Read any good books lately?
Summer is still with us for a month or so. The water has warmed up, the grass is green and the fervor of spring and big holiday gatherings has passed. Now is the time to settle into the lazy, hazy days of summer and enjoy a good book or three! Here’s a short list to start you off:
Anne Lamott: (especially) Traveling Mercies, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith, Small Victories and her latest book, Hallelujah Anyway
Lamott has described why she writes:
“I try to write the books I would love to come upon, that are honest, concerned with real lives, human hearts, spiritual transformation, families, secrets, wonder, craziness—and that can make me laugh. When I am reading a book like this, I feel rich and profoundly relieved to be in the presence of someone who will share the truth with me, and throw the lights on a little, and I try to write these kinds of books. Books, for me, are medicine.”
Lamott is cited as a writer who captures well the style of narrative nonfiction called particularism, coined by Howard Freeman.
The Liturgical Mysteries Series by Mark Schweizer
The Liturgical Mysteries series is a series of cozy mystery novels by American novelist Mark Schweizer. The protagonist is Hayden Konig, a small-town police chief in St. Germaine, North Carolina. On the side, he is also the choir director and organist at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church, and looking to write the next great hard-boiled mystery novel.
Mark Schweizer began his Liturgical Mysteries series in 2002 with his debut novel The Alto Wore Tweed. The series is currently ongoing.
‘Fierce: Women of the Bible and Their Stories of Violence, Mercy, Bravery, Wisdom, Sex, and Salvation,’ by Alice Connor (February 2017)
A perfect book for groups and individuals exploring women of the Bible!
Women in the Bible aren’t shy or retiring; they’re fierce and funny and demanding and relevant to 21st-century people. Wo m e n in the Bible—some of their names we know, others we’ve only heard and others are tragically unnamed or forgotten.
In “Fierce,” pastor and provocateur Alice Connor introduces these women and invites us to see them not as players in a man’s story—as victims or tempters—nor as morality archetypes, teaching us to be better wives and mothers, but as fierce foremothers of the faith. These women’s stories are messy, challenging and beautiful. When we read their stories, we can see not only their particular, fearsome lives but also our own.
“Hip, funny, and substantive, “Fierce” demands that we take a second—and a third and a fourth—look at some of the Bible’s strongest women. I loved this book.”— Jana Riess, author of “Flunking Sainthood” and “The Twible”
Christian-themed historical romance novels by author Julie Klassen
Julie Klassen is an American author of Christian-themed historical romance novels. Julie loves all things Jane – Jane Eyre and Jane Austen. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois and worked in publishing for sixteen years before becoming a published author. Three of her novels – The Silent Governess, The Girl in the Gatehouse, and The Maid of Fairbourne Hall – have won the Christy Award for Historical Romance. She has also won the Midwest Book Award and Christian Retailing’s BEST Award. Julie and her husband have two sons and live in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota.
Julie Klassen made her debut as a novelist in 2008 with Lady of Milkweed Manor.