2021 is a new year for reading, too. There are so many books out there that I’m eager to read, and the list is sure to grow more quickly than I can keep up as the year goes by. Whatever else may happen this year, we are not living in boring times.
A Promised Land, Transcend, and Jesus and John Wayne are at the top of the non-fiction list. I expect each will help me to understand a little better the world I inhabit. I’ve struggled to understand the current political environment and reconcile it to my experiences in connection with my (largely positive) experiences with evangelicalism earlier in my life. The tension has taken a toll on some relationships in my life and has been the source of considerable stress for me, perhaps in part because of the time I spend living in my own thoughts.
I like contemporary fiction that is substantive and thought-provoking. Some of my favorites in the recent past are The Vanishing Half and A Place for Us. I found Rodham very entertaining (and also oddly disheartening in the early descriptions of the cost of being a smart girl). I also like certain novels that are quick page-turners and entertainment, the reading equivalent of a network drama. (While there is sometimes some thought-provoking theme or incident, I have come to think of these as “fluff” in classifying them in my reading content mix. I feel like it’s more pejorative than I mean it to be, though.) I’ve resisted using my reading hours on that type of book in the past, but since acquiring a kindle last year, I’ve realized this is a truly enjoyable source of entertainment that I should just allow myself. It makes me happier than passing the time at home binging mediocre TV.
And of course, I want to continue my way through some of the classics I hope to experience with my kids as they continue to grow into readers themselves: Anne of Green Gables, Little House, and Harry Potter are all in my future in that regard. I read most of the Anne books for the first time recently (a couple still to go) and the Little House books in my own childhood, but I’ve never read Harry Potter and am looking forward to doing so alongside my oldest, probably in the summer.
Books are great jumping-off points for me, so I hope to use this space in part to process and express my thoughts on some of what I read.
Hope Runs On 