On My Mind: Books I Like - March

As a continuation of last month's On My Mind, I've decided to review the books I've read each month. Unfortunately, I read a lot of books, so this may be a more-than-once-monthly sort of thing, but let's see how it goes.

1. Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott. Also Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith. Also Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers. I like Anne Lamott. She's pretty cool. You should read her stuff.

2. Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen. I really didn't enjoy this book half as much as I would have liked to. Rhoda Janzen loves potty humor, which isn't my taste at all, and I thought she was extraordinarily ungrateful, unfair, and judgmental towards her family. Her parents took her in without a second thought after being divorced and recovering from a bad accident, and as thanks, Rhoda turned around and wrote a memoir that makes fun of her parents every other sentence. I definitely don't recommend this book.

3. Evolving in Monkey Town by Rachel Held Evans. As suspected, I loved her first book almost as much as A Year of Biblical Womanhood. If you haven't read either, please do. Need I remind you, she is awesome.

4. Amish Grace: How Forgiveness Transcended Tragedy by Donald B. Kraybill. I highly recommend this book. I recently wrote a post that talked about this book more. If you're interested, check it out.

5. Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert. This is her follow-up to Eat, Pray, Love, and I personally loved it. I never like a movie better than the book it's based on; however, I did really like the actor who played Elizabeth Gilbert's love interest in the film adaptation. Javier Bardem is so talented--seriously, compare him in Eat, Pray, Love to Skyfall or No Country for Old Men and you'll know what I'm talking about. I may or may not have bumped this book to the top of my to-read list because of his character (who is a real person, of course, because it's a memoir, but I still pictured him as Javier the whole time).

6. Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer. My sister recommended this one to me. It's about Mormon fundamentalists and one such man who believed he was called by God to murder a woman and her child. My only experience with Mormon fundamentalists was on the show Sister Wives, so I wasn't expecting all the violence (despite the fact that the word "violent" is in the title). To be honest, it freaked me out, because the power of suggestion means everything to me, so I'm now waiting for someone to break into my home and kill me in my sleep. Read with caution.

7. The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning. I love love love Brennan Manning, and I can't wait to read more books by him. Although he picks his words carefully, he picks his words truthfully, even if it means making himself look bad. It's real, and it's inspiring, and you should read it.

8. Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis. I like this guy. Did you know he and J.R.R. Tolkien were friends? I can just picture them having tea and crumpets in England and having a jolly old time. But seriously, I'm really enjoying my C.S. Lewis' Signature Classics. Two down, five to go!

My mom and I went to Half-Price Books yesterday, and I went on the best book-buying spree. I got a copy of the Gnostic Gospels, the Book of Mormon, a really nice translation of the Koran, the Book of J, Harper's Bible Dictionary, one of the Dalai Lama's books, and John Howard Yoder's The Politics of Jesus. I'm seriously the biggest nerd ever. I'm so cool.