books!

So... I was inspired by my friend Miss's recent post. She shared some books that have impacted her lately. And me, being a big reader, was pumped to check out those books, since I am all about the recommendations. Thanks Miss!

Then, I thought as I often think when I talk to my friends, "Wow, what a great idea!" because I definitely have had some mad reading going on the past semester. So, here is my little post of the four books I've read lately that have really challenged me. More to come after this summer I'm sure.

A few months ago I started reading Uncle Tom's Cabin. How many people have heard of this book over and over again in their history classroom but have actually ever read it? I will guess probably few. (That was me).

It was interesting because while I was in the process of reading it I asked the History teachers at my school if they had ever read it. They hadn't. Shortly after, however, I noticed they had a copy themselves. Hmm. Good. :)

This book was super challenging. The first 100 pages or so were a bit tiresome, but man once you get past those it is amazing! Harriet Beecher Stowe just blows me away with her frankness. As a woman, and as a Northern woman at that, she goes way against the mainstream of her society and clashes big time. She is a little brave fighter and I love seeing that in women.

What's even cooler is that the gospel is preached all over that book. Great read.


The next book I read was The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. Okay, so this was one I had read before but couldn't remember details of.

One, I liked it because it was a diary. I connect very well with diaries since I have been keeping journals for the past 6 or so years. Two, I liked it because it offers readers a genuine glimpse into the life of a teenage Jewish girl during the time of the Holocaust.

And she is so beyond her time! She writes about things in her journal that you think, okay that is her teenness coming out. But then she writes about things that are so deep and challenging that it just blows you away that a 15 year old girl could really be writing it.

"It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death." Anne Frank

When Answers Aren't Enough by Matt Rogers was one that has been sitting on my self for quite a while. Chris and I have been fortunate to meet Matt through our Church. Chris bought this book a few years ago when he found out that he is briefly mentioned on page 126. Quite funny. Check it.

Anyway, after my Nana passed away I picked it up off my shelf. After that I had trouble putting it down.

There are so many enlightening things Matt writes about in this book that I had to keep my journal next to me to process my thoughts with each chapter.

"Let us paint now, and with all the imagination we can muster. And if we die before the picture is done, may we be found with brush in hand, eyes fixed ahead, looking toward the day when all the world will say, 'Where, O death, is your sting?'" Matt Rogers

And finally, my most recent read was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. Madeleine was a Christian who wrote mostly children's fiction, so her books have a lot of Christian insight. What's interesting is that Matt Rogers was inspired a lot by Madeline. I didn't intentionally read this because of that; I already had this book picked out, but I loved the coincidence there.

This was another book I read as a kid. It honestly wasn't as good the second time around, but there is a part that I absolutely love that is worth reading the whole book to get to.

It's at the end of the book. The kids go to a planet with these creatures that can't "see" anything, they just feel it. One of the kids comments on how horrible it must be not to be able to "see." And one of the creatures comments back:
"We do not know what things look like, as you say. We know what things are like. It must be a very limiting thing, this seeing."

That just blows me away with my thinking. It challenges me to go past the surface of what things or people or even God appears to be and dig deeper and deeper for the real person that is within.

Any recommendations for this summer?