{"id":17724,"date":"2017-01-31T07:20:54","date_gmt":"2017-01-31T13:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/?p=17724"},"modified":"2017-01-31T07:18:07","modified_gmt":"2017-01-31T13:18:07","slug":"nightstand-january-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/2017\/20170131-17724.htm","title":{"rendered":"Nightstand (January 2017)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s not every month that 5 Minutes for Books&#8217;s &#8220;Nightstand&#8221; falls on the last day of the month. It&#8217;s also not every month where I complete practically every book I&#8217;ve been working on by the end of the month, so as to start fresh for the next month. But since I&#8217;m trying to be super-disciplined to read at least one book in each of my five categories each month and since I&#8217;ve got to keep on top of my church history goal, I have completed everything I planned to read this month. <\/p>\n<p><img src='http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/photoindex\/2017-01\/IMG_0904.JPG' alt='Louis and True Community' class='ngg-singlepic ngg-none' \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Books for Loving:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>Paul: In Fresh Perspective<\/em> by N.T. Wright<\/strong><br \/>\nA look at some of the themes of Paul&#8217;s writings (Creation and Covenant, Messiah and Apocalyptic, Gospel and Empire) and how Paul reworked traditional categories of Jewish thought (God, God&#8217;s people, and the future of God and His people.) I wrote a very few comments on this book in my <a href=\"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/2017\/20170127-17688.htm\">post summarizing my first month studying church history<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong><em>True Community<\/em> by Jerry Bridges <\/strong><br \/>\nA look at <em>koinonia<\/em> in Scripture and its implications for the Christian church of today. Highly readable, with excellent content. A lot to think about, a lot to grow into.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img src='http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/photoindex\/2017-01\/IMG_0905.JPG' alt='Louis and Growing Books' class='ngg-singlepic ngg-none' \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Books for Growing:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>Spiritually Parenting Your Preschooler<\/em> by C. Hope Flinchbaugh<\/strong><br \/>\nA quite readable and occasionally helpful little volume for Christian parents. I wish I could recommend it because it reads so nicely for a busy mom. Unfortunately, Flinchbaugh&#8217;s Word-of-Faith style charismatic-ism infuses so much that it&#8217;s hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. (Full disclosure: I was raised charismatic and am a continuationist; I had experiences with Word-of-Faith type teachings in my early teen years and find several of that movement&#8217;s tenets to be unbiblical and unhelpful.)<\/li>\n<li><strong><em>Honey for a Child&#8217;s Heart<\/em> by Gladys Hunt<\/strong><br \/>\nJust about every guest of the <a href=\"https:\/\/amongstlovelythings.com\/category\/podcast\/\">Read-Aloud Revival podcast<\/a> recommends this book. But since it wasn&#8217;t at my branch of the local library and since I assumed that it was just another book-list book (albeit from a Christian perspective), I wasn&#8217;t in any hurry to get it. But when I saw it on the shelf at my church&#8217;s library, I decided I&#8217;d at least figure out what the buzz was. What I found was so much more than a booklist. This is a full-figured book about nurturing children through books and poetry. I haven&#8217;t started going through the bibliography yet (so I can&#8217;t really comment on Hunt&#8217;s booklist!), but the book itself is an excellent encouragement for Christian parents to share beautiful books with their children.<\/li>\n<li><strong><em>As They Grow: Your Two-Year-Old<\/em> by Diane O&#8217;Connell<\/strong><br \/>\nI didn&#8217;t have particularly high expectations of this book &#8220;by the editors of Parents magazine&#8221; &#8211; but I was in for a wonderful surprise. This book gives a fairly comprehensive look at what a child experiences in his twos, along with how parents can support and train their children through the twos. While I have a few points of difference with the authors (for example, they are anti-spanking and are concerned that children might learn gender roles if their mother does the housework while their father does the car maintenance), I generally found the advice to be common sense and helpful. I&#8217;m planning on skimming through this again and taking some notes so I can implement some of the strategies found within.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img src='http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/photoindex\/2017-01\/IMG_0906.JPG' alt='Louis and church history' class='ngg-singlepic ngg-none' \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Books for Knowing:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>Church History in Plain Language<\/em> by Bruce L. Shelley<\/strong><br \/>\nI read the first section (2 chapters long) on the &#8220;Age of Jesus and the Apostles&#8221; as the spine for my first month&#8217;s study of Church History. I&#8217;m glad I chose this as a spine. It&#8217;s easy to read and has just enough detail to allow me to take tangents for further study, without getting me bogged down as I&#8217;m reading.<\/li>\n<li><strong><em>Great People of the Bible and How They Lived<\/em> by Reader&#8217;s Digest<\/strong><br \/>\nI read the New Testament section of this volume and found it an excellent resource to understand the stories of the New Testament in their historical context. If you&#8217;d like to read more, I wrote some comments on this book and the one above in my <a href=\"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/2017\/20170127-17688.htm\">post summarizing my first month studying church history<\/a>. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img src='http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/photoindex\/2017-01\/IMG_0908.JPG' alt='Louis and my kindle' class='ngg-singlepic ngg-none' \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Books for Seeing:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>Pygmalion<\/em> by George Bernard Shaw<\/strong><br \/>\nA re-read for my book club. I thoroughly enjoyed this the first time through (enough that I recommended it for book club!) and enjoyed it even more the second time. I especially enjoyed how preparing to lead discussion encouraged me to ask questions of myself as I read.<\/li>\n<li><strong><em>The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde<\/em> by Robert Louis Stevenson<\/strong><br \/>\nThe compelling story of a man who seeks to give his sin nature absolute freedom &#8211; and discovers that this is not freedom at all. You can <a href=\"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/2017\/20170117-17658.htm\">read my full review here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img src='http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/photoindex\/2017-01\/IMG_0909.JPG' alt='Louis and Georgette Heyer' class='ngg-singlepic ngg-none' \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Books for Enjoying:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><em>Friday&#8217;s Child<\/em> by Georgette Heyer<\/strong><br \/>\nA bit of an unusual romance (since the main characters get married in the first couple chapters of the book) and a bit predictable from there on out (spoiler alert: they fall in love). But the inevitability of the two characters falling in love didn&#8217;t make this story of a completely innocent girl and her frivolous husband any less fun. A good part of the fun is the strong supporting roles the hero&#8217;s best friends serve as they attempt to turn his callow bride into a respectable lady.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img src='http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-content\/photoindex\/2017-01\/IMG_0910.JPG' alt='Tirzah Mae and what's up next' class='ngg-singlepic ngg-none' \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Up Next:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Church History in Plain Language<\/em> by Bruce L. Shelley<br \/>\nSection 2: &#8220;The Age of Catholic Christianity&#8221;<\/li>\n<li><em>Getting to Know the Church Fathers<\/em> by Brian Litfin<\/li>\n<li><em>The Epistles of St. Ignatius<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>The Early Christians in their own words<\/em> edited by Eberhard Arnold<\/li>\n<li><em>Early Christian Church<\/em> by J.G. Davies<\/li>\n<li><em>Against Heretics<\/em> and <em>Against Marcion<\/em> by Tertullian<\/li>\n<li><em>The Gospel of Thomas<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Mindless Eating<\/em> by Brian Wansink<\/li>\n<li><em>Boys in the Boat<\/em>by Daniel James Brown<\/li>\n<li><em>Success as a Foster Parent<\/em> by the National Foster Parent Association with Rachel Greene Baldino<\/li>\n<li><em>The Pearl<\/em> by John Steinbeck<\/li>\n<li><em>The Emperor of Nihon-Ja<\/em> by John Flanagan<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I&#8217;m also planning on reading as many &#8220;My First Little House&#8221; books as I can find at our library to Tirzah Mae in celebration of Laura Ingalls Wilder&#8217;s 150th birthday and <a href=\"https:\/\/barbarah.wordpress.com\/2017\/01\/03\/reading-plans-for-2017\/\">Barbara H&#8217;s Laura Ingalls Wilder Reading Challenge.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t forget to drop by <a href=\"http:\/\/books.5minutesformom.com\/40560\/whats-on-your-nightstand-january-31\/\">5 Minutes 4 Books<\/a> to see what others are reading this month!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.5minutesforbooks.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"What's on Your Nightstand?\" src=\"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/images\/buttons\/nightstand.jpg\" title=\"What's on Your Nightstand?\" class=\"aligncenter\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It&#8217;s not every month that 5 Minutes for Books&#8217;s &#8220;Nightstand&#8221; falls on the last day of the month. It&#8217;s also not every month where I complete practically every book I&#8217;ve been working on by the end of the month, so as to start fresh for the next month. But since I&#8217;m trying to be super-disciplined &#8230; <a title=\"Nightstand (January 2017)\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/2017\/20170131-17724.htm\">Read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Nightstand (January 2017)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17724"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17724"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17750,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17724\/revisions\/17750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/bekahcubed.menterz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}