reading lately list

I’m trying to better log my reading, so I thought I would jump on the Modern Mrs. Darcy Quick Lit bandwagon as a way to better track what I’m reading and what I want to remember about it. I did lots of reading in April and May because we had spring break in Black Mountain, and we sneaked off to my parent’s place in Florida for a long weekend in May. Here were my favorites and three things I loved/learned from each book:

Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint

1. I raced through this. I had read Bolz-Weber’s Accidental Saints, last year and loved it, but I think I liked Pastrix more.
2. We’re recent converts to a church in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ECLA) denomination, so I loved reading Bolz-Weber’s background as to how she became an ELCA pastor.
3. I love her honest, often cranky (and cuss-y) posture that comes across in Pastrix, and since I can’t be friends with Nadia in real life, I have a feeling Pastrix will become an old friend that I’ll return to often.

Permission to Parent: How to Raise Your Child with Love and Limits

1. There wasn’t anything particularly earth-shattering about this one, but it was helpful and practical in a holistic way, if that makes sense. Grant and I both read it within a week of each other and decided it would be a good one to reread once a year as a refresher.
2. “Topping the list would be that parenting is more about raising yourself than it is about raising your child. What a great gift our children give us, if we let them: the opportunity to grow ourselves. Only then can we give our children the parents we want to be. When you parent from your highest self, you can be of the greatest service to your children, who have entrusted you with the most precious of tasks, the task of shepherding their soul.”
3. “Loving your child is an instinct. Good parenting is a teachable skill.” I need to remind myself of that once a week and act accordingly (obviously).

Anything Is Possible

1. I looove Elizabeth Strout, and Anything Is Possible is her at her best (I inhaled Lucy Barton, but didn’t necessarily enjoy it).
2. The writing! Reading good novels just paralyzes me with astonishment (and jealousy, if I’m honest): “They had grown up on shame; it was the nutrient of their soil. Yet, oddly, it was her father she felt she understood the best. And for a moment Annie wondered at this, that her brother and sister, good, responsible, decent, fair-minded, had never known the passion that caused a person to risk everything they had, everything they held dear heedlessly put in danger—simply to be near the white dazzle of the sun that somehow for those moments seemed to leave the earth behind.”
3. Lucy asks, “We think, always we think, ‘What is it about someone that makes us despise that person, that makes us feel superior?’” and I think each of the various characters and vignettes are trying to delve more deeply into that question (which seems like an important question for all of us in 2017).

The Hourglass: Time, Memory, Marriage

1. This is my first Shapiro book, but it certainly won’t be my last. Her writing somehow seems exacting and spontaneous at the same time. I know that doesn’t really make sense, but it is almost like we’re getting a peek at her journals, but you also know that the writing is far too beautiful to be a first, rough draft.
2. I love how she writes about her marriage and middle age. I’m hoping she keeps at it with future books. I also kept wondering what her husband thought of the book.
3. I know all marriages aren’t meant to last, but the older I get, I think there is no greater teacher than a long, intimate relationship. Long enough to face tragedy, boredom, rage, joy, contentedness (hopefully), and all the good stuff in between. Eugene Peterson has a book that I’ve never read titled, “a long obedience in the right direction,” and I kept being reminded of that phrase as I read about Shapiro’s marriage.

For more of what I’ve been reading lately (I’m halfway through about three books at the moment that will definitely make my “best of 2017” list, so I’m excited to share recaps of those next month!), friend me on Goodreads! Make sure you’re signed up for my email newsletter for more book recs.

Leave your recent favorites in the comments, so I can add to my TBR list…