As a Baptist preacher, I wanted to read this through the year. While the stories are (sometimes) interesting and many long-forgotten heroes recalled, the writers are frequently careless in the details. I was often prompted to investigate more on a given character and would discover more than a few errors in reporting. Reading a number of the stories became a drudgery, and the general absence of women was bothersome. There's a second volume, but I'm doubtful that I would read it.