The Messy Middle

where grace and truth reside

Book, Books I've read (or want to read), Just for fun, Summer Reading Challenge

Summer Reading Challenge 2022 is here!

Calling all readers!

It’s a day of rejoicing because the Summer Reading Challenge 2022 is here … or the Winter Reading Challenge for my Southern Hemisphere friends! If you can believe it, this is the seventh summer of the challenge.

If this is your first year, welcome! If you’ve been doing this challenge from the beginning, I bet you’ve felt this too . . . With the turning of April into May, I’ve begun to notice a low buzz of reading excitement. I think to myself, “It’s coming!”

Eight summers ago the primary emotion of my summer was resentment. I associated childhood summers with spaciousness, a bit of boredom, and reading. My adult summers felt the opposite—crowded, busy, and no leisurely reading. While there’s much I love about being an adult, I missed summer reading and decided something needed to change.

I also noticed that left to my own, I read the same kind of book over and over, always meaning to get to other types of books. I don’t make time to read certain kind of books because I have work, responsibilities, and intentions that, it turns out, are very weak intentions. So, thank you one and all of joining in and during this challenge we all become more well-rounded readers!

It will start on June 1  and run through August 12, 2022. To enter, read seven books from 25 categories.

What’s different?

  • I read Gone to the Woods by Gary Paulsen this spring and it is so fantastic that for the first time I’m choosing a book for us. (I’ll share more about it later.)
  • A few new categories
  • No COVID or Olympic focus this year 

What’s the same?

  • Many categories will be similar because reading is reading. But you will notice a few new gems
  • Counting a book of more than 700 pages as two books.
  • Choosing a penalty book within the first week of the challenge. A penalty book or category is one you declare to yourself I will read or be penalized. The last four summers I’ve selected a penalty book and it worked! I read books I’d been meaning to read for ages and I am all the richer for reading them. This year Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan by Edmund Morris is my penalty book. Can I tell you how many years I’ve meant to read this book?! I think the answer is 20 years. This is the summer!
  • Like previous years, if you do not read your “penalty” book, you will subtract two books from your total.

What’s in it for you?

  • All who comment between August 11-15th with the names of the books they read will be entered to win one of ten $10 Amazon gift cards.

Drumroll . . . here are the categories!

  • Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Lost Childhood by Gary Paulsen. This is a memoir told in Young Adult style. Not for young kids because parts of his childhood are shocking and heartbreaking, but the writing is so good. Keep reading when it gets hard, I don’t want to spoil it, so just keep reading!
  • A Biography or about history
  • A book you already own
  • A book you’ve been wanting to reread
  • A book a friend recommended
  • A Young Adult book (YA)
  • A book with a great cover
  • A book of poetry
  • A memoir or autobiography
  • A graphic novel
  • A book for professional development (loosely defined)
  • A book longer than 700 pages (counts as two books)
  • A book with a verb in the title
  • A play
  • A book about a country or culture you have never visited
  • A book with the number 7 in the title or subtitle (in honor of this being the 7th anniversary)
  • A book that won an award
  • A book by someone with a different view point than you recommended you read
  • A mystery
  • A classic
  • An audiobook
  • A book with an animal
  • A book less than 100 pages
  • A book you want to discuss with others
  • A book you read as a child

Download the 2022 Summer Reading Challenge

Download the Summer Reading Challenge 2022, print it off, and track your progress. But most of all, have fun and read books you might not read in other times of the year!

My penalty book is Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan by Edmund Morris

~~~

In short: Read seven books from June 1 to August 12, 2022.

Are you in? What books are you looking forward to reading during the challenge?

Happy Reading, Amy

Uncategorized

Top 14 Books of 2021

I love all of the book lists that come out at this time of year. People, we are so fortunate to be literate and to have such an abundance of wealth when it comes to books! (That truth deserves all the !!!!!) No surprise that my nonfiction list is slightly longer than my fiction list and I am all the richer for reading both nonfiction and fiction :).

Nonfiction I loved

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth —What sticks with me is role in high school of being part of a group (any group! music, sports, a club) and sticking with it for at least one year and the way it fosters grittiness that can be tapped into the rest of a person’s life.

Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep by Tish Harrison Warren — I listened to this with my ears and 2021 and plan to read it with my eyes in 2022.

Every Moment Holy, Volume 1 by Douglas Kaine McKelvey (Author), Ned Bustard (Illustrator) — I loved reading these liturgies for every day moments. This is one to pick up and read a prayer, maybe not in the moment something happens. But because you’ve marinated your soul, when a moment happens you are able to notice God in it more readily.

Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life by Nir Eyal — This was one of those “mind blown” books. Distraction is not quite what I thought it was and I have four pages of notes to prove it. Ha!

Boundaries for Your Soul: How to Turn Your Overwhelming Thoughts and Feelings into Your Greatest Allies by Alison Cook PhD and Kimberly Miller MTh LMFT — Very helpful “map” of the soul and why sometimes you might feel or act like an exile, firefighter, or manager. 

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam Grant — I took four pages of notes that start, “I need to buy a copy of this book!”

A Burning in My Bones: The Authorized Biography of Eugene H. Peterson by Winn Collier — If you like memoirs that read like novels AND you like to how others navigate being a person of faith, dedicated to ministry, and living the ups and downs of life, this book is for you.

The Preacher’s Wife: The Precarious Power of Evangelical Women Celebrities by Kate Bowler—I found this utterly fascinating. Each chapter looked at a different area: The preacher, the home maker, the talent, the counselor, and the beauty. Context baby, this book provides a-ha moments as puzzle pieces come together.

Fiction I loved

Rules of Civility: A Novel by Amor Towles — He is a master story teller and I never want the books to end!

Out of Darkness, Shining Light: A Novel by Petina Gappah – This is a well-researched story of the Africans who brought David Livingston’s body after he died out of the “heart of Africa” to the coast.

Anxious People: A Novel by Fredrik Backman — A failed bank robber bursts into an open house and takes the viewers hostage. Backman is a master at taking unlikely groups and turning them in a community.

Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger — The writing and storytelling is breath taking. This is a book you will want to own a copy!

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng — Beautifully told story of a family who didn’t communicate. As a reader, my heart ached for each character as I understood them better and wanted others in their family to know what I knew.

Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn — I first read this years ago in China (thank you Stephanie!). If you haven’t read this delightful novel, it is a “must read in 2022.” It might be a tad quirky at first, but keep going. I promise you will marvel at the word twists the author makes!

One of my goals for 2022 is to read six biographies. What reading goals do you have? What biographies would you recommend? I raise my glass, smile at you and say, “Here’s to good books for all of us in 2022.” Clink!

With love,
Amy

Uncategorized

What my book group read in 2021

Tis the time of year for book lists! I love to see what other book read and thought you might too. We met on Tuesday night and discussed December’s book and looked back over this list.

Conclusion? We did not have one dud this year! And every book other than January and April’s books were someone’s favorite. The summaries are from Amazon. Happy browsing and then reading!

January — The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits by Les Standiford

February — Before We Were Yours: A Novel by Lisa Wingate: Based on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals—in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country—Lisa Wingate’s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong.

March — Rules of Civility: A Novel by Amor Towles: On the last night of 1937, twenty-five-year-old Katey Kontent is in a second-rate Greenwich Village jazz bar when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker, happens to sit down at the neighboring table. This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel Katey on a year-long journey into the upper echelons of New York society—where she will have little to rely upon other than a bracing wit and her own brand of cool nerve.

April — Clock Dance: A novel by Anne Tyler: Willa Drake has had three opportunities to start her life over: in 1967, as a schoolgirl whose mother has suddenly disappeared; in 1977, when considering a marriage proposal; and in 1997, as a young widow trying to hold her family together. So she is surprised when in 2017 she is given one last chance to change everything, after receiving a startling phone call from a stranger. Without fully understanding why, she flies across the country to Baltimore to help a young woman she’s never met. This impulsive decision, maybe the first one she’s consciously made in her life, will lead Willa into uncharted territory—surrounded by eccentric neighbors who treat each other like family, she finds solace and fulfillment in unexpected places.

May — Washington Black by Esi Edugun: Eleven-year-old George Washington Black—or Wash—a field slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, is initially terrified when he is chosen as the manservant of his master’s brother. To his surprise, however, the eccentric Christopher Wilde turns out to be a naturalist, explorer, inventor, and abolitionist. Soon Wash is initiated into a world where a flying machine can carry a man across the sky, where even a boy born in chains may embrace a life of dignity and meaning, and where two people, separated by an impossible divide, can begin to see each other as human. 
 
But when a man is killed and a bounty is placed on Wash’s head, they must abandon everything and flee together. Over the course of their travels, what brings Wash and Christopher together will tear them apart, propelling Wash ever farther across the globe in search of his true self. Spanning the Caribbean to the frozen Far North, London to Morocco, Washington Black is a story of self-invention and betrayal, of love and redemption, and of a world destroyed and made whole again.

June — Olive, Again: A Novel by Elizabeth Strout: Prickly, wry, resistant to change yet ruthlessly honest and deeply empathetic, Olive Kitteridge is “a compelling life force” (San Francisco Chronicle). The New Yorker has said that Elizabeth Strout “animates the ordinary with an astonishing force,” and she has never done so more clearly than in these pages, where the iconic Olive struggles to understand not only herself and her own life but the lives of those around her in the town of Crosby, Maine. Whether with a teenager coming to terms with the loss of her father, a young woman about to give birth during a hilariously inopportune moment, a nurse who confesses a secret high school crush, or a lawyer who struggles with an inheritance she does not want to accept, the unforgettable Olive will continue to startle us, to move us, and to inspire us—in Strout’s words—“to bear the burden of the mystery with as much grace as we can.”

July — Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn: Ella Minnow Pea is a girl living happily on the fictional island of Nollop off the coast of South Carolina. Nollop was named after Nevin Nollop, author of the immortal phrase containing all the letters of the alphabet, “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” Now Ella finds herself acting to save her friends, family, and fellow citizens from the encroaching totalitarianism of the island’s Council, which has banned the use of certain letters of the alphabet as they fall from a memorial statue of Nevin Nollop. As the letters progressively drop from the statue they also disappear from the novel. The result is “a love letter to alphabetarians and logomaniacs everywhere”

August and our 25th Anniversary! — Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng: In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is planned—from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principle is playing by the rules. Enter Mia Warren—an enigmatic artist and single mother—who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past and a disregard for the status quo that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community.

September — A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell: In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: “She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her.” The target in their sights was Virginia Hall, a Baltimore socialite who talked her way into Special Operations Executive, the spy organization dubbed Winston Churchill’s “Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.” She became the first Allied woman deployed behind enemy lines and–despite her prosthetic leg–helped to light the flame of the French Resistance, revolutionizing secret warfare as we know it. 

October — Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng: “Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.” So begins this exquisite novel about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee, and her parents are determined that she will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue. But when Lydia’s body is found in the local lake, the delicate balancing act that has been keeping the Lee family together is destroyed, tumbling them into chaos. A profoundly moving story of family, secrets, and longing, Everything I Never Told You is both a gripping page-turner and a sensitive family portrait, uncovering the ways in which mothers and daughters, fathers and sons, and husbands and wives struggle, all their lives, to understand one another.

November — Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger: Told from Frank’s perspective forty years after that fateful summer, Ordinary Grace is a brilliantly moving account of a boy standing at the door of his young manhood, trying to understand a world that seems to be falling apart around him. It is an unforgettable novel about discovering the terrible price of wisdom and the enduring grace of God.

December — The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson — We pulled out this classic for something light to read.

Are you in a book group? What did you read?

Summer Reading Challenge

Summer Reading Challenge 2021 is Finished!

Congrats for making it to the end of the Summer Reading Challenge 2021!

As I sat down to work on the list of books I read this summer, I am so proud of us and of this challenge. Thanks to this challenge, every summer I read several books that I simply would not have read without this nudge to read more variety. I imagine it’s the same for you.

Three things to know for me this summer:

1. I read more fiction than normal. (This is a big deal for me!)

2. Thanks to the “Penalty Book” category, for the fourth summer I read a book I have been meaning to read for ages! Go penalty books!

3. Summer reading makes me happy.

So, how did The Summer Reading Challenge go for you? Remember, in The Summer Reading Challenge the goal is to read seven books between June 1 and August 13th. Comment below and you are entered for one of ten $10 Amazon gift cards. Even if you didn’t read seven books, still share what you read! This isn’t really a contest so much as a chance to share and a chance to see how many books we read collectively.

I’m going to put the categories here if you want to cut and paste them into the comments. Also feel free to just list books, whatever works for you.

In honor of the Olympics:

—A book involving the Olympics, sports, or Japan

For the Joy of Reading:

—A Biography

—A book I already own

—A book a friend recommended

—A Young Adult book (YA)

—A book with a great cover

—A book of poetry

—A memoir or autobiography

—A graphic novel

—A book for professional development (loosely defined)

—A book longer than 700 pages (counts as two books)

—A book with a verb in the title

—A play

—A book about a country or culture you have never visited

—A book about history

—A book that won an award

—A book by someone with a different view point than you

—A mystery

—A classic

—A novel 

—An audiobook

—A book with an animal

—A book less than 100 pages

—A book You want to discuss with others

—A book you read as a child

 

Amy’s books

A Biography: American Sherlock: Murder, Forensics, and the Birth of American CSI by Kate Winkler Dawson

A book I already own: Olive, Again: A Novel by Elizabeth Strout

A book a friend recommended: Ten Words to Live By by Jen Wilkin

A Young Adult book (YA): Jeanie Blair, Author Extraordinaire: A lesson in Compassion by Allie Slocum

A book with a great cover: Ella Minnow Pea: A Novel in Letters by Mark Dunn

A book of poetry: The Tale of a Niggun by Elie Wiesel

A graphic novel: Why She Wrote: A Graphic History of the Lives, Inspiration, and Influence Behind the Pens of Classic Women Writers by Lauren Burke (Author), Hannah K. Chapman  (Author), Kaley Bales  (Illustrator) (Note: Not for young children.)

A book for professional development (loosely defined): Effortless by Greg McKeown

A book with a verb in the title: Beyond Awkward Side Hugs: Living as Christian Brothers and Sisters in a Sex-Crazed World by Bronwyn Lea 

A book about a country or culture you have never visited: Out of Darkness, Shining Light: A Novel by Petina Gappah

A book about history: The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914 by David McCullough

A book that won an award: The Midnight Library: A Novel by Matt Haig

A mystery: The Beekeeper’s Apprentice: or, On the Segregation of the Queen (A Mary Russell Mystery, 1) by Laurie R. King

A novel: Little Fires Everywhere: A Novel by Celeste Ng

An audiobook: The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World by John Mark Comer

A book You want to discuss with others: Anxious People: A Novel by Fredrik Backman

Penalty Book (subtract two books if you don’t read this book): The Path Between . . . I read it! I read it! No need to subtract. Whew AND I’m glad I read it.

 

You can see I didn’t read in every category.

I come back to this not being a contest, if you read four books and that was your goal, great! I just find that I’m more likely to accomplish my goals if I tell people what they are. I would not have read as many novels, the poetry book, or the graphic novel and I’m 99% sure I would still be intending to read The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough. Thanks to you, I read all of them.

To enter, leave a comment on this post.

I can’t wait to see what you’ve been reading. I’ll pick winners on Monday so you have several days to leave a comment.

Thank you for joining in!

Amy

Summer Reading Challenge

Summer Reading Challenge 2021 is here!

Calling all readers!

It’s a day of rejoicing because the Summer Reading Challenge 2021 is here! If you can believe it, this is the sixth summer of the challenge.

If this is your first year, welcome! If you’ve been doing this challenge from the beginning, does this happen to you now? With the turning of April into May, I have begun to notice a low buzz of reading excitement. I think to myself, “It’s coming!”

Left to my own, I will read the same kind of book over and over, always meaning to get to other types of books. I will not make time to read certain kind of books because I have work, responsibilities, and intentions that, it turns out, are very weak intentions. So, thank you one and all of joining in and during this challenge we all become more well-rounded readers!

It will start on June 1  and run through August 13, 2021. To enter, read seven books from 25 categories.

What is different?

  • A few new categories
  • No COVID focus this year
  • A nod to the Olympics

What is the same?

  • Many categories will be similar because reading is reading. But you will notice a few new gems
  • Counting a book of more than 700 pages as two books.
  • Choosing a penalty book within the first week of the challenge. A penalty book or category is one you declare to yourself I will read or be penalized. The last three summers I have selected a penalty book and it worked! I read books I’d been meaning to read for ages and I am all the richer for reading them. This year The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough is my penalty book. Can I tell you how many years I’ve meant to read this book?! This is the summer!
  • Like previous years, if you do not read your “penalty” book, you will subtract two books from your total.

What’s in it for you?

  • All who comment between August 12-15th with the names of the books they read will be entered to win one of ten $10 Amazon gift cards.

Drumroll . . . here are the categories!

  • A Biography
  • A book I already own
  • A book a friend recommended
  • A Young Adult book (YA)
  • A book with a great cover
  • A book of poetry
  • A memoir or autobiography
  • A graphic novel
  • A book for professional development (loosely defined)
  • A book longer than 700 pages (counts as two books)
  • A book with a verb in the title
  • A play
  • A book about a country or culture you have never visited
  • A book about history
  • A book that won an award
  • A book by someone with a different view point than you
  • A mystery
  • A classic
  • A novel 
  • An audiobook
  • A book with an animal
  • A book less than 100 pages
  • A book You want to discuss with others
  • A book you read as a child

In honor of the Olympics and because my first “sports injury” was inspired by the Olympics:

  • A book involving the Olympics, sports, or Japan

(Pro tip: Do not do a cartwheel that starts by you standing on a piano bench and ends with you on the floor screaming in pain, and gets worse because you lie to your mom as you realize, even in the midst of severe pain, how dumb it was to seriously injured your wrist by falling more than four feet onto it with no training (or common sense!). Good news, the x-ray showed that unlike my pride, the bone was not broken!)

Download the 2021 Summer Reading Challenge

Download the Summer Reading Challenge 2021, print it off, and track your progress. But most of all, have fun and read books you might not read in other times of the year!

My penalty book is The Path Between the Seas by David McCullough.

~~~

In short: Read seven books from June 1 to August 13, 2021.

Are you in? What books are you looking forward to reading during the challenge?

Book, Books I've read (or want to read)

Top 10 Books of 2020

I love year end book lists! I love reading yours and creating mine. The processes of looking back over the books I read in a year brings back memories of where I read them, why I liked (or disliked) a book, and what stands out from the year.

Very surprising to me, four of my top ten books are fiction. People, there are so many gems out there! Summaries from Amazon.

Best Non-fiction of 2020:

1. Atomic Habits by James Clear

I have pages of notes and in January predicted this would be on of my best books of 2020. “Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits–whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.”

2. The Common Rule: Habits of Purpose for an Age of Distraction by Justin Whitmel Earley

If ever there was a book that as I read I thought, “Dang!!! This is the book I wish I had written.” This is it. So, if you jive with the way I think and approach life, consider this to be by Amy Young who is Justin Earley. Pages of notes (duh! Since it’s the book I didn’t write). “The answer to our contemporary chaos is to practice a rule of life that aligns our habits to our beliefs. The Common Rule offers four daily and four weekly habits, designed to help us create new routines and transform frazzled days into lives of love for God and neighbor. Justin Earley provides concrete, doable practices.”

3. Didn’t see it coming by Carey Nieuwhof

Anyone in ministry (or who works with people) should read this! The author, “wants to help you avoid and overcome life’s seven hardest and most crippling challenges: cynicism, compromise, disconnectedness, irrelevance, pride, burnout, and emptiness. These are challenges that few of us expect but that we all experience at some point.”

4. Talking with strangers by Malcolm Gladwell

I love Gladwell and his style of writing so much and this did not disappoint. “Something is very wrong, Gladwell argues, with the tools and strategies we use to make sense of people we don’t know. And because we don’t know how to talk to strangers, we are inviting conflict and misunderstanding in ways that have a profound effect on our lives and our world.”

5. Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen by Dan Heath

Dan and his brother Chip are two of my favorite authors and I read every thing they write. This is, hands down, the best nonfiction I read this year because of the ways it has put words to thoughts I’ve had while propelling me to apply what I read. The entire Global Trellis team is reading it and I think you should too :). “Upstream delivers practical solutions for preventing problems rather than reacting to them. How many problems in our lives and in society are we tolerating simply because we’ve forgotten that we can fix them?”

6. This too shall last: Finding grace when suffering lingers by K. J. Ramsey

In the church too often we “amplify the stories of triumph” and we need to “hear more about sustaining grace.” To say I loved a book about suffering might sound like a note sung out of tune. But that’s the point. “Our culture treats suffering like a problem to fix, a blight to hide, or the sad start of a transformation story. We silently, secretly wither under the pressure of living as though suffering is a predicament we can avoid or annihilate by having enough faith or trying harder. When your prayers for healing haven’t been answered, the fog of depression isn’t lifting, your marriage is ending in divorce, or grief won’t go away, it’s easy to feel you’ve failed God or, worse, he’s failed you. If God loves us, why does he allow us to hurt?”

Best fiction of 2020

7. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

“I’m satisfied,” I said to myself at the end. Though one of the longer books I read this year, I didn’t want it to end! When asked about the theme, Towles said, “There is no theme but beauty.” and I can testify that it is some of the most beautiful writing out there. If you have not read A Gentleman in Moscow, get it right now. Right now :)!

Here’s the description: “In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.”

8. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing: A Novel and the sequel A beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green

These were recommended by a Summer Reading Challenge participant (and this is why it’s good to talk about books in community. I never would have picked these up!). For both books, the entire first half I thought, “Why am I reading this? I don’t like it.” and then WHOOSH I was sucked in and had to find out where the plot was going and how it was going to be resolved.

Here’s why you might want to try it out (and keep reading past the halfway point!): “Compulsively entertaining and powerfully relevant, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing grapples with big themes, including how the social internet is changing fame, rhetoric, and radicalization; how our culture deals with fear and uncertainty; and how vilification and adoration spring for the same dehumanization that follows a life in the public eye. The beginning of an exciting fiction career, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing is a bold and insightful novel of now.”

9. The War That Saved My Life and The War I Finally Won by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

My sister’s friend showed up on her doorstep with these two books. “You will love them! You must read them!” If you have not heard of this Newberry Honor book, picture me showing up on your doorstep with both books in hand and thrusting them at you. They are amazing!

Here’s the descrition of the first book: “Ten-year-old Ada has never left her one-room apartment. Her mother is too humiliated by Ada’s twisted foot to let her outside. So when her little brother Jamie is shipped out of London to escape the war, Ada doesn’t waste a minute—she sneaks out to join him.
 So begins a new adventure for Ada, and for Susan Smith, the woman who is forced to take the two kids in. As Ada teaches herself to ride a pony, learns to read, and watches for German spies, she begins to trust Susan—and Susan begins to love Ada and Jamie.”

10. Harry’s Trees by Jon Cohen

In my notebook I wrote, “Harry’s Trees is beyond fantastic! It is a brilliant modern day fairy tale that has all the pieces—red coats, a wolf, magic, a young girl in the woods, and treasure—all while keeping its own story moving forward.” If you like a Gentleman in Moscow or Orleana is Totally Fine, you will love this too!

Here’s the description: “Thirty-four-year-old Harry Crane works as an analyst for the US Forest Service. When his wife dies suddenly, Harry, despairing, retreats north to lose himself in the remote woods of the Endless Mountains of Pennsylvania. But fate intervenes in the form of a fiercely determined young girl named Oriana. She and her mother, Amanda, are struggling to pick up the pieces from their own tragic loss of Oriana’s father. Discovering Harry while roaming the forest, Oriana believes that he holds the key to righting her world.

“Harry reluctantly agrees to help Oriana carry out an astonishing scheme inspired by a book given to her by the town librarian, Olive Perkins. Together, Harry and Oriana embark on a golden adventure that will fulfill Oriana’s wild dream—and ultimately open Harry’s heart to new life.”

Honorable mention: Connected by moi and Spiritual Rhythms for the Enneagram by Adele Ahlberg Calhoun, Doug Calhoun, Clare Loughrige, and Scott Loughrige My only caveat is that if you get this is a marvelous handbook, you want to get the physical copy. The digital copy, I read online, is very hard to read. “For those who have learned about the Enneagram and wonder ‘What’s next?’―this handbook is the answer.”

There you have it! My top ten books in 2020. Which have you read? What’s on your to-read in 2021?

You might also enjoy the lists from previous years:

9 Books I Loved in 2014

10 Books I Loved in 2015

My top 15 books in 2016

The 17 Best Books of 2017 

Top 10 Books of 2018

Top 10 Books of 2019

Faith

Will you hear her?

It will not surprise you to hear that I’m in a local writers group. Several months ago we had a guest presentor who talked about reimagining familiar stories. Since it’s one thing to talk about a skill and another to actually try it, he gave us homework and then came back the next month to discuss our stories.

This year I have been studying proverbs and the idea that wisdom calls out to us won’t leave me be. While I could share many verses about wisdom calling out to us, I’ll just share this one:

“Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice.” Proverbs 1:20 ESV

I can picture wisdom on the dusty streets of a crowded Jerusalem market. But I wondered what “crying aloud” and “raising her voice” look like today. My dear friends Bill and Amy Lester sent their daughter Kate to her freshman year of college this fall. What does it look like for wisdom to cry out to a college freshman? That was the question I explored in one of my rare works of fiction.

dedicated to my niece
Kate Lester 
in her freshman year of college

Will you hear her?

Lucy knew it wasn’t the best way to start her day, but that didn’t stop her for reaching for her phone even before she opened her eyes. She scrolled with one eye opened and the other refusing to greet the day. Pausing at one of her favorite foodies, Lucy “loved” the picture of a gorgeous picnic basket and the caption:

“Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.”[1]

An audible sigh escaped and she regretted staying up so late with three other freshmen from her floor. They weren’t bad kids, but if she were honest, they might fall more in the “fool” category than the “wise.” Her left eye had decided to get on board with the plan to wake up and with that, Lucy did a full body stretch and got out of bed.

Heading out for breakfast, she checked her phone and saw a text from her mom. “Morning! I hope your Spanish presentation goes well today! Remember: Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread :). You’ve ‘worked your land’ and today you will have some bread! I’m proud of you and praying for you!”[2] If anyone had been around, Lucy would have rolled her eyes at such a Mom Text, but since she was alone, she texted back “Thanks Mom” with the heart emoji.

Soon was waiting for Lucy by the elevator. It was a running joke that whoever arrived first would hold the elevator for the other one no matter how long they had to keep everyone else in the building waiting. They laughed every morning because Soon’s twenty-one-day streak of beating Lucy to the elevator was still going strong; and since Lucy was late to everything it was highly unlikely that she would ever hold their elevator hostage waiting for Soon. 

When they got to the cafeteria they both headed for the cereal bar and settled into a comfortable silence as they automatically moved towards their usual spot by the window. Before they arrived, their Resident Assistant called for them to come and join her. Why not? They shrugged at each other and vectored over to her. Allison was known for being friendly, but not normally an early riser so Lucy wondered why she was eating breakfast. “Hey ladies! Fancy meeting you at this time of the day,” Allison greeted them.

She went on to explain that she had an accounting test later in the day and was completely not ready, so she needed to cram. “I never pull all-nighters, instead, I get up early and cram, cram, cram. Sleep and coffee are my secret weapons.” 

Soon and Lucy just nodded, it was too early for any kind of clever response to coffee and cramming. Allison continued bubbling on, clearly buzzed from the caffeine, until she finished breakfast and headed off for a bit more coffee and cramming. Lucy and Soon also finished and walked back to their floor. When they stepped off the elevator Soon wished Lucy good luck on her Spanish presentation and said she’d look forward to hearing all about it at dinner. 

Lucy quickly brushed her teeth and walked across campus to her first class of the day. Thank God Spanish was first so she didn’t have to have the dreaded presentation hanging over her head for long! When the professor asked who wanted to go first, a girl Lucy didn’t know well raised her hand. The professor called on her and she stood up to go to the front of the room. The assignment had been to translate a short passage into Spanish so as Jessica walked to the front she texted a link of the original passage in English to the class. Along with others in the class Lucy opened her phone and saw:

“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good. A gentle tongue is a tree of life but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.”[3]

Though Lucy couldn’t have said where exactly in the Bible the words came from, she was 99% sure they were from the Bible. Jessica was bold when it came to her faith; so she didn’t hesitate with the presentation which included translating the passage into Spanish, saying what it meant to her, and why she had chosen it for the assignment. Seeing that Jessica lived through the presentation, Lucy volunteered to go next and was relieved her presentation was over before she knew it. 

The rest of her morning flowed without incident and Lucy found herself back in the cafeteria picking up her lunch. Since she didn’t see anyone she knew, she got a to-go box and took her lunch outside. Leaning up against a tree she pulled out her phone while she ate an apple. Lucy clicked on a video with over 17 million views and listened to “Lady Sophia” rap about how she existed before the beginning of the earth.[4] Not quite as good as Hamilton, but not bad, Lucy thought as she finished up her lunch.

Her afternoon was uneventful. Classes, homework, and a brief call with her mom. The only annoying part was that the line “I was there” from Lady Sophia was stuck in her head and it was driving her nuts! 

“When he established the heavens, I was there.” 

“Before the I can’t remember was shaped, I was there.”

“When he assigned the blah blah its limit, I was there.” 

I was there. I was there. I was there, annoying you. I was there.

Finally, it was dinner time and Lucy seriously hoped that talking with Soon would stop the madness going on in her head! Soon asked about Lucy’s Spanish presentation and Lucy said, “It wasn’t bad” and told Soon about stumbling over a line. “But other than that, I guess it was okay.” Since it was Chinese food night, each girl took a generous helping of twice-fried green beans and Kung Pao Chicken. Lucy asked Soon about her day and unlike Lucy, Soon had had a very eventful day and proceeded to fill Lucy in on every little detail. By the end of the meal, Lucy could have hugged Soon because the rap was no longer stuck on a loop in her head. As they left the cafeteria each girl grabbed a fortune cookie. 

Lucy’s fortune read, “Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.”[5] Soon’s said, “A friend is a present you give yourself.” They laughed at how their fortunes went together, just like they did. Though it had only been a few weeks since they met, they already thought of themselves as friends. And though it was a typical day, Lucy thought of herself as one of the luckiest people in the world as she headed back to her dorm room for an evening of homework.

Later, she climbed into bed earlier than she the night before. Lucy drifted off to sleep covered in her parents’ prayers that she find wisdom.[6] Wisdom smiled knowing that Lucy might not always hear her. But just as she had been doing since before the market days in Jerusalem, she, the original Lady Sophia, would continue calling out to Lucy all the days of her life.

[1]Proverbs 13:20

[2]Proverbs 28:19a

[3]Proverbs 15:1-4

[4]Proverbs 8:12-36

[5]Proverbs 19:11

[6]Proverbs 6:35

Book

Connected is here!!

You are my people and I love you! Many of you watched Looming Transitions be born and launched her into the world far beyond my wildest dreams. Since then you have cheered on each subsequent book. . . that sentence alone humbles me! “Each subsequent book” would not exist if you had not encouraged me as a writer, shared the books with people who could benefit from them, or the countless other ways you helped.

Can I tell you a secret?

I almost didn’t ask for your help with Connected: Starting Your Overseas Life Spiritually Fed because I didn’t want to become like a tedious guest or three-day-fish . . . or a too-much-Amy. But that makes this process about me, and not about what it should be about! It’s not about me or you . . . well, not much! It’s about the readers; and more than that, it’s about the right readers finding the right book at the right time.

A small army signed up to read a copy of this book before it was published. Why is this important?  So that today, the day she is officially presented to the world, people can read the reviews and get a sense if this is the right book for them. 

Publishing a book is a bit like having a baby: it’s a lot of work, the time frame it not always exact, and you want to share with everyone!!!

Today I have several posts sharing about this book, but here, in this space, picture me bursting into the waiting room—because though the process is like given birth, I’m more able to burst into rooms—waving my arms and shouting, “She’s here!” Knowing that you want to join in the fun. Hugs all around. Smiles and joy and wanting to know what you can do. 

1. Celebrate! Of course, I hope this book sells decently because I truly believe Connected will help cross-cultural workers start their time on the field connected to God.  

But if this book sells and I have no one to share it with, what have I gained? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. What is worse than watching sports by yourself and having no one to high-five? Nothing. Okay, there are worse things, but in that moment, it’s pretty low.

I’m high-fiving you! Woot, woot! If you weren’t here, there would be no book. I did it. You encouraged me. We did it. Let’s enjoy this moment.

2. May I boldly ask, buy a copy of Connected? Purchased copies through Amazon are the only way that Amazon will start to recommend Getting Started as an “also bought.”

4. Suggest or give Connected to someone you know who is in their first year. The best way a book sells is through word of mouth. If you tell them and they know you, they are much more likely to buy it. All organization should give Connected to their first year people!

5. Leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads. It does not need to be five stars (though if that’s what your heart is saying, go with your heart!). Amazon is funny, she just likes to see the amount of reviews. The more reviews (even three or four star), the more she will say, “Hey, maybe I should tell other people about this book.” The goal is 50.

6. Tell someone about Connected. You know tons of people I don’t know. You know people living in Sweden or working at this church or for that organization. You know your neighbor’s cousin who is moving to Brazil or your former coworker who recently started his life on the field. You know mission committee members and pastors and counselors.

Here are photos if you want to share on social media, a blog, or in another way.

You might be a blogger who would like to interview me or write a review of Connected (I can offer a copy as a giveaway). Who could you tell about this book?

To all who read the book and wrote reviews, thank you!!! Thank you to Stacey Covell for editing and to Vanessa Mendozzi for the cover design and formatting.

To all who will help me celebrate, thank you!

To all of you, thank you for being my online, Amy-the-person people. You are my people, and I love you!

Now, let’s pop the cork on the bubbly, the fizzy apple juice, or the diet coke. Whatever is celebratory to you and let’s party!  I raise my glass to you and say, “Thank you.” Clink! It is so good to be Connected.

Leave a comment and two of you will win a copy (if mailed in the U.S.) or on Kindle (anywhere in the world). What fruit of the Spirit are you enjoying or needing these days?

With love and gratitude,

Amy

Summer Reading Challenge

Summer Reading Challenge 2020 is Finished!

Congrats for making it to the end of the Summer Reading Challenge 2020!

I admit, I needed the challenge like never before. In the past, I have needed this challenge for the fun and joy of reading. This year? I needed it to kick my behind so that I actually read books outside of my normal categories. If you’re familiar with what I tend to read, you won’t set that much that’s different.

But without this challenge? You’d see even less that I wouldn’t normally read.

Three things to know for me this summer:

1. I have been drawn to all things “The Office” recently. The podcast The Office Ladies breakdown each episode and I love hearing the back story of an episdoe and then rewatching the episode. You’ll notice my Office obsession played out in books I read.

2. Thanks to the “Penalty Book” category, for the third summer I read a book I have been meaning to read for ages! Go penalty books!

3. Reading makes me happy, even when the world may be in melt-down mode.

So, how did The Summer Reading Challenge go for you? Remember, in The Summer Reading Challenge the goal is to read seven books between June 1 and August 18th. Comment below and you are entered for one of ten $10 Amazon gift cards. Even if you didn’t read seven books, still share what you read! This isn’t really a contest so much as a chance to share and a chance to see how many books we read collectively.

I’m going to put the categories here if you want to cut and paste them into the comments. Also feel free to just list books, whatever works for you.

Four COVID-19 Special Categories:

  • A book with either something old, something new, something borrowed, or something blue
  • A book with a nurse, doctor, or other medical personnel
  • A book with a teacher, student, or classroom
  • A book about a pandemic or outbreak

For the Joy of Reading:

  • A Biography
  • A book I already own
  • A book a friend recommended
  • A Young Adult book (YA)
  • A book with a great cover
  • A book of poetry
  • A memoir or autobiography
  • A graphic Novel
  • A book for professional development (loosely defined)
  • A book longer than 700 pages (counts as two books)
  • A book with a verb in the title
  • A play
  • A book about a country or culture you have never visited
  • A book about history
  • A book that won an award
  • A classic
  • A novel 
  • An audiobook
  • A book with an animal
  • A book less than 100 pages
  • A book You want to discuss with others
  • Penalty Book (subtract two books if you don’t read this book)

Amy’s books:

A book about a pandemic or outbreak: Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague by Geraldine Brooks and God and the Pandemic: A Christian Reflection on the Coronavirus and Its Aftermath by NT Wright

A Biography: Abigail Adams: A Life by Woody Holton (my penalty book!)

A memoir or autobiography: Educated: A Memoir by Tara Owens

A graphic Novel: Nicolas by Pascal Girard “Girard revisits the childhood death of his little brother in his most emotional and spare work.”

A book for professional development (loosely defined): The Actor’s Life: A Survival Guide by Jenna Fischer (Hello “The Office” friend!)

A book with a verb in the title: Didn’t See It Coming: Overcoming the Seven Greatest Challenges That No One Expects and Everyone Experiences by Carey Nieuwhof

A book about a country or culture you have never visited: The Breadwinner: A Graphic Novel by Deborah Ellis and illustrated by (“This beautiful graphic-novel adaptation of The Breadwinner animated film tells the story of eleven-year-old Parvana who must disguise herself as a boy to support her family during the Taliban’s rule in Afghanistan.”)

A book that won an award: Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (A Business Insider Defining Book of the Decade )

An audiobook: Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling (Another “The Office” friend. If you aren’t a “Office” fan, okay to skip.)

A book less than 100 pages: two novelas by Fredrick Backman And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer: A Novella and The Deal of a Lifetime

A book You want to discuss with others: Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell

Penalty Book (subtract two books if you don’t read this book): Abigail Adams . . . I read it! I read it! No need to subtract. Whew AND I’m glad I read it.

You can see I didn’t read in every category and I’m drawn to non-fiction more than fiction.

I come back to this not being a contest, if you read four books and that was your goal, great! I just find that I’m more likely to accomplish my goals if I tell people what they are. I would not have read the two fantastic novellas and I’m 99% sure I would still be intending to read Abigail Adams by Woody Holton. Thanks to you, I read both of them.

I can’t wait to see what you’ve been reading. I’ll pick winners on Saturday so you have time this week to leave a comment.

Thank you for joining in!

Amy

Book, Summer Reading Challenge

What is Beautiful? (and a giveaway!)

My friend Abbie has written her first children’s book: What is beautiful? She sent me an advanced copy and asked me to write a short blurb. This is what I wrote:

“Reading What is Beautiful? I had the sense that for a few minutes I was back in the Garden of Eden, in the cool of the day on a walk with God. This small book speaks volumes with lyrical prose and engaging illustrations about how we are each made in the Image of God, beloved from the beginning, and unique in our own way. Though a book for the ages, it is a must read right now.”

Obviously I loved it. You must read this book!

I also love hearing about the process for an idea to become a book and asked Abbie if she’s be up for a few questions. She graciously said yes! Yay!

Abbie, what seeds planted the idea that grew into What Is Beautiful?

Honestly one could find plethoras in the soil of my last fifteen years of writing. Both Celibate Sex (through singleness) & Stretch Marks I Wasn’t Expecting (through early marriage & motherhood) spend many’a pages unpacking God’s beauty & “what is beautiful.”

More immediately though, two years back we were hosting friends for New Year’s Eve and decided to have everyone share something “beautiful” & “brutal” from their previous twelve months. On the way to buy food that afternoon, I was sitting at a red-light thinking about the semantics of the word beautiful, when “be-you-to-the-full” felt like it dropped in my lap. That seed has been filling-out ever since.

This is your first children’s book, I imagine it’s different writing a children’s book from your other books. I’m curious how this project was similar to and different from other projects?

Different, indeed! The red-light revelation, plus seventeen lines that came to me in a few hours (versus years) was a distinctly new experience for me. Thus far, my experience of children’s writing seems night and day from grown-up people writing. Truth be told, however, the words and message of What Is Beautiful? had been growing in me for years. 

Although I chuckle and say the children’s book took me only an afternoon to write, it’s important for me to remember that God had been birthing the lines for months and years, and many carry layers of wounds and journeys and hardship (like eating disorders & shame). In other words, I don’t want to underestimate the road that led me to that red-light, prompt thought it was in the moment. 

What is it like working with an illustrator? (Ashley did an amazing job!!) Did you know her? Did the publisher introduce you? Did you finish the words first and then she did the illustrations? So many questions :)!

Oh wow, I don’t know enough about children’s realms to know if this is often the case, but I LOVED working with Ashley. She’s a 20-something bundle of joy with utmost humility and talent, which was blissful to work alongside. Frankly that “working” and friendship were developed by us though, and not necessarily a norm for author / illustrator relationships. Once Parent Cue had my words, that was really all they needed from me; from there, they did all the work of hiring and steering illustrations with Ashley. (And I’d guess stacks of children’s books will be in her future; that girl is gold.)

Any other children’s books in your future?

Haha, not that I know of. For whatever reasons, I’ve not been writing much lately. Hard to fathom any other books on my radar right now, but I’ve been known to say that before.

What is your hope and prayer for What Is Beautiful?

What a lovely question. Unlike other writing and books I’ve done, What Is Beautiful? seems to be connecting with readers who aren’t followers of Christ. It would be my highest honor as an author to hear that someone discovered more about, or maybe even for the first time, truths of God & his beauty through these pages.

Thank you Abbie for offering us a peek behind the curtain!

Abbie’s publisher is sending me a copy to share with one of you! I’ll mail it within the US, so you could get it yourself or win as a present for someone.

Leave a comment and you’ll be entered to possibly win of What is Beautiful. Comment ideas: What stood out to you in the interview? How’s the Summer Reading Challenge going (note next Tuesday the 18th is the end!) What’s a favorite children’s book?

See you next week with the Summer Reading Challenge roundup!

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