What’s on your nightstand?—June ‘11

We share reading lists on the fourth Tuesday of each month at Jennifer’s.
Here is what’s on my nightstand.

Just started

1. Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives
     by Richard A. Swenson
Most of us need more margin in our lives, more empty spaces to just be. I find it, then lose it, then look for it again. This is a helpful book so far.

2. The Adoration of Jenna Fox
     by Mary E. Pearson
I got this novel off Rebekah’s list (she gave it 5 stars!). It’s one I wish I could just sit and read from beginning to end, but I haven’t let myself. I’m over halfway through this futuristic mysterious story (or Young Adult Dystopian Fiction as Rebekah more accurately lists it) and it’s good.

3. The Weight of All Things
     by Sandra Benitez
Two novels at one time? That’s not like me. But because this one is set in El Salvador, I’m reading it. But I may not finish. It’s sad and I’m not really enjoying it or particularly learning anything.

4. Hinds’ Feet on High Places
     by Hannah Hurnard
Well, I haven’t officially started it yet. But I will soon. This is probably the only book I’ll take to El Salvador (other than my Bible). I’ve read it several times, but it seems so appropriate to read again about Much-Afraid and her transformation to Grace-and-Glory as she journeys to the High Places.

Still reading

5. Christianity & Liberalism
     by J. Gresham Machen
I have mixed feelings about this classic. When it’s good, it’s very good. But some of the writing is difficult to follow. I’m in it with the Reading Classics Together group at Challies; that helps. 

6. The Next Story: Life and Faith after the Digital Explosion
     by Tim Challies
I’m listening to the audio version. But I’m wishing I had the hardcopy too. Tim makes many good points that I need to remember about my own digital habits.

Finished from May’s nightstand

7. A Place for Weakness: Preparing Yourself for Suffering
     by Michael S. Horton
This is an excellent book about how to make sense of life when it gets painful. I loved the discussion of it at Elizabeth’s. You can get the gist of the book just by reading her summaries. 

8. Pujols: More than the Game
     by Scott lamb, Tim Ellsworth
An inspirational book about a Christian man who happens to be a great baseball player. He has his priorities in order. (And I’m sad he’s currently on the 15-day disabled list with a fractured left forearm since June 20. Hope he’ll be back in play for the St. Louis Cardinals by mid-August.)

9. Blood of Paradise: A Novel
     by David Corbett
A novel set in El Salvador. I don’t recommend it, but I’m glad I read it because it reminds me that a world without Jesus is a world without hope. This quote near the end of the book surprised me, and sums it up well:

I have witnessed many wrongs in my life, suffered them myself like anyone, even when I was a little girl. But not until I watched the _____, did I feel myself in the presence of a great sin. And by that I do not mean a terrible evil so much as an aching, sinless sorrow—our exile from God.

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What’s a book you’re reading that you recommend (or don’t!)?