Lisa notes

Match This Nonfiction Book with This Fiction Book 

By LisaNotes November 4, 2019 Book reviews, Books I Recommend 24 Comments

Match nonfiction with fiction

Do you ever read a novel and a nonfiction book and think, “These go great together!“?

For this week’s Nonfiction November assignment (hosted by Sarah this week), we pair a nonfiction book with a fiction book. I give you two pairs from books I’ve read this year so far.

I posted last week’s assignment here:

My Favorite Nonfiction Books So Far This Year

Pair 1:

Read-this-with-this

Nonfiction

While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age During the Civil Rights Movement
by Carolyn Maull McKinstry
[my review here]

While the World Watched is a first-person, true account about the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL, on September 15, 1963, by the Klan. The author Carolyn Maull McKinstry was a 14-year-girl at the time, a friend to all four girls who were killed by the explosion.

Fiction

The Nickel Boys
by Colson Whitehead
[my review here]

The Nickel Boys is a novel about a reform school for boys in Florida in the Jim Crow South in the early 1960s. The staff is composed of prejudiced and sadistic men who take advantage of all the students, but even more so the black students. It’s based on a real-life reform school.

Why this pairing?

Both these books show us how badly that some white Americans treated black Americans as little as 50 years ago. And they remind us that even though we’ve come far, we still haven’t arrived at full equality and respect for all. We must keep working at it and showing love to everyone.

Pair 2:

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Nonfiction

A Thousand Lives: The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown
by Julia Scheeres

This creepy but true story is how Jim Jones convinced hundreds of people in his People’s Temple Full Gospel Church to do his bidding, even to the point of moving to Guyana, living almost like slaves, and voluntarily committing suicide together on November 18, 1978. The book closely follows several parishioners, giving you a vivid picture of what they endured for Jim Jones, including some who dared to doubt as well as others who were blindly loyal at all costs.

Fiction

The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

This novel is about an evangelical Baptist pastor who moves his family to the Belgian Congo in 1959 to spread the gospel. As political circumstances and the family unravel, you see what it’s like to live with someone who is so firmly entrenched in his own distorted beliefs that it adversely affects others.

Why this pairing?

Both these books are based on a charismatic pastor who believe their personal version of the truth is THE truth, and insist on others following them in their beliefs. It shows how possible it is to be swayed to dark places that you couldn’t have imagined by putting too much trust in one person, but that it is possible to break free and begin thinking for yourself again.

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Do you have a nonfiction and fiction pairing? Please share in the comments.

Read more #NonficNov book recommendations:

On the Blog – October 2019

By LisaNotes October 31, 2019 Archives 2 Comments

On the Blog 2019-10

Here are brief summaries and links to blog posts from October 2019.

4 Books I Recommend – October 2019

By LisaNotes October 30, 2019 Books I Recommend 38 Comments

Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.
– Jane Smiley

I was rocking my newest grandbaby this month more than I was reading. But here are 4 books I did finish in the past month and recommend to you.

And if you’re a nonfiction fan, here’s a great November series to follow with JulzReads and others: Nonfiction November. My first week’s post is here: My Year in Nonfiction So Far.

4 Books I Recommend October 2019

Books I Recommend

Nonfiction

1. Indistractable
How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life
by Nir Eyal

Indistractable

Are you too easily distracted? Nir Eyal wrote a great book to help us look at why we get off track and what to do to get back on track. Lots of practical tips here.

Here’s my full review of Indistractable.

2. Maid
Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive
by Stephanie Land

Maid

If you wonder what it’s like to be a single mom in America, this is a great introduction. Stephanie Land writes from personal experience. When she found herself in the unimaginable position of homelessness with her little girl, she began working as a housecleaner to build a better life. I cried again and again throughout this book. If we haven’t been in these shoes ourselves, we likely know someone else who has. A great read.

3. Enlightenment Now
The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
by Steven Pinker

Enlightenment Now

This is a dense book. But an important one! Like another of Pinker’s books that I love (The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined), this one also is full of data about why the world is getting better, not worse. He does point out exceptions (such as, climate change and our political culture), but overall the trends are positive, not negative. I needed this book.

Fiction

4. The Lying Game
by Ruth Ware

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This is my third Ruth Ware novel the past few months. These books are mysteries, but not full of gore or graphic violence, so I can handle them. This one is my favorite yet, probably because it centers around a core group of four women who have remained friends for years. When a body is unearthed on a beach in England, one of the four women quickly texts the other three: “I need you.” 

READING NOW

  • Something Needs to Change
    A Call to Make Your Life Count in a World of Urgent Need
    by David Platt
  • A Thousand Lives
    The Untold Story of Hope, Deception, and Survival at Jonestown
    by Julia Scheeres
  • A Place for Us
    by Fatima Farheen Mirza

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What good book are you reading this month? Please share in the comments.

Want more book recommendations? I’ve just posted these:

My books on Goodreads
More books I recommend

My Favorite Nonfiction Books This Year So Far – Nonfiction November Is Here

By LisaNotes October 29, 2019 Books I Recommend 59 Comments

Nonfiction books are magnets to me. I do love a good novel, don’t get me wrong. But nonfiction is my true love; I’m a sucker for interesting data and profound truths.

So I’m excited to discover Nonfiction November. I’m joining JulzReads and others to celebrate nonfiction books all November (actually beginning October 28). Week 1 linkup is here.

If you’d like to join, too, get all the info here:

Nonfiction November

There’s also an Instagram challenge, #NonficNov, if that’s more fun to you.

My Year in Nonfiction So Far

Week 1 – My Year in Nonfiction So Far

1. What was your favorite nonfiction read of the year?

So far, it’s a 3-way tie:

  • Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It
  • Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
  • Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending

2. Do you have a particular topic you’ve been attracted to more this year?

Again, a 3-way tie:
(1) Productivity, (2) Politics/Justice, and (3) Relationships

Productivity:

  • Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
  • Off the Clock: Feel Less Busy While Getting More Done
  • Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life
  • Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World
  • 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think

Politics/Justice:

  • The Death of Politics: How to Heal Our Frayed Republic After Trump
  • Shade: A Tale of Two Presidents
  • The Time Is Now: A Call to Uncommon Courage
  • Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger
  • I Think You’re Wrong (But I’m Listening): A Guide to Grace-Filled Political Conversations
  • The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure
  • The Myth of a Christian Nation: How the Quest for Political Power Is Destroying the Church

Relationships:

3. What nonfiction book have you recommended the most?

Becoming by Michelle Obama

4. What are you hoping to get out of participating in Nonfiction November?

Challenges like these help me stay engaged with what I’ve already read instead of letting the books drift into obscurity. I also love getting new recommendations from other nonfiction readers (not that I need to add to my TBR list, but I will!).

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What’s a favorite nonfiction book you’ve read so far this year? Please share in the comments. I’d really love to know!

Want more reading recommendations? My monthly book recommendations are here.

Other #NonFicNov books:

Do You Want God to Know Everything About You?

By LisaNotes October 28, 2019 Grandparenting, Guest posts 11 Comments

She’s new to us.

We know little about her. But we want to know everything about her because she lives here now.

She needs us to know.

God knows you Psalm 1-6_fb

My daughter Morgan birthed her new baby daughter two weeks ago. I’m excited to be a grandmother now to two beautiful granddaughters!

But with a newborn in their house, everything is changing. They listen for her cries to know if she’s hungry. They feel her skin to know if she’s hot or cold. They watch her chest to know she’s breathing in and out.

And she knows none of this. 

Do we like being watched?

Do we want God to know everything about us?

Read it all here

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I’m writing today at Do Not Depart. Will you join me there?

And here’s a little peak at the newest love in my life!

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Adjusting the Dream

By LisaNotes October 24, 2019 Trust 12 Comments

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:14

They had dreams. Big ones. I could see it in their eyes.

A stream of young men filed down the aisle past our row on the airplane. They each looked strong and hungry. For more.

Their shirt logos revealed the source of their hopes: boxing. Confident and courageous, they had minds set on a dream, somewhere out there.

Trust God to adjust the dream

I think back to my own youth.

On what did I pin my dreams? On a husband? On raising my kids?

What did I want to succeed in, beyond anybody’s wildest imagination? (Certainly not my initial pursuit: a career in accounting.)

And what now? Some dreams are wrecked already (like running a marathon—I hadn’t anticipated a slow-down in my body by this age. Who does?).

With age and with pain, my dreams have shifted. While I can’t do everything I had imagined, I can do other things in other areas that I never imagined in my teens and 20s.

The biggest dream is a deeper relationship with my Maker. That can’t be stopped by arthritic knees or an aching back or reduced energy.

God has no limits and he is the one in charge of fulfilling dreams.

Some of the young men on our flight might fulfill their earthly dreams and become boxers of renowned fame. Others may become distracted or injured or discouraged. Their dreams will shift. By necessity or by choice.

But if they’re wise, they’ll learn to bank their dreams on a Dreammaker who can’t be thwarted by bodies and circumstances and illnesses. And they’ll press on to a higher goal.

Father,
We thank you for giving us dreams and hope.

We praise you for knowing which dreams to fulfill and which ones to let go. May we always trust your wisdom and be grateful for your sovereign plan.

In the end, you make our best dreams come true.

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REVISED FOR THE ARCHIVES
ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Chronic Pain Devotionals