I was broken-hearted to learn, passed away on Monday, Aug. 31, at his home in Port Royal, Kentucky. No person has influenced my life more than Wendell Berry. His writing and his thinking about conservation, place, and agriculture ar..." Read more of this blog post »

Wes Young is currently reading

Charlotte’s Web
by E.B. White

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Wes Young rated a book really liked it

Living the Liturgy by Elizabeth A Newman

Living the Liturgy: Enlarging the Baptist Vision
by Elizabeth A Newman

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An interesting book on an important topic to me, and I'm happy to find that I'm not alone in this line of thought.

My conundrum/conviction goes something like this: The Baptist tendency to strip everything down to the basics (just a building, just the An interesting book on an important topic to me, and I'm happy to find that I'm not alone in this line of thought.

My conundrum/conviction goes something like this: The Baptist tendency to strip everything down to the basics (just a building, just the Bible, etc.) has been at the expense of many of the meaningful, beautiful liturgies of the Church--the holy habits still practiced by Catholics, Anglicans, Episcopalians, and the like. We Baptists have drifted too much from the mystery, awe, and reverence of God (I mean, it's God!) in favor of an overly intellectualized model.

Think about this: I attend a Baptist church every week, and never do we kneel, pray in unison, pray the Lord's Prayer, or pray aloud at all unless your name is in the bulletin; we never read Scripture aloud, never even (unless it's a part of the sermon) hear the Scriptures read aloud to us. We rarely take the Lord's Supper.

My high church brethren do these things every week. Meanwhile, the modern Baptist model, in my experience, is to "shed" all this. Our services, with the exception of the singing, are more like seminary classes/lectures than worship services. Very cerebral, disembodied, just "thinking about God."

One might reply, "Well then, just be Anglo/Catholic." But how can I when I believe unshakably in immersive, believer's baptism as the Biblical way? It is such a real, passionate, and physical experience--the one physical thing Baptists cherish and other denominations neglect, buried in the water, rising to new life.

I think about this all the time. Would it be easier to bring immersion to the centuries-old Anglicans (or millennia-old Catholics), or to bring wholesome liturgical practices to the Baptists?

Presently, I'm hitching my wagon to the latter. We'll see.

I'm grateful to Elizabeth Newman for sharing some similar sentiments on this subject, and giving some of the history behind these things. Best of all, this book (which is very much a synthesis) provides a long reading list for further study. ...more

Wes Young rated a book it was amazing

Memories of Ben Hill Drive by Hubert Addleton

Memories of Ben Hill Drive: A Southern Story
by Hubert Addleton

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Memories from an interesting and faithful man. Learned to waterski in his 70s (I think), and skydived in his 90s. Not to mention, preached the Gospel for decades in a region rather hostile to it.

Wes Young rated a book it was amazing

Peace Breaks Out
by John Knowles

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A book you'll read in a day and remember for a lifetime. It's really good! Both the story and the style.

"...boys passing through this little village, growing up at this school, making here the perilous, unshielded crossing from boyhood to young manho ...more

Wes Young is currently reading

Memories of Ben Hill Drive: A Southern Story
by Hubert Addleton

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Wes Young rated a book it was amazing

Caribbean
by James A. Michener

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This book is a masterpiece, an absolute masterpiece. I was mesmerized by every page, all 800+ of them. Each chapter is its own all-inclusive story, and they span several centuries of Caribbean history. Their plots/characters connect only loosely, but This book is a masterpiece, an absolute masterpiece. I was mesmerized by every page, all 800+ of them. Each chapter is its own all-inclusive story, and they span several centuries of Caribbean history. Their plots/characters connect only loosely, but also brilliantly: by echoes or passing allusions, and of course by geography. In that way, it's like Michener's Tales of the South Pacific. As to the stories themselves: From now on when I think of the term "short story," I will simply think of this book's first chapter, "A Hedge of Croton." It's perfect. Or to put that another way, if anyone ever asks me "What is a short story?" I'll just say, "Read 'A Hedge of Croton.' "

All the other chapters, too, are outstanding.

Themes that struck me, and stick with me:
1) The killing, killing, killing, across the centuries and cultures and places. So much killing.
2) Humanity's endless quest to start fresh. I feel that drive in myself, so I can certainly appreciate it, though now there are no fresh places left (on Earth). Still, I can understand what once drove men to seek them.
3) Religion. This colors the book from front to back, particularly the theme of killing in the name of religion--or the complex intersection of politics and religion, which is so often the same thing. ...Human sacrifices of this or that tribe, long ago. Or persecution of this or that denomination, more recently. So much to think about. (Though on my end, I'm not ready to lump everything together and throw it all away. If someone once ripped out a man's heart, or burned him at the stake, in the name of god, that doesn't mean all God-seekers are disposed to that sort of behavior. Once upon a time, captains keel-hauled crewmen, but I'd be painting with a pretty broad brush to therefore go out and sink all ships.)
4) Rich and poor. Have and have-nots. What is yours and what is mine? Or the big one: Who gets to live where?
5) How any and every thing--an island, a crop, a talent, whatever--is always, eventually milled through the one question that someone inevitably asks: How can I convert this to money? Thus, everything is soon exhausted. For what, exactly?

There's too much more to list, so I'll just close with the greatest mystery of all: Given books like this, how in the world have so many schools managed to make history classes boring? ...more

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	Reaching Sol: A Novel 4.71 avg rating — 14 ratings — published 2022 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	One Story, Building: A Memoir on the Power of Story it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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