WUFU3

Books I’m Reading

David B Hazelwood

April 2021

Observance of Lent is new for this Baptist. I was forty before I started choosing something to give up for the forty days of Lent. I still haven’t graduated to choosing something to do for Lent. This year I gave up bacon. Half way through Lent I decided it was a bad choice. Since it’s not July and fresh tomatoes don’t abound, BLTs aren’t being celebrated yet. I guess my choice to read some religious books this month was my choosing to do something for Lent.



 Book of the Month

The Promised Land (2020)                                                by Elizabeth Musser

Reading this novel during Lent gave me the vicarious spiritual experience of walking the French portion of the Camino. All of the characters on the pilgrimage have their personal issues that spill over into their relationships ending in divorce, disease, murder, withdrawal, alcoholism, and brokenness. They carry you along, but let you see their healing. It’s splashed with Christian material in a tasteful manner without seeming preachy. I made my own list of “Life Giving Things.”

Beautiful Outlaw (2011)                                                     by John Eldredge

Here’s a book that doesn’t end like it begins. It starts by giving a fresh look at the human Jesus. He is accurately described as playful, irreverent, witty, fierce, generous, humorous, exasperated, humble, extravagant, honest, cunning, amazed, beautiful, and true. This all appeals to the non-believer’s head in a non-preachy way. But in the second half, the author turns evangelistic and speaks to reader’s heart. Believers will find the second half devotional.

The Dutch House (2019)                                                     by Ann Patchett

OK, I didn’t read it. I heard Tom Hanks read it aloud on an eight hour car trip to New Orleans. Tom wasn’t with us on the trip. We listened to a recording. It’s very descriptive, detailed writing about ordinary events in the life of a family. Only a couple of the events rise to the level of unusual. The rest of the book follows how parents, children, and grandchildren sort out those events. You can tell I wasn’t on the committee that made this book a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction award.

A Murder in Music City (2017)                                      by Michael Bishop

Those who like murder mysteries like them even more when they are a reporting of an actual murder. Through ten years of research, Bishop documents reasons for doubting the conviction. While not a novel, it read like one instead of documents with connecting commentary. If he truly wants to write a novel, he has what it takes.

The Secret Pilgrim (1991)                                                  by John le Carré

This book reminds me of one I read earlier titled “24 Hours”. Both had depth of detail, but weren’t fast moving. I recommend the first one. Pass on this one. It’s not thirteen chapters of an espionage mystery novel. It’s eleven episodes trying to be held together by a common character followed by two chapters in search of a conclusion. Only the detail of his descriptive powers kept me reading to the end of what never started.