C.S. Lewis

January 23, 2025

Book Recommendations for Snowed In Readers

Thankfully, we have not had to endure endless weeks of gray skies like we did last winter, but the cold, snowy weather of the last few weeks has still managed to drive me inside. When this happens, I generally resort to one of three occupations:

  1. I undertake a new project in the house which generally involves remedying something that has never bothered me before but is suddenly disturbing enough to lose sleep over.
  2. I start thumbing through my gardening books and seed catalogues while wondering if it is too early to start my seedlings.
  3. I devour the piles of books that get little attention during the warmer months when I am battling weeds and doling out water.

I do not recommend the first option. I have discovered that husbands rarely like to come home from work and discover that their wife has eliminated all plastic from the kitchen or stripped the dust covers off of all of the books and rearranged them by color. They also tend to become unsettled when they wake on a peaceful Saturday morning and find that their wife has moved out all of the furniture and is in the process of striping wallpaper or applying paint tape. Additionally, such a flurry of activity can only be sustained when hormones produce hypomania and they inevitably result in a crash due to the depletion of energy. This may cause the task at hand to remain incomplete but more often causes a backlog in the laundry. The second option is less disruptive to housemates, but it can lead to frustration when you realize that it really is too early to plant seeds and all you can do is look at pictures. You may be able to stretch out the thrill by cutting up gardening books and placing your favorite pictures into a scrapbook or mapping out a new garden bed, but even these thrills have their limits.

Thankfully, the third option is absolutely delightful, socially acceptable (even admired in many circles), and enriching. For this reason, I will not offer you advice about home renovation projects or garden lust, but I will offer my family’s suggestions for books to pick up if you want to do some winter reading.

Family Recommendations

  1. Dune by Frank Herbert

This book works miracles. Not only has it kept my husband from watching the news before bedtime, I have discovered him choosing to read instead of play video games. Amazingly, this has happened on more than one occasion. If you like science fiction, warring households and intrigue this is a good read. As a plus, you can watch the Hollywood adaptations once you finish and remember the days when you looked as youthful as Timothee Chalamet.

  • Enola Holmes series by Nancy Springer

I am forever in debt to these books because they finally got my daughter to read something besides Wings of Fire. These are cozy mysteries that are meant for young readers but are enjoyable for adults. They follow the adventures of Sherlock Holmes’ little sister (Sherlock and Mycroft both make appearances at times). Enola is spunky, curious and all together not the kind of girl she is supposed to be but that is precisely what makes her so delightful.

  • The World According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney

This is another book that has moved my family away from something that has grown significantly less enjoyable over ten years of non-stop reading. This book has replaced The Magic Treehouse books as my son’s latest go-to bedtime book. It is creative, cute and a feel-good read for little kids. Afterall, who doesn’t feel warm and cozy when reading about a hamster?

My Recommendations – Historical Fiction

  • Carnegie’s Maid by Marie Benedict

I found this book in the young adult section but I thoroughly enjoyed it myself. It is a fictional account of a young Irish immigrant who, through a series of events, ends up working as Andrew Carnegie’s mother’s maid. It is interesting to read about the era from both the perspective of a new immigrant and that of a family that, while recent immigrants themselves, were unbelievably wealthy.

  • Killingly by Katharine Beutner

I met the author at a writers’ conference and knew from the way she described her research that her book would be good. Set in the late 1800s, the story provides a fictional explanation for the real-life disappearance of a young girl from Mount Holyoke College. It is compellingly written and kept me guessing until the final pages. It is definitely worth a read.

  • The Lindbergh Nanny by Mariah Fredericks

Another historical fiction book, this one explores the abduction and murder of Charles Lindbergh’s young son. It is very well written and the characters are interesting, but the setting and story are captivating.

Dark Mystery

  • Where Sleeping Girls Lie by Faridah Abike-Iyimide

To be honest, this book is about as dark as I can take. It also strays beyond conventional topics and pushed some boundaries, but it was very good. The story is set at a boarding school that is populated by many extremely wealthy students. From the beginning of the book, something is clearly not right and I could not put this one down as I tried to figure it out.

  • The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

This book was fascinating from a psychological and feminist perspective. It highlights the problems inherent in the “rest cure” that was historically used to treat “hysterical” women and involved forbidding any physical, mental or emotional stimulation for long stretches of time. It is said that the author wrote the book after she suffered from being prescribed the rest cure herself and that, after she wrote it, she mailed a copy to the doctor who had prescribed it. That spunk alone is reason enough to read it!

Fiction

  • A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

You might be a little late reading it this year, but this is easily one of my favorite books. I read it aloud to the kids each advent and the beauty of the words flowing off of my tongue and the wonderful story they tell fill me with delight every time.

  1. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

All of these books are great to read for your own entertainment or as family read-aloud books, but the final book, The Last Battle, is extremely relevant and yet incredibly hopeful. If you want to read something that will get you pondering what our future eternity will be like, this is the book for you.

  1. The Lord of the Rings by J.R. Tolkien

If you have never read this book, do it. It is long – very long, but worth the read. The world of Middle Earth that Tolkien builds is engrossing and will take you away from reality while the story will bring you hope when you come back to it. Definitely take the plunge and get started on this one.

  1. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

My husband and I simultaneously recommended this at our couples Bible Study last week and we would recommend it to anyone (we’ve even had our kids listen to it a dramatized audiobook version). The book consists of a series of letters from a major demon to a more minor demon. Each letter contains suggestions about how to get the lesser demon’s human to turn away from his faith. It is convicting each time I listen to it and has become a frequent point of reference in our family conversations.

Non-Fiction

  1. The Autumn Ghost: How the Battle Against a Polio Epidemic Revolutionized Modern Medical Care by Hannah Wunsch

There are few books about polio, despite its being the most recent societal disruption caused by illness that occurred prior to COVID. This book is fascinating and details the way that treatments progressed from manual ventilation to ventilators. If you want to better understand polio and its impact on our not-so-distant history, this is worth reading.

  1. Nazis of Copley Square: The Forgotten Story of the Christian Front by Charles R. Gallagher

If you want to better understand the political environment of the United States, this book is essential. Reading it helped me to identify the current echoes of pre-WWII politics in the United States as well as to place my own family mythology into its historical context. It is a chilling account of a group that embraced evil and ended up on the wrong side of history due to their fear of a different evil.

  1. Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation by Kristin Kobes Du Mez

This is another must read if you want to understand American politics, particularly if you identify as a Christian. While it is painful to read about how the evangelical culture that I love in so many ways has been coopted to teach lies and false doctrine, it is helpful to have a sensible explanation for a phenomenon that seems to make no sense.

  1. Prague Winter by Madeleine Albright

This book was helpful in understanding the pre-war and WWII years in the Czech Republic. It weaves together the familial stories of Madeleine Albright, historical events, and the insights of the former Secretary of State.

  1. Why Christian Kids Rebel by Tim Kimmel

This book offered an easy explanation for why so many children leave their faith as they get older. I was particularly drawn to the idea that the lives parents live do not reflect a faith in a powerful, good God who is worth believing in.

  1. Lasting Ever by Rebecca St. James and Cubie Fink

In full disclosure, I got this book prior to its release so that I could preview and review it. I recommend it if you grew up listening to Rebecca St. James. It is interesting to hear the story behind the music and the ways that God has continued to work in the artist’s life since she stepped back from music to focus on her growing family. It is also always reassuring to hear from couples who face everyday challenges because it reminds us that we are not alone.

  1. The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom

This will always be on the top of my recommended reading lists! This is the incredible true story of a remarkable family who sacrificed everything to rescue their Jewish neighbors during the Holocaust. If you want to be challenged, inspired and buoyed by giants of faith, this is the book for you.

Image: AI Generator

January 23, 2025

Quotes To Get You Through The Rest of Inauguration Week

This is the second time that Trump’s inauguration has blindsided me. The first time, I was only three months into grieving my daughter, so I will give myself a pass. This time, though, I was simply in denial. To be clear, denial is not a coping strategy that I utilize often. I’m more of a “ruminate it to death” kind of person, but apparently when my mind ran an auction to see which psychological defense mechanism would be the star of the show this January, denial was the highest bidder.

So, I peacefully meandered my way into the start of the week, thinking that I already knew that the next four years would be bad and I could not be any more disillusioned about the morality of humanity than I already was. This being the case, I assumed that nothing would come as a surprise or disappointment. However, by Trump’s sixth hour of being president, I felt both surprise and disappointment. And also visceral panic.

I will spare you of the litany of upsetting things the man has done in the past four days since he took office. If you have read this far, I trust that you already have your own list of horrors conjured in your mind. It is enough to say that my list includes blatant disregard for structures of democracy and the rule of law, suppression of knowledge, promotion of prejudice and hatefulness. Of course, all of the wrong has happened against a backdrop of a flaunted false Gospel that treats Jesus more like a tribal warrior than a wandering healer – one who, when being executed, prayed for the forgiveness of His executioners.

Still, though I have been caught off balance by the authoritarianism that has planted itself in the White House, my sense of right and wrong has been sharpened and become more acute, my opportunities to teach my children about who Jesus really is have grown exponentially, and I have been repeatedly encouraged by the thoughts and words of amazing men and women. I share the following quotes here in the hope that they may help the night to feel a little less dark for you and hope to feel a bit more real.

The first quote comes from J.R.R. Tolkien’s the Lord of the Rings. If you are familiar with the story, this quote is pulled from a scene in which Frodo has just been informed about the history of the ring and the role that he will need to play in destroying it. If you are unfamiliar with the story, I highly suggest using these cold mid-winter days to read it! Don’t be intimidated by its length – it’s worth it. It is also a wonderful story about a small, insignificant being who courageously takes on powerful evil and, through his faithfulness and determination, as well as the support of his friends, forever changes Middle Earth where he lives.

“‘I wish it need not have happened in my time,’ said Frodo. ‘So do I,’ said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.'” 

The second quote is from C.S. Lewis’s work On Living in an Atomic Age. As is obvious from the title, it was his response to the development of the atomic bomb, however, if you do as I have done below and replace the references to the bomb with any of our current concerns, it is very helpful. I found this quote while I was looking for another similar but different quote that I was thinking about. That one effectively said that we have to keep doing art and pursuing our passions because, if we stop, we will have nothing left to fight for. This quote is a little less lofty but similarly helpful in knowing how to live in such times.

“If we are all going to be destroyed … let that (destruction) when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about (disasters). They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.

The third quote is from Heather Cox Richardson during her recent virtual talk with Red Wine and Blue. Red Wine and Blue is a grass-roots organization that promotes Democratic candidates and policies in the suburbs. While I do not agree with all of its positions, it is doing critical work in trying to protect our democracy. Heather Cox Richardson is a historian and professor at Boston College. She has been vocal about her opposition to Trump and his many dangerous and undemocratic deeds since his first term in office. Her commentaries are unique in both their breadth and the depth of historical context that she offers. I believe her quote is self-explanatory. 

“One of the really important things to remember going forward as we fear the rise of authoritarianism in the United States: authoritarians cannot rise if there are strong communities and people are acting with joy. That is, you need despair and anger in order for an authoritarian to rise…It is okay to say, ‘I’m not gonna pay attention to politics for a while,’ but it’s not okay to stop bringing your best to the world. Whatever those things are that you bring to the community, do them and do them with joy and don’t stop doing the things you love because you’re scared because that actually is a form of resistance. Showing up and doing things you love says to an authoritarian, ‘You have no place to root here.'”

The fourth quote is from a Bible study about Nabal and his insult to soon-to-be King David. The particular lesson examines righteous anger. We spend so much of our lives trying to overcome our anger, but at times like these, anger is what will drive us to pursue what is good and right, just and pure. The criteria for righteous anger that the study provides is helpful in not only affirming that it is okay to feel rage about what is happening in our country, but also in reminding us that we must not sin in the way that we respond to this anger. All of history will, ultimately, testify to God’s glory and it is to that end that we should direct all of our actions.

            “Author Robert D. Jones gives three criteria for righteous anger:

  • It reacts against actual sin.
  • It focuses on God and His kingdom, rights, and concerns, not on me and my kingdom, rights and concerns.
  • It’s accompanied by other godly qualities and expresses itself in godly ways.” – Lisa Brenninkmeyer

This brings us to our fifth quote which reminds us that, even when our anger is righteous, God alone is the ultimate judge and He is just. He will redeem what is wrong and institute justice, even if we have to wait a for what seems an impossible amount of time for it to come. In the meantime, we pray for His kingdom to come, knowing that in the courts of the Lord beauty sprouts from the ashes.

“We have talked a great deal about God’s love and mercy and those qualities are an integral part of His character. But another aspect of His character is that of judge. God sees. He is fair. One day, all wrongs and injustices will be made right.” – Lisa Brenninkmeyer

The final quote is from Rebecca St. James’ song, You Make Everything Beautiful, which my kids and I have been singing all week. During times like these, we must remember that God will take even those things meant for evil and one day turn it to good for His glory (Genesis 5:20). In the meantime, we must live in faithful and patient obedience, doing what we are meant to do regardless of what is going on around us.

“Grant me serenity, Lord, and patience

For things will take time.

Grant me freedom to walk a new path

And let me feel Your love.

In my weakness You can shine.

In Your strength I can fly.

And You make everything, everything beautiful.

You make everything, everything new.

You make everything, everything beautiful.

In its time, in Your time

It’s beautiful.”

May God truly grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference. May we live one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time. Accepting hardship as the way to peace, taking, as He did, the world as it is, not as we would like it. Trusting that He will make all things right, if we surrender to His will. That we may be reasonably happy in this world and supremely happy in the next.  (adapted from the prayer by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr)