What Books I'm Reading Now

Hello. 

Well this has no doubt become Book Week at the Tatum Daily Update.  Perhaps this will be the last day that I'll say anything about books for awhile, but each day brings certain responses that call for group response. So here is what is up today. 

The question was, "What are you reading now?" 

Well, if you want to know, I'm reading: 

Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah.  

This is about the civil war in Sierra Leone in the late eighties and early nineties.  The title is a pretty good explanation alone. 

The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper. 

Cooper is now a writer for The New York Times but grew up in privilege in Liberia.  She chronicles her story: growing up rich, the contextual history of her home, and the war that eventually came. 

The Great Emergence by Phyllis Tickle. 

Many of you have heard me talk about this lady.  Tickle is a very smart lady who has been speaking for several years about where Christianity is today, how we got here, and where we are likely going for the next, oh, I don't know, 500 years or so.  Jesse and I heard her speak live in November of 2007 on the topic and it was life changing. I'm not using that word lightly.  There were about 5,000 to 7,000 people that heard her speak for about 45 minutes.  You could have heard a pin drop.  At the end, men were tearing up and we gave her a standing ovation.  Mind you, this is not a sentimental story of overcoming or anything like that. It's basically a history lesson.  So you can imagine how good of a history lesson it must be for her words to elicit such a response.  This book came out last year and, at about 155 pages, takes us through those lectures, now in written form. 

So that is where I am. Funny that I made a big deal about reading fiction and I'm not even reading it at the present moment.  That will change soon, though. I'm starting my first Austen book in the next day or so, just to say that I did. Mansfield Park is the one I thought I'd try. I would love to hear what you're reading as well. 

And also, Christina Neeson suggested starting a book club.  Her suggestion was that I pick a book to read every month and then invite people who want to read it to come and hangout and chat about it. Let me know if you would like to do something like that. It would be pretty low commitment (read: non-existent). 

Okay.