books
Gods in Alabama
Ben came home from a Tuesday lunch at Disciples Fellowship a few weeks ago with an author recommendation. Apparently, one of the people at DF has a famous sister, fiction author, Joshilyn Jackson. So I went online, reserved all three of her books from the library, and I've been hooked ever since.
Those Who Save Us
Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum. It was a book my grandmother recommended. Written by a Jewish author, it flashes between the late 90's and the 1930's - 40's and follows the story of a German mother and her daughter. The mother lived in Germany during WWII and falls in love with a Jewish doctor, has a baby, and so on... (don't want to ruin the story too much). The daughter is a German history professor (in Minneapolis, of all places) and is doing research on the experiences of Germans during the war.
un-religious. Actually there are very few Jewish characters in the
book.
Blue Like Jazz
“I believe that the greatest trick of the devil is not to get us into some sort of evil but rather to have us wasting time. This is why the devil tries so hard to get Christians to be religious. If he can sink a man’s mind into habit, he will prevent his heart from engaging God.”
“So much of me believes strongly in letting everybody live their own lives, and when I share my faith, I feel like a network marketing guy trying to build my down line.”
“Rick said he thought it meant we should live missional lives, that we should intentionally befriend people who are different than us. I didn’t like the sound of that, to be honest. I didn’t want to befriend somebody just to trick them into going to my church. Rick
said that was not what he was talking about. He said he was talking about loving people just because they exist—homeless people and Gothic people and gays and fruit nuts. And then I liked the sound of it. I liked the idea of loving people just to love them, not to get them to come to church.”
“I am something of a recluse by nature. I am that cordless screwdriver that has to
charge for twenty hours to earn ten minutes use. I need that much downtime.”
“At the end of the day, when I am lying in bed and I know the chances of any of our theology being exactly right are a million to one, I need to know that God has things figured out, that if my math is wrong we are still going to be okay.”
Amen. We don't have it right, but we're trying and I think that's what matters. I'm sure I've said that before....
Tagged
The RULES:
Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. (No cheating!)
Find Page 123.
Find the first 5 sentences.
Post the next 3 sentences.
Tag 5 people.
Then put the napkin on the baby's head, pull it off and say "Peek-a-boo". Put the napkin on the baby's head and see if she will pull it off herself. Keep pulling it off until she learns to do it herself.
The Year of Living Biblically
I just finished reading The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs.
Now, typically I don't read non-fiction. No matter how often Ben "suggested" that I read something that was true, I frankly found it too nerdy and figured that couldn't be enjoyable at all. But, since this book was our pick for book club this month, and it did look interesting, I gave it a shot.
And interesting it was! It reads just like a year of daily blogs by A.J. (editor at large for the magazine Esquire and author of The Know it All). He spends a year trying to follow the bible as literally as possible, focusing on the Old Testament for 9 months and the New Testament for 3 months. He has a great sense of humor and the things he encounters trying to find the origin of traditions and examples of people following all the obscure rules and laws are beyond bizarre!
He's Jewish by heritage, but calls himself agnostic. His theory is that all people who follow the bible (there are so many names for these people besides "Christian" that I'll just say "people") are choosy about what parts they follow, picking only what fits their agenda. His experiences with all these people and their various beliefs, traditions and customs are proof that it may just be impossible to follow everything in the bible--at least literally.
I took away two things from reading this book...well, maybe three:
To follow the Bible, and essentially God, is difficult, complicated and mind-boggling to say the least. There are so many interpretations and perspectives on the meaning of nearly every verse in the bible, all (or most) with excellent arguments.
After reading this book and visiting a variety of different churches over the past two years, I have a much greater appreciation for God's grace. May he be merciful unto all of us who think we have Him figured out. I'm sure we don't, but we're doing our best and as far as I can tell, that's our mission--to do our best to follow Him. Somehow though, I get the feeling He's just shaking his head at us in Heaven because we are all so transfixed on the details and the little things that we were missing the big picture. I'm going to try and look at the big picture more in the future.
Second thing I took from the book: I'd like to be able to be dedicated and focused on a project like A.J. was for this book. Amazing commitment and in-depth research was essential to his success. I'm not sure what kind of project I'd like to do, but I like the idea of really focusing on something specific everyday to reach a long-term goal.
And finally, I'm going to read more non-fiction. I'll try for one a quarter next year and see how that goes.
Definitely a recommended read--it'll make you think--and laugh out loud, literally. The people in the cardio room at the rec think I'm the weird girl who laughs for no reason!
Lynn Austin
I used to read all the time when I was younger. Then high school hit and we were TOLD to read, so I stopped reading for fun until after college. Lately I've been on a reading spree again. Since we moved to Birmingham, I've read close to 20 books. I'm a regular at the library. I read almost all fiction, and lately it's been mostly Christian fiction.
I thought I'd recommend one of my favorite authors, Lynn Austin. She writes historical Christian fiction and I haven't read a book of hers that I didn't love. I like that I feel like I'm learning all about another time in history in addition to enjoying a great story when I read her books.
- Refiner's Fire Series (3 books) - These three books surround the Civil War and are told from three primary perspectives: the North, the South, and a slave. All three books are so fantastic.
- Chronicles of the Kings Series (5 books) - This series fictionalizes the reign of King Hezekiah and his son Manessah. It has made studying these people in church classes and bible studies more relevant to me, because even though it is fiction, she uses scripture as a firm basis for the stories.
- A Woman's Place - This book is set during WWII and follows the lives of four women who work in a shipyard building war ships.
- All She Ever Wanted is a multi-generational story about the women in a family who all make the same choices to run away. The stories span time from current day to early 1900s (I think) in Ireland.
- Currently, I'm reading Hidden Places, which takes place during the Great Depression and follows a family that owns an orchard.
They're all just so good I had to share! :) I'm always open to recommendations if you have any favorite books or authors to share!
The Lovely Bones
I just finished reading a book called The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold for my MOPS book club. I've never read anything like it. The narrator of the book was murdered and the whole story is told from "her heaven" while she watches her family and friend (and murderer) live their lives on Earth. It's an odd take on the afterlife, but I found it interesting.
