Winter Reading Material

These past couple of months, I have been spending considerable time in biography land...and loving it! For Christmas, my grandparents generously supplied five new titles for my library at my request that I have found to be inspiring, challenging, and delightful to read. Even though these books written by Janet and Geoff Benge are geared toward a younger audience, I have learned that I prefer their biographies compared to many others due to their captivating story-telling style. Sometimes, biographies can be rather dull and slow-moving...but not with Janet and Geoff Benge! The only title I owned for years by this husband-wife writing time was that of Gladys Aylward. It had always been one of my very favorites and I have read it at least three times. Now, I am thrilled to have these five additions from the same series, Christian Heroes Then and Now, and looking forward to continuing the collection which totals over thirty volumes!






I just finished reading the last of these five books. They were all excellent, though I must say that the stories of George Muller and Lillian Trasher were my favorites...probably because they worked with orphans and lived completely by faith, telling only God when they had needs. George Muller has been a long-time hero of mine, but I had never actually read an official biography of his...just snippets here and there...and Lillian Trasher was a new one for me to learn about --- but oh, how her story inspires!

Another selection of winter reading which happens to be the only fictitious piece I've read in awhile, is a new book on the market called Bright Against the Storm. This masterfully-written novel by Ari Heinze is a truly great piece of literature in all the ways that makes literature great. I could write an entire review of the book, but since Anna Pedersen has already done a beautiful job at that, I will give you the link to her thoughts here. Knowing Ari and his family from back in our growing up years made reading this novel especially enjoyable, but you certainly don't have to be acquainted with the author to find his book equally delightful.


And finally, I am currently making my way through this charming biographical account of two other missionary heroes from days gone by: Hudson and Maria Taylor.

Sometimes when a biography is written about a particular man or woman of faith, the description of their life is almost other-worldly, with only the finer points of their character shared to the degree that one almost wonders if they were truly human. Not so with John Pollock's rendition of Hudson Taylor's life. There is no question as to Hudson and Maria's humanity in this finely crafted literary masterpiece. Their adventures, hardships, romance, ministry, joys, sorrows, and experiences are all described in an refreshingly realistic way. There is no glamor associated with their work, only the truth of the hard, yet blessed lives they lived. Perhaps most inspiring of all is the depth of relationship that Hudson and Maria experienced with God.

This is my third time to read this book, and every time I read it, I glean so much from their examples of faith. I could fill my journal with one profound quote after another. This time through, I am finding the Taylors' experiences to be especially pertinent to the season of life God has me in as I make decisions regarding missionary service in the very near future.