What I've been reading recently!

    I don't think I've ever done this - and I'm too lazy to actually go and check. Since we've moved I've started reading a lot more. Not as much as I would like to, but a lot more than I have over the past year or so. So today I thought I would recommend a few of the books I either have read, am reading, or am going to read in the near future. 

     I learned about some of these books from my mom's WORLD magazine - they have a great book recommending section in every issue (I think) and one or two issues a year have even more space set aside to books. The others have been recommended to me by pastors from my new church, or are written by pastors from my new church. XD Without further ado...

The Stationary Shop

     Here's a little something from Amazon about the book...

Roya is a dreamy, idealistic teenager living in 1953 Tehran who, amidst the political upheaval of the time, finds a literary oasis in kindly Mr. Fakhri’s neighborhood book and stationery shop. She always feels safe in his dusty store, overflowing with fountain pens, shiny ink bottles, and thick pads of soft writing paper.  

When Mr. Fakhri, with a keen instinct for a budding romance, introduces Roya to his other favorite customer—handsome Bahman, who has a burning passion for justice and a love for Rumi’s poetry—she loses her heart at once. And, as their romance blossoms, the modest little stationery shop remains their favorite place in all of Tehran. 

A few short months later, on the eve of their marriage, Roya agrees to meet Bahman at the town square, but suddenly, violence erupts—a result of the coup d’etat that forever changes their country’s future. In the chaos, Bahman never shows. For weeks, Roya tries desperately to contact him, but her efforts are fruitless. With a sorrowful heart, she resigns herself to never seeing him again.  

Until, more than sixty years later, an accident of fate leads her back to Bahman and offers her a chance to ask him the questions that have haunted her for more than half a century: Why did he leave? Where did he go? How was he able to forget her? 

      I would probably give this book a four out of five stars. It was super sweet, yet also heart-rending, and had some twists that I was not expecting. There were one or two parts where they got pretty detailed on the kissing, but overall the whole "romance" thing wasn't inappropriate. 

Becoming Mrs. Lewis

     Again, the book summary from Amazon:

From New York Times bestselling author Patti Callahan comes an exquisite novel of Joy Davidman, the woman C. S. Lewis called “my whole world.” When poet and writer Joy Davidman began writing letters to C. S. Lewis—known as Jack—she was looking for spiritual answers, not love. Love, after all, wasn’t holding together her crumbling marriage. 

Everything about New Yorker Joy seemed ill-matched for an Oxford don and the beloved writer of Narnia, yet their minds bonded over their letters. Embarking on the adventure of her life, Joy traveled from America to England and back again, facing heartbreak and poverty, discovering friendship and faith, and against all odds, finding a love that even the threat of death couldn’t destroy. 

In this masterful exploration of one of the greatest love stories of modern times, we meet a brilliant writer, a fiercely independent mother, and a passionate woman who changed the life of this respected author and inspired books that still enchant us and change us. Joy lived at a time when women weren’t meant to have a voice—and yet her love for Jack gave them both voices they didn’t know they had. 

At once a fascinating historical novel and a glimpse into a writer’s life, Becoming Mrs. Lewis is above all a love story—a love of literature and ideas and a love between a husband and wife that, in the end, was not impossible at all. 

     I loved this book. I really enjoy C.S. Lewis' writing, especially books like The Screwtape Letters or Till We Have Faces and I know a decent amount about his life. I discovered by reading this book just how much I didn't know about his wife. She has a really interesting story, and I really enjoyed the way this book presented it. 

The Mortification of Sin

     Annnddd Amazon!

"The Mortification of Sin" was written by John Owen, one of the best known of the Puritans. In "The Mortification of Sin," John Owen insisted on the importance of the Christian dealing effectively with their sinful tendencies and attitudes. He believed that God, through his Word and Spirit, had provided the guidelines and the power for this to be achieved. In "The Mortification of Sin," John Owen effectively dismisses various excuses for not engaging in self-scrutiny and yet avoids the current trend of self-absorption. In so doing he provides principles to help believers live lives of holiness. As with all of Owen's writings, "The Mortification of Sin" continues to be widely read and greatly appreciated to this day.

     There are two different studies going on in our college group for this book - one for the guys and one for the girls - so a lot of people are reading it. I figured I might as well join, get the motivation to actually read this book, and then be able to take the principles it teaches and mortify sin in my life.

     I've only read the first two chapters, but they are so good and I can tell I'm going to like the rest of it. I have the unabridged version, so it's a bit of a rough read, but as long as I track with his logic (i.e. don't speed read) I'm fine.

Free to Be Holy

     Can we just take a second and really appreciate how much time Amazon has saved me in writing this post? Thanks Amazon!! XD

Reformed theology has made a welcome return to the church. With its resurgent emphasis on justification, unfortunately, has come confusion over the biblical pattern of sanctification. Rather than turning to the plain biblical language of faith, humility, and obedience, many are turning inward and measuring genuine love and obedience by their emotional experiences. Affection for God—submissive love rooted in humble faith—is being defined almost exclusively as emotional sensations of joy. In a culture driven by feelings, obeying out of duty is derided as legalism, and striving to be holy is considered a work of the Law. 

Many in the church are wondering, "Am I really obeying if I don’t feel like it?" None of us desire to become the hypocrites Jesus warned of in Matthew 15:8, “This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me.” Influential leaders in the church today aren’t helping when they challenge believers to cease all striving and simply reflect on the fact of their justification. 

In this book, Jerry Wragg and Paul Shirley call us back to Scripture’s manifest blueprint for becoming conformed to the image of Christ. With balance and warm-hearted clarity, they demonstrate that God’s grace empowers us for every good deed. They show us that our justification doesn’t liberate us from being diligent in our efforts to trust and obey, but rather it gives us power to withstand temptation and walk with the Lord in victory. 

Because of grace, we are under obligation to the Word of God and now have resurrection power flowing through our spiritual veins, strengthening every discipline of grace and growing fruit that remains forever. Through faith-filled submission of our will to the Word of God, we “work out [our] salvation,” knowing “it is God who is at work in [us], both to will and to work for His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13).

     I am also currently reading this book - I'm about half-way - and I have to plug it, not just because my pastor wrote it, but also because it's so good. I've been blessed to have pastors and parents who always made the distinction clear between just claiming free grace and becoming flat-out legalistic, but this book is really solidifying that in my head. And I have a feeling it's about to get pretty practical too, which will be immensely helpful. (It also ties in nicely with the Mortification of Sin study...)

The Power of Christian Contentment

     

     Guess where this summary came from...

It may surprise modern Christians that our current problems with discontentedness are anything but new. In 1643, Puritan pastor Jeremiah Burroughs wrote a work titled "The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment" that has as much resonance in our day as it did in his. Now pastor and author Andrew M. Davis helps contemporary Christians rediscover the remarkable truths found in this largely forgotten work.

With powerful new illustrations and a keen sense of all that makes modern Christians restless, Davis challenges readers to confront the sources of discontent in their lives and embrace Paul's teaching on contentment in all circumstances. He gives special attention to maintaining contentment through poverty and prosperity, as well as in our marriages, and offers tips on teaching children how to be content in an age of smartphones and social media. 

     This is the book that I have not actually read yet, but our college and career pastor highly recommended it, and my cousin Courtney is reading it right now so I'm going to read it soon. Once I finish Free to Be Holy, probably. If I read too many books at once I'll never finish them. But since I trust my pastor, I figured I'd just recommend this before I actually read it. Radical, I know. XD

     And that's it for today! I could mention a few more, like Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow or Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis (I guess I did actually mention that one) but five seems like a good number.

     Thanks for reading and have a great week!!

~ Anna

What books have you been reading recently? Have you read any of the ones I mentioned above? And if so, how did you like them?