Quick Lit, November Edition

I'm linking up with Modern Mrs. Darcy for this month's quick lit, where I share short and sweet reviews of a few books I've read in the past month (or so). You can also find me over at Goodreads if you are interested in other books I've read or reviewed.

"There's No Such Thing as Bad Weather" by Linda Akeson McGurk. Swedish-born and raised Linda McGurk moved to small-town Indiana with her American husband in order to start their family. She quickly realized that the outdoors lifestyle she embraced as both a child and adult was not normal. After being fined for allowing her kids to play in a creek, she set out to explore the differing cultural approaches to the great outdoors. With her father facing a health crisis in her native Sweden, she and her two girls plan to spend six months there. What they experienced became the basis for this memoir. McGurk looks deeply at how Scandinavian culture values the outdoors and the benefits that are felt as a result. This book is an eye-opening look at just how much our culture needs to embrace the outdoors, not just for ourselves but for society as a whole.

"Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson. Read this book. It is a powerful look at the criminal justice system, poverty, and race in America, particularly in the south. Stevenson developed a passion for helping the nation's forgotten in the justice system after spending most of his internship negotiating appeals for death row prisoners and ended up founding the Equal Justice Initiative. He has dedicated his career to fighting for true justice--making sure that punishments for crimes committed are fair and that the poorest in prisons have the opportunity for representation in their cases. The book revolves around the case of Walter McMillian a black man who was falsely accused of murdering a white woman. Despite lack of evidence and a plethora of witnesses who put him nowhere near the scene of the murder, he was unjustly tried, convicted, and sentenced to death row. Packed with stories, this book is both deeply moving and extremely thought-provoking. Just read it.

"Cozy Minimalist Home" by Myquillyn Smith. Such a practical book! Smith takes the reader on a journey through one room in your house, any room you want, in order to quiet the space, make it cozy and keep it simple at the same time. Her steps make it easy to think about how your want a room to feel, identify how to get it there, and then make it happen according to your taste and family needs.

A Review: "The Ministry of Ordinary Places" by Shannan Martin

What a beautiful book! In "The Ministry of Ordinary Places", Shannan Martin shares candidly the story of how her family put down roots in a neighborhood she never imagined living in and seeing Jesus in the midst of it all. Life changed unexpectedly for her family when God called them from the rural to the urban. Plunked down in the middle of a city where they knew no one, they set out to truly bloom where they were planted, getting to know their neighbors and investing in the local low-income school and dying church. While it's a story of how God has used their family, it's more a story of how God has changed them in the midst of it all. By allowing their vision for life to be shaped by God, they have seen how He has worked in their own lives as they have opened themselves up to be changed and challenged by it all.

I fell in love with this book from the very beginning. Martin writes in a warm, winsome way that draws the reader in right away. The book is divided into four sections. I personally resonated with the second section in particular, which focused on hospitality. So often, we hide behind excuses instead of opening our homes for a meal or a simple chat with a neighbor. Martin reminds us that the hospitality is the point--not the state of our homes or the quality of the meal. Hospitality can be offered by inviting someone over for take-out or by meeting up a local playground. I was challenged to think how I can start opening my home to make room for people at my table.

What a gift this book is. Wise words for a challenging, polarizing time in our society. Simple acts of neighborliness, investing deeply where you are planted, and entering into the lives of others even in the midst of our own brokenness can have more impact than we can ever imagine.

"As Christ-followers, we are called to be long-haul neighbors committed to authenticity and willing to take some risks. Our vocation is to invest deeply in the lives of those around us, devoted to one another, physically close to each other as we breathe the same air and walk the same blocks. Our purpose is not so mysterious after all. We get to love and be loved deeply right where we're planted, by whomever happens to be near. We will inevitably encounter brokenness we cannot fix, solve, or understand, and we'll feel as small, uncertain, and outpaced as we have ever felt. But we'll find our very lives in this calling, to be among people as Jesus was, and it will change everything." (p. xviii)

(I’ve received this complimentary book through the BookLook program in exchange for a review. A positive review was not required and the views expressed in my review are strictly my own.)