Surprised by Oxford by Carolyn Weber
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Five reasons I loved this book:

1. The setting: Oxford. Ever since I read George Sayer's wonderfully British biography of C. S. Lewis, I've been fascinated by the place. Stone walls covered with ivy, towering spires in the morning sunlight, "New Buildings" so called because they were built in the thirteenth century (and not earlier, like the other buildings), the Bodleian Library's shelves and shelves of ancient books. . . . Oxford is a fascinating place.

2. The book's literary references. Carolyn is a graduate student studying literature, and she has a lot of the same literary tastes I do. She loves Donne, Herbert, Keats, Wordsworth, and the Inklings, and she sprinkles her story with clever references that make the book a delight to read.

3. The book's tone. Carolyn is real. Her search for truth is difficult at times, and she writes honestly about struggles that it caused between herself and her family and some of her friends at Oxford. And yet the book has a fun, conversational feel that makes you think you're across the coffee table from her.

4. One of the chapters is entitled "Sehnsucht."

5. God's remarkable grace. This is a wonderful story of how God brought Carolyn to Himself. Carolyn begins the story as an extremely intelligent agnostic leaving Canada to attend graduate school at Oxford. The last thing she expects is to keep discovering highly intelligent people who find the truths of Christianity to be historically credible, and who have found peace from a relationship with God. Carolyn has all kinds of questions, but it's amazing to see how so many "coincidences" come together to answer these questions and bring her to faith in God. As I read this, I was thankful God's grace in my own life.

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