"Of making many books,
there is no end.
Ecclesiastes 12. 12
Here is my journey in books for the year, a mixture of new and old, some I would recommend, others I will not be reading again. I tried this year to read more widely -- more books of fiction to enrich my imagination, more biographies to enlarge my vision, and many others to exercise my spiritual muscles. Even the books and authors with whom I did not agree caused me to think about what I really believe. I learned something from each one, sometimes finding an endearing phrase in the most unlikely volumes.
"Trample not on any; there may be some work of grace there,
that thou knowest not of."
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
1772-1834
This year, I began reading one book on a friend’s shelf while the whole household was napping. I also discovered books through recommendations from friends and family, although I learned the hard way that not all recommended prove true -- including one book described as an innocent trek of a man and his grandson in Norway that was really the unraveling of a mass murder. I have overheard titles in conversation, from reviews published in the Wall Street Journal, and on podcasts by authors I had not known. Several books were rescued from the giveaway pile when our oldest daughter moved, and of course, there is always a volume or two on our shelf that I always meant to read “someday.”
I tried to intersperse a newly published book with one that is older, those read for the first time and those like greeting an old friend. As C. S. Lewis once recommended, "It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between."
Excluded from this list are the vast number of children's books read aloud again and again, and please just one more time before bed? Some of the picture books were newly published, but the old ones we relished together, reading side by side on the bed, or sometimes the cramming and clammering of four little bodies wrestling for my lap --the solution with the twins on my lap and the others on each arm of the chair. Of those books familiar to the children, I would often leave off a phrase or two, of which they gladly reminded me out loud.
Book of the year? Very, very hard to pick favorites. From each category: fiction definitely Virgil Wander by Leif Enger, biography Becoming Dallas Willard by Gary W. Moon or Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God by David McCasland, touching memoir Holding onto Hope by Nancy Guthrie, my nonfiction award to Leadership in Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin, and of course, anything by Madeleine L'Engle is delightfully chocolate for my mind. The Bible is not really last on my list, but that which holds me all together.
My year in books for 2018:
Crazy
Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan (2008)
Liturgy
of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in
Everyday Life by Tish Harrison Warren (2017)
Can
Man Live Without God? by Ravi Zacharias (1994)
The
Heart Of Evangelism by Jerram Barrs (2001)
The
Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It For
Life by Twyla Tharp (2003)
The
All-or-Nothing Marriage: How the Best Marriages Work by Eli J. Finkel
(2017)
Norwegian
By Night by Derek B. Miller (2012)
For
The Time Being by Annie Dillard (1999)
The
Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central
Purpose of Your Life by Os Guiness (1998)
Oswald
Chambers: Abandoned to God by David
McCasland (1993)
1 Still
Life by Louise Penny (2005)
John
Stott’s Right Hand: The Untold Story of
Frances Whitehead by Julia Cameron (2014)
Amazing
Love by Corrie ten Boom (1953)
The
Collaborative Habit: Life Lessons for Working Together by Twyla Tharp
(2009)
Fit
or Fat: A New Way to Health and Fitness through Nutrition and Aerobic Exercise by Covert Bailey (1977)
1 Leopard
at the Door by Jennifer McVeigh (2017)
. A
Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L’Engle (1972)
1 Dorie: The Girl Nobody Loved by Doris Van Stone
(1979)
1 Warlight
by Michael Ondaatje (2018)
2 Think Again:
Relief from the Burden of Introspection by Jared Mellinger (2017)
2 Varina
by Charles Frazier (2018)
2 Holding On
To Hope: A pathway through suffering to
the heart of God by Nancy Guthrie (2002)
2 Practicing
the King’s Economy: Honoring Jesus In
How We Work, Earn, Spend, Save, and Give by Michael Rhodes and Robby Holt
(2018)
2 Frederick
Law Olmsted: Plans and Views of Public Parks by Charles E. Beveridge (2015)
2 Calico
Joe by John Grisham (2012)
2 Everybody
Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of
Setbacks and Difficult People by Bob Goff (2018)
Leave No
Trace by Mindy Mejia (2018)
2 A Wind in the
Door by Madeleine L’Engle (1973)
2 Befriend: Create Belonging in an age of judgment,
isolation and fear by Scott Sauls (2016)
The
Ninety-Third Name of God by Anya Krugovoy Silver (2010)
3 The Art
of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It
Matters by Priya Parker (2018)
3 Insider
Outsider by Bryan Loritts (2018)
3 Prayer: A Holy Occupation by Oswald Chambers
(1992)
3 Plenty for
Everyone by Corrie Ten Boom (1967)
3 Leadership in
Turbulent Times by Doris Kearns Goodwin (2018)
3 A Swiftly Tilting Planet by
Madeleine L’Engle (1978)
3 Crossover by Kwame Alexander
(2014)
3 The Pursuit of
Endurance: Harnessing the
Record-Breaking Power of Strength and Resilience by Jennifer Pharr Davis
(2018)
3 The
Playbook: 52 Rules to Aim, Shoot, and
Score in This Game Called Life by Kwame Alexander (2017)
Run for Your
Life by Mark Cucuzzella M.D. (2018)
Becoming
Dallas Willard: The Formation of a
Philosopher, Teacher, and Christ Follower by Gary W. Moon (2018)
4 Jesus Among Secular Gods: The Countercultural Claims of Christ by
Ravi Zacharias and Vince Vitale (2017)
4 Lessons from
Madame Chic by Jennifer L. Scott (2011)
4 The Winter Soldier by Daniel
Mason (2018)
4 Virgil Wander by Leif Enger
(2018)
4 The Heart of
Prayer: What Jesus Teaches Us by
Jerram Barrs (2008)
4 The Givenness
of Things: Essays by Marilynne
Robinson (2015)
4 Absolute Surrender by Andrew
Murray (1895)
4 White Picket
Fences: Turning Toward Love in a World Divided by Privilege by Amy Julia
Becker (2018)
5 The Bible
No comments:
Post a Comment