Well, we're pretty much staring down the barrel of February of 2014, but I thought I'd finally get around to finishing up this post on good reads from 2013!
Let me begin by saying I've only been a "reader" for probably the last 10 years of my life. To my shame, in high school I would just get by with skimming the required reading or finding book summaries. It wasn't until college that I started reading my textbooks (especially the Economics ones) cover to cover. And it wasn't until we moved to Dothan in 2006 that I really started reading regularly. I was leading my first K-Life small group of high school girls and at one of our first meetings the girls were all talking about the books they were reading. "Are these books for school?" I asked. "No, these are just for fun..." was the reply. Astonished, I asked, "So, you're just reading books... for FUN?!"
As you can see, despite my many excellent English teachers and
RIF campaigns, I had just totally missed the boat on this. So, slightly embarrassed, I asked to borrow one of the books they were discussing. One sweet girl loaned me
Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers. I loved it and then ravenously read through Rivers'
Mark of the Lion series... and I was hooked on reading! Hah!
So be encouraged... it's really never too late, folks!
My reading list normally includes a cycle of 3 different kinds of books: "good for me" books on things like marriage and parenting, good "escape from reality" fiction books, and classics I really should have read before now. I can't read too many of any one category or I get a pretty large half-finished book pile.
Here are a few of the good reads I found in 2013:
The Meaning of Marriage, by Tim & Kathy Keller
Really just fantastic. I've recommended it several times since reading it. From the first chapter: "The reason that marriage is so painful and yet wonderful is because it is a reflection of the gospel, which is painful and wonderful at once... Love without truth is sentimentality... Truth without love is harshness... God's saving love in Christ, however, is marked by both radical truthfulness about who we are and yet also radical, unconditional commitment to us" (page 48). I was very encouraged by Kathy's chapter on gender roles because I think she walks the frustrating line between "doing away with gender roles because of abuses" and "infusing meaning into gender roles because it fits my personality" so well (those are
my own made-up categories of the gender role debate pendulum!). She says, "Both women
and men get to 'play the Jesus role' in marriage - Jesus in his sacrificial authority, Jesus in his sacrificial submission" (page 179). I even appreciated the articles and books referenced in their work, like
this NY Times article on masculinity with the quote "it may be worth recalling that sexual restraint rather than sexual prowess was once the measure of a man." I loved Piper's
book on marriage in the same way I loved this one because they've so helped the way I
think about marriage with a "big picture" message.
The Hidden Art of Homemaking, by Edith Schaffer
Ok, the title of this book pretty much terrified me. I've never thought of myself as a natural homemaker or overly pulled toward a love for all things domestic. Any evidence you've seen in my life to the contrary is truly by the grace of God! So, if it didn't come on the recommendation of one of my heroes, I don't know that I'd have ever read it. BUT... I... LOVED IT!! Really, I was so inspired as I contemplated our Creator - His attention to detail and dedication to beauty seen in every particle of creation around me. Schaffer's encouragements to add a centerpiece to your dinner table and explore the arts are firmly grounded in reflecting a creative Creator. I've even decided to take up watercolor - hah! I'll let you know how it goes...
The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert, by Rosaria Butterfield
I've mentioned before that
I love conversion stories, and so it should come as no surprise that I really enjoyed reading Butterfield's account. Her conversion came during her distinguished and tenured career as a professor at Syracuse University where she was working on a book on "the rise of the Religious Right in America, and the hermeneutic of hatred that the Religious Right uses against their favorite target: queers, or at that time, people like me." Her story is incredibly interesting, but her insights into what was and wasn't useful dialogue on the road to conversion are so helpful. "Here is one of the deepest ways Christians scared me: the lesbian community was home and home felt safe and secure... while the Christian community appeared (and too often is) exclusive, judgmental, scornful, and afraid of diversity." Some of the denominational distinctives she arrives at intrigued me at times, but her commitment to an honest and vulnerable account of the "train wreck" of faith she experiences makes her story a powerful read.
Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë
A classic love story set in the 19th century moors of Yorkshire, England... how could I NOT be drawn to this one?! The language was beautiful and the story kept me eagerly turning the page. But the story... I don't know... let's just say it lacked the redemptive qualities of sister's work,
Jane Eyre. Heathcliff's character was just so very depressing to me. At the time I was reading it, it seemed like every bible story or sermon mentioned the story of Joseph from the Old Testament, and I couldn't help but draw the parallels. Both favored sons scorned by siblings, but forgiveness and faith drove Joseph to greatness and complete reconciliation with his family, while bitterness and hatred drove Heathcliff to many evil acts and a haunted death. I even made Robert sit through
this awful movie version of the book I found at the library to make sure I hadn't missed something!
The Call of the Wild, by Jack London
I have no idea what made me pick this up, but I actually really enjoyed reading the story of a house-dog turned trail-dog turned wild-dog! It was one I was sure I'd been assigned to read at some point in my K-12 education and just didn't. Reading it certainly helped me sympathize with Robert's plight to one day own a German Shepherd puppy. "Faithfulness and devotion, things born of fire and roof, were his; yet he retained his wildness and wiliness."
The Great Stagnation: How America Ate All the Low-Hanging Fruit of Modern History, Got Sick, and Will (Eventually) Feel Better, by Tyler Cowen
I like to - every now and then - pick up a book that refreshes my love for my undergraduate degree. This fit the bill this time and I wouldn't mind reading another book by Cowen, who I found to be a pretty even, just-give-'em-the-facts writer type. I think I most enjoyed his 2nd chapter on Government, Health Care, and Education. When discussing the measure of government productivity he says, "It's about the
change in useful outputs, not about the absolute level of how good a government is. Even if you think everything our government does is awesome, successive increments of government are still on average less valuable than the core functions." Three cheers for the law of diminishing marginal utility! Anyone... ?? And the
OECD chart he referenced on health care kind of blew my mind. I think I agree with Cowen that "we're not very good at measuring the quality and real net value of health care expenditures." Finally - though I couldn't agree with all his conclusions - I couldn't agree
more with his assessment: "For the last forty years, most Americans have been expecting more than their government is capable of delivering... Instead of admitting its limitations, or trying to manage our expectations, government starts lying to us about what is possible."
The Red Queen &
The White Queen, by Philippa Gregory
I enjoyed these two easy-to-read historical fiction novels about the lives of Margaret Beaufort (mother of Henry Tudor) and Elizabeth Woodville (wife of Edward IV and mother of Elizabeth York). It fed my need for a good story while informing my growing interest in England's history - especially those infamous Tudors.
I'll tell you the girls are acquiring a few favorite books of their own these days. Meg recently checked out
Monkey and Me, by Emily Gravett, and though she's just about memorized every word she still wants to hear it several times a day! Ellie picked out
this one at our last library visit and has loved choosing her own adventure with each reading. Hopefully they'll begin to enjoy reading a little earlier than I did!
I'm always open to recommendations for the young and the old - read anything good lately?
