Fall is approaching and I'm seeing the school buses again. I love to choose some new-to-me books for fall, maybe something a bit stretching. So here are the challenges that Charity and I chose for the next three months.
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1. Duet Challenge: Read a classic book and a biography of the author.
Fall is a great time to tackle a longer book, like a classic. Some classics seem more difficult to understand because they are written in an unfamiliar language from a time period different than our own. Often reading a biography of the author can help me understand the setting and time in which the author wrote his books. Kipling's books couldn't have been written if he hadn't went to India. Alcott's books may have been different if her family hadn't faced financial struggles.
For this challenge, choose a classic, then find a biography about the author. Your library should have several options, or you could ask them to get in a biography of a favorite author. Dickens, Tolstoy, Twain, Tokien, Austen, Alcott - there are so many options.
If this challenge intimidates you, choose a children's classic. There are some great children's author biographies.
Here are a few examples of biographies that I've either read or heard recommended.
Invincible Louise by Cornelia Meigs (Lousia May Alcott)
Jane and Dorothy by Marian Veevers (Compares and contrasts the lives of Jane Austen and Dorothy Wordsworth)
Some Writer! by Melissa Sweet (a lovely child's book on E.B.White)
The Trouble Begins at 8 by Sid Fleischman (a wonderful children's biography of Mark Twain)
P. G. Wodehouse by Frances Donalson
Beatrix Potter by Linda Lear
Jane Austen at Home by Lucy Worsley
2. Read a conversion story.
I love to read how a man or woman met God and how He changed their life. Here are a few of our favorite conversion stories. I don't agree with all the choices these individuals made, but their stories show me the work of God.
Gay Girl, Good God by Jackie Hill Perry
Miracle of Miracles by Mina Nevisa
The Great Good Thing by Andrew Klavan
Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus by Nabeel Qureshi
I Dared to Call Him Father by Bliquis Sheikh
Born Again by Chuck Colson
By Searching by Isobel Kuhn
3. Finish a book you started, but never finished.
Charity and I didn't finish the animal book challenge this summer. Here is your chance to pick up a book you abandoned or complete a challenge that you missed.
4. Read a book together with a friend.
I find so much joy in discussing a book with a friend. This summer a friend lent me Leif Enger's new book I Cheerfully Refuse, and I read it in two days because I couldn't wait to discuss it with her.
Also this summer I was reading The Gift of Limitations by Sara Hagerty and thought of a friend who might enjoy it. I bought her a copy and look forward to getting together this fall to talk about it.
For the last couple years, a few ladies from church have been choosing a book each winter to read and discuss together. I get so much more from a book when I hear others' perspectives of a book.
Hopefully you have a reading friend that you can read a book with. The book can be fiction, nonfiction, a classic, inspirational, or whatever.
A few months ago, I found two used copies of Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry. Charity and I have both had this book on our wish list, so this challenge will give us a good opportunity to read it together.
5. Memorize a chapter of the Bible.
I haven't been doing much memorization so this challenge will hopefully encourage more attention to God's Word.
I'd love to hear what you plan to read this fall.
Next week Charity and I will share our summer reading. It was a great reading season for me!