VT Christian Reading Challenge discussion

Still snowy where y’all are? We’ve had rain and cold but the sunshine came out today!

Just started East of Eden. I’ve started this several times but never finished. I’d also like to read Gift From the Sea by Ann Lindbergh.

How about you guys?

I have got Not Time Management, Mind Management for time management and Ghosts of Honolulu for New York Times bestsellers list.

Also, good luck with East of Eden. Steinbeck is a good author but is so depressing

We've got spring in February! This never happens in Canada! Kids are wearing rubber boots to school. It'll get colder again next week, but this has been a nice reprieve.

Ian, i'll be looking forward to your thoughts on Ghosts of Honolulu, I've been enjoying historical nonfiction more lately.

We're going on vacation, so I'm not sure how much reading I'll actually get done.

On the list is

I confess I have too much on my reading list right now. Here's the entire list.

Classic - Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo
Christian Fiction - The Heart of the Mountains, by Pepper D. Basham
Christian Nonfiction - When to Walk Away, by Gary L. Thomas
Christian Nonfiction - Moms in Prayer, by Fern Nichols
Christian Nonfiction - Mere Christianity, by CS Lewis
Christian Nonfiction - Make or Break Your Church in 365 Days, by Paul D. Borden
Christian Nonfiction - The Miracles Answer Book, by Lee Strobel & Mark Mittelberg
Christian Nonfiction - Developing a Vision for Ministry, by Aubrey Malphurs
Christian Nonfiction - A Short and Easy Method of Prayer, by Madame Guyon
Christian Art - Finding Divine Inspiration, by J. Scott McElroy
Christian Bible Study - Discovering the Joy of Jesus, by Stonecroft
Christian Bible Study - Life Lessons From James, by Max Lucado
Vintage Fiction - The Devil on Horseback, by Victoria Holt
Nonfiction Memoir - Desert Solitaire, by Edward Abbey
Nonfiction - I'd Rather Be Reading, by Anne Bogel
History - 1776 by David McCullough
Devotional - Earth Psalms, by Francine Rivers
Bible - Malachi, 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Corinthians, James, Psalms and Proverbs

Linda wrote: "I confess I have too much on my reading list right now. Here's the entire list.

Classic - Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo
Christian Fiction - The Heart of the Mountains, by Pepper D. Basham
Christi..."


Love the list Linda! I commiserate with the lengthy TBR! So many books, so little time! :) I should add a classic in this month...I see you have Les Mis, I was going to try to get to Dracula.

February's TBR (like Linda's, entirely too long)
Finish:
Cold Mountain finished 11/2
Eve in Exile and the Restoration of Femininity finished 10/2
National Geographic Dawn to Dark Photographs: The Magic of Light finished 5/2
The World We Found finished 3/2
Read:
Parenting: 14 Gospel Principles That Can Radically Change Your Family
The Tea Dragon Tapestry finished 12/2
The Tale of Peter Rabbit finished 29/2
And Then There Were None finished 16/2
The Girl from the Channel Islands finished 10/2
Julia's Last Hope finished 16/2
Passage
The Time Traveler’s Wife
Burial Rites finished 26/2
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn finished 15/2
Start:
The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age
Picked up during the month:
The Headmaster's Wager finished 19/2
The Personal Librarian finished 22/2
When Stars Are Scattered finished 23/2
The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency finished 28/2

I'll edit to add books as I finish them.

Roses. Leila Meacham
A Thousand Acres
The Book Thief
The County Line
The Tinkerer's Daughter
Martin Luther: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World

Amber wrote: "Ian, i'll be looking forward to your thoughts on Ghosts of Honolulu, I've been enjoying historical nonfiction more lately.."

I have finished Ghost of Honolulu and I enjoyed it. I have been burned recently by too many historical books that are narratively drive and too much modern ideas injected in with no explanation of the basis of the belief.

My family loves NCIS and I did not realize that Mark Harmon is the (co-)author of the book. It was well written overall but there were a few times that it jumps out of narrative which was kind of jarring in the audio book. It was engaging and very enjoyable.

Hello. I'm not really new to the group, but haven't commented much.

Does anyone have recommendations for a book about the reformation that's not 800 pages and doesn't read like a text book? I'll post this on the recommendations thread.

:)

In other news, I'm currently reading Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age and it's very good so far.

5 lies is on my list for my church book club's March discussion. I'll be reading it soon.

Welcome, Jamie.... BTW, either place works.

February is over! Let's do this...

Best: The White Darkness by David Grann - I've loved all the David Grann books I've read so far. This one is short, but still impactful. It is a biography of Henry Worsley, an Antarctic hiker who just couldn't leave the white continent alone without thinking up new ways to try to conquer it.

Worst: The Devil on Horseback, by Victoria Holt - worst Victoria Holt novel I've ever read. The heroine, a teenager, becomes obsessed with a despicable married man who is also obsessed with her. How is this supposed to be good reading entertainment for young women? I should know better than to read a book with "devil" in the title. It is clean reading, published about fifty years ago, but not recommended by me. I used to be a big fan of Victoria Holt books when I was a very young adult, and most are nice gothic romance/mystery type books, but this one was (in my opinion) just terrible.

Surprise: Letters of a Woman Homesteader, by Elinore Pruitt Stewart - I enjoyed this short collection of letters by a single mother who went to Wyoming to become a homesteader. The letters were written to her former employer in Colorado. She wrote about her daily life, people she met, events, and short trips she took. At the same time she was growing food, canning, storing and preserving foods for the year ahead and milking ten cows twice a day while being a mom. I was very positively impressed with this book which is free for Kindle. I'm an Audible member so I was able to get a free audiobook version as well, from their Plus Catalog, as they call it.

Best: The Library of the Sapphire Wind by Jane Lindkold. 3 nearly retiring women gets warped to another world to be the teacher of 3 adventures as they begin a quest. It was a funny take on the Isekai story with characters that generally are not used.

Worse: A Psalm for the Wild-Made by Becky Chambers... In a utopia society, a nonbinary, drifting, and listless individual does stuff... I cannot describe the plot because it only picks up 2/3rds of the way into this novella but it was either too short or too long. Also the world building and characters made no sense.

Surprise: Ghosts of Honolulu by Mark Harmon. Mark Harmon writes about the fore-runner to NCIS as a narrative historical nonfiction book.

February was a surprisingly good reading month for me!
Worst: The Girl from the Channel Islands Good story, meh writing that included a lot of unnecessary vulgarity and swearing. Same issue with Cold Mountain but it cleaned up along the way.
Best: Eve in Exile and the Restoration of Femininity Already want to reread! A very Biblical perspective of women and their place in society.
Surprise: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn I expected to dislike this book and find it a slog to get through. However, I was completely charmed by Frankie, our main character. There are some difficult parts of the book - her life is not all sunshine and roses, but her character remains optimistic and hopeful.

Wow…for being a short month you guys got some good reading in!

Best: East of Eden. Quite honestly, I expected not to like this, but it was well done. I found myself lingering over the question of whether we are responsible for our destiny or are we fated to act a certain way. Definitely a book that has lingered.

Worst: None. I stuck to safe bets for this month. I didn’t need any bad surprises.

Surprise: The White Darkness. I was intrigued by your review, Linda, and found my library app had it. It was definitely sad, but I also admired him so much! Thank you for sharing your perspective on it.

Best: Martin Luther: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World--I read this for my book on the reformation. It was very interesting to look at the reformation through Luther's life. I have a much better understanding of how indulgences were being used/sold and can see how badly reformation was needed.

Worst: A Thousand Acres I read this book for the book that won an award. It was dark and disappointing to me.