Scott Freeman

Only two artists have multiple songs on my list. One of those is The Boss. I have been blessed enough to see Bruce three times in concert and I have in each occasion walked away speechless by his command of the stage and his take on the indomitable nature of the human spirit.

No song resonates more with me from his oeuvre than this one. I first heard this song in 1999 when Bruce closed the Staples show with it. To me this is his most hopeful, most redemptive and most faith filled song. It’s a Christ message wrapped in that vintage E Street sound.

Tom Sawyer.

Sherlock Holmes.

Atticus Finch.

Joseph K.

The literary world is full of indelible characters. Those fully-fleshed out individuals that are so original, so unique that they jump off the page and come to life in your mind.

Alongside the Heathcliff’s and Phillip Marlows there must now be space made for Lisbeth Salander. The heroine of Larsson’s posthumous girl trilogy is at once sympathetic, iconic and elusive.

And in the second novel Larsson really brings us into the psyche and tortured history of this character. Mystery novels are churned out at an alarming rate and the vast majority of them are instantly forgettable. Lisbeth Salander, however, will not let you easily forget this one. Introduced to us in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Salander is a skilled computer hacker who also has been pronounced incompetent by the Swedish Judicial System. However, there is more to her than the tattoos, modifications and technological sleight-of-hand.

Once again, Salander’s path crosses with the main character from Dragon Tattoo, Mikael Blomvquist. However, this time the story will not only force Salander to confront her own past but also find her wanted for murder.

We get one more book from this masterful voice who died too soon. If you haven’t read either of the girl books then by all means pick them up before the final volume, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest, is released in May.

This is a fun and inspiring little book. It will not take you long to read and is almost guaranteed to lift your spirits.

Greive has assembled 75 images of animals and provides the captions that serve as a motivational pick-me-up. I don’t usually like this sort of thing but the images were worth the time to flip through.

I picked this up in anticipation of the movie release next month. I know that the movie studios are frantically looking for the next Harry Potter and this is the latest and most likely attempt to come close to that. It also looks like a film that my kids will love.

After reading it, however, I can safely contend that it will be a movie that I love as well. Riordan has told a fun story of the son of Poseidon traveling to the Underworld to rescue the lightning bolt of Zeus.

I look forward to the rest of the series as young Percy Jackson takes his rightful place as one of the Last Olympians. If you like YA titles that captures the wonder and magic of HP then this is a great bet for you.

NOTE: Doing a Google Image Search for “naked” without the Sedaris qualifier is not advised.

I have heard the works of David Sedaris praised for well over a decade now. However, I have never given him a chance until now. I’m not a fan of memoirs as I find the vast majority of them intolerable, narcissistic and overwrought.

This past week I broke down and gave the audio version of Naked a try. I am actually glad I did. Sedaris did not write a typical memoir. Instead these are individual vignettes that trace his life story peccadilloes and all culminating in a hilarious recounting of his visit to a nude resort.

To me the high point of the audio version of the book is the inclusion of his sister, Amy, as the voice of many of the female characters throughout. I loved her work in Strangers With Candy and she does not disappoint here.

I still have my aversion to memoirs and don’t feel that I will rush out to read the rest of his stuff but I did enjoy this.

This is a passable and enjoyable mystery novel. Two kids witness an assassination in the woods of Northern Idaho and ind themselves on the run from the retired LAPD officers who pulled the trigger.

C.J. Box, until this point, had written only novels featuring game warded Joe Pickett. This was his first standalone novel and was a fun read. If you like easy read mysteries than this is worth picking up.

Dolly Parton, under-rated though she is, is one of our greatest living songwriters. This song, from the movie Transamerica, resonates with me on many levels.

I wrote the following words about this tune two years ago and the song still carries that same emotional and spiritual weight in my mind:

The song is about finding your place. It is about searching and seeking hope, clarity and meaning. My favorite part of the song begins at 3:32 and I never fail to get chills when she belts out “Oh sweet Jesus if you’re out there, keep me ever close to you” It’s one of my kids favorite songs.

The song makes me think of my own spiritual journey. Even now at the age of 39 I’m not sure what lies ahead for me and my family. Uncertainty with Cassie’s condition, my job situation and other issues bring up questions of our directions. We are all wanderers and the hope and promise that Jesus is out there cheering us on makes the journey so much easier.

I’ve been up and down so much over the past few months questioning my ability to preach and teach, wondering if I don’t belong in ministry, and questioning my worth. This song is such a blessing to me. One of my favorite lines is “redemption comes in many shapes with many kinds of pain.” There is still a lot of pain in our lives and in our search. But I wouldn’t trade it for the world. The path to Christ requires the pain.

This song was obscure enough that I had to create my own YouTube video for it. I first heard of Jeff Black several years ago on the discussion board for another musician who will figure in this list later.

Black’s music is all that is great about Americana. This song is featured on his B-Sides and Confessions album. However, don’t let that name fool you. There is nothing throwaway on this collection of tunes.

This song is just banjo and vocal. I love it!

So, I decided to rank my top 20 songs of all time. It is a futile task as it is in constant flux. However, I can say that the top 3-5 have remained fairly constant over the past few years and my number 1 song has not changed since 1996. As I compiled this list I couldn’t help but notice how my interests have changed over the years. I love rock and came of age in the 70s and 80s. While I still love much of that music and listen to it often the individual songs are not as indelible as the whole. Now, the songs I find myself turning to over and over are much more mellow, more folksy and much more lyric driven.

At number 20 is Steve Forbert. His lone hit. He was one of the first to be unfairly saddled with the “New Springsteen” label. However, if you stop with this song you miss a solid career of great tunes. However, this one remains my favorite. I’m a sucker for a strong piano driven song as you will see repeatedly on this list.

I used to read mystery novels incessantly. If you had looked at my reading list a decade ago it would have been chock full of John Sandford, Lawrence Block and Stuart Woods. I have to admit there was even a James Patterson novel or two thrown in there. I was also a sucker for true crime books.

However, when my first child was born I found it harder and harder to read stories about crime and murder. To read about a parent meeting their demise or a child coming to a violent end was just too much for me. I need a break from the genre.

As of this past week I am responsible for ordering mystery novels for the library. Hence a return to the genre I once loved. Starvation Lake, a solid debut by Bryan Gruley, was a great place to start. This is a solid thriller set in the northern part of lower Michigan. A disgraced reporter returns to his hometown to edit his local paper. Years ago, as the goalie for the local hockey team, he had allowed the winning goal in the state championship. He subsequently became the town goat and had a falling out with his coach. Years later his coach died in a snowmobile accident. The resurfacing of that snowmobile brings question to whether or not it was an accident.

Worth a read if you like mysteries.