Let's Bust a Recap : The Selection Trilogy

We're going to start this post off with a little bookish confession: I'm not a library user. I don't even have a library card, and I haven't checked any books out of any library since I was a child. I'm a slow reader and I don't need the pressure of deadlines in my reading life. But in January, when the book club decided to read The Selection by Kiera Cass, I borrowed my husband's library card, got me down to our local library in town and checked out the trilogy. I didn't really have any personal desire to read these books, and I figured they would be a one-off for me. 

(SPOILER: I was right.)

The Selection, The Elite, and The One by Kiera Cass were published in 2012, 2013, and 2014 respectively, and from what I can tell, the trilogy is pretty popular with its demographic. There are a couple other books in the series along with several spin-off novellas. Every person that I know who has read these loved them, so my opinion is definitely in the minority on this set (although I found plenty of my people in the Goodreads review section). 

In The Selection, we are introduced to 17 year old America Singer who through a series of absurd unfortunate events, finds herself in the Selection with 34 other young ladies who are in a Bachelor-style competition to marry Prince Maxon of their dystopian country Illéa. America has recently broken up with her secret boyfriend Aspen and really has no interest in marrying Prince Maxon because she's so above all this and is only participating so she can get some good meals and help financially support her family back home. (Can you just see me rolling my eyes?) 

A lot of people have described these books as a cross between The Hunger Games and The Bachelor. I've never had any interest in The Hunger Games—books or movies—and I find the concept of The Bachelor completely inane. So it didn't come as a shock to me that I couldn't get into these books. On top of the fact that the content wasn't my cup of tea to begin with, I found the writing rather juvenile, America to be an entirely unlikable character, and most of the plot hilariously predictable and impossibly convenient. The books weren't hard to read, and I can see why girls might find this series entertaining, but I found America's flip-flopping, spineless, wishy-washy attitude tiresome by the end of the first book and nearly unbearable by the end of the second. I didn't think any of the characters were written with any consistency, and Cass didn't develop any of the remotely interesting plot points she dropped in the book. It just didn't work for me.

My book club was less than impressed with my complete lack of enthusiasm for these so I'll reiterate that my opinion—at least among the people I actually know in real life—is definitely in the minority. I'm glad I was able to find them at our library so I didn't waste any money on them and was able to return them for someone else to enjoy. But these just weren't for me, and I wouldn't recommend them. (Book Club, please don't kick me out.)

Have you ever come to blows with a friend over a book that she loved and you didn't?

Let's Bust a Recap : The Blue Castle

Up to this point in my life, I would tell you that I am a huge fan of Anne Shirley. In every scenario where I'm mysteriously left on a deserted island until the end of time, the Anne books are the ones I'm taking with me. I have two entire sets of the eight book series: my beloved paperbacks that my mom gave me when I was in the fourth grade, and the gorgeous hardcovers my husband found for me at an obscure online Canadian bookstore. I've lost track of how many times I've read this series from beginning to end, most recently finishing them up once again in January of last year. These books are always in my rotation, and much as I might try, I cannot choose a favorite from among them.

But this post isn't about Anne of Green Gables. My point is: up to this point in my life, I would tell you I'm an Anne Shirley fan—not a Lucy Maud Montgomery fan. Much as with my darling Christy Miller and Robin Jones Gunn, I had some secret aversion to venturing outside of the Green Gables canon into Montgomery's other work of which there is much to be explored. But just as I discovered a deeply held love for Gunn's work outside the world of Christy and friends, I have recently dipped my toes into Montgomery's Blue Castle and have found myself just as charmed and delighted with her writing as I might have expected given she authored my favorite books in the world. 

And now there's no turning back. 

For some reason that I can only chalk up to retail therapy (of the bookish variety) in the midst of the monster life changes we were going through, I found myself adding a host of L.M. Montgomery paperbacks to my AbeBooks shopping cart last summer. Instead of just buying a couple titles to ease myself slowly into this venture, I checked out with thirteen. Because go big or go home, right? And a few months later around my birthday, I decided to treat myself to one to fill the "book from your favorite genre" box on my unread shelf book bingo card. 

And that one was The Blue Castle, originally published in 1926. This novel is one of the very few adult works of fiction that Montgomery penned in her career and the only one set entirely outside the setting of Prince Edward Island. In it, we meet twenty-nine year old Valancy Stirling who is now very much considered an old maid by her nag of a mother and the rest of her dreadful extended family. After being diagnosed with a terminal heart condition (which she keeps secret), Valancy decides to start making up her own mind about things beginning with a little brutal honesty with her family—leading them to believe she has lost her ever-loving mind—and eventually resulting in a marriage proposal to the town renegade Barney Snaith—leading them to absolute shock and horror.

And I loved every word. L.M. Montgomery's wit is razor sharp and her prose as lovely as ever. I was drawn into the story, and while the plot certainly wasn't earth-shattering, I still enjoyed the journey all the way to the pleasant conclusion. 

While nothing will ever supplant my precious Anne books (or my Christy books for that matter), I am very much looking forward to continuing my jaunt through the rest of Montgomery's work, and am so pleased to find I have a whole new set of books I can count on when I need a guaranteed reading success. I'd definitely recommend The Blue Castle, and in fact, I promptly pressed it into my mother's hands nearly as soon as I finished reading it myself. 

What author never lets you down when you need a guaranteed good read? And where should I head next with L.M. Montgomery? I'm thinking Emily of New Moon.

Let's Bust a Recap : Church Membership Books

Today's post is a 3-for-1. Last Sunday, after sharing our testimonies with our church, they voted to accept us as members. Hooray! One of the most intimidating things for me about uprooting our lives and moving last year was the prospect of finding a new church family. Not only have I never had to do that before—I grew up in church under my own dad's preaching—I deeply loved our Florida church family and the thought of finding any other church that I could love like that was a near-impossibility in my mind. I knew God would guide us to the right place, but the whole endeavor was daunting nonetheless.

As it turns out, we ended up joining the very first church we visited in North Carolina. To be clear, it was not the only church we visited, but it was the first church we visited our first Sunday after moving here. I think God has a sense of humor that way. 

Anyways, being the reader that I am, I decided to seize the opportunity to read the books we have about church membership. I've always taken church membership seriously, and because of the way I was raised, I took it for granted that all Christians took church membership seriously as well. As I grew and observed the world around me, I quickly realized that this is not the case. Church-hopping or even regularly attending a church without ever actually joining seem to be perfectly reasonable options for a lot of people. Jumping ship as soon as something you don't like occurs seems to be the socially accepted protocol.

So is church membership really important? I believe that it is. But why do I believe that? Before I read these books, I would have had a hard time articulating my answer to that second question.

The three books I read while we were in the process of joining our church are Church Membership by Jonathan Leeman, I Am A Church Member by Thom S. Rainer, and What Is A Healthy Church Member? by Thabiti M. Anyabwile. And I read them in that order. Naturally, reading three books on the same topic by three different authors is going to lead to a little comparing and contrasting, but overall, I found all three books to be helpful and Biblically sound. 

The first book I read, Church Membership by Jonathan Leeman, was the most comprehensive in what church membership is and why it is important. This book helped me solidify why I believe church membership is Scriptural, and this is the book I would hand to the person asking if church membership is really a big deal. I did find Leeman's voice to be a little abrasive at the start of this one. In talking it over with my husband, he made the comment that sometimes Leeman can come across as "This is right because I say it is" instead of "This is right because God says it is" and that did feel true at times as I was reading his book. But it's very easy to read a tone into something based on how I'm feeling as I'm reading it, and the fact of the matter is: Leeman backed everything in the book with Scripture. As I continued to read, that obnoxious edge I felt at the beginning wore off, and by the end I was truly appreciative of Leeman's thorough and instructive approach.

The second book I read, I Am A Church Member by Thom S. Rainer, was the book I was looking for when I began this endeavor. While still giving a clear, Biblical defense for the importance of church membership, Rainer's book was the most practical, giving hands and feet to what it is to be a healthy, functioning church member. This is the book I would hand the person who already has a high view of church membership, but wants to be a better member. This book would be great to do with a small group or in a new member class. Rainer includes excellent study questions at the end of each chapter making it even easier to facilitate that. I also found Rainer's voice to be the most loving and engaging. I read this book easily in one sitting, and I found myself in tears at times while reading it. This is the only book of the three that I definitely see myself revisiting in the future. 

The third book I read, What Is A Healthy Church Member? by Thabiti M. Anyabwile, was the most philosophical. This is a companion book to Mark Dever's books Nine Marks of a Healthy Church and What Is A Healthy Church? (of which I have not read either...and don't intend to). While I didn't disagree with anything in Anyabwile's book, it was my least favorite of the three. It is very Academic and—I'll be totally honest with you right now—very Boring. His writing, in stark contrast to Leeman's and Rainer's, was clinical and unemotional. I found his book to be the least accessible of the three, and I might hand this to the person who is in grad school or is writing their own book on the topic of church membership. 

The best thing I can say for all three of these books is that each of their respective authors backed everything they presented in their books with Scripture. They were each helpful to me, and I'm thankful to have them in my library as a resource on a topic that's important to me. While I probably wouldn't recommend Anyabwile's book to anyone, I would definitely recommend Rainer's or Leeman's depending on what a particular reader might be looking for. 

Mostly, I'm so thankful to God for bringing us to our new church family, and I'm thankful that through this process, He brought me to a deeper understanding of His plan for the local church and church membership. 

Let's Bust a Recap : To All the Boys

Oh Lara Jean. I can't be the only bookworm to happy sigh every time I recall a book I particularly loved, right? And this adorable trilogy falls squarely into the Happy Sigh category. 

I read these books last July for my recently formed book club, and may I just say: we came out bangin' in our little book club. Our first month we read The Penderwicks and followed up immediately with To All the Boys—both grand slams for me. Even though our technical book club "assignment" was only to read the first book in each of these series, I read all five Penderwicks books in quick succession, and I inhaled the To All the Boys trilogy in a week. 

First of all, this trilogy is perfect summer reading. Light, fun, unputdownable—it checks all my boxes. Second, I have to take a second to crush on how cute the physical hard copies are themselves. I also can't be the only bookworm to crush on some cute books, can I? I think if we're all honest with ourselves, we can admit that even though we're not supposed to, sometimes we just judge a book by its cover, and I have to confess that these cutie hardcovers make my day every time I look at them. If you look closely at the photo, sans dust jackets each book is a popping pink, sky blue, and purple. I'm so glad I stumbled across the hardcover editions at The Book Shelter instead of settling for the paperbacks. In fact, I ordered the middle book off amazon because I only found the first and third installments at The Book Shelter and even though one of my friends offered to send me the second book for free because she had an extra copy, I declined because I needed the hardcover. Are you so over me crushing on these books? I get it. Let's move on to the actual recap. 

In To All the Boys I've Loved Before, our main character Lara Jean discovers that all the love letters she's ever written (five total, to be exact) have somehow been mailed out and ended up in the hands of the boys who were never meant to see them—including her older sister's boyfriend. (If you're a female, you should have just died a little inside hearing that premise.) The resulting consequences land Lara Jean in a fake relationship with one of her letters' recipients to avoid dealing with the awkwardness of confronting Margot's now ex-boyfriend who is still super-close with the family. Throughout the trilogy, Lara Jean and Peter have to navigate whether or not they are developing real feelings for each other and learn to trust each other despite their unconventional beginnings. 

I loved every second. To All the Boys I've Loved Before was published in April of 2014; P.S. I Still Love You a year later in May of 2015; and Always and Forever, Lara Jean two years later in May 2017. God bless all the hearts that were reading these books as new releases because I would have actually laid down and died if I had not been able to immediately start reading P.S. I Still Love You upon finishing To All the Boys I've Loved Before. The three together read like one big novel, and I would have lost every single friend I have complaining about having to wait for the next installment. 

My book club buddies and I couldn't help comparing the Covey girls to the Penderwicks because in both series, we have tight sisters who fiercely love their widowed dads. The dynamics between Margot, Lara Jean, and Kitty and the conflicts they have to navigate are different than what the four Penderwick girls go through, but in each series the love is so authentic and real. I fell in love with both families and was rooting for them with my whole heart. 

In rare form, I actually watched the To All the Boys movies that were adapted for Netflix before reading the books, and, though I enjoyed the movies, didn't have any serious plans to read the books until one of my favorite bloggers Sheree at Keeping Up With the Penguins reviewed To All the Boys I've Loved Before on her blog. After hearing her glowing review, I immediately decided these were must-reads for me, and I'm so glad I didn't miss out on them. As per usual, the books offered so much more for me to love than the movies ever could by themselves, but in reading them, I still thought the movies were sweet and perfectly cast (with the possible exception of Jordan Fisher playing fair-haired John Ambrose McClaren). I actually called my brother who lives in Hollywood and works in the movie industry and told him to make Netflix release these on DVD so I could add them to my collection. (Still waiting, Reagan...)

Anyway, I will 100% be visiting Lara Jean again...maybe even this summer. While I don't think this trilogy is for everyone and wouldn't recommend it as widely as I would The Penderwicks, it was definitely for me and I'm so glad Sydney picked it for book club because otherwise, who even knows how long it would have been till I got to meet the Coveys?? Thanks, Syd!

What books make you Happy Sigh? And do you crush on cute books?

Let's Bust a Recap : Jonathan Edwards' Resolutions & Advice to Young Converts

Well, we are just about halfway through the month of March and I'd say it's high time to kick this little blog back into gear. The other night, I pulled all the books I wanted to recap off my shelves and realized there are way too many and if I didn't get back in the saddle soon, we'd have to give this whole endeavor up altogether. 

So today, we're going to start by talking about the first thing I read this year: Jonathan Edwards' Resolutions & Advice to Young Converts. This little 40 page booklet earned a place on my 2022 book list on the advice of my husband, and I spent the first week of the year reading a little bit of it each day. What with the global, time-honored tradition of making resolutions at the dawn of each new year, this seemed like the perfect place to start. 

As a Christian and a pastor's daughter, I was pretty familiar with Edwards' resolutions. My dad keeps some of them pasted in his Bible and I remember seeing those all the time as I grew up. But I don't remember ever reading all 70 of them, and I didn't realize the letter he wrote to a young Deborah Hatheway containing 19 points of advice for young converts had been so widely reprinted and often paired with his personal resolutions.

Jonathan Edwards is probably most famous for his role in the Great Awakening during America's colonial era and particularly for his sermon entitled Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. While this sermon is usually held up as a classic example of "fire and brimstone" preaching, that characterization is not actually in line with descriptions of Edwards' preaching style. He was a soft-spoken man who was burdened for people to experience the grace of God. If I'm being honest, before I finally read these resolutions for myself, I had the idea they would be somewhat harsh, graceless, and impossible given Edwards' reputation as a stoic Puritan. 

But I was pleasantly and humbly surprised to learn that his resolutions, along with the invaluable inclusion of his advice to young converts, are perfectly seasoned with grace and mercy. While his resolutions are certainly lofty and the perfect attainment of them indeed impossible, several of them entail his appropriate response to his own failure of the others. It's such a balanced, heavenly, fitting list of goals that there's nothing to argue with, and I understand why my dad keeps them in his Bible. I'm thinking of choosing several that personally resonated with me to copy into my own Bible now.  

The booklet itself is very nicely put together with a few black and white photos and a helpful introduction by Stephen J. Nichols and was published in 2001 by P&R Publishing Company. Edwards penned his resolutions throughout 1722 and 1723, and he wrote the letter to Miss Hatheway containing his advice to young converts in 1741. I can't recommend reading through Edwards' resolutions for yourself highly enough. I was so deeply encouraged in my reading of them, and I know I will continue to come back to them. I think it's important for every human being to resolve how they will live their lives, and particularly for Christians to submit their resolutions to Biblical authority. Reading Jonathan Edwards' is a great jumping off point for people who have a hard time articulating those resolutions for themselves. All in all, I'm sorry I waited so long to read these for myself. Ten out of ten; will read again.