Reading Across the Genres

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For Our Wednesday Book Discussion this week, we thought it would be fun to share some of our favorite books from a variety of genres.


Fiction: The Chosen, by Chaim Potok
Danny and Reuven are Orthodox Jews from very different sects - but this is the story of their unlikely yet deep friendship, their coming-of-age, and their struggles to find their faith and dreams.

Memoir: Ocean Star, by Christina DiMari
This remains one of our favorite memoirs. It's a story of redemption - the story of a heart lost and found, broken and made new. Christina recounts her troubled childhood, how she met Christ, and the journey He has taken her on to renew her heart, face her scars, and become a beacon of hope for others in similar situations.

Non-Fiction: How to Be a Hepburn in a Hilton World, by Jordan Christy
It's summertime. And that means that sometimes we just want to kick back with a fun read. So here is a light and enchanting handbook on "the art of living with style, class, and grace". Despite new norms and ever-changing opinions on our world, the timeless guidelines still apply. So for smart and graceful women everywhere, Christy has reminded us of advice we may have forgotten, and how it applies to this crazy world. She covers everything from relationships to clothes, from hard work to worlds. Thoroughly charming.

Christianity: Mere Christianity, by C. S. Lewis
This is a short but excellent exposition of Christianity. Lewis covers some of the central issues of Christianity with his usual wit and logic, offering an ever-helpful reminder that Christianity is not a religion of blind faith, but of active knowledge and understanding, and what it looks like to live it out in our world. There's a reason this one is a classic!

Prayer: A Diary of Private Prayer, by John Baille
This little book is a collection of prayers, morning and evening, for every day of the month. You may not be used to adding a few pre-scripted prayers into your routine, but we have found these prayers to be beautiful and helpful, focusing our hearts on things that we might have never thought to actually pray about. Here's a snippet of one of my favorite prayers:

Let me not go forth in my work believing only in the world of sense and time, but give me grace to understand that the world I cannot see or touch is the most real world of all. My life today will be lived in time, but eternal issues will be concerned in it [...] Let me not seek to deaden or destroy the desire for Thee that disturbs my heart. Let me rather yield myself to its constraints and go where it leads me. Make me wise to see all things today under the form of eternity, and make me brave to face all the changes in my life which such a vision may entail: through the grace of Christ my Savior.
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