Good writers read. So, let’s share what we’re reading with each other each month.Send in what you’re reading with a short thumbs up/down blurb and a photo (.jpg) of yourself and we’ll post on the third Monday of the month.
Email to: sdcwg@yahoo.com
Subject: Reading
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Percent of Americans Who Didn’t Read a Book During the Past Year |
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I’m reading The Life of D.L. Moody “by his son.” It is a reprint, page for page, of the original “Official Authorized Edition” written in 1900. William R. Moody, in his introduction, writes, “Early in the spring of 1894 he was asked by an old friend for permission to issue a biography with his approval. This my Father declined to do, and, on that occasion, expressed the wish that I should assume the task when his life-work was ended…If you do not do this work there will be many inaccurate and conflicting ‘Lives.’” Moody’s brief autobiography reads, “Some day you will read in the papers that D. L. Moody, of East Northfield, is dead. Don’t you believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now, I shall have gone up higher, that is all; out of this old clay tenement into a house that is immortal—a body that death cannot touch; that sin cannot taint; a body fashioned like unto His glorious body. “I was born of the flesh in 1837. I was born of the Spirit in 1856. That which is born of the flesh may die. That which is born of the Spirit will live forever.” |
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I just finished reading Jasmine by April McGowan. Excellent writing. The author captured the pain and struggle of sexual abuse and the effect on family dynamics. |
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I recently finished two books by Stephen J. Dubner (co-author of Freakonomics, which I haven’t read yet). Both are memoirs. In Choosing My Religion: A Memoir of a Family Beyond Belief, Dubner writes about the many years he spent trying to discover why his Jewish-born parents both converted to Catholicism in their youth (before they met each other). In the process of researching his ancestry, he finds himself drawn to Judaism, so the book becomes as much about his own transformation as it is a fascinating family history. I love how he describes the book in his introduction as a story about “three noisy souls.” It’s deeply personal, quite funny, and very touching. Confessions of a Hero-Worshiper is another memoir, this one focusing on Dubner’s boyhood obsession with Pittsburgh Steeler running back Franco Harris who in some ways became a replacement for Dubner’s father, who died when Dubner was ten. This book is also deeply personal and honest, almost embarrassingly so, but I guess that’s the point. Both books are worth reading if for no other reason than to appreciate the work of an amazing wordsmith! |
