Books

It's no secret that one of my favorite things to do is read! I really wish I had kept better track of books that I have read in my life. Last year I did a pretty good job of keeping a list updated, and I've added all those books to the "books" tab right under the header of the blog.

This year I am doing way better about not only keeping track of what I read, but also writing a few sentences about each book. I'm using Goodreads to keep things organized, and I'm loving it. I have the app on our iPod touch which makes it really simple. Goodreads is free and you can find your friends via Facebook or email who are also on Goodreads...you should come find me! Its a great way to get recommendations for new books.

My favorites from this year so far have been Choosing to SEE: A Journey of Struggle and Hope (by Mary Beth Chapman, Steven Curtis Chapman's wife....AMAZING!), Same Kind of Different As Me (a true story), and Generous Justice: How God's Grace Makes Us Just (by Tim Keller). I've read some fiction, but none that has made my "favorites" list at this point...gotta get to work on that!

Book List: June

I read some really interesting books this past month, so I thought I would share them, along with a few of my thoughts. You can also "look inside" each book by following the links to Amazon. Sometimes its nice to get to read a few pages, even with someone's recommendation.


I enjoy a great deal of C. S. Lewis's books. Till We Have Faces probably does not make my top 5 Lewis books, at least after the first reading. I think a lot of it just went over my head, but that I would get a lot more out of it on a second reading. I'm going to wait a year or so and then dive back in, I think.










I really enjoyed reading this book! Its the story of a man whose father was one of the 7 founders of Hamas, but converted to Christianity. His life changed so drastically, and the book is basically the history of growing up in a devout Muslim family, being imprisoned as a terrorist, working undercover in Hamas as a spy for Israel (thus thwarting many terrorist activities), and then converting to Christianity. He has so much insight on what has been happening in the Middle East over the last 50 years or so, and the book is well worth a read. Just yesterday the United States government dropped a deportation hearing against Mosab and has granted him asylum in the US (read more in this article).





I've enjoyed a number of John Grisham books over the last year and half, and while this was not my favorite, it was very good. I usually get them on audio book from the library, which is how I read The Last Juror. This one is set in Ford County, Mississippi during the 1970s and has some interesting commentary on small town life, Vietnam, and especially the penal system. I also enjoyed that it was hard to tell exactly where the book was going, as the "main" story (the trial) ended around a third of the way through the book.







And finally, I just finished The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society yesterday. This is one of my new favorite books! It is entirely fictional letters written in the aftermath of World War II, and really reminded me of a Jane Austin novel, just set in the more modern era. Because it is made up of letters, many of which are just a few sentences long, it was easy to pick up and read just a few pages...but also easy to keep reading long after a few pages had passed! This is another one that I will plan to read again. It would make a great beach book for the summer too!

Dinner at the Hotel DuPont

Last night we had an amazing dinner at the Hotel DuPont in Wilmington. Back in June, Martin won the gift card by playing in charity poker tournament and winning 3rd place. We decided to use the gift card to celebrate our engagement anniversary, which was earlier this month. Even though it had been 6 months that we'd been waiting to use this, it was so worth the wait!

This picture is the Green Room, which is the main dining room, but was closed for kitchen repairs last night, so we had dinner in the Bradywine room, which is very similarly gorgeous!


Our food was amazing! We had grilled ceasar salad with crab meat which was half a head of romaine that was literally grilled and then topped with huge lumps of crab meat and a great ceasar dressing. For dinner Martin had a seafood pot pie and I had duck with scallops. The food was really great, and we were able to get some unique dishes which added to the experience. We never would have gone here without the gift card, so we were so thankful to have this amazing opportunity!

Emma spent the evening with our friends from church, Jason and Megan, and she enjoyed playing with her friends Jake and Madison! Look at those cute girls!

New music

I know I'm biased, but its really good.

I've had it on repeat this week.

The Hunt for Gollum

Last night we watched an independent film based on J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings called the Hunt for Gollum. We are big LOTR fans, and this movie (only online) is based on some of the information that Tolkien wrote about in the appendices of his novel. This particular story takes place partway through the Fellowship of the Ring.



Its running time is just over 30 minutes and many of the actors look a LOT like their New Line Cinema counterparts. I was really impressed with the feel of the movie. The music and effects were so much like the blockbuster movies - it was really cool for us Tolkien junkies :-)

The Hunt for Gollum website is here.

The direct link to watch the film is here.