What I've Been Reading--August

Can you really believe that August has come and gone?  This is what I have completed reading in August:
In The Quest for Character John MacArthur examines the character traits that Christians ought to possess, as we seek to imitate Christ.  He examines The Beatitudes, The Progress of Faith as written by Peter in 2 Peter 1:5-8, the fruit of the Spirit and concludes with "the sum of all other virtues": love.  The character traits discussed within each part are broken up into bite-size chunks, with each section being only a few pages, making this an ideal book for someone who has limited time to read.  A stay-at-home mom, for example, could leave this book in her bathroom and read a little snippet in privacy.  There was nothing earth-shatteringly new for me in this book, but MacArthur is true to God's Word and that is refreshing and uncommon today.  I posted some quotes that I found especially helpful here and here.

Amy Dacyczyn's quest for thrift was born out of a desire to prove "that it was still possible to raise a large family and buy a house without two full-time incomes."  This book is a compilation of thrifty information originally printed in newsletters.  Although this book was published in 1993 and some information is now outdated or applies to the New England states, I was really encouraged by reading it to explore areas of frugality that I had not considered before, such as powdered milk.  Based on the recommendation in this book, I am using powdered milk in all cooking and baking and replacing half of our milk consumption with powdered milk.  So far, no one has noticed a difference! Thanks to a friend, I now have The Complete Tightwad Gazette on my nightstand waiting for me to read. 


I chose to read My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George to Mary because it was recommended in Apologia's Zoology I: Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day.  This book is about a boy named Sam who runs away from his New York home to live in the Catskills.  He leaves with a penknife, a ball of cord, an ax, flint and steel, $40, and lots of determination.  Sam describes his adventures as he learns to live off the land.  He steals a baby falcon, which he names Frightful, and trains her to hunt for him.  He also becomes friends with a weasel, the Baron Weasel, and a raccoon, Jessie C. James.  He burns a cave inside a hemlock for his home and furnishes it with a bed made of ash slats and deerskin and a fireplace made of stone and clay.  His sustenance is quite varied from venison, shot but left behind by hunters, turtle soup, rabbit, frogs' legs, crayfish, acorn pancakes, crickets, roots, tubers, bulbs, berries, even sassafras tea.  In the end, he becomes quite the celebrity with numerous newspaper articles written about the wild boy living in the Catskills.  We learned a lot about nature reading this book.  Mary enjoyed it so much that she wants to read its sequel: On the Far Side of the Mountain.


When I Lay My Isaac Down: Unshakable Faith in Unthinkable Circumstances by Carol J. Kent came recommended to me from a few trusted sources.  This book describes the emotions and events surrounding the author's son's trial for committing first degree murder.  Honestly, I just could not feel much sympathy for the author or get behind her cause.  Admittedly, her son committed first degree murder.  He walked up to a man, his wife's ex-husband, in broad daylight, in front of witnesses, and pulled the trigger.  She maintains belief in his good intentions, that he must have committed this crime to protect his stepdaughters from an allegedly abusive father.  I understand that she experienced pain when her son was sentenced to jail without the possibility of parole, but I just can't sympathize with her loss as much as I can with the family of the man who was killed.  That said, one aspect I did appreciate is how this family sought God in their suffering and even established a ministry to the inmates' families.  They didn't just wallow in self-pity but really sought out the Lord and his purposes.

I acquired More Hours in My Day by Emilie Barnes from a friend who was unloading some books.  This is basically a home/life organizational book.  I really loved the beginning of this book.  She shares an awesome testimony of how the Lord saved her and how her speaking/book ministry began.  The other part of the book that I really liked and want to adopt is an organized prayer life.  She recommends keeping a journal and assigning different things that you want to pray for on different days of the week.  Of course, some things you will want to pray about every day. I am really excited at the thought of bringing some organization to this area of my life!  I feel like I am pretty organized in other areas of my life, so I didn't find the rest of the book all that helpful, but I definitely could see that this book could be helpful to someone who struggles with organization/home management!