Off the Grid/On the Bookshelf

Well, it's been back-to-school week here after a nice long weekend up at the cottage. We had a great time hanging out with an old friend of mine and her new husband (and the kids thoroughly enjoyed playing with her daughter), and also getting to know a few members of my brother-in-law-to-be's upcoming wedding party. There were about 20 people up there on Saturday (thankful for a larger space and great weather!) and various somewhat smaller amounts on Friday and Sunday, which was a lot of fun, but not exactly the best environment for burying yourself in a book (unless you're an introvert like me, in which case, you at least try to steal a few quiet minutes in a corner by yourself with your nose in a good read)! I can't complain: it was great to have some deep and very encouraging conversations, eat some tasty food, spend time oscillating between cool swims and the warm sunshine of the dock or deck and--as often happens--come home more tired than when I left :)

In the calmer, less-populated hours of the weekend, I did manage to dig into a couple books. Here's what has been on my nightstand (or in my suitcase) over the last few weeks:

Acts: Having finished Genesis, I started reading through Acts, mainly for the purpose of reading through the many sermons there and seeing how the apostles connected the stories and people of the Old Testament (some of whom I'd just read about) to the gospel of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Of course, I'm also thinking about the early church and God's activity there. Perhaps more on that later, if I can clear out my blogging backlog!

Rescuing Ambition by Dave Harvey: Is ambition a bad word in your mind? Or do you spend a lot of time pursuing your own ends (whatever they may be)? Do you ever struggle with your own mixed motives in the things you do? My answer to all of those questions was "yes", so I figured it would be a good idea to read this book that's been sitting around our house for a year or so. And I was right--this very readable, often humorous and very insightful book works its way through defining sinful ambition, godly ambition, the risks and rewards involved in ambition, what to do when ambition fails, how to be ambitious for your local church and a few other relevant topics, all with practical illustrations and in a gospel-centred manner. I feel like I've come away with at least the head knowledge to better discern between self-centred and God-centred ambition in my own life, and with a greater desire to be willing to risk whatever necessary to see God's glory spread in my home, my local area and across the world. I highly recommend this one!

The Heart of Anger: Practical Help for the Prevention and Cure of Anger in Childrenby Lou Priolo: I'm not terribly far into this Biblical-counseling book on how to deal with angry children (and their parents!), but it's already been a great help in seeing areas in my parenting where I've been wrong and/or need to grow, and given me some ideas of how to help and instruct my angry child(ren). This book is intensely practical, easy to understand, and contains a lot of wisdom on growing in godly relationships. This book deals very frankly with parental sin and children's sin, and seeks to facilitate specific growth and change. It is also very clear that these changes are only possible (but in fact, ARE possible) by God's grace. A friend with a similarly-temperamented child recommended this book to me years ago, and I wish I'd heeded her recommendation and read it sooner. At any rate, I am reading it now, and so far, would readily recommend it to anyone concerned about their, or their children's, anger.

Deadlineby Randy Alcorn: Yes, I'm reading the first book of Alcorn's trilogy after I read the third one. They are not so heavily connected that you need to read them in order, and I had the other one before I got this one. The storyline of this murder mystery is very interesting, and I'm pretty gripped. The book is about a journalist investigating the murder of his friends, one of whom was something of an abortion-promoting doctor (but did the pro-lifers do it??), and there are several moving sections in it about the ravages of abortion, as well as hope for those who've been involved in abortions. It also deals with the issue of journalistic integrity. I will be honest: there are a few short sections that I've found a bit, well, tedious, for lack of a better word. One of the subplots of the book is the other friend's experience in heaven, and there are sections in which he is instructed on life in heaven by his angelic guardian. Some of these (especially earlier on in the book) seem to me to be a bit too didactic and slow-paced for the murder mystery genre. Also, having read several other Alcorn books, including his non-fiction Heaven (which I recommend), the heavenly sections here are often repeats of similar things in the other books. I personally thought the writing in Deception (with its more sporadic, less speculative heavenly scenes) flowed better than in this book, and kept the suspense up to a page-turner level. Just being honest! But on the whole, it's a very good book, it fills in some of the back stories of characters from Deception, and if you're not familiar with Alcorn's writings on heaven, you may find quite a bit here to think about--it's not just white robes, harps and sitting endlessly on the clouds :)

Charlie And The Chocolate Factory Cd (Unabridged)by Roald Dahl: Okay, I haven't read this one recently. But we DID listen to it on audiobook on the way to and from the cottage. Dahl can be a little cynical and the parents in his books are often nitwits, which may not have the best influence on impressionable grade-schoolers who are already tempted to think their parents aren't quite with it. But in this book, gluttony, greed, laziness and bad manners are shown to be the destructive things that they are, whether practiced by children or adults, and the humble, generous child and his family get the final rewards (oops... retroactive spoiler alert if you didn't already read this as a kid!). Some moral lessons worth discussing with the kids include the negative appearance and effects of disrespectful behaviour and disdain for authority. Also, Dahl's caricatures and dry wit are hilarious, and while our older two kids love this book, it was Nathan and I who laughed out loud more often than they did.

Now that we're back in school mode, I anticipate that the majority of my reading will be school-related, and of little interest to the general public. But I am hoping to dig into the two commentaries on Exodus that just arrived in the mail today, as well as The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God, The Hole in Our Holiness: Filling the Gap between Gospel Passion and the Pursuit of Godlinessand           Dominionin the coming months. Stay tuned.