One of my goals this year was to increase the amount of reading that I have done. And I actually accomplished it!! I actually more than read enough books to create a top 10 list for the year! Here's my list:
10) Christian Worship by Gail Ramshaw
I will admit that I read this as part of a conversation with the Worship and Music committee at church, but it was a good re-cap of what I learned in my liturgy classes in seminary. Definitely an introductory text, as is stated in the intro to the book, but good none the less.
9) God is Not Great, by Christopher Hitchens
A pastor reading atheist writings? what? Well, I'm not the first and won't be the last. It's always good to get some perspective from those who vehemently disagree with you about the notion of God and faith. And though I struggled a lot with Hitchen's arguments and disagreed with his practice of taking only the most offensive parts that the religious world has to offer and using them as his proofs for why Religion spoils things, I did appreciate his view point, none the less. If you want to get a good perspective on how someone from outside the faith realm views religious folks, this is a good place to start.
8) Out of Oz, by Gregory Maguire
This is the last of the now four part Wicked series. I found it my least favorite and the slowest going of all four books. I am tempted to give it another chance, though, after watching the Wizard of Oz and wondering in my mind what Maguire had in mind in sending Dorothy back to Oz.
7) A Lion among Men, by Gregory Maguire
I really liked hearing this tail about the Cowardly Lion. Getting to hear the Wizard of Oz account from his perspective...plus some other parts of his own story, was really interesting.
6) Son of a Witch, by Gregory Maguire
What if the wicked witch had a son? What would he be like? I enjoyed the ups and downs and adventure and intrigue in this book. It was a good follow up to Wicked.
5) Wicked, by Gregory Maguire
As usual, the original book in a series was the best. I didn't get through it as fast as I wanted to, but it was a really good read. Definitely one to go back to at some point now that I've read the other three books in the series.
4) Mockingjay, by Suzanne Collins
Good ending to the trilogy. Wish it hadn't been as violent at the end as it was, but in the end it turned out ok. I'm interested to see what they do with this in movie form.
3) Catching Fire, by Suzanne Collins
Couldn't put the book down and then was super disappointed that it was a cliff hanger (though I suppose she needed some way to get folks to by the third book!). As with the first book, I saw a thread of social commentary running through it that I found quite interesting.
2) The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
Got hooked in to this book right away. Some interesting social commentary on rich vs. poor...dominant political party vs the rest of us. The movie wasn't nearly as good, but it helped to visualize what Collins wrote about.
1) The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot
LOVED, loved, loved, loved, loved, this book. It was the perfect book for someone like me who has an interest in the biological sciences and in history. Skloot did a great job of weaving in the medical history behind the He-la cell line and cancer research with the story of Henrietta Lacks, her family, and Skloot's adventure to uncover the real story about who Henrietta Lacks was. Highly recommend this book.
I'm currently in progress with The Hobbit and am enjoying it very much. Then I will move on to "The Paris Wife."
On my shelf for 2013:
A Wrinkle in Time (How did I never read this as a kid?)
Accompany Them with Singing, by Tom Long(I WILL finally finish this!)
The Testament by John Grisham
Lots of children's books :)
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