Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Reading Update

It's been a rather humdrum sort of reading month for me. I read 2 books I really loved - The Yada Yada Prayer Group Gets Decked Out, and The Kite Runner. I started and quit 3-4 books I couldn't get into. Then I read some okay books - Every Sunday, How Strong Women Pray, and Broken on the Back Row.

Oh, one of the books I started and quit, that I mentioned before, was Queen of the Oddballs. It started out good, and then I found out the author is a lesbian. I don't automatically say no to book with a homosexual author, character, whatever. (I do believe the Bible says homosexuality is a sin and I make no apologies for that, nor will I debate that here on my blog.) But when she started getting into the details of her first "relationship" - well no thanks.

I did finish I am the Messenger. I thought it was just "okay". The swearing (tons!) combined with the sexual references, I didn't like that at all. Because of that I can't believe it is for young adults. I wouldn't let my young adult read it!

Then there's the 2 non-fiction books I just finished - How Strong Women Pray and Broken on the Back Row (Sandi Patty's story of adultery and lies, and healing and restoration). The first one was okay. So much of it was just surface-y about prayer, and I didn't agree with some of the things the author talked about in the chapters about her own life story (I don't feel like getting into details!). But it did get me thinking about prayer in a few new ways. Sandi Patty's book was okay reading, it wasn't a riveting story or anything. But the themes of repentance and grace and forgiveness are excellent.

Next up is Split Ends by Kristin Billerbeck. I'm not expecting deep reading but I've enjoyed her other books so I'll probably like this one too. I hope anyway! I am in desperate need of a really, really, moving, awesome, riveting, can't put it down book - ANY SUGGESTIONS?????? My TBR list for 2008 is already a mile long so hopefully I can find some good ones off of there when I go to the library on Friday.

I'm really embarrassed if any of you have noticed in "What I'm Reading" in my sidebar that I have been stuck on 1 Kings in The Message Bible for months. For the record, it's not the only Bible reading I do (though certainly I don't read it as much as I should or aspire to). I was only reading from that Bible if I read in bed right before I go to sleep. I don't do that very often anymore so it was sort of forgotten. But I don't want to take 30 years to finish it (and I have this self-imposed rule that I'm going to read it from beginning to end). So I am going to start reading it whenever I read my other books.

What I have been doing is listening to a Bible in a year podcast. There is a reading from the OT, NT, Psalms and Proverbs every day. I'm enjoying that. I really need to get into more deeper Bible studies using the methods in the book that I really love, Rick Warren's Bible Study Methods. I was doing so good with that for awhile then it dropped off. Story of my life unfortunately.

Supper's almost ready so I have to run! Happy reading!

1 comment:

Sarah at SmallWorld said...

I agree that How Strong Women Pray was wishy-washy. I've read a few good ones already this year. Look on my sidebar for reviews, but Broken for You is fantastic if you haven't read that already!
SmallWorld