The Flight: A Monthly Book Sampler (March 2021)

Rise has its own Bookshop.org storefront! Whenever possible, the links in The Flight will now send you there. Purchases made via those links support independent bookstores and allow Rise to earn a small amount of money. All money earned will be invested back into Rise’s mission to connect, equip and empower people to build a Church where women thrive. 

The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self Love by Sonya Renee Taylor

This book has been really meaningful for several of my friends and I really wanted to love it, but it just didn’t strike that same chord with me. Given my current lack of enthusiasm for non-fiction, it could very well have been a case of right book, wrong time. I may revisit it later when I’m in a different headspace. But if you’re struggling to love your body (and/or yourself), this may be the right time for you to pick up a copy.

Seven Last Words from the Cross by Fleming Rutledge

This was my book for Lent this year. It’s a series of sermons that Rutledge preached during the traditional Episcopal Good Friday service, which, as I understand it, is sort of like the Holy Week version of Lessons and Carols - a series of brief sermons interspersed with hymns. Each sermon is about one of Jesus’ seven words or sayings on the cross. I’m a huge fan of Rutledge and reading one of these sermons on Ash Wednesday and then each Sunday during Lent was the exact speed I could handle this year. Her mastery of the English language never fails to astound me and her reflections on the crucifixion and Jesus’ words are profound.

Simple and Free: 7 Experiments Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker

7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess, originally published in 2011, was, if I recall correctly, the first Jen Hatmaker book that I read. A lot has happened in the last ten years, so I was excited when I saw that Hatmaker was releasing a revised and expanded version of the book. It was as funny and challenging and convicting this time around as it was when I first read it. And I really appreciated the additional commentary that Hatmaker has added and the change and growth reflected there.

The Making of Biblical Womanhood by Beth Allison Barr

Yowza.This is an unflinching takedown of complementarianism and I loved it. Full disclosure, I grew up in a charismatic non-denominational church where women could do everything but be elders/pastors. Sure, when I was a kid, you could only wear pants to the Sunday evening service, but that was over with before my teens. I know that’s a far cry from what so many who grew up in complementarian denominations and churches experienced. As a kid and teenager, maybe even into my early twenties, I wholeheartedly subscribed to the belief that the office of elder/pastor was reserved for men. Right up until I didn’t. But even when I did, the phrase “biblical womanhood” made my eye twitch, so the instant I heard about Barr’s book, I knew I wanted to read it. As a history nerd, I loved her repeated examples of medieval women who chucked patriarchy and gender-based restrictions out the window. As a word nerd, her breakdown of the deliberate erasure of women in certain Bible translations was compelling. 

You Can Talk to God Like That by Abby Norman

Especially after the absolute dumpster fire that was 2020, we all need this book. I'm incredibly grateful to Abby Norman for writing it. She is honest, vulnerable, and delightfully blunt. She calls it like she sees it, whether what she's looking at is Western society or Scripture. She has given her readers an all-encompassing permission slip to acknowledge our own feelings, mourn with those who mourn, and call out the injustices that surround us so that they can be fixed. I'll be recommending this book for years to come.

First Lord’s Fury by Jim Butcher

This is the final book of the Codex Alera series and I absolutely loved it. It was a fantastic conclusion to the series. Lots of fun, great wrap-ups of the characters’ arcs, and very satisfying to see all the bad guys get their comeuppance. I was really sad to get to the end of the story because I enjoyed the series so much. Although, if I never have to hear the word “chitinous” again, I’ll be very happy. Butcher has a thing about writing insectoid monsters and now the word just gives me the creeps.

A Bachelor Establishment by Isabella Barclay (aka Jodi Taylor)

I’ve been raving about Jodi Taylor’s The Chronicles of St. Mary’s for a good long while now and since I’ve caught up on both the St. Mary’s and Time Police series, I’m working my way through her other books. A Bachelor Establishment was written under a pseudonym and after her publishers rejected her first suggestion, she picked the name of the second-most hated character from the St. Mary’s, which I find hilarious. When I recommended it to a couple friends, I said “it’s like a Jane Austen book but with a mystery and the sneaky Regency snark turned up to 10.” The extremely polite insults and sarcasm cracked me up. I listened to the audiobook and Anna Bentinck did a great job narrating.