It’s been too long since I’ve shared what I’ve been reading.  It’s not that I haven’t been reading.  I have been reading a lot.  My habbit of reading in multiples (at least three at at time) would be a really hard one for me to break.  I feel it would be likened to limiting yourself to

It’s been too long since I’ve shared what I’ve been reading. It’s not that I haven’t been reading. I have been reading a lot. My habbit of reading in multiples (at least three at at time) would be a really hard one for me to break. I feel it would be likened to limiting yourself to

one tv channel for an entire week or month, you know?  I read different books for different reasons and some days I need a little of this and other days a little a lot of that.  Now, if I get completely sucked into fiction, well that is another, all nighter, kind of story (I recenlty had to purchase this little booklight for such nights).

Here are the books I’m currently reading or have recently finished:

1 / The Awakening : I never read this in school.  To be honest, I’m glad I didn’t.  It wouldn’t have resonated then.  While I knew the ending before I started, I didn’t know what brough the main character, Edna, to the end of the story.  I really empathized with a lot of her inner dialogue.  When you come to the end of yourself the the thing in front of you is an awakening.  Certainly not only in the form portrayed in the book, it can take many routes or none at all.  This short piece of literature has left me with some lasting thoughts.

2 / Abba’s Child  The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging: This is a life changing book for me (much like Abiding in Christ).  One I’ll return to again and again.  It somehow made some sense of things I can’t seem to make any sense of.  It shed light on how we hide behind an impostor self.  A shell, really, of our real selves.  A protective layer that we put on as children or when we may have gone through something traumatic or even just felt rejection.  Our inner child, is our true self and God calls us out of hiding and to live openly before him.  I can’t do this book justice, so I won’t even try….but again, life changing.

3 / Wild : I am on Cheryl Strayed kick and I needed to know her story.  I’m only about a quarter of the way through the book and I’m really enjoying it.

4 / The Distant Hours :  I’m a huge Kate Morton fan.  I’ve read several of her books and have loved them all.  Many are set in England and around the theme of family.  I picked up the Distant Hours at the library (my new favorite place) and couldn’t put it down (purchased my book light during this read).  The story is about three sisters living in a a run down castle with many secrets that bound them to each other and their family home.  Kate is such a great writer that I find myself writing down many sentences that strike me and saving them in my word collection.

5 / A Room of Ones Own : I’ve only just started…as in one page, but I’m so interested in this essay that Virginia Wolf was asked to write about women writers.  She used her voice to speak up for women and writers during a time when no one else was saying much at all on the subject.

6 / Reflections on The Psalms : I’m reading this book with Team Brave and am about 3 chapters in.  I’m always reading the Psalms – almost daily – and love learning more about the meaning behind them and their authors.  It has already brought things to my attention that I would have never even thought of.  Also, I really haven’t read much C.S. Lewis and I want to read more of his works.

7 / Tiny Beautiful Things  : I mentioned I’m on a Cheryl Strayed kick and it is because of this book.  I checked it out at the library and quickly realized that wouldn’t do.  I had to have a copy I could dog ear, underline and pull off my shelf whenever I needed to re-read.  There are many times I have felt undone reading this advice column in book form.  Cheryl’s empathy and way with words is a gift.  Since its people writing in with their personal issues – you take some, you leave some.  But, in some you find yourself.  Right there in the printed pages of other peoples problems you find little broken bits of yourself.  There is also a Dear Sugar (the name of the advice column) podcast, which I like listening to, as well.

8 / Past The Wishing : I menionted this book in my Team Brave post.  One of my best friends wrote it and I love it because it’s so encouraging, relatable and inspiring.  It’s written in such a down to earth way that you are sure that you have what it takes to live a life that moves past the wishing.  To take your ordinary life and life it in a very brave way.

9 / Traveling Mercies : I’ve just started this book.  I have become a Anne Lamott fan after reading Bird by Bird.  She tells it like it is with her word weaving.

Have you read any of these?  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

What are you reading this summer?  I love a good recommendation.

These books are next on my list: