I have started taking a picture of every book I read, and then I look through that album and assess my diet to determine whether I’m pleased with it. Some people are very conscious of what they eat, and it is good for their souls. I am conscious of what I read, and it is also good for my soul. Some people eat for energy; the bare necessities suffice for them.  Some eat for pleasure; pleasant, familiar taste is the main thing. Some eat to experience, and variety is the main thing. This reflects mental consumption as well. Some people don’t enjoy reading and do what it takes to get by… hopefully their Bibles and a few directions or manuals. Some people read for pleasure and learning; often they read only one kind of material, whatever their personality or lifestyle inspires them to enjoy. Some people read to experience, and again variety drives their choices.

Here is a sample of what I’ve been reading the last month or so. I left out about half of them. Some of them I chose not to mention here because I’ve already recommended that author or type of read, and some because recommending them would probably do no one any good. Some of them (mostly the kind that involve deep concentration and time to read) I am not finished with yet.

Making Sense of God : It brings me great pride to mention this book as a good read. It took me a long time. I am glad I read it. I should probably reread it with more speed to get a better overall view of the book. It is a scholarly piece that explores in depth the philosophies around doubting or believing in the God of Christianity. It makes sense of God, and makes believing in God make sense.

The Last Sin Eater has been a favorite for years, although I haven’t read it in years. It is the story of a little girl who believes she is responsible for her younger sister’s death, and that everyone blames her. She carries a devastating burden of guilt for it. The Scottish mountain people, lost in ignorance, had a practice of casting a lot among them for a scapegoat whom they dubbed the Sin Eater. This Sin Eater would become an outcast from his people, live as a hermit, and only emerge at the time of a death to ceremonially take the sins of the deceased upon himself, thus enabling that person to go to heaven while he himself would burn in hell for the sins of the community. The little girl sets out to find the Sin Eater to ask him to take away her sins and instead encounters a traveling preacher who told her about Jesus Christ, the true Sin Eater.

A Leaf In the Bitter Wind is the biography of a girl growing up under Mao Tse-tung’s cultural revolution in Communist China and being sent to work on a communal farm and her rise in status in the Communist society after which she was able to come to Canada. My sister found this book in a local bookstore, and the woman now lives only about an hour and a half away from us in a local town where Charles and I fly occasionally. I liked this book because I have never really read about that time of history in China, and I also liked it because it was gritty and real without being a traumatic to read. I am a chicken when it comes to stories of torture and persecution, but this story didn’t cost me any sleep.

Hannah Coulter  was lent to me by a friend, and was a recess from the frenetic modern world. I would call the story stream of consciousness. There isn’t much of a plot to the story, and instead draws a deep theme of reflection. The main character is a woman living on a farm, growing up and becoming old, and watching her children slip away into a modern world. Her questions and perspective make me entirely hate machinery and electronics. I liked this book because I had to let go of my own mad pace of thought and deed to allow myself to slowly trace the story at its own pace.

Except For Me and Thee and The Friendly Persuasion:  These books are treasures to me because they are so little known and so worth knowing. I rarely laugh out loud when I read, but these two can offer me that rare pleasure. A combination of comedy and inner reflection on life and values,  they are the subtle story of a Quaker marriage. Content although frequently puzzled with each other, these stories of a young farmer and a female Quaker preacher watching their family grow up into varying degrees of Quaker faithfulness and arranging their own lives according to Quaker principle will charm whether it be a stolen pet goose, fast horseflesh, erecting Christmas trees, hiding runaway slaves or the Civil War coming to the back door.

The Innocence of Father Brown: Perhaps I am behind the times, but for years, I have been too loyal to Sherlock Holmes to pursue any other period mystery writers. Recently, I have finally exposed myself to Agatha Christie (not pictured here) and the Father Brown of G.K. Chesterton. I prefer the latter although I admit Agatha Christie owns some personal merit in being a swift and easy read. Father Brown is a priest doubling as a detective who miraculously arrives just at the climax of other people’s sins. He possesses the unique ability to see through crime because of all the confessions of sin he has heard over the years. The stories are not, strictly speaking, the type of thing that one sees every day and could seem untrue to life, but then if I had had similar experiences where would the fun of reading be?