VT Christian Reading Challenge discussion

Oh, Linda, you've been sleeping on the job! It is already November 5.

Here's what I've finished so far:
✔ 95. The Story Keeper, by Lisa Wingate - finished Nov 1
✔ 96. The Book of Romans Bible Study Journal, by Darlene Schacht - finished Nov 2
✔ 97. How to Study Your Bible: Discover the Life-Changing Approach to God's Word, by Kay Arthur, David Arthur, Pete De Lacy - finished Nov 5

In progress, for the challenge:

The Screwtape Letters, by CS Lewis
Amazing Grace, by Eric Metaxas
Crazy Love, by Francis Chan

Oh Screwtape Letters and Crazy Love are good. Screwtape was hard to read.

It really is hard to get used to the Screwtape mindset, and to remember that when he says "The Enemy" he's talking about Jesus.

Screwtape takes a bit of getting used to, but, as I see it, is one of the most powerful of Lewis’s works. For me, it reminds me of studying the negatives that came with my Grandmother’s photos. Every time she would get her pictures developed, thee would be the film tucked in next to them. I’d pull them out and try to make out the picture, but usually the hair and eyes were this eerie white and the teeth were black. But if I stared at them long enough, the picture would be there. I think there is something about looking at things in reverse that gives great depth to the truth. We sometimes take for granted the truth of God’s love, but when we read that this is something the demons have considered (even though they dismiss it), it makes us pause and consider it further. I don’t disagree that it can be hard to read, but I’ve read it several time and many truths have still kept deep in my heart. I’ve even referenced a few with my family (talking about peaks and troughs, or how demons hide themselves). Anyway, just thought I’d offer a different perspective since I had one!

I loved Crazy Love the first time I went though it (although that was many years ago!) and I’m glad to see Amazing Love finally made it to the front of your list.

I’m still working my way through the Chronicles of Narnia with my girls and chose Moby Dick as my new audiobook.

Books to finish/read for this challenge in November:
Finish:
Growing in the Gospel by J. VanVliet
I'm Nobody! Who Are You? Poems by Emily Dickinson
Read:
Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung
Live Not By Lies by Rod Dreher
Books I have started but will not finish this month yet:
Messiah: The Holy One of God (a study of Luke) by C. Stam
Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering by Timothy Keller
Books to read for other challenges (I'm doing 4 different ones this year):
4:50 from Paddington by Agatha Christie
The Selection by Kiera Cass (finished Nov. 6)
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
All the Quiet Places by Brian Thomas Isaac

Hi all, Happy Advent.
What was your best, worse, and surprise from November?

Best: Five and Dime Christmas by Cynthia Hyckie. I am a romantic. The plot is predictable but still enjoyable.

Worse: UBIK by Philip K Dick. I do not like how disconnected his narratives are so they generally rated low for me.

Surprise: Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. This is supposed to be one of the great SFF books but I just could not get into it.

Well. November is gone... and I'm happy to say I got a lot of reading done.

Best: Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery by Eric Metaxas ... not too surprising that this was the best. He was so inspiring! And Eric is a great writer.

Worst: How to Study Your Bible: Discover the Life-Changing Approach to God's Word, by Kay Arthur, David Arthur, Pete De Lacy... maybe this is terrible to say a book about how to study your Bible is worst, but I was terribly bored by it. Maybe this was because I already had been doing the Inductive Bible Study method for years, and already have the IBS Bible, and have read other books by Kay Arthur, but this book was extremely detailed and tedious to get through.

Surprise: The Screwtape Letters, by CS Lewis. I was surprised by several things about this book. First, that it is an epistolary novel, second, that the writer of letters is a demon, third, that he had so much advice about how to keep people from serving and loving Jesus. CS Lewis sure had an imagination! I think his heart was in the right place when he wrote this, but I found it hard to love.

Best: Fault Lines by Voddie Baucham. I love how he examines the racial tensions, especially Critical Race Theory, in a straightforward and no nonsense way. My biggest takeaway is that CRT acts as a religion with its own cosmology and way of looking at the world. If it seems hard to have a dispassionate discussion, it seems this might be why. He takes it back to the gospel over and over again and I really appreciate that.

Worst. Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry. This is my first celebrity memoir and I wasn’t going to read it except I found an excerpt of his God moment. I actually really enjoy memoir, I think everyone has a story to tell, however, I was so weary by the end. My teenage son says it sounds like the cycle of apostasy out of Judges. I just felt like it left little by way of true hope.

Surprise. Not really one. I’m also not reading as fast as I usually do. Maybe next month.