Books, Books, and More Books!

My TBR (To Be Read) list is a source of joy to me.  It keeps growing.  It is to the point now where I have it divided into five categories to keep track of it. This doesn’t stress me out at all, in fact, it energizes me.  I love to read and to learn, and my best learning comes from reading.  Plus I know that if I look over my list and decide some of the titles no longer look interesting to me, I can just erase them. J

I’m going to share with you one book from each category, to give you an idea of what I would like to read.

From the Fiction category: The Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger. 

From Child and Youth Care Related Books: The Connected Child by Dr. Karyn Purvis. 

From Religious Non-Fiction: Up from the Stubborn Darkness by Ed Welch.

From Memoirs and Biographies: Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh. 

From Other Non-Fiction: Contrepeneurs by Diane Frances.

I recently finished The Feminist Mistake by Mary Kassian.  It’s an in-depth look at the development of feminist thought in North America over the last sixty years.  If you have questions about feminism, this is one book you should read.  And if you just like to read about the development of philosophy as an intellectual exercise, you will enjoy this one.  This book made me think, but I also just enjoyed the reading of it.

I also recently read Is Everyone Hanging out without Me? (And other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling and Out came the Sun by Mariel Hemingway.  Both were memoirs written by women in the film industry, but that’s pretty much where the similarity ended.  Kaling’s book is lighthearted and fun.  She’s a comedy writer and she writes and acts in the TV show The Office. I enjoyed it because a lot of what I’m interested in is the deep tough themes of mental health and human relationships, and this book was a break from that.  Hemingway’s book deals with her journey of overcoming the legacy of mental illness, addiction, and suicide in her family.  This one was much darker and more difficult.  Ironically, I enjoyed it precisely because it was all about the themes of mental health and human relationships.

Currently I’m reading How to Bake Pi: An Edible Exploration of the Mathematics of Mathematics by Eugenia Cheng and Mistress Pat by L.M. Montgomery. How to Bake Pi is fascinating if you’re interested in math.  It’s probably still fascinating if you aren’t, but I don’t know that from experience.  My love for math is being rekindled, and now I envy the author her job as university math lecturer. :P  Mistress Pat is comfort reading.  I mean, it’s written by L.M. Montgomery; what more can I say?

This week I listened to Canada Reads 2017, which originally aired last week.  Now I’ve added more books to my list: Company Town by Madeline Ashby and The Break by Katherna Vermette.  I’m excited about these because of the Canadian connection.  My reading challenge of sorts (other than “Read the books on my list”) is “Read books by Canadian authors”.

What are you reading?  Do you have books I should add to my list?

It's the Shortest Day of the Year

I feel a little bit like things are slipping.  I’m trying to keep a grip on things but it’s either fading or slipping away.  There are plenty of hours to get everything done, just not enough mental or physical energy.  This would be an awful feeling except for one thing: it is the shortest day of the year!  Soon the days will start getting longer!!

I have been reading a LOT of books since my last “What I’ve Been Reading Lately” post.  Right after we moved in September I got a library card so I’ve been discovering new books in different genres.  We don’t have internet at home, so that gives me more time to read.

Fun Books:

Vinyl Café Diaries by Stuart MacLean

The Story Girl by L.M. Montgomery

The Little Old Lady Who Broke All the Rules by ___

The MacDonald Hall series by Gordon Korman

Schooled, also by Gordon Korman

More Serious Fiction:

Open Secrets and Runaway, both by Alice Munro

The Secrets of Midwives by Sally Hepworth

Child and Youth Work Related Memoirs:

The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer

The Boy No One Loved by Casey Watson

Deliver Me From Evil by Alloma Gilbert

Non-Fiction:

Jesus Feminist by Sarah Bessey

Currently Reading:

The Contemporary Catechism of the Teachings of the Catholic Church by ____

Kids are Worth It! by Barbara Coloroso

I Kissed Dating Goodbye by Joshua Harris

Federal Husband by Douglas Wilson

I’ll only comment on a few since it’s a long list.  I enjoyed The Secrets of Midwives because it reads like a mystery/crime novel but without the murder.  I am drawn to that genre but always end up with nightmares from the violence described, so this was a nice compromise.  I would consider it an 18+ novel because of some of the content.

The child and youth work related memoirs were eye-opening and horrifying.   They are books I would tell you to read “if you have to”. By that I mean read them if you are interested in understanding or helping people who have been abused or have experienced trauma.  If you are looking for an interesting new book, these aren’t for you.  But if you think the Children’s Aid Society or Child Protective Services are unnecessary, READ THESE. 

Vinyl Café Diaries is so much fun.  I took the book camping in October and ended up reading some of the stories out loud to Michael.  I couldn’t tell him what was funny without retelling the whole story, and Stuart MacLean’s words are just so much better than mine!

I just finished Jesus Feminist.  I am still processing it, so I don’t have much to say except this: while Sarah Bessey presents a lot of ideas that are foreign to my upbringing and church background, she does it in a gracious and thought-provoking way.   She isn’t an angry feminist at all – she is a woman committed to following Jesus and caring about people.

Wishing you all a good shortest day of the year.  Here’s to all of us who have made. it. by God’s grace.  Things are looking up.  We got this.  Here’s to sunshine and later sunsets!

Research Project Announcement

As long as Michael and I have been married, we’ve had this ongoing discussion around gender roles, feminism, marriage, and the Bible.  There are so many voices out there, so many opinions on this rather wide and controversial topic.  There are some things we have definitely agreed on, like any extreme is probably not right and your ideology has to work in the real world.  There are also many areas in which we don’t agree 100% with the ideas we were raised with.  The concern now is, are we starting to believe what sounds good to us?  Or are we genuinely finding the truth?  I know that the Christian life is not supposed to be easy.  It is about self-denial and learning to be holy.  I suspect that some of the ideas I like are not in line with the Bible, because I know that as a human it is easier to follow what feels good than what is right. 

For a bit of background, my husband and I were both homeschooled.  We grew up in a fairly conservative church community where it was sort of taken for granted that the husband is the head of the family, that wives are to submit to their husbands, and that children are to obey their parents.  This was definitely not Christian Patriarchy.  However, through the magazines, blogs, and books I read as a child and as a teen, I was exposed to the ideas of the patriarchy movement and was in some ways drawn to it.  By nature I see the world in a black and white way, so the clearly laid out rules and apparent possibility of achieving perfection really appealed to me.  As I became an adult, however, things changed.  For one thing several leaders of the movement have been exposed for sexual misconduct.  For another, I am an independent person who doesn’t like to be told what to do, and for another, I started going to school for child and youth work and realized that patriarchy’s idea of keeping our families pure and unaffected by the world leaves no room for caring for the hurt and broken in society. 

I know patriarchy and complementarianism aren’t the same thing, but I also have found that a lot of people who come out of patriarchy also reject complementarianism.  It’s hard not to be affected by these ideas.  I’ve also always believed or at least absorbed the idea that feminism is a bad thing, that it is destroying families (and thus destroying society) and that it is responsible for the deaths of millions of babies through abortion.  This may be true, but at the same time isn’t feminism responsible for my ability to vote?  And wouldn’t feminism be a good thing for women in countries where in the judicial system a woman's testimony is only worth half of a man’s?

In light of all this, I have embarked on a research project investigating these topics.  This is the purpose statement I am starting out with:

“The purpose of this research paper is to examine the topics of gender roles, the place of women, family structure, etc., including subtopics like modesty, child raising/training, feminism, complementarianism,  egalitarianism, patriarchy, the patriarchal evangelical homeschool movement, dating, courting and so on, in order to form a well-grounded philosophy for my own life and family.  I take as absolute authority the word of God.  Beyond that I hope to examine many sources, taking the good and leaving the bad.”

In the last week or so, I have fallen down a massive rabbit hole of reading blogs written either by people who have left patriarchy or left Christianity all together, or who are stay-at-home daughters or wives.  The problem is remembering to take notes and keep track of sources…

I have a big pile of books I plan to use as well as blogs and websites to look into.  I am also open to suggestions.   In fact, I strongly desire suggestions.  Give me your suggestions!  I’d also like your opinions, provided they are stated respectfully and without the use of profanity. 

*note.  this research project is being undertaken as a hobby/ side interest, not a work project.  It may take me a long time to finish it.

What I have been Reading Lately

I usually have a bunch of books on the go, and it takes me a while to get through any of them.  I don't tend to spend a lot of time reading, but I still value reading and want to do more of it.  Here is some of what I have been reading lately:

Non-fiction:
In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan
Food Rules, also by Michael Pollan
Trim Healthy Mama by Serene Allison and Pearl Barrett
Adrenal Fatigue: The 21st Century Stress Syndrome by James L. Wilson
Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon
I've been reading/skimming these titles and taking notes as I try to formulate a "philosophy of eating" for my husband and I.  We are both interested in healthy eating.  I am trying to find a balance that works for us - balancing time spent in food prep, enjoyment of food, and healthiness of food.  For example, right now it works for us to make kefir and kombucha to drink regularly.  I am looking for things like this that we can easily incorporate into our daily routine.  One thing that isn't working for us is switching to homemade sourdough bread.  We aren't fond of the taste, which means we don't like to eat it and it just ends up going moldy if we don't force ourselves to use it up. 
The Little People by David Wilkerson with Phyllis Murphy
This one is a short, but hard and sad read.  Wilkerson writes about his experiences with Teen Challenge and about the children he sees growing up in big-city slums.  I read it in one afternoon, and I think it should be recommended reading for anyone who will be working with children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Fiction:
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
A Tangled Web by L. M. Montgomery
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte (on audiobook)
I have been reading these titles, trying to figure out what separates a great author from a poor one.  The questions I want answers too include, How do the great authors use the same English language to such great effect that poor authors manage to butcher?  What is it that makes some love stories inspiring and others sappy and boring? How can I write well?
Return by Karen Kingsbury
Snow on the Tulips by Liz Tolsma
These two I found quite sappy.  Return is the third in a series of five which I have slowly been working through.  They aren't my favourite, but they satisfy the occasional desire for a light romance novel.  Apparently there are a few more series's after this one that follow the same family.  I don't think I will read them because at the end of the third book I am already getting tired of the characters.  They don't have a lot of depth to them and seem to either be doing everything perfectly or suddenly having their entire lives fall apart.
Snow on the Tulips annoyed me enough I didn't finish it.  It is set in the Netherlands in World War II.  Being from Dutch background myself, I felt that the book was much too sappy and mushy compared to what I know of the Dutch people and their character.  It felt forced and not authentic.  Also any book that talks of someone "strolling" across a room to bring something to someone (or anything along those lines) reminds me of Grade 5 language arts and having to come up with interesting words in place of normal ones.  Interesting words are all fine and dandy when they add to the story, but when they force your notice to the grammar instead of the narrative, they are too much!  I was disappointed that I didn't enjoy this book because I borrowed it from my husband's grandmother who enjoyed it.  She is a dear sweet lady and I don't want to tell her I didn't even finish it.

Books I want to read:
A food memoir.  It sounds like an interesting genre, and I love autobiographies and memoirs.
The Diary of a Journalist: Later Entries 1890 - 1910 by Sir Henry Lucy.  There is an interesting story of how I picked this one up, but it will have to wait for another time.

What are you reading?  What would you like to read?