Books I Read in February

Hi friends! I'm trying to get away from Facebook, so I thought I would try a new platform for sharing book posts with people who like to read. One of the reasons FB is the way it is is because users don't pay for it, so I thought I'd try a subscription service. I'll do as many free posts as I can, but if you like to read and like to follow what I read, I'd love if you would subscribe. If I can figure out how this works.
Anyway, here's the main event - books I read in February:
- Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett (audio) – I loved it!
- Searching for Sylvie Lee by Jean Kwok – definitely technically a thriller, but too sad
- The Search Party by Hannah Richell – a very silly thriller, more Lucy Foley than Ruth Ware, but it kept the pages turning
- When Angels Speak of Love: Poems by bell hooks – somehow both sexy and spiritual
- A Lesson in Secrets by Jacqueline Winspear – too slow-paced for me
- The Jane Austen BBC Radio Drama Collection by Jane Austen (audio) – a bit misleading! David Tenant and Benedict Cumberbatch were only in Mansfield Park and not the rest of the stories. I’m grumpy about it.
- Strength to Love by Martin Luther King, Jr. (re-read) – this is the word we need in these days. Read it, friends. Preach it, preachers. Thank God for this witness.
- The Wood at Midwinter by Susanna Clarke – this book is such an adorable little treat. And shockingly Christian (complimentary)
- Living Disability: Building Accessible Futures for Everybody by Emily MaCrae (ed.) – really fascinating, plain-language primer on a number of important subjects for all community builders that include members with disabilities (which is all of us)
- Bleeding Heart Yard by Elly Griffiths – this series is so fascinating. The lead character is the only throughline and each one seems to be a different genre. The first was Gothic horror, the second Thursday Murder Club, and this one a slick, prestige TV police procedural. I wonder what the fourth will be.
- Paul Among the People: The Apostle Reinterpreted and Reimagined in His Own Time by Sarah Ruden – I loved it! The chapter on Philemon was a masterwork.
- Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down: A Theology of Worship for Turn of the Century Culture by Marva Dawn – it is very funny as a Millennial to read this book complaining about Baby Boomers as the young people screwing up the church, though I think she goes too hard on the traditional hymns vs. contemporary worship music stuff. It is also depressing to read such an incisive take on what ails the church from 1995, and realize we knew what that was 30 years ago and did absolutely nothing about it.
- Maskerade by Terry Pratchett (audio) – a super fun send-up of Phantom (and opera) with my favourites Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg (though I did miss Magrat)
- Elegy for Eddie by Jacqueline Winspear – honestly, this might be my favourite Maisie Dobbs yet
- Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch – just ok
- Slow Horses by Mick Herron – I really liked this one
- The Last Word by Elly Griffiths – I’m so sad this series appears to be over! I really enjoyed these characters.
- Rifqa by Mohammed El-Kurd – searing poetry from East Jerusalem that shocked me with its depiction of the horrors faced by its Palestinian residents
- Songs of Suffering: 25 Hymns and Devotions for Weary Souls by Joni Eareckson Tada – hmm. Not what I wanted (our theme for Lent is lament, and I was looking for song options), but still worthwhile.
- More Than Numbers: The Ways Churches Grow by Loren B. Mead – again fascinating and deeply frustrating how much we talked about this in the 90s and then said “that’s nice” and did absolutely nothing
- Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea by Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor – a dense and rich work of history that covers organizing movements throughout the globe over the last couple hundred years. The chapter on the sacred was fascinating and moving, and the virtues of solidarity they ultimately land on precisely what I was looking for. A challenging read but a worthwhile one.
- My Sister’s Big Fat Indian Wedding by Sajni Patel – I wasn’t as into it as I have been her other romances. Maybe because they were so young? I dunno. Just ok.
- Jingo by Terry Pratchett (audio) – some parts were tough to read in the increasing jingoism of today, but I love Commander Vimes so much
- Marple: Twelve New Mysteries by Agatha Christie et. al. – clever and enjoyable re-imaginings of Miss Marple from some of my favourite contemporary women thriller authors
- Truly the Community: Romans 12 and How to Be the Church by Marva Dawn – woof. This one was much rougher than Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down. I disagreed with her a LOT. But I admire her commitments to be sure, and she’s an interesting writer.
- A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Martin Luther King, Jr. – did not finish. I had a dream of spending the whole of Black History Month with King. As soon as this 700 page tome I arrived, though, I knew I had been too ambitious. I was enriched by what I read, and I hope to go back to it, but my dream did not come true this month.