summer reading list, part 1

If all goes to plan, and one or t'other of the cats deign to let me sit in their chair, I will spend many of my upcoming summer evenings there, with my feet propped up on the red ottoman, reading. 

I've decided to skip t.v. this summer to give me some extra hours in the evening to both read and write.  I like this spot, especially when the window is open behind the roller shade and good smells from the nighttime garden breeze into the living room.  

And it does not face the television. :)

Here is the first part of my summer reading list. I'm still thinking about a couple extra books I'd like to tuck in, if possible.  Do you have any reading plans this summer? What are they?

Colonel Brandon . . . was silent and grave.  His appearance, however, was not unpleasing, in spite of his being in the opinion of Marianne and Margaret an absolute old bachelor, for he was on the wrong side of five and thirty; but though his face was not handsome, his countenance was sensible, and his address was particularly gentlemanlike.
(from Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen)

Good ol' Colonel Brandon! :) We're reading this for book club at my house, for June.  Claire gave me the cute hardback version for Mother's Day. :)  I haven't read it in a few years, because I just keep reading Persuasion over and over. Ha.

I once got engaged to his daughter Honoria, a ghastly dynamic exhibit who read Nietzsche and had a laugh like waves breaking on a stern and rockbound coast.
(from The Inimitable Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse)

This is our book for July. I seem to always turn to Wodehouse in the summer. He makes me laugh and laugh, until I get little tears in the corner of my eyes, and my stomach hurts, and I irritate anyone around by saying "Listen to this!" a few times too often.  Wodehouse seems a bit too fluffy for months that have any weather in them, a bit like drinking lemonade in December, but for summer vacation, he's just right.

Humanity can be roughly divided into three sorts of people - those who find comfort in literature, those who find comfort in personal adornment, and those who find comfort in food. (from The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge)

I think we were going to do this last summer and didn't get to it or something. I can't remember, exactly. Anyway, it's our book club book for August.  Have you read this book? It is lovely.  It had fallen out of print, but J.K. Rowling praised it, and it came back into print. I would like to be an author with that particular magical power.  

I think I've tried to push Elizabeth Goudge on you before. Anything you can find of hers, you should read. :D

So those three I've already read, and am excited to read again.  

Then these following books are all non-fiction (friends have recommended most of them), and I haven't read them yet. But they're on my summer list.  

The core problem isn’t the fact that we’re lukewarm, halfhearted, or stagnant Christians. The crux of it all is why we are this way, and it is because we have an inaccurate view of God. We see Him as a benevolent Being who is satisfied when people manage to fit Him into their lives in some small way. We forget that God never had an identity crisis. He knows that He’s great and deserves to be the center of our lives. Jesus came humbly as a servant, but He never begs us to give Him some small part of ourselves. He commands everything from His followers. (from Crazy Love:Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan)

Have any of you read Crazy Love? What did you think? I'm reading it because our Danielle and our Tash have read it, and I want to be able to chat with them about it and hear what they think.  Somebody may even have seen Francis Chan lately at a coffee shop, but not had her copy of Crazy Love with her. Too bad. :D

 

There never has been a generation whose general view of marriage is high enough. The chasm between the biblical vision of marriage and the common human vision is now, and has always been, gargantuan. Some cultures in history respect the importance and the permanence of marriage more than others. Some, like our own, have such low, casual, take-it-or-leave-it attitudes toward marriage as to make the biblical vision seem ludicrous to most people. (from This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence by John & Noel Piper)

I don't know anyone who has read this (or maybe I do but they haven't mentioned it), but it looks good. These are some truths I need to hear and steep myself in.  

Desiring God offers its books as free PDFs online. I will probably go ahead and order This Momentary Marriage as a book (so I can mark it up and carry it around), but I love that it's available free right here. :)

There is a tendency among Christians to get excited about "listening to God" as if they are discovering a hidden way of communicating with God that will revolutionize their prayer lives . . . This subtly elevates an experience with God instead of God himself. Without realizing it, we can look at the windshield instead of through it. (from A Praying Life by Paul Miller)

My friend Michele (our Michele) gave this to me recently, and I'm excited to dig into it. It looks very helpful and thought-provoking.

I'm really interested in hearing anything you're planning on reading this summer, fiction or non-fiction. Come, let us talk books. :)