Jonathan Brooker (Author of It All Starts Here)

Jonathan Brooker is now friends with Veronica Eberlein
8 hours, 28 min ago · like
Jonathan Brooker rated a book liked it Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know by Malcolm Gladwell	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, while good, just didn't compel me like other works of Gladwell's have in the past. I can't quite put my finger on what it was that was missing or missteps that were taken in the writing; it just didn't make as much of a lasting impact on m ...more
Sep 26, 2025 06:25PM · 1 like · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Jonathan Brooker and 2 other people liked Veronica Eberlein's review of The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness: "Woah! After being on my library waitlist for over seven months to listen to the audio version— I completely understand why!!! There is so much to process and do in response to data and information presented in this book to intentionally raise my kids" Read more of this review »
Sep 26, 2025 06:24PM · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Jonathan Brooker rated a book liked it You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise by Joel Salatin	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
When I first sat down with this book, after having checked it out of our local library, I read through the Table of Contents to get an idea of what all I could expect to find the book covering. With the book being over 400 pages and each chapter on a ...more
Aug 05, 2025 09:57AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of You Can Farm by Joel Salatin. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — You Can Farm by Joel Salatin <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Jonathan Brooker rated a book liked it Recovering Eden: The Gospel According to Ecclesiastes (Gospel According to the Old Testament) by Zack Eswine (Goodreads Author)	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
When I began reading this book I was immediately drawn in to both the author's style and the profound insights he was pulling from the text of Ecclesiastes. I'm perplexed by other readers negative complaints about it being a less systematic approach, ...more
Jun 17, 2025 05:33AM · like · see review
Jonathan Brooker rated a book really liked it The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel	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
I found this to be an enjoyable journey into some of the ways of thinking that go into how we individually and communally see and handle money. Because that was its primary focus, it ended up not delivering quite as many nuts and bolts action steps a ...more
Jun 17, 2025 05:23AM · like · see review
Jonathan Brooker rated a book liked it What If Jesus Was Serious about the Church?: A Visual Guide to Becoming the Community Jesus Intended by Skye Jethani (Goodreads Author)	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
When a book is designed like this with such brief chapters and so many of them, it tends to indicate that the basic offering of the book will be to give the reader a variety of "nuggets" around that particular topic. And that's what Jethani does a go ...more
May 27, 2025 06:59AM · like · see review
Jonathan Brooker has read EntreLeadership: 20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom from the Trenches by Dave Ramsey	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
Jan 20, 2025 12:55PM · like
Jonathan Brooker rated a book liked it The Gospel Comes with a House Key by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield	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
They say you can't judge a book by its cover, but after reading many other reviews on this book I contend that this book would have been aided so much if it had simply been presented and packaged differently. Specifically: This book looks categorical ...more
Nov 01, 2024 08:12AM · like · see review · preview book See a Problem? We’d love your help. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of The Gospel Comes with a House Key by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield. Problem: Details (if other): Thanks for telling us about the problem. Not the book you’re looking for? Preview — The Gospel Comes with a House Key by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield <iframe sandbox id="wrongBookKindlePreviewScreen">
Jonathan Brooker rated a book it was amazing Winsome Conviction: Disagreeing Without Dividing the Church by Tim Muehlhoff	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
Easily one of the best written, most compelling, and most applicable books I've read in my life. I would unapologetically say that this is a must-read for every believer in Christ in our current, tumultuous and divisive day. The book is laid out so w ...more
Nov 01, 2024 07:55AM · like · see review

Jonathan Brooker is now friends with Veronica Eberlein

Jonathan Brooker rated a book liked it

Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know
by Malcolm Gladwell

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1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

This book, while good, just didn't compel me like other works of Gladwell's have in the past. I can't quite put my finger on what it was that was missing or missteps that were taken in the writing; it just didn't make as much of a lasting impact on m ...more

Jonathan Brooker and 2 other people liked Veronica Eberlein's review of The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Caused an Epidemic of Mental Illness:

The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt

"Woah! After being on my library waitlist for over seven months to listen to the audio version— I completely understand why!!! There is so much to process and do in response to data and information presented in this book to intentionally raise my kids" Read more of this review »

Jonathan Brooker rated a book liked it

You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise
by Joel Salatin

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When I first sat down with this book, after having checked it out of our local library, I read through the Table of Contents to get an idea of what all I could expect to find the book covering. With the book being over 400 pages and each chapter on a When I first sat down with this book, after having checked it out of our local library, I read through the Table of Contents to get an idea of what all I could expect to find the book covering. With the book being over 400 pages and each chapter on average probably about only 8-10 pages long, this table was full and my first observation was that it was filled with such a wide spread of incredibly helpful topics. I couldn't wait to dive in!

A few months back a friend turned me on to Joel Salatin and his unique farming approach, which had me looking all over to get my hands on the variety of materials available to learn and explore more of his insights and teachings. Being toted by others as "the Bible for homestead farming," of course this book had to be on my shortlist of things to dig into, and it did not disappoint.

That said, it is a book that was released in 1998, so right off the bat it's worth noting that some of the material has aged out of applicability. The thing is, it's hard to know what all might be included in that now obsolete material, particularly if you're truly new to the whole gig of the farming enterprise. (My guess would be that it's a very very small percentage of the material covered.)

Now every piece of communication always presumes the audience has both a general understanding of language as well as a certain level of comprehension regarding the topics as they come up. The expectation is that the communication then builds on this understanding to expand it. My one critique of this book is that I feel like it presumed a little too much comprehension of a variety of farming topics right off the bat, rather than assuming that the novice might truly be new to the world that the author was literally raised and surrounded in all of his life. It wasn't egregious, but there just were a number of times when he went on to develop a thought and I was left thinking, "I'm not sure I even understand your starting point or some of the terms you're using without explanation." I think it would've been helpful to have perhaps offered additional beginners resources whenever this happened and/or a glossary of sorts.

But besides that I was able to take down a lot of notes from the insights offered in this book. The author's writing style is succinct and informative, humble and helpful. It's a dense book, and I imagine that any reader - unique as each one would be - would find certain bits of it to be a lull and other bits riveting, based off their unique passions and interests that are pulling them towards farming. So I'm grateful for this book and will probably have to check it out of the library again a couple times in the future as a resource book for the wild journey of homesteading. ...more

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Recovering Eden: The Gospel According to Ecclesiastes (Gospel According to the Old Testament)
by Zack Eswine (Goodreads Author)

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When I began reading this book I was immediately drawn in to both the author's style and the profound insights he was pulling from the text of Ecclesiastes. I'm perplexed by other readers negative complaints about it being a less systematic approach, When I began reading this book I was immediately drawn in to both the author's style and the profound insights he was pulling from the text of Ecclesiastes. I'm perplexed by other readers negative complaints about it being a less systematic approach, when it's literally about understanding a book of wisdom poetry. I think I would enjoy a systematic verse-by-verse commentary on Ecclesiastes about as much as anyone would enjoy having a joke explained to them - that's not how it works.

Anyways, the book began with chapter after chapter that illuminated the profound way that Ecclesiastes really does offer wisdom - albeit offbeat to the kind that we're used to. The author does a fantastic job explaining why the writing styles of the Bible that we are more accustomed to (narrative, law, and epistles) can skew how we approach a writing style as unique as what you'll find in Ecclesiastes. By doing so, he skillfully invites us to see the actual true wisdom of a book that many would otherwise seem as heterodoxical or at the very least downright depressing.

Multiple times I found myself commenting out loud "Oh, that's so good!" That is, until I arrived at the chapter where Eswine digs into Ecclesiastes 5 and the Preacher's journey to "the house of God." I still can't understand how it happened, but suddenly the exegesis became eisegesis. Out of nowhere the author took a modern and Westernized view of what we think of when it comes to "the house of God" and laid that over the text and then interpreted the words of the Preacher from that foreign vantage point. Suddenly a section of the Scripture that is clearly focused on cautioning against being rash in vows made to God in the Old Testament temple and sacrificial system turns into telling us that the Preacher has seen the shortcomings of church folk but hasn't given up on persisting to go to church. It shocked me.

So I eagerly awaited the end of that chapter and being able to leave that teaching (that I saw as really missing the point) behind me. But for some unknown reason, while up to this point the chapters mostly existed in isolation from each other, it seemed like the author wanted to continue interpreting the rest of what remained from that vantage point of a guy who went to "church" and who stepped out of "church" and so on, and again was maintaining this westernized understanding of what "the house of God" would mean.

I still think this is an absolutely fantastic book on Ecclesiastes that would be a delight and helpful for anyone to read who is looking to gain a greater understanding for and appreciation of this unique book of the Bible. If it weren't for that approach to interpreting that portion of Ecclesiastes 5, I would've certainly been giving this book at least a 4-star rating. Not sure how likely it would be, but I would love to see a future revised edition take another stab at interpreting that portion. ...more

Jonathan Brooker rated a book really liked it

The Psychology of Money
by Morgan Housel

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I found this to be an enjoyable journey into some of the ways of thinking that go into how we individually and communally see and handle money.

Because that was its primary focus, it ended up not delivering quite as many nuts and bolts action steps a ...more

Jonathan Brooker rated a book liked it

What If Jesus Was Serious about the Church? by Skye Jethani

What If Jesus Was Serious about the Church?: A Visual Guide to Becoming the Community Jesus Intended
by Skye Jethani (Goodreads Author)

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When a book is designed like this with such brief chapters and so many of them, it tends to indicate that the basic offering of the book will be to give the reader a variety of "nuggets" around that particular topic. And that's what Jethani does a go ...more

Jonathan Brooker has read

EntreLeadership: 20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom from the Trenches
by Dave Ramsey

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The Gospel Comes with a House Key
by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield

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They say you can't judge a book by its cover, but after reading many other reviews on this book I contend that this book would have been aided so much if it had simply been presented and packaged differently.

Specifically: This book looks categorical They say you can't judge a book by its cover, but after reading many other reviews on this book I contend that this book would have been aided so much if it had simply been presented and packaged differently.

Specifically: This book looks categorically like a Christian Living book which will provide a biblical argument for "practicing radically ordinary hospitality in our post-Christian world." (That part in quotes is the entirety of the sub-title, after all.) However, this book is unequivocally a memoir and should have been touted as such. (My suggested alternate subtitle: "A formerly post-Christian woman's journey to practicing radically ordinary hospitality in a post-Christian world") This would have prepared the reader for what they would actually find within the 220 pages they were about to enter. I find this to be a significant blunder on the publisher's part.

Because of this big misstep, many readers find Butterfield's stories to be self-aggrandizing when I actually read most of her stories as simply and unabashedly telling stories of how "all-in" her family is to this concept of biblical hospitality. We Christians read of the apostle Paul placing himself as an example to follow and then like crabs in a bucket balk at any other Christian who states that they might be worth following, even if they actually might! I didn't find Butterfield to be condescending or preachy in those ways and am sorry that others did find her as such.

That said, some critics have pointed out the narrowness of her perspective - which, of course, wouldn't be unexpected had this book been presented less like a Christian Living book which is expected to do the work to relate to and create connections to Christians of all kinds of different life circumstances. Many of her stories are inimitable for my personal life circumstances, but principally I felt challenged to pursue even more radically ordinary hospitality in our home. Thanks, Rosaria, for giving me a peek into your home so that I can be prodded to do more with mine!

As a simple point of reader's taste, I didn't care for how often she would give unnecessary gross details of dogs or children doing foul things. I'm not the least bit squeamish, but there was absolutely nothing added and no point to her mentioning in poetic detail about a dog dining in a cat's litter box. It felt like an unnecessary tool for showing how non-glamorous her life was.

The book felt quite all over the place in its content, and highlighted topics that would seem entirely disjointed to the topic of biblical hospitality. For instance, human sexuality and homosexuality get quite a lot of airtime. But that makes sense if this is a memoir of a woman for whom sexuality was a defining part of her life and her renewed life in Jesus.

Imagine, if you will, sitting down expecting to enjoy a rom-com movie only to discover, soon into the film, that it's actually a documentary. A good documentary! But a documentary nonetheless. That is how I felt reading this book. Oh, it's a memoir. I had no way of anticipating that. It's a pretty good one. But I had no idea that's what it was. ...more

Jonathan Brooker rated a book it was amazing

Winsome Conviction: Disagreeing Without Dividing the Church
by Tim Muehlhoff

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Easily one of the best written, most compelling, and most applicable books I've read in my life. I would unapologetically say that this is a must-read for every believer in Christ in our current, tumultuous and divisive day.

The book is laid out so w Easily one of the best written, most compelling, and most applicable books I've read in my life. I would unapologetically say that this is a must-read for every believer in Christ in our current, tumultuous and divisive day.

The book is laid out so well by methodically revealing the various problems that we face, some which we probably were more aware of than others. For instance, the authors talk about the fact that when our convictions conflict with each other within the church it "hits" differently because we would expect to have unbelievers hold different positions than we do, but when we are pulling our strong felt from the same Scriptures it's hard to handle that someone "on our team" would essentially feel like they're against us.

"Winsome Conviction" brings you through a process of discovering how convictions are meant to be developed and handled (as well as precisely how they can so easily get off track). Then we're invited to see why so much disunity and unhelpful arguing and disagreement can happen. In fact, one of my biggest takeaways from the book is the repeated invitation they make to seek disagreement with those who see things differently than we do. What they mean is that we often just have misunderstanding, which is entirely unhelpful in resolving anything. So long as each other's positions are actually being muddied or misrepresented there's no real hope of moving forward in any healthy or productive way. Instead, you need to seek disagreement, where you've done the work to actually understand each other's positions in a way that you'd both agree "Yes, that's what I believe." And then you can start to actually move ahead in a fruitful way.

There is so much more I could praise about this book. How they address groupthink, our propensity for being quick to speak and slow to listen, and how Christians can and absolutely must regain a truly Christian approach to disagreements. As the authors point out, quarreling and mishandling disagreements has been--since the very start of the New Testament church--the most precarious element to the health and prosperity of the Church. And I can't think of a time where the gracious exhortations of this book are more timely to realign Christians towards the grace-filled unity God calls His Church to be known for than the time we currently find ourselves in. ...more

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Jonathan’s Year In Books

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See a Problem?

Preview — Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

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Preview — You Can Farm by Joel Salatin

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Preview — The Gospel Comes with a House Key by Rosaria Champagne Butterfield

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