What’s on My Nightstand | Episode 5
I love to know what people are reading! One of my favorite questions to ask is, “What are you reading right now?” In this week’s episode, I’m answering that question.
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The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry: How to Stay Emotionally Healthy and Spiritually Alive in the Chaos of the Modern World by John Mark Comer From personal experience, John Mark speaks about silence, solitude, and practicing the Sabbath. A favorite quote says, “The average guy spends 10,000 hours playing video games by age 21. My mind jumps to the research around this rule. In 10,000 hours, you could master any craft or become an expert in any field.” Comer talks at length about redeeming the time we have as Ephesians says. He speaks frankly about our schedules and how they reveal what we value.
The Awakening of Miss Prim by Natalia Sanmartin Fenollera This book is such a delight, I am reading it again! The Awakening of Miss Prim tells the story of a young, single woman, Prudencia Prim, who answers an ad to be a librarian for a single man with several children. She goes to the house and “the man in the winged chair” hires her. As she lives on the premises, she enjoys the life the man has created with like-minded community. It is a literary person’s dream read!
The Keys of the Kingdom by A.J. Cronin This book was written in 1941 about a boy growing up in Scottland with a Catholic father and Protestant mother. His childhood begins cozy but becomes tragic. Through a series of events, he becomes a Catholic priest. Then he is sent to China as an early missionary of the Catholic Church. Note, the theology is horrible, but the character, humility, and brokenness is incredibly inspirational. I have read this book multiple times and highly recommend it to anyone!
Book I’m About to Read (Again): Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell “Set in English society before the 1832 Reform Bill, Wives and Daughters centres on the story of youthful Molly Gibson, brought up from childhood by her father. When he remarries, a new step-sister enters Molly’s quiet life – loveable, but worldly and troubling, Cynthia. The narrative traces the development of the two girls into womanhood within the gossiping and watchful society of Hollingford.” (description from Goodreads)
The Endless Steppe by Esther Hautzig “In June 1941, the Rudomin family is arrested by the Russians. They are accused of being capitalists, “enemies of the people.” Forced from their home and friends in Vilna, Poland, they are herded into crowded cattle cars. Their destination: the endless steppe of Siberia.
For five years, Esther and her family live in exile, weeding potato fields, working in the mines, and struggling to stay alive. But in the middle of hardship and oppression, the strength of their small family sustains them and gives them hope for the future.” (description from the publisher)
