WHAT I'M READING V.3

The temperature was in the 80's all week and I couldn't have been more pleased about it.  A few days this past week I wandered outside during my break at work. I found myself a bench and read while soaking in the sunshine, and then would return back to my desk 15 minutes later, feeling like my innards had gotten bathed.

The Meaning of Marriage by Timothy Keller and Kathy Keller

I started this book a while ago. I picked it up at the bookstore and was skimming through it when I came across a section called, "You Never Marry The Right Person". The section debunks the notion that there is perfection to be found in your partner and instead highlights the maturity and lasting joy of a marriage which is found in things like wanting to serve the other person, looking at your own faults instead of blaming and keeping score and being kind.  "The journey may eventually take you into a strong, tender, joyful marriage. But it's not because you married the perfectly compatible person. That person doesn't exist."

"If two spouses are spending a day together, the question of who gets each's pleasure and who gives in can present itself every few minutes. And when it does, there are three possibilities: You can offer to serve the other with joy, you can make the offer with coldness or resentment, or you can selfishly insist on your own way. Only when both partners are regularly responding to one another in the first way can the marriage thrive."

I'm going through this one slowly, reading a few pages at a time, and it's full of good reminders.

Scary Close by Donald Miller

I was introduced to Donald Miller with Blue Like Jazz over ten years ago, and I remember really appreciating his writing and perspective. He's over 40 now, and I was curious to see how his perspective has evolved and grown. In this book he talks about his struggles with intimacy and really bares the most vulnerable parts of himself.  I also appreciated what he had to say about that 'longing' we all have and what the implications of that in a relationship should be: 

"I'm convinced every person has a longing that will never be fulfilled and it's our job to let it live and breathe and suffer within it as a way of developing our character...What differentiates true Christianity from the pulp many people buy into is that Jesus never offers that completion here on earth. He only asks us to trust him and follow him to the metaphorical wedding we will experience in heaven....I don't know if there's a healthier way for two people to stay in love than to stop using each other to resolve their unfulfilled longings and, instead, start holding each other closely as they experience them." 

Out Stealing horses by Per Patterson

My sister recommended this book!  I started reading it just yesterday so I am only a few pages in but so far I'm loving the tone and the slow, unfolding nature of its prose. It's a Norwegian novel about an older man reflecting on a transformative summer, and so far, the way that the story is revealing itself to be intricately woven is so delicious. 

We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This is a tiny book based on her TED talk and I ran through it in about an hour or less. There is nothing revelatory here at this point in time, but it's worth reading for her voice and her stories. 

Let me know if you're reading anything spectacular!  

Unrelated, but in the category of "What I'm Listening To", I went to a Sufjan Stevens concert this past week and that was its own kind of bath for the soul. I really connected with his most recent album so I love that I got to see this particular concert. He was amazing, all the musicians were so talented and this baby kicked and moved around THE ENTIRE TIME.