VT Christian Reading Challenge discussion

Longer days might lead to less reading…or I might take my books outside! I’m finishing up a Ted Dekker teen series and then I’m looking for favorites. This is a year of re-reads, at least in part. I need the comfort of some favorites.

I've discovered Middle Grade March on Booktube, so a number of my books for this month are going to fit into that readathon.
Finish:
Parenting: 14 Gospel Principles That Can Radically Change Your Family finished 30/3
Vanished Smile: The Mysterious Theft of Mona Lisa finished 11/3
Read:
Mandy
The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy finished 9/3
Refugee finished 12/3
The One and Only Ivan finished 21/3
The Girl Who Drank the Moon finished 8/3
On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness finished 30/3
Orange for the Sunsets finished 20/3
12 Ways Your Phone Is Changing You
Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales Of A Botswana Safari Guide finished 2/3
Anne of Green Gables finished 20/3
Number the Stars
The Tale of Despereaux
Station Eleven finished 30/3
I think that's ambitious enough for one month!
Picked up during the month:
City Spies finished 7/3
Red Butterfly finished 11/3
Amari and the Night Brothers finished 16/3
The Shepherd's Life: Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape finished 18/3
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry finished 31/3

I am in the middle of The Deconstruction of Christianity by Alisa Childers and Tim Barnett (Taking a while as I just do not want to read physical books right now).

I got By Grace Alone by Sinclair Ferguson, The Return by Jonathan Cahn, Healing Racial Trauma by Sheila Wise Rowe, Why the Reformation Still Matters by Time Chester for various non-fiction book.

I have For Love of Magic by Simon R Green as a book by my favorite author as a palate cleanser.

You all are ambitious! Looks like some good reading.

I'm reading a lot of Christian nonfiction right now, plus other things. My "currently reading" list is way too long and I'd like to reduce it to under ten titles this month. I'm about to finish a few.

I've recently added:

The Gift of Prophesying by William Perkins, for one of the Puritan prompts. (Also just printed The Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God by Jonathan Edwards. Is he considered a Puritan?)

A River Runs Through It and Other Stories by Norman Maclean - because I'm participating in a USA Roadtrip in another group this year and this is my Montana book.

Rock Bottom, Tennesee, by Kimberly Nixon - same as above, but for Tennesee. This is a novel based on the author's family stories. - I had to DNF this. There were some awful scenes.

Other than that, my list is pretty much the same as last month - a lot of those books, I'm still reading at this time.

I have so many books on my list I'm using a random book picker "wheel of names" to choose my daily reading at times. I think I'll eventually get through everything, if I don't DNF it.

Ian wrote: "I am in the middle of The Deconstruction of Christianity by Alisa Childers and Tim Barnett (Taking a while as I just do not want to read physical books right now).

I got By Grace Alone by Sinclair..."

I've been looking at By Grace Alone for my book by Sinclair Ferguson. I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on it.

Sara wrote: "Ian wrote: "I am in the middle of The Deconstruction of Christianity by Alisa Childers and Tim Barnett (Taking a while as I just do not want to read physical books right now).

I got By Grace Alone..."
So I enjoyed the threads that Sinclair tied together through the book. I probably should have got the written over the audio book so I could have looked up the hymns that he was quoting. It was well worth the read.

The Professor
Evidence That Demands a Verdict: Life-Changing Truth for a Skeptical World
Three Ordinary Girls: The Remarkable Story of Three Dutch Teenagers Who Became Spies, Saboteurs, Nazi Assassins–and WWII Heroes
God Will Use This for Good: Surviving the Mess of Life
How Not to Become a Crotchety Old Man
Margaret Thatcher Biography: The Untold Story of Margaret Thatcher's Impact on the World
Unoffendable: How Just One Change Can Make All of Life Better
Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age
Inside Out
Doing Life with Your Adult Children: Keep Your Mouth Shut and the Welcome Mat Out
Faith Still Moves Mountains: Miraculous Stories of the Healing Power of Prayer

Happy Easter.

Best: Deconstruction of Christianity by Alisa Childer and Tim Barnett. I enjoy Tim's YouTube channel Red Pen Logic and this book matches his calm reasoning and Alisa's voice lends to a well thought out path on the appropriate method of questioning faith.

Worse: The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters. The anti-christian and "poor pagans" demeaning was over the top and then when the Gospel of Thomas was found and referred to something that is not in the Gospel, I lost any respect for the book.

Surprise: The Woman on the Train by Paula Hawkins. I thought this would be either a straight forward mystery or a slice of life (I know this is an Anime genre but it fits)..... Ya, it is not straight forward and took until the last hour for me to get into. I am definately not the target for that book.

Best: Don’t Follow Your Heart. I liked how it put into perspective the worldview that surrounds us in media and questions it. I also like the Biblical perspective it offers instead.

Worst: Be The Bridge. Honestly, it was oddly religious…but not in a Biblical way. She seems to only acknowledge racial sin as sin and seems to want the same sacrificial devotion to her cause that one might give to God. I felt like she threw the whole gospel out the window (we are all sinners in need of a Savior) and replaced it with “all are sinners, but some are more sinners than others.” If anything, I’m guessing this wasn’t the best book to start with the the area of race relations.

Surprise: Elementary, She Read. I asked for a cozy read and now have a new favorite author! It was so much fun to follow Gemma Doyle and her brilliant mind as she solves murder mysteries. I’m glad there’s more than one in this series.

Best: Unoffendable--a powerful perspective on choosing not to take offense. I highly recommend this book to anyone.

Worst: Margaret Thatcher biography--I was so disappointed in this book. Tediously repetitive. It felt like repeating complete paragraphs multiple times while only substituting five synonyms for various verbs or adjectives.

Surprise: The Professor--this book was recommended by a friend who described the author as Alabama's John Grisham. It seemed at the beginning that there were a lot of short, choppy sentences. Either he got better or I grew accustomed to the style. It was a compelling story. I've gone on to read the rest of that series and plan to read the rest of the this author's books.

Best: When to Walk Away, by Gary L. Thomas (a minister in Colorado)
It helps to know that Jesus walked away from a lot of people, and therefore, so can I. Sometimes it is life-saving.

Worst: A River Runs Through It & Other Stories, by Norman Maclean
Excellent writing style with dubious content and some degenerate characters. This was my Montana book for my USA Roadtrip Reading Adventure.

Surprise: A Lasting Impression, by Tamera Alexander
This is Christian fiction. I had never read anything by this author before and it turned out to be pretty good. I would read more by this author. I was looking for a Tennessee book for my USA Roadtrip Reading Adventure. I DNF'ed three books before I got to this one, which was perfect for me.

Best (in terms of learning and a definite reread): Parenting by Paul David Tripp. Good principles that can be applied to many more relationships other than parent/child.
Best (for sheer enjoyment): Tie between Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston and The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks (except for a few instances of language that could have been omitted, imo).
Worst: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin. It wasn't bad, but different than what I was expecting. I thought it would be more of a day-to-day character study but it would jump ahead and skip a few years all of a sudden.
Surprise: City Spies by James Ponti. Fun, clean middle-grade book that I can hand to my kids!

Beth, I agree, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry wasn't all that exciting.