August Reading

1. The Summer We Read Gatsby - Danielle Ganek
2. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
3. Thrones, Dominations - Dorothy L. Sayers & Jill Paton Walsh
4. Poor Folk - Fyodor Dostoevsky
5. The Diary of Samuel Pepys Volume One: 1660
6. The Wisdom of the Shire - Noble Smith
7. Heaven Bound: Creating a Funeral or Memorial Service for Your Pet - Paraclete Press
8. The Diary of Samuel Pepys Volume Two: 1661
9. The 40 Most Influential Christians - Daryl Aaron

July Reading

1. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce
2. A Moveable Feast - Ernest Hemmingway
3. 4.50 From Paddington - Agatha Christie
4. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
5. Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats - T. S. Eliot
6. 84, Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff
7. Playing for Pizza - John Grisham
8. The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry - Gabrielle Zevin
9. Biblical Preaching - Haddon W. Robinson
10. The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend - Katarina Bivald
11. The New City Catechism

June Reading

1. The Sacrament of Evangelism - Jerry Root & Stan Guthrie
2. Everyday Evangelism - Matt Queen
3. The Bookshop on the Corner - Jenny Colgan
4. The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
5. Saint Francis of Assisi - G. K. Chesterton
6. Nighty-Nightmare - James Howe
7. Bunnicula Meets Edgar Allan Crow - James Howe
8. Runaway Ralph - Beverly Cleary
9. The Furious Flycycle - Jan Wahl
10. Smith of Wootton Major & Famer Giles of Ham - J. R. R. Tolkien
11. The Bookshop Book - Jen Campbell
12. C. S. Lewis: Christian and Storyteller - Beatrice Gormley
13. The Wife of Bath and Other Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer (Translated by Nevill Coghill)
14. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing - Judy Blume
15. Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores - Jen Campbell
16. Parnassus On Wheels - Christopher Morley
17. The Flying Inn - G. K. Chesterton

May Reading

1. George MacDonald: An Anthology - C. S. Lewis
2. God in the Dock - C. S. Lewis
3. Living the Braveheart Life - Randall Wallace
4. The Rime of the Ancient Mariner - Samuel Taylor Coleridge
5. The Sacred Journey - Frederick Buechner
6. Church Elders - Jeramie Rinne
7. Song of the Sun - St. Francis of Assisi
8. Defiant Joy: The Remarkable Life of G. K. Chesterton - Kevin Belmonte
9. The Magician's Nephew - C. S. Lewis
10. The Return of the King - J. R. R. Tolkien
11. Clouds of Witness - Dorothy L. Sayers
12. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
13. One for the Books - Joe Queenan
14. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam - Edward Fitzgerald
15. Right Ho, Jeeves - P. G. Wodehouse
16. Unidentified Flying Oddball - Vic Crume

April Reading

1. 1 Peter: Message of Encouragement - John H. McClanahan
2. The NIV Application Commentary: 1 Peter - Scot McKnight
3. Freakonomics - Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
4. The Most Reluctant Convert - David C. Downing
5. C. S. Lewis: Images of His World - Douglas Gilbert & Clyde S. Kilby
6. Letters of C. S. Lewis - W. H. Lewis & Walter Hooper (editors)
7. Reading Spenser: An Introduction to The Faerie Queene - Roger Sale
8. Mere Christianity - C. S. Lewis
9. Jane Austen - Peter Leithart
10. Preparing for Easter: Fifty Devotional Readings - C. S. Lewis
11. Lilith - George MacDonald
12. Spirits in Bondage - C. S. Lewis
13. Spenser's Images of Life - C. S. Lewis with Alastair Fowler

Good Friday

Soon after ribbons of flesh hung from His back

The regal color purple quickly fades to black

The Son of Man bearing our sin on the cross

The Son of God awfully redeeming our loss

God, forgive us for what we put You through

God, we praise You for making all things new

In Christ, our hope, our joy, our all-in-all

Because of the Resurrection, reverséd is the Fall

Once in a garden Father Adam sealed our fate

An empty garden tomb now provides a new slate

Up from the grave, He arose, He arose

When He'll be back? Truly, God only knows

Dear sinner, repent, cease your struggle and fight

Surrender yourself to Heaven, you may be there tonight

March Reading

1. The Great Divorce - C. S. Lewis

2. Teaching Christianity (De Doctrina Christiana) - Augustine

3. Virtue and Vice: A Dictionary of the Good Life - C. S. Lewis

4. The Oxford Inklings - Colin Duriez

5. Chilvalry: The Path of Love - Jeremy Catto

6. The Blood of Olympus - Rick Riordan

7. A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War - Joseph Loconte

8. Devotional Talks on Everyday Objects - Robert J. Hastings

9. On Stories and Other Essays on Literature - C. S. Lewis

10. Prince Caspian - C. S. Lewis

11. Discussing Mere Christianity - Devin Brown

12. The Divine Comedy I: Hell - Dante (translated by Dorothy L. Sayers)

13. The Man Who Was Thursday - G. K. Chesterton

February Reading

1. C. S. Lewis: An Apologist For Education - Louis Markos
2. Dancing on the Head of a Pen - Robert Benson
3. Striding Folly - Dorothy L. Sayers
4. C. S. Lewis At The Breakfast Table - James T. Como
5. The Silver Chair - C. S. Lewis
6. The Song of Songs - Marcia Falk
7. The Laws of Marie de France - Robert Hanning & Joan Ferrante
8. Four Quartets - T. S. Eliot
9. The Pilgrim's Guide: C. S. Lewis and the Art of Witness - David Mills
10. The Ghost and the Dead Man's Library - Alice Kimberly (Cleo Coyle)
11. Letters to Heaven: Reaching Beyond the Great Divide - Calvin Miller
12. William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back - Ian Doescher
13. Cupside Down - Terry Cliett

I Don't Like That Preacher

Every Thursday afternoon, you can find me at a little dance studio.  I'm there because my six-year-old daughter is a student at this particular studio.  I like it because it's small, clean, and has comfortable seating in the waiting room.  I usually have a book open in my lap, and, despite the noise, I can get a little bit of reading done.  I try to use my time wisely.  So it's me, a few mothers, a couple of grandmothers, and a few young children waiting for the class to end.  Two of the girls spend their time playing, screaming, and generally entertaining everyone else in the room.  These same two girls like to play a game with me.  This game is called "Every time the boy looks at us, let's run, scream, and hide from him!"  It's a great game.  The other day, while playing this game, I suppose they got really loud--loud enough for the dance teacher (the mother of one of the girls) to come out of her class to see what was going on.  Then the conversation went like this.

Mom:  What are you doing?
Girl:  We're hiding from that boy!
Mom:  (looks around the room)  What boy?
Girl:  (points at me)  That boy!
Mom:  He's not a boy.  He's a man.  And you better behave because he's a preacher.
Girl:  But I don't like that preacher!

Now at this point the mom is mortified.  Smiling through it all, I said, "It's ok.  She's not the only one."  Now others enter the into the discussion.

Grandmother #1:  Well, at least she's straightforward with you unlike others would be.
Grandmother #2:  I didn't know you were a preacher!  You can't please everybody.  I get so tired of hearing people complain about the pastor over the stupidest things.  (she gives a few examples of the stupid things people complain about)  Who cares?!

One example she gave was this.  Some people who sit in front of her at church used to complain about a previous pastor because he would talk about his wife (in a good way) during the sermon.  Her response, "They ought to be glad he talks about his wife and not somebody else's wife!"

January Reading

1. C. S. Lewis Through the Shadowlands - Brian Sibley

2. Chivalry - Zach Hunter

3. The Ballad of the White Horse - G. K. Chesterton

4. The Horse and His Boy - C. S. Lewis

5. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - J. K. Rowling, John Tiffany, & Jack Thorne

6. King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table - Roger Lancelyn Green

7. To Live Is Christ To Die Is Gain - Matt Chandler & Jared C. Wilson

8. Understanding Tolkien and the Lord of the Rings - William Ready

9. The Pastor as Scholar & The Scholar as Pastor - John Piper & D. A. Carson

10. Quest for Celestia - Steven James

11. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - C. S. Lewis

12. The Screwtape Letters - C. S. Lewis