As the summer comes to an end Phil and I were packing things up and I was loading up all the books we had read this summer. It's quite an assortment. Some Phil read. Some I read. Some we both read. Some of them you may want to check out. Here's a short review of some of them. I know Phil enjoyed the books he read but I am not including those in this review.
Fiction
The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver. We are listening to this on CDs. It is historical fiction about Trotsky and his assassination in Mexico , the Russian Revolution, Diego Rivera and Frieda Kahlo all rolled up into one big story. Neither of us know much about any of these historical figures, so it is new information. Kingsolver uses the main character, who is a writer, to illuminate the writing process. Her use of language is beautiful
Hotel at the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. Kathryn uses this in her classroom and let me borrow it. I like it better than Phil did. It is a love story written from the unusual perspective a thirteen-year-old Chinese boy. The conflict in the story comes from the displacement of his girlfriend to a Japanese internment camp during WWII. It is a good read. I really liked the fact that the Quakers worked at the camps to help make the Japanese more comfortable. I'm sure that wasn't the politically correct position to take at the time, and it really makes me think about parallels we might find in today's society.
Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. This is another book that Kathryn uses in her classroom. It was a fast, easy read about the difficulty of life in drought-stricken, war-torn Africa. There is an "aha" moment at the end that is great to see the students react to, which is why she likes it.
Non-Fiction
Talk Like TED by Carmine Gallo. This book outlines 9 secrets to making an effect TED talk. I enjoyed thinking about this because I'd always like to be better as a speaker. He discusses the reasons for the 18 minute time-limit on the talks. It really makes you boil things down to the most important points. People who give the most-watched talks may practice them up to 200 times before actually taking the TED stage.
Small Wonder by Barbara Kingsolver. This is a collection of 23 essays written in the months after the attacks of 9/11. They cover a wide variety of topics, including an explanation of why she and her family don't watch television, her choices about living a simple life, and thoughts on being a mother and a daughter. I liked some of them very much. I am always impressed with Kingsolver's use of language.
David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell. This was my favorite book that I read because it does so much to challenge my thinking. Gladwell always does. In this book he examines the idea of the underdog and how we may look at it in the wrong way. He makes the case that sometimes what looks like an advantage turns out to be a disadvantage. He also relates stories that reveal that sometimes things that look like terrible disadvantages, things you would never want in your life like losing a parent at a young age, can turn out to give you advantages that you would never dream of.
Christian Living/Theology
Searching for Sunday by Rachel Held Evans. I'm always interested to see what Rachel has to say ever since Kathryn introduced me to here about five years ago. Rachel has given me lots to think about in many areas of life. Each of the sections of this book focuses on a different sacrament of the Church. I enjoyed this book although I had read many excerpts from it on her blog.
Scary Close by Donald Miller. Miller is another author I am always learning from. His blog regularly has posts that I share with others because I think they are very insightful. This book is about Donald learning about relationships in preparation for his wedding. He married later in life and felt that he had thought a lot of wrong thoughts and had difficult patterns in his earlier relationships. I've liked some of his other books much better than this one.
Did God Kill Jesus? by Tony Jones. This was the most challenging book I read this summer. The title itself is so provocative that it is difficult to think about. Jones presents the different ways that Jesus' death has been looked at in different periods of history. The end of the matter is that Jones focuses on God's self-sacrifice in the person of Jesus. That's the simple answer, but there's a lot more to think about here, and I'm glad I tackled it.
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