Book List, 2010

Books about God
Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster
See Yourself as God Sees You, Josh McDowell
The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonheoffer
Girl Meets God, Lauren Winner
The Reason for God, Tim Keller
Orthodoxy, G.K. Chesterton
With Christ in the School of Prayer, Andrew Murray
Searching for God Knows What, Donald Miller
Traveling Mercies, Anne Lamott

Popular Culture
The Narcissism Epidemic, Jean Twenge & Keith Campbell
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver
Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser
Hope's Edge, Francis Moore Lappé
This Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved, Sandor Katz
In Praise of Slowness, Carl Honore
Guyland, Michael Kimmel
Disposable People, Kevin Bales

History/Culture
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families, Philip Gourevich
India After Gandhi, Ramachandra Guha
A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn

Biography/Memoir
Dry, Augusten Burroughs
Things I've Been Silent About, Azar Nafisi
My Life in France, Julia Child

Travel Writing
I'm a Stranger Here Myself, Bill Bryson

Essay
A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf
Armageddon in Retrospect, Kurt Vonnegut

Poetry
Babel, Barbara Hamby
Lira Mistica, Santa Teresa y San Juan de la Cruz

Literature
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, J.K. Rowling
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston
Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer
The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz
Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri
Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte
The Autograph Man, Zadie Smith
The Innocent, Ian McEwan
Redeeming Love, Francine Rivers
The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, Michael Chabon
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, John Berendt
The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood
Everything That Rises Must Converge, Flannery O'Connor
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Dave Eggers
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon

Books Read, 2009

Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi
Invitation to a Beheading, Vladimir Nabokov
The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Grace (Eventually), Anne Lamott
Just Courage, Gary Haugen
Velvet Elvis, Rob Bell
Amsterdam, Ian McEwan
Daisy Miller, Henry James
White Teeth, Zadie Smith
Mansfield Park, Jane Austin
A Plea for the Poor, John Woolman
Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie
Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert
Sailing Alone Around the Room, Billy Collins
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
When Engulfed in Flames, David Sedaris
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling
The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkein
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Dai Sijie
Affluenza, John De Graaf
A Long Way Gone, Ismael Baeh
Watership Down, Richard Adams
Financial Peace, Dave Ramsey
In Defense of Food, Michael Pollan
How to Succeed at Being Yourself, Joyce Meyer
Good News About Injustice, Gary Haugen
Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte

hilarity in NZ

so my friend Lauren and her friend Camden are in New Zealand to work on an organic farm. i received an email from Lauren detailing some of the adventures they've had so far. i am including two of them here:

Day 2 of Journey, By Camden

Able Tasmen Hike--full of danger, back pain, flushing toilets and baby seals. Some call it the hike of pain. Only manly amounts of endorphines or chocolate will save the wayward hiker. It is here that men become Mormon and woman become Quakers. Here we find The Lauren and A Camden, wandering, in a manner similar to Gollum or well worn pack mules, through the nature infested wilderness. They came and they got conquered. Beaten by Poseidon's tide and balls (in the form of shells); ignoring all warnings and advise from the local New Zealand sages--the Americans knew better. They crossed the low tide route during high tide. First the water was at their ankles, so they took off their shoes. Then it was at their knees so they rolled up their knickers. Then up to the waist....and they gave up. Their future children got cold at that crossing. With puddles in their panties the survivors continued on. Wet clothes and a ruined camera.

The Panties Boy, By Lauren Stafford

I was awake at the arrival of knife girl, but unaware of her dangerous gang weapons in the room. I thought Camden got out of her bed and sat so gingerly on my bed. But in fact it was not a Camden but a German boy who was in his panties. He tried to get under the covers (as most boys do) of the Lauren's bed. That's when I spoke with all my early morning vigor and authority, "I think your bed is over there." He complained about my words in his mother tongue & decided to put on more clothes in the closet door. Then I heard water sounds abounding from the closet--it reminded me of my time in Asia spent in peaceful Buddhist temples with spotted fish and gongs. After the zen-like stream ended, there were sounds of struggle and strife with the sliding closest door. But after the epic (almost lost) battle to such man-made hindrances, the drunk German found the bed he had been assigned.

identity check

so i was walking and thinking at lunch today about identity because of a conversation i had with my friend yesterday. he was talking about how he is looking to date a Christian "woman", not a Christian "girl". just to clarify, we weren't having the conversation about our relationship--we're just friends. anyway, i wasn't offended, 1) because he wasn't talking about me, and 2) because I can see exactly what he means by the difference between a Christian woman and a Christian girl. i think there are ways in which i am a Christian woman, but in most ways i am still a Christian girl, and that disappoints me. there are a few things that i think shows a female Christian has moved from girl to woman, so lemme see if i can get a list going and put my thoughts in order.

what do i think a "woman of God" looks like?

1) identity in Christ
dude, i admit that i am soooo not there yet. first of all, i wanted to ask myself what exactly it means to have your identity in Christ. what comes to mind is having all of your life oriented toward Him. no matter what, you know where you can put your trust. if you're feeling upset about your shortcomings, you look to Christ and you see that He has overcome them. every time you have a decision to make, you bring it to Him. you have confidence in who you are because you are a child of God, and through Christ He has given you the Holy Spirit.

2) own Identity
i'm not sure if this is truly a trait that describes a Christian woman, but it seems to me that a reason that i'm not quite a Christian woman is the fact that i often put my identity in others. wow, that's really hard to put that out there. i so much want to love those that are in my life, and they influence what i do and how i am because i highly respect them. i think that they can have their identity in Christ and still have their own way of expressing themselves, and so that's how they have their own identity too. i know i will have great difficulty extricating myself from the people that influence me. i pray that you would help me grow, Lord Jesus, so that i can know what things i want to do because i want to do them and because you have called me to do them.

3) saturated in God's Word
i'm pretty far behind in this area, but the Lord is giving me a heart for His Word, and that is exciting.

4) constantly seeking the Lord in prayer
God, thank you for giving me more of a desire to pray. i feel especially encouraged by the missionaries that i receive updates from, because their prayer requests remind me to be in constant prayer, especially for those that don't know You. Lord, may it be that i'm reminded to pray without ceasing during the day about everything that i encounter.

5) Seeking accountability in discipleship
this is something i need to pray more about. i discussed it with cassidy, and am hoping to have someone from my fellowship group to be my mentor.

6) worshipful and pure heart
Lord Jesus, it is only through you that i can have righteousness and purity. thank you for the work that was done on the cross to make me pure before the Father. i need to live like you have purified my heart, because i still live with blackness in it. may your Spirit move me to repentance, that my heart may be regenerated and pure.

7) good work ethic
just going by what proverbs 31 is saying. there's a lot there with working with her hands. i think i need to make sure that i'm working my hardest and not "eat[ing] the bread of idleness".

8) opens arms to the poor
this is another area where i am so selfish and constantly worried about my own issues that i never put time and effort into helping the poor. Lord, change me! set my heart right! forgive my selfish tendencies and show me how to use my time for others, and i will do my best to do good for them (without grumbling, God-willing!).

my yesterdays are washed away

i haven't really been sure about the status of my faith, whether or not I've been following better, or if i'm just fooling myself. i feel like sometimes my heart and thought patterns are going back right to where they were before.

i've just had to pray a lot lately. i don't think there's anything wrong with that. i just wish that it wouldn't go back to how it was before, that i could get over everything and not think or act that way anymore. but i know that the Holy Spirit is working in me, but i just have to keep handing it over to Him.

the Comforter comforted me last night while i was walking and praying. i was just reminded that if i follow Him, i have nothing to worry about. i was self-pitying again, and despairing that i wouldn't have the entire trust of someone again. but this person has extended so much grace to me. why do insist on having more? so i'm just going to have to hand it over, and continue to learn that my life was fine without them before...why is it different now? instead, i should focus on trusting God and seeing where He is going to take me and how He will use me. He has His own story for me, and i'm sure it is a beautiful story if i will just let him tell it. i think i am always worried about other people's stories and not my own. Lord God, i pray for you to show me my story and read it to me so that i know where my life is going.

kate showed me this Christian singer-songwriter, Anna Vandas, who's very good. in some ways she sounds like most Christian songwriters, but i love her sound. it's folksy and sometimes poppy or jazzy. the words are often very poignant. "what is" is a great song, along with "lay down the load" and "a calm". i might even swing for it and buy it at the store...we'll see. i think it came out in 2005...where was i?? ha. well, here's a site that you can put songs in a player, otherwise you have to listen to the tracks one-by-one on her site.

http://www.reverbnation.com/annavandas

but, yeah, she just talks about laying down the loads of selfishness, self-pity and pride. and i love "what is" because it's kinda talking about injustice in the world, and we oftentimes just feel guilty or helpless to do anything. she doesn't really come up with a solution, except to think about whatever is pure and right, and to be holy in His sight...but maybe that IS what we're supposed to do, huh? strive for righteousness, and have a true relationship with God the Almighty who has sovereignty over these situations. HE is the only one who can help you make a difference and bring His Gospel and His Joy to the people who are suffering. God, i think You're teaching me more about Your heart. i'm listening.

around the well

I feel sad for not having discovered this amazing Iron & Wine song earlier. I don't know how my friends knew about it, except that maybe they had heard one of their concerts before or had found b-sides of this track before. It's definitely a b-side, and now it's part of a B-Sides and Rarities collection called "Around the Well" that came out this month. It's fantastic. I'll bet the rest of the 2-disc collection is a gem as well. The track is called "The Trapeze Swinger". Enjoy.

holy crap this is cute!

amigurumi patterns, "Knitted stuffed toys" in Japanese. This is for crocheting. Yay for crocheted forest animals!

http://www.sarahanns.com/crochetworks/animals.html