7QT -- Seven Favorite Books I Read Last Year

1. 

The Power of the Powerless: A Brother's Legacy of Love

This book speaks to the heart of the "why?" one asks about the cross of brain-damaged or disabled people.  The author, Christopher de Vinck, tells the story of his own brother, whom some would call a "vegetable."  The book also includes other stories shared with the author of tragedy and sorrow, and yet of great importance and even triumph.  We need to hear these stories.  We so easily slip into seeing people in terms of economics: what use are they?  what can they do for the world or for me?  Christopher de Vinck gently and persuasively speaks of the value, the message, the power that these "powerless" have to change us, to show us what  really matters, to call us to real love.
Here is the article that made powerless Oliver de Vinck a nationally known figure and this is one of my favorite quotes from it:
Even now, five years after his death from pneumonia on March 12, 1980, Oliver still remains the weakest, most helpless human being I ever met, and yet he was one of the most powerful human beings I ever met. He could do absolutely nothing except breathe, sleep, eat, and yet he was responsible for action, love, courage, insight. When I was small my mother would say, "Isn't it wonderful that you can see?" And once she said, "When you go to heaven, Oliver will run to you, embrace you, and the first thing he will say is 'Thank you."' I remember, too, my mother explaining to me that we were blessed with Oliver in ways that were not clear to her at first.

(Thank you to Jill for her own witness with her little one and for making me want to read the book!)

2.

Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child by Anthony Esolen

This book is a witty, Screwtape Letters style book expounding in detail the strategies one must use to eradicate the use of the imagination from a child's life, to make them one of the "dulled and dependent masses." The imagination of course, is a power that allows one to truly live, to truly be human and is fed on, among other things, with "deep reading, an imaginative encounter with the natural world and the cleverness of eye and hand."  In a conspiratorial, mocking way, Esolen discusses why, to destroy this "dangerous" thing of imagination we must see that truth is our enemy, that children must never be let outside or left to themselves.  We must cast aspersions on the heroic and patriotic, level the difference between men and women, and deny the transcendent too.

I underlined this book all over the place and it is one I will be returning to again and again!

3.

 Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry

This book is beautiful.  It is gentle and slow-moving novel written as a woman looks back on her life.  There is such love in this book, love for people, love for work, love for place, love for community.  It is an accepting, peaceful book about a life that was not easy, and not without regrets, yet the circumstances of it all, the losses of people she loved, the lonely old age, have all been accepted in the warm glow of her deep reverence.   I listened to an audio version of it actually and part of the spell that it wove came from the reader, Susan Denaker, and her warm voice. 

4. 

The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene

 I have long been a fan of Graham Greene and his heart wrenching, gritty novels, such as The Power and the Glory and The End of the Affair.  But this one is my very favorite.  I first read it in 2007, and re-read it last year.  I know that many people find him to be a depressing novelist, but I find him wonderful.  The people in his books are full of sordid and pathetic suffering, sin and weakness, but somehow, Greene is able all the more powerfully to show forth the mysterious mercy and patience that our glorious God has for us. When I read this book my main thought after I close the cover is  God is so good!  What is a really good book for if not for that?

5.

The Children of Men, by P.D. James

I found this book to be fascinating.  I had seen the movie inspired by this book, but although it was striking and memorable, I am here to tell you that you should just read the book and skip the movie.  They do not have the same feel and the same class.  This book is masterfully written and chilling.  It is so insightful and accurate in its description of a world in which no more children are being born.  One cannot help but draw the obvious parallels between that fictional society and ours.

(Thanks to Laura for the book recommendation -- I love how much she reads and her book reviews,)

6.
Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul by John and Stasi Eldredge

My husband read the companion book to this one, Wild at Heart, and it had a great effect on him, so I felt inspired to read Captivating again.  I had forgotten how good it was. The main word I would use to describe it is healing.  That is why it was written, to show women that deep healing that comes from the heart of God is possible.  The authors propose, using Biblical references and their own counselling experience, that every woman has an unanswered question that she is asking.  How this question is answered to her, or not answered at all, early in her life sets her feet on her path, the search to find the answer to "her question."   The book left me feeling understood and understanding myself better.  And because I do not like the thought of delving into brokenness to cast blame on one's parents, or to bewail one's ruined chances, I loved the way in which the path to healing is laid out.  Though that path may lead down into honestly facing the mistakes and sins of oneself or others, the path is not a fatalistic one.  Rather it is precisely through facing your deep, and sometimes dark, story that God will write your story afresh, and you will see that He was always there right beside you.

7.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Okay, so I ran out of actual favorites.  But, since this is seven quick takes, I will include this one.  I do like this book and I did read it last year for the first time since my college years.  It is such a beautifully written and powerful novel, with such insight into the human heart.   Still, Anna's tragedy is hard to read.  The opening line, one of the most famous in literature, hits you with its foreshadowing of the story to come:

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." 

Anna is so fully real and warm and human and complete, that she draws me into her life even though I know it cannot end well.  Somehow I could not help hoping against hope even this second time around, because she is so real to me.

Visit Kelly's for more Quick Takes!  Happy Weekend!