I’ve been sitting around sick feeling like there’s nothing to blog about except being sick.  Then I realized I can throw my hat in the ring with the rest of the end of the year reviews.  I don’t think I can do one on music (I’m pretty sure I only bought 2 cds all year) and the movie one will be a little sketchy (I haven’t been to the theatre since February).  But I have read books.  Lots and lots of them.  There’s a list on the side of all the books I’ve read this year.  I know it seems a bit short, but it doesn’t include all the books I gave up on, skimmed through for work or in any other way didn’t read cover to cover.

 

Top 3 Non-Fiction Books of the Year:

Irresistible Revolution – This was the first book I read in January and it really rocked my socks.  As with pretty much everyone else who read it, I wanted to run off to Philly.  However, I was previously scheduled to run off to England.  It’s taken almost the whole year, but I’m feeling like I’m now ready to dig down into some of this stuff.

 

Celebration of Discipline – Yes, yes I know.  The horror that I only read CoD THIS year.  I had tried to read it before but just couldn’t get through it.  This time I just munched it up, so obviously this was the right time.  I did it with my US small group, which was really helpful. 

 

Jesus Wants to Save Christians – I also read Sex God this year and enjoyed both, but I think I’d give the nod to the later book.  Perhaps it was just that it worked so well with what I was studying in God Story, but this book was well written and well timed.  It’s release just before the US election should have given people a lot to think about.

Top 3 Fiction Books of the Year:

A Thousand Splendid Suns – This book was so good it made me ache.  I would start it on the train and forget to get off.  The characters became so real that while I was drawn to the book to keep reading, part of me didn’t want to know what happened next.  At the end of the book I couldn’t read fiction again for a while and when I finally did, all I could handle was Harry Potter.

 

Poisonwood Bible – This was the next major piece of fiction that I picked up.  It took me months to read as it was so dense.  While it was a great work of fiction, it also gave me a lot to think about in missions work.

 

Run (Ann Patchett) – This book isn’t as well known as the other two.  Years ago I read Bel Canto and really loved it, so I was itching to get my hands on this week.  I started it at the beginning of my Christmas vacation and finished it in 3 days.  Beautifully well written it is totally different than Bel Canto and yet has the same overall feel to it.  Highly recommended.

 

I should really make a list of all the books I started and discarded this year.  It’s a pretty long list.  Most just didn’t hold my attention and so got pushed to the side.  There are too many amazing books to read to slog through bad ones!