I’m getting ready for October! I’ve wrapped up two books this month – Jen Wilkin’s Women of the Word and Susan Wise Bauer’s Rethinking School. Both were excellent reads, and I’ll be reviewing them soon.

I’m trying to wrap up two more books this week – I am hoping to add another book to the current reads stack but I’ve already added A Mom’s Guide to Lies Girls Believe and the Truth That Sets Them Free as well as A Pocketful of Pinecones, so I may have to just wait. I’d like to clear my current reads stack by the end of the year, which means the remainder of my TBR shelf may just have to roll over into 2020.

I really enjoyed Women of the Word, and I plan to give it more attention in a dedicated post because I think books like this, which stress the importance of biblical literacy (especially for women!) are SO vital to the church. But I wanted to share a couple of short quotes from early in the book that really stuck with me.

Yes, the Holy Spirit opens the Word to us, but not without some effort on our part. (Women of the Word, p. 23)

I think there is a tendency to be a little too passive with our Scripture study, preferring to read books about scriptures or short devotionals that give us just enough information about a small piece of Scripture. But Wilkin really gets it right – we have to put in some effort if we expect to get anything out of the Word.

The Bible does tell us who we are and what we should do, but it does so through the lens of who God is. (Women of the Word, p. 26)

Another wonderful excerpt that corrects our tendency to want to use Scripture simply as a resource for what we should do and who we should be. Yes it does that as well, but it does it through telling us all about who God is. That is the foundation of Scripture.

I’ve also finished Rethinking School – it was also a great read. I did read with with a twinge of sadness since we did enroll our children in our local public school this fall, and of course Bauer does suggest homeschooling as a valid, and often better, educational choice for our children. But Bauer also looks at our traditional K-12 education system and how we can work within the system to meet our children’s needs, whether one is dealing with learning disabilities, developmental disabilities, standardized testing, homework, accelerating students who excel in one or more subjects, as well as applying and getting into college.

And when your child struggles, think about how to flex the system, before you start trying to adjust the child. (Rethinking School, p. 5)

This was a great book with a ton of resources, regardless of whether one is staying withing a more traditional school setting or deciding to homeschool.

I’m trying to balance my need to tackle my reading stack with my desire to get some garden beds set up in time for fall planting here in Texas, so if it seems my posts or IG pics seem to lean heavy to one side and then the other, that is why. I am reading a wonderful book called Composting for a New Generation, as well as rereading Gaia’s Garden, which tackles permaculture, so these books are kind of meeting both of my needs right now.

I am anxious to chip away at my stack, and I’ll be updating my progress as I wrap up some titles in the next week or two. I’d love to hear what is in your Current Reads stack this month!

Current Reads

• The Soul of Wit – GK Chesterton on William Shakespeare
• The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook by Edmond Bourne
• Unglued by Lysa TerKeurst
• Latin for Bird Lovers by Roger Lederer and Carol Burr
• How to Speak, How to Listen by Mortimer J. Adler
• Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem
• Cultural Engagement by Joshua D. Chatraw and Karen Swallow Prior (ed.)
• Notes from the Tilt-a-whirl by N.D. Wilson
• The Jewish Annotated New Testament by Amy-Jill Levine (ed) and Mark Z. Brettler (ed)
• New American Bible Revised (Catholic)
• Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock
• Taking Charge of ADHD by Russell A. Barkley
• The Autistic Brain by Temple Grandin
• Hints on Child Training by H. Clay Trumball
• Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith (narrated by Kate Burton)
• Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville (narr. John Pruden)
• Composting for a New Generation by Michelle Balz
• Palm Trees in the Snow by Luz Gabas
• The Bedside Book of Beasts by Graeme Gibson
• Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
• A Pocketful of Pinecones by Karen Andreola
• A Mom’s Guide to Lies Girls Believe and the Truth That Sets Them Free by Dannah Gresh