Reading Update

Book #36 of 2019 was a devotional by Christine Harms called In the Face of Injustice. For thirty days, there's a daily Bible reading, a prayer, and a link to a related song on YouTube - all on the theme of dealing with the injustice that so often surrounds us in this world. At that link, you can get it FOR FREE until the end of April! Go get it right now! After that it will be available on Amazon.

Book #37 was a re-read, In Other Words, by Jhumpa Lahiri. I wrote about it here. I went back to this book because I read an article about Lahiri editing a book of short stories in Italian. Imagine: Jhumpa Lahiri didn't start studying Italian until she was in college, and now she has written a book in it and edited an anthology full of some of the biggest names in the Italian publishing world. This just amazes me. In the book she talks about how when she moved to Italy, she gave up reading and writing in English, something I can't even fathom doing. This book is a bilingual edition; Lahiri wrote it in Italian, and then someone else translated it into English.

Book #39 was another re-read, Rob Bell's How to Be Here: A Guide to Creating a Life Worth Living. I wrote about it before here.

Book #40 was The Jesus Life: Eight Ways to Recover Authentic Christianity, by Stephen W. Smith. I thought this had a lot of useful insights, and I was only momentarily put off by his using of the Haiti earthquake as an example of badness: "Our faith is a story. The events of 9/11, earthquakes in Haiti, and economic downturns bring us to our knees." Indeed.

Books #38 and 41 were the two most recent Inspector Gamache novels, Glass Houses and Kingdom of the Blind, by Louise Penny. I really didn't enjoy the drug plotlines, but overall I have liked this series and will probably read the next one when it comes out.