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Due to the October Write31Days Challenge, I am late with this edition of The Reading Report. However, I have a lot of books to share with you! Taking time away from social media has, as I expected, given me more time and inclination to read and listen to books. Besides that, cooler and cloudier fall days just seem to lend themselves to cozying up on the couch with a blanket, a book and cup of something hot, don’t they? So, if you need some ideas for your fall reading list, brew yourself some tea or coffee, and let’s talk books!

Finished Books:

King Lear: I finally finished listening to this Shakespeare play, and I think knowing the plot line from listening to The Play’s the Thing podcasts before having finished helped me appreciate it more than I might have otherwise. It is definitely one I will return to again one day! I thought about trying to watch the Amazon Prime miniseries version, but the previews tell me that it would probably be too intense for my sensitive nature.

Much Ado About Nothing: I’m still waiting on the final podcast episode for this one to come up, but I have finished listening to the play. I would really like to watch the film version sometime just for fun. I need to find out if the library has it.

Whose Body: I decided to sub this Dorothy Sayers Lord Peter Wimsey mystery for Edith Wharton’s Age of Innocence in the B2tCC Classic by a Woman Author category. It was a quick listen, and a nice change from the denser reading I have been doing lately. If you haven’t read a Lord Peter detective novel yet, I highly recommend them…thought-provoking, suspenseful without being too gruesome, and highly literary while also being fast-paced.

The Grey Woman: This was another quick listen when I just needed a new audio book in a completely different genre than I’d been reading. I finished it in a couple of evenings while cooking and cleaning up from dinner. It is a novella by Elizabeth Cleghorn Glaskell, and it has a rather Gothic feel, with a murderous husband and a young wife fleeing for her life.

The Power and the Glory: The Close Reads Podcast is currently working their way through this Graham Greene novel. I had never read any of Greene’s work before. Since I’m taking my sweet time getting through Andrew Murray’s The Spiritual Life, I decided to sub The Power and the Glory for that New-to-You Author spot in the B2tCC. This means I am now FINISHED with my challenge reading for 2018! (I will do a wrap up post with my complete list later this month, hopefully.) I still have a lot of thoughts to mull over in relation to this book, but it was a very compelling story. I came away feeling that the journey taken by the priest was in a sense a picture of the Christian’s journey toward sanctification. I also came across some verses in my Bible reading this week that I think may be connected to the book’s title and message:

You will say to me then, “Why does he still find fault? For who can resist his will?”  But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, “Why have you made me like this?” Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use?  What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?

-Romans 9:19-24 (ESV)

Books in Progress:

The Nesting Place: After hearing a lot of good things about Myquillyn Smith’s newest book, Cozy Minimalist Home, I decided to read her first book about making the most of the home you’re in. Since we are renting, I have struggled with the idea of wanting make this house feel homey without doing anything permanent or expensive. This book has some good points and ideas, even though I have decided that I am not quite ready to do anything much with them at this exact moment.

For the Children’s Sake: My homeschool mom’s book study group is going through Brandy Vencel’s Start Here: A Journey Through Charlotte Mason’s 20 Principles, and this book is part of our required reading. Susan Schaffer Macauley’s book is a must-read if you are a homeschool parent or are even considering the idea of home education.

Heidi: My son and I are reading Heidi for his bedtime read aloud right now. I am pretty sure I read at least part of this book as a child, but I really only remember the Shirley Temple movie version, which obviously is not quite the same. I have been pleasantly surprised by some of the Christian principles woven into the story so far, and we still have the second part of the book to go.

Love Among the Chickens: This is my current “purely for fun” audio book. P. G. Wodehouse wrote, in my opinion, classic British humor at its best! If you need some lighthearted reading or listening, you simply must try some Wodehouse!

Books on Hold:

The following books have been put on the back burner for the time being, but I definitely have plans to finish all of them in the near future!

Deep Work by Cal Newport

At Home in Mitford by Jan Karon

The Spiritual Life by Andrew Murray

Looking Ahead:

A Tolkien Miscellany/Farmer Giles of Ham: My kids and I started reading Farmer Giles together over breakfast a few days ago, and it has already elicited many laughs and requests to “keep reading!”

Pre-reading for AO Year 3: Now that we finished AmblesideOnline’s Year 2 work, it is time for me to gather and begin reading the books for next year! I have some book mail on the way this week, as well as a couple books I picked up at the most recent library book sale. I must discipline myself to begin pre-reading and taking notes in ernest this year since my son will be reading more of his books independently instead of listening to me read aloud so much.

Otherwise, I am not sure what else I’m going to read next besides whatever the next picks are for Close Reads and The Play’s the Thing. I may try joining in on whatever the next book is over on the AmblesideOnline forum official book discussion thread. We shall see!

Now it’s your turn! Tell me what you’ve been reading so far this fall or what you’re reading next!