Donald Miller has always been unlike any Christian author I have read before. He rocked my world in Blue Like Jazz. He inspired me to get off my rear end and start living my life in A Million Miles in a Thousand Years. I’ve always been a big fan of Miller being an open and authentic writer plus an avid student of life. His latest book, Scary Close was released this month and it’s unlike anything he’s written before.
I thought Miller was an honest writer before but he takes honesty to a whole new level in Scary Close. This book is raw, transparent, uncomfortable and beautiful. Miller has always been an avid observer of people and situations. He eagerly seeks out opportunities to learn and study successful people whether it’s in business, family or in life. In Scary Close, Miller becomes a student of himself as he strives to learn why his past relationships went wrong, where he wasn’t being honest with himself, and learning how to let go of the romantic epic ideals he had in his own mind.
Summary: 45 Reflections on how the bible pushes us toward disquiet.
Many of us struggle to find our identity in our work. We struggle with the gap between what really interests us ““ where our passions lie, and how we earn a paycheck. In many instances, we work to pay the bills so that we can pursue our true interest. Others know their current career path is not their passion, but cannot pinpoint where their true passion lies. Are we living to work or working to live? Are we spending our work hours doing something that fulfills us? Are working at a career that is exactly what we were created to do, or have we pushed our dreams aside to face the reality of a 9 to 5?
Elizabeth Is Missing is Emma Healey’s first novel about an older woman suffering from dementia. The story is from Maud’s point of view and gives the audience an idea of what life might be like to have one’s mind slowly deteriorate due to dementia. To help illustrate the point even more, Maud spends most of her time obsessing about the disappearance of her friend, Elizabeth. She finds it extremely difficult to follow the clues when she can’t remember what the clues are or even what they mean when she finds them.
Mimi Baird embarks on a journey to learn why her father, Dr. Perry Baird quite literally disappeared from his daughter’s life in the mid-1940s. Dr. Baird was, by all accounts, a brilliant doctor and an up-and-coming researcher whose groundbreaking study into manic depression was abruptly halted due to his own suffering with the disease. Dr. Baird had been removed from his family while Mimi and her younger sister were quite young; the girls were not given a complete explanation as to what happened to their father for several decades. While Mimi attempted to readjust to a life without her father and the mystery surrounding him, Dr. Baird was institutionalized multiple times due to his uncontrollable manic depression. During his many hospitalizations, Dr. Baird kept a written account of his personal experiences with his disease, the treatments he endured which are now considered barbaric, and mourned the loss of every aspect of his life.
Summary: If you know you want to explore more about theology and the bible but are not sure where to start, this is a good place.
Summary: Inspector Gamache and his wife go away to their favorite vacation spot for their 35th anniversary, murder follows them.