Every year I like to write this post--my Reader's Journal for the year! I got this idea from Nancy Kelly years ago, and I love reading people's reading lists and recommendations. You can read her most recent list here. One of my goals (if you can say it's a goal) this year is to increase my reading time. I love to read!
I am quite late posting this, because I am living a full life over here these days. I am grateful for this full life and everything it entails--and what it doesn't entail, which is cancer! I just don't carve out much time for the computer.
I am quite late posting this, because I am living a full life over here these days. I am grateful for this full life and everything it entails--and what it doesn't entail, which is cancer! I just don't carve out much time for the computer.
My favorites from this year are:
Educated (Tara Westover)
This was a fascinating and distressing look into the early life of Tara Westover, who was "homeschooled" in a fundamentalist Mormon family. In reality, the academic aspect of her education was sparse at best. But the even more troubling part of the story was actually her parents' separatist attitudes and combined mental illness, which permitted abuse among the Westover siblings. I typically do not like to read disturbing books, but to me the redeeming quality of this book was Westover's inspiring resilience.
This was a fascinating and distressing look into the early life of Tara Westover, who was "homeschooled" in a fundamentalist Mormon family. In reality, the academic aspect of her education was sparse at best. But the even more troubling part of the story was actually her parents' separatist attitudes and combined mental illness, which permitted abuse among the Westover siblings. I typically do not like to read disturbing books, but to me the redeeming quality of this book was Westover's inspiring resilience.
Living More with Less (Doris Longacre)
A classic book on living lightly and with compassion. The book discusses how our choices impact the world around us and encourages thrift and thoughtful consumption from the lens of Christian witness. I really liked this book!
A classic book on living lightly and with compassion. The book discusses how our choices impact the world around us and encourages thrift and thoughtful consumption from the lens of Christian witness. I really liked this book!
Home (Marilynne Robinson)
Gilead from another angle: this book follows the end of life story of Reverend Boughton, and gives the Jack side of the Gilead story (if you've read Gilead, you will probably know what I mean). I loved Gilead and I loved this book. Robinson's writing is careful, slow, beautiful, poignant, heart-wrenching. I just love her work!
Gilead from another angle: this book follows the end of life story of Reverend Boughton, and gives the Jack side of the Gilead story (if you've read Gilead, you will probably know what I mean). I loved Gilead and I loved this book. Robinson's writing is careful, slow, beautiful, poignant, heart-wrenching. I just love her work!
Thrall (Natasha Trethewey)
I admit to a personal bias in favor of Trethewey's work. (Her Native Guard is one of my favorite contemporary books of poetry.) This book is a book of poems for her father, who was one of my own mentors. I knew him well from my perspective, and I knew what he'd told me about Natasha, and I also knew how proud he was of her when she won the Pulitzer. I was absolutely riveted by this collection of poems. They are raw, sad, moving, beautiful, personal, powerful.
I admit to a personal bias in favor of Trethewey's work. (Her Native Guard is one of my favorite contemporary books of poetry.) This book is a book of poems for her father, who was one of my own mentors. I knew him well from my perspective, and I knew what he'd told me about Natasha, and I also knew how proud he was of her when she won the Pulitzer. I was absolutely riveted by this collection of poems. They are raw, sad, moving, beautiful, personal, powerful.
The full list is here, and books with an asterisk are recommended (there are a lot of those this year!):
1. Gift from the Sea* (Anne Morrow Lindbergh)(a beautiful, contemplative little book--I'll read it again at the beach someday!)
2. Real Love for Real Life* (Andi Ashworth)(inspiring for those in the trenches of caring for others)
3. LP's Six Week Program* (Louise Parker)(I have mentioned my love for Louise Parker previously, and her Lean for Life book made my top picks last year; this book is just as good, although it creates a 6-week program and goes week-by-week. I just love her approach to exercise and health. It resonates with me. And the thirty pounds I lost in 2018? Still gone! And I'm also down one additional jean size since sometime last year, without trying. Truly--her method works....because it's basic, reasonable, and doable. I do plan to do a dedicated post on her approach sometime in the next year or so.)
4. Humble Roots* (Hannah Anderson)
5. Simple Living* (Frank Kettering and Wanda Urbanski)(I read this in 2004 as a miserable lawyer with the flu and it was one of those books that shifted my perspective and helped me craft a new vision for my life...it has been fun to dive into the book again, 15 years later)
6. The Restoration of Christian Culture* (John Senior) (I'm still reading this one, but am loving it so far)
7. Living More with Less (Doris Longacre)*
8. Indestructible (Jack Lucas)(I mentioned this book here)
9. A Philosophy of Education (Charlotte Mason)(I'll always recommend this book to anyone interested in educational philosophy)*
10. Educated (Tara Westover)*
11. Digital Minimalism (Cal Newport)*(I agree with Newport's analysis of the problems of technology and digital distraction in our day and age, but I do not agree with all of his proposed solutions. I think his solutions tend to be very effective for a man with a predictable job, but aren't effective for a mother who homeschools her children. I wanted to write an addendum for all the people out there who don't have a life that mirrors Newport's!)
12. Scale How Meditations (Charlotte Mason)* (more on this one sometime soon)
13. The Journals of Alexander Schmeeman* (I'm still reading this one--loving it so far)
14. The Peace of Wild Things* (Wendell Berry)
15. Confessions of a Slacker Mom (Muffy Mead-Ferro)
16. Home (Marilynne Robinson)*
17. The War of Art (Steven Pressfield)(re-read)(read my original review, here)
18. Thrall (Natasha Tretheway)*
19. The Prodigal Girl* (Grace Livingston Hill)
20. The Millionaire Next Door (Thomas Stanley) (in parts)
21. Everyday Millionaire (Chris Hogan)(for the record, I do not think becoming a millionaire is a great life goal, but it's a solid book on how to work in the direction of financial independence)
22. Homing* (Grace Livingston Hill)(I LOVED this book!)
23. The Little Way of Ruthie Leming (Rod Dreher)
24. The Liturgy of the Ordinary* (Tish Harrison Warren)(I'm still reading this one, on the elliptical trainer)
25. Every Moment Holy* (Douglas McKelvey) (wonderful liturgies for everyday life; I highly recommend this book!!!)
As usual, I suspect I missed something. And I dive in and out of many books at times, too! But this is a pretty solid, representative list. I was happy with much of what I read last year. This year I probably want to try to read more fiction, because I do tend to prefer to dwell in the realm of non-fiction. So I'm starting the year off with a new novel now......
Here are my previous lists:
Happy reading!
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