This book is a fantastic idea in theory. In fact, I'd like to see a series done, with a book for each of my favorite authors. It's a little like a page-a-day calendar in book form. The entries for each day average a page or less, so five minutes before bed is sufficient to read that day's passages.

The passages each start with a brief Bible verse, usually three lines or less, that relates loosely to the topic of the Chesterton excerpt that follows. My biggest beef, and it's a big one, is that there is ZERO information about these excerpts. The reader isn't told whether it's from a book, or a diary, or a letter, or in what year Chesterton wrote it. This is especially frustrating because Chesterton was a gifted writer with big thoughts, and these excerpts (usually a short paragraph) offer only a tiny snippet of the ideas he was writing about. Anyone interested enough in Chesterton to buy this book is likely to want, occasionally at least, to look up these snippets in their larger context. I reread the preface and acknowledgements three times because I could not believe this information was wholly missing.

It's especially unbelievable given that, following the paragraph excerpt, there are further lines by Chesterton that are attributed.

For example, on August 4, the entry reads like this:

He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much. --Luke 16:10 NKJV

To love anything is to see it at once under lowering skies of danger. Loyalty implies loyalty in misfortune.

A Passage from Orthodoxy (1908): Had Christianity felt what I felt, but could not (and cannot) express -- this need for a first loyalty to things, and for a ruinous reform of things? Then I remembered that it was actually the charge against Christianity that it combined these two things which I was wildly trying to combine. Christianity was accused, at one and the same time, of being too optimistic about the universe and of being too pessimistic about the world. The coincidence made me suddenly stand still.

That's it. If I wonder where "loyalty implies loyalty in misfortune" (a nice phrase, by the way) came from, I have no idea. It's possible to assume that it is also from Orthodoxy, but the entry for August 5 contains no attributed supplement at all, so that can't be the case. I just can't imagine why the editor wouldn't have insisted on the quotations being attributed -- it's not only sloppy, but it undermines any claim the book has to being a tool for increasing interest in Chesterton's work.

However, I did enjoy that the book noted on which days something notable happened in Chesterton's life. E.g., on February 8, the book notes that on that day in 1930, Chesterton wrote a letter to the president of the University of Notre Dame [insert mandatory celebration of #1-ranked football team here] containing a dedicatory poem for the university mentioning a golden dome. I loved learning that little factoid.

On the whole, I am glad I received this book and I hope it leads people to explore Chesterton a little bit. But withholding the tools that would make it easier for people to go further in their reading is, in my opinion, utterly inexcusable.

I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255. ( )

You can read my full review at Quieted Waters.

Certain types of books are always difficult to review: study Bibles, commentaries, and how-to books are all on that list for me. So, too, are year-long readers. Whether they be devotionals or selected excerpts from a famous author, books that require 365 days of reading are inevitably difficult to review fairly.

That introduction is my way of apologizing for giving a 3-star rating to a compelling collection of Chesterton quotes. A Year with G. K. Chesterton is one man’s attempt to present the reader with hundreds of Chesterton quotes, excerpted out of their context, and by and large, Kevin Belmonte succeeds beautifully.

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