VT Christian Reading Challenge discussion

So…y’all chill beach reads or heavy tomes for this month? I just started Whose Body? — my first Dorothy Sayers novel. I still have a couple of non-fiction, but they are moving slowly. The one I’m enjoying most is Atomic Habits.

How about y’all?

June and July are shorter books but not quite completely chill reads.

I am reading of Job: a Comedy of Justice by Robert Heinlein which might turn into a science-fiction version of Job but less than a quarter in.

I got a Voice of the Martyrs book to fit somewhere, Samuel Zwemer by Janet Benge for....another slot. I found a couple public domain for John Owen (Death of Death), Puritan (Precious Remedies Against Satan's Device by Thomas Brooks) and Spiritual Disciplines (A Discourse on Meekness and Quietness of Spirit by Matthew Henry). .... Wow that sounds like a lot.

Definitely a heavy tome for me... Truman, by David McCullough. Nearly 1000 pages, and the heaviest paperback I've ever owned! This is taking up most of my reading time right now.

Happy August. Just 5 more months!

Best: How to Examine a Wolverine by Phillipp Schott for Creation Care. Veterinarian tells some of his crazy tales from his practice.

Worse: The Death of Death in the Death of Christ by John Owens for a book by John Owens. My eyes glazed over in the middle of some of his paragraphs and sentences. I probably need to listen to this.

Surprise: Job: A Comedy of Justice by Robert Heinlein as a book about angels or demons. Yes the Grand Master of SFF wrote a book called Job. Now how do I describe this? A man from a hyper-Christian America gets pull into a number of worlds (gets blamed on Loki) and goes through culture shock repetitively and then goes through the rapture..... It was odd to the extreme.

During July I finished only three books. None were really awesome.

Best - A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains, by Isabella Lucy Bird - this is the 1873 travel narrative of an extremely independent and adventurous woman. It was originally a series of letters to her sister first published in a periodical.

Worst - The Sisters Brothers, by Patrick deWitt - I read this for the "June on the Range" Booktube reading challenge. These brothers were both terrible characters. Lots of violence.

Surprise - Jamaica Inn, by Daphne du Maurier - of the three novels I've read by this author, I liked this one the least. It shows how awful and degraded and cruel human beings can be. I think this one is a good match for the one above it, and that does surprise me as I expect something better from Daphne du Maurier, though dark romantic suspense seems to have been her specialty.

I'm still reading the 900+ page history about Truman, by David McCullough. Almost 400 more pages yet to read during August!