September 2022
September felt like a grind. Work was busy. Kid activities picked way up. We had extra activities in the gaps of time that used to be open for rest and recovery. It’s garage sale season, so everything in the basement got moved, evaluated, and put in the keep or sell piles. Hopefully, after the garage sale, there will be a lot more room in the basement so I can start finishing the south half of it.
Here are the books I finished in September 2022 and my short reviews of them:
Shorts
Light, Spirit, and Soul by Carlos Santana
Audible has a series of audio records called Words + Music where music artist tell their stories and perform their music. This is volume 30 in the set, but it’s the first one I’ve listened to. Carlos Santana tells how he grew up playing music in church and the strip club- trying to find the balance between them and their different needs and vibes. He had to learn all different kinds of music from blues, to jazz, soul, to African rhythm. He made some interesting deals and discoveries on his way to being one of the most famous guitar collaborators of his time.
Fiction Books
Long Way Gone by Charles Martin
This is a Prodigal Son story, and I thought I was very clever to have figured all this out on my own until I realized it was fully intended to be a parable with a clear explanation at the end. At least I made the right connections. Peg grows up learning music from his father, a big tent preacher, and Big Big, his father’s best friend and piano player, working the tent revivals. Peg’s mother dies when he is young, so he grows up with his dad on the road most weekends. As he learns to play music and sing, Peg becomes a feature of the big tent program. Crowds come from all over to see the boy and his father to hear them sing. As Peg grows up and his talent blossoms, he develops a chip on his shoulder. He forgets that music is made to be a gift. Peg steals his dad’s savings, guitar, and truck, and drives to Nashville where he intends to make it big. In Music City, Peg learns that the world is a brutal place. He loses everything. He becomes homeless, jobless, and living out of the trash in a city packed with music phenoms. Instead of swallowing his pride and going home to his dad where he would be safe, warm, and well-fed, he decides he has to earn his way back into his father’s love. So, bit by bit, dollar by dollar, he tries to earn enough dollars to pay back everything he took from his father. He catches a few breaks; a boss who recognizes his needs and his skills, a job at the Grand ole Opry, and finally, a chance meeting with a rising star named Daley Cross. Together they wow the music world and rocket to fame. But Daley’s agent gets jealous. Peg gets shot, nearly burned to death, and framed for a robbery. He disappears into the background as Daley goes on without him, not knowing the truth. When he finally goes home to find his father, Peg only finds Big Big, who has also been waiting for Peg to come home. In a letter, Peg’s father describes his feelings- the undying, unearned, unconditional love of a father for a son and how he wished his son would have just come home and be safe and forgiven. This is a thrilling story of music, redemption, healing, and miracles.
This book is for runaways, musicians, and healers.
(Rated PG, Score 9/10, audiobook read by Adam Verner, 9:50)
Spensa (call-sign Spin) is a fighter, but she really wants to be a pilot. Growing up, she was judged and shunned as the daughter of a famous pilot who abandoned his friends in the biggest battle of their era. Spin gets the chance to test into pilot school at seventeen, but the Admiral stacks all the cards against her. Spensa defies the odds, the test, the Admiral, and the prejudices. The whole story is a series of closed doors, mishaps, and problems for the young pilot. Her defiance, will, and work ethic boost her from rat hunter to pilot. Along the way she is helped by a cranky old flight instructor, her flight classmates, and the crazy AI of a spaceship she discovers. Courage is a major theme of the book, along with loyalty, destiny, and questioning authority. I enjoyed the adventure, the descriptions of dog fighting, and the plot twists. There are more books in this series I am now hunting to see how the story continues. Also, I am trying to come up with my call sign. What would yours be? If you have one for me, shoot me a text or email. Jet and I are listening to this book together now and he’s fascinated.
This is for sci-fi readers, adventurers, and Top Gun fans.
(Rated PG, Score 8/10, audiobook read by Suzy Jackson, 15:28)
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
What would it be like to meet your future spouse when you were little? How would that change the way you lived your life? What would you ask your future self if they found you walking along the street? In this book, the author explores some of those questions through the eyes of Clare, the title character, and her time-traveling husband Henry. Henry has a chromosomal defect that causes him to become displaced in time. He can’t control when or where he disappears from his normal “present”. He can’t take anything with him when he disappears- not even clothes. He tends to gravitate to people and places that are important to him, so he ends up meeting himself coming and going. He also meets Clare as early as when she is six years old. Their friendship/relationship evolves as Henry visits her at different times. When Henry first appears in a different time he’s always naked and vulnerable, so he convinces Clare to stash clothes and food for him in a place where he can use them when he shows up. Medically, Henry is an early anomaly, so he doesn’t share his time-traveling story with many people. When he does, they don’t believe him unless they see him disappear or he can prove it in other clever ways. The story is the string of love along Clare’s life span; from meeting Henry at six, to the last time she sees Henry in her eighties. Their journey is filled with the usual family/human relationship drama and other twists and turns caused by Henry’s time traveling. The author uses the story to challenge a lot of moral and social constructs; free will, causality, predetermination, exclusivity, and other philosophical ideas. The book has a lot of harsh language, sex, and other rough content which initially distracted me from some of the deeper ideas. I’m learning to let a lot of that go.
This is for mature readers who need something to stretch their minds.
(Rated R, Score /10, audiobook read by Fred Berman and Phoebe Strole, 17:38)
The Legend of Sheba: Rise of a Queen by Tosca Lee
There are many legends about the Queen of Sheba. Some of the stories call her Makada, others Bilqis. She even shows up in modern-day stories as a goddess. This book is a retelling of the legend from her point of view. The legend traces her youth in Sheba, learning wisdom from scrolls available to her as a princess. She develops a love for wisdom and knowledge. Her mother, Ismeni, the queen, dies when she is young, leaving Bilqis to fend for herself against a new queen, who is selfish and ambitious. Bilqis is nearly destroyed but finds freedom when she is sent across the sea to live for a time. Her rise to power begins when her father king dies. Many of the tribes are not loyal to the stepmother queen and choose instead to support Bilqis’ blood claim to the throne. In the battle to secure the throne, her lover is killed leaving her bereft and lonely. She realizes that she will not be able to rule like a man, so she makes herself into a goddess-the moon's daughter. On the throne, she rules well until a young Israelite king, Solomon, threatens to destroy her kingdom’s wealth and economy by creating a fleet of trade ships. She travels to Israel to negotiate with the king taking a caravan of extravagant wealth. In Israel, she faces many challenges and threats but wins the king's heart. I know this legend from other points of view in different stories. The emotions and drama were not quite my style, but the logic, strategy, and nuances were fun. It’s easy to see how the story could evolve in so many ways, both flattering and not, through the course of history.
This is for strong women and those seeking wisdom in stories.
(Rated PG, Score 7/10, audiobook read by Lisa Larsen, 10:41)
Non-Fiction Books
Have you ever read a book, and come away feeling like you didn’t quite understand what the author was trying to communicate? Like a fog settled over the idea in your mind so you have the general shape of it, but can’t recall the finer details. That’s a bit how this book was for me. The book is a sibling of Get Your Life Back, which Eldredge wrote just a few years ago. Both books focus on deep spiritual healing. This book, Resilient, focuses on how to heal our post-pandemic mindsets. Eldridge talks about how we all just want life to be good again. We have a core longing to be back to stable times. But we have been through a collective trauma, and we are still seeing unrest and ripples of consequences that could last for decades. We are seeking healing, and we need to mourn the loss of so many things - loved ones, jobs, memories, events that should have happened but got canceled, abuses, social upheaval, etc. Eldridge tells survival stories to begin each chapter and elaborates on them to explain different principles of resilience. Each chapter ends with a guided prayer designed to build resilience from the lessons within. Eldridge also expanded the content on the free One Minute Pause App. It now contains a 30 Days to Resilient program that contains sixty meditations to help build your resilience. I enjoyed the book, but I am going to have to revisit it to help more of the detail stick.
This book is for those of us who are in recovery mode.
(Rated G, Score 8/10, audiobook read by the author, 6:41)
Preview/Currently Reading-
Soundtracks: The Surprising Solution to Overthinking by John Acuff
The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson
I track my books in a database called Goodreads. You might find it helpful in managing your reading lists.
Final Thoughts-
I ended up reading a lot of “girly” books this month. To compensate, next month, I’m going to read more manly stuff. So you can expect some assassin/spy/action reviews. It’s been a year since my good friend Beau passed away and that was hard to work through. He was a huge supporter of this email effort including designing my logo and pitching the name. I miss him.
The kids are already chattering about Halloween costumes. What will you be dressing up as?
Thanks for adventuring with me.
Joshua
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