April Books Post

Oops, meant to publish this one a few days ago. Here are some of the things I read in April.

Nonfiction

Museum: Behind the Scenes at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, by Danny Danziger. I wrote about this here. Really liked it - a great window into the great museum through the lives of 52 men and women who are part of it. I think I'm going to look up some of Danziger's other works.

Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life, by Henri Nouwen. Very insightful analysis of what helps us grow, what holds us back; summed up in the movements from loneliness to solitude, hostility to hospitality, illusion to prayer. Wrote about it here.

The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, by Philip Jenkins. Wrote about this in my series on Africa. He's written a lot more about this topic since this book came out some years ago. I'm planning to read all of it, in time.

Fiction

A Matter of Diamonds, and A Matter of Time, by David Manuel. This was as far as I can tell Paraclete Press's only venture into fiction. It's a set of mysteries revolving around a man who belongs to a nondenominational religious order in Cape Cod, and involves his spiritual life as much as the rather rough murders his policeman friend pulls him in to help solve.

Dragonflight, Dragonquest, Dragonsong, Dragonsinger, and Dragondrums, all by Anne McCaffrey. They are about, um, dragons. And people. These were written in the 70s. I picked up the latest book set in this "world," written by AM's son, and wasn't impressed. Decided to go back to the beginning and rediscover what it was I loved about these books when I first read them. Each one, though I know them well, kept me up later than I intended a few nights in April.