Over the last week or so, I’ve read What is the What by Dave Eggers and The Rapture of Canaan by Sheri Reynolds. Both are worth reading. The first is the story of one of the Lost Boys of the Sudan. It is a fascinating, gripping, and enlightening novelized account (but mostly true, if that makes sense) of Valentino Achak Deng. I became more aware of the horror that children caught in wars face around the world and found his website, valentinoachakdeng.com, very helpful. I have added a link to World Vision as a result of our book club’s discussion of this issue (see the blogroll links) and my desire to be an advocate and encourage advocacy in the small ways that we can do so.
The second book, The Rapture of Canaan, is a quick read about a quirky fundamentalist, pentecostal congregation in the south and the challenges and changes they face when two of their youth conceive a child out of wedlock. It has some very humorous moments. My favorite is when the vast majority of the congregation thinks that the rapture has occurred and that all but their leader have been left behind. (I won’t spoil the rest if you’re planning to read it.) But on the whole, it is a poignant tale with a harrowing and, finally, redemptive end.
Now I will finally finish Lewis’s Experiment in Criticism and move onto selections from The Historical Jesus in Recent Research.
I just finished Bird By Bird (almost wrote bird by birdy) by Anne Lamott. Me likey. Actually, it was pretty much amazing. It made ME want to write, and I don’t really like writing.
Miss you!
Sharon