O, the Brave Music by Dorothy Evelyn Smith

So far I’m enjoying it although I’m struggling to keep all of the characters straight. Read a Russian Novel – Inspired by Laura Vanderkam’s reading of War and Peace last year, I decided to read one chapter a day of War and Peace in 2022.Read all the categories in the 2022 Literary Life Reading Challenge.

My intentions for 2022 are a bit scaled back, considering the fact that I didn’t hold to my goals very well last year. West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge – a coming-of-age story about a teen boy, an older man, a girl with a mission, and two giraffes as they travel across the United States in the 1930’s.The Snow Woman by Stella Gibbons – the story of an old woman who stopped trying to live decades before but when she receives a visit from an old friend, suddenly her life takes a new turn.O, The Brave Music by Dorothy Evelyn Smith – a bittersweet coming-of-age novel.The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave – a thriller that I couldn’t put down and haven’t quite been able to forget since finishing.Business as Usual by Jane Oliver – a delightful epistolary novel about a young woman who decides to fill in the year before her wedding by working in a large department store in London.When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi – a heartbreaking memoir on a doctor’s last days but so beautifully written that it was worth the tears.Union with Christ by Rankin Wilbourne – an excellent book on this important, often neglected, aspect of the Christian life.This Beautiful Truth by Sarah Clarkson – a helpful, thoughtful memoir on Christianity and mental illness.Unsurprisingly, he relies on many of the Puritan writings and this is also a great introduction to several of the best of the Puritans. It is one of the best books on the love of Christ for us that I have read. Gentle and Lowly by Dane Ortlund – if you haven’t read this book by Dane Ortlund, don’t let 2022 go by without picking it up.The Dawn of Redeeming Grace by Sinclair Ferguson – a Christmas devotional that I listened to in the weeks leading up to the holiday.I never did get to a Russian novel or Shakespeare last year, but I did read a few books of essays and discovered a new-to-me mystery series written in the 1960s and ’70s as well as a new-to-me middlebrow novel author whose books were delightful English country village stories. I read a good number of older books this year-17 titles were written before 1960, not counting my Agatha Christie rereads. As usual, the bulk of my reading (almost half) was mystery fiction. However, I did end up reading 24% nonfiction, of which one title was a poetry book and eleven were devotional or theological. My reading life in 2021 ended up being better than I had anticipated although I didn’t read as intentionally as I had hoped.

O, the Brave Music by Dorothy Evelyn Smith