The year is coming to a close and I am tying up a few loose strings and untying a few knots. One loose string is posting my reviews of some of the books I have read this year. So here are a fair number of them. As I look over this list, two stand out. Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life and Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race.
I plan to use Liturgy of the Ordinary, along with a few other sources, to set up practices and disciplines that I hope will help me in attending to my faith in a more consistent pattern which I hope will begin to develop practices I can use throughout my life to shape my life and faith and remind me of the very Good God, who loves me.
Hidden Figures. What an incredibly inspiring book to read at this time in history. Women who took advantage of every opportunity, dealt with racial and gender discrimination with character, poise, and determination, and did it all while enjoy and appreciating the good that life has to offer. A lesson I hope to take with me into this new year and use as wisely as they did.
I would be interested in hearing what others have read this year and what you would recommend as well.
Hidden Figures. What an incredibly inspiring book to read at this time in history. Women who took advantage of every opportunity, dealt with racial and gender discrimination with character, poise, and determination, and did it all while enjoy and appreciating the good that life has to offer. A lesson I hope to take with me into this new year and use as wisely as they did.
I would be interested in hearing what others have read this year and what you would recommend as well.
Listened to this while driving during a trip. Lewis, honest and raw, shows us the value of wrestling with doubts, fears, and overwhelming emotions that threaten to sink us at times. While a book primarily about his grief from losing his wife, I found parts of it invaluable in dealing with other losses. Narrator is Ralph Cosham.
This is the edition that I listened to this year. Well done!
The title says it all. Be all in where you are, with those you are with. No flash, no spin, just live the quiet life with joy.
Finished this awhile back. What I appreciate most about Andy Crouch's writings is his ability to frame questions about the issues of the time we live in. Asking the proper questions, and knowing how to do that, is crucial to our ability to then think well about those issues. He does so in this his latest work and I found myself making some changes to how I approach and use technology. It was also a pleasure to attend his talk on this subject in my local city. His fleshing out (literally...we participated in some of the activities presented in the book) added to the book and I do wish he would continue to present in that manner.
Thoughtful, engaging book on the shaping influence relationships with dogs can have on their owners. I could see better how my dog, Samwise, has shaped me for the better because of his patient faithfulness to me.
Update: after entering quotes into my commonplace book, I realize this book, in many ways, is also a theological anthropology. He presents a view of man and his ways of relating based in imago Dei. Setting aside the book for a short time before I entered quotes allowed me to realize how subtly this book has challenged me to examine beliefs that I truly hold to that may or may not be rooted in a sound theology or that I thought I held to but in practice have failed miserable. This has been both a pleasant surprise and a rude awakening.
More to come later. This is a remarkable book on several levels. Her characters are well portrayed, especially their interior life. Her exploration of how our thoughts can provide motivation for our emotions and actions, and vice versa, the way language (especially defintions) can influence those, and the enormous effort it takes to recognize it all has left me mulling over this work.
After watching a few of her episodes of A Chef's Life, I borrowed her cookbook from the library. She is a storyteller. I enjoyed reading more of her experiences as she came to enjoy and appreciate her East Carolina roots, food, family, and traditions. Gathered recipes to try and continued to enjoy this twist on cookbooks that serve up good food and incorporate storytelling in the mix.
This is a remarkable book. President George W. Bush fills this book with portraits he painted of wounded veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan wars. He highlights the individual stories of those soldiers included in the book using his plain-spoken style and occasional dry wit he is known for. One more note, many of those whose stories are include here speak of their healing being a life-long journey they have embraced. Most cite the love of family, faith, medical care, and exercise as key components in their recovery. And as the author mentions several times the soldiers courage played no small part as well. Think this will be my Dad's Birthday present this year.
I read this out of curiosity about the trend of hygge. An interesting peek into Nordic lifestyle. However, from this author's representation, nothing that I haven't read before from Charlotte Mason, Edith Schaeffer, Amish officiandos, etc. At the core is a lifestyle centered around keeping simple the activities of nature and outdoor living , food and hospitality, family and friends with an eye to enjoyment of the good gifts of life.
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly
As someone who grew up during the early stages of the space race, I was enamored with all things NASA. So much so that the first thing that I ever earned money for was a book produced by the Gulf Oil company about the Apollo 13 space mission. I remember going with my dad to get the book from Bubba McCoy's gas station one morning before school and it was worth every penny. I wonder what happened to that book. So it's no surprise that I enjoyed this well-written, well-researched account of the role of African American women in NACA AND NASA. It was captivating. The author writes in the style of David McCullough and easily kept my interest. These women succeeded facing all manner of prejudices and other odds against them not just because of their intelligence and tenacity but due to a sense of accomplishing something bigger than themselves. And they loved mathematics, who would argue with that?
I loved reading her memories and thoughts about so much of the history that I remember. She is a remarkable woman who clearly loved and served with all she has. This was the third year in a row that I read about the Bush family and this coming year will be no exception. Decision Points by her son is waiting in the stacks for the 2018 New Year's Day.
This will easily be one of my top 5 books of the year. A much needed, well written apology and description of the ways liturgy can shape us as the people of God if given both the mental and willful assent that we often subconsciously give to the other habits. Recommended by James K. A. Smith, whose _You Are What You Love_ and Cultural Liturgies trilogy I hope to finish this year.
Thanks to the audio version, traveling and cleaning this week were not tedious and I was able to finish this quickly. The story and narrator easily kept my interest. She tells her story with an eye to both the beauty and corruption of human nature. Her's is a story of perseverance. more to come later
This is a yearly re-read for me. I can take it slow and enjoy the writing, which is satisfying.
