books

The Sacred Echo by Margaret Feinberg is a simple book, really, about a simple concept--prayer. But it's not a treatise on prayer. It's one woman's encounter with prayer and encounters through prayer.

It's about cultivating a relationship. It's about respite in God.

Embrace Me by Lisa Samson took me a little bit longer to get into than some of her others, but once I did, it was well worth it. I spent an entire weekend letting Lisa's words wash over me.

I don’t read a lot of chick lits or murder mysteries, so to read a book with both rolled up together was an anomally. But let me tell you, reader, this book captivated me. Bell’s (main character) wit had me laughing out loud.

I don't know. Maybe it's not chick lit. It has the sass of chick lit, but not really the concerns of chick lit. To be honest, the whole chick lit category confuses me once you get out of the shopping and heels stuff. 

I had a bad morning. A very bad morning. I won't tell you the details because I want to shelter you. But I decided to lift my moratorium on book buying (self-imposed until I finish books I already own) to buy two new books. Look what I got!

Wrapped in Rain by Charles Martin was difficult to get into, to be honest. I picked it up about two years ago, but when about 60 pages into it, I knew more about a truck-stop prostitute (who was an oversized prop--and when I say oversized, I mean oversized) than I did the story itself, I put it back down. But on the encouragement of a friend (Heather Tipton, to be exact), I tried again. I'm glad I did.

My thoughts here are biased, I must warn you.

I  loved N.T. Wright's newest book, Surprised by Hope. He explores the meat of the Christian hope, what he calls the after-afterlife.

Do you know how difficult it is to run and cry at the same time? Good books do that do me. And this was a good book. 

Brilliant, actually.

That's the best way to describe it. The words themselves, the characterization, the anticipation. It's brilliant.

I just finished Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis and needed to come get out some of these thoughts swirling around in my head. I started talking about it on Christianne's blog because I see parallels in the book to so many ares of the Christian life. It's one of those books that you could pick up a dozen times and get something different out of it because you're in a different place in your life every time.

It came this morning!

The dog barked and barked. Good dog, I said. Now stop. She didn't stop. I went to the front door, and she was attempting to push her nose through the bottom corner to get at whoever was on the other side.

The mail lady.

Which means one thing! My book is here!