Bekah's Bookshelf: My 2024 Reads So Far

 

This month has been both busy and short, but I have completed reading two books and am halfway through the third. I had hoped I would have it finished before I wrote this post, but alas, I do not. It’s okay! I can tell you more about it later.

            The first book I finished this month was Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis. It’s book 2 in The Chronicles of Narnia, if you read the books according to the original numbering of the series. In this book, the four children from The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe find themselves back in Narnia. In the timing of Earth, they are just a year older than they were when they vacationed in the home with the wardrobe that led them to Narnia. But in the translation of time in Narnia, they had lived to adulthood, come back to the regular world, and now find it to be hundreds…thousands?...of years later in Narnia. In fact, it takes them a while to even recognize anything around them, because everything is overgrown and deteriorated from their previous visit there.

            The first portion of the book takes readers along with the main characters into a story time to hear all that has happened in Narnia since the time of the first book. A new prince (Caspian, as you might imagine) is in Narnia, but his guardian is trying to keep him from becoming the rightful king of Narnia. He tries to prevent Caspian from learning any of the stories of Old Narnia and understanding his role in the land. Caspian’s private teacher secretly schools him on the truth and then urges him to run away and become the king he should be. Caspian needs help to gain his rightful place, and that is what draws Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy back to Narnia.

            I was surprised (again) at how many correlations to Scripture I found within this book and how many times the simplest sentences took my breath away with their profound messages. I don’t usually underline in fiction, but if I’d had a pen on hand, I would have underlined several times in this one. I feared I wouldn’t like it as much as the first book, but I really did!

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            Last fall – November 15, to be exact – I saw an Instagram post by Beth Moore that said, “Yesterday we spent the day as a staff learning the art of bread making and the healing and spiritual practice it can be! We had the joy of learning from the incredibly talented Kendall Vanderslice and had an absolute blast together as a staff! Y’all should check out her book By Bread Alone and keep an eye out for her new book coming out soon.” When Beth Moore says y’all should check something out, this y’all checks it out.

            I clicked over to Kendall’s account and scrolled through delightful posts of her work in breadmaking. The cover of By Bread Alone caught my eye, and I threw it on my Christmas list. My parents bought it for me, and I finally had time to pick it up to start reading.

            Friends, I gulped this book’s words. I curled up with it every chance I found, and if Kendall lived next door, I would insist upon being friends – even if she never baked me a single loaf of bread. She is keenly intelligent, gifted as a baker, and has a background as a dancer – and in those areas, we’ll never have commonality. But in SO MANY WAYS, I nodded in agreement until my head rattled. Kendall gets me. She knows what it’s like to ache to fit in…and not. To be single and aching to the core. To long to please the Lord and not be entirely sure what that entails. To search for purpose in work and writing. YES, YES, and YES.

            And with our recent foray into milling wheat and baking bread, I found myself drinking up her explanations about bread and how it really works. About the ingredients of bread and how they teach us about our faith. About our communities of faith, friends, and family, and how they form and shape us.

            In this book and in her livelihood, she weaves theology and breadmaking, and in that, I find such joy. The book wasn’t over my head, though her understanding far exceeds mine. She’s a friendly voice and comrade in the hard parts of life. I was so sad when the book ended. So much more that I wanted to learn! I underlined. I starred. I bonded with this book. How profoundly grateful I am that I didn’t miss that random post of Beth’s that pushed me to Kendall’s book and her delightful social media account. If you love the Lord and community and bread…you’ll love this. So good. Thanks for this gift, Kendall.

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            The book I didn’t get to finish yet is book three in The Chronicles of Narnia, and it’s The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I’m finding much humor in this book, and a new character introduced in these pages might be my favorite character yet. His snarky personality is delightful. I’ll have to tell you more about the book when I finish it!