The Flight: A Monthly Book Sampler (April 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. 

Smoke and Iron & Sword and Pen by Rachel Caine

I finished Caine’s The Great Library series this month. I’ve gotta say, it’s one of the weirdest experiences I’ve ever had reading a series. While I was actually reading it, I was completely engrossed. But it took me ages to finish Smoke and Iron, especially, because I put it down about ⅓ of the way through and was generally disinclined to pick it back up. When I finally did, I read the final ⅔ in one sitting. I have no idea what that aversion was about. It’s not something I’ve ever experienced before. I really liked the characters and despite my love of a perfectly neat and happy ending, I appreciated the not-quite of this one. A couple of my favourite scenes of the whole series were in the last 50 pages of Sword and Pen because of the way a couple of the arcs were wrapped up.

A Quiet Life in the Country by T. E. Kinsey

I’ve had this audiobook sitting in my Audible library for ages. I must’ve grabbed it during a sale or when it was a daily deal. But I finally hit play this month and I’m very glad I did. It’s the first of the Lady Hardcastle Mysteries and I’ll have to accumulate the lot because I loved this first one. Set in a small English village in the West Country in 1908, a newly-arrived widow and her lady’s maid find a body one morning while out for a walk and shenanigans ensue. It’s fun and funny and witty. Plus, the narrator, Elizabeth Knowelden, is fabulous. 

The Daughters of Miriam by Wilda C. Gafney

This exploration of the woman prophets of the Old Testament was fascinating. Building and expanding on the work of other scholars, Gafney methodically examines the Hebrew grammar used to describe prophets/prophecy in all their forms. Based on its usage, she explains why many women beyond the bare handful who are named as such in the text should be considered prophets. She examines the extant texts and descriptions of prophetic offices in nearby Ancient Near Eastern civilizations and suggests that comparable offices likely existed and were held by women in Israel (and Judah). The whole thing was very interesting and I particularly loved the sections on Deborah and Proverbs 31. I’m sure I missed things because I’ve never studied Hebrew in any capacity and so was only able to bring my understanding of the grammatical structures of other languages to my reading.

Jesus & John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez

I’m really glad that I finally picked this book up. It’s not necessarily an easy book to read, but it’s well worth the effort. Dr. Du Mez’s writing is engaging and very readable; it’s what she’s writing about that makes it upsetting and occasionally rage-inducing and thus occasionally tough to get through. The subtitle of the book is “How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation” and Du Mez methodically examines the rise of Christian nationalism and toxic masculinity through the 20th century into the beginning of the 21st. At one point, when Du Mez quoted Billy Graham’s op-ed on the My Lai massacre, I almost threw the book across the room. I’ve never identified as an evangelical, but I can see how so much of white American evangelical culture bled into and influenced the charismatic bubble I grew up in in Toronto. The pervasiveness of so much destructive, harmful theology is really disturbing. We’re due for a reckoning and I hope that this book contributes to it.

Another Time, Another Place by Jodi Taylor

The latest instalment in The Chronicles of St. Mary’s picks up more or less right where the last book, Plan for the Worst, left off. And it is a doozy. I almost made it through this one without crying and then Taylor got me right at the end. I did, however, laugh repeatedly throughout the book and even texted a couple quotes to friends. It’s virtually impossible to even provide a synopsis of the plot without spoilers, so let’s just say that this one covers a lot of ground and ends with not so much a cliffhanger as am “Oh crap!”  moment that effectively sets up everything to come and raises the stakes for everyone. I have no idea how it’s going to play out, but I’m very excited to see what happens next.

Broken Horses by Brandi Carlile

I’ve been a fan of Brandi Carlile since about 2006 when I first heard one of her songs on Grey’s Anatomy. I gave up on the show after a few seasons, but I own every album she’s ever released. I’ve only gotten to see her perform live once, but it was an extraordinary concert. When she announced that she was writing a memoir, I instantly added it to my TBR list. Then I found out that she was narrating the audiobook herself and quickly pre-ordered it. I’m very glad I did because at the end of each chapter, there’s a new acoustic recording of at least one song. Most are hers, but several are covers, including “Coat of Many Colors” and “Your Song”. All the songs are also collected at the end of the audiobook - a total of 1 hour and 45 minutes of stripped down aural wonderfulness. Carlile’s story - one I knew snippets of from various interviews and profiles over the years - is fascinating. She does a remarkable job of drawing the reader (or listener) in and painting the picture of her life in a way that is eminently relatable.