The Bookshelf: 08.25

Welcome to my bookshelf, where I take you through the books I've read each month and my thoughts on them!

Stats
Cue Timothée Chalamet's "Statistics" video.(1) I love tracking various things in my reading, such as format, genre, rating, etc. However, I won't bore you with all that, I'll just share the most interesting bits :)
In August, I read eight books, one novella, and a (large) handful of essays and articles. Most of the essays came from C.S. Lewis' God in the Dock, which I have been working through slowly. Shockingly, I read mostly nonfiction this month, and I listened to nearly twenty-two audiobook hours this month (mostly as I crocheted my first cardigan, which is nearly finished!). I had one five star book this month: Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green. I also had one DNF (did not finish)(2): Dreams Lie Beneath by Rebecca Ross. She is a bit of a hit or miss author for me. I have loved all but her Queen's Rising series, and now Dreams Lie Beneath. Her newest release, Wild Reverence, came out the day I'm writing this, and I am interested to see whether I will love it or find it very uninteresting.

Surprised by Oxford by Carolyn Weber
★★★★☆
My roommate has been telling me to read this book for over a year, and I am so glad I did! I listened to this book on audio, so I did not dive deep into the literary and theological references spattered throughout the narration. I loved this book and the way Weber's memoir wrestles with the academic side of being a Christian. It gave me a lot to think about in how academic disciplines color the way a believer can engage with Scripture and doctrine. If you're a Lewis fan or an Oxford fan or a Christian in academia, read this book!

Adorning the Dark by Andrew Peterson
★★★⯪☆
Anyone who knows me well (or honestly not very well also) knows I'm not the biggest Andrew Peterson fan, especially his Wingfeather Saga,(3) but I've had this book recommended countless times. I actually started it about two years ago and read all but the last chapter (*nervous laughter*) so I just finished it up (finally). I did definitely enjoy this more than Peterson's other works, but I can't say much about the content otherwise as I read a vast majority of Adorning the Dark years ago.

Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
★★★☆☆
This was definitely interesting, and not quite what I expected. Some portions were deeply moving and made me ponder, but as a whole I was not as impressed as I thought I would be. I definitely would like to return to this book in a few years to see if life experience changes my resonance with Rilke's thoughts.

Particularly, I found his take on the necessity of writing interesting as a Christian, where he tells the young poet that if he finds he must write to live, then he is a writer. As a writer myself, I have wrestled with viewing writing and creating as part of an identity, rather than as a gift the Lord has given to be used and refined and shared. I don't think I agree with Rilke's view on the issue, but I do love a good angsty, tortured-artist quote as much as the next.

A Fall of Marigolds by Susan Meissner
★★★★☆
A Fall of Marigolds is one of my best friend's favorite books, and I listened to it on audio. I expected the split timeline to focus more on the modern timeline, but most of the book was spent in the past timeline. I wish we had heard a bit more from our modern narrator, as I didn't feel as connected to her story. I found its commentary on not dwelling in grief poignant, though not as explicit as I would have preferred.

Eve in Exile by Rebekah Merkle
★★★★⯪
I greatly enjoyed this dive into Biblical femininity! The book was written in 2019, however, and I think an updated addition may be due in light of the surge of LGBT activism and critical theory in the past five years. Two of my favorite points from Eve in Exile were the ideas of incarnation and glorification. Merkle argues that women participate in the act of incarnation, not just in the act of procreation, but also by taking ideas and concepts and making them real. She talks about this in terms of teaching, as well as ideas like hospitality being made incarnate through laughter around a dinner table. She also explained the oft-misunderstood passage from 1 Corinthians 11:7 about women being created for man and being the glory of man.(4) This was a quick and poignant read that I highly recommend as a starting point for understanding feminism from a Biblical perspective and how to reclaim femineity and fruitfulness as believers.

Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green
★★★★★
I listened to this entire book in one day. I have always been fascinated with the medical field, but more the sociological aspects of illness and disability rather than the biology. Everything Is Tuberculosis approached the history of tuberculosis from that angle, following the stories of individuals rather than just the biological processes. I loved this book, which I was not expecting when I picked it up on a whim. I think, especially for conservative Christians, it gives us a lot to think about. Green does not come from an explicitly Christian worldview, but how much more should we as believers be active in the fight for the least of these in underdeveloped countries who do not have reasonable access to a cure that should be easily accessible. I highly recommend this book!

Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater
★★★★☆
This was a good quick read! I enjoyed the regency aesthetic with the faerie/magical elements. It was also a great follow up to Everything Is Tuberculosis, as Half a Soul addressed the horrific conditions of London's workhouses, which had similar themes of correcting small injustices that Tuberculosis discussed.

God in the Dock by C.S. Lewis
In Progress
I have been slowly digesting these essays by Lewis over the past year or so, but some of my favorites recently have been "Christian Apologetics," "On the Transmission of Christianity," and "What Are We to Make of Jesus Christ?"

(1) If you've never seen this, you're welcome.
(2) DNF usually means that you don't have plans to finish that book in the future either.
(3) Don't worry, there will probably be a little essay on that in the future ;)
(4) For more on this topic, look to volume 2 of my Keeping Book to read the quote that explains this!