Just starting:
Lilith by George MacDonald. I like the opening better than Phantastes because I feel curious wanting to figure out what is going on as opposed to watching a story play out passively before me.
In the middle:
Losing our Religion by Russell Moore. Powerful call to rethink the foundations of our faith, our eternal perspective and to *stop*and*reflect*and*confront*our*unspoken*assumptions.
Just finished:
The Rent Collector by Camron Wright. What a powerful tribute to the redemptive power of reading and literature! Even though I don't identify with the theological world view in this book, and some topics are PG-13, this is a book that will make you want to keep turning the pages, and even weep at points.
Okay made progress on the book I talked about earlier (Defiante by Brandon Sanderson) but it will take at least another few weeks to finish it... So far the main character who is an older teenager or young woman by now is trying to cope with her emotions and the fact that she might become dangerouse. It is well written (as usual for a book from Sanderson).
He does all things well.
Ok double posting to say I've finished Defiant and as always Brandon Sanderson is a great author.
He does all things well.
I am reading so many things!! But most recently a poetry anthology called The Singing Bowl by Malcolm Guite, and a revisit to one of my childhood faves, Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine.
I've been rereading "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," by L. Frank Baum. It's my favorite book nowadays, but it wasn't my favorite until recently because I find it to be a bit hard to read (because of my disability). I really like the Scarecrow. 🙂
A couple of years ago I’ve read through the Left Behind series, an apocalyptic fiction series about the Rapture and the Tribulation. I won’t get into the theological aspect of it because there are different ideas about how or when the end times will occur, but I will say it kind of makes you think. I don’t think the series’ theology is 100% correct, but it is actually pretty intriguing.
Not really a fan of Left Behind myself, Jas, but glad you enjoy.
I recently reread Hinds' Feet on High Places , a Christian allegory by Hannah Hurnard... there were a couple of bits I wasn't thrilled with this run through, but overall I think it's a good one. Especially after reading the afterwards material for the first time and learning how much the story reflects Hurnard's own spiritual walk...
I did, Lily, though some things in the Left Behind series were obscured. My mom had read some of them when they were popular in the 90’s and early 2000’s (I think the first book came out 1995, so I was only 2 then. It would have been over my head, so I guess it was good thing I’ve waited until I was older). Some people I’ve talked to who had read them thought it was based on one man’s opinion or was one-sided and I get that. I don’t really read a whole lot of apocalyptic fiction (even Christian ones), probably because there are so many different theories on how things could play out.
I’ve never heard of Hinds' Feet on High Places, though it sounds interesting! Maybe I’ll check it out someday. I’ve read Pilgrim’s Progress some years ago (first, the modern English version, then the original), and it’s actually quite good. I don’t know if Hinds' Feet on High Places is similar in style, but I’d be curious to see how it compares.
I’ve never heard of Hinds' Feet on High Places, though it sounds interesting! Maybe I’ll check it out someday. I’ve read Pilgrim’s Progress some years ago (first, the modern English version, then the original), and it’s actually quite good. I don’t know if Hinds' Feet on High Places is similar in style, but I’d be curious to see how it compares.
Please let me know if you do! I would be curious to know how you think it compares, as well... it does have some thematic similarities but is a lot more recent, for a start.
Alright! On the Active Reading List at this moment I have:
-an indie poetry book about experiencing life as an Autistic woman with complicated feelings about religion, interesting but a bit dark and/or crude at times for this crowd
-a light reading religious book trying to examine how the modern church could be more Biblical
-a book about the gospel of Luke and applying "Biblical imagination," by an old-timey Christian singer who did a number of story-songs
-a hefty size graphic novel about a genii wish market in alternate-history Cairo, Egypt -- intrigued but still vetting for content
-a Hindu-influenced young adult adventure about a girl and her best friend looking for her missing dad
-a novella about a conflict over funerary rites at a fictional Eastern monastery with talking bird companions
-a nonfiction about different kinds of courage
-a middle-grade novel about a handmaid to the storytelling queen from Arabian Nights/the 1001 Nights
-a post-apocalyptic pirate story.
-a Hindu-influenced young adult adventure about a girl and her best friend looking for her missing dad
-a novella about a conflict over funerary rites at a fictional Eastern monastery with talking bird companions
finished both of these! They both had issues in different ways, but I liked the emotional balance of the monastery one better.
a middle-grade novel about a handmaid to the storytelling queen from Arabian Nights/the 1001 Nights
finished this one! It was a reread I hadn't had my hands on since my early teens, and I was relieved to find it as good as I remembered. The title is Shadow Spinner, by Susan Fletcher.
