Summer Reading
We Supercinskis have been serious readers this summer, and I have read so many great books that I want to recommend them to you, our faithful readers.
Finished
A Long Way Gone, Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. This is one of the most painful memoirs I have ever read. It is about a twelve-year-old boy forced into war where he witnessed and participated in some of the most horrible violence imaginable, but he tells his story honestly and without self-pitying.
Same Kind of Different as Me: A modern day slave, an international art dealer, and the unlikely woman who bound them together by Ron Hall and Denver Moore. I read most of this book this afternoon, and I am thinking about reading it again. My review doesn’t do it justice, so just read this one. Really, I can’t recommend it enough–go get it!
Stepping Heavenward by Elisabeth Prentiss. As Elisabeth Eliot says on the back cover of my book, I recommend this book “to any woman who wants to walk with God.” Not that it is that necessary, but I found it, though fiction, to be such an encouragement to me in growing in Christlikeness.
Currently Reading
Don’t Make Me Count to Three: A Mom’s Look at Heart-Oriented Discipline by Ginger Plowman. Her book is a wonderful compliment to Shepherding a Child’s Heart, but more on the practical side. She offers many suggestions of the “how” to reprove which I have found to be very helpful.
What Jesus Demands from the World by John Piper. I just started this one after getting it for only $2.50–what a deal! I am excited to read more.
Real Food by Nina Plack. Another that I just started, which is similar to The Omnivore’s Dilemma, one of our favorite food culture books. Another book I can’t wait to get into!
Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic by John de Graaf. This was loaned to us by a friend, who was right on the money in thinking that we would like it. It is a wonderful reminder of why we are told to lay up our treasures in heaven, when the world around us (and our minds) are always wanting to acquire more on earth.
Do you have any recommendations you want to share?
Hi Rachel!
I liked Don’t Make Me Count to Three for the same reason you said…it gave me some good practical applications of the principles set forth in Shepherding a Child’s Heart. I marked several pages to go back to whenever I need a refresher.
I have been reading And Then I Had Kids by Susan Alexander Yates, and it offers broad encouragement and advice to moms. I like it because it takes me out of my narrow focus (how to discipline my 19-month old) and reminds me to look at the big picture of what priorities, relationships, traditions, etc. our family as a whole should be striving for. At first I wasn’t sure I liked this book b/c I thought the author was shying away from taking a side on certain issues (such as how to discipline), but then I learned to appreciate it for what it is.
I have also been reading Loving God With All Your Mind by Elizabeth George, and all I can say is, it is wonderful! I highly recommend it!
On the fiction side, I have gone back to reading all the classics I never read in high school (I didn’t take any English courses in college.) In the past 2 months I have read David Copperfield (wonderful!), I finally read The Hiding Place (which I’m pretty sure you recommended, with very good reason!), and I have just completed a tour of Jane Austen: Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, and Pride and Prejudice (no one can believe that I had never read P&P before, but sadly enough, it’s true!)
Next on my list is Heart of Darkness (Conrad), and then either some Ayn Rand or Ernest Hemingway.
I’d love to hear what suggestions you or Thomas have!
I’m reading Faithful Women and their Extraordinary God by Noel Piper again and it’s even better the second time. These women challenge me and my perspective! I know you’ve read it, Rachel, but reading it again is even better.
Also, I’m reading Heaven by Randy Alcorn and it’s a great theological (but not too lofty) book about all things related to Heaven…it answers any question you’ve ever had about what Heaven is like.
And I just finished Anne of Green Gables and am going to work through the series again. I even wrote in the book the last time I read it: 1990. It’s fun to go back to an old favorite.
Oh Christine, I love the Anne of Green Gables series! I read the first five books a few months ago but had to make myself stop–I wasn’t getting anything done while I was reading them. Maybe I’ll have to borrow 6 and up from you sometime. They are so much better this time around–I missed so much reading them in elementary/middle school.
rachel,
same kind of different looks really good. i want to read that one.
did you know that you can rate and review books on faccebook? i like doind that and seeing what my friends are reading.
-jerod