Currently reading
Housekeeping
The Wealth of Nations
Disappointment with God
When Godly People Do Ungodly Things: Finding Authentic Restoration in the Age of Seduction
Une Si Longue Lettre
Matthew for Everyone Part Two Chapters 16-28
Olive Kitteridge
Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis
What We Were Doing and Where We Were Going
Juno's Daughters: A Novel
Veiled Freedom
Best novel I've read in a long time. I really got emotionally involved with the characters.
The Tiber and the Potomac: Rome, America, and Empires of Trust
I love Madden's work and this is no exception. I learned a lot. Madden is very cautious in his predictions about the future of the American Republic, as he should be. It's impossible to make valid predictions based on a sample size of 2.
The Pioneer Woman: Black Heels to Tractor Wheels--A Love Story
A delicious happy ever after story that also happens to be true. What more could anyone wish for?
Are We Rome?: The Fall of an Empire and the Fate of America
Good book. The Tiber and the Potomac, a Modern Scholar audiobook by Thomas Madden makes similar points, and does it better.
Empire of Gold : A History of the Byzantine Empire
Really enjoyed learning about this powerful, but little known (to most Americans) empire. My preteen son enjoyed it too. Madden is a very entertaining lecturer.
Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague
I loved this book until the very end. I was familiar with the story of Eyam from reading Jill Paton Walsh's A Parcel of Patterns. It's an inspirational story of self-sacrifice and Brooks (whose other books I have adored) treats it respectfully. So the ending, where Brooks changes the whole story from one of self-sacrifice into an atheist screed was a big disappointment to me. Brooks, you can do better.
Against The Protestant Gnostics
I had to read this twice to get what Lee was saying. It's a very important book. It has opened my eyes to the Gnosticism in the Church. It's easy to see the Gnosticism in the culture--it blares at you from every billboard and Tv commercial--but we Christians are so steeped in born again theology and dispensationalist eschatology that we think its normal. It's NOT. Those ideas are historical aberrations. I wish someone would write a book like this for laymen.
Abide with Me
If you like Marilynne Robinson, you'll like Elizabeth Strout. She's a bit earthier than Robinson. This is a great book with characters I could really relate to. A truthful book. Read it!
Containment
I don't read much science fiction anymore, but this certainly rises to the level of Asimov and other golden age greats! The plot is exciting and keeps you reading page after page. The characters are likable and well developed. (At least the main characters are.) The science seems plausible. And the surprises keep coming. A really enjoyable read. One small complaint: I did find the hopping about in time somewhat confusing. Sometimes I wasn't sure if the part I was reading happened before or after the accident. But I think the author did that to preserve the big surprise for the right time, so I forgive him. Read this book. You won't regret it!
There Was a Country: A Personal History of Biafra
I was disappointed in this book. Achebe is truly a great writer and I was so looking forward to learning about the Biafran War/Nigerian Civil War. But this book is boring. It has moments of interesting storytelling, moments of stirring railing against the injustices done to the Igbos, but there's so much name dropping that it becomes a very hard and boring read for non-Nigerians, to whom most of those names are unfamiliar. So sorry Achebe didn't rise to the level of his fiction writing here.
Treachery in Bordeaux
Great wine, good friends, good food, what could be more stereotypically French? the authors have built strong characters that I loved getting to know. This book was too short! I can't wait for the next book in the series. The ending was a little to convenient, but this isn't a book you read for the mystery, it's a book you read to get to know a place and some very congenial characters.
Tale of Two Cities
This is my favorite Dickens. Most memorable line? "It is a far, far better thing I do than I have ever done. It is a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known."
The King's Swift Rider: A Novel on Robert the Bruce
Outstanding historical fiction. Thoroughly enjoyed.
The Short Reign of Pippin IV (Penguin Modern Classics)
Hilarious. Steinbeck has captured the French to a t.