Six Books You Won’t Want to Miss When Planning Your Summer Reading

What does your reading life look like in the summer? Mine has to be more “portable” as I’m always throwing a book into the bag with my beach towel, but I usually get to mid-July with some goals in place for my reading life. Memoir and biography are among my favorite genres, so this list of six suggestions is heavy on both, but there’s also a fun fiction pick that you can enjoy sharing with the middle-grade reader in your life.

Summer is here, so let’s talk books!

Tell Me the Dream Again

I was especially intrigued by the way Tell Me the Dream Again mines the life of Moses, a Hebrew raised as an Egyptian, for insight into a bi-cultural life in that time and space. Did his hair easily conform to Egyptian style norms? Was he conscious of the amount of melanin in his skin or the shape of his eyes? Was he lonely in his differences?

And looking into the uniqueness and complexity of Jun’s story, I have been given a fresh set of questions to bring to my own minimal exposure to difference. It’s clear that God loves variety, and in his creation of ethnicity and a glorious color palette of humanity, we learn that God created differences because differences are worth celebrating.

Nowhere in Jun’s story does she describe her journey as easy or suggest she’s arrived. Instead, she invites her readers to join her in the limping, uneven walk that straddles two worlds and two wildly disparate cultures. A more comfortable narrative would not have done her story justice.

Nowhere in #tellmethedreamagain does @tashajunb describe her journey as easy with its uneven walk straddling two wildly disparate cultures. A more comfortable narrative would not have done her story justice @tyndalehouse @redbudwriters

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Signals of Transcendence

His selection of subjects couldn’t be more diverse. He has included Christian standards like C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton and well-known writers like Malcolm Muggeridge, W.H. Auden, and Leo Tolstoy. But I was introduced to some new thinkers as he shared the stories of Windsor Elliot, Peter Burger, and his own grandfather, Whitfield Guinness.

These subjects experienced something more jarring and life-altering than a moment in a “thin space,” for a signal of transcendence is “like having a knife thrust through the membrane” between the natural and the supernatural. Guinness emphasized the particular significance of these formative moments, for “signals only signal.” They point toward a truth that can be pursued–but it can also be ignored.

Those who make the choice to listen are invited into wonder, discovery, and lasting change as they find themselves living above the distraction endemic to this Kingdom of Noise. Even so, Guinness reiterates the caveat that these show-stopping events in our lives are “pointers and not proofs.” Each reader will respond uniquely–either leaning in or rushing by the signal.

At each chapter’s end, I appreciated this drumbeat of reason: “Each signal of transcendence sounds out its own special call. No signal is a signal for everyone to hear, so one person’s signal is another person’s silence. Be ready, then, for the call that will come to you in your life. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.”

To be honest, I had decided at some point that I wouldn’t be reading any more of Guinness’s work. Apologetics isn’t my favorite genre, and I had found his work to be very heavy and heady, but this latest offering is positively irresistible, and I know I’ll be returning to its marked-up, dog-eared pages.

Whether one’s signal of transcendence comes as a call to justice, an encounter with goodness or beauty, or an irresistible longing for joy, as we listen to the promptings of life, I believe our view of God and his ways will be brighter and our following more faithful.

In #SignalsofTranscendence @OsGuinness has selected 10 stories featuring glimpses that point to a larger reality. “Be ready, then, for the call that will come to you in your life. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.” @ivpress

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It. Goes. So. Fast.

It. Goes. So. Fast. is a reckoning, a thinking-out-loud record of Kelly’s striving for balance in a mothering life set against the background of her career as an NPR journalist. In it, she reconciles regret, embraces her aging body and brain, celebrates her competence, and suffers through loss.

As a white American woman of 50, she has framed with articulate insight the story of so many women like me–women who have enjoyed the privilege of education and vocational choice. While our choices have been wildly different, her conclusions resonate deeply: “…there will never be enough hours in the day or enough years on the earth to do everything we came here to do.” (Amen!)

As a journalist and fiction writer, Kelly has a gorgeous command of the English language, enabling her to describe the conflict all mothers face with clarity–and often with humor. My Kindle is full of sentences highlighted for sheer loveliness and I made good use of the dictionary feature for words like accretion, elide, verklempt, and soupçon.

The view from my own empty nest is satisfying, sometimes overwhelming, and I still find myself holding competing priorities up to the light. It was gratifying to read about another woman’s sifting process and her peaceful resolution of the paradox of parenting.

Everyone has written a book for the beginning of our parenting lives. But what about the end? #ItGoesSoFast is @NPRKelly’s record of striving for balance in a mothering life set against the background of her career. @HenryHolt

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Hotel Oscar Mike Echo

Linda MacKillop’s three-dimensional characters and well-written dialogue contribute to a heartwarming story of struggle. She addresses huge issues including poverty, mental illness, bullying, and family dysfunction in words appropriate for a middle-grade reader, but never resorts to trite answers or formulaic plot devices.

Told in Sierra’s own voice, the storyline follows her growth process through disappointments and setbacks. Hotel Oscar Mike Echo is an invitation to the reader to walk bravely into our own challenges, to embrace the hope of a faithful God who Himself is the fulfillment of all our longings for home.

(And when you have been blown away by Linda’s fiction and begin wondering where you can find more of her writing, CLICK HERE for my review of The Forgotten Life of Eva Gordon!)

In #HotelOscarMikeEcho, Linda MacKillop addresses huge issues of poverty, mental illness, and bullying as appropriate for a middle-grade reader, but without trite answers or formulaic plot devices. @BHpub #middlegradefiction

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On Getting Out of Bed

Noble does not candy coat the reality that life is hard, but he insists that the effort of persevering is worthwhile–and then offers sturdy counsel in support of hope. Life is a gift from God even on Mondays, even when the morning lands heavy, and the goodness of God feels like an old wive’s tale.

It turns out that simply by getting out of bed we have already accomplished a number of good things:

• Getting out of bed puts God’s goodness on display to our neighbors as we affirm our hope in Christ through an act of the will.
• Getting out of bed, we have begun the day with courage. Making one good choice empowers the next good choice and leads to the formation of strong habits.
• Getting out of bed affirms God’s sovereignty. Because I am not my own, neither is my suffering. God shares in it, and this day has come to me by his design.
• Getting out of bed honors and prioritizes the needs of the people who depend on you.

Sometimes mental health struggles require medication.
Sometimes mental health struggles require therapy.
Sometimes mental health struggles require the faithful wounds of a wise friend.
And sometimes, the best medicine for whatever feels heavy and hard is simply getting out of bed.

At barely over 100 pages #OnGettingOutofBed by @TheAlanNoble is a very portable collection of essays arguing in favor of getting on with the day and thereby getting on with life. It’s a cup of cold water offered in Jesus’s name @ivpress

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A Mind Awake

I’ve spent the past several weeks reading a couple of pages per night, pondering the gorgeous truth, and enjoying Lewis’s way with the English language. This devotional reading of the book has the additional benefit of teaching me its structure so I can use it as a reference in the future. And if you’ve always felt that you “should” read Lewis, but haven’t? Here’s a way to get an overview of all his work and his thinking on the main themes of the Christian faith.

So…
What will you be reading this summer? I’d love to know what’s on YOUR list, and if you get around to reading any of these recommendations, be sure to share your feedback!

Holding You in the Light,

Summer is here, so let’s talk books! What does your reading life look like in the summer? I’ve got six great suggestions for YOUR summer reading list!

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Did You Know that I Also Publish a Monthly Newsletter?

Every month I send a newsletter with biblical encouragement straight to my subscribers’ email inboxes. Frequently, I share free resources, and the newsletter is where everything lands first. I’m committed to the truth that women can become confident followers of God and students of his Word, and it’s my goal to help you along that path.

Many thanks to Intervarsity Press, Henry Holt, NetGalley, Tyndale House Publishers, and B&H Publishers for providing copies of these books to facilitate my review, which is, of course, offered freely and with honesty.

I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees. If you should decide to purchase any of the books or products I’ve shared, simply click on the image, and you’ll be taken directly to the seller. If you decide to buy, I’ll receive a few pennies at no extra cost to you.

Photo by Liana Mikah on Unsplash