• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About
  • My Books
    • True You
    • Katharina and Martin Luther
    • 50 Women Every Christian Should Know
    • Spiritual Misfit
  • Blog
  • On My Bookshelves
  • Contact
  • Privacy & Disclosure Policy

Michelle DeRusha

Every Day Faith. Faith Every Day.

What I'm Reading

What I’m Reading {Summer 2018 Edition}

August 1, 2018 By Michelle

When I was a kid I spent most of my summer afternoons on the screened-in porch, tucked into a rocking chair, the vinyl seat cushion sticking to the back of my legs in the New England humidity.

Often my best friend Andrea would fold herself into her own rocking chair next to me, and together we’d while away the day in quiet contentment, each with a book in our hands. It seems funny now that we intentionally got together in order to spend hours without speaking, each of us with her nose in her own book. And yet, there was something perfectly right about those long, hot summer afternoons spent in companionable silence.

Decades later, Andrea lives 1,500 miles away, I don’t have a screened-in porch or a set of aluminum rocking chairs, and I don’t often have a whole summer afternoon in which to dedicate solely to a book.

Nowadays I often pull a novel from my purse to read a few pages in the car as I wait for a boy to emerge from one activity or another. Or I squeeze in a chapter before turning out the light, my eyelids growing heavy but my mind and heart still eager to turn the next page.

Reading will always be my pastime of choice, which is why every few months or so I love to share the books I’ve enjoyed lately (and I love to hear what you’re reading too – let me know in the comments!).

Here’s what’s been stacked on my nightstand this summer:

The Edge of Over There
by Shawn Smucker
Genre: YA Fiction

The Edge of Over There has a Madeleine L’Engle-ish feel – a little bit fantasy, a little bit mystery, and a whole lot riveting. Though it’s technically Young Adult fiction, I guarantee this book will have you reading late into the night, no matter what your age. Start with Shawn’s The Day the Angels Fell first, if you haven’t read that one yet, and then move on to this equally satisfying sequel.

Why I loved it: It’s a page-turner with a fast-paced plot, but it also got me thinking about deeper questions.

Raise Your Voice: Why We Stay Silent and How to Speak Up
by Kathy Khang
Genre: Christian nonfiction

A powerful, convicting new voice, Christian activist Kathy Khang makes an important, convincing argument for why it’s imperative that we use our God-given voices and intellect to confront racism, discrimination and injustice. As a person who is often hesitant to speak up, this book gave me a much-needed push toward raising my own voice, as well as a whole lot to think about.

Why I loved it: Kathy’s approach is grace-ful yet firm. I deeply appreciate her wisdom and her courage in telling the hard parts of her story.

Hourglass: Time, Memory, Marriage
By Dani Shapiro
Genre: Memoir

I’ve read all of Dani Shapiro’s memoirs (Devotion, Slow Motion) and some of her fiction, and Hourglass is my favorite so far. Tender, intimate and vulnerable, yet also ruthlessly honest, Shapiro looks hard at her own marriage — “a reckoning in which she confronts both the life she dreamed of and the life she made, and struggles to reconcile the girl she was with the woman she has become.”

Why I loved it: Maybe it’s the voyeur in me, but I love a good memoir for its intimacy and vulnerability and the way it prompts me to look at my own life. And this one has the added benefit of being expertly written in beautiful, luminous prose.

A Year by the Sea: Thoughts of an Unfinished Woman
By Joan Anderson
Genre: Memoir

When she hits middle-age, her children grown and married, her husband focused on a new job, Joan Anderson decides to take a hiatus and go her own way. Her year alone on Cape Cod is a rebirth of sorts, a time in which she begins to know her true self for the first time in a long time, perhaps ever. A Year by the Sea is a beautiful reflection on the passage of time, on seasons and the gifts of nature and on the process of deep transformation. Wise, compelling, poignant – this is a book I will return to again.

Why I loved it: At 48, I’m nearly the age Anderson was when she spent her year by the sea and penned this memoir about her transformative experience. I don’t know…maybe I am on the cusp of a mid-life crisis? All I know is that this book spoke to me deeply.

The Poisonwood Bible
By Barbara Kingsolver
Genre: Fiction

I tried reading this one years ago and put it down. But this past spring my son Noah read it for one of his high school classes, which compelled me to pick it up again, and I am SO glad I did. A riveting, compelling saga, The Poisonwood Bible is narrated in alternating chapters by the four daughters and the wife of a Baptist missionary who relocates his family to the Belgian Congo in the early 1960s in order to save souls. I’m a little rusty on my African history and my knowledge of post-colonialism, so I undoubtedly missed some key points, but wow, this book was fascinating. It had me staying up WAY past my bedtime most nights. Kingsolver is a master storyteller, and this book, one that is at the same time very dark and richly beautiful, is one I will not soon forget.

Why I loved it: Plain and simple, The Poisonwood Bible is a masterful novel with deeply compelling themes, rich, multi-layered characters and stunning prose.

Up Next in My To-Be-Read Stack:

An Unfinished Marriage and The Second Journey, sequels to Joan Anderson’s A Year by the Sea.

March, by Geraldine Brooks – The story of the absent father in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women.

A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table, by Molly Wizenberg – Part cookbook, part memoir, my favorite (Though I don’t actually cook, I like to read about cooking, which is odd, I realize. Also, I got this for .99 cents on Kindle; check to see if the deal is still on!).

Food: A Love Story, by Jim Gaffigan – I’m reading this one for my book club in August. I think Jim Gaffigan is hilarious, so I’m looking forward to this.

So tell me, what have you read this summer that has you staying up way past your bedtime? 

 

Filed Under: book reviews, books Tagged With: books, What I'm Reading

What I’m Reading {spring 2016 edition}

March 31, 2016 By Michelle

Books3

I realized recently that although reading comprises a large part of my personal entertainment, I hardly ever talk about the books I’m reading here on the blog (although I often do in The Back Patio, my monthly newsletter). I’m figuring since you’re reading this blog, you’re probably a reader, so why not share some of my recent good reads, right? Here goes…

Out of the House of BreadOut of the House of Bread: Satisfying Your Hunger for God with the Spiritual Disciplines
Preston Yancey
I love how Preston breathes new life into ancient spiritual practices like the Examen, Lectio Divina, and intercessory prayer by weaving aspects of each along with a step in the process of making a loaf of bread from scratch. The metaphor works beautifully, yet Preston also writes in such a way that the content and ideas are accessible and relatable. And that cover! Delectable.

9781601425478Night Driving: A Story of Faith in the Dark
Addie Zierman
This book simply knocked my socks off. First of all, Addie Zierman is a phenomenal writer and a masterful storyteller. And second, she asks hard questions and isn’t afraid to be vulnerable on the page, a quality I deeply appreciate in memoir writing. From the back cover: “Against the backdrop of rushing interstates, strangers’ hospitality, gas station coffee, and screaming children, Addie stumbles toward a faith that makes room for doubt, disappointment, and darkness…and learns that sometimes you have to run away to find your way home.”

For the LoveFor the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards
Jen Hatmaker
Do you know Jen Hatmaker? She is side-splittingly funny – I mean, laugh-out-loud while you are reading…how rare is that? I have to admit, I expected this book to have more of a continuous narrative, but in actuality, it’s really a compilation of essays that read a lot like blog posts. That’s okay. For the Love is well-worth the read, not just for the laughs, but also for Hatmaker’s refreshingly inclusive approach to Christianity.

When Breath Becomes AirWhen Breath Becomes Air
Paul Kalanithi
I read this memoir in a single sitting and turned the last page after 1 a.m., which, for this in-bed-at-9:30pm girl, is highly unusual. Prepare yourself; this is a tough but beautiful read, published posthumously after the author, who had just completed his residency in neurosurgery, died from lung cancer in his mid-30s. From the book jacket: “What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when the future, no longer a ladder toward your goals in life, flattens out into a perpetual present? These are some of the questions Kalanithi wrestles with in this profoundly moving, exquisitely observed memoir.”

EssentialismEssentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
Greg McKeown
This book has helped me think about my career as a writer and my life in general from the perspective of this one critical question: What is my essential intent? (in other words, what’s my sweet spot, my mission – what am I trying to achieve? And what can I eliminate to become more focused on that?). From the back cover: “The Way of the Essentialist isn’t about getting more done in less time. It’s about getting only the right things done. It is not  a time management strategy, or a productivity technique. It is a systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential, then eliminating everything that is not, so we can make the highest possible contribution towards the things that really matter.”

The Light of the WorldThe Light of the World
Elizabeth Alexander
This memoir is really an ode to marriage and an elegy, a poem of sorts (though it’s not poetry, it’s so beautifully written and lyrical, it reads like it) by Alexander to her late husband Ficre, an artist who died unexpectedly just a few days after his 50th birthday. I listened to this one via Audible during my morning jogs; Alexander herself is the narrator, which made this memoir all the more personal. Powerful and fierce, yet tender, eloquent, and at times heart wrenching, The Light of the World was one of the best books I’ve read in a long time.

Trouble I've SeenTrouble I’ve Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism
Drew G.I. Hart
I didn’t find this book quite as gripping as Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me (which isn’t quite fair, since they are different genres – Coates’ book is memoir, while Hart’s is straight-up non-fiction), but Trouble I’ve Seen still gave me a lot to think about. Hart walks the reader through issues including mass incarceration, police brutality, antiblack stereotypes, and poverty, explaining each within the larger framework of white surpremacy and white privilege. I really appreciated the fact that he offered concrete practices and strategies to consider as we think about the role of the church in confronting racism today.

Up next: Elizabeth Esther’s Spiritual Sobriety (releasing April 19) and Mary Karr’s The Art of Memoir. And I didn’t even include fiction in this post – that’s a whole other post in and of itself!

What about you? What are you reading these days? Tell me! And hey, if you’re looking for what to read next, check out Anne Bogel’s podcast by that name. I guarantee your list will grow by leaps and bounds. 

*Note: This post includes Amazon affiliate links, which means I earn gift card credits if you click over through these links and buy one of these books. I kind of love that. 

Filed Under: books Tagged With: What I'm Reading

Primary Sidebar

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a Triple Type A, “make it happen” (my dad’s favorite mantra) striver and achiever (I’m a 3 on the Enneagram, which tells you everything you need to know), but these days my striving looks more like sitting in silence on a park bench, my dog at my feet, as I slowly learn to let go of the false selves that have formed my identity for decades and lean toward uncovering who God created me to be.

Read Full Bio

Available Now — My New Book!

Blog Post Archives

Footer

Copyright © 2023 Michelle DeRusha · Site by The Willingham Enterprise· Log in