Reading List

 

 

I love to read!  Reading is relaxing - fiction books take me to another world, non-fiction books challenge me and help me learn more about the world around me.  I am always up for a good book suggestion from any genre.  In January I read:

 

A Year of Biblical Womanhood by Rachel Held Evans

 

The blurb on Amazon reads:

"Strong-willed and independent, Rachel Held Evans couldn’t sew a button on a blouse before she embarked on a radical life experiment—a year of biblical womanhood. Intrigued by the traditionalist resurgence that led many of her friends to abandon their careers to assume traditional gender roles in the home, Evans decides to try it for herself, vowing to take all of the Bible’s instructions for women as literally as possible for a year.

Pursuing a different virtue each month, Evans learns the hard way that her quest for biblical womanhood requires more than a “gentle and quiet spirit” (1 Peter 3:4). It means growing out her hair, making her own clothes, covering her head, obeying her husband, rising before dawn, abstaining from gossip, remaining silent in church, and even camping out in the front yard during her period.

See what happens when a thoroughly modern woman starts referring to her husband as “master” and “praises him at the city gate” with a homemade sign. Learn the insights she receives from an ongoing correspondence with an Orthodox Jewish woman, and find out what she discovers from her exchanges with a polygamist wife. Join her as she wrestles with difficult passages of scripture that portray misogyny and violence against women.

With just the right mixture of humor and insight, compassion and incredulity, A Year of Biblical Womanhood is an exercise in scriptural exploration and spiritual contemplation. What does God truly expect of women, and is there really a prescription for biblical womanhood? Come along with Evans as she looks for answers in the rich heritage of biblical heroines, models of grace, and all-around women of valor."

My review:
I enjoyed her writing style.  She had the right mix of humor, real life examples and examples of women from the Bible for me.  She didn't portray everything through rose colored lenses and I have a feeling that some Christians probably would not like this book at all.  She explains Bible passages that involve women in light of what was happening in the culture at the time.  She never really said, "This is what a Biblical woman looks like or acts like" which I appreciated.  I wasn't on a quest for a 5 step process to become a Biblical woman.  She did shed light on topics such as women submitting to their husbands, being quiet in church, etc. through many different lens.  And there were many times I laughed out loud!

I would like to check out her book Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned How to Ask the Questions.

 

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

 

The blurb on Amazon:

 

"The circus arrives without warning.  No announcements precede it.  It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.  Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements.  It is called Le Cirque des Reves, and it is only open at night.

 

But behind the scenese, a fierce competition is underway: a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors.  Unbeknownst to them both, this is a game in which only one can be left standing.  Despite the high stakes, Celia and Marco soon tumble headfist into love, setting off a domino effect of dangerous consequences, and leaving the lives of everyone, from the performers to the patrons, hanging in the balance."

 



My review:
I loved this book.  L-O-V-E-D.  I didn't know if I would like it because it is a fantasy book, but the way the author writes and weaves the characters together is amazing.  The descriptions in the book are beautiful.  It is a love story, but it is not a sappy love story.  Words I would use to describe the book: mysterious, dark, lovely, wonder-filled, beautiful, disturbing, magic, playful.  Pick it up!

I just stopped at the library and picked up these two books today:
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Heft by Liz Moore

Others on hold at the library:
Unlimited by Jillian Michaels
The Hobbit (I can't believe I haven't read this book yet.  I've read all of the Lord of the Rings series...)
Life of Pi - I've heard you either love this one or hate it.

Also on my to-read list:
The Snow Child
Home or Beloved or something else written by Toni Morrison
The Ringing Cedar Series
Slim for Life - Jillian Michaels (comes out on 2/12)

 

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