Hear No Evil by Matthew Paul Turner

If you’ve ever had the opening bars of a song transport you back in time or remind you of a pivotal spiritual moment, Matthew Paul Turner’s honest—and frequently hilarious—musings will strike a chord. Straight-forward and amusing, Hear No Evil is Turner’s “life soundtrack,” a compilation of engaging personal stories about how music—and music’s ability to transform—has played a key role in his spiritual life.

What I liked about the book:


I really enjoyed the author's style of writing. He is an interesting writer, and humorous. I could relate to his story. I grew up in a church where all too many people think drums are of the devil, and any music that has drums is likewise - so I can appreciate his story in that regard.

Turner starts back when he was four years old, and talks about how is view of music, and the styles he listened to, changed over the years. He gives a fascinating look at the music industry, and Nashville specifically. He also addresses what it really means to be Christian, and had some interesting takes on different denominations and beliefs. Overall, I really did enjoy the book - a great read.

What I didn't like:

Though I enjoyed a lot of the book, I get the idea that Turner advocates pushing the envelope on Christianity - getting by with as much as you can. He relates an incident of making out with his girlfriend at a Christian college in which she had "practically ripped" his shirt off of him as if that is the norm for Christians. Other things like his Christian friends who smoke, have premarital sex - and he and his Christian friends going to a bar where Christian singers go to smoke and drink - if he disapproves of that all, it didn't come through in the book. He also related about an accountability group he was in while in a Christian college, and discussed a problem they all had with solo sex - I felt it was out of place in a book of this type.

He does raise some interesting points and thought in the book, and as I stated, it is an interesting read.

About the author:

Matthew Paul Turner is a blogger, speaker and author of The Coffeehouse Gospel, Provocative Faith, Beatitude: Relearning Jesus, the What You Didn’t Learn from Your Parents About… series, and several other popular books. He has written for Relevant, HomeLife, Christian Single magazines and was the former editor of CCM magazine. Matthew and his wife, Jessica, live in Nashville, Tennessee. He can be found online at http://www.matthewpaulturner.com/.

To learn more about this book, or to purchase, go to RandomHouse.com.
Thanks to Waterbrook/Multnomah for the review copy.