Thursday, October 26, 2006

Words on a Page

Books are like friends. Here are a few of my current favorites and quotes from them:

Eat This Book

Eugene H. Peterson
2006
"Spirituality . . . means going against the cultural stream in which we are incessantly trivialized to the menial status of producers and performers, constantly depersonalized behind the labels of our degrees or our salaries. But there is far more to us than our usefulness and our reputation, where we've been and who we know; there is the unique, irreproducible, eternal, image-of-God me. A vigorous assertion of personal dignity is foundational to spirituality." pg. 23

How We Survived Communism and Even Laughed
Slavenka Drakulic
1993
"Here you have to think of food, because it has entirely diverse social meanings. To bring a cake for dessert when you are invited for a dinner - a common gesture in another more affluent country - means you invested a great deal of energy to find it if you didn't make it yourself. And even if you did, finding eggs, milk, sugar, and butter took time and energy. That makes it precious in a very different way from if you had bought it int he pastry shop next door."

The Experience of God: Orthodox Dogmatic Theology Vol. 2. The World: Creation and Deification
Dumitru Staniloae
2005
"The body cannot be understood apart from the spirit . . . The body is the primary reservoir of those countless contingent material possibilities that are being made actual by the spirit through the agency of an equal number of its own inherent possibilities, which are capable of being brought into act. Yet, apart from the body the possibilities of the spirit could not be actualized. In some fashion the spirit, too, is being formed through the body or receives the impression of its seal."
S

The following are some of my favorite books. These readings have changed my worldview and challenged me as a person. They have had a significant impact on my life and the way I see God. What books have changed your life?

Princess: A True Story of Life Behind the Veil in Saudi Arabia by Jean Sasson

Princess Sultana’s Daughter’s by Jean Sasson

Let Your Life Speak by Parker J. Palmer

Gospel Medicine by Barbara Brown Taylor (Pretty much anything by Barbara Brown Taylor)

Tracks of a Fellow Struggler by John Claypool (Anything by John Claypool)

Operation World by Patrick Johnstone


Laborers Together with God by Catherine B. Allen

Favorite Fiction/non fiction: The Swan House by Elizabeth Musser (Describes the struggle of a young girl during the civil rights movement in Atlanta)

L

5 Comments:

Blogger Susan said...

1. Let Your Life Speak - Parker Palmer

2. The Dance of the Dissident Daughter - Sue Monk Kidd

3. To The Golden Shore - Courtney Anderson

4. Daughters of Islam - Miriam Adeney

5. Girl Meets God - Lauren Winner

6. Meet the Prophets: A Beginner's Guide to the Books of the Biblical Prophets - John Miller (It's okay... I already know I'm crazy.)

7. Daughters of the Church - Ruth Tucker and Walter Someone (Lefield, I think)

and, most recently...

8. Fumbling: A Pilgrimage Tale of Love, Grief, and Spiritual Renewal on the Camino de Santiago - Kerry Egan

7:00 AM  
Blogger Ashley Smith ~ The Primary Source said...

These are the books on my shelf that are VERY well worn...

1. Pride and Prejudice-Jane Austin--I have loved this one since junior high!

2. The Good Earth-Pearl S. Buck

3. i am not, but i know I AM-Louie Giglio--"Life is the tale of two stories-one finite and frail, the other eternal and enduring."

4. Girl Meets God--Lauren F. Winner

5. Women at the Crossroads; A Path Beyond Feminism & Traditionalism--Kari Torjesen Malcolm--Thanks mom for this one!

6. Amma; The Life and Words of Amy Carmichael--Elizabeth R. Skoglund (I also like Elizabeth Elliot's treatment of her life in A Chance to Die)

7. To Kill a Mockingbird--Harper Lee--"[Atticus]They're certainly entitled to think that, and they're entitled to full respect for their opinions... but before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."
"She seemed glad to see me when I appeared in the kitchen, and by watching her I began to think there was some skill involved in being a girl."
"[Atticus]When a child asks you something, answer him, for goodness' sake. But don't make a production of it. Children are children, but they can spot an evasion quicker than adults, and evasion simply muddles 'em."

I am currently reading Wicked; The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by G. McGuire--liking it, yet it disturbs me at the same time!

9:57 AM  
Blogger the hero formerly known as super said...

Travelling Mercies-Anne Lamott: "I do not understand all the mystery of grace--only that it meets us where we are but does not leave us where it found us."

Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art-Madeleine L'Engle: "We draw people to Christ not by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it."

Blue Like Jazz-Donald Miller: "I used to get really ticked about preachers who talked too much about grace, because they tempted me not to be disciplined. . . . I believed if word got out about grace, the whole church was going to turn into a brothel.
". . . In exchange for our humility and willingness to accept the charity of God, we are given a kingdom. And a beggar's kingdom is better than a proud man's delusion."

Fiction that I absolutely love:
To Kill a Mockingbird, The Poisonwood Bible, The Good Earth, and A Farewell to Arms

3:45 PM  
Blogger Meg said...

Since lots of my fav books are already listed I am going to pick 5 of my favorite children's books...cause who doesnt love pulling one of those off the shelf for a last minute devotion? Or reading one to someone (anyone!) as a bedtime story!

1. I Like You - by Sandol Stoddard Warburg, Its a fun (an old) little book about all the ways and reasons we like people!

2. Edwina the Dinosaur Who Didn't Know She Was Extinct - by Mo Willems, A fun book thats indirectly about what we understand about truth

3. Beatrice's Goat, by Page McBrier, This one's about a Ugandan girl whose family recieves a goat through the Heifer Project

4. Wilfred Gordon McDonald Partridge, by Mem fox, This one has wonderful illustrations and is about a little boy who lives next door to a nursing home and meets Miss Nancy who has lost her memories. He helps her find them!

5. God In Between, by Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, The back says its multicultural, nondenominational, and nonsectarian...thats a tall order! Its about people who go looking for God, but then realize that God is found in the "inbetweens."

I feel a little like I should be on Reading Rainbow!

2:28 PM  
Blogger Mandy Mc said...

1. Blood Done Dign My Name - Tim Tyson

2. Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston "Ah wanted to preach a great sermon about colored women sittin' on high, but they wasn't no pulpit for me."

3. The Last Year of the War - Shirley Nelson (This is a WONDERFUL novel depicting a small evangelical college in WWII - really resonated with me)

4. Women Called to Witness: Evangelical Feminism in the Nineteenth Century - Nancy A. Hardesty

5. Jayber Crow - Wendell Berry

6. Girl Meets God - Lauren Winner

7. The Dance of the Dissident Daughter and The Secret Life of Bees - Sue Monk Kidd

8. American Women in Mission - Dana Robert (though I must confess that I still haven't made it through the whole thing!)

9. The Paper Bag Princess - Robert N. Munsch

7:50 PM  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]

<< Home