Wednesday 20 January 2016

January Books

January has been a month when I have wondered if I have over reached myself with my book aims: there is Back to the Classics and my version of Read for the Lord. In my enthusiasm, I hadn't properly calculated the time that reading around home education takes and particularly, reading for the Book Club. The latter is light, fun reading but still requires some time!

Anyway, so far I haven't completed anything for the challenges but am about half way through The Triumph of the Truth which is Merle D'Aubigne's biography of Luther. D'Aubigne occasionally betrays his nineteenth century origins in his prose but otherwise, this is a useful read in terms of understanding the Reformation. I'm finding some of the lesser characters particularly interesting and have been resorting to reading Wikipaedia biographies of them which of course, isn't best for progress.

A Victorian who didn't use typical Victorian prose is J.C. Ryle. I'm still reading his Expository Thoughts on Luke volume 1. This was never going to be a quick read as I read a section per day but is immensely worthwhile. Ryle is straightforward and looks at difficulties in the passage as well as drawing out helpful lessons. Highly recommended and I should have added this to the official list.

Over Christmas, I read Elizabeth Goudge's book The Dean's Watch  and now I'm reading Green Dolphin Street. I can't quite work out what I think about Elizabeth Goudge. Some of her characters are complex and brilliantly drawn. Her depiction of mental illness in The Scent of Water is sensitive, drawing on her own experience and I love some of the descriptions of England, for example, of the woods in The Scent of Water. Theologically, she isn't reformed and is slightly mystical with quotes from Julian of Norwich.

With the children, I am reading Roger Lancelyn Green's Robin Hood which fits in with their history and Paul White's Jungle Doctor to the Rescue for the book club.

One of the children has wanted to do more history of art so at the start of term, we reread our collection of James Mayhew's Katie books just reading one a day. These are brilliant picture books for teaching about art history in a gentle way. Now, that we have finished these we are looking at one of the Usborne cards about art, each morning.

What have you been reading? Any recommendations?

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3 comments:

  1. Hah, so you've discovered that, too? :)

    I'm doing so much reading for homeschool now that we focus mostly on narrations! But there's also a lot of other reading: Bible study, current issues, how to homeschool, history of science, things the kids are reading and want to discuss, books I may want to recommend to them....

    My top recommendation: How to Read a Book, to help you read more effectively. I've reviewed it on my blog and outlined it as well.

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  2. I'm reading homeschooling and parenting books at the moment, but for my Bible time I'm using Praying the Names of God, by Ann Spangler. It's not in-depth by any means, but I am finding it very interesting, as my knowledge of the Hebrew roots of the Old Testament is virtually zero. Thank you for mentioning the JC Rule book, it sounds good, and manageable!

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    1. I've not hear of Praying the Names of God although I do have another book on the names of God sitting in my waiting to be read pile! JC Ryle is great and his Expository Thoughts are some of my favourite books.

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