Tag Archives: books

Biographies & Memoirs

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On January 19th I posted about a few selected non-fiction books I have added to my wish-list. There are too many to count and not enough time in the hours of a day that direct our attention elsewhere! A bibliophile’s struggle one might often say. This topic is an enjoyable pastime to discuss among fellow book lovers and I’m delighted to be sharing this book blog entry with you.

This past weekend I began reading Martin Luther by Eric Metaxas and I’m enjoying his telling of Luther a great deal. I wanted to read a highly regarded biography on Luther and was delighted to find a copy at Half Price Books. I was fortunate to obtain a hardback that is in excellent condition. Below you will find the description of the Luther book and a few other titles that may pique your interest.

Martin Luther: The Man Who Rediscovered God and Changed the World by Eric Metaxas

 Description

On All Hallow’s Eve in 1517, a young monk named Martin Luther posted a document he hoped would spark an academic debate, but that instead ignited a conflagration that would forever destroy the world he knew. Five hundred years after Luther’s now famous Ninety-five Theses appeared, Eric Metaxas, acclaimed biographer of the bestselling Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy and Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, paints a startling portrait of the wild figure whose adamantine faith cracked the edifice of Western Christendom and dragged medieval Europe into the future. Written in riveting prose and impeccably researched, Martin Luther tells the searing tale of a humble man who, by bringing ugly truths to the highest seats of power, caused the explosion whose sound is still ringing in our ears. Luther’s monumental faith and courage gave birth to the ideals of liberty, equality, and individualism that today lie at the heart of all modern life.

Ben & Me

In Search of a Founder’s Formula for a Long and Useful Life by Eric Weiner

Pub Date 11 Jun 2024 

Description

New York Times bestselling author Eric Weiner follows in the footsteps of Benjamin Franklin, mining his life for inspiring and practical lessons in a book that’s part biography, part travelogue, part personal prescription.

Ben Franklin lingers in our lives and in our imaginations. One of only two non-presidents to appear on US currency, Franklin was a founder, statesman, scientist, inventor, diplomat, publisher, humorist, and philosopher. He believed in the American experiment, but Ben Franklin’s greatest experiment was…Ben Franklin. In that spirit of betterment, Eric Weiner embarks on an ambitious quest to live the way Ben lived.

Not a conventional biography, Ben & Me is a guide to living and thinking well, as Ben Franklin did. It is also about curiosity, diligence, and, most of all, the elusive goal of self-improvement. As Weiner follows Franklin from Philadelphia to Paris, Boston to London, he attempts to uncover Ben’s life lessons, large and small. We learn how to improve a relationship with someone by inducing them to do a favor for you—a psychological phenomenon now known as The Ben Franklin Effect. We learn about the printing press (the Internet of its day), early medicine, diplomatic intrigue and, of course, electricity. And we learn about ethics, persuasion, humor, regret, appetite, and so much more.

At a time when history is either neglected or contested, Weiner argues we have much to learn from the past and that we’d all be better off if we acted and thought a bit more like Ben did, even if he didn’t always live up to his own high ideals. Engaging, smart, moving, quirky, Ben & Me distills the essence of Franklin’s ideas into grounded, practical wisdom for all of us.

Drawn Testimony

My Four Decades as a Courtroom Sketch Artist

by Jane Rosenberg

Pub Date 13 Aug 2024

Description

A penetrating, compulsively readable memoir about the four-decade career of America’s top courtroom sketch artist, for fans of Lab Girl and Working Stiff

Jane Rosenberg is America’s pre-eminent courtroom sketch artist. For over forty years, she’s been at the heart of the story, covering almost every major trial that has passed through the New York justice system. From mob bosses to fallen titans of finance, terrorists and sex abusers, corrupt cops and warring entertainment icons, she has drawn them all.

In Drawn Testimony, Rosenberg brings us into the high-stakes, dramatic world of her craft, where art, psychology and courtroom drama collide. Over the course of her legendary career, Jane has had a front row seat to some of the most iconic and notorious moments in our nation’s recent history, sketching everything from Tom Brady’s deflate-gate case, to John Lennon’s murder trial to cases against Ghislaine Maxwell, John Gotti, Harvey Weinstein and most recently, the indictment against former President Donald Trump. Readers will learn how she has honed her unique powers of perception, but also what her portraits reveal, not only about her subjects, but about the human condition in general.

Fearless, fascinating and gorgeously written, Drawn Testimony captures the unique career of an artist whose body of work depicts history as it’s happening.

My Roman History

A Memoir

by Alizah Holstein

Pub Date 25 Jun 2024 

Description

In this exquisite and profound memoir, a medieval historian traces her lifelong obsession with Rome and the encounters with the city’s past and present that became fulcrum points in her life

From the time she first felt called to its gates as a high school student fascinated by Dante and Italian thanks to a life-changing teacher, Rome has been a fixed star around which Alizah Holstein’s life has rotated—despite the fact that she bears no Italian heritage, and has never lived there long enough to call it home. 

In this kaleidoscopic yet intimate memoir, her shifting relationship to a vibrant city layered with human history becomes a lens on why we look to the past, on the mysteries of affinity and desire, and on what it means to grow up. Holstein weaves the stories of Romans past and present, and encounters with the city of historical figures from Petrarch to Freud, into the narrative of her evolution from a curious student abuzz with the thrill of discovery, to a lonely researcher in a city to which she feels she belongs despite knowing no one, to an ambitious young historian struggling to find her place in the halls of academia. Following a trail of memories—that first taste of a tartufo cioccolato in Piazza Navona, the ancient walls of the Via Appia blurring from the back of a motorcycle, the smudge of ink on a manuscript left by a scribe’s hand over seven hundred years before—she explores what it means to be romana, Roman—and to find solace and self-knowledge in the presence of the past.

An enveloping, original, and deeply resonant account, set against one of the world’s most beguiling cities, of the unexpected things that give our lives meaning, My Roman History is a profound depiction of the winding path to self-realization, which—much like history itself—is mysterious, captivating, and ever-unfolding.

Wish-List: Books on the Christian Faith

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I’ve been on the search for books on Systematic Theology, further Biblical teachings of Christ’s ministry and Christian application with a non-Calvinistic view point and came across Norman L. Geisler. I found information saying he is considered “moderate Calvinist,” and that he is not a “Five Point Calvinist.” I find that to be somewhat reassuring in my search for the reading material I’m looking for. I am definitely willing to give his books a read. You see, I’m not a Calvinist nor am I a protestant. That said, I am not closed minded from reading different viewpoints; I’m just looking for particular studies for the moment. Mater of fact, I respect and listen to a lot of what protestants have to say.

Also, I’m planning on reading the books in my father’s library on Systematic Theology as well as adding to my own library.

First, what is Systematic Theology according to Oxford Languages? The theology is “a form of theology in which the aim is to arrange religious truths in a self-consistent whole.” In a nutshell, the systematic view is to give an orderly format of the doctrines of Christian faith. And let me tell you, I have seen and heard many different viewpoints. Below are a few books by Geisler that I’m interested in reading.

The Big Book of Christian Apologetics: An A to Z Guide (A to Z Guides) 

The Big Book of Christian Apologetics is a comprehensive resource designed to equip motivated believers with information to help defend and explain their faith. Examining nearly every key issue, person, and concept related to Christian apologetics, this book clarifies difficult biblical passages, clearly explains various philosophical systems and concepts, examines contemporary issues and challenges, and offers classic apologetic arguments, all with the aim of giving readers the background to intelligently and persuasively talk about their Christian faith with skeptics. An expertly abridged version of the Baker Encyclopedia on Christian Apologetics, this resource brings leading apologist Norman L. Geisler’s seminal work to the masses.

A Popular Survey of the New Testament 

Understanding the New Testament is a daunting but exciting task. Our world is so different from that of the first century. Yet it is important to understand the context and content of the New Testament if we are to be faithful followers. Now in paper, this survey addresses the who, what, where, when, why, and how questions that readers of the Bible may have, such as: How can we tell if what is written in the New Testament is true history or just mythology? When were these books written and why? and What can today’s believers get out of letters addressed to people who lived two millennia ago? Written in an easy, informal style, this survey is accessible and enjoyable to anyone who wants to better understand the New Testament.

Defending Inerrancy: Affirming the Accuracy of Scripture for a New Generation

According to the authors, the doctrine of inerrancy has been standard, accepted teaching for more than 1,000 years. In 1978, the famous “Chicago Statement” on inerrancy was adopted by the Evangelical Theological Society, and for decades it has been the accepted conservative evangelical doctrine of the Scriptures. However, in recent years, some prominent evangelical authors have challenged this statement in their writings.

Now eminent apologist and bestselling author Norman L. Geisler, who was one of the original drafters of the “Chicago Statement,” and his coauthor, William C. Roach, present a defense of the traditional understanding of inerrancy for a new generation of Christians who are being assaulted with challenges to the nature of God, truth, and language. Pastors, students, and armchair theologians will appreciate this clear, reasoned response to the current crisis.

Note: Also, I would like to mention a book of his I’ve had on my wish-list and at first, the author’s name escaped my memory. I’m delighted to know he has written the book along with Frank Turek of whom I know his work.

I Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist (Foreword by David Limbaugh) 

Geisler and Turek argue that Christianity requires the least faith of all worldviews because it is the most reasonable. A valuable aid to those interested in examining the reasonableness of the Christian faith.

The Way of the Hermit

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(My Incredible 40 Years Living in the Wilderness)

by Ken Smith

Pub Date 28 May 2024

Description

Subconsciously, I pressed myself into the loch’s banks as that summer inched forward. We’d got off to a rocky beginning, but I started to see Treig in a different way. There was something about this land that told me just to hold on a while longer. It might’ve been just a whisper at the time, but I knew it was definitely worth heeding. I just knew that was it. This was the place.

Seventy-four-year-old Ken Smith has spent the past four decades in the Scottish Highlands. His home is a log cabin nestled near Loch Treig, known as “the lonely loch,” where he lives off the land. He fishes for his supper, chops his own wood and even brews his own tipple. He is, in the truest sense of the word, a hermit.

From his working-class origins in Derbyshire, Ken always sensed that there was more ot life than an empty nine to five. Then one day in 1974, an attack from a group of drunken men left him for dead. Determined to change his prospects, Ken quit his job and spent his formative years traveling in the Yukon. It was here, in the vast wilderness of northwestern Canada, that he honed his survival skills and grew closer to nature. Returning to Britain, he continued his nomadic lifestyle, wandering north and living in huts until he finally reached Loch Treig. Ken decided to lay his roots amongst the dense woodland and Highland air, and has lived there ever since.

In The Way of the Hermit, Ken shares the remarkable story of his life for the very first time. Told with humor and compassion, his unique insights allow us to glimpse the awe and wonder of a life lived in nature and offer wisdom on how each of us can escape the pressures and stresses of modern life.

My thoughts:

I came across The Way of the Hermit as I started my search for books that will be published this year.I find the premise to be intriguing. Adding this title to my ever growing wish-list! Do you collect titles? Even knowing you may never get a chance to read them all? There is something unique and delightful in the search and discovery. I do hope I get the chance to read this story. Maybe one day. Sometimes those opportunities show up when least expected. Like last October when I went to a library sale with my mother and found books I hadn’t read but I knew of them or had previously added them to my wish-list. Funny thing is, they were not on the list of titles I brought with me to the sale. What a lovely thought to know they were edged in my memory.

Stephanie Hopkins

Stories of World War II

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A few years ago now, Atria Books sent me an ARC of The Princess Spy by Larry Loftis to review and I immensely enjoyed the story. Since then I haven’t had a chance to look at Loftis other works and I’ve recently discovered another book by him I would like to read and have added it to my reading wish-list plus, The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom. I can’t wait to read them! They look so good. I have a feeling I will be shedding quite a few tears reading them. World War II stories do that to me. Let me know in the comment area if you’ve read these stories!

Stephanie Hopkins

The Watchmaker’s Daughter: The True Story of World War II Heroine Corrie ten Boom by Larry Loftis

About the book:

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

New York Times bestselling author and master of nonfiction spy thrillers Larry Loftis writes the first major biography of Corrie ten Boom, a Dutch watchmaker who saved the lives of hundreds of Jews during WWII—at the cost of losing her family and being sent to a concentration camp, only to survive, forgive her captors, and live the rest of her life as a Christian missionary.

The Watchmaker’s Daughter is one of the greatest stories of World War II that readers haven’t heard: the remarkable and inspiring life story of Corrie ten Boom—a groundbreaking, female Dutch watchmaker, whose family unselfishly transformed their house into a hiding place straight out of a spy novel to shelter Jews and refugees from the Nazis during Gestapo raids. Even though the Nazis knew what the ten Booms were up to, they were never able to find those sheltered within the house when they raided it.

Corrie stopped at nothing to face down the evils of her time and overcame unbelievable obstacles and odds. She persevered despite the loss of most of her family and relied on her faith to survive the horrors of a notorious concentration camp. But even more remarkable than her heroism and survival was Corrie’s attitude when she was released. Miraculously, she was able to eschew bitterness and embrace forgiveness as she ministered to people in need around the globe. Corrie’s ability to forgive is just one of the myriad lessons that her life story holds for readers today.

Reminiscent of Schindler’s List and featuring a journey of faith and forgiveness not unlike Unbroken, The Watchmaker’s Daughter is destined to become a classic work of World War II nonfiction.

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom, Elizabeth Sherrill, and John Sherrill

“Every experience God gives us . . . is the perfect preparation for the future only He can see.”–Corrie ten Boom

About the book:

Corrie ten Boom was a Dutch watchmaker who became a heroine of the Resistance, a survivor of Hitler’s concentration camps, and one of the most remarkable evangelists of the twentieth century. In World War II she and her family risked their lives to help Jews and underground workers escape from the Nazis, and for their work they were tested in the infamous Nazi death camps. Only Corrie among her family survived to tell the story of how faith ultimately triumphs over evil.

Here is the riveting account of how Corrie and her family were able to save many of God’s chosen people. For 35 years millions have seen that there is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still. Now The Hiding Place, repackaged for a new generation of readers, continues to declare that God’s love will overcome, heal, and restore.


Biographies & Memoirs

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This past Sunday, I met a dear friend at a local coffee shop and what a treat it was! We talked about many topics and our mutual love for nonfiction. My friend is currently listening to Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer and she highly recommend it to me. Later on, when I got home, I sent her a picture of the nonfiction book I’m reading. The title is, The Neighborhood Project by David Sloan Wilson. I received the book as an ARC many years ago.  

This led me to further explore more nonfiction books to add to my to-read wish-list. Below are five new titles I have added. My wish is for you to be encouraged and inspired to read more and to explore nonfiction in a broader sense-if you haven’t already.

Stephanie Hopkins

The Book-Makers

A History of the Book in Eighteen Lives

by Adam Smyth

Description

The five-hundred-year history of printed books, told through the people who created them

Books tell all kinds of stories—romances, tragedies, comedies—but if we learn to read the signs correctly, they can tell us the story of their own making too. The Book-Makers offers a new way into the story of Western culture’s most important object, the book, through dynamic portraits of eighteen individuals who helped to define it.  
 
Books have transformed humankind by enabling authors to create, document, and entertain. Yet we know little about the individuals who brought these fascinating objects into existence and of those who first experimented in the art of printing, design, and binding. Who were the renegade book-makers who changed the course of history?  
 
From Wynkyn de Worde’s printing of fifteenth-century bestsellers to Nancy Cunard’s avant-garde pamphlets produced on her small press in Normandy, this is a celebration of the book with the people put back in. 

Twenty Years

Hope, War, and the Betrayal of an Afghan Generation

by Sune Engel Rasmussen

Description

An intimate history of the Afghan war—and the young Afghans whose dreams it enabled and dashed.

No country was more deeply affected by 9/11 than Afghanistan: an entire generation grew up amid the upheaval that began that day. Young Afghans knew the promise of freedom, democracy, and safety, fought with each other over its meaning—and then witnessed its collapse. In Twenty Years, the Wall Street Journal correspondent Sune Engel Rasmussen draws on more than a decade of reporting from the country to tell Afghanistan’s story from a new angle. Through the eyes of newly empowered women, skilled entrepreneurs, driven insurgents, and abandoned Western allies, we see the United States and its partners bring new freedoms and wealth, only to preside over the corruption, war-lordism, and social division that led to the Taliban’s return to power.

Rasmussen relates this history via two main characters: Zahra, who returns from abroad with high hopes for her liberated county, where she must fight to escape a brutal marriage and rebuild her life; and Omari, who joins the Taliban to protect the honor of his village and country and winds up wrestling with doubt and the trauma of war after achieving victory. We also meet Parasto, who risks her life running clandestine girls’ schools under the new Taliban regime, and Fahim, a rags-to-riches tycoon who is forced to flee. With intimate access to these and other characters, Rasmussen offers deep insight into a country betrayed by the West and Taliban alike.

Warsaw Testament

by Rokhl Auerbach, Translated by Samuel Kassow

Description

Born in Lanowitz, a small village in rural Podolia, Rokhl Auerbach was a journalist, literary critic, memoirist, and a member of the Warsaw Yiddish literary community before the Holocaust. Upon the German invasion and occupation of Poland in 1939, she was tasked by historian and social activist Emanuel Ringelblum to run a soup kitchen for the starving inhabitants of the Warsaw Ghetto and later to join his top-secret ghetto archive, the Oyneg Shabes. One of only three surviving members of the archive project, Auerbach’s wartime and postwar writings became a crucial source of information for historians of both prewar Jewish Warsaw and the Warsaw Ghetto. After immigrating to Israel in 1950, she founded the witness testimony division at Yad Vashem and played a key role in the development of Holocaust remembrance. Her memoir Warsaw Testament, based on her wartime writings, paints a vivid portrait of the city’s prewar Yiddish literary and artistic community and of its destruction at the hands of the Nazis.

The Great Mosquito Hunt and Other Adventures

by Elizabeth Manson-Bahr

Description

This book is the author’s answer to the question Who do you think you are? set in China, Russia, Egypt, Kenya, Fiji and the US during the 18th to 20th centuries. It describes the battle to discover the causes of malaria. Sir Patrick Manson, the author’s great-grandfather, known as Mosquito Manson, was the first scientist to prove that insects were vectors of disease, a discovery which led to the detection of the malarial parasite. He founded the Chinese Medical School in Hong Kong and the London School of Tropical Medicine. Among his pupils was Sun Yat-sen, the first President of modern China.

It is the story too of plagues and pandemics, of Scottish and German merchants who made their fortunes in 19th century Egypt and 18th century Russia. The author’s mother, orphaned by the Spanish flu, made her way to Africa where she served as a FANY in 1942, marrying Clinton, the third in the family line of tropical medical specialists. The chapters are interspersed with the author’s own childhood memories growing up in Fiji and Kenya.

The Demon of Unrest

A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War

by Erik Larson

Description

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Splendid and the Vile brings to life the pivotal five months between the election of Abraham Lincoln and the start of the Civil War—a simmering crisis that finally tore a deeply divided nation in two.

One of Time’s Most Anticipated Books of the Year

On November 6, 1860, Abraham Lincoln became the fluky victor in a tight race for president. The country was bitterly at odds; Southern extremists were moving ever closer to destroying the Union, with one state after another seceding and Lincoln powerless to stop them. Slavery fueled the conflict, but somehow the passions of North and South came to focus on a lonely federal fortress in Charleston Harbor: Fort Sumter.

Master storyteller Erik Larson offers a gripping account of the chaotic months between Lincoln’s election and the Confederacy’s shelling of Sumter—a period marked by tragic errors and miscommunications, enflamed egos and craven ambitions, personal tragedies and betrayals. Lincoln himself wrote that the trials of these five months were “so great that, could I have anticipated them, I would not have believed it possible to survive them.”

At the heart of this suspense-filled narrative are Major Robert Anderson, Sumter’s commander and a former slave owner sympathetic to the South but loyal to the Union; Edmund Ruffin, a vain and bloodthirsty radical who stirs secessionist ardor at every opportunity; and Mary Boykin Chesnut, wife of a prominent planter, conflicted over both marriage and slavery and seeing parallels between them. In the middle of it all is the overwhelmed Lincoln, battling with his duplicitous secretary of state, William Seward, as he tries desperately to avert a war that he fears is inevitable—one that will eventually kill 750,000 Americans.

Drawing on diaries, secret communiques, slave ledgers, and plantation records, Larson gives us a political horror story that captures the forces that led America to the brink—a dark reminder that we often don’t see a cataclysm coming until it’s too late.

2023 Fiction Reads

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As I wrote this post, I reflected on how fast last year flew by and how 2023 was the year that I completely got over my fiction reading burn out. I contribute that to several factors but most of all to not setting any particular number of books to read. Instead, by being more intentional about absorbing what I’m reading at a slower pace. I wasn’t boggled down by pressures to gain any number of books read by the end of the year. I learned so much about myself and what drove me to burn out in the first place. That subject may come as a blog post at a later date.

There are a few books on my bookshelf that I visited again and new ones that were recommended to me and that were on my wish-list. I was quite surprise by how different my experience was by re-reading stories this time around. A few were favorable and others not so much. Jane Eyre of course is always like visiting an old friend and the visit brought me closer to the story than it has in quite a while. I credit that to absorbing Jane’s story at a slower pace. Her life’s journey is among my favorites since my first time meeting her in the early 1990’s. Not only that but of the spiritual lessons through its pages.

I didn’t read as many fictional books as I have in the past because I am deeply involved in Bible studies-such as theology and the early Christian church history and other history research.

I look forward to sharing more about my nonfiction reads and posting about my reading 2024 reading adventures this year soon.

Stephanie Hopkins

Current Read: The Twentieth Wife by Indu Sundaresan

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About the Book:

An enchanting historical epic of grand passion and adventure, this debut novel tells the captivating story of one of India’s most controversial empresses — a woman whose brilliance and determination trumped myriad obstacles, and whose love shaped the course of the Mughal Empire. Skillfully blending the textures of historical reality with the rich and sensual imaginings of a timeless fairy tale, The Twentieth Wife sweeps readers up in Mehrunnisa’s embattled love with Prince Salim, and in the bedazzling destiny of a woman — a legend in her own time — who was all but lost to history until now.

My thoughts:

I picked up this novel a few days ago and at first, I was completely immersed in Sundaresan’s world of India and the Mughal Empire. I didn’t want to pull away from the pages and as I became acquitted with the characters lives, I began to feel their inner struggles were not quite fleshed out to reflect their actions. I’m not entirely sure it’s because of culture standards or if it’s a flaw in the writing. That said, it is often that our inner feelings don’t meet the decisions we make in life. As you can see, I’m torn with these emotions about the characters. Maybe it is because I haven’t quite put my figure on it yet despite knowing something is missing.

Despite my misgivings about the characters, I quite like the story thus far, and I’m fully invested in the final outcome. I’m delighted to have chosen to read, The Twentieth Wife. What are you currently reading? Do share!

Stephanie Hopkins

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Wish-List 5: Recommended Reading

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In the last few years, I’ve been going through cycles of reading slumps-for various reasons- or just wanting to listen to stories rather than reading a physical copy. That said, despite by fiction genre reading slump, I’ve stayed the course with my non-fiction reading.

In the last few weeks, I’ve gotten back to reading more fiction regularly and selecting paperbacks and hardbacks from my personal library. Turning back and reading fiction I’ve already read helped me get my groove back. What a wonderful feeling of rediscovering your passion for stories all over again.

Four out of five of these books listed were recommend to me by a friend who is a fellow book blogger. She had texted me pictures of her latest book piles and I was so intrigued by the titles; I quickly did a search on the descriptions on a few of them and knew they are what I would intent on reading.

Which one stands out to you? Have you read any of these titles yet? I can’t wait to get acquire these books!

Disclaimer: I do not support, control or endorse the adds that are showing on my blog.

Stephanie Hopkins  

The Immortals of Tehran by Ali Araghi

A sweeping, multigenerational epic, this stunning debut heralds the arrival of a unique new literary voice.

As a child living in his family’s apple orchard, Ahmad Torkash-Vand treasures his great-great-great-great grandfather’s every mesmerizing word. On the day of his father’s death, Ahmad listens closely as the seemingly immortal elder tells him the tale of a centuries-old family curse . . . and the boy’s own fated role in the story.

Ahmad grows up to suspect that something must be interfering with his family, as he struggles to hold them together through decades of famine, loss, and political turmoil in Iran. As the world transforms around him, each turn of Ahmad’s life is a surprise: from street brawler, to father of two unusually gifted daughters; from radical poet, to politician with a target on his back. These lives, and the many unforgettable stories alongside his, converge and catch fire at the center of the Revolution.

Exploring the brutality of history while conjuring the astonishment of magical realism, The Immortals of Tehran is a novel about the incantatory power of words and the revolutionary sparks of love, family, and poetry–set against the indifferent, relentless march of time.

The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson 

A woman inherits a beloved bookstore and sets forth on a journey of self-discovery in this poignant debut about family, forgiveness and a love of reading.

Miranda Brooks grew up in the stacks of her eccentric Uncle Billy’s bookstore, solving the inventive scavenger hunts he created just for her. But on Miranda’s twelfth birthday, Billy has a mysterious falling-out with her mother and suddenly disappears from Miranda’s life. She doesn’t hear from him again until sixteen years later when she receives unexpected news: Billy has died and left her Prospero Books, which is teetering on bankruptcy—and one final scavenger hunt.

When Miranda returns home to Los Angeles and to Prospero Books—now as its owner—she finds clues that Billy has hidden for her inside novels on the store’s shelves, in locked drawers of his apartment upstairs, in the name of the store itself. Miranda becomes determined to save Prospero Books and to solve Billy’s last scavenger hunt. She soon finds herself drawn into a journey where she meets people from Billy’s past, people whose stories reveal a history that Miranda’s mother has kept hidden—and the terrible secret that tore her family apart.

Bighearted and trenchantly observant, The Bookshop of Yesterdays is a lyrical story of family, love and the healing power of community. It’s a love letter to reading and bookstores, and a testament to how our histories shape who we become.

The Good Wife of Bath by Karen Brooks

In the middle ages, a famous poet told a story that mocked a strong woman. It became a literary classic. But what if the woman in question had a chance to tell her own version?

England, 1364: When married off at aged twelve to an elderly farmer, brazen redheaded Eleanor quickly realizes it won’t matter what she says or does, God is not on her side—or any poor women for that matter. But then again, Eleanor was born under the joint signs of Venus and Mars, making her both a lover and a fighter.

Aided by a head for business (and a surprisingly kind husband), Eleanor manages to turn her first marriage into success, and she rises through society from a cast-off farm girl to a woman of fortune who becomes a trusted friend of the social-climbing poet Geoffrey Chaucer. But more marriages follow—some happy, some not—several pilgrimages, many lovers, murder, mayhem, and many turns of fortune’s wheel as Eleanor pursues the one thing that all women want: control of their own lives.

The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

Widower Mukesh lives a quiet life in Wembley, in West London after losing his beloved wife. He shops every Wednesday, goes to Temple, and worries about his granddaughter, Priya, who hides in her room reading while he spends his evenings watching nature documentaries.

Aleisha is a bright but anxious teenager working at the local library for the summer when she discovers a crumpled-up piece of paper in the back of To Kill a Mockingbird. It’s a list of novels that she’s never heard of before. Intrigued, and a little bored with her slow job at the checkout desk, she impulsively decides to read every book on the list, one after the other. As each story gives up its magic, the books transport Aleisha from the painful realities she’s facing at home.

When Mukesh arrives at the library, desperate to forge a connection with his bookworm granddaughter, Aleisha passes along the reading list…hoping that it will be a lifeline for him too. Slowly, the shared books create a connection between two lonely souls, as fiction helps them escape their grief and everyday troubles and find joy again. 

Her Lost Words by Stephanie Marie Thornton

From A Vindication of the Rights of Woman to Frankenstein, a tale of two literary legends–a mother and daughter–discovering each other and finding themselves along the way, from USA Today bestselling author Stephanie Marie Thornton.

1792. As a child, Mary Wollstonecraft longed to disappear during her father’s violent rages. Instead, she transforms herself into the radical author of the landmark volume A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, in which she dares to propose that women are equal to men. From conservative England to the blood-drenched streets of revolutionary France, Mary refuses to bow to society’s conventions and instead supports herself with her pen until an illicit love affair challenges her every belief about romance and marriage. When she gives birth to a daughter and is stricken with childbed fever, Mary fears it will be her many critics who recount her life’s extraordinary odyssey…

1815. The daughter of infamous political philosopher Mary Wollstonecraft, passionate Mary Shelley learned to read by tracing the letters of her mother’s tombstone. As a young woman, she desperately misses her mother’s guidance, especially following her scandalous elopement with dashing poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Mary struggles to balance an ever-complicated marriage with motherhood while nursing twin hopes that she might write something of her own one day and also discover the truth of her mother’s unconventional life. Mary’s journey will unlock her mother’s secrets, all while leading to her own destiny as the groundbreaking author of Frankenstein.

Christian Theology

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It has been quite a while since I’ve last read books on Christian Theology and I feel even more compelled today to come back to this genre.

I’m curious about the books I have listed below and will be reading them at some point in time. Have you heard of these books? Have you read any of them?

The Mission of God’s People: A Biblical Theology of the Church’s Mission (Biblical Theology for Life) by Christopher J. H. Wright

In, The Mission of God’s People, Wright shows how God’s big-picture plan directs the purpose of God’s people, the church. Wright emphasizes what the Old Testament teaches Christians about being the people of God. He addresses questions of both ecclesiology and missiology with topics like “called to care for creation,” “called to bless the nations,” “sending and being sent,” and “rejecting false gods.” As part of the Biblical Theology for Life Series, this book provides pastors, teachers, and lay learners with first-rate biblical study while at the same time addressing the practical concerns of contemporary ministry. The Mission of God’s People promises to enliven and refocus the study, teaching, and ministry of those truly committed to joining God’s work in the world.

Far as the Curse Is Found: The Covenant Story of Redemption by Michael D. Williams

God’s covenant with his people is an unfolding historical drama with personal and earthly dimensions that are often overlooked. In this study of the meaning and scope of the covenant, Michael D. Williams highlights the goodness of the physical realm and God’s redemptive intentions for his creation.

The Attributes of God by A.W. Pink

This classic work of Arthur W. Pink invites readers to discover the truth about seventeen attributes of God, including his sovereignty, immutability, patience, love, faithfulness, and much more.

More about The Attributes of God:

Bible scholar Arthur W. Pink became a prolific and highly influential evangelical author over the course of the twentieth century, beginning with his monthly magazine Studies in Scriptures. Many of his books began as articles in this small publication, including The Attributes of God. In this work, Pink sets out to reveal the true character of God. He believes that in order to truly know God, we must first submit to God and follow in his footsteps. The people that do know their God shall be strong (Dan. 11:32).

It is the author’s hope that those who listen to these words shall be blessed and see their lives transformed by the power of God.

Writing Exercise

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 “Journal writing, when it becomes a ritual for transformation, is not only life-changing but life-expanding.”
– Jen Williamson.

A little writing warm-up is just the ticket to get you started. When you open your journal or notebook to a blank page, oftentimes you feel as if that blank page is like not knowing a destination to choose. Quite frankly, writing takes you on unexpected destinations. One of the best ways to get started -there are many- is by practicing with questions.

Grab your paper/notebook and preferred writing tool and let’s get started. First, begin writing the words below. Be sure to allow enough space to write your sentences.

Book

City

Mountain

Restaurant

Person

Movie

Start with the first word in the column, which is book. Write the title of the book you last read and your general thoughts on the story or the information you read. Then move on to, city. What was the last city you visited other than the one you live in? What did you do? Below is the selection of questions to answer for each word in the column.

Mountain: What is the name of a mountain you visited and explored? Write your experience.

Restaurant: What is the name of the last restaurant you ate at and were you with anyone? Write about that and what you ate. Was the restaurant busy? Describe the atmosphere.

Person: Who was the person you last talked to and what was the conversation about and feeling?

Movie: What was the title of the last movie you saw? Who were the actors who starred in the show? What was the movie about? Did you like it?

You can have a lot of fun with this writing exercise and there are endless basic topics like these to get you started. Whether you are a beginner writer or a seasoned one, this exercise is great for any level of writing. Who knows, you might find a story idea for a book inspired by the warm-up.

My wish is for you to be encouraged and inspired!

Stephanie