A Tuesday post?! What?!! Yes, I did indeed miss posting last Friday. It was a busy week and I wanted to post my 2023 reading plans but I hadn’t made them yet. And I still haven’t but I want to follow through on my commitment to post so I’ll share reading plans another time and just update on the books I read and am reading. I use The Story Graph to track my reading; you can find me under the username mama_mcgoozle.

Still reading…

• Sing Down the Moon by Scott O’Dell- The kids and I are listening to this for Stubby’s historical fiction for school.– audio, 39% finished
• Carved in Ebony: Lessons From the Black Women Who Shape Us, Young Reader’s Edition by Jasmine L Holmes- This is our current “Sunday reading” book. We don’t have a great Sunday routine at the moment so progress is slow but it’s progress. – paperback, 64% finished
• The Warden and the Wolf King (Wingfeather Saga #4) by Andrew Peterson– This is our family’s 2nd or 3rd time listening to this series. We laughed some and I cry some. It’s a great series (also now an animated series!). – audio, 25% finished
• The Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries Revealing the Mind Behind the Universe by Stephen C Meyer- I am really enjoying this book despite not understanding or absorbing a lot of it. I grew up with a lot of emphasis on young earth creationism and lately I’ve become kind of skeptical/ambivalent. This book has been refreshing as a reminder that there’s good reason to believe that God created everything, even though the author does not seem to hold to the young earth view. I actually appreciate the different perspective as I think that’s a viewpoint that wasn’t represented much in my up-bringing.– audio, 42% finished
• The Eleventh Hour (Secret of the Rose #1) by Michael Phillips- I haven’t made much progress on this one since December. It’s an easy, “fluff” read that I haven’t had much time for. – paperback, 27% finished
• The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien- not reading this one as much because I have other “fluff” books going right now in a better format– ebook, 13% finished
• Keeping a Nature Journal: Discover a Whole New Way of Seeing the World Around You by Clare Walker Leslie- not reading this one as much because I’m almost done and it’s very how-to in the final section– paperback
• I also want to mention that we are reading through the Bible this year with a group of people from our church. In January we read Genesis, Mark, Exodus 1-14, and Psalm 1-23. I’m also finding a lot of value and joy in using a prayer book and in January I’ve been using Psalms in 30 Days compiled by Trevin Wax. I started January 2nd and have missed one day so I won’t quite make it through all 150 psalms this month but it’s very close. The book also included other Scripture selections, prayers, and creeds/confessions and it’s helpful in directing my thoughts.

Finished in January…

• Empires of the Sea: The Siege of Malta, the Battle of Lepanto, and the Contest for the Center of the World by Roger Crowley- I very much doubt that I will ever need to know anything that this book covered although learning about warfare at sea in the middle ages was kind of interesting. Main takeaway: war is horrific and it doesn’t matter what religion you follow- war tends to make monsters of men.– hardcover, owned
• The Monster in the Hollows (Wingfeather Saga #3) by Andrew Peterson- audio, Audible
• The Satapur Moonstone (Perveen Mistry #2) by Sujata Massey- I enjoyed the setting- 1920s India- and the premise- woman lawyer turned dectective in a society where that’s not viewed with respect. I enjoyed the first book in the series more while appreciating that this installment had less sexual content. There was a lot more posturing/preaching in this book that didn’t feel as authentic to the character and was distracting from the story.- audio, Scribd
• Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman- I read this one to evaluate if it would be useful for the afterschool co-op I lead. Basic intro to Lincoln with pictures. We read some children’s picture books instead but I was able to identify some illustrations based off pictures I saw in this book.– paperback, library
• Courage has No Color, The True Story of the Triple Nickels: America’s First Black Paratroopers by Tanya Lee Stone- This was an interesting story that I had never heard before from the WWII era. I started out listening for myself but Stubby overheard it so we finished it together. It covers hard topics like racism and war but I would definitely recommend it- a little bit dry.– audio, Scribd
• The Neighboring Church: Getting Better at What Jesus Says Matters Most by Rick Rusaw and Brian Mavis- I finally made it through this one and it was convicting just as I feared. Summary quote: “Loving our neighbors because we are Christians, not because we are trying to make them Christians.”– ebook, Scribd
• Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga- Novel in verse about a 7th grade refugee to the US from Syria. I really enjoyed it. I’m trying to get into reading more poetry and this was an easy pick to start with.– ebook, Scribd

Top Picks

Fiction: Other Words for Home. It’s quick. It’s thought-provoking. It’s written in an interesting style. It opens our eyes to another perspective (unless of course, you’re of Middle Eastern descent in the US, in which case it might give you a mirror rather than a window).

Non-Fiction: The Neighboring Church. I’ve already been thinking along these lines but this was a good challenge and offered more food for thought with some practical steps.

Next month maybe I’ll add book covers. And maybe post on time. And maybe have figured out what I want to read this year and tell you about it.