VT Christian Reading Challenge discussion

What are you starting new this month?

I'm adding two books as of today though I still have a few I'm nearly finished with.

New on my currently reading list this month:

The Children's Blizzard, by Melanie Benjamin ... a book I won in the Goodreads Giveaway. Historical fiction.
Hobos, Hustlers and Backsliders: Homeless in San Francisco, by Teresa Gowan ... for "a book about a current social issue."

If I complete these two books I'll have finished all of "The Light Reader" section of our challenge.

Adding one more, for a new audiobook, as I just finished reading The Secret Keeper by Kate Morton. (Clean. Really liked it.)

My new audio-read will be Finding Lady Enderly by Joanna Davidson Politano. It is Christian fiction.

I have been meaning to read The Secret Keeper. Since you liked it, I might pick it up again.

My most important work is moving through the 90 Day Bible. It is just exactly what I need in some of the sadness and chaos.

But I did start Wings of Refuge and have liked it! I’m moving through a little slower than usual, but I can see why my mom liked it.

I also picked up Aggressively Happy: A Realist's Guide to Believing in the Goodness of Life and am really excited. It was just released and so far it really resonates with me. I love her style and think it might be a good fit for this season.

By the way, congrats on making it through the first section of the challenge! That is an accomplishment for sure!

Thanks Christabelle.. and there's a giveaway for a print copy of Aggressively Happy... so I applied... would love to get that one, and Wings of Refuge looks good too.

I just added another book to my currently reading list. The Hour That Changes the World: A Practical Plan for Personal Prayer by Dick Eastman... I just got a copy yesterday along with a few other books, in the mail. I live in the boonies about 70 miles from the nearest bookstore, so most of what I get comes via mail.

Congratulations on finishing the light. I am taking a scattershot approach. My "In Process" is:

Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf for the Image of a person on the cover
The Weary World Rejoices by Melissa Kruger (Yes an Advent book during Lent. Don't ask.) as Christian Living part 1
The Last Man by Mary Shelley (She is a contemporary of Jane Austen)
100 Days of Thanks from Thomas Press as a Devotional Book

Hi Ian. I'm wondering what you think of Mrs. Dalloway. I have a copy in my cupboard. A Christian friend recently DNF'ed it... I wasn't planning to read my copy, but maybe give it back to the little free library where I found it. I'd really like to know how you feel about it.

So, I listened to it while I was working. The plot felt like it was from Hemmingway with the verbose from Dickens.
I did not overly enjoy it because nothing really happened. There might be some interest philosophy stuff in it but the rambling style was a huge turn off.
I can neither suggest it nor unsuggest that one.

I'm not a fan of the stream of consciousness writing that went on in the 1920's. Faulkner, Hemingway... Woolf. Maybe they were copying one another, to a degree. Maybe that was their collective idea of what good writing should be, at that time.

So end of March, What was your best read, worse read, and biggest surprise?

Best: Eyes Wide Open by Ted Dekker. I just really enjoy Ted Dekker's world building.

Worse: The Handbook for Post-Roe America by Robin Marty. Just Do not try. It gets very graphic and overly descriptive.

Surprise: A Dream to Die For by Susan Ritz. Not sure what I expected but I was not expecting the acid trip it turned into.

Hey! For me, the best of the month was Once Upon a Wardrobea fictional glance at Lewis’ impact on a family through his i,agitation and his book the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

I didn’t have a worst. A surprise was Real: The Surprising Secret to Deeper Relationships I really appreciated her conversation on confession and repentance in relationships.

I think mine were “good” and “also good.” No real surprises. I like Aggressively Happy for its reminder that although life is hard we can choose the beauty joy brings. I liked Wings of Refuge because it was a good story and I liked how it came together. I’m sticking with “safe” reads at the moment though.

Tied for best:

The Secret Keeper, by Kate Morton (fiction) and Shadows on the Klamath: A Woman of the Woods, by Louise Wagenknecht (memoir).


Tied for worst:

Breath For the Bones: Art, Imagination, and Spirit: Reflections on Creativity and Faith, by Luci Shaw (boring philosophical nonfiction) and All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque (too much violence for me in this classic fiction).


Surprise:

Thunder On the Right, by Mary Stewart (because now I want to read all the Mary Stewart romantic suspense novels and have connected with a group here on Goodreads that wants to do it with me).