Well, well, well, if it isn’t the end of another month and is anyone surprised that it snuck up on me again? It’s been kind of a strange month, you know? On the one hand, there’s been a lot of heavy stuff in the news lately, sadness or frustration that’s made me work to keep my perspective and focus on what’s mine to do. It’s also been one of these lovely, ordinary, and a little bit packed kind of months: school, work, soccer (kiddo #2), swim lessons (kiddo #1), church activities, and some unexpected delights like getting to go see Jeff Goldblum and the Mildred Snitzer Jazz Band (sidebar: Jeff Goldblum is such an entertaining performer, and a really talented pianist too. Who knew!). It’s the kind of month where not only am I mostly focusing on one day at a time to stay on top of life, but I’m also hyper aware of of the balance of reading enough news to stay informed while not falling down unproductive rabbit holes. Every day I have a different relationship to the internet, many days I’ve had trouble focusing, while other days I’m able to sink into a story (either a book or a t.v. show). So, you know, it’s just regular life I guess, ha! I read author Maggie Stiefvater say once that every day is someone’s best day and someone’s worst day, and I think about that a lot. I try to be an active if imperfect reflection of Jesus in the world around me. And I look for the joy, because it’s still there.
Reviews…
Knowing God, by J.I. Packer. After getting a little deep in my chit-chat paragraph above, it seems fitting to start with the book we read over the summer for my church book club. I’ve never read this book before, despite realizing later that I think in many Christian circles it’s a well-known classic. The premise is deceptively simple: if you want to follow Christ, you need to prioritize knowing God. Not just knowing about God, but really digging into the Bible to learn who God is. However, like many simple concepts, once you start teasing out what that really means, there’s a whole lot of heft and depth. I appreciated that the writing is accessible, but the author doesn’t try to dumb down what he says. It was the kind of book where I would read a chapter, then spend a few days thinking about it. I didn’t necessarily agree with everything the author said, but it gave me a lot of food for thought, some new ways of thinking about things, and encouragement to prioritize knowing God if I’m serious about my faith.
Jane and Dan at the End of the World, by Colleen Oakley. As my friend Jill (hi Jill!) told me: this book was a romp. It’s part mid-life marriage-in-crisis book, part comedic thriller, and reminded me tone-wise of the movies Date Night and Game Night. Jane decides to ask her husband for a divorce while they are at a fancy restaurant for their 19th wedding anniversary. But in the middle of dinner, their restaurant gets overrun by ecoterrorists. To make things even more interesting, events start playing out just like the plot of the novel that Jane published several years before. Hijinks ensue. At one point in the book, the characters were all driving me absolutely bonkers, but I’m glad I stuck with it to the end. It was a quick, popcorn kind of read, with some funny moments, some thoughtful moments, and a few absurd (but entertaining) moments.
The Woman Who Stole My Life, by Marian Keyes is a throwback from Keyes’ back catalogue, published in 2014. The inciting incident in the story is when a woman unexpectedly and suddenly develops guillain barre syndrome, and becomes completely paralyzed for months. Life takes many twists and turns that are directly a result of this life-shattering event, some good and some bad. To be honest, it was kind of a middle of the road read for me. In fact, I almost stopped reading it several times. I appreciated some of the realness of the story, like the fact that the main character’s teenage children resent her for being in the hospital for 18 months, and the fact that her life got pretty messy. She didn’t always make the best choices after she regained her health, and isn’t that how we all are? I liked the main character, and she’s what kept me reading, but overall I just found everyone else in the book insufferable, and it was a bit too long.
The Strange Case of Jane O., by Karen Thompson Walker. I loved this book! It’s a strange, atmospheric, melancholy story that kicks off with a young single mother experiencing troubling and mysterious blackout periods. She begins seeing a psychiatrist, the second narrator of the story, who develops an intense fascination with Jane’s condition. Throughout the story, I kept thinking: oh, this is what this story is about, but then everything would shift just a few degrees and look completely different. It was kind of like looking at an extreme closeup image, then pulling back just a little bit at a time and constantly realizing that what you thought was a picture of a leaf was actually the scales on a lizard. In addition to the fantastic storytelling, the writing was also lovely as well.
Andor season 2. Any other Andor fans out there? For anyone who hasn’t heard of it, it’s a television show set in the Star Wars universe about a reluctant member of the Rebellion in the years before the original Star Wars films. I have to admit that I kind of wish I’d rewatched the first season just because I got a little lost a few times, but man this show is good. The world building, the characters, the tension, the emotion. The stakes are so high, but it’s still a story about people–about love, hope, greed, ambition, and sacrifice. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
That’s it for now! As always thanks for being here. If you, too, are on the lookout for joy, now’s probably a good time to tell you that my feel-good, second chance love story You Again is only $1.99 on ebook right now. Get yourself a little treat! Or if you’ve read it, leave a rating and/or review, still one of the best ways to help small-time authors out.
Now, enough of me talking–I’d love to hear what YOU are reading right now! Comment below and let me know!
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