Books I’ve Read In the First Quarter of 2018

One of my goals for 2018 is to read 36 books! I thought it’d be fun to share my progress and what books I’ve been reading so far. At the beginning of the year, I wrote a list of the books I planned to read. I’ve strayed a little from list, but I’m happy with those books I’ve chosen to read!

Guess what, I’m behind in my goal. I’ve only read eight books so far. But it’s okay. I’m choosing progress over perfection. The important thing is that I’ve been making strides towards my goal! 

Culture Care: Reconnecting with Beauty for Our Common Life

Why I Picked It: I had the pleasure of hearing Mako speak last year. Truth be told, I didn’t know who he was when I sat down at the event he was keynoting. He speaks and writes with a reverence for God and His creation. His book Culture Care is an artists meditation on the importance of stewarding culture, instead of viewing it as something to win or lose.

Finished: January 8, 2018

Thoughts on the Book: The chapter on “Beauty as Food for the Soul” is worth the price of the book. I think I underlined almost every word in that chapter. Mako makes me want to slow down, and see the world through fresh eyes.

Favorite Quote(s):

Beauty is the quality connected with those things that are in themselves appealing and desirable. Beautiful things are a delight to the senses, a pleasure  to the mind, and a refreshment for the spirit. Beauty invites us in, capturing our attention and making us want to linger. Beautiful things are worth our scrutiny, rewarding to contemplate, deserving of pursuit. They inspire – or even demand – a response, whether sharing them in community or acting to extent their beauty into other spheres.

A Christian understanding of beauty begins with the recognition that God does not need us, or the creation. Beauty is a gratuitous gift of the creator God; it finds its source and its purpose in God’s character. God, out of his gratuitous love, created  world he did not need because he is an artists.

Lit!: A Christian Guide to Reading Books

Why I Picked It: A friend recommended Lit! to me at the beginning of the year, after I shared the list of books I wanted to read this year. I’ve enjoy Tony Reinke’s writings, and decided to purchase a copy.

Finished: January 28, 2018

Thoughts on the book: The first half of the book is a theology for reading, and the second half offers practical suggestions for how to read a book for all it’s worth. I read this fairly quickly, and enjoyed the mix of theological and practical.

Favorite Quote(s):

Commit yourself to the serious reading of books, and your life will be enlightened.

Christian book reading is never a solitary experience, but an open invitation to commune with God.

As Christians, we read all of our books illuminated by God and in communion with Him. Gleaning facts and information is not the highest purpose of reading. Reading can be ultimately a means to eternally benefit our soul. And this benefit does not hinge upon how smart we are, upon how many books we read each year, or upon how much information we retain. We tap into the eternal value of literature when we read in the presence of God, unveiled to the glory of our Savior.

Unseen: The Gift of Being Hidden in a World That Loves to Be Noticed

Why I Picked It: The subtitle of this book caught my attention as I was preparing to release my own book out into the world. At the time, my soul was craving
Finished: March 21, 2018

Thoughts on the book: I loved this book!! Sara has such a way with words, and this is a topic I haven’t seen many people discussing.

Favorite Quote(s):

We hunger for significance – to be seen and understood and loved, to be and live marvelous – because we are made not only to know God but also to be known by Him.

The problem is not that we long for significance, but that we are shifty or misguided in where we look for it. When we crave most the eyes of others – their opinions and accolades – we break our gaze with the only eyes that will ever truly see us. We forget the beauty of the Creator-eyes turned towards us, the ones that saw the inception of our lives and loved what He saw.

Sacred Marriage: What If God Designed Marriage to Make Us Holy More Than to Make Us Happy?

Why I Picked It: My husband, Michael ordered this book, but I stole it and read it first!! 😉

Finished: March 21, 2018

Thoughts on the book: Nothing I read in this book was new information. I’ve heard countless sermons, talks, and read articles about how marriage is supposed to make us more holy than happy. But I’d read all of those things before actually being married. This was the first marriage book I’d read after getting married, and I enjoyed reading it through the lens of personal experience.

Favorite Quote(s):

“The key question is this: Will we approach marriage from a God-centered view or a man-centered view? In a man-centered view, we will maintain our marriage as long as our earthly comforts, desires, and expectations are met. In a God-centered view, we preserve our marriage because it brings glory to God and points a sinful world to a reconciling Creator.”

You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit

Why I Picked It: A friend raved about this book, and I’ve heard great things about James K.A. Smith’s work.

Finished: March 21, 2018 (I was close to finishing several books at once, and completed three in one day!!)

Thoughts on the book: This is easily one of the most influential books I’ve read in a long time!! You know it’s going to be a good book when you begin underlining in the preface! You Are What You Love teaches you to pay attention to the desires of your heart, because they are an indicator of spiritual health.

Favorite Quote(s):

What if, instead of starting from the assumption that human beings are thinking things, we started from the conviction that human beings are first and foremost lovers? What if you are defined not by what you know but by what you desire? What if the center and seat of the human person is found not in the heady regions of the intellect but in the gut-level regions of the heart?

To be human, we could say, is to desire the kingdom – some kingdom. To call it a “kingdom” is to signal that we’re not talking only about some personal, private Eden – some individual nirvana – but that we all live and long for a social vision of what we think society should look like too. That’s why there’s something ultimate about this vision: to be oriented toward some sense of the good life is to pursue some vision of how the world ought to be.

The Nightingale

Why I Picked It: I purchased this book because I’m trying to incorporate more fiction into my reading diet!!

Finished: April 6, 2018

Thoughts on the book: Oh. My. Goodness. This book is breathtaking! It’s WWII historical fiction, and I’m realizing how much I love reading about this time period.  Last year, I read All the Light We Cannot See, which is also set during WWII, and throughly enjoyed it!!!

Favorite Quote(s):

“If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: in love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.”

Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces that Shape Behavior

Why I Picked It: I was traveling and all of my books were packed in my suitcase, so I picked this up at the little airport bookstore. The title caught my eye, because I really enjoy psychology books

Finished: April 13, 2018

Thoughts on the book: This book was a fascinating and fun read. Jonah Berger’s writing style reminded me Malcolm Gladwell’s.

Favorite Quote(s): This book wasn’t very quotable!

 

Every Bitter Thing Is Sweet: Tasting the Goodness of God in All Things

Why I Picked It: After I finished Unseen, I emailed Sara letting her know how much the book ministered to my soul. I shared a little bit about my story, my book, and my adoption. She asked if she could send me a copy of her first book, and I gratefully agreed.

Finished: April 29, 2018

Thoughts on the book: I’ll be honest, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as Sara’s first book, Unseen. This one was a little bit more of a memoir, which I wasn’t expecting.

Favorite Quote(s):

“Fear loses oxygen when every moment suspends itself under the purpose of bringing Him glory, of knowing His name and His nature.”