2020 Reading Wrap Up

 These are a combined list of questions from Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks. She changed it this year. 

How many books did you read? 68

Which book would you recommend everyone read: 

How to Pray: A Simple Guide for Normal People - No matter how much prayer experience you have. This book is so good to read. It led me to some life-changing decisions. 

I also posted all my answers to the study guide questions and have the study guide in a PDF or a Word Document if you want it. I did this with six other people, and it was really a great experience. 

Did you discover any "new to you" authors? 

Frank McCourt. Loved his writing. 

Tell us about your reading year? What was your goal this year and did you have a plan, and/or follow rabbit trails or wing it? 

My goal was to get through all the book lists for the Book Babes Book Club, the Renovare Book Club, Spiritual Direction tests, and last but not least, the 1000 Book to Read Before You Die list.

I also accomplished the big goal of finishing Proust: In Search of Lost Time! WOOHOO!

Where did your armchair travels take you? 

Moscow, Russia, England, World War II Europe, France, Japan, Ireland, Central Valley California, Texas Samoa, All over America with John Steinbeck, Interior Castle of the Soul, Canada

Which books stood out, made an impression and/or stayed with you the longest? What did you learn from them? 

Interior Castle - I had read her autobiography several years ago, but this is her seminal work, and it encouraged me to go on a deeper adventure in Centering Prayer, and I am glad I did.

The Critical Journey - This was a reread as we went deeper into the book for the second year of Spiritual Direction training. It is such a good base for evaluating where a person is in their journey with God. I have it in the back of my mind with my directees. 

Spiritual Direction - I think this is my favorite of all the books on the subject. It is so thorough and practical.

The Golden Compass - So well written and finally read it for me after so much hub-bub about its anti-Christian undertones.

Silence - Jesuits in Japan. Gruesome. So hard to read but SO well-written!

Friday Night Lights - Such an interesting look into life and values in Central Texas. Mesmerizing. (Caused me to watch the movie and the entire TV series.) 

Angela's Ashes - Totally understand why this is on every classics list. WOW! Such a good memoir of poverty in Ireland. 

Bleak House - This might be my favorite Dickens. And the central characters are women. That is unusual for Dickens.

Open Mind, Open Heart - I finally really "get" Centering Prayer as a result of reading and discussing this book with others. 

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek - So a lovely classic. "Wisdom of born of wonder." 

How to Pray: A Simple Guide for Normal People - No matter how much prayer experience you have. This book is so good to read. It led me to some life-changing decisions. 

Hardwiring Happiness - I learned so much from this book that I apply daily. 

Remains of the Day - Delightful. I saw the movie years ago, but the book is so worth reading. 

Travels with Charley - What a wonderful insight into America in the 60s. 

Which book had the most original, most unique story?  

The Golden Compass - So unusual. The writing is near-perfect.

Which book made you laugh? 

Travels with Charley - Steinbeck is so clever. 

Which one made you cry?

Bleak House

Jude, The Obscure


Which book did you like the least and why? 

The Buddha in the Attic - Just a running list of all these Japanese immigrants to California. NO character development. I am so surprised by anyone who would like this book.

Favorite Cover:

68. The Ghost Writer

 I see why Roth won awards. Very good writing. It was not super engaging for me though. 

Summary: The Ghost Writer introduces Nathan Zuckerman in the 1950s, a budding writer infatuated with the great books, discovering the contradictory claims of literature and experience while an overnight guest in the secluded New England farmhouse of his idol, E. I. Lonoff.

At Lonoff's, Zuckerman meets Amy Bellette, a haunting young woman of indeterminate foreign background who turns out to be a former student of Lonoff's and who may also have been his mistress. Zuckerman, with his active, youthful imagination, wonders if she could be the paradigmatic victim of Nazi persecution. If she were, it might change his life.

The first volume in the Zuckerman Bound trilogy and epilogue, The Ghost Writer is about the tensions between literature and life, artistic truthfulness and conventional decency - and about those implacable practitioners who live with the consequences of sacrificing one for the other. 

67. The Splendid and The Vile

 I forgot this review in 2020

The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The newest book by Erik Larson. This guy never misses. It is excellent. It is history and very personal. In 1940-41, 44,652 civilians died and 52,370 were injured in the Blitz! Of those dead, 5,626 were children. Much of it was Churchill's pleas for Roosevelt to get America involved. This would not happen until the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

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66. Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening

 

Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening by Cynthia Bourgeault
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have been growing (and benefitting from) more extended times of Centering Prayer for over two years now. Since June, I have been part of a Zoom group from California that meets twice a week (Centering Prayer - Mercy Center Burlingame (mercy-center.org). I love the accountability, and we have been discussing Open Mind, Open Heart: The Contemplative Dimension of the Gospel every other week. I think that book is a better introduction to Centering Prayer than this one. It is more practical with the "how-tos."  This one is much more into the theological and psychological implications. 

One of the leaders of my California group read from Bourgeault's book. So I read it. It expanded upon some things that I was wondering about when I read Open Mind, Open Heart, but it also got into all this other stuff in the middle of the book that wasn't what I was looking for (it was interesting but a bit too heady).

The end of the book had a thorough explanation of Welcoming Prayer which was just touched on in a CD lecture series I listened to on Centering Prayer. The CDs did not include the speaker's handouts. So I was a bit lost on the Welcoming Prayer part. This book had a detailed diagram about it, and I found that super helpful. So, this helped me like the book by the end.

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65. Opening to God: Lectio Divina and Life as Prayer

 

Opening to God: Lectio Divina and Life as Prayer by David G. Benner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really loved this explanation of Lectio Divina. It gives the big picture of WHY you would do this. It is an ancient practice that has more recently become much more popular.

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64. The Man Who Was Thursday

 

The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G.K. Chesterton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Finally, I read something by Chesterton! This had me engaged. I cannot say I fully understood its meaning though.

Quotes:
“Shall I tell you the secret of the whole world? It is that we have only known the back of the world. We see everything from behind, and it looks brutal. That is not a tree, but the back of a tree. That is not a cloud, but the back of a cloud. Cannot you see that everything is stooping and hiding a face? If we could only get round in front--”

“The Iliad is only great because all life is a battle, The Odyssey because all life is a journey, The Book of Job because all life is a riddle.”


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63. Travels with Charley

 

Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I was enthralled. Gary Senise's narration is the best! It gave me a slice of life across America in September of 1960 (when I was the ripe old age of one year). It is humorous, but it is also quite poignant, especially when he witnessed first hand the "cheerleaders" of New Orleans who were gathered every day to ridicule little black girls who were attending an integrated grammar school. In light of where we find ourselves today, it was especially heartbreaking to read this.

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62. The Stars My Destination

 

The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I am not a huge science fiction fan, but I liked this book. It is about revenge and loosely follows The Count of Monte Christo story that I loved so much when I read it over 15 years ago. The narrator in this audio version was excellent.

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61. The Library Book

 

The Library Book by Susan Orlean
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an absolutely, positively, fascinating book. The story thread throughout the book is the arson fire in 1986 of the downtown Los Angeles Library (https://www.latimes.com/books/la-ca-j... ) but is so much more. This author goes through the history of libraries in general and the LA one in particular. It also goes into issues the library faces today. I really, really loved this book. Highly recommended for anyone who loves the library!

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60. Under the Wide and Starry Sky

 

Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I knew nothing about Robert Louis Stevenson's life and love. It was fascinating. It is slow-moving at the beginning, but I stuck with it, and I am glad I did! It is a work of historical fiction from the perspective of Stevenson and his wife, Fanny. 

My heart and mind went immediately to the copy of A Child's Garden of Verses by Stevenson that my grandmother gave to my father on his 5th birthday in 1923. It is one of my treasured books, illustrated so beautifully. I went to a memory of me memorizing his poem "Block City" and acting it out at the end of my bed. So fun to have the context to his writing. I realized I have read three of his novels: Kidnapped, Treasure Island, and Dr. Jeckle and Mr. Hyde.

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59. Remains of the Day

 

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a dear book. I loved it so much. I loved the movie too. It is such a delightful read. Especially since I am doing the same journey he took in the book on my virtual mission up the length of Great Britain. 

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58. Jesus and the Disinherited by Howard Thurman

 

This book, written in the 40s, is supposed to have greatly influenced Martin Luther King and his philosophy of peaceful civil rights protest. 

It is refreshing to read something from a person who actually has experienced racial injustice rather than a white person pontificating about it. 

It is a gentle treatise. I look forward to getting the study helps from Renovare Book Club in the coming weeks. I am sure it will add to my comprehension of this book. 

56-57. Red Moon Rising and Dirty Glory by Pete Greig

I loved Pete's book How to Pray. I had never heard of the guy, but I have prayed in a 24-7 prayer room since 2009, but I didn't know it was part of Pete's group. When I held How to Pray up on the Zoom screen to one of my directees and also one of the leaders of the prayer, she said, "You're kidding right?" HAHAHAHA. I honestly did not know. Never heard of the guy. I just love to pray, but I don't always follow the latest and greatest leaders. 

I do love how he communicates, and How to Pray got a two thumbs up with our local Renovare Book Club. So, I thought I would read more of the history of the 24-7 movement.

I LOVE first-person memoirs, and Pete is a master storyteller, drawing you in with his wonderful and winsome style. So I ate each book up over the weekend while, at the same time, watching their Online Gathering20. So fun. 

I have been part of prayer movements over the last 30 years, and I think this one is legit and solid and balanced. 

If you love prayer and movement and humor. These books are for you. 

55. Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

This is a satirical novel. So, it was not exactly my cup of tea, but I followed it well. I particularly found the introduction with the author's background to be telling. He wrote out of what he knew: a life of quiet desperation. Sort of sad life, really. This book is considered a classic and on the 1000 Books List. So, I dove in. It does have some funny parts.

Here is how Goodreads summarizes it: 

Although Kingsley Amis's acid satire of postwar British academic life has lost some of its bite in the decades since it was published, it's still a rewarding read. There's no denying how big an impact it had back then. Lucky Jim could be considered the first shot in the Oxbridge salvo that brought us Beyond the Fringe, That Was the Week That Was, and so much more.

In Lucky Jim, Amis introduces us to Jim Dixon, a junior lecturer at a British college who spends his days fending off the legions of malevolent twits that populate the school. His job is in constant danger, often for good reason. Lucky Jim hits the heights whenever Dixon tries to keep a preposterous situation from spinning out of control, which is every three pages or so. The final example of this, a lecture spewed by a hideously pickled Dixon, is a chapter's worth of comic nirvana.

The book is not politically correct (Amis wasn't either), but take it for what it is, you won't be disappointed.

54. Compton Cowboys

 

The Compton Cowboys: The New Generation of Cowboys in America's Urban Heartland by Walter Thompson-Hernandez
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What a great book! This community is 20 minutes away from where I grew up, but it is a world away. I never even knew about the Richland Farms.

Here is their website: https://www.comptoncowboys.com/team

Their website says they are, "A collective of lifelong friends on a mission to uplift their community through horseback and farming lifestyle, all the while highlighting the rich legacy of African-Americans in equine and western heritage."

It is a beautiful book with very personal stories. 

Video of a woman who rides: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AqFB_LA94s&feature=emb_logo  (bring your tissue)

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53. Hardwiring Happiness

 

Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence by Rick Hanson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A fascinating look at the science behind being mindful. The author proposes that our brains are "Velcro for the bad and Teflon for the good." So we need to be intentional about dwelling on the good. It goes along with Philippians 4:8-9, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you."

From this book, you will . . .

-Understand biological wiring and predisposition to having a negative brain
-Learn how happy and sad thoughts are dictated by your brain and how you should respond
- Delve into the science behind why it is so difficult for us to really bask in the good things that happen, and why we immediately hold tight to the negatives
- Discover training for your brain that will teach you how to embrace the positive
- Develop a user-friendly tool kit to expand feelings of happiness while identifying and responding to positive input
- Learn to erase years of negative and traumatic experiences and overcoming fear
- Learn about the power of journaling, gratitude meditation, morning activities to set your brain
- Research about how to HEAL children and bring your own experiences to education
(This summary was from a course on the book here: https://www.hol.edu/courses/hardwirin... )

His acronym for doing this is H.E.A.L.:

HAVE a good experience -
1. Notice one you are already having.
- In the foreground of awareness
- In the background OR
2. Create one.

ENRICH IT - Open your self to it. Enriching makes the experience more powerful by:
-Duration
- Intensity
- Multimodality
- Novelty
- Salience

ABSORB IT
Absorbing makes memory systems more receptive by priming and sensitizing them.
- Intend and sense the experience is sinking into you.
- Imagery – Water into a sponge; golden dust sifting down; a jewel into the treasure chest of the heart
- Sensation – Warm soothing balm
- Giving over to the experience; letting it change you
- Letting go of resisting, grasping, clinging: “craving”

LINK IT - Feel it and let it soothe the negative parts of you (the things that have VELCROD to your brain.)

I read this because next month is a Gratitude month, and I am going to take one experience from the day and apply this!

This website has a wonderful podcast interview with the author:

https://chriskresser.com/how-to-hardwire-happiness-with-dr-rick-hanson/ 

The transcript is also on the website if you prefer to read it. 

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52. How to Pray: A Simple Guide for Normal People

 

How to Pray: A Simple Guide for Normal People by Pete Greig
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was a delightful read. Even if you are established in your prayer life, it has great value in inspiring you and seeing your place in God's Kingdom coming. Greig is funny and insightful. I loved his analogies and stories from his own life.

I love that the book also refers to a simple and brief online "Prayer Course" and "Prayer Tools." This would be so helpful for many.

I had the special advantage of a study guide, article, webinars, and podcasts with the author offered through the Renovare Book Club (which I also heartily recommend).

This book is true to its byline A Simple Guide for Normal People.

Here are my answers to the Study Guide questions: https://carolhomeschool2.blogspot.com...

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51. The Buddha in the Attic

 

The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a quick read, but it was a big overview of Japanese wives who came to the West Coast in the early 1900s up until World War II. There were no real characters. Just a long list of people in different situations throughout the years. No depth. The Buddha in the Attic reference did not come until 84% of the way through the book, and it was just one comment in another long list. It made me want to read another book about Japanese internment during World War II, but this would not be one I would recommend for that purpose.

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 The Chicago Tribune says, "Read the book in a single sitting, and this chorus of narrators speaks in a poetry that is both spare and passionate, sure to haunt even the most coldhearted among us."^[6]

The Washington Independent Review of Books says "Though Knopf, publisher of The Buddha in the Attic, classifies the book as a novel, it is more like a beautifully rendered emakimono, hand-painted horizontal scrolls that depict a series of scenes, telling a story in frozen moments."^[7]

50. A Full Life by Jimmy Carter

 

A Full Life: Reflections at Ninety by Jimmy Carter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was absolutely delightful! It is a bird's eye view of his life. He doesn't go into much detail about all the eras of his life, but I liked that.

I was in high school when he came to be president. So when he got to his platform in his election, my memory went to my political science class where we had a "mock election," and I was a presidential candidate with "Win with Wardrop" as my campaign slogan (and Sue Brock as my campaign manager). I had to study all the policies of the two candidates (Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter), and debate my policies. (I won in a landslide, by the way.) I remember the gas lines during the energy crisis and the hostages in Iran. I really liked to hear his thoughts about the B-1 bomber since my dad was working on that project and lost his job when Carter came to be president. I liked hearing about his convictions about God, abortion, peace in the Middle East, etc. It was a super informative book. Loved it from beginning to end! He is a great man.

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48. A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life

 

 

I read a pamphlet by William in my 20s, thinking it was his whole book. Now I see it was only an edited version of that book that is over 300 pages. Renovare Book Club is reading this next year so it is forcing me to read the whole thing!

Written in 1729, it is a bit dated but has some great pearls of wisdom. I found him a bit "do this" "don't do that" kind of person rather than how I see the desire to do God's will coming out of intimacy with Him rather than behavior modification. Law wrote this in his early 30s, and he may have had more of an "overflow of the love of God" kind of mentality later on in life. 

This book is about the close relationship between the devotional life and practical service to others. It is about being "forever great in the presence of God" rather than the eyes of the world because the church of his time had fallen into mediocrity.  What I found interesting is that William Law's writings influenced William Wilberforce (one of my heroes) the Wesley brothers (although he was sharply criticized by John Wesley when Law turned to mysticism later in life), Gibbon, George Whitefield, and Samuel Johnson!

I found this had some real gems and some very slow parts. Overall, I am glad I read the whole thing!