2017 Reading Wrap Up

I am part of a thing called 52 Books in 52 Weeks. She always has us do a wrap up, and here is mine.

Here is the website: http://www.read52booksin52weeks.com/

1) Where did your reading take you this year?

Afghanistan, Syria, France, Oregon Wilderness, Cornwall, England, Refugees all over the world, Africa, Sweden, Arctic, World War II Europe, Mexico, Palestine, Warsaw, Poland, England proper, the Polar Ice Caps on the way to the North Pole.

2) What was your reading goal for the year and did you meet or beat it?

52 books, and I beat it by 11

3) Top 5 (or more favorite reads) 

1. Poldark Saga - It is 12 books, and 6064 pages, but I will count it as one here. Absolutely riveting and phenomenal writing. Highly recommend. These will be classics for years to come. 
2. A Simple Life-Changing Prayer (The Prayer that Changes Everything) - This was probably the most impactful as I am now doing this prayer daily. This book helped me understand the why behind everything. Very short and sweet.
3. The Practice of the Presence of God - One of my all-time favorite books since the early '80s.
4. Exit West - It is just such an unusual fiction book. Refugee Crisis meets Narnia. I saw the author interview on PBS, and I was intrigued and was not disappointed. 
5. Dead Wake - Really well-researched and well-written book about the sinking of the Lusitania. I could not put it down. I read it during our Spring Break vacation and stayed up late at night to read! 

4) Which book stayed with you the longest after finishing it?

Probably #2 above because I am applying it daily.

5) Which book made you want to read it all over again? 

Practice of the Presence of God. I have read it multiple times since my 20s, but it is one that always challenges and soothes me. God is with us and is totally available to us.  I also think The Cycle of Grace has principles that I will visit daily for the rest of my life and teach it to others. 

6) Which books did you think you were going to love but didn't?

The God Soaked Life - I love learning more about the Kingdom of God. It did have some nice parts to it (explanation of the examen was good, and the discussion about the documentary called The Monastery made me get on YouTube and watch the whole thing), but it really petered out at the end, and his chapter on The Great Commission is SO ridiculously OFF BASE (I think he is REALLY blinded in this area) that it left a bad taste in my mouth for the last part of the book.

The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation - Meh. I thought it would be about practicing Benedictine spirituality in everyday life, but it really did not end up being like that. It was murky and about politics. I didn't really care for it even though I had very high hopes because I loved his book Crunchy Cons. 

Added: Which books did you not like? (We usually have that question, but she did not add it this year.) 

1. Myth-Making and Religious Extremism - BORING!
2. It's Not Okay: Turning Heartbreak into Happily Never After - What a self-centered, immature, disgusting woman who needs a reality check! Terrible.
3. Lilac Girls - It don't see what all the fuss is about. It was "OK," but not worth the raving that people give it. I do like the true story behind it, and I looked up that and learned quite a bit, but I thought the writing was not very good. 

7) Which genres or authors you thought you'd never read and was pleasantly surprised to like them? (I am changing this to books I read that I probably never would have picked up but had to because of my book club reading them.)

1. Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania - SO FASCINATING! I never would have picked it up but so glad it was "assigned"!
2. A Man Called Ove - I laughed so hard. Great, heart-warming story. 
3. In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette - Good storytelling!
4. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption - eye-opening about injustices to minorities, especially in the South. It was not entirely accurate and had much bias (as one of my book club members pointed out because her husband works in the justice system and was connected to one of the cases the author outlines in the book.), but I think he is an incredible man and tells a good story!
   

8) Which countries and time periods did you visit? See #1 four countries. Time periods: World War I and II. Post Revolutionary War in England. 1665-1745 England (Swift biography). 

9) Which books or authors would you recommend everybody read? 

1. The Practice of the Presence of God
2. Face to Face: Praying the Scriptures for Intimate Worship
3. The Divine Conspiracy 

10) Favorite Covers 

2017 Reading List (Go here to see all of my individual reviews)

1. A Little Princess
2. The Road to Little Dribbling: Adventures of an American in England
3. The Coming of Mr. Quin
4. Talking as Fast as I Can
5. Wilderness Time
6. No Knives in the Kitchens of This City
7. Hidden Figures
8. The Greatest Thing in the World
9. Spiritual Multiplication in the Real World
10. The Zookeeper's Wife
11. Dead Wake
12. Ross Poldark
13. Jesus: A Gospel
14. The Story of Jesus
15. A Harmony of the Gospels
16. Crucial Conversations
17. Jonathan Swift: The Reluctant Rebel
18. Myth-Making and Religious Extremism and Their Roots in Crises
19. Lilac Girls
20. Exit West
21. The Benedict Option
22. The Pearl
23. Poldark's Cornwall
24. Two Paths: America Divided or United 
25. In the Kingdom of Ice
26. Just Mercy
27. A Man Called Ove
28. The Pearl That Broke Its Shell
29. On the Incarnation
30. Things Fall Apart
31. The Making of a Leader
32. Know Why You Believe
33. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
34. Living Your Strengths
35. The Motivation Manifesto
36. The Great Omission
37. It's Not Okay
38. The Global Refugee Crisis
39. Demelza
40. Renovation of the Heart
41. Soul Keeping
42. Jeremy Poldark
43. The Good and Beautiful God
44. Face to Face
45. Warleggan
46. The Black Moon
47. The Four Swans
48. The Angry Tide
49. The Stranger from the Sea
50. Life in the Trinity
51. The Miller's Dance
52. The Loving Cup
53. The Divine Conspiracy
54. The Twisted Sword
55. The Lord and His Prayer
56. Bella Poldark
57. If We Make it Home
58. The Cycle of Grace
59. The Prayer that Changes Everything (A Simple Life-Changing Prayer)
60. Discovery Our Spiritual Identity
61. God-Soaked Life
62. I Told Me So
63. The Practice of the Presence of God 

 

64. The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence

This is the Blackstone Audio version of one of my Top 10 favorite spiritual books. I think everyone should read it. On audio, it is only an hour, and I did it while taking a shower one day and then a walk another. It has so many gems in it, it will be a book you come back to over and over again. 

Each month the Renovaré Institute for Christian Formation gives us a "Praxis (practice)" Exercise. It helps us put into practice what we are learning in the Institute, but it is a lovely practice. I am going to give you the poem they gave us in the actual assignment, and then my essay follows.

On the first page of Knowing Christ Today, Dallas Willard has placed the title THE KINGDOM OF GOD, and included the following poem from Francis Thompson:

This is about finding God in everyday life. Francis Thompson wrote this while a homeless drug addict in London. Meditate on this. What do you think?

THE KINGDOM OF GOD

In No Strange Land by Francis Thompson

O world invisible, we view thee,

O world intangible, we touch thee,

O world unknowable, we know thee,

Inapprehensible, we clutch thee!

Does the fish soar to find the ocean,

The eagle plunge to find the air—

That we ask of the stars in motion

If they have rumour of thee there?

Not where the wheeling systems darken,

And our benumbed conceiving soars!—

The drift of pinions, would we hearken,

Beats at our own clay-shuttered doors.

The angels keep their ancient places;—

Turn but a stone and start a wing!

’Tis ye, ’tis your estranged faces,

That miss the many-splendoured thing.

But (when so sad thou canst not sadder)

Cry;—and upon thy so sore loss

Shall shine the traffic of Jacob’s ladder

Pitched betwixt Heaven and Charing Cross.

Yea, in the night, my Soul, my daughter,

Cry,—clinging to Heaven by the hems;

And lo, Christ walking on the water,

Not of Genesareth, but Thames!

The Thames on Our Trip to London 2016

My essay on my experience of the assignment:

"'Tis ye, 'tis your estranged faces, 

That miss the many-splendored thing."

These lines intrigued me. I have long believed that God is constantly trying to capture our attention, and it is because we are "estranged" that we miss "the many-splendored thing" He is trying to reveal to us. 

Ever since I read The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence in my 20's, and I was crying while walking back on a cold, winter's evening at twilight from a basketball game in which some silly boy-man made some snarky comment, and I became undone. The moment will always be etched in my mind because it was a turning point to everything. It began the quest I have been on for almost 40 years and will, Lord willing, be on for the rest of my life. 

In that twilight moment, I asked God, "Why do You feel so far away in this devastation when you felt so close this morning in my time of morning prayer? Where are you right now? Can I please have an awareness of You 24/7/365 like Brother Lawrence even in these kinds of times where people are unkind or life is difficult? Is that even possible when I am not a monk? How do I experience You all the time?" 

Testing and trials came my way throughout my 20's: father almost dying twice only to die on the third time due to pancreatic cancer and suffering a breakdown were two of the major things. God was constantly trying to reveal Himself to me in those moments, and I got glimpses of glory at what might seem like the worst of times. For instance, He spoke to me about where to go after my breakdown that led me to freedom from memories that had enslaved me (and led me to my husband). He also made His manifest presence so real to me in the midst of my dad's death. They were profound glimpses into that "living in moment by moment fellowship" with Him. I find it interesting that Thompson wrote this poem when he was a homeless opium addict. God wants to meet us even in our darkest hours. 

I read excerpts of Letters by a Modern Mystic & The Game with Minutes by Laubach in my 30's. Here was a man who was not a monk and even reached out to Muslims! This encouraged me even more. Then, my ministry boss started having us do The Game with Minutes with each and every group we trained. Now, I had buddies in the quest to experience God in the minutes of my day. (By the way, this is always one of the highlights for our trainees. It is a really fun thing to do together.) 

So, here I am in Renovaré, and days before this assignment, He reminded me of that twilight prayer so long ago. I love the accountability of it all! Thank you Renovaré for this assignment.  

So here are some times when the traffic on Jacob's ladder "pitched betwixt" heaven and where I live more recently:

1) Meditating on Psalm 23 in my living room (yep, I am still in it even though it is November because our ministry team is meditating on it this week), He led me to look at the sunrise through my window and really notice the beautiful world of my backyard, and I asked Alexa to play Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World." while I watch God's creation in awe. WOW! What a perfect song for this God moment. 

2) At mid-day, I shared "What a Wonderful World" with my three marvelous men as we drove back from church. I played it, and God put on a show of light peaking out from behind rain clouds glistening through fall leaves. There was a holy hush in our car. We all sensed the glorious presence even though not a word was spoken.

3) With a busy day ahead of me, I struggled to chose between the funeral of my friend's father and my bimonthly beautiful Kingdom Community prayer and storytelling time with four ladies, and God whispered, "I want you to go to both." When I protested that this would be too much, He said, "I will work it out and give you a show of my beauty and Psalm 23. I will show you when you are to leave to go to the next engagement." 

I knew the ride would be lovely. I have driven this back road to Salem before, but the GPS (God's Positioning System) took me on another road that I had never been down, and OH MY. The trees enfolded over the top of the road, and I was in a corridor of color, awash in green, red, yellow, and orange with the sun glistening through the leaves wet from an earlier rain. It was narrow and winding but so worth the trip! 

Then, the funeral. What a celebration of a life well-lived! I have never been to a Catholic service, but when the Cantor sang the verses of Psalm 23, and we all sang responsively . . . 

Shepherd me, O God, beyond my wants, beyond my fears,

from death into life.

over and over again, I almost stood up and said, "God is most definitely shining traffic on Jacob's ladder from heaven to this Catholic sanctuary right now people!" But I contained myself. 

Then on top of it all, my very Catholic college friend, Sharon, knew exactly what to do when, I just followed her, and I grinned ear to ear through the whole service. God was there! When we held hands as a congregation and said the Lord's Prayer together, I was in raptures!

Then, the Eucharist started, and since I am not Catholic and cannot partake, I said my adieu to Sharon who said it was fine to leave early.

Leaving over the same road I had before I experienced more of God's presence because the light had shifted on the road to make it like a new place to behold.

And guess what, I made it RIGHT ON TIME to a glorious lunch, prayer, and telling of the story of David with my Kingdom Community Buddies! Heaven always shine with these ladies, and I am so grateful that I have a community like this.

4) As I submitted my academic assignment earlier this morning, S, from Afghanistan came online. I had talked to her the day before, and she poured her heart out. Life is hard for this divorced mom of three boy, and I promised to pray. This morning, she shared how God had given her hope about some of the things she had shared the day before. We spent a good amount of time telling each other what we were thankful for. Then, I sent her a story I recorded on Creation, and we talked a little bit about it. I think the point I am trying to make is that I could have been goal-oriented about getting my academic assignment in and missed out on the blessings of hearing this woman's thankful heart for what God had done. 

5) As I typed this, my best friend texted me to say that her mother had only a couple more days to live. I could text back, but I called her instead, and there was a meeting of our hearts in love. God was there in the grief of my friend. We have walked together in Jesus since we were both 19 years old. I think making an effort to be more aware of God's presence makes you so very thankful for everything you have. 

6) I have been doing the Examen with my husband when he is home from his job in another city, and it has been such a time of shining the traffic of Jacob's ladder pitched between heaven and our living room. God is there as we share where we saw Him in our day, and how we can love others more on the next.

7) One last one, and I will stop! I also experienced God as I looked at one of my favorite paintings on Jacob's ladder by Marc Chagall. It also brought a sweet memory of an experience of God when I was at the Art Institute of Chicago and looked at Chagall's American Windows. I sat down as I gazed at it and wept. Art is so beautiful and shines the traffic for me!

63. I Told Me So by Gregg A. Ten Elshof

This is a book about how we often deceive ourselves as we walk with Jesus and how we can be honest with ourselves. This leads to transformation.

He suggests having honest and safe community to help speak truth into our lives and not surround ourselves with "yes" men (I am not sure he uses that exact term). I have some honest people like that, and I so appreciate them telling it to me straight!

I have also found daily EXAMEN prayer to be very helpful in getting to the bottom of my sin patterns and not covering it up. 

I made a little handout with a short explanation of EXAMEN prayer, and I really like the EXAMEN.me website for having a record of my daily examinations to see the patterns! 

I think this review is the best summation of this book:

James K. A. Smith  — Calvin College
“Socrates famously asserted that the unexamined life is not worth living. But Gregg Ten Elshof shows us that we make all sorts of little deals with ourselves every day in order to stave off examination and remain happily self-deceived. Most provocatively, he suggests this is not all bad! While naming its temptations, Ten Elshof also offers a ‘strange celebration’ of self-deception as a gracious gift. In the tradition of Dallas Willard, I Told Me So is a wonderful example of philosophy serving spiritual discipline. A marvelous, accessible and, above all, wise book.” /

60. A Simple Life-Changing Prayer by Jim Manney

The "Prayer of Examen" has always been somewhat of an enigma to me. I had done a modified version of it last fall when I read Beyond Loneliness by Trevor Hudson, and I posted a lot of my "Prayerful Reviews," and have done it sporadically, but after reading this book and also talking to my new spiritual director (who is the BOMB), Fran, I thought I would be more consistent with it, and it has been wonderful. 

I like to know the "why" behind all of this, and this book helps me understand it according to how St. Ignatius understood it. Manney gave me the freedom to do it the next morning rather than at the end of the day because I just don't have the energy, but I am an energizer bunny in the mornings! The EXAMEN is a great way to look at your day and bring God into every nook and cranny. 

All that to say, the EXAMEN is NOT for everyone, and I have had a quite vibrant prayer life without it! (My favorite prayer book is Kenneth Boa's masterful guided Scripture praying called Face to Face: Praying the Scriptures for Intimate Worship.) So do not feel like you will be GOOD if you do it. Some Intuitive people on the Myers-Briggs can find it difficult "recalling sins from the day." I guess that is why I like Trevor's take: "What was 'life-deadening' today?" Some of that might or might not be sin, but it gets you to think what might have been life-deadening first. 

Here is my adaptation of this book and Trevor's questions in a nifty two page handout:

A Prayerful Review and Examen

I quit posting my Prayerful Reviews here and started doing them at EXAMEN.me. (I am so open. I don't mind sharing them here (my sins for all the world to see), but I have the questions posed to me as I go through it instead of having to repost the questions here every time I do it.)  I really like this site because it also has some nifty reading plans. I am doing 30 Days with Jesus right now, and it has been so GOOD! 

Here is the button: 

 (They closed down the site :()

61. Discovering Our Spiritual Identity: Practices for God's Beloved by Trevor Hudson

Hudson's writing style is so warm and engaging. This would be a good book to go through with people who have never had basic follow up in living the abundant life offered in Jesus. I love Hudson's "Beloved Charter," (I have a PDF of this if you want me to send it to you) and his many exercises spread throughout the book. 

It would be a nice thing to do as a group. For some, it would be very basic, but it would very helpful for those new to the faith or struggling with their identity in Jesus. 

62. God Soaked Life: Discovering Kingdom Spirituality by Chris Webb

I liked a lot about this book. I loved his writing. I loved his way of making Kingdom living more accessible for everyone. The books starts out pretty strong, but I think it sort of peters out at the end. I liked 75% of the book though, but if you really want a good treatise on Kingdom Spirituality, I would suggest reading The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard. He fleshes out these concepts much better, but The Divine Conspiracy is a much more difficult book to get through. This book is a "Kingdom Light" introduction, but, in my humble opinion, Dallas says it much better. I think if you want an introduction to Kingdom Spirituality a book by John Ortberg is a better one.

I REALLY disagreed with his conclusions in "The Great Commission" chapter. He quotes some "hugely influential Dutch statesman and church founder" who makes a comment about the Great Commission. I have been in missions circles for 40 years. I have never heard of this "hugely influential" guy, but Webb builds a SLAM on the whole missions enterprise based on this one guy's statement. This Dutch statesman is not representative of what I see in missions today. This was on 136 of 184 pages. SO it was probably why I had a hard time with the rest of the book. 

All that said,  I discussed the first part of the book with two other ladies, and it was a rich discussion. I believe we can live the abundant life here and now, and I love being with others who want to embrace Kingdom living. This book will help that. Just talk to me after you read "The Great Commission" chapter because I think the author does not get it!

59. The Cycle of Grace: Living in Sacred Balance by Trevor Hudson and Jerry P. Haas

This is such a simple concept, but it makes sense. This simple model is "based on the Gospel explorations of a British psychiatrist by the name of Frank Lake and the well-known theologian Emil Brunner, this model describes the balanced rhythms in which Jesus of Nazareth lived and ministered" (p. 11). These researchers observed mission workers in India burning out quickly. "They saw that under stress, the mission workers' pattern of living differed from the pattern they witnessed in Jesus' life" (p. 18). The cycle illustrates the "continual resourcing of Jesus by the Spirit for Jesus' ministry with and to others" (p.11). 

It is funny because three years ago at a Prayer Summit, God gave me a similar "Cycle of Grace," but I love the way Hudson and Haas articulate this! 

The cycle consists of: 

Acceptance - Jesus had a clear sense of His identity and that the Father delighted in Him unconditionally.

Sustenance - Jesus had ongoing sustenance in His life. Jesus was renewed regularly in body, mind, and spirit. 

Significance - Jesus knew who He was called to be.

Fruitfulness - Jesus' doing flowed out of His being. 

58. If We Make It Home by Nelson

This book uses an alternating first person point of view narrative for three college friends reunited after twenty-five years apart. I didn't really identify with any of the three main character, but eventually, I found myself interested in their stories and where they would all end up in the end.

I think this is a very good first novel for this new author! I loved the Oregon setting for the adventure that these women are taken on. There were a couple of things that I thought were a bit far-fetched, and I would have liked a little more development of the "why" behind what happened in order to make it seem a bit more plausible. But all that aside, I enjoyed the book and was glad I read it!

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from Kregel Publications and was under no obligation to post a review, positive or negative.*

57. Bella Poldark by Winston Graham

Did I really not review this book! It is the final in the beautiful series of 12 books. I will so miss these characters! It is worth the 6064 pages of reading. Winston Graham does a lovely job of wrapping up all the stories for each main character. Really enjoyed the whole series.

 

56. The Lord and His Prayer by N.T. Wright

This is a wonderful little book that expands upon the Lord's Prayer in such a beautiful way. I have heard N.T. Wright speak, but I had only read excerpts of his writing, and this is a nice introduction. 

It takes each phrase and really gives it such a "kingdom-minded" treatment. Well-worth reading.

55. The Twisted Sword (Poldark #11) by Winston Graham

I am almost done with this LONG saga. This was SO good! I am going to miss this series, but I am trying to finish them before I have to get back to teaching in 10 days!

54. The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard

I know. You have seen this book SEVERAL times on this blog. And yes, I already read it one time this year. Last time, I listened to it. This time, I read it more than listened to it, and I took COPIOUS notes since it is part of the Renovaré Institute fall reading schedule. The pages are printing, and I cut and pasted 37 pages of notes from the book. I am insane, but I really love this book, and it grows on me each time I read it.

Dallas had me at "HELLO" when I read this book for the first time in 2009. I thought things were obvious, but the more I read it, the more I realize these things are not obvious to most believers, and I think he articulates things so well.  It is part of our ministry curriculum every year, and most people LOVE this book. 

It is interesting to read it after listening to his talks on Kingdom at the Hollywood Presbyterian Church in 1990. That teaching series was the genesis of this book. 

Abundant life is what it is all about. Life in the KINGDOM is so fun and exciting and wonderful. I believe with all my heart that Jesus was the smartest man who every walked this earth, and apprenticing myself to Him is what life is all about!

Willard suggests that one soak in and meditate on many Scripture passages, and the Renovaré Institute has already included two of those passages in the "praxis" (a fancy word for practice) portion of their curriculum. In August, I soaked deeply in Colossians 3:1-17. So YUMMY! September's Praxis Exercise is the Lord's Prayer. These are two passages I already had on my summer "Curriculum for Christlikeness" (something he suggests we do in order to be intentional about apprenticing to Jesus) already! 

Highly recommend this book. 

52. The Miller's Dance by Winston Graham

Great in every way!

53. The Loving Cup (Poldark Series #10)

I am so amazed at how this saga continues to enthrall me and surprise me! There were a couple of shockers her that made me gasp out loud in the quiet library where I was reading! Great series!

51. Life in the Trinity by Fairbairn

I do like this book. It is readable theology. I liked his take on looking at what the early church fathers wrote, and it helped that I had read Athanasius' On the Incarnation earlier in the year for the Renovaré Book Club. This book is for the Renovaré Institute. (Thank you Justine for helping me learn how to make the l'accent aigu!)

He talks of the "Scarlet Thread" throughout Scripture. I didn't know it was commonly embraced in evangelical circles today. If you follow my other blog: www.3yearbiblebookclub.blogspot.com, you know I am all about the "Scarlet Thread."

I was reading his book while in a row boat fishing at Clear Lake. My friend, Gladwin, grabbed the book and thought it very readable. He is a big theology person. I could be, but I don't want to be. I just want to love God. But this book is a good introduction to theology that emphasizes the relational aspect.

50. The Stranger from the Sea by Winston Graham

I just had to include this cover of the book because my library has the original hardback version of the the book published in 1981. It amazes me that he wrote the twelve books in the series between 1945 - 2002 with a 20 year hiatus between books 4 & 5!

This is book 8/12. Love this cover! :) Love the storyline with more concentration on the next generation of Poldarks/Warleggan, especially Jeremy. 

48-49 The Four Swans and The Angry Tide

The plot thickens. At the end of the Angry Tide, that is the end of the series from the 70's. So, I wasn't super surprised at its ending, but from here on out, the Poldark saga will be new material. (Except there was a movie that we saw with the next generation of Poldarks, but I don't really remember much about it.) The Four Swans had something very different from the old TV version, and it will be interesting to see how the new series handles it! 
Again, the writing is excellent. My husband and I both intersected on the same novel over our anniversary weekend so I read him the story on the way to the coast and back with our own copies to read in between. We walked about 12 miles on Saturday around Newport, but we managed to get many pages of reading in while we were there.

Quote that hit me in light of unrest all over the world today:

"All atrocities are duly punished - or at least avenged. One never knows who begins them - only that they set off a train of consequences that never end."

Ross Poldark in The Angry Tide by Winston Graham

47. Face to Face: Praying the Scriptures for Intimate Worship

I am so behind in my reviews. I always forget to add this little gem into my reading every year. It is a lovely little prayer book with Scripture for each day of a three month cycle. I have use it regularly so go through the whole thing at least once a year. :) I just found it on Kindle this last round. Now I don't have to take my book with me on my walks anymore! 

46. The Black Moon by Winston Graham

The writing is still superb! I wish I would have read this much sooner. It has been delightful to read it over the summer months. My husband is reading them at the same time. So it has been so fun to discuss them! 

45. Warleggan by Winston Graham

He is a more modern day author (even though he has passed away), but he captivates me like an Austen or a Dickens. Some people were just born to write. I don't want to give anything away. I suggest the whole series.