One
of my goals for this month was to read for 30 minutes a day. I’m shocked at how
much more I accomplished in reading this month with a mere 30 minutes a day! AKA - this post is longer than my typical bookshelf posts, but you can skim through and see if any of my finds might be a good fit for you!
BOOK ONE: The Lost Letters of Pergamum
My friend Julie
loaned this to me after she talked about it in Bible study one evening, and I told
her it sounded intriguing. This book is biblical fiction, which isn’t a genre I
read in super heavily. Ryan told me he didn’t even know that was a
genre, so let me share a little bit about what that means, in case you are also
not familiar.
Biblical
fiction contains a mix of people we know to be historically true because they
are mentioned in the Bible itself – and fictional characters added to round out
the supposition of what life might have been like for a particular person from
the Bible. Because it contains a mix of truth and fiction, it has to be read
with care. It can be easy to mentally claim as truth something that really is
only fiction. It can also be a bit difficult to understand because the ways of
life really were so different back then.
This
book, The Lost Letters of Pergamum, is a story about life in the early
church – the New Testament world. It’s written by a gentleman named Bruce W.
Longenecker, who is a religion professor at Baylor University. (You know…where
David Phelps went to college!) He’s written several other nonfiction books that
I haven’t read, but this work of fiction was both captivating and informative
for me.
The
book’s main character is a man named Antipas who is mentioned in Revelation 2. All
we know of him from the Bible is that he was martyred in the city of Pergamum –
because of his faith in Jesus Christ.
The
author says in the preface, “There must have been an intriguing series of
events leading to Antipas’s punishing death. Those events, however, have been
lost in the sands of time. We will never know who Antipas was or the episodes
that provoked his martyrdom. But we can speculate. And that is what transpires
in this story – a story that arises from one supposition, one fact, and one
tradition.”
The
remainder of the book is written in the style of letters that we know (from the
New Testament itself) were prevalent in those days. Antipas writes to Luke –
yes, the Luke from the Bible. Over the course of the letters, Antipas shares
his beliefs in the gods common to the world, and Luke so gently shares the good
news of Jesus with him.
Throughout
the book, familiar names appear: Stephen, Paul, Peter, and Jesus. There are
also other characters, entirely fictional, who make their way onto the pages to
round out this story.
What
I loved most about the book was the opportunity to learn more about what life
was like in those days. The modes of transportation, the sport of gladiator
games, the occupations....it was interesting to learn about history through
fiction.
The
hardest thing (for me) about the book was remembering that it was fiction. It
even had footnotes that were also fictional. (In the very back of the book is a
list from each chapter that clarifies what was true and what was fiction.)
The
book isn’t terribly long – only a couple hundred pages – but I did have to
settle into the mindset of a different time period and way of speaking. (The style of the letters holds much
formality and respect, even in differing opinions.)
I’m
glad I read this, even though it was outside my typical book comfort zone. It
was meaningful and thought-provoking! And as a writer, I’m really impressed at
the author’s ability to craft something like this!
BOOK TWO: The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass, Christian Speaker, Aged 45 3/4
My
next book was another borrowed one – this time from my friend Jonathan! He told
me he thought I would love the content and the humor, and he was not wrong. The
book is titled The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass, Christian Speaker, Aged 45
¾. Yes, that is the whole book title. Adrian Plass is a real person – a
British author – who has written several books. Though the character in the
book shares his real-life name, the book is fiction – and so, so funny. I
snorted right out loud several times while reading it.
Adrian
(the character) is a speaker and minister who keeps a record of his speaking
and church-leading adventures in diary format. He’s married to Anne, and their
grown son, Gerald, has recently moved home, citing vague reasons of searching
for something regarding the next chapter of life. Adrian has just been invited
to speak in Australia, which now means he can claim the status of
“international speaker,” and it blows his mind.
He
wrestles with a genuine desire to be used by God and the equally genuine
thoughts of irritation and fear that plague him in ministry. (Some of those
things hit too close to home for this writer’s heart, for sure! Life imitates
art?)
I
also have to add that I think I like his son, Gerald, even more than I like him.
While home, searching for what would be next in his life, Gerald tags along
with Adrian to his speaking events and often graces him with hilariously
written parodies of letters, feedback, and even takes on Scripture. I think my
favorite was the one where Gerald retold the parable of the Prodigal Son,
telling it more as we probably would find “fair” – both funny and sobering to
read.
I
read sections of this book to Ryan, because they made me laugh so much, and I
also took away from the book meaningful reminders of checking my own spirit as
I speak and share with groups. I appreciate a book that can both entertain and
convict me, and this book did just that. I didn’t find the British brogue or
occasional language barrier/translation to be off-putting as I read. I also
tried to read with an accent, but I’m not sure I did a very good one, mentally.
This
book is only about 170 pages and even has a handful of illustrations
throughout, so it’s a quick read and lighthearted for the most part.
BOOK THREE: Deadliest in Show
Though
this book was down the line in a series about the characters within, and I
could tell I had missed some background information from previous books, it was
still fine to jump in and start reading here. The book is about a Scottish
artist and small-business owner who has relocated to the Pacific Northwest.
She’s a widow and mother of two college-age children, and she has a hobby of
helping solve mysteries.
She’s
selling her jewelry at a local craft show when the artist at the booth next to
her, Sunny, drops dead in the middle of the show. Sunny is young and healthy,
and nothing about her death makes any sense.
As
Shannon starts her own investigation, she starts receiving mysterious notes
that sometimes seem to be cheering her on and at other times are warning her to be
careful.
The
book is a little over 200 pages and reads very quickly. If you like a feel-good
mystery, this is a good one. And a fun bonus? It’s published by Annie’s, which
is a publishing company right here in our own county!
BOOK FOUR: The Stories We Tell
And
then…I moved on to The Stories We Tell by Joanna Gaines. This book was
another hand-me-down that had been sitting in my to-be-read pile for a while.
It’s
no secret I love Joanna and Fixer Upper and Magnolia…you get the idea. And
while I did enjoy the book and underlined many sentences and found much worth
ingesting, I don’t know that it was my favorite thing I’ve ever read from
Joanna.
The
premise of the book is something I can very much relate to. Joanna talks about
how every piece of our story matters. That’s a message I’m certainly passionate
about, and I think most of you know it. And though I find Joanna lovely inside
and out, she writes candidly about her struggles to accept herself for who she
is and battles she’s fought with anxiety and insecurity. I’ve fought those same
things – and still do.
I
loved so much of what she said about learning to accept and value your own
story and to keep writing and keep exploring the story you live. But every now
and then, she’d go down a little trail that I wasn’t fully sure I agreed with. Those
parts of the book had more to do about finding truth and freedom, which I find
absolutely necessary, but she didn’t write about finding those things in and
through Christ, and that’s a non-negotiable for me.
So
in that respect, I would have to say to hold her advice loosely, but for the
majority of the book, I related to and appreciated her stories and advice.
It
was an easy book to read. Joanna writes like she talks, and it felt like a
conversation with a friend. I did love that. And I appreciate her honesty about
her struggles. It’s easy, when you see someone so beautiful and successful, to
believe it’s always come easily, and it hasn’t for her.
She
sprinkled good nuggets throughout, and I think I’ll come back to those more
than once!
BOOK FIVE: A Book of Simple Prayers
A
while back, I found a Gloria Gaither book for a quarter at the thrift store, so
I bought it. I love Gloria’s writing; she’s so gifted.
This
book, A Book of Simple Prayers was written back in 2008. It’s small and
a fast read, written as poetry. I’m typically not a huge lover of poetry, and written
prayers are hit-and-miss for me. One of the churches Ryan and I attended years
ago featured written prayers in each service, and I really didn’t like it. It
didn’t feel Spirit-led to me at all. It felt prepared and almost like they
didn’t trust their people to have a conversation with God, so they made them
pre-submit written prayers for checking and editing.
But
again, I do love Gloria, and you really can’t beat a book for a quarter, so I
bought it.
And
I loved it. Gloria explains at the start of the book that she never intended to write a book of prayers,
but for a season of her life, she wrote many prayers in her journal and over
time, she decided to share some of them. They do not carry that edited feel to
them at all. Though they are lyrical and beautiful, because that is how Gloria
writes, they feel raw and from the heart.
Reading
through them quieted my own heart and reminded me that we are driven by what we
consume. Reading prayers put me in a posture of prayer, and I loved that.
And…if
you’re in a season where you’re finding it hard to pray on your own, books like
this one fill in the gap of words you can’t find it within yourself to utter.
I’ll be keeping this one and drawing from it as I share with others!
BOOK SIX: Guilty Confections
The
last one that is going to make it into this recap, though not the last one I’ll
squeeze in before the end of July is Guilty Confections by Karen Kelly. This book is
part of the Chocolate Shoppe Mystery series, and I think we should pause right now
to explore what a delight that series sounds like just from the mere series
name!
This
is another book Ryan found on the free table at work and brought home for me to
read, and it’s another one published by Annie’s Publishing here in our own
county! It’s a cozy mystery series that feels like a Hallmark movie come to life.
This
looks like the second book in the series, so there was clearly a little
backstory coming into the plot, but it didn’t slow me down. The book is set in
a charming southern town filled with all kinds of proper southern history,
sweet tea, thick family dynamics, and a young lady who has come back home after
a broken relationship nearly broke her. She’s trying desperately to learn to
bake so she can carry on the shop her family owns, but this is proving to be a
bit of a challenge for her.
As
she tries to learn baking, she also finds an old diary in the attic of her
grandmother’s home – a diary dating back to the Civil War era, and it holds a
mystery she can’t help but explore. Unfortunately, even though many years have
passed since the War, feelings still run strong in the townspeople, and Miss
Jillian finds herself running up against some who wish she wouldn’t pry quite
so hard.
I
won’t say it was my favorite mystery ever, but I enjoyed the setting enough to
know I’d read another book in this series just for fun!
1 comment:
Wow! More books I'll have to find to read. :) Thanks for sharing. Janice.
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