It’s been a long time since I wrote a “All Good Things” post, but today I’m reviving it! I have gotten back into the swing of reading and I thought I’d share a few books I’ve read recently and what you might learn from them.
Everything Sad is Untrue: (A True Story) by Daniel Nayeri*
This is the best creative non-fiction I’ve read in such a long time. It’s a hard book to describe because it’s so good for so many reasons.
It might change the way you think about:
- pooping in America
- twinkies
- persian rugs
- the experiences of refugee families
- our family stories
- Jesus
Intriguing, right? And a warning for younger readers–it contains a few descriptions of domestic violence.
“The legend of my mom is that she can’t be stopped. Not when you hit her. Not when a whole country full of goons puts her in a cage. Not even if you make her poor and try to kill her slowly in the little-by-little poison of sadness. And the legend is true. I think because she’s fixed her eyes on something beyond the rivers of blood, to a beautiful place on the other side. How else would anybody do it?” ― Daniel Nayeri, Everything Sad Is Untrue:
Robert E. Lee and Me: A Southerner’s Reckoning with the Myth of the Lost Cause by Ty Seidule*
Written by a retired Army general, Washington and Lee graduate, and professor of history, this book chronicles the author’s journey of reckoning with the ways his own story intertwines with the complicated history of the myth of the Lost Cause, Robert E. Lee, and the Civil War.
It might change the way you think about:
- the American civil war
- Robert E. Lee and his legacy
- confederate statues
- buildings and streets named after confederates (we have a whole neighborhood near my house with confederate themed streets)
“Racism is the virus in the American dirt, infecting everything and everyone. To combat racism, we must do more than acknowledge the long history of white supremacy. Policies must change. Yet, an understanding of history remains the foundation. The only way to prevent a racist future is to first understand our racist past.”
–Ty Seidule, Robert E. Lee and Me:
Ramsey, both a therapist and author, weaves together reflections on Psalm 23 and her own experience of deep church hurt and resulting trauma to her mind and body. She recounds how the LORD shepherded her through this valley.
It might change the way you think about:
- Psalm 23
- church hurt and trauma in general
- the role of fear in the Christian life
- the way your own nervous system functions
- how to walk with people in pain (especially pain caused by the Church)
“Most of us don’t know the way through our dark valleys because we’ve been discipled to rise above them.”
–K.J. Ramsey
That’s it for this month! Happy reading.
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