Tag Archives: #GreatDepression

Reader’s Log 058: Current Reads

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Nonfiction and Historical Fiction

I’ve recently started reading the three books below-one of them is historical fiction and the other nonfiction. I am finding them to be enjoyable and reads thus far. The Lost World of the Prophets and Finding Phoebe are books written by Biblical Scholars. They are informative and I’m truly gaining so much knowledge and insight from them so far and I would highly recommend them.

A few times I’ve posted about my deep dive into cultural and Biblical background studies and it has really opened up a whole new world for me about understanding and examining ancient cultures. By doing so you first must take off your western lenses. We westerners tend to carry over our modern cultural ideas, sensibilities and prejudices when reading about other cultures and ancient times.

I can’t wait to share my thoughts more in-depth about the books below!

Stephanie

Finding Phoebe: What New Testament Women Were Really Like by Susan Hylen

Published January 17, 2023 by Eerdmans

Forget what you think you know about women in the early church.

In this learned yet accessible book, Susan E. Hylen introduces first-century primary sources to illuminate readers’ understanding of New Testament women. Perfect for clergy, spiritual reading groups, and all curious minds, Finding Phoebe combines incisive scholarship and instructional sensibility to encourage readers to develop their own informed interpretations of Scripture.

Contrary to popular conceptions of “biblical womanhood” as passive and silent, women often served as leaders and prophets in their communities. Women owned one-third of all property during the period, granting them access to civic power through patronage. Many women worked outside the home and were educated according to the needs of their professions. Through careful examination of “modesty” and “silence” in the Greco-Roman world, Hylen reveals the centrality of these virtues to both men and women practicing self-control in service of communal good.

Hylen’s work will challenge readers to free their minds of modern preconceptions and consider New Testament women on their own terms. This practical book includes historical context, scriptural evidence, and questions for discussion.

The Lost World of the Prophets: Old Testament Prophecy and Apocalyptic Literature in Ancient Context (The Lost World Series #7) by John H. Walton

Published February 27, 2024 by IVP Academic

I’ve started with the 7th book in this series because I’m currently studying Biblical prophecy and the Prophets. I do intend to read the whole series.

Being responsive to God is at the heart of prophecy. But readers of ancient prophecies and apocalyptic literature―including those in the Old Testament―can come away thoroughly perplexed. Are the prophets speaking about their own times, about our present, or about some still-unrealized future? It’s common to study prophecy with a focus on the sole question of prediction and fulfillment, either for the sake of apologetics or for understanding the end times, but such an approach can fail to track with the original intent of the authors. We need to shake loose both from a paradigm of reading prophecy as an offer of mysterious divination as well as from the habit of constructing eschatological timelines of any sort. How do these books work as meaningful Scripture for Christians today? John Walton applies his signature method to help us recover the lost world of the prophets. To read these biblical books well, we must A fresh reading of the Old Testament text in light of the ancient Near Eastern context can open new avenues of awareness. Walton provides a clear, helpful guide to the nature of biblical prophecy and apocalyptic literature that will help readers avoid potential misuse and reclaim the message of the prophets for their lives. The books in the Lost World Series follow the pattern set by Bible scholar John H. Walton, bringing a fresh, close reading of the Hebrew text and knowledge of ancient Near Eastern literature to an accessible discussion of the biblical topic at hand using a series of logic-based propositions.

The Palace at the End of the Sea by Simon Tolkien

Theo Sterling #1

Published June 1, 2025 by Lake Union Publishing (For review.)

441 pages, Kindle Edition

New York City, 1929. Young Theo Sterling’s world begins to unravel as the Great Depression exerts its icy grip. He finds it hard to relate to his father, a Jewish self-made businessman, refuses to give up on the American dream, and his mother, a refugee from religious persecution in Mexico, holds fast to her Catholic faith. When disaster strikes the family, Theo must learn who he is. A charismatic school friend and a firebrand girl inspire him to believe he can fight Fascism and change the world, but each rebellion comes at a higher price, forcing Theo to question these ideologies too.

From New York’s Lower East Side to an English boarding school to an Andalusian village in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, Theo’s harrowing journey from boy to man is set against a backdrop of societies torn apart from within, teetering on the edge of a terrible war to which Theo is compulsively drawn like a moth to a flame.

The Dust Needs to Settle

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We had quite the storm this past Saturday evening of heavy rain, strong wind and lightning. On the back screened porch Sunday morning, everything was damp and the southern humidity didn’t help matters. At least the birds were in song and the coffee was strong. I was sitting on the back porch, not sure how long that was going to last, to write letters, organize to-do lists and to jot down thoughts about, The Four Winds by Kristen Hannah. In the picture, you see John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, you say. “Where’s, The Four Winds?” I bought this copy of The Grapes of Wrath back in 92′ and yes, it’s still in great condition. Gosh, saying that makes me feel old.

To answer your question, assuming you’re asking it, I’m re-visiting The Grapes of Wrath because The Four Winds is a good companion and the stories are still relevant today. They both give you a fountain of information to think about and I have so much to say about both of them. The Four Winds is resting on one of my bookshelves. I will be un-shelving the book soon to gather some marked passages and discuss both books with its contrasts and similarities.

This will be a rather ongoing project and perhaps will share in bits and pieces at Layered Pages. Each post will be linked, so you many keep up with this project, if you wish.

Stephanie Hopkins

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

Published April 10th 2014 by Viking (first published April 14th 1939)

The Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression, a book that galvanized—and sometimes outraged—millions of readers.

First published in 1939, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads—driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man’s fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman’s stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. At once a naturalistic epic, captivity narrative, road novel, and transcendental gospel, Steinbeck’s powerful landmark novel is perhaps the most American of American Classics

The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

Published February 2nd 2021 by St. Martin’s Press

Texas, 1934. Millions are out of work and a drought has broken the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as the crops are failing, the water is drying up, and dust threatens to bury them all. One of the darkest periods of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl era, has arrived with a vengeance.

In this uncertain and dangerous time, Elsa Martinelli—like so many of her neighbors—must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or go west, to California, in search of a better life. The Four Winds is an indelible portrait of America and the American Dream, as seen through the eyes of one indomitable woman whose courage and sacrifice will come to define a generation.