52 49 Books in 52 Weeks: Books 45-49: Challenge Wrap-Up

As the year comes to a close, I am only a little disappointed that I didn't make it all the way to 52 books.  After all, I did start in mid-February, so I did read more than 1 book per week during the time I was participating in the challenge.   

I did my best during the last 3 days of the year to catch up, and managed about 1 book a day.  I really wanted to at least make it to the nice, round number of 50, but, alas, it was not to be.  So, without further ado, here are the last 5 books I read, with my apologies for the incredibly skimpy reviews. They are all good books that I would recommend, with the caveat that the "Hornet's Nest" has a significant amount of language, violence, and sexual content. 

This is the conclusion to Larsson's trilogy and it mostly lives up to the drama and excitement of the first two.  I really enjoyed it, and was sad when it when it was over, because we will have no more novels from Stieg Larsson.  I will miss these characters.

This is an incredibly important book.  I think every pastor, youth leader, and Christian parent should read it.  Why are so many Christian young people apathetic about their Christian faith?  What do they really believe?  I started reading this book months ago & planned to do a long and pretty detailed review of it, but I've run out of time.  I don't agree with everything this author says, but for the most part, she is spot on.  This book is really good and really important. It's not just about teenagers.  It's about everyone in the evangelical Christian church in America.  Highly recommended reading for Christians.

Another book highly recommended for Christian parents. Not an easy read - that is - it is a very spiritually challenging book that will cause you to really examine your parenting methods  and evaluate your own spiritual condition. Very much in line with Tedd Tripp's "Shepherding a Child's Heart". 

I just love discovering a new author who writes really suspenseful fiction with well-developed characters.  This year I discovered Jodi Picoult, and I am looking forward to reading many more of her books next year.  Just like when I read "House Rules", I had trouble putting this one down.  It has many twists and turns, as well as fascinating issues of faith and deeply wrenching personal and ethical decisions to be made by her characters.

My final book of 2010 - another gripping tale from Jodi Picoult.   A dead infant is found in the barn of a devout Amish farmer in Paradise, Pennsylvania.  All the evidence points to the farmer's 18 year old daughter, who has obviously given birth in the past 24 hours, though she kept her pregnancy hidden from her family.  She adamantly denies the pregnancy, but she is arrested on suspicion of murdering her newborn.  Events bring high-powered Philadelphia attorney Ellie Hathaway into the situation. What will she discover as she undertakes young Katie Fisher's defense? 

Well, now it's on to 2011 and a new 52 books in 52 weeks. I'm exited to start again and I already have a stack of books awaiting me!

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 44: "A Fierce Radiance" by Lauren Belfer

What would it be like to live in a world where your little girl could fall and skin her knee, get infected with staph bacteria, and there's nothing you can do but watch as the infection takes her life in a matter of days?  Or you catch the flu, it moves into your lungs and becomes pneumonia, and there's no such thing as penicillin?  

We don't have to go back very far in our history - pre WWII - to find such a time.  This historical fiction novel is set in WWII.  Claire Shipley is a photographer working for Life magazine and she's been assigned to follow the story of the development and testing of this new medicine called penicillin.   Even if it does work as they hope, there is almost no chance they will be able to produce enough of it.  That is, until the government learns of penicillin's potential to heal the wounded on the front lines and steps in to take control and patent rights away from the pharmaceutical companies.

Lauren Belfer does an excellent job of winding a medical thriller, a murder mystery and a romance into the fabric of this historical fiction novel.  I found this to be a very enjoyable read.  It was also very informative about this time in history, and thought provoking.  As the author concludes in her notes at the end of the book:

Penicillin and the antibiotics that followed have changed the lives of virtually every human being in the past seventy years. Bacterial resistance to antibiotics developed from the beginning, however. Today, resistance is a major medical problem. Unless antibiotic use is curtailed, or new drugs are developed, humanity could easily return to the era when otherwise healthy adults died from a scratch on the knee.

Sojourner

52 Books in 52 Weeks: Book 43: "The Good Earth" by Pearl S. Buck

In "The Good Earth" Pearl Buck tells the story of a Chinese farmer, Wang Lung, and his wife, O-lan.  As they begin their young lives together, they work hard to pull themselves out of a life of poverty and living hand-to-mouth off the land.  As hard as they work, floods, famines and wars come along to wipe out the well-earned rewards of their years of labor.   Each time this happens, they find a way to survive, and bring their family back to the land that is so precious to Wang Lung.  

The Good Earth is an epic, timeless tale with universal themes.  At the time it was first published (1931) most Americans thought of China as a mysterious, exotic place filled with a people who practiced savage customs.  Pearl Buck, who grew up in China as the daughter of American missionaries was able to portray her Chinese characters in this novel with depth.  They have complex motives, personalities, and exhibit desires that were common to most of her American readers.  She made China accessible to the West.   

Sojourner