Quick lit

What We're Reading Lately with Modern Mrs. Darcy...


Is it only mid-April?  I thought for sure it's been two months since I did this...


All the same, it feels like I should have more to show for 33 days in quarantine.  No opera-writing, class-taking, new-skill-learning, or dramatically getting fit going on over here.


The Gospel-Centered Life by Robert H. Thune and Will Walker

I mentioned last month that I had started reading this; I finished it this month.


Job

Photo by Creedi Zhong on Unsplash

I also finished up Job this month, which seems appropriate for a world under suffering.


Our pastor has been hammering home the mysterious twin doctrines of God's absolute sovereignty and His unassailable goodness.  Does He control every virus, every cell, every outcome?  Yes.  Is He good?  Yes.  Can we humans understand that?  .... No, not really.


And Job asks all the same questions.  While he is under extreme duress, Job doubts God's goodness.  Job's friend Elihu, addressing Job's criticism of God, asks, "Do you think this is according to justice?  /  Do you say, 'My righteousness is more than God's'?"*.


Elihu shows some wisdom here.  Who are we to question the goodness of God, we who daily sin?
Should I be telling God how He ought to run the universe?


Later on, God Himself shows up and speaks directly to Job--and lucky for us, we can overhear without (yet) facing God ourselves.  "Will you really annul My judgment?  /  Will you condemn Me that you may be justified?"**  If that doesn't describe the world, in or out of pandemic, I don't know what does.  God is warning us here:  Don't say I'm wrong and you're right.  Don't think you are God's judge instead of the other way around.


Actually, this warning reminded me of Dr. Fauci.  There's a guy who's probably not the life of the party.


Pass the bean dip.   

Uh, guys?  There's a catastrophe coming, and we all need to go home and lock our doors, and it's gonna be really ugly.

Lighten up, Fauci!

And if you don't listen to me, you might die.


Do we blame Fauci?  No, we are thankful for him.  He's sounding the alarm about an unpleasant but true situation.


So is God--in Job, and in the rest of His word.  Make no mistake:  there is a Judge.  And it's not you.

I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear;

But now my eye sees You;

Therefore I retract,

And I repent in dust and ashes.

~Job 42:5-6

The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty

I've never read a Moriarty book I didn't like.  But it turns out that your mood makes a big difference in what you enjoy reading.  And during a pandemic, I want something that doesn't make me think hard.  After struggling with the first few chapters, I grabbed a little notebook and filled in a family tree of the characters, and kept it next to me for reference for the rest of the book.  Each chapter is told from a different character's point of view, and it keeps dropping little mysterious hints that there is some secret going on behind the scenes, in classic Moriarty style.


I didn't like it.  I appreciate the whole story arc now that I'm done with it, but it was harder than I really wanted to work right now.  I think what I'm looking for--is fluff.


Hebrews

Photo by Dave Herring on Unsplash

What a relief it is to know that we have a Great High Priest, better than all the signs and shadows, who knows our weakness, who never stops interceding for us.


Song of Solomon

Photo by Everton Vila on Unsplash

A quick readthrough of Song of Solomon was just enough to give me the vague sense of annoyance that a man with a zillion concubines is writing about true love, and for me to struggle to connect the dots between the lovers chasing each other around and Jesus.  Yes, I realize the church is the bride of Christ.  Maybe it's the incessant touching in S of S that I just can't relate to right now.


2 Timothy

Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash

2 Timothy is beloved as Paul's last letter before his death.  I love how single-minded it is:  Christ, Christ, Christ.  Preach the word, Timothy.  The world will swirl around you in frivolity and unbelief and desertion; preach the word.

For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.

2 Timothy 4:6-8

Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis

I finished reading this to Caleb and started straight on to the even better...

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis

This one was always my favorite Narnia as a kid.

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

I've never read anything by Ishiguro before; this was really good.  Not entirely cheerful, it is true.  But I read this right after The Last Anniversary, and right away I appreciated the straightforward storytelling.  One narrator, more or less sequential events.  To illustrate how low my tolerance for difficulty is right now, I got annoyed on the very first page by what I assumed were British terms, like "carer," that I had to try to figure out.  Later in the story you realize that "carer" is a term unique to this story, not one of those confounding British words.  (Apparently "rounders" is, though.  I had to look that up after I finished the book and it was never explained.  It's basically baseball.)

Here's to Us by Elin Hilderbrand

I just started this, after finishing The Last Anniversary and Never Let Me Go.  Not for nothing is Elin Hilderbrand called "the queen of summer beach read."  I hope this will be the fluff I seek.

Ruth

Photo by Karl Magnuson on Unsplash

I guess we can add this to my list of "portions of God's holy word that rubbed me the wrong way this month."


Mostly what I was annoyed by, though, is thinking of how often the book of Ruth is held up as a romantic love story--mostly by nonfiction chick lit in mainstream Christian bookstores.  It reads like nothing of the sort.  The point is God grafted the Gentile Ruth in to Jesus's family tree; God was faithful to His covenant to His own people and the nations.


What are we to make of Ruth uncovering Boaz's feet in dead of night on the deserted threshing floor, under instruction from her mother-in-law that "he will tell you what you shall do" (3:4)?  Not to mention that it sounds like Boaz is probably old enough to be her father.  This is hardly a swoony, chaste love story that I'd like all my daughters to emulate in every particular.  Ruth's virtue--admirable or questionable--isn't really the point.  This is not the "how to get a husband" manual it's too often treated as.


The Young Carthaginian by G. A. Henty

I read the first chapter of this to Lizzy and Caleb ages ago, back in the Before Times, when I had it from the library.  After all these weeks, I finally bought it so we can finish it.



What's on your pandemic reading list?



* Job 35:2
** Job 40:8