Book Recap: Q1
Hello and welcome to my Q1 book recap. Because my goal for 2022 is so high and my current pace will surpass that — it felt odious to do a monthly recap. So instead I’m going to touch on the highlights of my reading for each quarter in 2022.
In Q1 I read 22 books. I read more fiction than I anticipated. Usually it’s split 50/50 with nonfiction and fiction but this quarter I leaned heavily into my YA fantasy roots and it was perfect. I needed a little more escapism this quarter than I realized.
My fiction reading has included:
Continuing The Scholomance series by Naomi Novik with the second installment, The Last Graduate. My SIL, Amelia, loves this series so I picked it up after her recommendation and while I wasn’t a huge fan of the first book — I really appreciated how Novik listened to critics and improved in the second book. I’m much more invested in “El” and her story and after the cliffhanger at the end, I am eagerly anticipating the third book which will be out in September.
Re-reading some more Jane Austen. I started the year with Mansfield Park and recently finished up Pride and Prejudice. What I noticed about the two is that some of Jane’s best lines are actually attributed to some of my least favorite characters. Mary Crawford and Caroline Bingley get to say some of my favorite “Jane-isms” and I was once again reminded of Austen’s brilliance and wit.
Two stand-alone books that really captured my attention this quarter were The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett and The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. They were very different books but both told stories that I couldn’t relate to in many ways but also that I did relate to at their core and I was reminded and encouraged that even though we may be so different from one another, there are things that unite us as humans. And those things are so incredibly important. The Vanishing Half touched on race, family, and how those two things interact over time. The House in the Cerulean Sea touched on the importance of not judging a book by its cover and how prejudice destroys us all.
Besides Pride & Prejudice, The House in the Cerulean Sea was my only other 5 star fiction book in Q1.
Finally, much of Q1 was dedicated to the Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. While none of the first four books in the series that I read were 5 stars, I’m always struck by how good of a story SJM can tell. She’s not Tolkien brilliant and she doesn’t always tug at my heartstrings but she tells compelling stories with multiple layers — mostly touching on healing from trauma and that I can get behind. I’m still undecided on whether TOG is better than ACOTAR — it’s certainly less risqué — but I’ve really been enjoying escaping from the heaviness of quarter one with this series.
My nonfiction reading was less this quarter than I imagined I would but the ones I read were really beautiful and challenging.
My first read was Dane Ortlund’s Gentle & Lowly. It’s a book about the heart of God for humanity. My favorite quote was this, “Jesus does not love like us. We love until we are betrayed. Jesus continued to the cross despite betrayal. We love until we are forsaken. Jesus loved through forsakenness. We love up to a limit. Jesus loves to the end.” It was a challenge and an encouragement to me. A challenge because I don’t love like that and an encouragement because in the last two years I have experienced being on the other side of a limit of love and have felt the pain that comes with being unloved and dismissed. Being reminded that I am forever loved by God has helped heal the hurt.
The second nonfiction book I read and the other 5 star nonfiction book I read was Try Softer: A Fresh Approach to Move Us out of Anxiety, Stress, and Survival Mode — and into a Life of Connection and Joy. It was a very timely book because as mentioned before, I’ve been triggered recently and have spent the last few years battling lies spoken over me. This book really helped me heal properly and be kind to myself in the process. “Trying softer isn’t about knowing or doing the right thing; it’s about being gentle with ourselves in the face of pain that is keeping us stuck. Because no matter how hard we try, we can’t hate or shame ourselves into change. Only love can move us toward true growth. This is the love given to us by a gentle, kind, compassionate, good God—and the love we are invited to give ourselves too.” This was such an important reminder to my recovering perfectionist self. I cannot shame myself into changing. All I can do is try to love myself the way God loves me and see myself through his eyes. Because in His eyes I am a beloved daughter who was created with purpose and dignity.
The last two books I want to highlight both touch on brokenness in two different ways. The first was No Cure for Being Human by Kate Bowler. Kate’s a gem. Seriously. We’re reading her devotional right now and I am being so blessed by her words and heart. No Cure for Being Human is her story of being diagnosed with cancer and subsequent battle. But more than that, it's really a book about life in all its beautiful and terrible ways — full of hope and despair and “everything in between.” The last book I wanted to talk about is The Beauty in Breaking which is a memoir by Dr. Michele Harper. Harper is an ER doctor and her book weaves stories from the hospital as well as her own life. Ultimately it is a book about how our pain from the past helps form us into the people we are today. A quote that stuck with me was this one, “Forgiveness condones nothing, but it does cast off the chains of anger, judgment, resentment, denial, and pain that choke growth. In this way, it allows for life, for freedom.”
As you can see, forgiveness and love were themes for the quarter and I am very thankful for those life-giving reminders. Because if we cannot love and forgive ourselves and others, our lives and those around us suffer.